Halloween Line-Up Announced for Arrow Video FrightFest

line-up

The line-up for this year’s Arrow FrightFest Halloween all-day event has been announced.

Taking place at London’s CIneworld Leicester Square on Saturday, November 3rd, there’s some great movies to look forward to.

Kicking things off is the World Premiere of Julian Richard’s latest Reborn, which stars the legendary Barbara Crampton. Isaac Ezban’s first English language horror fantasy Parallel, which receives its UK Premiere. As does Mara, Clive Tonge’s psychological thriller about sleep paralysis.

Paul Hyett will be returning to the event with his latest technological terror, Peripheral. Getting its World Premiere, stars Hannah Arterton and Elliot James Langridge will join Paul to introduce the film.

Hit Swedish disaster film The Unthinkable gets its UK Premiere as does closing film, the Onetti Brothers’ Abrakadabra, the final instalment of the giallo trilogy after Sonno Profondo and Francesca.

Alongside the movies, there are a pair of great short films, Deep Clean starring Paul Kaye and the World Premiere of The Predicament.

Day passes are £45 and single tickets £15, and will be on sale at noon on Saturday October 6th. Head over to www.frightfest.co.uk/tickets to buy.

HORIZON 2 Premieres

horizon

You may remember us getting a bit excited by the 2015 sci-fi web series Horizon. So when we heard they were holding a premiere for Horizon 2, STARBURST donned the full black tie and headed for the red carpet before you could say, “aliens invade Bristol and trash all your favourite landmarks”. We mingled with cast and crew and chatted with writer/directors Paul Dudbridge and Simon Pearce but, sadly, no-one asked who we were wearing.

All proceeds went to St Peter’s Hospice and in the luxurious interior of Bristol’s Everyman Cinema, we watched the entire second series back to back.

If you saw the first series, you’ll remember it was largely about events on the ground when a huge spacecraft appeared over Bristol an ended with an intriguing and baffling climax. Horizon 2 is considerably less of a soap opera and far more action-packed while doing the seemingly impossible job of resolving what was set-up by its predecessor. Who was the guy in the top hat who appeared on the (remains of) the Clifton Suspension Bridge at the end? Well, all is explained.

You might even want a quick review [I expect they do – Ed].

Quick review:

There is a distinct change of style in the second series of Horizon as we move into the resolution of all those loose-ends from the first series. Unfortunately, that means the first two episodes are taken up with some mundane tidying up of threads you may have forgotten about or don’t really care about anymore. But stick with it because once they’re out of the way, it’s all a bit of a hoot. Episode 3 is where it starts proper with our top-hatted gent turning up in someone’s kitchen to explain all. Then it’s pretty much breakneck stuff with sinister government heavies, shoot-outs and some of the best choreographed punch-ups you’ll see in as low a budget production as this. In fact, punching above their budgetary weight is something of a trademark for Dudbridge and Pearce and, once more, they’ve got their frustrated FX friends in who, fed up removing extraneous lampposts from shots, just want to make alien fights and spaceships blow up. Horizon lets them loose and they’re having a ball.

You can watch Horizon 2 (and its predecessor) here: www.horizonwebseries.com

DOCTOR SLEEP Brings in Jocelin Donahue

Jocelin Donahue

As Mike Flanagan’s Doctor Sleep continues to flesh out its core cast, the film has added Jocelin Donahue to its ranks.

Via Deadline, the Insidious: Chapter 2, Holidays, and The House of the Devil actress has landed a to-be-revealed role in the adaptation of Stephen King’s sequel to The Shining. Donahue joins Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Ferguson, Kyliegh Curran, Bruce Greenwood, Alyn Lind, Alex Essoe, and Carl Lumbly in the picture.

The synopsis for Doctor Sleep reads:

Doctor Sleep takes place years after the events at the Overlook Hotel and focuses on the now middle-aged Danny who is still traumatized. He’s followed in his father’s footsteps and has problems with anger management and alcoholism. He soon gives up drinking and settles in a small town in New Hampshire. While there, his psychic abilities start to resurface and he develops a psychic link with a 12-year-old girl named Abra Stone who he must save after he discovers her life is being threatened by a tribe of paranormals led by a man named Rose the Hat.

At present, Doctor Sleep is booked in for a January 2020 release.

Maddison Iseman Joins ANNABELLE 3

Maddison Iseman

Fresh off the news that Mckenna Grace will be playing Judy Warren in the upcoming third Annabelle movie, now comes word that Madison Iseman has joined the picture.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, the Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle actress will be playing one of Judy’s babysitters in the film. In terms of the plot, the threequel will focus on the titular doll terrorising young Judy and her two babysitters. Ed and Elaine Warren have placed Annabelle in their artefact room so that she is no longer a danger to the world – only, of course, it’s never quite that simple.

Having impressed with his writing work on It and The Nun, Gary Dauberman will be making his directing debut with the to-be-titled new Annabelle effort. The film will start shooting next month ahead of a July 2019 release.

Neil Gaiman Pens Exclusive Amazon Deal

Neil Gaiman

Well, this is all kinds of cool! Yes, as the title suggests, the iconic Neil Gaiman has signed a deal with Amazon Studios.

Courtesy of Deadline, Gaiman has agreed an exclusive deal to develop TV shows for Amazon Prime Video, which comes in the midst of him having worked on American Gods and Good Omens for the platform.

American Gods is already at work on its second season – which will premiere on Starz in the US next year – and the David Tennant and Michael Sheen-headlined adaptation of Gaiman and Sir Terry Pratchett’s Good Omens is set to land on Amazon when 2019 rolls around.

