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Presented by Neon’s The Monkey, Bloody Disgusting is celebrating this weekend’s release of Osgood Perkins’ highly anticipated horror with Stephen King Week. Yesterday, Jenn Addams looked at the most bizarre deaths in Stephen King’s work, and today, Luiz H.C. provides us with a ranking of King’s made-for-tv originals.

You can’t be crowned the King of Horror by telling the same story over and over again. That’s why it makes sense that Stephen King has always been open to experimenting with new mediums throughout his six-decade-long career. From being one of the first major authors to publish an online-only e-book to infamously deciding to direct one of his big-screen adaptations himself, there’s a reason we still line up to read his constantly evolving work.

Of course, one of the author’s most prolific side-projects has been the art of writing engaging teleplays – and...

Scarred For Life, the podcast based on Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence’s hit book series, will return for season two on December 23.

Presented by Andy Bush, the voice of Hometime for over 2m listeners on Absolute Radio, the podcast sees a celebrity join Brotherstone and Lawrence to confess three terrifying items or events from their childhood.

Season one, which topped the TV & Film podcast charts in the UK, featured guests including The League of Gentlemen’s Reece Shearsmith, Garth Marenghi creator Matthew Holness and journalist Samira Ahmed.

Season two will launch on Monday December 23 with Little Britain, Sherlock and Black Mirror actor Alice Lowe, followed by a Christmas Day Special exploring the dark underbelly of the festive season. Weekly episodes will follow every Monday morning, with confirmed guests including The Fast Show’s John Thomson and Dinnerladies actor Maxine Peake.

Season two of Scarred For Life will be produced...

From Garth Marenghi to The Mighty Boosh, Paddington’s blockbuster success stands on a TV comedy golden age and the early work of Paul King.

“The very gates of Hell” might not be the first place you’d look to find Paddington’s origin story. But with Paul King as director and future ursine-alumni Alice Lowe and Richard Ayoade on the stage, the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe run of Garth Marenghi’s Fright Knight proved not to be a half-bad training ground for the man behind the most successful comedy franchise of the last decade.

Pitched as a gory and melodramatic spoof of Stephen King-style scares, the show centred around Matthew Holness’ fictional horror author, Marenghi, and his inspired telling of another writer’s fight to rescue his muse from the forces of darkness. Fright Knight was nominated for a Perrier award. The follow-up, 2001’s Netherhead, won one. TV beckoned, and soon King,...

British TV shows often get darker and weirder than most mainstream American shows, and some of them are creepy enough to keep their audiences awake at night. Most "creepy" shows tend to fall under the horror genre, but British comedies can be just as unsettling. Without necessarily being horror comedies, it's possible to create a dark and tense atmosphere while still being hilarious.

Some of Britain's best writers, including Chris Morris, Charlie Brooker and even Roald Dahl, have made creepy shows with plenty of humor. While America also has some similar shows, it's rare for a mainstream show to feature such a perfect blend between darkness and humor. British networks seem more willing to commission all sorts of creepy shows, including horrors, comedies, and detective dramas.

Related 10 British Sci-Fi Shows You Probably Haven't Heard Of

While some of the greatest science fiction shows ever have come from the UK, there...

A passion project in the works for eight years, Alice Lowe’s follow-up to Prevenge borrows from the likes of Terry Gilliam and Stanley Kubrick to tell a story about the obsessive pursuit of love, with a healthy side of schlocky gore. Lowe has long been something of a savant of the strange and macabre, from her breakout role in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace onwards. But her imagination really runs wild here, leaping between centuries with aplomb, even if the jokes are disappointingly weak.

Bedecked in everything from an enormous Marie Antoinette-style periwig to the sheen of a 1980s leotard, Lowe is the star, writer and director of this cheerfully bonkers film. Her hapless hero is Agnes, who we first meet in a Scottish village in 1688 as a spinster. When she attends the execution of a heretic (Aneurin Barnard), she is immediately enchanted by his brooding good looks. So...

Pseudo-schlock such as Sharknado is trying to be so bad it’s good – this is just bad

Starring, written and directed by Cradeaux Alexander, this is a low-budget tale of the occult, and not a very good one at that. If you’re a fan of Garth Marenghi it is potentially of some interest, because it’s not too often that you see the actual kind of characters Marenghi is based on in their natural habitat. Pseudo-schlock of the Sharknado type is of course available in abundance, but those films are trying to be so bad they’re good, which Inherit the Witch doesn’t seem to be.

The plot concerns Cory (Cradeaux) and his family, to whom we are introduced in flashback at Cory’s birthday party in 1984, which he shares with his twin sister Fiona. We then jump to the New Forest in the present day, where we...

