Larry Fessenden's BLACKOUT Wraps!

 

The news is out about Larry Fessenden's latest horror feature, BLACKOUT! James Felix McKenney served as a producer on the werewolf movie.

Independent production shingle Glass Eye Pix is pleased to announce director Larry Fessenden has completed principal photography on his seventh feature film, Blackout. The picture, which stars Alex Hurt as Charley Barrett, a Fine Arts painter convinced that he is a werewolf wreaking havoc on a small American town under the full moon, wrapped under the glow of October 8th’s Hunter Moon, with pickups completed October 16th.
 
The film features an Altman-esque array of co-stars - some newcomers and many long-time members of the Glass Eye Pix stable - including Addison Timlin (Little Sister, Like Me, Depraved), Motell Gyn Foster (Marriage Story, Foxhole), Joseph Castillo-Midyett (Equalizer, Death Saved My Life), Ella Rae Peck (upcoming Crumb Catcher), Rigo Garay (upcoming Crumb Catcher), John Speredakos (Wendigo, I Sell The Dead), Michael Buscemi (Habit, BlacKkKlansman), Jeremy Holm (The Ranger, Brooklyn 45), Joe Swanberg (You’re Next, Offseason), Barbara Crampton (You’re Next, Jakob’s Wife), James Le Gros (Foxhole, The Last Winter), and Marshall Bell (Total Recall, Stand By Me). Casting was handled by Lois Drabkin, who previously worked with Fessenden on Beneath and The Ranger.
 
The film was produced by Fessenden, James Felix McKenney, and Chris Ingvordsen, and Co-Produced by Gaby Leyner. Collin Braizie was cinematographer, following his previous stint on the Glass Eye Pix production Foxhole. Paintings for the main character’s artwork were created for the film by Brooklyn-based artist John Mitchell.
 
Blackout was shot at local shops and locations in New York’s Hudson Valley and serves as a portrait of the area including Woodstock, Olivebridge, Andes, and Kingston. Many local merchants generously supported the independent production. Fessenden explains, “My approach was to blend a naturalistic docu-style with the mythological tropes of the werewolf story, an ongoing interest to blend realism with stylization, and to fuse themes of contemporary society with classic monster movie clichés.”
 
Makeup and special effects were handled by long-time Glass Eye Pix collaborators Brian Spears and Peter Gerner, who previously created the Frankenstein monster for Fessenden’s 2019 film Depraved. Comments Fessenden, “Yes, I’m competing with Marvel and Blumhouse to create my own Monsterverse, but at a very different price-point.” Fessenden’s 1997 film Habit is a vampire film of some distinction due to its gritty 90’s New York atmosphere and naturalistic treatment of the genre.
 
Fessenden heads into post-production immediately, with his trademark impatience to get the work out in a timely fashion.

Read all about it at IndieWire, ScreenAnarchy, Fangoria and Bloody Disgusting!

WRACK is Now Available on Blu-ray and VOD!

 

WRACK is now available via blu-ray and Vimeo VOD from Channel Midnight Releasing! 

The blu-ray can be purchased here and includes the feature film and these bonus features:

- a 15-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of WRACK
- trailer for WRACK
- short science fiction film, CHAPTER FOUR
- short film, CANDYLAND, starring WRACK's Emma Sulger

WRACK and the behind the scenes featurette will be available to rent or buy via Vimeo On Demand. Watch on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.

Exclusive Interview with James Felix McKenney at Rue Morgue!

 

Chris Hallock talks to James Felix McKenney about the new movie, WRACK, and more!

Read it all here!

BURNING INSIDE Now Available to Stream!

 

BURNING INSIDE, which was originally released on DVD by Channel Midnight Releasing in 2010 is now available to stream via Vimeo On Demand!

BURNING INSIDE is an intense, surreal and violent exploration of the entangled nature of revenge and memory from Nathan Wrann, Dalton Gang Productions and Elmar Berger's Manic Entertainment.

