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[Fantasia ’12] Festival Becomes Film Market; Announces 14 Projects Including ‘Pontypool’ Sequel!

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Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival, widely acclaimed as one of the largest and most influential genre film festivals in the world, is embarking on its 16th edition with a major new industry-driven venture: the Frontières International Co-Production Market (meaning, these projects are not yet produced, and thus will not be playing in the film festival, but instead will be sold as part of a new film market). Frontières is the first international co-production market to connect North-American with Europe and Australasia, in an environment focused specifically on genre film production.

The projects to be presented in the market have now been chosen and feature an exciting array of filmmakers, from gifted newcomers to world-renowned maestros, as well as numerous established international producers.

The selection of the first edition of Frontières will consist of the following 14 projects, which carries a few surprises like Ponypool Changes, the hotly anticpated sequel to the 2008 adaptation of Pontypool, along with Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon’s Purgatory!

BLOOD BORNE (Australia) Director / Writer: Fin Edquist / Producer: David Rapsey (Rogue Production)
DARK HOLLOW (New Zealand) Director: Paul Campion / Writers: Paul Campion & Paul Finch, based on a book by Brian Keene / Producer: Daniel Warwick (Chameleon Films)
KEEP QUIET (Mexico) Director /Writer: Jorge Michel Grau / Producer: Mayra Espinosa Castro
M (Australia) Director: Jon Hewitt / Writers: Jon Hewitt & Belinda McClory / Producer: Lizzette Atkins (Unicorn Films), Executive Producer: Richard Stewart
PANDEMONIUM (France) Director: Abel Ferry / Writer: Eric Rondeaux / Producer: Pierre-Emmanuel Fleurantin (Paprika Films)
PERISH (UK) Directors / Writers: Catherine Linstrum & David-John Newman / Producer: Brian Coffey (Sigma Films)
PONTYPOOL CHANGES (Canada) Director: Bruce McDonald / Writer: Tony Burgess / Producer: Ambrose Roche (Shadow Shows)
PORK CHOP (Canada) Director: Sid Zanforlin / Writers: Chris Bavota & Sid Zanforlin / Producer: Philippe Chabot
PURGATORY (USA) Director / Producer: Stuart Gordon / Writer: Richard Mancuso
RADIUS (Canada) Directors / Writers: Caroline Labrèche & Steeve Léonard
SÈVE (France) Director: Fabrice Blin / Writers: Fabrice Blin & David Uystpruyst / Producer: Fabrice Lambot (Metaluna Productions)
STRATA (USA) Directors: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead / Writer: Justin Benson / Producer: Justin Benson & David Lawson
THE WITHERING (UK) Directors / Writers: Robert Morgan & Sam Walker / Producer: Karen Smyth (La Belle Allée)
TURBO KID (Canada) Directors / Writers: François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann–Karl Whissell / Producer: Ant Timpson, Executive Producer: Jason Eisener

CANADA AND QUEBEC:
Four of the 14 projects hail from Canada and Quebec: Adored maverick trail-blazer Bruce McDonald (HARD CORE LOGO 1 & 2, THIS MOVIE IS BROKEN, HIGHWAY 61) graces us with a hotly-anticipated sequel to his cult masterpiece PONTYPOOL.

Sid Zanforlin presents his first feature PORK CHOP and the filmmaking duo of Caroline Labrèche and Steeve Léonard second their no-budget effort SANS DESSEIN with RADIUS.

After becoming the most popular submission to Drafthouse Films’ THE ABCS OF DEATH’s short film contest with T IS FOR TURBO, the Roadkill Superstar collective (François Simard, Anouk Whissell & Yoann–Karl Whissell) is now presenting its follow-up in feature form, TURBO KID, to be produced by New Zealand’s Ant Timpson (THE DEVIL DARED ME TO, also founder of Incredibly Strange) and executive produced by none other than Jason Eisener (HOBO WTH A SHOTGUN, TREEVENGE).