Who needs subtly when you've got "The Substance," Coralie Fargeat's delightfully bonkers body horror masterpiece? To quote "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace," "I know writers who use subtext and they're all cowards, every one of them." With "The Substance," Fargeat, who helmed the excellent, brutal, bubble-gum-colored thrillride that was "Revenge," has crafted a overstuffed, bonkers, blood-soaked saga about women and the hell they're put through all in the name of modern beauty standards. Fargeat's script is about as unsubtle as they come — every scene is loaded with unmistakable, obvious, impossible-to-miss meaning. And yet, this isn't a hindrance to the film. If anything, it just makes the movie all the more endearing. It's equal parts horrific and hilarious.

Demi Moore turns in a fearless performance as Elisabeth Sparkle, an Oscar-winner turned TV fitness star. I'm not an awards prognosticator, but I would love it if Moore scooped up some awards season love for this,...

“Who is that actor?” It’s probably everyone’s reaction to their first experience of Britain’s Matt Berry. With his booming delivery, and an uncanny ability to draw out every last vowel and consonant from even the dullest of words, Berry has been a cult comic actor in the U.K. for 20 years now. He broke out there in 2012 with Toast of London, a surreal sitcom in which he appeared as the bitter, buffoonish, self-serious thespian Steven Toast. But in 2019, the FX show What We Do in the Shadows took his homegrown appeal overseas, as the shape-shifting 300-year-old vampire Laszlo in the mock-doc comedy show inspired by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement’s word-of-mouth movie hit from 2014.

Hardcore fans will remember him as Dr. Sanchez from Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place, a horror parody devised by Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade that premiered to little fanfare in 2004 but has since gathered a devout following,...

The Bloody Disgusting-powered Screambox is home to a variety of unique horror content, from originals and exclusives to cult classics and documentaries. With such a rapidly-growing library, there are many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

Here are five recommendations you can stream on Screambox right now.

Possum

Like Jordan Peele, John Krasinski, and Zach Cregger, Matthew Holness made a name for himself in the comedy space — most notably, creating and starring in Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace — before delivering one hell of a horror movie right out the gate. 2018’s Possum is a psychological slow-burner that follows a disgraced children’s puppeteer back to his childhood home, where the trauma of his past comes back to haunt him.

A lifelike human head tethered to spindly spider legs, the titular puppet would be creepy in any context, but Holness turns it into pure nightmare fuel. Combined with an oppressive tone, unnerving...

Some TV shows seem destined to remain untouched forever, despite their potential for a successful reboot. Potential reboots like Seinfeld and Garth Marenghi's Darkplace have garnered interest, but many iconic shows may never return. A reboot of Rome or Flight of the Conchords would bring new life to old favorites, but they will probably never happen.

TV reboots are becoming more and more common, especially on streaming platforms, but some shows will never get their chance. There have been some surprising TV reboots in recent years, with Frasier, iCarly and That '70s Show among the series which have been rebooted in some way after many years of silence. This trend is set to continue in the near future, with even more shows coming back from the dead.

Despite the current obsession with reboots and remakes, there are some shows which look like they will remain untouched forever, even if...

You’d be hard-pushed to find a teenager alive who wouldn’t jump at the chance to let loose in an empty Ikea, after dark. Especially when there’s paintballs and mass destruction on the cards. So it’s no surprise that Rkss stage such a fantasy, as the set-up for their Gen Z focussed somewhat-slasher; a half-baked cautionary tale on vapid activism, with a particularly gnarly killer at the helm.

The directorial collective, otherwise known as Canadian trio François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell, are well-loved on the genre circuit. Heroes of ’80s pastiches Turbo Kid and Summer of 84 (the latter of which offers one of the most memorably downbeat finales of almost any horror this side of the millennium), their latest, Wake Up, is certainly more of a move towards the present. Doing away with much of the team’s stylish neon and bigger production values,...

Dark comedy, or comedy-horror, is one of British television's strong points. Misfits, Snuff Box, Jam, Garth Marenghi's Darkplace ... there are many a gem to have crawled out of the twisted and brilliant minds behind British late-night TV that make audiences question whether they should be appalled or enthralled by the Island's unique brand of gallows humor. It's no surprise then, that 2023 brought us a grizzly psychological thriller in the form of Wolf: a shining example of that quintessentially British tone that falls between horrifying and hilarious. Created by Megan Gallagher and adapted from the novel of the same name by author Mo Hayder, Wolf touts an impressive cast that includes both Iwan Rheon and Owen Teale of Game of Thrones fame. If you're looking for a darkly humorous, twisted, and grizzly thriller that coats itself in constant homages to classic horror, Wolf is likely right up your alley. The only problem is that,...

