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Viral Zombie Thriller ‘Hall’ Finds a Home With Black Fawn Distribution

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Hall

We here at iHorror have been following the films of Black Fawn Distribution for quite some time; they distribute (and produce) quality genre content, such as punk-rock slasher The Ranger and pitch-black comedy Harpoon. It’s been announced that the team has acquired Canadian rights for the viral zombie thriller Hall, which — from the sounds of it — is an appropriately timely take on the “violent contagion” horror film.

Starring Carolina Bartczak (X-Men: Apocalypse, Roland Emmerich’s upcoming Moonfall), Hall follows Val (Bartczak), a young mother separated from her daughter (Bailey Thain), who must navigate a hotel hallway ravaged by a mysterious virus. Forced to crawl her way past other helpless victims, Val crosses paths with Naomi (Yumiko Shaku) – a pregnant tourist thrust into the fight of her life. While keeping out of sight, Val and Naomi must escape the stretch of isolated carnage, before they become infected themselves.

The film also features Mark Gibson (Vicious Fun, Exit Humanity) and Julian Richings (Anything for Jackson, Man of Steel).

Hall was written in 2018, filmed in 2019, and then had its release delayed in 2020 due to the global pandemic. The film was shot on location in Montreal, Quebec, Canada at the start of 2019 – well before the COVID-19 pandemic took a hold of the planet. Post production was completed just before the film’s world premiere at UK’s Arrow Video FrightFest in the fall of 2020.

“The story of Hall was always somewhat anchored by my fear that a contagion could potentially be fabricated for nefarious purposes,” states director Francesco Giannini. “But, I never thought this fictional story would share so many similarities with the reality we face today.”

Although Hall utilizes a pandemic scenario as its backdrop, the film also touches on the themes of domestic violence and mental health. “Hall isn’t so much a ‘pandemic film’ as it is a very honest and personal story,” explains Giannini. “There were some very real societal issues that had been sitting with me well before 2020 – one of those being how impactful our actions can be to those around us, especially when kids are part of your life. No one deserves to be subjected to domestic violence, be it physical or verbal, and getting out of such an undesirable situation is extremely challenging. It takes an immense amount of mental strength to get out of such a toxic relationship.”

“When I found out that Hall was filmed pre-pandemic, I was blown away,” states Black Fawn Distribution’s Sales Manager CF Benner. “The horror genre has a storied history of incorporating relevant social commentary in unique and terrifying ways. Hall is no exception, and Francesco has done an exceptional job of balancing our fear of what’s on the other side of the door and the human terrors that can live in the same room as us. Knowing that the film was originally crafted as a cautionary tale instead of a reactionary project makes for a truly uncanny viewing experience. It was important to us that Hall became part of the Black Fawn Distribution film family.”

“It was actually a complete coincidence that Hall was almost finished just before this unfortunate crisis struck,” concurs Giannini. “When the time was right, we decided to approach the team at Black Fawn Distribution to see if they’d like to work on getting the film out to the masses. Canada is our home and I’ve been a huge fan of Black Fawn Distribution and their work with helping to bring independent horror to
a wider audience nationwide. There couldn’t be a better fit for our film.”

Hall marks the feature film debut of director Francesco Giannini, and — impressively — it won him the award for Best Director at last year’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival.

Hall is slated to hit all major Canadian VOD platforms on April 6, 2021, with a physical release to be expected later this year. You can check out the trailer and poster below.

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‘Longlegs’ Creepy “Part 2” Teaser Appears on Instagram

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Longlegs

Neon Films released an Insta-teaser for their horror film Longlegs today. Titled Dirty: Part 2, the clip only furthers the mystery of what we are in for when this movie is finally released on July 12.

The official logline is: FBI Agent Lee Harker is assigned to an unsolved serial killer case that takes unexpected turns, revealing evidence of the occult. Harker discovers a personal connection to the killer and must stop him before he strikes again.

Directed by former actor Oz Perkins who also gave us The Blackcoat’s Daughter and Gretel & Hansel, Longlegs is already creating buzz with its moody images and cryptic hints. The film is rated R for bloody violence, and disturbing images.

Longlegs stars Nicolas Cage, Maika Monroe, and Alicia Witt.

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Melissa Barrera Says ‘Scary Movie VI’ Would Be “Fun To Do”

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Melissa Barrera might literally get the last laugh on Spyglass thanks to a possible Scary Movie sequel. Paramount and Miramax are seeing the right opportunity to bring the satirical franchise back into the fold and announced last week one might be in production as early as this fall.

The last chapter of the Scary Movie franchise was almost a decade ago and since the series lampoons thematic horror movies and pop culture trends, it would seem they have a lot of content to draw ideas from, including the recent reboot of slasher series Scream.

Barerra, who starred as final girl Samantha in those movies was abruptly fired from the latest chapter, Scream VII, for expressing what Spyglass interpreted as “antisemitism,” after the actress came out in support of Palestine on social media.

Even though the drama wasn’t a laughing matter, Barrera might get her chance to parody Sam in Scary Movie VI. That is if the opportunity arises. In an interview with Inverse, the 33-year-old actress was asked about Scary Movie VI, and her reply was intriguing.

“I always loved those movies,” the actress told Inverse. “When I saw it announced, I was like, ‘Oh, that would be fun. That would be so fun to do.’”

That “fun to do” part could be construed as a passive pitch to Paramount, but that’s open to interpretation.

Just like in her franchise, Scary Movie also has a legacy cast including Anna Faris and Regina Hall. There is no word yet on if either of those actors will appear in the reboot. With or without them, Barrera is still a fan of the comedies. “They have the iconic cast that did it, so we’ll see what goes on with that. I’m just excited to see a new one,” she told the publication.

Barrera is currently celebrating the box office success of her latest horror movie Abigail.

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Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody

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Radio Silence Films

Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.

They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.

We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.

We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.

#1. Abigail

An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.

Abigail

#2. Ready or Not

This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.

Ready or Not

#3. Scream (2022)

While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.

Scream (2022)

#4 Southbound (The Way Out)

Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.

Southbound

#5. V/H/S (10/31/98)

The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.

V/H/S

#6. Scream VI

Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.

Scream VI

#7. Devil’s Due

Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.

Devil’s Due

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