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Fantasy and horror genres go hand in hand in movies, as magic, the supernatural, and mythical creatures can be as thrilling as they are dangerous. However, it's not enough for films to simply make the mystical aspects of the story scary. There must be a certain atmosphere within a project that makes it a true blend of fantasy and horror. Speculative fiction has drawn upon different elements of the genre for generations to create unforgettable narratives. It's not surprising that so many of these films draw from literature, as many dark fantasy books border on being horror.

It's through the worldbuilding, atmosphere, and character dynamics that the audience learns about how the magic and terror of the story will uplift each other throughout the plot.

While there are plenty of dark fantasy TV shows that have time to flesh out both the horror and magic of the story's world, movies...

Catching up with runaway sister Venus (Jaidyn Triplett), Jazmin Price (Samantha Russell) agrees to take her sibling far away from her troublesome situation at home if she feels the same way after she’s been given a tour of her hometown and the spooky stories involving their ancestors. It’s anthology time, folks, which always piques my interest, and this one focuses on both LGBTQ+ society and people of colour so I was looking forward to writer director Parker Brennon bringing their unique and vibrant perspective to the portmanteau pic.

I’m disappointed, and incredibly frustrated, that Hauntology does not only miss the chance to truly freshen up the subgenre but also lacks some comprehension of those magic elements which make the format sparkle. The template is there: framing device; four different tales spanning the years (plus a bonus mission for the sisters at the very end); a sprinkling of...

As Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024 unfolds, audiences are in for a treat with the International Premiere of Hauntology, a queer horror anthology that blends ghostly tales with deeply personal narratives.

Written and directed by Parker Brennon, Hauntology takes viewers on a journey with two siblings who embark on a road trip through Ohio, uncovering interconnected ghost stories that span the seasons. With a cast featuring the legendary Nancy Loomis and rising stars like Samantha Robinson and Zoey Luna, Hauntology is set to be one of the festival’s standout films. In this exclusive interview, Parker Brennon shares the inspiration behind the film, their path into filmmaking, and what excites them most about FrightFest.

Parker Brennon, writer/director 1. Tell us about your film

Parker Brennon: Hauntology is a queer horror anthology where two siblings go on a road trip. Each place they visit has a different ghost story, and the stories...

"I can't stay here." "There's no reason to be afraid." Gravitas Ventures has unveiled an official trailer for a film called Hauntology, an indie horror project originally pitched as a "Queer Horror Road Trip Movie." It's an anthology feature with various horror segments - an older sister takes her fearless runaway sibling Venus on a road trip, to share the most chilling tales surrounding their hometown. Jazmin takes Venus on a journey around Ohio, where Jazmin tells supernatural tales featuring characters have more in common with Venus than they first realize. Hauntology features four ghostly vignettes and another wrap-around story - a series of ghost stories taking them to four very haunted places. The movie stars Jaidyn Triplett as Venus Price, Samantha Russell as Jazmin, and Naomi Grossman as Annalisa, with Zoey Luna, Samantha Robinson, Nancy Loomis, Kurt Oberhaus, among others. An original feature made with crowdfunding, this queer horror...

Best known for playing Annie Brackett in John Carpenter’s original Halloween, Nancy Loomis (aka Nancy Kyes) returns to the screen for the first time in over 30 years in the upcoming horror anthology Hauntology from Gravitas Ventures. We’ve got the exclusive trailer.

Hauntology comes to FrightFest on August 23 before hitting VOD on September 17.

Watch the official trailer below and read on for everything you need to know.

In addition to Nancy Kyes aka Nancy Loomis, the cast also includes Samantha Robinson, Zoey Luna (The Craft Legacy), and Naomi Grossman (American Horror Story).

“In this queer horror anthology, 12-year-old Venus runs away from home, but their journey is cut short when their older sister, Jazmin, spots them wheeling a suitcase down the sidewalk. Jazmin then takes Venus on a journey around Ohio, where Jazmin tells supernatural tales whose characters have more in common with Venus than they first realize.”

Hauntology features four ghostly vignettes…...

Parker Brennon’s Hauntology is set to make its international premiere at the 2024 Pigeon Shrine FrightFest, bringing a unique blend of queer horror to the festival’s line-up. Scheduled for a late-night screening on Friday, 23rd August, this anthology film offers a chilling exploration of ghost stories with a distinctly queer perspective, blending supernatural elements with themes of identity and belonging.

