A Haunting in Thornby - PRESS RELEASE

A Haunting in Thornby

A Haunting in Thornby is a co-production from Raging Bull Entertainment and Khoury A. Marriot Productions. This haunted house styled thriller completed production in May and the film has secured a fourth quarter release through UnCork’D Entertainment. In the vein of Stanley Kubrick’s classic The Shining and Tomas Alfredson’s dark coming of age thriller Let the Right One, A Haunting in Thornby will unsettle audiences in a similar fashion, this November.

Now, several photos from the film shoot have been released, from the Taft Ranch in Atascadero, California. The stills show some of the gorgeous sets and eclectic cast, which were part of production. Actor Judd Nelson, who stars as Mr. Franklin, is shown in two of the photos. Mr. Franklin is the owner of a prestigious architectural firm, in the film. Also, actress and producer Autumn Federici is shown comforting young actress Vivienne Bollinger, in between takes. Autumn plays Anne, a waitress who knows something about a mysterious old town. A dark secret lurks in this secluded home and in the town of Thornby. Part of that secret can be previewed in one of several stills found here, released by director Matt Hish.

The cast and crew recently celebrated the film’s final wrap. Autumn Federici said of the cast "Justin Jones and I hit a home run with this cast, director and crew! Everyone brought their ‘A Game’ and it will show with the final product." And, actor Neil Dickson, who plays Erik, had praise for director Hish: “working with Matt Hish is an absolute joy; he is an actor's director, a rarity in film! He is disgustingly talented and I want to work with him again.” More details on the film’s release are below, along with several photos from the shoot.

The film’s official synopsis:

“A traumatic event forces Tom (Rib Hillis) and Brenda (Jessica Morris) to move, with their young son, from Los Angeles back to Brenda’s small Northern California hometown. In their new homestead, odd occurrences and bizarre, unsettling events begin to unfold. A century’s old secret, that threatens to destroy the family, begins to reveal itself, in a horrifying fashion.”

Release Date: November 2013.

Director: Matt Hish.

Writters: Ian Ascher and Chris Freeman.

Cast: Rib Hillis, Jessica Morris, Neil Dickson, Hannah Cowley, and Judd Nelson.

A Look at the 80's Slasher Homage "Teacher's Day"

This will be the 6th feature film for director Jared Masters .  This will be Jared's cinematic love letter to the 80's slasher films.  The story involves a Napoleon Bonaparte obsessed high school educator, Ty Anderson, whose minor online communication with a teasing student finds him immediately terminated from school grounds, which snaps him into a psychotic killing spree, terrorizing his former female students at their slumber party.

Check out the trailer here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8uB2ysa0_E

For other info about the movie visit the website :
http://frolicpictures.com/tea/chers-day

Acort International Acquires House of Good and Evil

Acort International, one of the top distributors of independent films in the global marketplace, has just secured the recently completed horror film “HOUSE OF GOOD AND EVIL” for international distribution. Distribution plans include international licensing for all broadcast, video and VOD platforms and will be showcased at this the 2013 American Film Market. Select international rights available. The film will be released domestically October 1st 2013.

About The Film:

After a family tragedy in the chaotic city, Chris and Maggie Conley, in a last-ditch effort to save their dying marriage, purchase an isolated home in the deepest woods, to which they quickly discover evil has a key.

The film wrapped post early April 2013 and has gone on to win "Best Feature" at a recent, long running film festival and is an Official Selection at several upcoming film festivals including Hollywood's Dances With Films.

House Of Good And Evil has enjoyed a fantastic response from the horror blogger community and the film has a solid horror film fan following, many have called HGE a "Classic Horror" as well as "An Independent Gem" by horror film reviewers.

View the trailer

About Acort International:

As a full service independent distributor, Las Vegas, Nevada and Scottsdale, Arizona-based Acort International distributes feature films to the international marketplace. Acort International and their associates release 20-30 films a year into a variety of domestic and international outlets including theatrical, DVD, VOD, broadcast, internet and mobile. For more information, please visit AcortInternational.com

We Take A Look at The Men of "Desperate Dolls" - PRESS RELEASE

Desperate Dolls


The Men of Desperate Dolls Desperate Dolls

[Chicago, IL] Before cameras roll on Desperate Dolls, a horror feature shooting this
summer in Chicago, actors Stephen Spencer and G. Riley Mills will have to cope with
being ignored. They were barely featured in any of the film’s promotional materials –
partly because their characters are top secret, but also because of the film’s three
beautiful leading ladies. “Both Stephen and G. are handsome men,” laughs writer &
director Darren Callahan, “but, seriously, they’ll never be able to compete with the ladies
on who makes a better poster.”