Anyone who has encountered Garth Marenghi’s oeuvre knows that there’s a joy and a certain playful energy that comes when no one has to pretend a story isn’t a story. “Saltburn” is a prime example of those benefits, which only makes the well-heeled vanity of the Catton family funnier and the inchoate longing of Oxford student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) to become a fixture in the life of uni mate Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) more twisted. The film achieves a certain paradoxical honesty by putting a heightened gloss on very fake people who are trying to appear completely normal.

It’s not that the film breaks the fourth wall. But nothing is too much for “Saltburn.” And that approach to storytelling is what gives writer and director Emerald Fennell the freedom to use her frames to heighten the tension in relationships, twist the knives of betrayal, and...

Richard Ayoade is a multi-hyphenate who has delivered stunning work as a comedian, actor, director, and writer. He got his start in cult British TV shows like Garth Marenghi's Darkplace and The Mighty Boosh, before reaching more mainstream attention with his role as uber-nerd Maurice Moss in The It Crowd. From there, he took on more high-profile roles, as well as directed the fantastic comedy-dramas Submarine and The Double. He has also written non-fiction books on comedy and film. Most recently, he appeared in Wes Anderson's The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.

People tend to conflate Lovecraftian horror with tentacled sea-monsters and secretive fish cults, but one of the absolute best of the author’s weird tales features almost none of the aesthetic elements traditionally associated with his writing. Following a college student who befriends a paranoid musician condemned to play strange melodies every night in order to ward off otherworldly horrors, The Music of Erich Zann remains my personal favorite example of a story using art to comment on the human condition.

It’s not the only Lovecraft story about a troubled artist (with yarns like Pickman’s Model likely borrowing from the poets and painters of Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow collection), but I think the tale of Erich Zann still resonates today because most readers can relate to the Sisyphean ordeal of being forced to repeatedly perform a task in order to keep their world from falling apart.

The Losers’ Club‘s Randall Colburn is joined by one of his favorite songwriters, Zac Pennington (Popular Music/Parenthetical Girls), to unpack the parodic pleasures of U.K. cult hit Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, a loony hospital horror soap that’s maybe-sorta-definitely taking the piss out of Stephen King.

The pair discuss low-rent ’80s horror, hearing Matt Berry’s voice for the first time, and how genuinely strange it is that Darkplace came out just months before King’s own Kingdom Hospital, his short-lived ABC hospital horror soap. Popular Music’s lush and haunting new album, Minor Works, is available now.

Stream the episode below and return next week when the Losers head to Hollywood King. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens...

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is an underrated horror satire that offers a laugh instead of a scare, with intentionally bad acting, nonsensical plots, and hammy dialogue. The show goes beyond parodying 80s horror tropes by showcasing the incompetence and delusions of the fictional minds behind it, creating a layered and hilarious comedy. The mockumentary interviews of the characters add to the comedy, as they genuinely believe the show is revolutionary while viewers can see how hilariously wrong they are, further demonstrating their ineptitude.

The horror satire Garth Marenghi's Darkplace may not be a series known to all, but it's the perfect comedic cult classic watch for Halloween. Someone who wants a good laugh that still has the trappings of horror around Halloween might turn to a "Treehouse of Horror" episode from The Simpsons, or watch one of the many South Park horror movie parodies, or maybe even binge-watch the entire Scary Movie franchise.

Another trio of Dark Sky Films titles have made their way onto Screambox, joining previously dropped classics Willow Creek, Minor Premise, and The Deeper You Dig (more details).

Place your bets on who will win in Dark Sky Films’ Ghost Killers vs Bloody Mary, now streaming on Screambox.

Fabrício Bittar’s horror-comedy tells of four YouTubers with expertise in paranormal activity who attempt to tackle the mystery of a ghost that haunts a high school bathroom. This film is batshit insane.

The film is being sold in the spirit of Peter Jackson’s earliest work, “An exercise in hilariously bad taste, featuring gratuitous sex, violence, profanity and one seriously pissed-off ghost.”

The feature directorial debut of Paul Owens, Landlocked is a creative new horror movie that incorporates actual footage in the form of childhood home movies.

Now streaming on Screambox, Landlocked‘s use of a family’s original home videos...

The latest episode of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" is set on the Ferengi homeworld of Ferenginar, a planet that has long been ruled by an aggressive capitalist philosophy. Everything in Ferengi society revolves around profit and acquisition, and money forms the basis of every one of their major beliefs. In the Ferengi afterlife, one enters Heaven by paying the exorbitant entrance fee. The holiest Ferengi book is a list of 285 money-related aphorisms called The Rules of Acquisition. All of Ferenginar's financial interests are overseen by a Pope-like figure called the Grand Nagus. In the final episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," the largely underestimated and surprisingly compassionate Rom (Max Grodénchik) became the Grand Nagus, ushering in a new era. Rom gave rights to workers, previously forbidden in Ferengi society.