Hauntology follows the journey of twelve-year-old Venus, who, after running away from home, is intercepted by their older sister, Jazmin. Instead of taking Venus back home, Jazmin takes them on an eerie road trip around their Ohio hometown, sharing spine-tingling tales at each stop. Each location they visit harbours its own ghost story, all intricately tied to queer experiences. From a trans woman’s desperate spell to become her ideal self, only to unleash a dark spirit, to a troubled couple discovering a love that transcends death, the anthology...

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...

The 25th edition of the Pigeon Shrine FrightFest promises to be an unforgettable celebration of horror cinema, taking place between 22 August to 26 August 2024.

It’s hard to comprehend just how many films will be on offer to see at this fantastic event, so we have broken down each of the screens into articles for you to digest. And we may have saved the best (this one) until last!

We have already detailed what will be on offer in Discovery Screen 1, Discovery Screen 2 and Discovery Screen 3 across the long weekend.

Now it’s time to read about the final list of films on offer, detailed below. Read on for the film programme for the Main Screen, at the Cineworld, Leicester Square.

Pigeon Shrine FrightFest 2024 – Main Screen Thursday, 22 August 2024

5:30 Pm – Opening Film: Broken Bird (World Premiere) Directed by Joanne Mitchell and starring Rebecca Calder, James Fleet, Jay Taylor, and Sacharissa Claxton,...

Famous witch movies like Practical Magic and The Craft explore different aspects of witchcraft, from family dynamics to darker occult themes. Practical Magic's blend of fantasy and romance resonates with audiences, while The Love Witch and The Lords of Salem take a darker approach to the genre. Whether it's horror, comedy, or romance, there's a witch movie for every taste, with Practical Magic set to receive a long-awaited sequel.

Practical Magic is one of the best movies about witches of the past several decades, but many witch films like it aren't recognized as often. Other famous movies that tackle the subject of witchcraft, like The Craft or The Blair Witch Project, focus on the more sinister aspects of the occult. While Practical Magic has some scary scenes, the most memorable parts of the story revolve around the character's interpersonal relationships. However, the visual aesthetic and atmosphere of the film...

Director Anna Biller‘s cult horror-comedy The Love Witch is now streaming on Screambox.

In the film, Elaine, a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment, she makes spells and potions, and then picks up men and seduces them. However her spells work too well, and she ends up with a string of hapless victims. When she finally meets the man of her dreams, her desperation to be loved will drive her to the brink of insanity and murder.

“I wanted to make a movie about a witch because I think that every woman is made to feel like a witch by the men who don’t understand her: that is, mysterious, dangerous, different, abnormal,” said Anna Biller when the film was initially released. “Elaine, the main character, has men constantly freaking out around her because of her sexiness. But...

Dive into the deliciously dark side of cinema with our guide to “good for her” horror movies, where the leading ladies don’t just fight back, they bite back—with style. This isn’t just about scares; it’s about screams of triumph from female anti-heroes who redefine horror movie vengeance.

We’re slicing into tales that offer more than just good for her horror moments; these films are a banquet of revenge horror movies served with a side of female villains so badass, you’ll be cheering them on from behind your popcorn. So, pull up a chair, and let’s celebrate the women who turn nightmares into their playgrounds, proving that when it comes to settling scores, they’re monstrously good at it.

Oscilloscope 10. The Love Witch (2016)

Elaine (Samantha Robinson), our spellbinding protagonist, isn’t your typical witch. In her quest for love, she brews potions more potent than your grandma’s moonshine,...

The Mammoth Film Festival celebrates independent movies and filmmakers, with a lineup of over 20 feature-length movies and over 70 short films and episodic titles. This year's festival features such notable stars as Ron Perlman, Emma Roberts, Dennis Quaid, and Brittany Snow, who will be showcasing their work as actors and directors. In addition to film screenings, the festival includes star-studded panels, interactive events, and educational opportunities for aspiring filmmakers in partnership with The Los Angeles Film School.