On this news, Amazon’s Jennifer Salke enthused, “Neil Gaiman is a phenomenally talented writer, who creates worlds that are compelling, multi-dimensional and narratively unique. His fans are ardent, vocal and passionate, and we are fortunate to bring his gifted vision to the Prime Video audience.”

From Gaiman’s view, he added, “What decided me was how much I enjoyed working with the Amazon team on Good Omens. They are smart, gloriously enthusiastic people, who weren’t afraid of Good Omens being different but who were as determined as I was to make something as unique and exciting as it is. I’m thrilled to know that I’ll have a home at Amazon in the future where I can make television that nobody’s seen before, that’s quite unlike Good Omens, but just as unusual and just as much fun.”

As ever, expect more on all of this as we get it.

MONSTER HUNTER Brings in Diego Boneta

Diego Boneta

Hot on the heels of Ron Perlman and T.I. Harris having joined the picture, the Monster Hunter movie adaptation has added Diego Boneta.

Courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, Scream Queens, Luis Miguel and Rock of Ages’ Boneta will be playing a communications specialist who’s part of a team put together by Milla Jovovich’s Artemis.

In the film, Jovovich will be heading up a military team who end up in a realm overflowing with all kinds of creatures and monsters. There, the group have to work alongside Tony Jaa’s Hunter to close up a portal and stop these beasties from making in to Earth.

Jovovich’s husband Paul W.S. Anderson is on writing and directing duties here, continuing their working relationship from the Resident Evil franchise.

Sam Claflin Joins CHARLIE’S ANGELS

Sam Claflin

With Sony’s Charlie’s Angels reboot continuing to flesh out its key cast, the film has moved to add Sam Claflin to its ranks.

Courtesy of Variety, Claflin – likely best known to genre rans for The Hunger Games – has landed a to-be-confirmed role in the rejig, joining the titular trio of Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott, and Ella Balinska, not to mention Sir Patrick Stewart, Djimon Hounsou, and Elizabeth Banks.

Charlie’s Angels, of course, first began life back in 1976 as a TV show featuring the likes of Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Cheryl Ladd, and David Doyle. From there, we got the rebooted Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle in 2000 and 2003, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and Demi Moore involved with those. More recently, 2011 saw ABC debut a new Charlie’s Angels TV series from Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, but that was scrapped after just four episodes.

Banks herself is on directing duties, with Charlie’s Angels set for a September 2019 release.

John Carpenter Open to Directing Again

Undoubtedly, John Carpenter is one of the greatest directors in the history of genre cinema. And the legendary Horror Master has now revealed he’s still open to directing another picture.

The last feature film to be directed by the iconic Carpenter was 2010’s The Ward, and before that he’d not helmed a movie since 2001’s Ghosts of Mars. Of course, JC has kept himself busy with a slew of projects in the meantime, not least touring with his band. Speaking to EW, though, Carpenter has revealed that he’s still keen to direct.

As Carpenter enthused, “I would love to direct something, if it’s the right thing to do at my age. I’m not going to make another Thing, I’ll tell you that. I’m not going to the Arctic again. I’m not going to do that. I want to take it easy, I want to enjoy myself.”

Carpenter then went on to discuss how he’s wanted to film something in Europe, particularly mentioning Venice as a locale, but that’s as far as much as we’ve got for now.

Most recently, of course, Carpenter has served as an executive producer on Halloween – in cinemas October 19th – and has teamed with his son Cody to provide the picture’s score.

As ever, expect more on all of this if and when it develops further. But John Carpenter returning to the director’s chair?! That sounds absolutely splendid to us.

Check Out Awesome Short URN as Part of HULUWEEN

urn

US Streaming site Hulu has launched an online film festival, with the first offering being a fantastic short from the makers of the award-winning The Stomach.
Urn is a short but nasty tale of a woman (Alex Reid) attempting to come to terms with her mother by scattering her ashes at a secluded lake. Writer/director Ben Steiner and producer Dan Dixon came together to form Fume Films several years ago and this is their latest venture.

Urn will be competing against seven other shorts from around the world for a $10K prize. All the shorts have been executive produced by Fox Network Group’s content studio All City and will be streaming on Hulu throughout October. They’ll also be available to watch on Hulu’s YouTube channel and Instagram’s new video streaming platform, IGTV.

Steiner says: “Urn is inspired by the classic BBC Christmas ghost stories which are very character driven and spooky rather than gory. They also feature some unfortunate person unleashing supernatural forces they can’t contain which was a perfect fit for Hulu’s brief of ‘no going back’.”

Reid says: “Just like The Stomach, Urn is a great story told in a very short time. On the strength of Ben and Dan’s previous work, doing Urn was a total no brainer.”

You can watch the terrifying short below.

Netflix Picks up the International Rights for TITANS; New Trailer

Titans

Holy acquisition, Batman! Yes, as the headline suggests, Netflix has become the UK home for the hotly anticipated Titans.

The live-action Teen Titans show is exclusive to the impending DC Universe streaming service in the United States, but now comes word that Netflix has picked up the international rights to the series.

No premiere date has been confirmed for Netflix just yet, although the show lands on DC Universe on October 12th. Here’s hoping that it won’t be long after that when this impressive looking series makes its Netflix bow.

Oh, and just for the hell of it, there’s a swanky new trailer to go along with this news:

The official blurb on Titans reads:

Titans follows a group of young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find belonging in a gritty take on the classic Teen Titans franchise. Dick Grayson and Rachel Roth, a special young girl possessed by a strange darkness, get embroiled in a conspiracy that could bring Hell on Earth. Joining them along the way are the hot-headed Starfire and loveable Beast Boy. Together they become a surrogate family and team of heroes.