The plot of the new episode involves Lieutenants Tendi (Noël Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) having to go undercover as...

Krapopolis has avoided the recasting issue faced by Rick and Morty, as each of its main characters is voiced by different actors. Krapopolis has a stacked voice cast, including Richard Ayoade and Matt Berry, and has already been renewed for three seasons. The inevitable comparisons between Krapopolis and Rick and Morty may pose a challenge for the new show, but it deserves a chance to succeed on its own.

Krapopolis is the next animated comedy series from Dan Harmon, which has already avoided a recasting issue facing Rick and Morty. Harmon co-created Rick and Morty alongside Justin Roiland, with the sci-fi comedy quickly becoming a major success following its debut in 2013. At its best, the show could be wildly imaginative, hilarious and oddly philosophical. At its worst, it could produce witless outings like season 5's "Rickdependence Spray," an episode even Harmon appeared mystified by.

In addition to serving as a...

You’ve got your Casualty and Doctors – medical soaps that have been around forever and will hopefully stay around forever to reliably entertain, educate and break in the stars of tomorrow. Next, there are your factual medical shows of questionable taste – Embarrassing Bodies, 101 Things Removed From the Human Body and other fleshlump-zoo tours that’d put anybody off their dinner.

And then there are the following – quality 21st century hospital dramas, documentaries and comedies, all of which present their unique take on the world of medicine. Leave your own recommendations below.

Call the Midwife

Watch on: BBC One and BBC iPlayer (UK); PBS Masterpiece (US)

If you know, you know. And if you don’t know, then you haven’t been paying attention. There’s a popular misconception that BBC One’s long-running Sunday night drama Call the Midwife is a sickly sweet, rose-tinted, tweer-than-twee nostalgia-fest. Nuns on bicycles! Cockneys with hearts of gold!

It may have taken Nic Cage over 40 years to play Dracula in "Renfield," but he previously donned fangs for one of his most out-there performances in "Vampire's Kiss."

It's kind of surprising that it's taken this long for Nicolas Cage to play Count Dracula. If any actor was born to play the most famous vampire on the planet then surely it was our generation's most unpredictable screen legend. Now he's getting his chance in the comedy "Renfield," where he stars alongside Nicholas Hoult, who plays Dracula's beleaguered goon in the midst of an identity crisis. Cage has always expressed interest in vampire lore. He produced the 2000 film "Shadow of the Vampire," a fictionalized version of the making of "Nosferatu" that imagines what would have happened if an actual vampire had been among the cast. Mostly, however, his highly specific strain of acting has been saved for playing mere mortals. There...

This post contains spoilers for "Avatar: The Way of Water."

The "Avatar" movies have had a huge impact, cultural and otherwise. When James Cameron's original "Avatar" came out in 2009, it made 3D cool again in a way that it hadn't been for decades and really pushed the envelope for motion-capture and digital effects. Cameron's sci-fi epic was so immersive that it even left some moviegoers feeling depressed that they didn't actually live on Pandora.

Sure, the story in "Avatar" is derivative and its characters are paper-thin, but they're not the focus of the film, they are vessels through which Cameron explores his outlandish visuals and bold ideas. Jake Sully doesn't matter as much as the idea of an avatar does. Likewise, the film is a daring modern blockbuster that portrays the U.S. military in a clear-cut villainous light.

Despite their many problematic aspects, the "Avatar" movies are nevertheless giant,...

Great British Bake Off fans are throwing one particular name in the ring as Matt Lucas’ replacement.

On Tuesday (6 December), the Little Britain actor announced he was stepping away from the baking competition, which is known as The Great British Baking Show in the US.

Noel Fielding reacted to the news in a touching “farewell” post on Instagram, revealing what he will “miss” about his co-host.

In response to Fielding’s post about Lucas, his followers shared the celebrity they think should join the comedian on the series: Julia Barratt.

Should Barratt be announced as the new host, it would mark a fun reunion for fans of comedy series The Mighty Boosh.

Fielding and Barratt found fame as the comedy troupe that began on stage shows and radio before getting their own BBC Three sitcom.

“The clear choice will be to now hire Julian Barratt,” one fan wrote, with another...

A creation of comedians Matthew Holness and Richard Ayoade, Garth Marenghi is a fictional horror author who has earned a fan following through his appearances in the stage shows Garth Marenghi’s Fright Knight and Garth Marenghi’s Netherhead, as well as the TV shows Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and Man to Man with Dean Learner. Now Marenghi (who has been played on stage and screen by Holness) is back – and fans finally have the chance to read one of his novels! Garth Marenghi’s TerrorTome has been published and is now available to order in e-book or audiobook editions at This Link.