As winter nears its end, the latest edition of the Mammoth Film Festival is gearing up to begin. Having launched in 2018, the festival gears its focus toward celebrating independent movies, filmmakers and creatives, being hailed by some as a "mini Sundance". Some notable movies to have released at prior festivals have included Pretending I'm A Superman: The Tony Hawk Video Game Story, the Quentin Tarantino-focused QT8: The First Eight and the Michael Madsen...

From left: The Hateful Eight (The Weinstein Company), The Killer (Netflix), I Care A Lot (Seacia Pavao/Netflix), Uncut Gems (A24)Graphic: The A.V. Club

In the film genre pecking order, thrillers often get short shrift. They sometimes overlap with the far flashier horror genre, and seldom make the...

Clockwise from top left: Get Out (Universal Pictures); Jaws (Screenshot: YouTube/Universal); The Strangers (Screenshot: Universal/Rogue Pictures); It Follows (Radius/TWC)Graphic: The A.V. Club

Pick a film genre, any film genre, and Netflix is likely to have you more than covered in terms of viewing options—from the...

Walpurgisnacht, also known as Walpurgis Night or Hexennacht, is a pagan holiday celebrated on the night of April 30th. It is named after Saint Walpurga, an eighth-century nun who Christianized parts of Germany. However, the holiday has roots in pagan traditions that celebrate the coming of spring and the triumph of life over death. It is also associated with witchcraft and supernatural phenomena, making it a perfect occasion to indulge in some spine-chilling horror films.

So, grab some popcorn and get ready for a night of scares with these ten chilling recommendations for Walpurgisnacht.

1. Dracula (1931)

What better way to kick off Walpurgisnacht than with the most iconic vampire movie of all time? Dracula (1931) stars Bela Lugosi as the titular count who travels from Transylvania to England to spread his curse of the undead. The beginning of the film is actually set on Walpurgisnacht, as Renfield (Dwight Frye) arrives at Dracula...

The Farrah Fawcett Foundation Tex-Mex Fiesta co-chairs Alana Stewart and Jaclyn Smith led the 2022 event at The Rustic in Dallas, Texas this year, as opposed to their usual Beverly Hills location.

Sheryl Crow Performs at The Farrah Fawcett Foundation Tex-Mex Fiesta

Attended by more than 350 guests from Hollywood and Dallas, this event raised funds for the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge and Stand Up To Cancer.

The Rustic was transformed with floating pinatas, colorful lanterns, and mariachis for the fiesta-themed event, designed and produced by The James Group. Guests sat under a starry Texas sky at festive tablescapes as they enjoyed endless margaritas and Tex-Mex food (Farrah’s favorite). Guests were greeted with an opening performance by Sydney Sherrill and stylish gift bags provided by Neiman Marcus. The burlap totes were filled with several full-sized luxury products: Retrouve’s face serum, Sobel Skin moisture cream, a Knesko Nanogold Repair face mask,...

Exclusive: WWE star Natalie Eva Marie is set to star alongside Randy Couture, Neal McDonough, former WWE tag team champion Oleg Prudius, Bai Lin and former UFC Lightweight champion Rashad Evans in Phoenix, an action-thriller from Tadross Media Group, Bulldog Brothers Entertainment and director Daniel Zirilli that has entered production in Miami.

Phoenix centers on Fiona “Phoenix” Grant (Marie), a U.S. Army veteran Sergeant who is teaching hand-to-hand combat skills in Afghanistan when she receives word that her father, Everett Grant (Couture), a prominent security specialist, has been killed in Florida. The police report says it was suicide, but Fiona doesn’t believe it. Encouraged to take a leave of absence by her commanding officer (McDonough), she heads back to the U.S. and soon learns that the prime suspect is Maxim Vasiliiev (Prudius), a ruthless local drug kingpin with an army of mercenaries and enough legal, political and business...

Well Go USA Entertainment has closed a deal for the North American distribution to Arclight Films’ Here Are the Young Men, an Irish teen drama starring Travis Fimmel, Dean-Charles Chapman, Finn Cole, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. Slated to be released in 2021, the pic is based on the acclaimed novel by Rob Doyle. Eoin Macken directed the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Doyle.

St in 2003, the film details the last summer of three Dublin high school graduates—aimless Matthew (Chapman), his charismatic yet deranged friend Kearney (Cole) and their precocious friend Rez (Walsh-Peelo)—as they embark on an epic binge to celebrate a future without limits. But when they witness a catastrophic accident, the incident sends them spiraling,...

