Author: Alex Billington

"Unlike any slasher I've ever seen." IFC Films has revealed the first look teaser trailer for an intense new Canadian horror film titled In a Violent Nature, opening later in 2024. This just premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival to rave reviews, described as "an expertly executed riff on the slasher genre that is sure to be one of the year's stand-out horror releases." The gimmick for this one is that it's all from the POV of the killer - entirely from his view as he goes around slashing. This new horror movie tracks a ravenous zombie creature as it makes its way through a secluded forest. Starring Ry Barrett, Andrea Pavlovic, Cameron Love, Reece Presley, Liam Leone, Charlotte Creaghan, Lea Rose Sebastianis, and Sam Roulston. Critics are already calling it the "kill of the year" and "ridiculously gruesome." Not a lot to see in this teaser yet, but they're obviously trying to start building the buzz following its Sundance premiere. Here's the first teaser trailer (+ poster) for Chris Nash's In a Violent Nature, direct from YouTube: When a locket ...

"Who's next?" Sony Pictures has revealed an official trailer for a horror movie arriving this summer titled Tarot, about tarot cards, obviously. After those Ouija board movies, it was inevitable that one day someone would make a Tarot horror and here we are. This project was also titled Horrorscope since it's adapted from a book called "Horrorscope", but it has been switched back to just Tarot for the release in May. The plot centers on a group of college friends who start dying in ways that are connected to their fortunes after having their horoscopes read. Before their time runs out, they have to work together to uncover the mystery. "Your fate is in the cards" - of course. Tarot stars Harriet Slater, Adain Bradley, Avantika, and Jacob Batalon, along with Humberly González, Alana Boden, and Olwen Fouéré. Well unfortunately looks as cheesy as could be, with plenty of obvious horrific moments and jump scares. Don't mess with the cards. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Cohen & Halberg's Tarot movie, direct from Sony's YouTube: When a group of friends recklessly ...

"This is an unsanctioned, unauthorized mission." Lionsgate has revealed an official trailer for Guy Ritchie's new WWII action film titled The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, arriving in theaters this April. Ritchie already deliver another war film last year with The Covenant, and also has The Gentlemen series coming up, now he's heading back to WWII to tell the origin story of covert Black Ops missions. The British military recruits a small group of highly-skilled soldiers to strike against Nazi forces behind enemy lines. Billed as a true story about a secret British World War II organization: the Special Operations Executive. Founded by Winston Churchill, their irregular warfare against the Nazis helped to change the course of the war and gave birth to modern black operations. The massive ensemble cast features Henry Cavill as Gus March-Phillips, with Eiza González, Alan Ritchson, Henry Golding, Alex Pettyfer, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Babs Olusanmokun, Til Schweiger, Cary Elwes, Fisher Stevens, Danny Sapani, Freddie Fox. This looks like a blast! A great cast delivering some crazy cool moments while taking out tons of Nazis. Here's the official ...

"I'm going to be a monk." Kino Lorber has unveiled their official US trailer for the Estonian film known as The Invisible Fight, a martial arts comedy made by Estonian filmmaker Rainer Sarnet (also of the cult hit November). This is finally set to open in US theaters in February, starting at the Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan, with more cities to follow throughout March. It premiered at Locarno and played at Fantastic Fest and Sitges (where I caught up with it). The Invisible Fight is described as a satirical take on the martial arts film, artfully paying tribute to the genre's Chinese wuxia roots. Set in the 1970s, it's about an Estonian guard on the Soviet-Chinese border who, after surviving and watching a deadly attack, decides to become a monk but must continually prove along the way that he's capable of becoming the enlightened man that he set out to be. Starring Ursel Tilk as Rafael and Ester Kuntu, Kaarel Pogga, Indrek Sammul, Taimo Kõrvemaa. I reviewed this last year: "A compliment to say it's the kind of genre gem ...

"A beguiling cosmic nightmare." XYZ Films has debuted an official trailer for an indie horror psychological thriller called Lovely, Dark, and Deep, which marks the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Teresa Sutherland. The film originally premiered at Canada's Fantasia Film Festival and Toronto After Dark Film Festival, and also at the MOTELx Lisbon Horror Film Festival last year. Lennon, a new back-country ranger, travels alone through the dangerous wilderness, hoping to uncover the origins of a tragedy that has haunted her since she was a child. While adapting to her solitary existence in the wilderness, she becomes aware of a lurking, sinister presence. Georgina Campbell stars as Lennon, with a small indie cast including Nick Blood, Wai Ching Ho, Edgar Morais, Ana Sofia Martins, and Soren Hellerup. This looks way, way creepier than you're probably expecting - especially when it gets weirder as this super eerie trailer plays out. Here's the official trailer (+ two posters) for Teresa Sutherland's Lovely, Dark, and Deep, on YouTube: Lennon (Georgina Campbell) seizes the opportunity to assume the coveted role of a back-country ranger at a ...

