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[News Bites] Stephen King’s ‘It,’ ‘Phantasm: Remastered’ and Raven Banner’s EFM Slate

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While we continue to wonder if the latest adaptation of Stephen King’s It will ever get off the ground, Variety is reporting that the California Film Commission has included the New Line production among 13 feature films, also including the studio’s Annabelle 2, for tax credits worth $53.9 million in its latest round of incentives to keep production in California.

This by no means guarantees that the long-delayed production ever gets off the ground, but free money never hurt anyone.

Andy Muschietti, director and producer of Guillermo del Toro’s Mama, is preparing It as two features with plans to shoot this summer. Gary Dauberman has been penning Annabelle 2 since last fall while New Line hunts for a new director.


PHANTASM

It was announced yesterday right here on Bloody that Don Coscarelli’s Phantasm: Restored would have its World Premiere at the SXSW Film Festival this March.

J.J. Abrams, who reportedly gave Gwendoline Christie’s character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens the name of Captain Phasma as a tribute to the pic, is behind the new version that’s heading to EFM in Berlin for international buyers.

Phantasm stars recently deceased character actor Angus Scrimm who plays The Tall Man who kills victims with flying spheres.

“When J.J. Abrams came to me with the unexpected and insanely generous offer of using the services of his Bad Robot Productions company to assist with a meticulous 4K restoration of Phantasm, scanned from the original 35mm camera negative, it was literally a dream come true,” enthused Coscarelli in a statement obtained by Variety.

“J.J. has been a fan of the film from way back and wanted to see Phantasm presented to modern audiences in as perfect a condition as technologically possible.”

Fans of the franchise are still awaiting the release of Phantasm Ravager, which is also for sale at the Berlin market.


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Toronto-based distributor and sales agent Raven Banner arrives at the EFM with four new titles to introduce to buyers, ScreenDaily reports.

Owen Egerton’s claustrophobic horror-thriller Follow premiered at Fantastic Fest and tells of a painter who wakes up to find a gun in his hand and his girlfriend dead.

Noah Segan from Starry Eyes plays the lead and the producers are Seth Caplan and Chris Colbert.

Jason William Lee’s The Evil In Us (pictured) tells the story of six best friends who fall victim to a terrorist organisation when they ingest a drug that transforms them into cannibals. Dalj Brar and Michael Gyori produced.

Nathan Hendrickson’s The Hollow One is about two sisters who must stop a demonic force unleashed upon a small farm town.

Gaurav Seth’s sci-fi thriller Prisoner X centers on a CIA agent who heads to at a secret underground prison to interrogate a time-travelling terrorist.

Romano Orzari, Michelle Nolden, Damon Runyan, and Julian Richings star, while Avi Federgreen and Robyn Bigue produce.

Horror movie fanatic who co-founded Bloody Disgusting in 2001. Producer on Southbound, V/H/S/2/3/94, SiREN, Under the Bed, and A Horrible Way to Die. Chicago-based. Horror, pizza and basketball connoisseur. Taco Bell daily. Franchise favs: Hellraiser, Child's Play, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Scream and Friday the 13th. Horror 365 days a year.

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‘Herencia Diabólica’ – 1993’s “Mexican Child’s Play” Finally Has a Blu-ray Release [Review]

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Did you know that there is a Child’s Play-inspired film from Mexico? If you didn’t, you can thank Vinegar Syndrome’s new label Degausser Video for making 1993’s Herencia Diabólica available for the masses to watch. Or at least for the VS hardcore fanbase, Chucky completists and anyone else who needs something like this in their lives.

Director Alfredo Salazar, known for his writing connection to the 70s Santo film series, also serves as the writer here to bring us a film seemingly inspired from the Child’s Play franchise. While it has been recently labeled as the “Mexican Child’s Play” (there’s a special feature on the disc with that very title), the killer doll concept is where the comparison should start and end. Despite having some seeds planted by that franchise, Salazar delivers a story that blossoms into something unique.

Tony (Roberto Guinar) receives a letter informing him that his aunt has died, and he has inherited her estate in Mexico. He quits his job and uproots his life in New York with his wife Annie (Holda Ramírez) to relocate south of the border and move into his new crib. Now I know what you’re thinking, what person just quits their job and drags their wife to another country without having reliable monetary income? Tony does, everyone, Tony does.

