Dive into the deliciously dark side of cinema with our guide to “good for her” horror movies, where the leading ladies don’t just fight back, they bite back—with style. This isn’t just about scares; it’s about screams of triumph from female anti-heroes who redefine horror movie vengeance.
We’re slicing into tales that offer more than just good for her horror moments; these films are a banquet of revenge horror movies served with a side of female villains so badass, you’ll be cheering them on from behind your popcorn. So, pull up a chair, and let’s celebrate the women who turn nightmares into their playgrounds, proving that when it comes to settling scores, they’re monstrously good at it.
Oscilloscope 10. The Love Witch (2016)
Elaine (Samantha Robinson), our spellbinding protagonist, isn’t your typical witch. In her quest for love, she brews potions more potent than your grandma’s moonshine,...
We’re slicing into tales that offer more than just good for her horror moments; these films are a banquet of revenge horror movies served with a side of female villains so badass, you’ll be cheering them on from behind your popcorn. So, pull up a chair, and let’s celebrate the women who turn nightmares into their playgrounds, proving that when it comes to settling scores, they’re monstrously good at it.
Oscilloscope 10. The Love Witch (2016)
Elaine (Samantha Robinson), our spellbinding protagonist, isn’t your typical witch. In her quest for love, she brews potions more potent than your grandma’s moonshine,...
- 3/9/2024
- by Kimberley Elizabeth
From left: The Hateful Eight (The Weinstein Company), The Killer (Netflix), I Care A Lot (Seacia Pavao/Netflix), Uncut Gems (A24)Graphic: The A.V. Club
In the film genre pecking order, thrillers often get short shrift. They sometimes overlap with the far flashier horror genre, and seldom make the...
In the film genre pecking order, thrillers often get short shrift. They sometimes overlap with the far flashier horror genre, and seldom make the...
- 11/11/2023
- by The A.V. Club
- avclub.com
Clockwise from top left: Get Out (Universal Pictures); Jaws (Screenshot: YouTube/Universal); The Strangers (Screenshot: Universal/Rogue Pictures); It Follows (Radius/TWC)Graphic: The A.V. Club
Pick a film genre, any film genre, and Netflix is likely to have you more than covered in terms of viewing options—from the...
Pick a film genre, any film genre, and Netflix is likely to have you more than covered in terms of viewing options—from the...
- 10/20/2023
- by The A.V. Club
- avclub.com
Walpurgisnacht, also known as Walpurgis Night or Hexennacht, is a pagan holiday celebrated on the night of April 30th. It is named after Saint Walpurga, an eighth-century nun who Christianized parts of Germany. However, the holiday has roots in pagan traditions that celebrate the coming of spring and the triumph of life over death. It is also associated with witchcraft and supernatural phenomena, making it a perfect occasion to indulge in some spine-chilling horror films.
So, grab some popcorn and get ready for a night of scares with these ten chilling recommendations for Walpurgisnacht.
1. Dracula (1931)
What better way to kick off Walpurgisnacht than with the most iconic vampire movie of all time? Dracula (1931) stars Bela Lugosi as the titular count who travels from Transylvania to England to spread his curse of the undead. The beginning of the film is actually set on Walpurgisnacht, as Renfield (Dwight Frye) arrives at Dracula...
So, grab some popcorn and get ready for a night of scares with these ten chilling recommendations for Walpurgisnacht.
1. Dracula (1931)
What better way to kick off Walpurgisnacht than with the most iconic vampire movie of all time? Dracula (1931) stars Bela Lugosi as the titular count who travels from Transylvania to England to spread his curse of the undead. The beginning of the film is actually set on Walpurgisnacht, as Renfield (Dwight Frye) arrives at Dracula...
- 4/30/2023
- by Kimberley Elizabeth
The Farrah Fawcett Foundation Tex-Mex Fiesta co-chairs Alana Stewart and Jaclyn Smith led the 2022 event at The Rustic in Dallas, Texas this year, as opposed to their usual Beverly Hills location.
Sheryl Crow Performs at The Farrah Fawcett Foundation Tex-Mex Fiesta
Attended by more than 350 guests from Hollywood and Dallas, this event raised funds for the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge and Stand Up To Cancer.
The Rustic was transformed with floating pinatas, colorful lanterns, and mariachis for the fiesta-themed event, designed and produced by The James Group. Guests sat under a starry Texas sky at festive tablescapes as they enjoyed endless margaritas and Tex-Mex food (Farrah’s favorite). Guests were greeted with an opening performance by Sydney Sherrill and stylish gift bags provided by Neiman Marcus. The burlap totes were filled with several full-sized luxury products: Retrouve’s face serum, Sobel Skin moisture cream, a Knesko Nanogold Repair face mask,...
Sheryl Crow Performs at The Farrah Fawcett Foundation Tex-Mex Fiesta
Attended by more than 350 guests from Hollywood and Dallas, this event raised funds for the American Cancer Society's Hope Lodge and Stand Up To Cancer.
The Rustic was transformed with floating pinatas, colorful lanterns, and mariachis for the fiesta-themed event, designed and produced by The James Group. Guests sat under a starry Texas sky at festive tablescapes as they enjoyed endless margaritas and Tex-Mex food (Farrah’s favorite). Guests were greeted with an opening performance by Sydney Sherrill and stylish gift bags provided by Neiman Marcus. The burlap totes were filled with several full-sized luxury products: Retrouve’s face serum, Sobel Skin moisture cream, a Knesko Nanogold Repair face mask,...
- 11/4/2022
- Look to the Stars
Exclusive: WWE star Natalie Eva Marie is set to star alongside Randy Couture, Neal McDonough, former WWE tag team champion Oleg Prudius, Bai Lin and former UFC Lightweight champion Rashad Evans in Phoenix, an action-thriller from Tadross Media Group, Bulldog Brothers Entertainment and director Daniel Zirilli that has entered production in Miami.
Phoenix centers on Fiona “Phoenix” Grant (Marie), a U.S. Army veteran Sergeant who is teaching hand-to-hand combat skills in Afghanistan when she receives word that her father, Everett Grant (Couture), a prominent security specialist, has been killed in Florida. The police report says it was suicide, but Fiona doesn’t believe it. Encouraged to take a leave of absence by her commanding officer (McDonough), she heads back to the U.S. and soon learns that the prime suspect is Maxim Vasiliiev (Prudius), a ruthless local drug kingpin with an army of mercenaries and enough legal, political and business...