However, Stephen Spencer, who plays Captain, and G. Riley Mills, as Sunny Jack Fennigan, may get a second look when their performances are in the can. Both are wellknown in Chicago scene, with credits from the town’s most respected theatres, as well as television shows such as ER and films such as Michael Mann’s Public Enemies. With the challenges of Callahan’s labyrinthine horror plot, the men have been preparing for these two very different and challenging roles.

“Captain is safely unlike any character I've played,” says Stephen Spencer of the
ambiguous talent scout he portrays, a man who partners with Sunny Jack, a small-time Hollywood producer, played by Mills. Mills agrees, “The closest I have played to a role like this was in the mid-90s when I played a killer in a television show called Tough Target. Jack makes exploitation films and beds a lot of his co-stars, but Jack’s a good guy, despite all that. He loves making movies and he loves his Dolls. That’s just who he
is.”

 Mills has immersed himself in the films of the period – the 1960s. “Darren has mentioned a few movies with actors such as Michael Caine and Steve McQueen, so the bar is high! I’ve also been watching a lot of films like Jack would have made – drive-in flicks and sexploitation.”  “I grew up in the 1960s,” confesses Spencer, “I dig the cars and the smoking and the straight-legged pants. When I dream, my dreams share the color palette of my youth and television. Batman. The Munsters. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Bewitched (Oh,
Samantha!).”

For Spencer, he will explore Captain from the inside out. “Captain seems ‘not from here,’
as if he might have been whispering into the ear of Jack the Ripper. I think the body is not
his; it's borrowed from some low-level functionary at an insurance company. And he's
curious about these ‘Hollywood’ people... What makes them tick? Is money such an
easy fix for Jack? Why are the Dolls so round and soft and smell so good?”

Mills remarks, “My main work will be trying to figure out my relationships with the three
‘dolls’ and how each one is unique. The relationships are the key in this story. Also, there
are a couple fun scenes — both a love scene and a violent scene with Stephanie Leigh Rose.

 Stephanie and I are pretty similar in our approach as actors so it will be fun to see
where those go for the audience. Darren ended up casting some talented and fearless
actors who were not afraid of the subject matter. In the audition, I certainly felt like all
three of the actresses who eventually got cast made me raise my game, and that is
always something you look forward to as an actor. Stephen and I did not get to read
together at the audition or callbacks, but I have heard great things and have seen him
onstage at the Court Theatre. He’s great. Our big scene together should be a blast.”

“I approach work in a lo-fi, intuitive manner,” continues Spencer. “Sometimes, I have to
have the lines in my head. Other times, I'd rather learn lines on my feet, so I can match
the imprinting of the lines with movement.”

When asked about their connections to the horror genre – something the director is very
well known for – both men have unique perspectives and tales to tell.

“I have never done a horror movie, but am a big fan of the genre,” Mills explains. “I
grew up watching Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Burnt Offerings, Halloween,
etc. In fact, one of my favorite possessions is a bible autographed by John Sheperd who
starred in Friday the 13th Part V. He’s very religious now. Riding to the set of that movie
each day, all John wanted to talk about was Jesus and all I wanted to talk about was
Jason! So we always ended up talking a little about both. At the wrap party, he
presented me with a bible and he wrote a personal message on the inside of it. I still
have it!”

For Spencer, his roots in horror are not quite as personal, but he does joke, “One of the
first films I ever did was a low budget feature vampire film called Those We Love Who
Never Die. So there’s that!”

Trilogy of Terror II 1996 - REVIEW

A sequel made to a horror classic 21 years after the original aired on television.  Again it was a made for TV movie that aired on USA but one difference, Karen Black was missing this time.  Karen who starred in the original Trilogy of Terror was not going to appear in the sequel even though that was the movie that put her on the map to horror fan around the world.  While I do have a soft spot for this anthology horror film nothing can top the performance of Karen Black back in 1975.

As the title infers there are 3 tales of terror and one that will seem familiar to the hardcore fans.

Graveyard Rats - Ansford (Matt Clark) is a wealthy, ruthless business man who is bound to a wheelchair.  His much younger and beautiful wife Laura (Lysette Anthony) waits on him hand and foot.  Ansford reveals the video he has of her and her "cousin" (really boyfriend) making love and threatens to leak it to the press.  He will not leak it if she stays with him and does whatever he wants and she will still get everything in his will. Laura and her lover Ben (Geraint Wyn Davies) have other plans on getting the fortune NOW!

