Movies
Anchor Bay Entertainment Label Resurrects with Puppet Horror ‘Abruptio’ and Doc ‘Dinner with Leatherface’
A familiar label for horror fans is getting a resurrection. Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz are bringing back a new iteration of Anchor Bay Entertainment with the goal to curate a new library of films for distribution, projects that range from new release genre films, undiscovered treasures, cult classics, and remastered catalog releases.
The new launch comes with a pair of acquisition titles: puppet horror film Abruptio and documentary Dinner with Leatherface.
“We had an opportunity to take the name of a beloved genre film brand, one we feel a personal connection to, for our new company,” says Zambeck in a press release statement. “This is a new venture, unaffiliated with any previous incarnations. We aim to honor the history and spirit of the past as we look for interesting films that break the mold, and will be discovered by new generations for years to come.”
In Lionsgate’s acquisition of Starz in December 2016, the studio absorbed the North American branches of Anchor Bay Entertainment. The Anchor Bay Entertainment trademark was up for acquisition so Zambeck and Katz took the opportunity to acquire it. That means that the new Anchor Bay Entertainment doesn’t include the previous label’s library, but Zambeck and Katz are quickly looking to build up the new library.
Up first on Anchor Bay’s slate?
Look for Abruptio to arrive sometime soon, with a TBA release date for Q2 this year.
Abruptio was written and directed by Evan Marlowe (The Impact). The film stars James Marsters (House of Haunted Hill), Christopher McDonald (Thelma & Louise), Hana Mae Lee (Pitch Perfect Franchise), Jordan Peele (Get Out), Sid Haig (Halloween), Rich Fulcher (Wonka) and Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street Franchise).
In the film, “Les Hackel (Marsters) is a guy down on his luck who wakes to find an explosive device has been implanted in his neck. He must carry out heinous crimes in order to stay alive while trying to identify the mastermind manipulating the now twisted and strange world around him. The film is enacted entirely using lifelike puppets.”
To release this fall is Dinner with Leatherface, “the anticipated documentary on Gunnar Hansen, the actor who portrayed the character Leatherface in the 1974 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Friends, colleagues, filmmakers, and fellow actors share personal stories and discuss the dichotomy between the maniacal chainsaw-wielding character Hansen played on-screen and the very intelligent, creative, soft-spoken man he actually was in real life.”
Interviews with horror mainstays include Bruce Campbell, Barbara Crampton, Betsy Baker, Brian O’Halloran, Kim Henkel, Danielle Harris, Linnea Quigley, Kane Hodder, and Debbie Rochon. The film also features all of the remaining cast of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the original Director of Photography, Daniel Pearl and Producer/Co-Writer Kim Henkel.
Written, executive produced and directed by Michael Kallio (The Skeptic), he also produced the film with Lowell Northrop (“Hap and Leonard”). Dinner with Leatherface is currently in post-production through Umbrelic’s subsidiary, OutPost X.
Both Zambeck and Katz are traveling to the Berlin International Film Festival to acquire additional films for Anchor Bay Entertainment, so expect to hear a lot more from Anchor Bay soon.
NEON has been absolutely slaying the marketing game for their horror output this year, and they’re kicking the Longlegs campaign into high gear with one more month until release.
A cryptic ad in The Seattle Times today (seen below) has led clever horror fans to discover TheBirthdayMurders.net, the brand new official viral marketing website for Longlegs.
The in-universe website details the victims of the serial killer known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage), described as a “Satan-worshipping psycho” who has terrorized families throughout the Pacific Northwest for nearly three decades.
The website details, “A bloody trail of bodies here in the great state of Oregon attests to the depraved savagery of this one-of-a-kind serial killer. With over three dozen victims that we know of, LONGLEGS is one of the most prolific mass murderers ever to have graced the region, and his gruesome endeavors are the stuff of nightmares. At first, all of the killings appeared to be straightforward murder-suicides: the handiwork of average men who suddenly snapped and slaughtered their wives and children. But a series of eerie coded messages left at the crime scenes indicate that someone – or something – is influencing these horrific crimes. The cryptic letters are signed by someone calling himself LONGLEGS.”
“With thirty-eight kills to his name, LONGLEGS has torn apart the lives of eleven different families throughout the Beaver State. His victims were good people: honest fathers, decent mothers, innocent little children.”
The website is loaded with secrets, clues, and gruesome (faux) crime scene photos, and you might even find a mention of yours truly nestled in there. Poke around. Stay a while.
Longlegs arrives in theaters July 12.
The upcoming serial killer horror movie marks the return of director Osgood Perkins (The Blackcoat’s Daughter, Gretel & Hansel). Nicolas Cage stars alongside Maika Monroe, with Monroe playing an FBI agent and Cage playing a serial killer.
In the film, “FBI Agent Lee Harker (Monroe) is a gifted new recruit assigned to the unsolved case of an elusive serial killer (Cage). As the case takes complex turns, unearthing evidence of the occult, Harker discovers a personal connection to the merciless killer and must race against time to stop him before he claims the lives of another innocent family.
The film is rated “R” for “Bloody violence, disturbing images and some language.”
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