Phoenix centers on Fiona “Phoenix” Grant (Marie), a U.S. Army veteran Sergeant who is teaching hand-to-hand combat skills in Afghanistan when she receives word that her father, Everett Grant (Couture), a prominent security specialist, has been killed in Florida. The police report says it was suicide, but Fiona doesn’t believe it. Encouraged to take a leave of absence by her commanding officer (McDonough), she heads back to the U.S. and soon learns that the prime suspect is Maxim Vasiliiev (Prudius), a ruthless local drug kingpin with an army of mercenaries and enough legal, political and business...
- 1/24/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Well Go USA Entertainment has closed a deal for the North American distribution to Arclight Films’ Here Are the Young Men, an Irish teen drama starring Travis Fimmel, Dean-Charles Chapman, Finn Cole, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Ferdia Walsh-Peelo. Slated to be released in 2021, the pic is based on the acclaimed novel by Rob Doyle. Eoin Macken directed the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Doyle.
St in 2003, the film details the last summer of three Dublin high school graduates—aimless Matthew (Chapman), his charismatic yet deranged friend Kearney (Cole) and their precocious friend Rez (Walsh-Peelo)—as they embark on an epic binge to celebrate a future without limits. But when they witness a catastrophic accident, the incident sends them spiraling,...
St in 2003, the film details the last summer of three Dublin high school graduates—aimless Matthew (Chapman), his charismatic yet deranged friend Kearney (Cole) and their precocious friend Rez (Walsh-Peelo)—as they embark on an epic binge to celebrate a future without limits. But when they witness a catastrophic accident, the incident sends them spiraling,...
- 11/20/2020
- by Amanda N'Duka
- Deadline Film + TV
Thanks to the critical, box office and award-winning success of writer/director Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood", actor Brad Pitt who plays movie stunt double, bodyguard 'Cliff Booth' in the film, is open to reprising his character for an extended episode, 'streaming mini-series', featuring new content and character backstories:
"...I look at a mini-series where you can spend much more time on characters and story and explore angles you don't always get to do in films", said Pitt.
"So much of these films end up on the cutting room floor because they just don't fit in that box.
"That's why I think it's interesting that Tarantino previously took 'Hateful Eight' and ostensibly repurposed it as a three-part series. It's almost the best of both worlds.
"You have the cinema experience that exists, but you can actually put more content into the series format."
"...in 'Once Upon A Time In.
"...I look at a mini-series where you can spend much more time on characters and story and explore angles you don't always get to do in films", said Pitt.
"So much of these films end up on the cutting room floor because they just don't fit in that box.
"That's why I think it's interesting that Tarantino previously took 'Hateful Eight' and ostensibly repurposed it as a three-part series. It's almost the best of both worlds.
"You have the cinema experience that exists, but you can actually put more content into the series format."
"...in 'Once Upon A Time In.
- 1/14/2020
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Two givens for Los Angeles living in 1969: perpetual driving around listening to the radio, and stereo cartridge needles dropping onto record grooves. Those things were the basics of our existence! CineSavant closes out his pre-Christmas cheer with his favorite picture of ’19. It’s possibly Quentin Tarantino’s best. Yes, yes I know it has that crazy finale, but overall it has much less violence than most anything else he’s done. Plus it has scenes that can be described as heartwarming, and quietly sentimental… practically new territory for this director. The respect shown for Sharon Tate is gratifying. Bring us more great stories that inspire you this way, Mr. T. !
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
4K UltraHD + Blu-ray + Digital
Sony/Columbia
2019 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 161 min. / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 27.96
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern,...
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
4K UltraHD + Blu-ray + Digital
Sony/Columbia
2019 / Color / 2:40 widescreen / 161 min. / Street Date December 10, 2019 / 27.96
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Emile Hirsch, Margaret Qualley, Timothy Olyphant, Julia Butters, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern,...
- 12/24/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In some ways, the 2010s belonged to women in Hollywood. The last ten years saw a renewed resurgence of conversations about diversity and inclusion in Hollywood. Actresses and filmmakers sharing their stories of sexual assault or exploitation became among the first to usher in the #MeToo movement and change the way the public talks about gender violence and discrimination. Yet, for all the many strides these past several years, there continues to be a lack of women behind and in front of the camera and throughout several branches of craft and technical fields of the business.
Women characters have yet to reach on-screen parity with their male counterparts, actresses’ careers have impossibly shorter shelf lives than their male co-stars, and women still face a daunting wage gap throughout the industry. There’s a lot of work left to be done on and off the screen, but for now, let’s...
Women characters have yet to reach on-screen parity with their male counterparts, actresses’ careers have impossibly shorter shelf lives than their male co-stars, and women still face a daunting wage gap throughout the industry. There’s a lot of work left to be done on and off the screen, but for now, let’s...
- 12/15/2019
- by Monica Castillo
- The Wrap
Thanks to the critical and box office success of writer/director Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood", actor Brad Pitt aka movie stunt double, bodyguard 'Cliff Booth' in the new film, is open to reprising his character for an extended episode, 'streaming mini-series', featuring new content and character backstories as a complement to the film:
"...I look at a mini-series where you can spend much more time on characters and story and explore angles you don't always get to do in films", said Pitt.
"So much of these films end up on the cutting room floor because they just don't fit in that box.
"That's why I think it's interesting that Tarantino previously took 'Hateful Eight' and ostensibly repurposed it as a three-part series. It's almost the best of both worlds.
"You have the cinema experience that exists, but you can actually put more content into the series format.
"...I look at a mini-series where you can spend much more time on characters and story and explore angles you don't always get to do in films", said Pitt.
"So much of these films end up on the cutting room floor because they just don't fit in that box.
"That's why I think it's interesting that Tarantino previously took 'Hateful Eight' and ostensibly repurposed it as a three-part series. It's almost the best of both worlds.
"You have the cinema experience that exists, but you can actually put more content into the series format.
- 9/13/2019
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Take a look at more footage from writer/director Quentin Tarantino's $90 million mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood":
"...set in 1969, drunken, chain-smoking, TV actor 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double 'Cliff Booth' (Brad Pitt)...
"...embark on an odyssey to make a name for themselves in the film industry while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).
Cast also includes Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey, Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs', Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen', Margaret Qualley as 'Pussycat', Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet', Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth', Bruce Dern as 'George Spahn', Clifton Collins Jr. as 'Ernesto The Mexican Vaquero',...
"...set in 1969, drunken, chain-smoking, TV actor 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double 'Cliff Booth' (Brad Pitt)...
