Festival Coverage
Sorgenfri – DbD 2016
What We Become (also known as Sorgenfri) is the feature debut of Danish writer/director Bo Mikkelsen, a prolific maker of short films for nearly twenty years. The film is touted as the first post-apocalyptic Danish zombie flick and, perhaps surprisingly, the only zombie film on Dead by Dawn’s 2016 bill. Like last year’s Danish entry, […]
Antibirth – DbD 2016
Danny Perez’s colourful stoner horror Antibirth is the kind of post 9/11 Rosemary’s Baby update a lot of people will really enjoy. With a cast of cult regulars like Natasha Lyonne, Chloe Sevigny, Meg Tilly, and Marc Webber Antibirth is packed with charismatic, dedicated performances that charm from start to finish.
We Go On – DbD 2016
When it comes to ghost stories, a film can often lose its audience through repetition, showing us things we’ve already seen a hundred times, We Go On is not one of those films. Directors Jesse Holland and Andy Mitton have already made a name for themselves at Dead by Dawn with their intriguing woods-flick YellowBrickRoad […]
Der Bunker – DbD 2016
Nikias Chryssos’ Der Bunker is the kind of film Dead by Dawn is made for; a dysfunctional family drama whose more outré parts will make it a hard sell for mainstream audiences. Distributed by Artsploitation, the provocative company behind Bunny the Killer Thing, Der Samurai (also starring Pit Bukowski), and Cub, Der Bunker is as […]
Green Room – DbD 2016
The opening film at Edinburgh’s Dead by Dawn festival was Jeremy Saulnier’s Green Room, a Neo-Nazi punk horror thriller and welcome return to the screen after Saulnier’s 2013 thriller Blue Ruin.
Astrea – DbD 2016
Kristjan Thor’s Astraea is the kind of post-apocalyptic film that will find it hard to stick with an audience. Bravely, though not surprisingly, the film is entirely void of the usual suspects: there are no zombies, robots, critters, aliens, or nuclear freaks to populate the sparse world of Astraea, but that’s ok. In a world […]
The Corpse of Anna Fritz – DbD 2016
Not for the light of heart, Hector Hernandez Vicens’ The Corpse of Anna Fritz was one fo the most uncomfortable horror experiences at Dead by Dawn 2016. Amidst the camp and crazy likes of Der Bunker and Antibirth, Vicens’ debut film proved a horrifying tone-changer on the Edinburgh horror festival line-up, but a bold and […]
K-Shop – DbD 2016
Horror films, like most films, can really benefit from acidic social commentary and Dan Pringle’s K-Shop is one acidic film. The UK’s relationship with booze has always been a problematic one and Pringle turns on the debate with feverish zeal, presenting a bleak glimpse at one town’s struggle with a perilous drinking culture.
Baskin – Glasgow FrightFest 2016
Can Evrenol’s Baskin was, hands down, the most impressive feature at Glasgow Frightfest 2016. Adapted from Evrenol’s short of the same title, Baskin marks the Turkish filmmaker’s debut feature after a slew of superb shorts (worth checking out here at Evrenol’s website) which have garnered the young director a steady cult following. The film follows […]
Southbound – Glasgow FrightFest 2016
One of the stand-out features at Glasgow Frightfest 2016 was Southbound, the only anthology on the bill and perhaps the most hyped Indy horror project so far in 2016. Southbound seems the product of perfectly tuned individuals, working in tandem towards a tapestry of terror, all worthy filmmakers in their own right.
