It seems congratulations are in order for our grisly pals over at Bloody Disgusting, as they just struck a deal with AMC and The Collective to usher in new international horror movies. Good work gang!
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the three parties have untied to acquire and market horror films and thrillers hot off the festival circuits and international markets. The model is in place, as The Collective has already scooped rights to a number movies that AMC will happily play twice a week theatrically before moving on to various home video platforms, including DVD, VOD and TV.
About the endeavor, here’s what our friend Mr. Miska had to say: “We see a lot of horror films that never make it to the consumer here in the States. We hope to change that by releasing only films we personally love and think the horror community will embrace.”
So far, here are the titles set for release:
COLD FISH: Shamoto runs a small tropical fish shop. His second wife, Taeko, doesn’t get along with his daughter Mitsuko, and this worries him. One day Mitsuko is caught shoplifting at a grocery store. There they meet a friendly man named Murata, who helps to settle things between Mitsuko and the store manager. Since Murata also runs a tropical fish shop, Shamoto establishes a bond with him and they become friends; Mitsuko even begins working for Murata and living at his house. What Shamoto doesn’t know, however, is that Murata hides many dark secrets behind his friendly face.
He sells cheap fish to his customers for high prices with his artful lies. If anyone detects his fraud or refuses to go along with his money-making schemes, they’re murdered and their bodies disposed of by Murata and his wife in grisly ways. Shamoto is suddenly taken in by Murata’s tactics, and by the time he realizes that Murata is insane, and a serial killer who has made over fifty people disappear, he is powerless to do anything about it. But now Mitsuko is a hostage at Murata’s home, and Shamoto himself has become the killer’s unwilling accomplice. Cruel murders gradually cripple his mind and finally the ordinary man being driven to the edge of the abyss.
RAMMBOCK: Just when Michael arrives in Berlin to visit his ex-girlfriend Gabi, and a terrible virus starts spreading across the city at a rapid pace, turning people into mindless homicidal maniacs. Much to Michael’s concern, Gabi’s not home; instead, he meets Harper, a teenage plumber’s apprentice at work in her apartment block. Together, they manage to barricade themselves when raging hordes of infected people swarm the building. Surrounded by these thirsty zombies, Michael and Harper have their hands full to survive – and it will take all of their ingenuity to make their way out to try and find Gabi.
YELLOW BRICK ROAD: One Morning in New England, 1940, when the entire population of Friar New Hampshire – 572 people – walked together up a winding mountain trail and into the wilderness. They left behind their clothes, their money, all of their essentials. Even their dogs were abandoned, tied to posts and left to starve. No One knows why. A search party dispatched by the U.S. Army eventually discovered the remains of nearly 300 of Friar’s evacuees. Many had frozen to death. Others were cruelly and mysteriously slaughtered. The bodies of the remaining citizens are still unaccounted for.
Over the years, a quiet cover-up operation managed to weave the story of Friar into the stuff of legends and backwoods fairy tales. The town has slowly repopulated, but the vast wilderness is mostly untracked, with the northern-most stretches off limits to local hunters and loggers. In 2008, the coordinates for the “YELLOWBRICKROAD” trail head were declassified. The first official expedition into a dark and twisted wilderness will attempt to solve the mystery of the lost citizens of Friar…and reach the end of the trail.
Megumi Kagurazaka, star of COLD FISH!