Garth Marenghi’s TerrorTome has the following description:

Dare you crack open the TerrorTome? (Mind the spine)

When horror writer Nick Steen gets sucked into a cursed typewriter by the terrifying Type-Face, Dark Lord of the Prolix, the hellish visions inside his head are unleashed for real.

The mark of any successful directorial debut is whether you can find the makings of a distinctive authorial voice underneath various layers of homage to the obvious influences. In the case of Fridtjof Ryder’s debut Inland, shot when the German-British director was just 20, it’s hard to uncover any personal voice in what is essentially an Anglicization of the typical David Lynch format––a surreal tale about the darkness that hides beneath unassuming suburbia. Describing anything as “Lynchian” is fast becoming meaningless in the realm of criticism, where even the most vaguely odd works have found themselves getting breathlessly labeled such, but here everything—from the title onwards—feels deliberately designed to invoke comparisons. It’s a shame, considering how intriguing the character study is at the surface, that it never feels truly original in its own right.

Rory Alexander stars as the unnamed protagonist we’re introduced to...

Neil Jordan’s ‘Marlowe’: Liam Neeson And Diane Kruger Feature To Debut At San Sebastian

The Official Selection of the San Sebastian Festival will close with the world premiere of Marlowe, the latest film by Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan. The film will debut on September 24 at the Kursaal Auditorium with the film’s stars Liam Neeson and Diane Kruger in attendance. Based on the novel The Black Eyed Blonde by John Banville, the film is set in 1930s Los Angeles and follows private eye Philip Marlowe (Neeson) as he receives a commission to find the missing lover of a beautiful heiress. The film is produced by Alan Moloney, Gary Levinsohn, Mark Fasano, Billy Hines, Philip Kim, and Patrick Hibler. Shot in Barcelona and Dublin, the film is a co-production between Parallel Films, Hills Productions, and Davis Films, with support from Fís Éireann / Screen Ireland.

ITV Studios France Names New...

“Dodger,” the high-octane family drama based on Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist,” is set to return to the BBC for three specials.

Production has just wrapped in Bristol on the three one-off episodes, which include a Christmas-themed offering, with Christopher Eccleston (“Doctor Who”) returning as Fagin and Billy Jenkins (“Peaky Blinders”) returning as the eponymous child pickpocket.

Also returning for high jinks in Victorian London are Ellie-May Sheridan (“Call The Midwife”), Aabay Ali, Connor Curren, Mila Lieu, David Threlfall (“Shameless”), Alex Kingston (“Doctor Who”), Rhys Thomas (“The Fast Show”), Javone Prince (“No Time To Die”), Lucy Montgomery (“Disenchantment”), Saira Choudhry (“Life”), James Fleet (“Vicar of Dibley”), Lenny Rush (“A Christmas Carol”) and Sam C Wilson (“Hanna”).

They are joined by newcomers to the series Anita Dobson (“EastEnders”), Robert Lindsay (“My Family”), Mark Benton (“Waterloo Road”), Rufus Jones (“Home”), Matthew Holness (“Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace”) and Jane Horrocks (“Absolutely Fabulous”).

“Dodger” will air...

If you can believe it, this summer marks the 10th anniversary of BAFTA-winning British comedy series Toast of London’s genius pilot episode, co-created by and starring the ever memorable Matt Berry. He plays the obliviously unsuccessful actor and wannabe lothario Steven Toast; a man with zero brains and even less grace.

With four seasons down, including this year’s Toast of Tinseltown set across the pond, Toast of London is responsible for some legendary moments in comedy. The mere mention of the show among fans will elicit responses such as “Yes I can hear you, Clem Fandango!”, “Fire the nucular weapons!” and “Well, he can f**k that sky high”.

Toast is joined on the show by a clueless agent, a genteel landlord who’s also a retired actor, an arrogant acting rival and a casual lover who happens to be that rival’s wife. That’s not to...

Garth Marenghi fans rejoice! The good author is back at it with a newly announced hardcover, ebook and audiobook release titled "Garth Marenghi's Terrortime." I can sense some of you are politely nodding your heads and shining a "I'm happy that you're happy" smile and otherwise have no idea what I'm talking about. To you good people, I humbly request you seek out the early aughts bit of British weirdness that goes by the name of "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace."

Marenghi is a fictional horror writer played by Matthew Holness whose books are so popular that he's given his own TV show with total creative freedom. Of course he directs and stars despite not having any experience at either and the resulting show is so bad that it never found and audience and was thought lost to time. In the early 2000s, Garth salvages the 20-year-old footage and finally gives it the release it deserves.

Author, dream weaver, visionary, plus actor Garth Marenghi (Matthew Holness) is back! This time in novel form with the upcoming release of Garth Marenghi’s TerrorTome.

TerrorTome will release in hardback, e-book, and audiobook from Hopper Studio on November 10, 2022.