Thanks to the critical, box office and award-winning success of writer/director Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood", actor Brad Pitt who plays movie stunt double, bodyguard 'Cliff Booth' in the film, is open to reprising his character for an extended episode, 'streaming mini-series', featuring new content and character backstories:

"...I look at a mini-series where you can spend much more time on characters and story and explore angles you don't always get to do in films", said Pitt. 

"So much of these films end up on the cutting room floor because they just don't fit in that box. 

"That's why I think it's interesting that Tarantino previously took 'Hateful Eight' and ostensibly repurposed it as a three-part series. It's almost the best of both worlds. 

"You have the cinema experience that exists, but you can actually put more content into the series format."

"...in 'Once Upon A Time In.

Two givens for Los Angeles living in 1969: perpetual driving around listening to the radio, and stereo cartridge needles dropping onto record grooves. Those things were the basics of our existence! CineSavant closes out his pre-Christmas cheer with his favorite picture of ’19. It’s possibly Quentin Tarantino’s best. Yes, yes I know it has that crazy finale, but overall it has much less violence than most anything else he’s done. Plus it has scenes that can be described as heartwarming, and quietly sentimental… practically new territory for this director. The respect shown for Sharon Tate is gratifying. Bring us more great stories that inspire you this way, Mr. T. !

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

4K UltraHD + Blu-ray + Digital

Sony/Columbia

2019 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 161 min. / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 27.96

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern,...

In some ways, the 2010s belonged to women in Hollywood. The last ten years saw a renewed resurgence of conversations about diversity and inclusion in Hollywood. Actresses and filmmakers sharing their stories of sexual assault or exploitation became among the first to usher in the #MeToo movement and change the way the public talks about gender violence and discrimination. Yet, for all the many strides these past several years, there continues to be a lack of women behind and in front of the camera and throughout several branches of craft and technical fields of the business.

Women characters have yet to reach on-screen parity with their male counterparts, actresses’ careers have impossibly shorter shelf lives than their male co-stars, and women still face a daunting wage gap throughout the industry. There’s a lot of work left to be done on and off the screen, but for now, let’s...

Thanks to the critical and box office success of writer/director Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood", actor Brad Pitt aka movie stunt double, bodyguard 'Cliff Booth' in the new film, is open to reprising his character for an extended episode, 'streaming mini-series', featuring new content and character backstories as a complement to the film:

"...I look at a mini-series where you can spend much more time on characters and story and explore angles you don't always get to do in films", said Pitt. 

"So much of these films end up on the cutting room floor because they just don't fit in that box. 

"That's why I think it's interesting that Tarantino previously took 'Hateful Eight' and ostensibly repurposed it as a three-part series. It's almost the best of both worlds. 

"You have the cinema experience that exists, but you can actually put more content into the series format.

Take a look at more footage from writer/director Quentin Tarantino's $90 million mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood":

"...set in 1969, drunken, chain-smoking, TV actor 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double 'Cliff Booth' (Brad Pitt)...

"...embark on an odyssey to make a name for themselves in the film industry while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).

Cast also includes Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey, Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs', Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen', Margaret Qualley as 'Pussycat', Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet', Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth', Bruce Dern as 'George Spahn', Clifton Collins Jr. as 'Ernesto The Mexican Vaquero',...

Sneak Peek more new footage, plus images from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's $90 million budgeted mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood", starring Margot Robbie as 'Sharon Tate' opening in North America July 26, 2019:

"...set in 1969, stuttering TV actor 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double 'Cliff Booth' (Brad Pitt)...

"...(supposedly influenced by stunt performer Donald 'Shorty' Shea who was killed by the 'Manson Family')...

"...embark on an odyssey...

"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...

"...while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).

Among the ensemble cast, actors also include Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...

...Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...

...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...

..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...

...Margaret Qualley as 'Cat'...

...Samantha Robinson...

Sneak Peek more new images from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's $90 million budgeted, 2 plus hours mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, opening in North America July 26, 2019:

"...set in 1969, a faded TV actor (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double (Brad Pitt)...

"...embark on an odyssey...

"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry, while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).

Among the ensemble cast, actors also include Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...

...Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...

...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'... 

..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...

...Margaret Qualley as 'Kitty Kat', Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...

...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth',...

Take a look at the entire Cannes press conference for "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", including Tarantino, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio:

"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...

"...embark on an odyssey...

"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...

Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...

...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...

...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'... 

..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...

...Margaret Qualley as 'Pussy Cat'...

...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...

...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth', Bruce Dern as 'George Spahn'...

...Clifton Collins Jr. as 'Ernesto The Mexican Vaquero'.

From RedBand.Ca, Sneak Peek new restricted 'red band' footage from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", plus take a look at more international movie posters within the film showcasing 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo DiCaprio), screening May 21, 2019 at Cannes and opening in North America July 26, 2019:

"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...

"...embark on an odyssey...

"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...

Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...

...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...

...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'... 

..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...

...Margaret Qualley as 'Pussy Cat'...

...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'.

Sneak Peek more images from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", including fictitious international movie posters within the film showcasing 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo DiCaprio), screening May 21, 2019 at Cannes and opening in North America July 26, 2019:

"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...

"...embark on an odyssey...

"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...

Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...

...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...

...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'... 

..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...

...Margaret Qualley as 'Kitty Kat'...

...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...

...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth',...

Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms — and there are more of them all the time — caters to its own niche of film obsessives. From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on the newly launched Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide will highlight the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.

Here’s the best of the best for May 2019.

Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime continues to be among the best streaming platform for exclusive streaming access to “first-run” arthouse and foreign films that you may have just missed in theaters.

Today’s film-makers seem to be avoiding them – and all too often they are awkward and problematic. But some sex scenes are defining moments in cinema

Cut! Why have films got so prudish?

The subject of sex scenes in films is surrounded by evasive pieties: from the male critics who affect to find them “boring” (their noses aren’t their only tumescent part) to female stars whose characters are glimpsed having supposedly uninhibited sex, but wearing a bra because of no-nudity clauses. Anna Biller’s gloriously lush exploitation homage The Love Witch, starring Samantha Robinson and unashamedly in love with empowered sexiness, is almost one long sex scene in itself, though there is one particular moment that stands out when a man is drugged by the witch’s love potion. It is not very explicit, or even protracted, but like the rest of the film is almost unique in that...

It was just yesterday that we shared with you guys the first poster for the ninth film by Jackie Brown and Kill Bill writer-director Quentin Tarantino. The movie is called Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and yesterday's poster featured stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt hanging out and looking ten types of cool in front of the famous Hollywood sign. I dug that poster quite a bit, but my one issue is that I would have liked to catch a glimpse of Margot Robbie's take on the real-life actress and Charles Manson victim Sharon Tate.

While that didn't happen, today it's all good as now we have an all-new character poster for the upcoming flick which lets Margot Robbie shine all on her own outside the famed Westwood Village theater, which is showing the 1966 comedy Penelope starring Natalie Wood, as directed by Arthur Hiller.

In 1969 Los Angeles, Rick Dalton...

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The ninth film by Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds writer-director Quentin Tarantino will be upon us this July starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt (to name a slight few). The trailer is all set to hit these here internets sometime this coming week and to prepare all of us for what is sure to be a killer two and a half minutes, today we have the film's poster to share with you guys.

The poster, which you can check out below, features Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt looking full Starsky and Hutch standing in front of the Hollywood sign in the late 60's looking just like the definition of cool. Seriously, look in the nearest dictionary, and I'm sure the definition changed this morning to show this poster. The film has just about the most killer cast of our time with DiCaprio and Pitt leading the charge.

"Unexpected things happen to test us... It isn't safe." Netflix has revealed an official trailer for an acclaimed tech-driven psychological thriller titled Cam, which has been playing at film festivals this fall. The film won Best Screenplay and Best First Feature at the Fantasia Film Festival this year, and also stopped by Fantastic Fest. Alice, an ambitious online camgirl, wakes up one day to discover she's been replaced on her show with an exact replica of herself. Things get weirder and weirder as she tries to figure out who she is and what's going on. Madeline Brewer stars, along with Patch Darragh, Melora Walters, Devin Druid, Imani Hakim, Michael Dempsey, Flora Diaz, Samantha Robinson, and Jessica Parker Kennedy. There has been quite a bit of buzz about this at the festivals, it definitely looks totally wild and trippy and twisted. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Daniel Goldhaber's Cam,...