"...embark on an odyssey to make a name for themselves in the film industry while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).
Cast also includes Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey, Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs', Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen', Margaret Qualley as 'Pussycat', Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet', Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth', Bruce Dern as 'George Spahn', Clifton Collins Jr. as 'Ernesto The Mexican Vaquero',...
- 8/19/2019
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Sneak Peek more new footage, plus images from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's $90 million budgeted mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time... in Hollywood", starring Margot Robbie as 'Sharon Tate' opening in North America July 26, 2019:
"...set in 1969, stuttering TV actor 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double 'Cliff Booth' (Brad Pitt)...
"...(supposedly influenced by stunt performer Donald 'Shorty' Shea who was killed by the 'Manson Family')...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
"...while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Cat'...
...Samantha Robinson...
"...set in 1969, stuttering TV actor 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double 'Cliff Booth' (Brad Pitt)...
"...(supposedly influenced by stunt performer Donald 'Shorty' Shea who was killed by the 'Manson Family')...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
"...while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Cat'...
...Samantha Robinson...
- 7/25/2019
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Sneak Peek more new images from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's $90 million budgeted, 2 plus hours mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", starring Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, opening in North America July 26, 2019:
"...set in 1969, a faded TV actor (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double (Brad Pitt)...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry, while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Kitty Kat', Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...
...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth',...
"...set in 1969, a faded TV actor (Leonardo Di Caprio) and his personal stunt double (Brad Pitt)...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry, while living next door to young actress 'Sharon Tate' (Robbie).
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Kitty Kat', Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...
...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth',...
- 7/4/2019
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Take a look at the entire Cannes press conference for "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", including Tarantino, Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio:
"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Pussy Cat'...
...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...
...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth', Bruce Dern as 'George Spahn'...
...Clifton Collins Jr. as 'Ernesto The Mexican Vaquero'.
"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Pussy Cat'...
...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...
...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth', Bruce Dern as 'George Spahn'...
...Clifton Collins Jr. as 'Ernesto The Mexican Vaquero'.
- 6/15/2019
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
From RedBand.Ca, Sneak Peek new restricted 'red band' footage from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", plus take a look at more international movie posters within the film showcasing 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo DiCaprio), screening May 21, 2019 at Cannes and opening in North America July 26, 2019:
"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Pussy Cat'...
...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'.
"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Pussy Cat'...
...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'.
- 5/22/2019
- by Unknown
- SneakPeek
Sneak Peek more images from "Kill Bill" writer/director Quentin Tarantino's upcoming mystery crime feature "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood", including fictitious international movie posters within the film showcasing 'Rick Dalton' (Leonardo DiCaprio), screening May 21, 2019 at Cannes and opening in North America July 26, 2019:
"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Kitty Kat'...
...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...
...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth',...
"...a faded TV actor and his personal stunt double...
"...embark on an odyssey...
"...to make a name for themselves in the film industry...
Among the ensemble cast, actors also include the late Luke Perry as 'Scott Lancer'...
...Brad Pitt as 'Cliff Booth', Timothy Olyphant as 'James Stacey'...
...Dakota Fanning as 'Squeaky Fromme', Al Pacino as 'Marvin Schwarzs'...
..Emile Hirsch as 'Jay Sebring', Damian Lewis as 'Steve McQueen'...
...Margaret Qualley as 'Kitty Kat'...
...Samantha Robinson as 'Abigail Folger', Rumer Willis as 'Joanna Pettet'...
...Austin Butler as 'Tex', Rebecca Gayheart as 'Billie Booth',...
- 5/19/2019
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
Netflix may get most of the attention, but it’s hardly a one-stop shop for cinephiles who are looking to stream essential classic and contemporary films. Each of the prominent streaming platforms — and there are more of them all the time — caters to its own niche of film obsessives. From chilling horror fare on Shudder, to the boundless wonders of the Criterion Channel, and esoteric (but unmissable) festival hits on the newly launched Ovid.tv, IndieWire’s monthly guide will highlight the best of what’s coming to every major streaming site, with an eye towards exclusive titles that may help readers decide which of these services is right for them.
Here’s the best of the best for May 2019.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime continues to be among the best streaming platform for exclusive streaming access to “first-run” arthouse and foreign films that you may have just missed in theaters.
Here’s the best of the best for May 2019.
Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime continues to be among the best streaming platform for exclusive streaming access to “first-run” arthouse and foreign films that you may have just missed in theaters.
- 5/8/2019
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Today’s film-makers seem to be avoiding them – and all too often they are awkward and problematic. But some sex scenes are defining moments in cinema
Cut! Why have films got so prudish?
The subject of sex scenes in films is surrounded by evasive pieties: from the male critics who affect to find them “boring” (their noses aren’t their only tumescent part) to female stars whose characters are glimpsed having supposedly uninhibited sex, but wearing a bra because of no-nudity clauses. Anna Biller’s gloriously lush exploitation homage The Love Witch, starring Samantha Robinson and unashamedly in love with empowered sexiness, is almost one long sex scene in itself, though there is one particular moment that stands out when a man is drugged by the witch’s love potion. It is not very explicit, or even protracted, but like the rest of the film is almost unique in that...
Cut! Why have films got so prudish?
The subject of sex scenes in films is surrounded by evasive pieties: from the male critics who affect to find them “boring” (their noses aren’t their only tumescent part) to female stars whose characters are glimpsed having supposedly uninhibited sex, but wearing a bra because of no-nudity clauses. Anna Biller’s gloriously lush exploitation homage The Love Witch, starring Samantha Robinson and unashamedly in love with empowered sexiness, is almost one long sex scene in itself, though there is one particular moment that stands out when a man is drugged by the witch’s love potion. It is not very explicit, or even protracted, but like the rest of the film is almost unique in that...
- 4/12/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
"Unexpected things happen to test us... It isn't safe." Netflix has revealed an official trailer for an acclaimed tech-driven psychological thriller titled Cam, which has been playing at film festivals this fall. The film won Best Screenplay and Best First Feature at the Fantasia Film Festival this year, and also stopped by Fantastic Fest. Alice, an ambitious online camgirl, wakes up one day to discover she's been replaced on her show with an exact replica of herself. Things get weirder and weirder as she tries to figure out who she is and what's going on. Madeline Brewer stars, along with Patch Darragh, Melora Walters, Devin Druid, Imani Hakim, Michael Dempsey, Flora Diaz, Samantha Robinson, and Jessica Parker Kennedy. There has been quite a bit of buzz about this at the festivals, it definitely looks totally wild and trippy and twisted. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Daniel Goldhaber's Cam,...