Garth humorously describes his novel as:

“Less a book, more a petrifying mind-realm, or ‘psych-zone’, if you will (and you must), TerrorTome charts the paranormal adventures of fictional horror paperback author Nick Steen. Rejected by both Heaven and Hell for his blasphemous visions, Nick is a fallen angel now living in purgative limbo (his hometown of Stalkford), chained (literally) to a cursed typewriter, in a flat which also forms a part-cosmic portal to unexplored demonic realms. When Nick’s imagination escapes, leaking out of his own head, Stalkford is overrun with the fictional horrors of his own books, their incarnate denizens hellbent on destroying Stalkford, outer Stalkford and possibly sightly further.

Greetings traveler, I have some great news: Garth Marenghi — author, dream weaver, visionary, plus actor — is now on Amazon. After years of being (legally) unavailable to stream here in the U.S., the hilarious cult series Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Created by Richard Ayoade and Matthew Holness, the series stars […]

The post The Most Significant Televisual Event Since ‘Quantum Leap’: ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’ is Now Streaming on Amazon Prime Video appeared first on /Film.

Warning: contains a spoiler for The Haunting of Bly Manor episode 6

When you belong to a cultural superpower, you get used to things being all about you. Wrapped in the soft cotton wool of cultural dominance, you so rarely feel the prick of non-recognition. To grow up the same nationality, race, and on the same patch of land as the planet’s most celebrated writers, artists and musicians is to feel that their stuff is yours too. Unlike other groups, there’s no fight for representation on your hands. The world literally speaks your language. Fiction is your comfort zone.

The extreme and enduring comfort of which must explain why the slightest jolt feels so unacceptable. The British like to think of ourselves as a solid, unflappable people, but really, we’re all paper doilies who tear at the slightest violation. And the worst violation we can suffer is at...

Netflix has finally set the premiere date for “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” the long-awaited second season of Mike Flanagan’s “The Haunting” anthology series, and released the first teaser for the chilling new ghost story.

The streaming service revealed Monday that “Bly Manor,” the followup to 2018’s “The Haunting of Hill House,” will debut Oct. 9. You can watch the 1-minute, 7-second preview of “Bly Manor” here and via the video above.

Whereas the 10-episode first season of “The Haunting” was a modern retelling of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel “The Haunting of Hill House,” the 9-episode second season is an adaptation of the supernatural stories written by Henry James, including “The Turn of the Screw.”

Also Read: 'Haunting of Bly Manor': Netflix Reveals First Look at Your New Favorite Haunted House (Photos)

“Haunting of Hill House” alums Victoria Pedretti and Oliver Jackson-Cohen will star in “The Haunting of Bly Manor,...

Netflix has revealed a first look at “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” the long-awaited second season of Mike Flanagan’s “The Haunting” anthology series.

The streaming service dropped the poster for “Bly Manor” Monday morning on Twitter, announcing that the season will debut this fall and encouraging fans to “look beneath the surface” until then.

Soon after that, Netflix gave fans a way to dive deeper with the release of 10 first-look photos from “The Haunting of Bly Manor,” which serve as an introduction to both the new titular haunted house and the cast of characters who live in it.

Also Read: 'The Haunting of Bly Manor': Everything We Know About Netflix's 'Hill House' Follow-Up

While the 10-episode first season of “The Haunting” was a modern retelling of Shirley Jackson’s 1959 novel “The Haunting of Hill House,” the 9-episode second season is an adaptation of Henry James’ works,...

Just in time as Americans — and much of the world — settle indoors in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, “Black Monday” star Paul Scheer has some TV series suggestions to check out.

For the inaugural episode of Variety’s “My Guilty Pleasure,” Scheer sat down with Variety senior editor Michael Schneider to reveal his (1) TV guilty pleasure; (2) the “deep cut” show you probably haven’t heard of but he recommends; and (3) his “show-mate” — in other words, the TV series he couldn’t live without.

Of course, as “Black Monday” returns for Season 2 on Sunday, March 15, it’s also a good time to catch up on the Showtime comedy. Don Cheadle, Regina Hall, Andrew Rannells and Scheer lead the cast of “Black Monday,” an irreverent take on a group of misfit Wall Street traders who help trigger the 1987 stock market crash. (Did we mention it’s now also inadvertently timely?)

The...

By Darren Allison

On the 31st January, Silva Screen released two excellent BBC vinyl albums from the 1970s. Firstly, Paddy Kingsland was the first Radiophonic composer to see a solo release of his compositions, even though he’s not name-checked on the front of the sleeve. “Fourth Dimension”, first released in 1973, showcased Kingsland’s theme tunes for television and radio while at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The recordings feature a rock-style backing band and synthesisers including the Vcs 3 and “Delaware” Synthi 100, and the track “Reg” from the album was also released as the B side to the 1973 single release of the iconic Doctor Who theme tune. Kingsland remained at the workshop for 21 years, leaving in 1981, during which time he composed music for much loved TV shows The Changes, Doctor Who and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy among others. Paddy Kingsland is now part of the newly-revived independent “Radiophonic Workshop...