Fear Zone's Greg Lamberson had this to say about BURNING INSIDE: "There is an awareness of filmmaking as a storytelling medium at work here that you will not find in a multiplex... A wholly original and daring piece of cinema. It's rare that acting, cinematography and editing work in such perfect harmony to create something this unique... Highly recommended to lovers of smart films."

Watch now on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, and Chromecast.

Satan Hates You and More in Brighton!

 

On Saturday July 23rd from 3PM to midnight, uncanny audiovisual cult The Outer Church rematerializes in the town of its birth for a special event as part of The Wire Magazine’s 40th anniversary celebrations.

Assorted mischief across two floors including live performances from SARAH ANGLISS (performing music from her score for Romola Garai’s acclaimed directorial debut Amulet) + MICROCORPS + OPAL X + KEMPER NORTON + NAD SPIRO plus weird cinema from Larry Fessenden’s legendary production house GLASS EYE PIX.

Films screening include WENDIGO, DARLING, THE ROOST, I CAN SEE YOU, TRIGGER MAN, LIKE ME, THE LAST WINTER and James Felix McKenney's SATAN HATES YOU.

Visit the site for more info!

The Trailer and Poster for FOXHOLE are Here!

 

The trailer for FOXHOLE has dropped, along with a gorgeous new poster by Graham Humphreys. 

See it all at at ComingSoon.net!

FOXHOLE was produced by Larry Fessenden, Adam Scherr, James Felix McKenney, and Chris Ingvordsen.

 

Rue Morgue: “WRACK,” from the creator of “AUTOMATONS,” sees release soon

  

Michael Gingold at Rue Morgue gives you the story on WRACK, along with a first look for readers of the first poster for the movie. Read it at Rue Morgue.

Horror Society also shared the news.

WRACK Coming from Channel Midnight Releasing

 

Writer/director James Felix McKenney (HYPOTHERMIA, SATAN HATES YOU, AUTOMATONS) will be releasing his new micro-budget feature film, WRACK, through his distribution label, Channel Midnight Releasing.

McKenney produced WRACK, which was filmed in Delaware County, New York, for under $1,500. The props and costumes were created by McKenney, often recycling wardrobe and hardware from Glen McQuaid's I SELL THE DEAD and his own AUTOMATONS. Both films are screening this month at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art as part of the museum's current "Oh, the Humanity! The Films of Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix" film program.

WRACK takes place in the distant future, centuries after nearly all life has been wiped out by war, disease, and environmental collapse and focuses on the planet's four remaining survivors who struggle to get along with each other even more than they do to survive. All of the masked characters speak in a fictional language created by McKenney for the film, with subtitles in English.

The film was produced by McKenney and veteran filmmaker J. Christian Ingvordsen (BLUE VENGEANCE, RAINING HELL) and stars Carol Ames, John Christian, Braxton Sohns, Emma Sugler, and Jennifer Boutell. The original score for WRACK is by the late Mink Lungs guitarist & vocalist Tim Feleppa, who recorded all of the music on an iPad while living in his car.

Channel Midnight Releasing was founded in 2010, releasing Nathan Wrann's experimental revenge movie, BURNING INSIDE, in December of that year. McKenney recently decided to resurrect the label after a lengthy hiatus as a home for WRACK, with a remastered edition of his first feature, CANNIBALLISTIC!, coming later.

"Spending more money on festival entries, traveling to film markets, and the various expenses that pile up while delivering to a distributor than we did on making the actual movie seems like a betrayal of what we set out to do with this project," says McKenney, "It makes more sense to me to continue with the same DIY spirit that WRACK was conceived and release it ourselves."

WRACK is expected to be available via streaming and blu-ray this summer.

The film's trailer is available to watch here.

 James Felix McKenney's 2006 feature, AUTOMATONS, screens at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art on April 7th and 12th.

For more information on the WRACK release as it becomes available, follow McKenney on Twitter and Instagram and visit his Studio Midnight website to sign up for his mailing list.