- 11/8/2018
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Stars: Madeline Brewer, Patch Darragh, Devin Druid, Samantha Robinson, Melora Walters | Written by Isa Mazzei | Directed by Daniel Goldhaber
The internet. The great democratiser. In the case of sex work it has allowed women to take control of how, when and where they work – mainly through cam sites like Adultwork, Chaturbate, Mfc and more…But despite the ease of access to a performance outlet, the audience has access too – to performers lives, their personalities, etc. Yet there has to be boundaries. Which is why many sex workers create online personas, some using their own character traits others inventing entirely new ones, to create an extra layer of protection between their online life and their offline life.
Very much a “what if?” tale, Cam takes that idea of created personas and asks what if our online personas took on a life of their own?
“I don’t do public shows, I...
The internet. The great democratiser. In the case of sex work it has allowed women to take control of how, when and where they work – mainly through cam sites like Adultwork, Chaturbate, Mfc and more…But despite the ease of access to a performance outlet, the audience has access too – to performers lives, their personalities, etc. Yet there has to be boundaries. Which is why many sex workers create online personas, some using their own character traits others inventing entirely new ones, to create an extra layer of protection between their online life and their offline life.
Very much a “what if?” tale, Cam takes that idea of created personas and asks what if our online personas took on a life of their own?
“I don’t do public shows, I...
- 8/8/2018
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
2018 has been the year of nostalgia horror. Riding on the popularity of Stranger Things and It, we’ve seen films like Ready Player One bank entirely on the audience’s love of pop culture, while the upcoming Suspiria and Halloween movies continue the trend of reviving past successes. One often has to look to film festivals for contemporary narratives. After a year filled with lesser homages to bygone eras, Fantasia Film Festival delivers the twisty digital landscape of Cam, a film that feels like a beacon of genre cinema’s future.
What does this mean, exactly? The film seems like standard fare at first. Screenwriter Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber’s opening minutes echo the poppy joviality of Happy Death Day or Better Watch Out—a disarming tactic that prepares the viewer for something more sentimental. Its unique premise sets it apart from the get-go: our millennial protagonist, Alice...
What does this mean, exactly? The film seems like standard fare at first. Screenwriter Isa Mazzei and director Daniel Goldhaber’s opening minutes echo the poppy joviality of Happy Death Day or Better Watch Out—a disarming tactic that prepares the viewer for something more sentimental. Its unique premise sets it apart from the get-go: our millennial protagonist, Alice...
- 7/31/2018
- by Ben Larned
- DailyDead
There’s a moment in director Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam where Alice (Madeline Brewer) is talking to her younger brother Jordan (Devin Druid) about the previous evening’s performance on web-cam site Free Live Girls. She moved past sex gimmicks towards the dark world of snuff film aesthetics and it worked to move her up more leaderboard spots in one session than she ever had before. He gives her a congratulatory fist-bump and asks whether she’s told their mother (Melora Walters’ Lynne) what her new lucrative job actually is yet. Alice says “No” because she’s waiting to crack the top-ten in order to prove it isn’t a lark — that she’s actually good at it. She says it in earnest, simultaneously admitting the stigma surrounding porn without delegitimizing it as a profession.
It seems like such a small thing, but that single exchange sets the stage for how the audience reacts.
It seems like such a small thing, but that single exchange sets the stage for how the audience reacts.
- 7/30/2018
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
In Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei’s paranoid thriller “Cam,” an erotic webcam performer finds her followers stolen by a doppelganger who hijacks her channel, pushes the sexual envelope farther, and otherwise seems determined to destroy her life. Call it identity theft of a sexy, possibly supernatural kind.
There’s not much depth to this low-budget but resourcefully flashy enterprise, which is hyperactive in presentation to the brink of being grating. Nor is there much (if any) satisfactory resolution to the central mystery. But the combination of a sex-worker milieu, suspense mechanics and speed-of-the-internet pace should appeal to genre fans looking for something different — but not too different — from the norm. It certainly worked for Fantasia jurors, who gave the film their best screenplay and first feature prizes, and Netflix buyers, who acquired “Cam” from the Montreal-based genre fest.
In her all-pink home “studio,” Alice aka “Lola” (Madeline Brewer from...
There’s not much depth to this low-budget but resourcefully flashy enterprise, which is hyperactive in presentation to the brink of being grating. Nor is there much (if any) satisfactory resolution to the central mystery. But the combination of a sex-worker milieu, suspense mechanics and speed-of-the-internet pace should appeal to genre fans looking for something different — but not too different — from the norm. It certainly worked for Fantasia jurors, who gave the film their best screenplay and first feature prizes, and Netflix buyers, who acquired “Cam” from the Montreal-based genre fest.
In her all-pink home “studio,” Alice aka “Lola” (Madeline Brewer from...
- 7/26/2018
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
In the battle for what will be the premier streaming home for current independent film, Amazon Prime is showing signs that it could top Netflix, FilmStruck, and Mubi. Between funding auteur-driven Amazon originals like Jim Jarmusch’s “Paterson,” Park Chan-wook’s “The Handmaiden,” Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester By the Sea,” and their exclusive deal with A24 (“American Honey,” “Lobster,” “Swiss Army Man,” and “Moonlight” which arrives 5/21), Prime has a good percentage of the best titles.
What often gets lost in Amazon’s suboptimal browsing interface is the number of recent lower-profile indies on the service that feature some of the most exciting filmmaking of the last year. Here are seven recent gems you shouldn’t miss.
“The Love Witch”
You have never seen anything like this film. Sure, it looks like a late-era technicolor film — shot on 35mm, with deliciously saturated production and costume design — but this isn’t nostalgic kitsch.
What often gets lost in Amazon’s suboptimal browsing interface is the number of recent lower-profile indies on the service that feature some of the most exciting filmmaking of the last year. Here are seven recent gems you shouldn’t miss.
“The Love Witch”
You have never seen anything like this film. Sure, it looks like a late-era technicolor film — shot on 35mm, with deliciously saturated production and costume design — but this isn’t nostalgic kitsch.