Exclusive: 47 Meters Down producers James Harris and Mark Lane are exiting their partnership with UK financier The Fyzz Facility to relaunch their former label Tea Shop Productions with financier Head Gear Films (The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind).

Development and production executive Leonora Darby will also be leaving The Fyzz to join them at the new venture with Head Gear’s Phil Hunt and Compton Ross’ who will partner with the producers in developing and financing film and TV projects.

Harris will continue to be based in La and Lane will be based in the London office of Head Gear affiliate sales company Bankside Films. The duo will continue to work with UK and U.S. partners, including with The Fyzz Pictures on their titles in production. They are currently delivering We Summon The Darkness from director Marc Myers, The Informer starring Joel Kinnaman and Rosamund Pike, and Johannes Roberts...

Stars: Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong, Simon Bubb, Andy Blithe, Charlie Eales, Ryan Enever, Raphel Famotibe, Joe Gallucci, Pamela Cook | Written and Directed by Matthew Holness

“Can you spy him deep within? Little Possum. Black as sin.” That’s just part of the creepy children’s poem that accentuates the sheer bloody terror in Possum, a supremely disturbing British horror flick from writer-director Matthew Holness, creator of Darth Marenghi’s Darkplace.

Based on Holness’ own short story, Possum stars Sean Harris as Philip, a disgraced children’s puppeteer who returns to his childhood home with a suspiciously large leather bag. Inside the bag is Possum, perhaps the scariest puppet ever committed to celluloid. The frankly terrifying poster for the film (google it at your peril) gives some idea of the horror, but the finished article is guaranteed to give you nightmares for weeks.

On the surface, the plot is deceptively simple:...

Keely Hawes, one of the breakout stars of Bodyguard, Veep’s Sally Phillips and Three Girls’ Jill Halfpenny have joined IFC and Channel 4’s comedy series Year of the Rabbit.

The trio have joined the show, which stars Toast of London’s Matt Berry, as it goes into production on location in the UK.

Hawes stars as the mysterious Lydia, Phillips is Princess Juliana of Bulgaria, and Halfpenny features as Rabbit’s ex, the deadly Flora.

The six-part series follows a group of Victorian detectives; Berry, who stars in Jim Hosking’s An Evening With Beverly Luff Linn and Matt Groening’s Netflix animation Disenchantment, plays Detective Inspector Rabbitt, a hardened booze-hound who’s seen it all, and his new, hapless, by-the-books partner, played by Parade End’s Freddie Fox. While investigating a local murder, the chief of police’s lewd but insightful adoptive daughter, played by Chewing Gum’s Susan Wokoma,...

If you missed Matthew Holness' Possum last year (and word on the horror street is that it was one of the creepier releases of 2018), then you may want to circle February 12th on your calendar, because that is when Possum will be released on DVD from Dark Sky Films.

Press Release: A man trying to escape his past finds his past continually chasing him down in Possum, a chilling new horror film featuring a "quiet storm" of a lead performance by Mission: Impossible's Sean Harris. The film arrives on DVD from Dark Sky Films on February 12, 2019.

Philip, a disgraced children's puppeteer, returns to his dilapidated childhood home and lecherous stepfather, Maurice. Philip is intent on destroying "Possum,"a hideously malformed spider-puppet he carries with him in a brown leather case. Unfortunately, and horrifically, Possum refuses to be abandoned.

Philip's mind is flooded with painful half-memories and nightmarish visions,...

Already on VOD platforms, Dark Sky Films is brining the UK horror film Possum (read our review) which stars Sean Harris of Prometheus fame, to DVD on February 12, 2019. In the film written and directed by Matthew Holness, creator of the comedy series “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace”: The story is about a disgraced children’s puppeteer who returns to his childhood home and […]...

It’s that time of year again. Let’s not pretend we don’t all love ranking things.

Honourable mentions go to A Quiet Place, which made no sense but offered a truly unique cinema experience; Sicario 2, which, against the odds, turned out to be better than the original; the very pleasant surprise that was Bohemian Rhapsody; Ralph Breaks the Internet, particularly its scary, weirdly affecting, self-reflexive final act; and Ready Player One, where Steven Spielberg turned Ernest Cline’s flimsy whimsy into a joyous pop culture treasure trove.

And now the top ten, in no particular order. It turns out that it was a very good year for horror…

The House That Jack Built

Both a must-watch yet virtually unwatchable, Lars Von Trier’s most uncompromising film to date (quite an accolade) is the story of a self-justifying, self-aggrandising, woman-hating serial killer nicknamed “Mr Sophistication”, played with chilly brilliance by Matt Dillon.