USA:
From the USA, genre film legend Stuart Gordon (RE-ANIMATOR, FROM BEYOND, STUCK, EDMOND) brings us PURGATORY.

Fresh from their wildly acclaimed premiere of RESOLUTION at the Tribeca film festival just the other week, where the film made many critics’ best-of-fest lists, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are presenting their new project STRATA.

EUROPE:
On the European side, the UK and France are featured. After winning the Best Animation Short Film award at last year’s Fantasia with his world premiere screening of BOBBY YEAH (which went on to standout showings at Sundance, Rotterdam and Sitges, as well as being nominated for a BAFTA, and winning a special jury prize at Clermont-Ferrand) and getting a spotlight on his work in 2006, Robert Morgan returns to Fantasia with THE WITHERING, a live-action debut project to be co-directed with Sam Walker (TEA BREAK) and to be produced by Karen Smyth, co-producer of Nicolas Winding-Refn’s VALHALLA RISING.

After the Midnight Audience Award-winning premiere of CITADEL at SXSW, producer Brian Coffey brings us PERISH by BAFTA-winner Catherine Linstrum and David-John Newman.

Fabrice Blin makes his feature debut with SÈVE, and following up the critically lauded HIGH LANE (VERTIGE), Abel Ferry comes to present PANDEMONIUM.

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA:
After last year’s North American premiere of THE DEVIL’S ROCK, New Zealand director Paul Campion returns to Fantasia with DARK HOLLOW, based on a novel by best-selling author Brian Keene.

From Australia, producer David Rapsey (LAKE MUNGO) delivers the feature debut by Fin Edquist, BLOOD BORNE, and Jon Hewitt (X, ACOLYTES) comes to present M.

MEXICO:
Finally, Mexican director Jorge Michel Grau follows-up the celebrated WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (SOMOS LO QUE HAY – Cannes Directors Fortnight 2010 and a hit at Fantasia, where the film had its North American premiere) with KEEP QUIET.

Frontières will be part of the new Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous, which will include the Fantasia Film Market, also making its official debut in 2012 to support the sales efforts of the features that will be part of the festival’s programming. International producers and sales agents, distributors, broadcasters, talent agents and festival programmers will attend the Rendez-Vous from July 26 to the 29, 2012, within the 3-week body of the Fantasia Festival. Over the course of these four days, various meeting sessions will be held and a series of conferences will be organized to assemble the participants around current industry topics. For the inaugural edition, accreditation will be free of charge and can be applied for starting immediately, until June 15.

The Fantasia International Film Festival will be held in Montreal from July 19 to August 7, 2012. For more information about the festival and the Fantasia Industry Rendez-Vous, or to request accreditation, please visit the Film Market section of www.FantasiaFestival.com.

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Friday, June 5 – These 7 New Horror Movies Released Today

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Pictured: 'Scary Movie'

Ghostface is back on the big screen this weekend… well, sort of… with the release of Scary Movie, which marks the Wayans brothers’ return to the horror spoof franchise for the first time since Scary Movie 2 back in the day. It’s likely to be the talk of the horror community for the weekend, but don’t overlook the other six genre movies that were freshly unleashed today.

Here’s all the new horror that released on Friday, June 5, 2026.


The horror spoof franchise is back with Scary Movie now playing in theaters!

Marlon Wayans (“Shorty”), Shawn Wayans (“Ray”), Anna Faris (“Cindy”), and Regina Hall (“Brenda”) reunite for the new Scary Movie, with the cast also including Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Jon Abrahams, Damon Wayans Jr., Gregg Wayans, Kim Wayans, Benny Zielke, Cameron Scott Roberts, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Ruby Snowber, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, and Felissa Rose.

Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer (“Ghostface”), the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe…

Scary Movie will slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t. A whole lot has changed in the horror genre since the Wayans Brothers were in charge of the franchise; their involvement ended with Scary Movie 2 back in 2001!

Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House) directs Scary Movie 6 from a script written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, original Scary Movie director Keenen Ivory WayansCraig Wayans (Scary Movie 2), and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House).


