From director Paul A. Brooks, co-written with producer Sierra Renfro, comes HUNTING FOR THE HAG, a hybrid-footage road trip of cryptid hunting and home invasion. While leaving me with mixed feelings, it will always come to mind when I hear the phrase ‘Found Footage horror movie.’ So it is no wonder that recently, HUNTING FOR THE HAG was the opening night film at San Francisco’s Unnamed Footage Festival on Easter weekend. HUNTING FOR THE HAG opens with traditional cinematic filming. In a scene, Tara (Jasmine Williams) tells a lawyer (Daniel Roebuck) that no one believes her that “Hawthorne Hag ..read more

Evil Dead by way of Animal Crossing! My first month at FF, and I’ve already had the pleasure of engaging with two international festivals. This time, it’s Brazil’s FANTASPOA (now in its 20th year)—the largest genre film festival in Latin America. 2024 has a huge program under its belt, with 237 features and shorts from 54 countries! The festival runs from April 11th through to the 28th in Porto Alegre, Brazil. I looked at the list of films and Japan’s Visitors-complete Edition stood out like a (good) sore-thumb. Japanese title: Akuma ga Harawata de Ike ni e de Watashi, which, according to Goog ..read more

Do cats always land on their feet? NIAS proves this adage true. Once I heard the ingenious concept of NIAS, I didn’t have to think twice to know I needed to see this. Found Footage is one of my all-time favourite sub-genres, and even when it’s not exactly my cup of tea, I tend to enjoy the ride. It’s the art of capturing ‘real life’ in ‘real time’, and seeing what kind of creative manoeuvres the filmmakers use is always compelling. Whether designed to terrify like The Blair Witch Project or REC or to illicit morbid giggles like in Man Bites Dog or Deadstream, there is a texture to Found Footag ..read more

This film boldly walks home alone at night with clenched keys in one fist and pepper spray in the other. The Sophomore film from Kansas Bowling (ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD) is a shockumentary for the ages. More important than any syllabus film that screened when I was in school, and more potent than any drug-based propaganda like Reefer Madness. CUDDLY TOYS (a tongue-in-cheek title if I ever heard one) is intense, iconoclastic and unrelenting in the best possible way. To simply call it a feminist piece would be reductive; this isn’t a fight for equality; it’s a brutal exposé on gender and h ..read more

UNNAMED FOOTAGE FESTIVAL is officially underway in San Francisco. It is an entire film festival dedicated to screening Found Footage horror (and adjacent) films until the 31st of March. You love some, you hate some, but at the end of the day, Found Footage, whether it be faux documentaries or cameras that somehow people are still able to hold onto while running for their lives, is one of the most creative ways to tell a story.  Screening this Saturday 30th, is a film kept tightly under wraps, possibly due to it being supernatural infohazard: DO NOT WATCH, from director Justin Janowitz. Th ..read more

If I were asked to define the ‘fear of getting lost’, I would only need to point towards supernatural backwoods horror LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP. Written and Directed by Teresa Sutherland (writer of 2018 festival favourite THE WIND), the film captures you and whispers in your ear: “Where will you hide if the whole forest is the very thing that is chasing you?”  For lovers of the great outdoors or those like me who crave something new to be scared of in the deep dark woods, the film has arrived on U.S. VOD from XYZ Films. LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP turns vast rural landscapes into inescapable hau ..read more

After the mind-bending Sci-fi Western AFTER BLUE, French arthouse phenomenon Bertrand Mandico takes a mighty stab at another fantasy of epic proportions with his new film SHE IS CONANN. This time, taking a Sword-and-Sorcery classic and shooting it from a glitter cannon – through time and space – and onto a pheromone-soaked dance floor. Thanks to film company Altered Innocence, who bring international and cutting-edge LGBTQIA+ and Coming-of-Age cinema, SHE IS CONANN film is set for a theatrical release in North America and Canada on February 2. Writer/Director/Cinematographer Mandico takes Rob ..read more

SHUDDER kicks off 2024 with comedy-horror DESTROY ALL NEIGHBOURS: one man’s blood splattered and viscera filled journey to realising he’s been kind of an asshole lately. This Shudder Original, directed by Josh Forbes, is as genius as it is goofy and premieres on January 12. William Brown (Jonah Ray Rodrigues of Mystery Science Theatre 3000) is a down and out sound technician who is so close to finishing his magnum opus Prog Rock album. But his obsession is ruining his relationship with his girlfriend (Kiran Deol) and causing friction with his neighbours. When William gets on the wrong side of ..read more

Did you know we each have 33 vertebrae? You do now, thanks to Park Sye-young’s first feature: fantasy-horror THE FIFTH THORACIC VERTEBRA. A meditative, indie creature feature with both painful body horror and poetic transformation. When an imperfect couple doesn’t communicate, their mattress gets left out in the rain. They sleep on it anyway, causing a sentient mould to grow in its damp fibres. Once fully incubated, the creature plucks its first vertebrae from the dysfunctional couple. The mattress is thrown out and picked up again and again, all the while stealing bones and sinew from the ba ..read more

DO NOT DISTURB is a blood-soaked Canadian horror film from writer-director John Ainslie. If you’re keen to spiral down a psychotropic rabbit hole, then DO NOT DISTURB will certainly take you with it. The film promises sex, drugs, & blood ‘n gore and certainly keeps its word. Chloe (Kimberly LaFerriere) and Jack (Rogan Christopher) are holidaying in Miami to try and save their rocky and strained relationship. While Chloe is up for some relaxed quality time, Jack seizes the opportunity to party when a random man on the beach literally drops a huge quantity of hallucinogens in their laps. Wh ..read more