And what’s the first thing they do once they arrive in Mexico and check out the estate? They hit the bedroom, naturally. We are treated to a sex scene with an erotica song that feels like a knockoff of “Sadness” by Enigma (remember them?). Sounds fun and all, but the scene takes place completely in the dark and we see absolutely nothing. Maybe that’s why the sexy-time tune was pumping, so we could know what was exactly going down.

While Tony goes on a job interview, Annie explores the estate’s grounds in a tedious chore to experience, going room by room, plodding along. But it does lead us to her discovery of our antagonist—the evil clown doll, Payasito! Of all the things in the house, she decides to bring this monstrosity down to show Tony when he gets home. What an exciting way to celebrate (sic)! Then out of nowhere, she spouts off some exposition about rumors that Tony’s aunt dabbled in the dark arts and now we know where our title Diabolical Inheritance (the English translation for Herencia Diabólica) originates. For those of you who keep score for things like that.

Before proceeding with this review, you really need to visualize what Payasito looks like to truly embrace the rest of the film’s shenanigans. While Chucky resembles a cute ginger child, Payasito resembles a small clown that is much larger in stature than Chucky. That’s because Payasito is performed by an actor (Margarito Esparaza) in clown cosplay whenever he’s on the move (like Mannequin 2), and makes some really horrible facial expressions. Chucky dresses in “Good Guys” overalls and a striped shirt, but Payasito wears a new wave Santa hat while sporting a Sgt. Pepper jacket and Peter Pan tights. As you can now tell, he is quite beautiful.

Back to our story, Payasito begins to spook Annie cerebrally until she becomes unnerved to the point of having a complete mental break down, making her easy prey to eliminate. She dies but the unborn child survives, with Tony believing that her death was caused by her mental instability. Fast forward some years later and the couple’s surviving spawn has grown into child Roy (Alan Fernando), who at this point has already bonded with Payasito to help him over the loss of his mother. Dun-dun-duuunnn!

Meanwhile wealthy Tony remains single, still grieving his late wife, until his blonde assistant Doris encourages him to move on with his life and start seeing other people. And by other people, she naturally means herself. As the old Kanye West song lyric goes, “I ain’t saying she’s a gold digger…”, and it seems that she might be until we learn more about her character. Doris is played by the stunning Lorena Hererra who has an extremely extensive resume in Mexico, and she carries most of the film quite well during the feature’s second half. The singer and former Playboy centerfold for their Mexico edition is by far the most recognizable face in the cast.

Doris and Tony do indeed hookup and she moves into La casa de Herencia, where she does her best to impress Roy and lessen his obsession with the doll. There is a scene where they go to a nearby park without Payasito that is filled with famous fairytale figures, such as Pinocchio, Cinderella and King Kong! What, you didn’t know King Kong is a fairytale? Me neither. But Roy continues to be obsessed with Payasito after their trip, much to Doris’ chagrin.

Her actions to separate him from Roy gets Payasito angry, setting up the film’s most memorable scene. We already know that Payasito is a devil doll like Chucky, but now we learn he also has the power to invade people’s dreams like Freddy Krueger! Does Payasito enter the dream world and concoct a creative way to kill Doris in her sleep? No, he harnesses his power to sexually assault her instead. Yes that actually happens. After she awakens, Doris grabs the doll and tosses him into a lake, only to find him waiting for her by the time she gets back to the house. So now we know he also maintains the ability to “transport” like Jason Voorhees too. This doll is the total package!

More insanity happens before we close out the film with the longest victim chase sequence ever. It makes the previously mentioned painful house search scene seem like an eyeblink. It feels like it’s the film’s entire third act, filled with so much padding that you could soundproof an entire three-story house.

So how’s the transfer? Considering it was created using a mix of VHS and film source elements from 1993, they did one heck of a job! The work they put into it is especially noticeable in the dream invasion sequence, with the pulsing multi-colored psychedelic visuals. Super trippy stuff. Even the film’s score provides a pretty chill vibe, during the times when Payasito isn’t on the prowl.

If anything you read has piqued your interest in the very least, you should give it a shot. But if not, it is best to leave this doll on the shelf.

Herencia Diabólica is now available to purchase at VinegarSyndrome.com.

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