Chum review

From IFC, shark attack movie Chum is now available on Digital.

Alice Eve (Haunting of Queen Mary) stars in shark attack movie alongside Eric Michael Cole, Jim Klock, Elle Haymond, Lisa Yaro, Johnny Gaffney, and Sarah Siadat.

This one sounds very similar to last year’s Dangerous Animals

Here’s the plot: “A newlywed couple joins friends on a Mediterranean yacht excursion, only to find themselves caught between a predatory shark and a psychopathic killer in their midst-transforming a sun-drenched escape into a fight for survival.”

Jonathan Zuck directs Chum, from a script by Jonathan Zuck and Joe Leone.


Samara Weaving (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) and Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling) come together in Carolina Caroline, a sexy crime thriller now playing in theaters.

It’s not a horror movie, mind you, but it’s worth a mention here all the same.

Kyra Sedgwick (Family Movie) and Jon Gries also star in the romantic crime thriller.

Director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s film stars Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast.

The upcoming movie features a wide-ranging country music soundtrack, with tracks from artists such as Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Loretta Lynn, and over a dozen others.

Adam Rehmeier previously directed the films Dinner in America and Snack Shack.

Tom Dean wrote the screenplay for Carolina Caroline.


Similar to Steven Spielberg’s upcoming big screen blockbuster Disclosure DaySignal One explores humankind’s enduring question: what if we aren’t alone in the universe?

The sci-fi thriller is now available on Digital.

Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan), Josh Hutcherson (Five Nights at Freddy’s), David Thewlis (Harry Potter), Raoul Bhaneja (Possessor), Emma Ho (“The Expanse”), and Dennis Quaid (The Substance) star in Signal One from director Jonathan Sobol (The Art of the Steal).

When tech billionaire Sam Houston (Quaid) hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika (Fuhrman), she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence.

Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us.

When the goal of the endeavor shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.


A schoolyard dare becomes an urban legend in the creepypasta-inspired horror anthology The Summoning. The indie film is now available on Digital from Brainstorm Media.

“A babysitting gig becomes a nightmare of urban legend when three teens summon Baby Blue. Survival depends on uncovering the past to escape a mother’s wrath from beyond the grave.”

Felipe Vargas (RosarioHive), Sergio Gonzalez, Brandon Piskorik, Corey Benson Powers, and Brian Sepanzyk direct the segments. Valeria San Martín, Justina Ceballos, Daniela Flombaum, Nannu Spannauss, Agustín Olcese, and Giovanni Onetti star.

The Summoning is written by Camilo Zaffora.


Happy Death Day actress Jessica Rothe stars as a mom struggling to keep her grip on her sanity and memory in the mind-bending Affection, now available on Digital at home.

In Affection, “Afflicted by a mysterious condition that resets her memory, Ellie becomes trapped in a cyclical nightmare with a man who claims to be her husband. She soon must uncover the horrifying truth of her existence—before she forgets it all again.

Joseph Cross (Big Little Lies) and Julianna Layne (Chicago P.D.”) also star in the sci-fi horror thriller. Affection marks the feature debut by writer/director BT Meza.

Daniel Kurland wrote in his review out of the film’s premiere, “Affection is steeped in existential questions and fears that plague modern society, while it embraces the ethos of the ’80s through bold body horror. Add to that Rothe’s revelatory performance, and Affection is a hidden gem that will connect with your mind, body, and soul.”


Lucile Hadžihalilović’s latest dark fairy tale, The Ice Towerloosely reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Snow Queen,” and it’s now streaming on Shudder.

In the ’70s set film, “Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot of a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen, and she becomes fascinated by its star Cristina (Marion Cotillard), an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.

Clara Pacini stars as Jeanne. August Diehl and Marine Gesbert also star in The Ice Tower, and look for a cameo from director Gaspar Noé (ClimaxIrréversible).

For me, The Ice Tower solidified Lucile Hadžihalilović’s place amongst the most fascinating creators of fairy tales today,” said distributor Yellow Veil Pictures co-founder Joe Yanick.

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