- 5/1/2017
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Stars: Samantha Robinson, Gian Keys, Laura Waddell, Jared Sanford | Written and Directed by Anna Biller
If Viva was Anna Biller’s ode to 1970s sexploitation films, The Love Witch is the auteur’s loving – and really quite lovely – homage to the 1960s horror heyday of Hammer Films and Roger Corman. Funny, seductive, and in the end oddly moving, it may be the best indie horror movie since… well, since another indie horror movie with the words “The” and “Witch” in the title. And it couldn’t be more different.
Samantha Robinson plays Elaine, a recently-widowed witch who moves to California, into a grand old house owned by her fellow mystic, Barbara (Jennifer Ingrum). There she meets Trish (Laura Waddell), an interior decorator. The ladies chat about men, and it quickly becomes clear that their views sharply diverge on the role of women, and what the love of a man means.
If Viva was Anna Biller’s ode to 1970s sexploitation films, The Love Witch is the auteur’s loving – and really quite lovely – homage to the 1960s horror heyday of Hammer Films and Roger Corman. Funny, seductive, and in the end oddly moving, it may be the best indie horror movie since… well, since another indie horror movie with the words “The” and “Witch” in the title. And it couldn’t be more different.
Samantha Robinson plays Elaine, a recently-widowed witch who moves to California, into a grand old house owned by her fellow mystic, Barbara (Jennifer Ingrum). There she meets Trish (Laura Waddell), an interior decorator. The ladies chat about men, and it quickly becomes clear that their views sharply diverge on the role of women, and what the love of a man means.
- 3/30/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Coming from a background as a visual artist, writer-director Anna Biller makes films that, on one level, can be experienced as pure cinema. But while the aesthetics are undoubtedly pleasurable, underneath the meticulously crafted design of Biller’s films lie sharp satirical observations about the relationships between men and women. In 2007, she directed, wrote, and starred in Viva, a film satirizing the swinging suburban culture that arose amid the sexual revolution of the early 1970s. Her new film is The Love Witch, a candy-colored comedy exploring obsession, self-delusion, and the desire to be loved. These themes are expressed through the character of Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a self-proclaimed “love witch” who uses her occult powers to seduce (and, when necessary, destroy) unwitting men in a small coastal California town.
We spoke to Biller over the phone just days before The Love Witch’s home video release, where she discussed at ...
We spoke to Biller over the phone just days before The Love Witch’s home video release, where she discussed at ...
- 3/17/2017
- by Katie Rife
- avclub.com
Biller’s latest film is a stylish feminist fantasy of witchcraft in the modern era – and, she says, Trump has made it more relevant than ever
‘The big question,” says Anna Biller, “is what would happen if men loved women as strongly as women want them to; the way women crave to be loved by men. Men are known for being much less emotional than women, but, in my experience, they’re much more emotional. And that’s why they won’t, or can’t, open that gate – it would destroy them. And that’s what kills all the men in my movie – having to experience their own feelings.”
Biller is the director of The Love Witch, a feminist, style-drenched fantasy of witchcraft in the modern era, rendered in self-consciously stilted and melodramatic dialogue against a mise-en-scene of eye-popping coordinated colours and costumes. Elaine (Samantha Robinson) is a young witch...
‘The big question,” says Anna Biller, “is what would happen if men loved women as strongly as women want them to; the way women crave to be loved by men. Men are known for being much less emotional than women, but, in my experience, they’re much more emotional. And that’s why they won’t, or can’t, open that gate – it would destroy them. And that’s what kills all the men in my movie – having to experience their own feelings.”
Biller is the director of The Love Witch, a feminist, style-drenched fantasy of witchcraft in the modern era, rendered in self-consciously stilted and melodramatic dialogue against a mise-en-scene of eye-popping coordinated colours and costumes. Elaine (Samantha Robinson) is a young witch...
- 3/2/2017
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
A transformative and exquisite creation by Anna Biller (who directed, produced, wrote, edited, scored and designed every aspect), The Love Witch is a gorgeous-looking tribute to 1960s/70s low-budget horrors, classic American soap operas, Technicolor melodramas and vintage sexploitation aesthetics is an affectionate masterful pastiche with a deft feminist bite.
Think Russ Meyer meets Douglas Sirk and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls via Charmed and Dynasty as lovelorn young witch Elaine (a stunning Samantha Robinson) uses spells and potions to bring her everlasting romantic happiness. Finally meeting her dream man, Elaine’s desperation to be loved drives her to the brink of insanity and murder.
Elaine, a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she makes spells and potions, and then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, leaving her with a string of hapless victims.
Think Russ Meyer meets Douglas Sirk and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls via Charmed and Dynasty as lovelorn young witch Elaine (a stunning Samantha Robinson) uses spells and potions to bring her everlasting romantic happiness. Finally meeting her dream man, Elaine’s desperation to be loved drives her to the brink of insanity and murder.
Elaine, a beautiful young witch, is determined to find a man to love her. In her gothic Victorian apartment she makes spells and potions, and then picks up men and seduces them. However, her spells work too well, leaving her with a string of hapless victims.
- 2/27/2017
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Anna Biller painstakingly recreates the 60s with this tale of love and witchcraft in the present day, but is it worth a look?
At first glance, The Love Witch is the kind of film that’ll have you saying “well, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore!”
But that’s not entirely accurate.
Whether you’ve sat through Robert Rodriguez’s grindhouse-embracing Planet Terror, the inherently slow pace of late-70s horror in Ti West’s The House Of The Devil, the Trost Brothers’ vision of 80s gang dystopia in their little-seen 2011 effort The Fp, or even the B movie action-comedy short Kung Fury, chances are that in one respect you’ve seen a film exactly like The Love Witch in recent years.
Going all-in on a particular style of filmmaking, as the likes of Rodriguez and West have done before, and as Anna Biller (Viva) has done with The Love Witch,...
At first glance, The Love Witch is the kind of film that’ll have you saying “well, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore!”
But that’s not entirely accurate.
Whether you’ve sat through Robert Rodriguez’s grindhouse-embracing Planet Terror, the inherently slow pace of late-70s horror in Ti West’s The House Of The Devil, the Trost Brothers’ vision of 80s gang dystopia in their little-seen 2011 effort The Fp, or even the B movie action-comedy short Kung Fury, chances are that in one respect you’ve seen a film exactly like The Love Witch in recent years.
Going all-in on a particular style of filmmaking, as the likes of Rodriguez and West have done before, and as Anna Biller (Viva) has done with The Love Witch,...
- 2/20/2017
- Den of Geek
2016 has been an exceptional all-around year for horror and sci-fi films—from the indie realm, we’ve been gifted with an enormous amount of brilliant cinematic stories throughout the past 12 months, and we even saw studios step up their game with an almost unprecedented amount of quality releases.