Despite horror’s thematic binding to society’s most current fears – this a year of parental devastation and horrors inside family units – my twenty favorite genre titles from 2018 still revel in variety: arachnid puppets, Nazi experiments, zombie musicals alike. Such morbid creativity would stick out like a sore severed thumb any other year, but today? You could drown out aforementioned absurdity with Nicolas Cage’s descent into occult revenge madness alone.

As I said, it’s been a wild year for horror – a damn fine one at that.

My ranking comes after killing many darlings, given my final tally of 118 seen horror films this year. Dig deeper, past these listed twenty, and you’ll still find plenty of gold worth mining. The following treasures just shine a little brighter and demand more attention. Feature debuts, streaming darlings, mainstream nightmares, all the works. It’s time for another end of year horror countdown,...

To mark the release of the film Possum now playing in select cinemas nationwide and on demand, we have a limited edition signed poster, official cd soundtrack, t-shirt and book featuring the original short story. To find out where you can watch Possum, visit https://www.possumfilm.com

Possum is the debut feature film from writer/director Matthew Holness, co-creator and writer/star of the cult TV series Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. Starring Sean Harris and Alun Armstrong, Possum is a distinctive psychological thriller which pays homage to the British horror films of the 70s. The film’s unique and stylish exploration of a man’s isolation and abandonment is accompanied by a compelling soundtrack from the legendary electronic BBC music studio The Radiophonic Workshop. The film is based on the short story Possum written by Matthew Holness and published in ‘The New Uncanny’ anthology.

The story follows disgraced children...

Dark Sky Films Proudly Announces ‘Possum’ The Highly Anticipated Directorial Debut of Matthew Holness From the producers of The Survivalist and I Am Not a Serial Killer In Theaters And On Digital Platforms November 2, 2018 A disgraced children’s puppeteer returns to his dilapidated childhood home and lecherous stepfather …

The post Critically Acclaimed Possum Directed by Matthew Holness in Theaters + Digital 11/2 appeared first on Hnn | Horrornews.net. Copyrights 2008-2018 - Horrornews.net...

Though it originally ran for just six episodes in 2004, the U.K. TV series “Garth Merenghi’s Darkplace” — an inspired spoof of supernatural anthology shows, among other things — has acquired a still-growing cult following. Its principal collaborators have all forged interesting careers since, with two recently making their feature writing-directing debuts. Released last year, cast member Alice Lowe’s “Prevenge” was a macabre piece about a unbalanced woman who starts believing her unborn child is ordering her to kill. “Darkplace” co-creator/star Matthew Holness’ new “Possum” is also about madness, being a psychological horror in which nearly all the terrors (both seen and unseen) may simply be figments of a severely withdrawn protagonist’s haunted imagination.

In script terms, Holness straddles the line between “minimalist” and “underdeveloped.” There are times when it feels like “Possum” (named after a creepy children’s rhyme much recited here) would have had its slender...

Sean Harris first grabbed me when he gave life to the tragic figure that was Joy Division's Ian Curtis in 24 Hour Party People, and then a little later in Billy O'Brien's Isolation and then I luxuriated in his cunning role in the small-screen series The Borgias. He has always struck me as an actor who gives himself over the the characters he portrays, bringing instant menace when that's required, as in the two latest Mission: Impossible blockbusters. Though I haven't seen Possum yet, he quickly conveys his character's very, er, distinctive traits in our exclusive clip. The directorial debut of Matthew Holness, who also wrote the original screenplay, Possum tells the tale of "a disgraced children's puppeteer [who] must confront his sinister stepfather and...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Happy Halloween, everyone! While I know it’s a bittersweet feeling that our favorite holiday is finally upon us, that doesn’t mean we have to bid the horror genre farewell any time soon. In fact, there are a ton of great genre films hitting VOD and a variety of digital platforms throughout the month of November, which should help with the sting of it no longer officially being the spooky season.

November’s digital releases kick off on Friday with Possum, Welcome to Mercy, and Monster Party, and then just a few days later, get ready for Death House, Kin, The Heretics, Beyond the Sky, and Blood, Sweat and Terrors on November 6th. One week later, the cyber thriller Searching hits various platforms (and is definitely worth a watch), and there are a few more titles making their digital debuts that day as well: Blue My Mind, Lasso, and Bloody Ballet.

Bloody Disgusting has an exclusive clip from the UK horror film Possum (read our review) which stars Sean Harris of Prometheus fame. The film is written and directed by Matthew Holness, creator of the comedy series “Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace”, and will release on VOD November 2, 2018, via Dark Sky Films. The story is about a disgraced children’s puppeteer who returns to his childhood […]...