MOMA The Museum of Modern Art's Glass Eye Pix Retrospective on Roger Ebert.com

Simon Abrams gives you the full story on the “Oh, the Humanity! The Films of Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix” retrospective running from March 30 through April 19 at MoMA and online. Read the full article here. 

AUTOMATONS at MoMA

 

AUTOMATONS will be screening at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art on April 7 & 12 as part of the Larry Fessenden / Glass Eye Pix series. Writer-director James Felix McKenney will be there on 12th to introduce the film and for a Q&A after.

 For tickets and more information, visit the MoMA website.

"...the movie’s loving attention to light and shade transcends its hermetic setting and meager budget. At times the buzzing static and fizzy backlighting recall the glistening surrealism of the filmmaker Guy Maddin... enormously endearing"

-- Jeannette Catsoulis, NEW YORK TIMES

"AUTOMATONS is a smart, thought-provoking tale equipped with the moody ambiance and intellectual integrity of a classic episode of THE OUTER LIMITS. That's high praise indeed."

-- Steven Puchalski, SHOCK CINEMA

"Automatons is an excellent homage to the movies of yesteryear, and will be quite a thrill for anyone who misses those old days."

-- Steve Anderson, FILM THREAT

"The visuals are astonishing and the film works out its central thesis to its most appalling conclusion. Writer/editor/director McKenney is definitely one to watch."

-- David Annandale, VIDEOSCOPE

"Automatons is what happens when Eraserhead and Tetsuo the Iron Man bong themselves into oblivion and collaborate on a minimalist avant-garde sci-fi cheapie shot in a toolshed... Robot radness achieved! Budgets are for bitches. "
-- Nathan Lee, VILLAGE VOICE

"It's not a film of compromise but of sheer determination, refusing to be defined by its budget and liberated by a decision to overcome its bank account with sheer imagination."
-- S. James Snyder, NEW YORK SUN

Andris Reviews AUTOMATONS!

 
Have a look at this wonderful video from Andris Reviews about our 2006 film Automatons. Automatons will be screening at MoMA The Museum of Modern Art this April as part of their Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix film series.

The Museum of Modern Art announces a Glass Eye Pix Retrospective: 22 features! shorts! & more!

Oh, the Humanity!
The Films of Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix

Mar 30–Apr 19, 2022
MoMA, Online

For more than 40 years, Larry Fessenden has not only reinvented and reinvigorated the horror and fantasy genre through his contemporary re-imaginings of mythic archetypes—the chimera, the vampire and the ​Leviathan, the Wendigo and the Modern Prometheus—he has also, as the founder in 1985 of the scrappy, resolutely independent New York production company Glass Eye Pix, nurtured the early careers of a diverse array of talents including Kelly Reichardt (River of Grass and Wendy and Lucy), Ti West (The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers), Rick Alverson (The Comedy), Graham Reznick (I Can See You), Jim Mickle (Stake Land), Ilya Chaiken (Liberty Kid)​, and James Felix McKenney​ (Automatons and Satan Hates You)​​.

Celebrating his extraordinary career as a writer, director, producer, actor, cinematographer, editor, and songwriter, this major retrospective of Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix presents more than 20 feature films screened in MoMA’s theaters, as well as an additional selection of features and shorts streaming on our Virtual Cinema platform (available to MoMA members across the US). Perhaps the true terror—and the liberating promise—of Fessenden’s work, which includes Habit (1997), No Telling (1991), Wendigo (2000), The Last Winter (2007), and Depraved (2019), is the extent to which the world today, our so-called Anthropocene epoch, has come to mirror his own uncanny visions of existential crisis: of ecological collapse and worldwide plague, historical trauma and amnesia, the dehumaniz​ing effects​ of technology, and a profound alienation from the animal world and ourselves through a failure of the empathic imagination.

Organized by Joshua Siegel, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art.

Visit the MOMA website here.