Bobby - A Mother (Lysette Anthony) who is seen grieving the loss of her son Bobby (Blake Heron), who has been missing for the past year, is preparing a ritual to bring her son back to her.  Later that evening Bobby is at the door shivering from the rain.  Bobby's Mother is beyond happy and gets him dried off and comfortable.  While trying to find something to fix him to eat she gets the impression that something is off about Bobby.  Bobby becomes more and more disagreeable as the night goes on.  Eventually Bobby becomes very sinister and wants to play a game of hide and seek that is more like hide and kill.

He Who Kills - After finding the double homicide of Amelia and her mother (depicted in the original Trilogy of Terror) Dr Simpson (Lysette Anthony) is examining the charred remains of a Zuni Fetish Doll that the police have dropped off from the crime scene.  She soon finds out that after the gold chain is removed the doll then comes to life.  That's when all hell breaks loose!

I had never seen Trilogy of Terror before seeing this one advertised on the USA Network.  The previews for this sequel intrigued me so I gave it a gander.  I absolutely loved it.  After seeing it I had to see the original and I realized even though I loved this sequel it did not hold a candle to the original.  All the same Lysette Anthony was brilliant.  I thought she did a tremendous job acting in all 3 of these tales.  She is not really known in the world of horror except for an episode of Tales from the Crypt.

As a final thought I have to say to this day I really enjoy watching this film.  The only problem is that a DVD version of this has never seen the light of day.  As of right now the only release is VHS.  Fortunately at the time it was airing on Cinemax in the early 2000's I had a DVD recorder and was able to capture it on DVD for my viewing pleasure.  Maybe Scream Factory can come to the rescue and give it the DVD release that it deserves.  It gets watched at least once a year if not more.  I am a total sucker for anthology horror whether it was made for TV or not it is definitely worth a viewing if not 2.  Stay twisted everyone!

Hammer Partners with Bafflegab to Bring Downloadable Audio 'Hammer Chillers'

ORIGINAL DRAMAS NOW AVAILABLE TO PRE-ORDER AHEAD OF JUNE RELEASE

Hammer has announced a partnership with audio specialist Bafflegab Productions to launch 'Hammer Chillers', a series of original audio dramas, which will be available as six weekly downloadable episodes from June 2013.

Continuing Hammer's expansion into the development of original content, the first series of the all-new material comes from a host of acclaimed writers including Stephen Volk (The Awakening), Stephen Gallagher (ITV's Eleventh Hour), Doctor Who and young adult novelist Paul Magrs, stand-up comedian and writer Robin Ince and award-winning horror novelists Christopher Fowler and Mark Morris. 

Episodes are available to pre-order now at www.hammerchillers.com ahead of the 7th June release and are priced at £2.99 per episode. From the end of July, fans can also download the entire series as a package and order the series on CD which will include bonus material.

Writer Stephen Volk said: “Hammer films have been a massive influence on my writing from the days when I sneaked into the White Palace cinema in my home town of Pontypridd to see the likes of The Devil Rides Out and The Vampire Lovers. Now to be writing an audio drama under the Hammer banner is a dream (or nightmare!) come true."

Simon Oakes, CEO and President of Hammer Films and vice-chairman of Exclusive Media commented: "Hammer Chillers are a fantastic addition to the range of quality original content that we strive to produce and we're excited to welcome such celebrated authors to the Hammer family."

Bafflegab Productions Executive Producer Simon Barnard added: "Hammer Chillers will be every bit as terrifying as their celebrated cinematic counterparts. We are proud to partner with Hammer and hope that our tales take listeners on supernatural journeys that will make them afraid to turn off the lights afterwards."

ABOUT HAMMER
Originally founded in 1934, legendary British film studio Hammer has delivered a hugely successful run of films over the years including Dracula, Frankenstein Created Woman, One Million Years B.C. and The Vampire Lovers. Since 2008, the company has been part of Exclusive Media, which is reinvigorating this beloved global brand through investment across both traditional and new media.

Not in production since the 1980s, Hammer marked their return to features in 2010 with the release of the critically acclaimed Let Me In, an adaptation of the highly praised Swedish film Låt den rätte komma in. The film was written and directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield) and stars Chloe Moretz (Kick-Ass) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road).

In 2011, Hammer released Antti Jokinen’s The Resident starring two-time Academy Award® winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry, Million Dollar Baby), Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Hammer legend Sir Christopher Lee, as well as the critically lauded Wake Wood directed by David Keating and starring Aidan Gillen, Eva Birthistle and Timothy Spall.