Stars: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Devin Druid, Samantha Robinson, Melora Walters | Written by Isa Mazzei | Directed by Daniel Goldhaber

The internet. The great democratiser. In the case of sex work it has allowed women to take control of how, when and where they work – mainly through cam sites like Adultwork, Chaturbate, Mfc and more…But despite the ease of access to a performance outlet, the audience has access too – to performers lives, their personalities, etc. Yet there has to be boundaries. Which is why many sex workers create online personas, some using their own character traits others inventing entirely new ones, to create an extra layer of protection between their online life and their offline life.

Very much a “what if?” tale, Cam takes that idea of created personas and asks what if our online personas took on a life of their own?

“I don’t do public shows, I...

2018 has been the year of nostalgia horror. Riding on the popularity of Stranger Things and It, we’ve seen films like Ready Player One bank entirely on the audience’s love of pop culture, while the upcoming Suspiria and Halloween movies continue the trend of reviving past successes. One often has to look to film festivals for contemporary narratives. After a year filled with lesser homages to bygone eras, Fantasia Film Festival delivers the twisty digital landscape of Cam, a film that feels like a beacon of genre cinema’s future.

What does this mean, exactly? The film seems like standard fare at first. Screenwriter Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber’s opening minutes echo the poppy joviality of Happy Death Day or Better Watch Out—a disarming tactic that prepares the viewer for something more sentimental. Its unique premise sets it apart from the get-go: our millennial protagonist, Alice...

There’s a moment in director Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam where Alice (Madeline Brewer) is talking to her younger brother Jordan (Devin Druid) about the previous evening’s performance on web-cam site Free Live Girls. She moved past sex gimmicks towards the dark world of snuff film aesthetics and it worked to move her up more leaderboard spots in one session than she ever had before. He gives her a congratulatory fist-bump and asks whether she’s told their mother (Melora Walters’ Lynne) what her new lucrative job actually is yet. Alice says “No” because she’s waiting to crack the top-ten in order to prove it isn’t a lark — that she’s actually good at it. She says it in earnest, simultaneously admitting the stigma surrounding porn without delegitimizing it as a profession.

It seems like such a small thing, but that single exchange sets the stage for how the audience reacts.

In Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei’s paranoid thriller “Cam,” an erotic webcam performer finds her followers stolen by a doppelganger who hijacks her channel, pushes the sexual envelope farther, and otherwise seems determined to destroy her life. Call it identity theft of a sexy, possibly supernatural kind.

There’s not much depth to this low-budget but resourcefully flashy enterprise, which is hyperactive in presentation to the brink of being grating. Nor is there much (if any) satisfactory resolution to the central mystery. But the combination of a sex-worker milieu, suspense mechanics and speed-of-the-internet pace should appeal to genre fans looking for something different — but not too different — from the norm. It certainly worked for Fantasia jurors, who gave the film their best screenplay and first feature prizes, and Netflix buyers, who acquired “Cam” from the Montreal-based genre fest.

In her all-pink home “studio,” Alice aka “Lola” (Madeline Brewer from...

In the battle for what will be the premier streaming home for current independent film, Amazon Prime is showing signs that it could top Netflix, FilmStruck, and Mubi. Between funding auteur-driven Amazon originals like Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson,” Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden,” Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester By the Sea,” and their exclusive deal with A24 (“American Honey,” “Lobster,” “Swiss Army Man,” and “Moonlight” which arrives 5/21), Prime has a good percentage of the best titles.

What often gets lost in Amazon’s suboptimal browsing interface is the number of recent lower-profile indies on the service that feature some of the most exciting filmmaking of the last year. Here are seven recent gems you shouldn’t miss.

“The Love Witch”

You have never seen anything like this film. Sure, it looks like a late-era technicolor film — shot on 35mm, with deliciously saturated production and costume design — but this isn’t nostalgic kitsch.

Stars: Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jared Sanford | Written and Directed by Anna Biller

If Viva was Anna Biller’s ode to 1970s sexploitation films, The Love Witch is the auteur’s loving – and really quite lovely – homage to the 1960s horror heyday of Hammer Films and Roger Corman. Funny, seductive, and in the end oddly moving, it may be the best indie horror movie since… well, since another indie horror movie with the words “The” and “Witch” in the title. And it couldn’t be more different.