And along with this wealth of top-notch entertainment, we also saw an incredible number of fantastic female characters over the course of 2016—some heroic, some villainous, but all endlessly engaging in their own right. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to celebrate some of my favorite female performers from this year who gave us complex, interesting, and wholly compelling reasons to keep falling in love with genre cinema all over again (and again).
Kika Magalhaes – The Eyes of My Mother
Nicolas’ Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother is easily one of the best horror films to be...
And along with this wealth of top-notch entertainment, we also saw an incredible number of fantastic female characters over the course of 2016—some heroic, some villainous, but all endlessly engaging in their own right. With that in mind, I thought it would be fun to celebrate some of my favorite female performers from this year who gave us complex, interesting, and wholly compelling reasons to keep falling in love with genre cinema all over again (and again).
Kika Magalhaes – The Eyes of My Mother
Nicolas’ Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother is easily one of the best horror films to be...
- 12/22/2016
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
It’s always an interesting exercise to arrive at the end of a year and take stock of the films that it produced, to squint for as much perspective as you can and see what the movies might have been saying to us, or to each other. Given the, uh, unique events of the last 12 months (or even just the last four weeks), it might take a little while longer than usual for us to have a clear sense of what the landscape really looked like. Will these films offer us rare insight into turbulent times, or — like much of what was released in theaters just prior to 9/11 — will they seem like relics from a more innocent world?
With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to get a bit more granular than usual, and to highlight individual moments from my 25 favorite films of the year (and, at least for the moment,...
With that in mind, I thought it might be fun to get a bit more granular than usual, and to highlight individual moments from my 25 favorite films of the year (and, at least for the moment,...
- 12/6/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
As a filmmaker, Anna Biller is an obsessive. She holds a staggering 10 credits on “The Love Witch,” an homage to genres as diffuse as 1970s-era sexploitation films and 1960s-set Giallo features, starring breakout Samantha Robinson as Elaine, a young witch looking for love in all the wrong places. Driven by her desire to literally charm a man, Elaine’s powerful magic often backfires in spectacular fashion – love is a dangerous thing, especially when aided by stellar spell-casting – and the witty and wild feature tracks her story with both style and substance.
Biller’s aesthetic is unique and bold, and harkens back to the heyday of exploitation features with plenty of old Hollywood touches and deliciously feminist messaging. Pulpy, melodramatic, and totally badass, there’s nothing quite like “The Love Witch,” and it’s all Biller.
Read More: ‘The Love Witch’ Review: Anna Biller’s Technicolor Throwback Is a Spellbinding Feminist...
Biller’s aesthetic is unique and bold, and harkens back to the heyday of exploitation features with plenty of old Hollywood touches and deliciously feminist messaging. Pulpy, melodramatic, and totally badass, there’s nothing quite like “The Love Witch,” and it’s all Biller.
Read More: ‘The Love Witch’ Review: Anna Biller’s Technicolor Throwback Is a Spellbinding Feminist...
- 11/18/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Take the Technicolor photography of classic ‘60s melodramas, mix vigorously with equal parts surrealism and Jean Rollin-esque eroticism and what does one get in return? Well, in so many words, one gets one of 2016’s most lavishly crafted experiments in genre and one of its most deliciously arch dramas.
The end result of the above mentioned mixture is a film entitled The Love Witch, a truly one of a kind film from one of a kind filmmaker Anna Biller. Witch introduces us to Elaine, a breathtakingly beautiful young witch on the hunt for love. Following up her underrated 2007 film, Viva, Biller takes to the world of witchcraft and cults for a film that sets its eyes as much on the world of ‘60s melodramas as it does the sexploitation films from just a decade later.
We first meet Elaine as she’s driving along the coast of Northern California...
The end result of the above mentioned mixture is a film entitled The Love Witch, a truly one of a kind film from one of a kind filmmaker Anna Biller. Witch introduces us to Elaine, a breathtakingly beautiful young witch on the hunt for love. Following up her underrated 2007 film, Viva, Biller takes to the world of witchcraft and cults for a film that sets its eyes as much on the world of ‘60s melodramas as it does the sexploitation films from just a decade later.
We first meet Elaine as she’s driving along the coast of Northern California...
- 11/13/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
James + Semaj is a column where James Franco talks to his reverse self, Semaj, about new films. Rather than a conventional review, it is place where James and Semaj can muse about ideas that the films provoke. James loves going to the movies and talking about them. But a one-sided take on a movie, in print, might be misconstrued as a review. As someone in the industry it could be detrimental to James’s career if he were to review his peers, because unlike the book industry—where writers review other writer’s books—the film industry is highly collaborative, and a bad review of a peer could create problems. So, assume that James (and Semaj) love all these films. What they’re interested in talking about is all the ways the films inspire them, and make them think. James is me, and Semaj is the other side of me.
- 11/10/2016
- by James Franco
- Indiewire
If The Love Witch simply raised the profile of its director, Anna Biller—a true auteur who not only wrote, directed, produced, and edited this film but also designed and hand made its sets and costumes—then it would be a success. Biller’s devout attention to detail in her films means we don’t get a lot of them, and it’s been nearly a decade since her last one, the sexploitation satire Viva. Happily, though, Biller’s tribute to the ’60s and ’70s witchcraft melodrama (see: George Romero’s Season Of The Witch) is not just an impressive visual and technical achievement. It’s also a nuanced statement on gender relations whose morals are as flexible as its formal qualities are rigid.
Samantha Robinson—who bears a striking resemblance to the title character in one of Biller’s presumed stylistic touchstones for this film, Stephanie Rothman’s The...
Samantha Robinson—who bears a striking resemblance to the title character in one of Biller’s presumed stylistic touchstones for this film, Stephanie Rothman’s The...
- 11/10/2016
- by Katie Rife
- avclub.com
A vibrant and eye-catching homage to the Technicolor films of the 1960s, writer/director Anna Biller’s The Love Witch is a seductive and clever twist on the gender politics, witch-centric cinema, and pulp storytelling of that era, all while keeping things set in modern times. Made with a tangible sense of affection, and featuring a star-making performance from Samantha Robinson, who flawlessly carries the film on her very capable (and lovely) shoulders, I was immediately smitten from the very first frame of The Love Witch, and wholly drawn into Biller’s intriguing tale of one woman’s desperate search to find her true love.