February 2012 saw the theatrical release of Hammer’s first ever feature ghost story The Woman In Black, directed by James Watkins, adapted by Jane Goldman from the book by Susan Hill, and starring Daniel Radcliffe. The film has taken over $130m worldwide making it one of the biggest indie horror films ever.

Hammer's next film release will be The Quiet Ones starring Jared Harris and Sam Claflin. The Woman in Black: Angel of Death which is a continuation of The Woman in Black story forty years on, will begin production in 2013 and star Jeremy Irvine (War Horse, The Railway Man) and Phoebe Fox (‘Black Mirror’, ‘Switch’).

Hammer also launched a book publishing imprint, Arrow Books, in Spring 2011 with Random House. Recent titles include Jeanette Winterson’s ‘The Daylight Gate’, Helen Dunmore’s ‘The Greatcoat’ and Tim Lebbon’s ‘Coldbrook’.

In addition to its upcoming films, Hammer recently diversified into live theatre, launching Hammer Theatre of Horror. Hammer’s first theatre project was 'The Turn of the Screw', based on the classic ghost tale by Henry James.

In late 2012, Hammer also signed a deal with Paragon Entertainment to develop, build and operate a series of UK based 'Hammer House of Horror' visitor attractions.

For further information about Hammer and its parent company Exclusive Media, please visit www.hammerfilms.com and www.exclusivemedia.com

ABOUT EXCLUSIVE MEDIA
Exclusive Media is a vertically integrated global filmed entertainment company, founded in May 2008 with the backing of the strategic investment group Cyrte Investments. Exclusive Media develops, finances, produces, markets and distributes prestige and talent driven commercial and documentary feature films on a global basis.

Exclusive Media is run by a four member Executive Board with Nigel Sinclair as Co-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Guy East as Co-Chairman, Simon Oakes as Vice Chairman and President of Hammer and Marc Schipper as Chief Operating Officer. Supporting the Executive Board in both the operational management and strategic expansion of the business is a strong team of highly skilled professionals who have a broad range of complementary experience.

Exclusive Media’s development and production activities operate through three specialist labels: UK based Hammer for genre titles, Spitfire Pictures for documentary features and the flagship label Exclusive Media for all other feature film production. Exclusive Media also enjoys a co-development and co-production deal with Cross Creek Pictures.

Exclusive Media’s international sales & distribution division maintains a strong marketing presence and represents the group’s in-house productions plus its growing library of almost 900 titles including the recently acquired library from Icon Entertainment International. The company also actively acquires third party feature films to further strengthen its international distribution slate.

The company launched a US distribution company, Exclusive Releasing and holds a minority stake in Millennium Entertainment.

For further information about the company, our slate of films, library and our experienced management team please visit www.exclusivemedia.com

ABOUT BAFFLEGAB PRODUCTIONS
Bafflegab Productions is an audio production company producing quality original drama and documentaries, established in 2006 by Sony Award-winning network radio producer Simon Barnard.

The company produces The Scarifyers, tales of comedic supernatural intrigue set in 1930s Britain, which has been acquired by BBC Radio 4 Extra. Starring such luminaries as David Warner, Brian Blessed, Leslie Phillips and Nigel Havers, the series has been described in the national press as 'a slice of audio perfection', 'the smartest and most enjoyable thing on British radio' and 'like Tintin but with the lights out.'

Bafflegab has also released Peter Cushing’s readings of his own autobiography and the Sherlock Holmes stories, and in 2013 launched a new series, Vince Cosmos: Glam Rock Detective, starring Green Wing’s Julian Rhind-Tutt as the eponymous hero.

Beneath Coming Soon to Chiller

Are you ready for another Chiller original movie? Keep an eye our for Beneath. The film directed by Larry Fessenden screened at the Stanley Film Festival earlier this month. Check out the synopsis and trailer below. I always dig a good creature feature so I'm kinda looking forward to this one!

Beneath Synopsis:
When a group of young friends commemorating their high school graduation take a trip to the remote Black Lake, their celebration turns into a nightmare with the sudden appearance of a bloodthirsty, underwater predator. Stuck in a leaking boat with no oars, the teens face the ultimate tests of friendship and sacrifice during a terror-stricken fight for survival. Beneath is written by Tony Daniel and Brian D. Smith, and directed by horror icon Larry Fessenden (The Last Winter, Habit). Produced by Fessenden and Peter Phok for Glass Eye Pix (Stake Land, The Innkeepers, I Sell The Dead).