Samantha Robinson plays Elaine, a recently-widowed witch who moves to California, into a grand old house owned by her fellow mystic, Barbara (Jennifer Ingrum). There she meets Trish (Laura Waddell), an interior decorator. The ladies chat about men, and it quickly becomes clear that their views sharply diverge on the role of women, and what the love of a man means.

Coming from a background as a visual artist, writer-director Anna Biller makes films that, on one level, can be experienced as pure cinema. But while the aesthetics are undoubtedly pleasurable, underneath the meticulously crafted design of Biller’s films lie sharp satirical observations about the relationships between men and women. In 2007, she directed, wrote, and starred in Viva, a film satirizing the swinging suburban culture that arose amid the sexual revolution of the early 1970s. Her new film is The Love Witch, a candy-colored comedy exploring obsession, self-delusion, and the desire to be loved. These themes are expressed through the character of Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a self-proclaimed “love witch” who uses her occult powers to seduce (and, when necessary, destroy) unwitting men in a small coastal California town.

We spoke to Biller over the phone just days before The Love Witch’s home video release, where she discussed at ...

Biller’s latest film is a stylish feminist fantasy of witchcraft in the modern era – and, she says, Trump has made it more relevant than ever

‘The big question,” says Anna Biller, “is what would happen if men loved women as strongly as women want them to; the way women crave to be loved by men. Men are known for being much less emotional than women, but, in my experience, they’re much more emotional. And that’s why they won’t, or can’t, open that gate – it would destroy them. And that’s what kills all the men in my movie – having to experience their own feelings.”

Biller is the director of The Love Witch, a feminist, style-drenched fantasy of witchcraft in the modern era, rendered in self-consciously stilted and melodramatic dialogue against a mise-en-scene of eye-popping coordinated colours and costumes. Elaine (Samantha Robinson) is a young witch...

A transformative and exquisite creation by Anna Biller (who directed, produced, wrote, edited, scored and designed every aspect), The Love Witch is a gorgeous-looking tribute to 1960s/70s low-budget horrors, classic American soap operas, Technicolor melodramas and vintage sexploitation aesthetics is an affectionate masterful pastiche with a deft feminist bite.

Think Russ Meyer meets Douglas Sirk and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls via Charmed and Dynasty as lovelorn young witch Elaine (a stunning Samantha Robinson) uses spells and potions to bring her everlasting romantic happiness. Finally meeting her dream man, Elaine’s desperation to be loved drives her to the brink of insanity and murder.

Elaine, a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she makes spells and potions, and then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, leaving her with a string of hapless victims.

Anna Biller painstakingly recreates the 60s with this tale of love and witchcraft in the present day, but is it worth a look?

At first glance, The Love Witch is the kind of film that’ll have you saying “well, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore!”

But that’s not entirely accurate.

Whether you’ve sat through Robert Rodriguez’s grindhouse-embracing Planet Terror, the inherently slow pace of late-70s horror in Ti West’s The House Of The Devil, the Trost Brothers’ vision of 80s gang dystopia in their little-seen 2011 effort The Fp, or even the B movie action-comedy short Kung Fury, chances are that in one respect you’ve seen a film exactly like The Love Witch in recent years.

Going all-in on a particular style of filmmaking, as the likes of Rodriguez and West have done before, and as Anna Biller (Viva) has done with The Love Witch,...

2016 has been an exceptional all-around year for horror and sci-fi films—from the indie realm, we’ve been gifted with an enormous amount of brilliant cinematic stories throughout the past 12 months, and we even saw studios step up their game with an almost unprecedented amount of quality releases.

And along with this wealth of top-notch entertainment, we also saw an incredible number of fantastic female characters over the course of 2016—some heroic, some villainous, but all endlessly engaging in their own right. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to celebrate some of my favorite female performers from this year who gave us complex, interesting, and wholly compelling reasons to keep falling in love with genre cinema all over again (and again).

Kika Magalhaes – The Eyes of My Mother

Nicolas’ Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother is easily one of the best horror films to be...