In The Love Witch, we follow Elaine (Robinson), who wants nothing more in this world than to find true love, and has resorted to using witchcraft to fulfill her deepest desires for ultimate happiness. The thing about Elaine’s handiwork is that it often works too well,...
In The Love Witch, we follow Elaine (Robinson), who wants nothing more in this world than to find true love, and has resorted to using witchcraft to fulfill her deepest desires for ultimate happiness. The thing about Elaine’s handiwork is that it often works too well,...
- 11/9/2016
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Opening with a limited theatrical release this week is writer/director Anna Biller’s The Love Witch, a cinematic tribute to the days of Technicolor, pulp novels, and the rise of feminism in the 1960s. Starring Samantha Robinson, The Love Witch follows her character Elaine, a spellbindingly beautiful witch who wants nothing more than to find true love, but her powerful elixirs and seductive nature always thwart her efforts.
Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Biller about her latest project, and the filmmaker discussed her approach to both the story of The Love Witch and its complicated protagonist Elaine, who gave her the opportunity to embrace the often conflictive nature of the female consciousness. Biller also chatted about the long road in getting her ambitious project onto the big screen, how the current climate in society, in regards to how women are perceived and represented,...
Daily Dead recently had the opportunity to sit down and speak with Biller about her latest project, and the filmmaker discussed her approach to both the story of The Love Witch and its complicated protagonist Elaine, who gave her the opportunity to embrace the often conflictive nature of the female consciousness. Biller also chatted about the long road in getting her ambitious project onto the big screen, how the current climate in society, in regards to how women are perceived and represented,...
- 11/8/2016
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
Say hello to your new obsession: A spellbinding homage to old pulp paperbacks and the Technicolor melodramas of the 1960s, Anna Biller’s “The Love Witch” is a throwback that’s told with a degree of perverse conviction and studied expertise that would make Quentin Tarantino blush. Shot in velvety 35mm and seen through the lens of a playfully violent female gaze, the film follows a beautiful, narcissistic young sorceress named Elaine (Samantha Robinson, unforgettable in a demented breakthrough performance) as she blows into a coastal Californian town in desperate search of a replacement for her recently murdered husband. Sex, death, Satanic rituals, God-level costume design, and cinema’s greatest tampon joke ensue, as Biller spins an archly funny — but also hyper-sincere — story about the true price of the patriarchy. There hasn’t been anything quite like it in decades.
Entrancingly self-possessed, “The Love Witch” announces itself with rare authority...
Entrancingly self-possessed, “The Love Witch” announces itself with rare authority...
- 11/8/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Anna Biller would rather you didn't describe her new film The Love Witch as an exploitation picture. This is something that you will learn the hard way just a few minutes into an interview with the Japanese-American filmmaker, though at this point in her press tour-of-duty, she doesn't even get angry when her latest work, which opens in Los Angeles this Friday and in New York on November 11th, is assigned that label. There's a small sigh of resignation on the other end of the phone line, and then she...
- 11/3/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Anna Biller’s critically adored and highly anticipated paean to the lush filmmaking style of the 1960s is finally going to materialize on a theater screen near you. Probably next month. Assuming the goddesses are smiling down upon you. The Love Witch will begin its run in select theaters on November 11 in Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco, before hitting the east coast on the 18th and Chicago on the 25th. The official website has a full list of cities and theaters. (Tough luck if you live in some place like Rochester, NY. But, let’s be honest, no one worth mentioning lives there.)
In anticipation of her film’s release, Biller created this courtesy PSA to be shown before the show in theaters where it’s heading. It features Samantha Robinson as the titular Love Witch making a pretty good case for why we should all do her ...
In anticipation of her film’s release, Biller created this courtesy PSA to be shown before the show in theaters where it’s heading. It features Samantha Robinson as the titular Love Witch making a pretty good case for why we should all do her ...
- 10/22/2016
- by Dennis DiClaudio
- avclub.com
Anna Biller’s new film “The Love Witch” follows Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a beautiful young witch who’s determined to find a man to love her. She makes spells and potions and uses them to help pick up and seduce men, but when her spells work too well, she ends up with a string of hapless victims. Though when she meets the man of her dreams, Elaine’s desperation to be loved drives her to the brink of insanity and murder. The film co-stars Laura Waddell (“Crimson Peak”), Jeffrey Vincent Parise (“Mad Men”), Gian Keys (“F**Kin’ Actors”), and more. Watch an exclusive promo below featuring The Love Witch herself warning moviegoers about the “anti-attractiveness” of talking and texting during a movie, currently playing in Landmark theaters.
Read More: 12 Must-See Films at BAMCinemaFest 2016
Biller’s previous feature “Viva” and her 16mm shorts have screened at major film festivals and art spaces around the world.
Read More: 12 Must-See Films at BAMCinemaFest 2016
Biller’s previous feature “Viva” and her 16mm shorts have screened at major film festivals and art spaces around the world.
- 10/20/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
“According to the experts, men are very fragile.”
Shot in sumptuously lit 35mm, The Love Witch is a throwback to Hammer Horror films and Technicolor melodramas of the ‘50s and ‘60s, with set design and color schemes that seem to invoke the ghost of Jacques Demy, all in subservience to a decidedly retro ‘70s vibe with a contemporary setting. Only writer-director Anna Biller‘s second film, The Love Witch affirms not only her skill as a director, but as an auteur – Biller also produced and edited the film, and was responsible for every aspect of the production, art, and costume design, and even composed the score.
The film exists in extravagant sets and costumes that run the gamut from kitschy to dazzlingly beautiful, dresses bursting with color, and every background and set piece a delight. Harps float over a tea room of pastels and pink, eminently feminine; a medieval Renaissance...
Shot in sumptuously lit 35mm, The Love Witch is a throwback to Hammer Horror films and Technicolor melodramas of the ‘50s and ‘60s, with set design and color schemes that seem to invoke the ghost of Jacques Demy, all in subservience to a decidedly retro ‘70s vibe with a contemporary setting. Only writer-director Anna Biller‘s second film, The Love Witch affirms not only her skill as a director, but as an auteur – Biller also produced and edited the film, and was responsible for every aspect of the production, art, and costume design, and even composed the score.
The film exists in extravagant sets and costumes that run the gamut from kitschy to dazzlingly beautiful, dresses bursting with color, and every background and set piece a delight. Harps float over a tea room of pastels and pink, eminently feminine; a medieval Renaissance...
