Movies
French-Belgian Body Horror ‘Else’ Heads to Fandor This Summer
Cineverse has picked up North American rights to French-Belgian body horror movie Else, and the festival favorite is set to arrive on streaming this summer.
Else will be released on Fandor and all digital platforms on July 8, 2025.
The feature debut by French director Thibault Emin follows “a romance blossoming between an introvert and a confident woman. However, their relationship is threatened when a strange epidemic causes the infected to merge with their surroundings, trapping the couple in a shapeshifting nightmare. Would you merge for love?”
The acquisition arrives on the heels of a successful festival run, including stops at TIFF and Fantastic Fest. Joe Lipsett wrote in his 4-skull TIFF review, “Writer/director Thibault Emin uses body horror in a completely different way in Else, which concerns a pandemic virus that causes humans to “merge” to their surroundings. The body horror is often horrifying, but when filtered through the romanticism of Else’s central love story, the visuals lend the film a grandeur that is intimate, poetic, and tragic.”
As for the pandemic-induced body horror, Lipsett added, “The body horror elements are also extremely memorable thanks to VFX supervisor Arnaud Leviez and FX makeup artists Florence Thonet and Anne Van Nyen. The evolving nature of the disease is revealed slowly: first bodies are seen on the news, melted into rock like camouflage, then an unhoused man outside Anx’s building fuses with the sidewalk from the waist down.”
The poetic, unique body horror film was penned by Emin, Alice Butaud, and Emma Sandona. Matthieu Sampeur and Edith Proust star.
Else joins Fandor’s ever-growing catalog of standout cinema, including the successful and inventive indie comedy Hundreds of Beavers, which follows the story of a drunken applejack salesman who must go from zero to hero and become North America’s greatest fur trapper by defeating hundreds of beavers. The deals for the films were negotiated by Executive Director, Acquisitions, Brandon Hill on behalf of Cineverse with Gregory Chambet of WTFilms.
Sunrise Films has announced the official North American release of William Bagley‘s horror comedy Hold the Fort, and it’s accompanied by an energetic new trailer.
Hold the Fort debuts on digital platforms on June 23.
In the film, “Lucas and Jenny think their life is finally coming together when the couple become homeowners. Little do they know that their new house comes with a big catch. Lucas and Jenny soon find themselves in a fight for their lives when they become trapped in a battle between their Homeowners Association and an onslaught of monsters from hell. The horror-comedy takes the timely concern of home-ownership and wraps this up in an entertaining action-packed thrill ride.“
Watch the new trailer below, which introduces one wild HOA gathering during an equinox. Things get bloody fast.
Chris Mayers (Adult Swim Yule Log), Haley Leary (“The Walking Dead”), Levi Burdick, and Julian Smith star.
William Bagley writes and directs, in addition to producing with Smith, Matt Dodd, Luke Williams, and Tim Reis (Adult Swim Yule Log).
Ahead of the release, Bagley said, “My goal with this film was to make a hilarious, fast-paced thrill ride while also telling a great story with heart. Hopefully, through all the blood, laughs, fights, and gags, you leave the film feeling inspired to tackle whatever life throws at you.“
Hold the Fort premiered at Fantasia last summer before going on to play FrightFest London, Toronto After Dark, and Beyond Fest.
I wrote in my review, “It’s an infectiously charming assemblage of jokes and monster vignettes bound together by a barebones plot with not much on its mind beyond delivering an entertaining time.”
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