It’s always an interesting exercise to arrive at the end of a year and take stock of the films that it produced, to squint for as much perspective as you can and see what the movies might have been saying to us, or to each other. Given the, uh, unique events of the last 12 months (or even just the last four weeks), it might take a little while longer than usual for us to have a clear sense of what the landscape really looked like. Will these films offer us rare insight into turbulent times, or — like much of what was released in theaters just prior to 9/11 — will they seem like relics from a more innocent world?

With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to get a bit more granular than usual, and to highlight individual moments from my 25 favorite films of the year (and, at least for the moment,...

As a filmmaker, Anna Biller is an obsessive. She holds a staggering 10 credits on “The Love Witch,” an homage to genres as diffuse as 1970s-era sexploitation films and 1960s-set Giallo features, starring breakout Samantha Robinson as Elaine, a young witch looking for love in all the wrong places. Driven by her desire to literally charm a man, Elaine’s powerful magic often backfires in spectacular fashion – love is a dangerous thing, especially when aided by stellar spell-casting – and the witty and wild feature tracks her story with both style and substance.

Biller’s aesthetic is unique and bold, and harkens back to the heyday of exploitation features with plenty of old Hollywood touches and deliciously feminist messaging. Pulpy, melodramatic, and totally badass, there’s nothing quite like “The Love Witch,” and it’s all Biller.

Read More: ‘The Love Witch’ Review: Anna Biller’s Technicolor Throwback Is a Spellbinding Feminist...

Take the Technicolor photography of classic ‘60s melodramas, mix vigorously with equal parts surrealism and Jean Rollin-esque eroticism and what does one get in return? Well, in so many words, one gets one of 2016’s most lavishly crafted experiments in genre and one of its most deliciously arch dramas.

The end result of the above mentioned mixture is a film entitled The Love Witch, a truly one of a kind film from one of a kind filmmaker Anna Biller. Witch introduces us to Elaine, a breathtakingly beautiful young witch on the hunt for love. Following up her underrated 2007 film, Viva, Biller takes to the world of witchcraft and cults for a film that sets its eyes as much on the world of ‘60s melodramas as it does the sexploitation films from just a decade later.

We first meet Elaine as she’s driving along the coast of Northern California...

James + Semaj is a column where James Franco talks to his reverse self, Semaj, about new films. Rather than a conventional review, it is place where James and Semaj can muse about ideas that the films provoke. James loves going to the movies and talking about them. But a one-sided take on a movie, in print, might be misconstrued as a review. As someone in the industry it could be detrimental to James’s career if he were to review his peers, because unlike the book industry—where writers review other writer’s books—the film industry is highly collaborative, and a bad review of a peer could create problems. So, assume that James (and Semaj) love all these films. What they’re interested in talking about is all the ways the films inspire them, and make them think. James is me, and Semaj is the other side of me.

If The Love Witch simply raised the profile of its director, Anna Biller—a true auteur who not only wrote, directed, produced, and edited this film but also designed and hand made its sets and costumes—then it would be a success. Biller’s devout attention to detail in her films means we don’t get a lot of them, and it’s been nearly a decade since her last one, the sexploitation satire Viva. Happily, though, Biller’s tribute to the ’60s and ’70s witchcraft melodrama (see: George Romero’s Season Of The Witch) is not just an impressive visual and technical achievement. It’s also a nuanced statement on gender relations whose morals are as flexible as its formal qualities are rigid.

Samantha Robinson—who bears a striking resemblance to the title character in one of Biller’s presumed stylistic touchstones for this film, Stephanie Rothman’s The...

A vibrant and eye-catching homage to the Technicolor films of the 1960s, writer/director Anna Biller’s The Love Witch is a seductive and clever twist on the gender politics, witch-centric cinema, and pulp storytelling of that era, all while keeping things set in modern times. Made with a tangible sense of affection, and featuring a star-making performance from Samantha Robinson, who flawlessly carries the film on her very capable (and lovely) shoulders, I was immediately smitten from the very first frame of The Love Witch, and wholly drawn into Biller’s intriguing tale of one woman’s desperate search to find her true love.

In The Love Witch, we follow Elaine (Robinson), who wants nothing more in this world than to find true love, and has resorted to using witchcraft to fulfill her deepest desires for ultimate happiness. The thing about Elaine’s handiwork is that it often works too well,...