- 10/10/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
2Nd Update (9/23, 3:23 Pdt): An earlier version of this article listed Elle Evans as the actress who plays the title role in The Love Witch. That distinction in fact goes to Samantha Robinson. We regret the error. Update (9/22, 11:37 Pm Pdt): The same day this article was published, Paramount pushed back the release date for Rings from October 28 to February 3, 2017. Original Article: Fall has traditionally been viewed as the prime time of year for the horror film, but this summer was actually a pretty good one for the genre, with movies like The Conjuring 2, Lights Out, and the surprise smash Don't Breathe doing gangbusters business in the midst of blockbuster season. But the year's not over yet! With September in full swing, there are a number of worthwhile (and, yes, questionable) titles looming on the release calendar over the next three months. Below, you can find a rundown of 12 upcoming horror films,...
- 9/23/2016
- by Chris Eggertsen
- Hitfix
★★★★☆ Anna Biller's The Love Witch is a movie aesthetes of kitsch will embrace with open arms. Not that the film's distinct look is mere window-dressing or getting by on camp charm alone. A political work of true authorship if ever there was one, Biller not only directed, she wrote the screenplay, she's the film's editor, its set decorator, served as the costume and production designer, and also found time to compose the music. All of it a striking success.
Samantha Robinson (who looks like giallo icon Edwige Fenech) is Elaine, a narcissistic young witch. Her new aim in life is to cut out all the hard work in relationships and make them perfect, so she won't ever be rejected again. On the hunt for Mr. Right, her philosophical outlook is a melange of staunch feminism - she wants control (not an unfair demand) - but the methods are anti-feminist...
Samantha Robinson (who looks like giallo icon Edwige Fenech) is Elaine, a narcissistic young witch. Her new aim in life is to cut out all the hard work in relationships and make them perfect, so she won't ever be rejected again. On the hunt for Mr. Right, her philosophical outlook is a melange of staunch feminism - she wants control (not an unfair demand) - but the methods are anti-feminist...
- 8/30/2016
- by CineVue
- CineVue
Director Anna Biller isn’t terribly prolific: Her last feature film, Viva, was completed in 2007. But watching the trailer for her latest, The Love Witch, the reason for the long delay between films becomes obvious. Biller’s eye for period detail is obsessively meticulous, with the director even sewing some of star Samantha Robinson’s costumes herself from vintage patterns. The result could easily be mistaken for a lost potboiler from the late ‘60s or early ’70s, when men’s magazines like Black Magic and Witchcraft and lurid paperbacks fueled the public’s twin fascinations with the occult and the sexual revolution.
The Love Witch takes place at the epicenter of those two movements, as glamorous witch Elaine (Robinson) moves from San Francisco to Northern California to live with her goddess-worshipping friends after the mysterious, possibly occult-related death of her ex-husband. Desperate to find the perfect man, Elaine uses ...
The Love Witch takes place at the epicenter of those two movements, as glamorous witch Elaine (Robinson) moves from San Francisco to Northern California to live with her goddess-worshipping friends after the mysterious, possibly occult-related death of her ex-husband. Desperate to find the perfect man, Elaine uses ...
- 8/5/2016
- by Katie Rife
- avclub.com
It's throwback day here at Quiet Earth. Close on the heels of the announcement that 80s throwback Lake Nowhere is being released in August, it seems appropriate that we share the new trailer for Anna Biller's 60s themed The Love Witch.
Samantha Robinson stars as Elaine, a witch who brews up love potions and spells in her apartment. Her experiments have left a trail of dead bodies which hasn't slowed her down but when she meets the man of her dreams, she becomes completely obsessed with having him fall in love with her without, you know, accidentally killing him.
Clearly a love letter to 60's pulp horror, Biller's vision appears to have the right blen [Continued ...]...
Samantha Robinson stars as Elaine, a witch who brews up love potions and spells in her apartment. Her experiments have left a trail of dead bodies which hasn't slowed her down but when she meets the man of her dreams, she becomes completely obsessed with having him fall in love with her without, you know, accidentally killing him.
Clearly a love letter to 60's pulp horror, Biller's vision appears to have the right blen [Continued ...]...
- 8/3/2016
- QuietEarth.us
"She loved men... to death." Oscilloscope has released an official trailer (that's Nsfw) for a horror comedy called The Love Witch, written & directed by Anna Biller. The film is a tribute to 1960s pulp novels and Technicolor melodramas, which is why it looks the way it does, and is about a contemporary witch who uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her. But after she ends up sleeping with them, they all end up dead, which is not what she was hoping for but can't really control. Samantha Robinson stars as Elaine, with a cast including Elle Evans, Jeffrey Vincent Parise, Dani Lennon, Lily Holleman, and Gian Keys. As funky as this seems, it actually has great reviews calling it "spellbinding & hilarious". Take a look. Here's the official Nsfw trailer (+ a poster) for Anna Biller's The Love Witch, direct from YouTube: Elaine, a beautiful young witch,...
- 7/30/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
No need to adjust your television sets (or movie screens, or streaming devices) – The Love Witch transports viewers back to a gaudy era of filmmaking when colorful moving pictures were a new, hip thing. Like a blast from the 60s, filmmaker Anna Biller conjures a transfixing tale of seduction and objective romance that’s highlighted by thick layers of makeup, Gothic wardrobes, and deliciously devilish domination. Woman deserve equal power to their male counterparts, and Biller gets hers by ensuring that men are being played as the duller gender here. Think less Salem Witch Trials, and more I Dream Of Genie with knives, killing and hallucinogenic herbs.
Samantha Robinson stars as Elaine, a self-proclaimed “love witch” who yearns to find her Prince Charming. To help speed along the process, Elaine whips up some wicked potions that unlock a man’s true emotions. The good thing is, her concoctions work like...
Samantha Robinson stars as Elaine, a self-proclaimed “love witch” who yearns to find her Prince Charming. To help speed along the process, Elaine whips up some wicked potions that unlock a man’s true emotions. The good thing is, her concoctions work like...
- 7/22/2016
- by Matt Donato
- We Got This Covered
When her seemingly everlasting search for love brings her to California, Elaine (Samantha Robinson) seizes the opportunity to reconnect with her coven and brush up on her craft. Between lunches with her loved-up landlord (Laura Waddell) at The Victorian Tea Room, in which they gossip about men and philosophise about feminism, she seduces a local […]
The post Eiff 2016: The Love Witch Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
The post Eiff 2016: The Love Witch Review appeared first on HeyUGuys.
- 6/30/2016
- by Steven Neish
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
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