"It's more than a podcast, a hobby, it's more than just collecting. It's really become a major part of my life." The streaming service Documentary+ has revealed their official trailer for The Hobby, an amusing new documentary thriller available streaming this February. Another collectors craze! From Beanie Babies to cards again. From filmmaker Morgan Jon Fox, the film is a character-driven, feel-good deep dive into the high-stakes, eccentric world of card collecting. Most people will remember trading cards from growing up, but after the 90s the started to disappear. Now they're back, along with vinyl and everything else vintage, in a brand new modern card collecting boom. The Hobby follows longtime collectors and a new generation of buyers from the trading card industry, diving deep into the real-time trading card fever as the hobby goes nuclear. All the guys in this seem totally nuts, in my opinion, only a few seem to care about the actual cards. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Morgan Jon Fox's The Hobby, direct from Doc+'s YouTube: A McDonald's Happy Meal shortage. A security guard escort. ...

"To put it out, we need to blow it up." Roll on! Netflix has unveiled the first look teaser trailer for a French action thriller titled The Wages of Fear, the latest from filmmaker Julien Leclercq. This is set to launch streaming only on Netflix at the end of March. "They have 24 hours to drive two trucks full of nitroglycerin and prevent a terrible catastrophe." Similar to William Friedkin's Sorcerer, but in the desert! That film was based on the same French novel that was also made into the original 1953 film. In order to prevent a deadly explosion, an illicit crack team has 24 hours to drive two truckloads of nitroglycerine across a desert laden with danger. This is a remake of the classic 1950s French thriller of the same name - Le Salaire de la Peur or The Wages of Fear. Thankfully they're not turning it into a series, it's just another new feature film. This 2024 update stars Franck Gastambide, Alban Lenoir, Sofiane Zermani, and Ana Girardot. Looks damn good! This teaser certainly got my attention. ...

"Representation becomes critically important to help us keep moving down that path." Learn the true story of the very first Black astronauts. National Geographic has revealed their official trailer for the documentary film titled The Space Race, from filmmakers Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Academy Award-nominated Lisa Cortés. This premiered at last year's Tribeca Film Festival, and it stopped by other film fests including Chicago, Indie Memphis, and Denver. This historical doc film explores the intriguing experiences of the first Black astronauts through decades of archive film and interviews in a reflective illumination on the burden of breaking barriers. An empowering look back at the early days of NASA and how things have evolved since then. With appearances by Guion Bluford, Charles Bolden, Ed Dwight, Victor Glover, Frederick Gregory, Bernard Harris, Leland Melvin, Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, Jessica Watkins. The Space Race will debut first on National Geographic in February before streaming on Disney+ / Hulu. Space geeks must give this a look. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for National Geographic's doc The Space Race, direct from YouTube: The film weaves together ...

This is one of best discoveries of Sundance 2024. A knock out - loved every second of it. 2024 is a big year for the talented Taiwanese-American filmmaker Sean Wang, who is originally from Fremont, CA. Not only does he have this feature debut movie premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, and it's getting rave reviews (and it won the Audience Award), he's also probably going to win an Academy Award in March for his short film Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó about his grannies (it's also streaming on Disney+ in February). Sundance has a memorably rich tradition of premiering many of the best coming-of-age films of all-time, ranging from 500 Days of Summer to Napoleon Dynamite to Little Miss Sunshine to The Spectacular Now to Clerks to Eighth Grade to Boyhood, and so many others over the years. Sean Wang's Dìdi (弟弟) instantly joins the ranks as yet another outstanding coming-of-age film making its mark at Sundance. It's going right to the top of my list of my favorite films of the festival. I have to take this ...

"He was definitely trying to stay anonymous." Max has revealed an official trailer for a true crime, mystery thriller documentary film titled They Called Him Mostly Harmless, available for streaming next month on Max after premiering at last year's Hampton Film Festival. Based on the Wired article about the "mostly harmless" hiker found dead in a tent in Florida in 2018, surrounded by food and cash, but no ID. Who was he? What really happened to him? True crime veteran Patricia E. Gillespie's new doc is a character-centric reimagining of the classic mystery. She explains: "I was drawn to this story because of its potential to help us think more deeply about what it means to live in the digital age. I hope we've made a film that manages to both honor the citizen detectives who worked tirelessly to identify the 'Mostly Harmless', while encouraging audiences to get involved in the issue of unidentified persons." There is a conclusion to this story, though you'll have to watch to find out – unless you already know following the investigation online over ...