Bryan Bertino crafted a fantastic home invasion flick with The Strangers. It was environmental and terrifying, but it also seemed fresh while playing off of old standbys in the genre. Now, he’ll be joining the handful of directors attempting to breathe life into Found Fauxtage. According to Shock Till You Drop, the writer/director has sold his script for Mockingbird to Universal. The film will focus on a couple that receives a package containing instructions that, if not followed, will yield some bloody results. Also in the package? A camera. Because you can’t have Found Fauxtage without one. It’s an interesting, game-like premise that absolutely has potential, but it’s just great to Bertino getting another project off the ground after the hellish development of The Strangers 2, which will probably not be made at this point. Interestingly, this announcement comes right around the same time that Universal dropped its Stretch Armstrong remake with Taylor Lautner slated to star. In a craven world of giant tentpoles, a movie based off a toy with built-in awareness and a Twilight star just got axed while an original script with a curious premise got picked up. Maybe the tide is turning after all. At least at Universal.

Back in November, we reported that newly un-retired director Steven Soderbergh’s next film would be a thriller about the world of psychopharmacology called Bitter Pill. Following Soderbergh’s projects has been kind of a roller coaster ride lately though, so having faith that Bitter Pill was actually going to get made was kind of a…ahem, tough pill to swallow. But things are now looking a lot better on that front. While this is still the Scott Z. Burns script that Soderbergh intends to work on, the film has now been retitled Side Effects, a seemingly arbitrary change that at least points to the fact that active work is being done on development. And that’s not even the big news. The big news is that heiress Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures is stepping up to fund the film, alongside Open Road Films, who will be handling the domestic distribution. That kind of makes this one a lot more official, and seeing as Open Road is hoping for a release in the first half of 2013, shooting is scheduled to start in April and the casting process should begin ASAP. I would imagine that Soderbergh is calling up Matt Damon and George Clooney as we speak. [THR]

In the new thriller Faces in the Crowd, Milla Jovovich plays the only woman to see the face of a serial killer who is murdering his way through the city. Unfortunately, she suffers from face-blindness, meaning that her ability to recognize her boyfriend is suspect, not to mention her skill at finding a killer in an urban haystack. In this exclusive clip, Jovovich’s character hits the police department after being attacked on a bridge by the madman, only to be received by a gruff detective played by 150% of Julian McMahon and a frazzled assistant who can’t seem to adlib a solid exit line. What’s funny is that you can either watch the clip right here and now, or simply watch the scene as part of the entire film which is available right now on Netflix streaming. Or you can do both:

On Halloween night, 1993 River Phoenix cut his own life and acting career short when he died of a drug overdose outside The Viper Room in West Hollywood. Before he died, he had made a strong mark on the movie world with performances in Stand By Me, My Own Private Idaho and an Oscar nomination for his role in Running On Empty. Phoenix appeared in three films that were released in 1993, but there was one left unfinished – a thriller called Dark Blood that dealt with the long-term effects of nuclear testing and saw Phoenix playing a hermit widower living out in the desert awaiting the end of the world. Eighteen years later, director George Sluizer (The Vanishing) is announcing that he plans on editing the film into a completed print and releasing it sometime in 2012. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sluizer plans on requesting that Joaquin Phoenix do some voice over work as a stand in for his late brother. It will be wonderful to see River Phoenix on screen again, but beyond the curiosity here, the film doesn’t sound particularly remarkable. Sluizer had an uneven career, and the script for Dark Blood was written by Jim Barton – who has 5 lesser works to his name. However, the film co-stars Jonathan Pryce and Judy Davis, and there’s always the chance that Sluizer can create something as electric as The Vanishing once again.

Why Watch? A suggestive thriller that will leave you freezing in your own shower. Writer/director Joby Stephens has created a film that oscillates between a beautiful girl lying in a bathtub (an image that can physically drop your core temperature by its design) and a frolicking night out at the clubs. It’s a dreamy twist on a simple fear – something we all keep in the back of our minds whenever we go out. The music does almost as much heavy lifting as the inevitable, but it’s perfect for a quick feeling of unease and a semi-voyeuristic look into two very different bathrooms. What does it cost? Just 7 minutes of your time. Check out the trailer for Skin Deep for yourself:

The Holding begins with a dark action and stumbles its way through thriller territory, making pit stops along the way to undermine itself every time it starts to get gritty. Cassie Naylor (Kierston Wareing) is a tough woman whose farm is struggling, whose teenage daughter Hannah (Skye Lourie) is rebelling, and whose youngest daughter Amy (Maisie Lloyd) is beginning to get curious about everything around her. Even though a friendly old man called Cooper (David Bradley) helps out with the cows and the sewage pump, the holding is still not turning a profit. Bills are piling up, and Cassie’s neighbor Karsten (Terry Stone) is overtly obsessed with buying the land one way or another. That’s when aimless drifter Aden (Vincent Regan) enters the picture. He solves a few problems for Cassie and her young girls but ultimately becomes one himself.

Headhunters has an instinct about it that’s cutthroat with a smile. It’s a comedy of errors with a gun pointed at its head, and it all works with an intensity that manages to be thrilling right up to the end. In the movie, Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie) is in over his head (which he considers already too low to the ground) because he thinks his wife (Synnøve Macody Lund) needs the finer things in life. He’s a well-respected job placement rep, connecting the highest salaries to the biggest companies, but he has to supplement his lifestyle by stealing art. When he catches wind of a new client (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) with a criminal career-endingly expensive lost masterpiece, he jumps at the chance, but there are forces much larger at work which see him running from his life and fighting for his marriage.

The Debt is a painstakingly old-fashioned drama that’s far more interested in the nuances of human behavior than exploitation or pyrotechnics. At the same time, in telling the parallel stories of Mossad agents hunting a Nazi doctor in East Berlin circa 1966 and those same agents dealing with the consequences of that mission 30 years later, John Madden’s film evokes the existential themes that lie at the heart of Israel’s creation. To straddle both those worlds within the constraints of a tightly-wound thriller is a considerable accomplishment. And this eloquent remake of a 2007 Israeli picture with the same name harkens back to the old-fashioned aesthetics of genre movies that mean something, films that are unafraid of drawing out big ideas between familiar lines. The film stars Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds as the older version of agents Rachel Singer, Stephan Gold and David Peretz, who discover that the book has not been written on their mission of 30+ years ago with the finality they thought it had. Jessica Chastain, Martin Csokas and Sam Worthington play their younger selves, tracking the sadistic Doktor Bernhardt (Jesper Christensen) astride the Iron Curtain.

While most viral outbreak films take us right into the heart of patient zero and the hordes of humanity flooding the streets to escape sneezing to death, Retreat takes the clever route by presenting it from the viewpoint of people who have no idea what’s going on. Unless there is no outbreak. But what if there is? Or maybe there’s not, but there’s no way to tell what’s truly happening in this first trailer which highlights Cillian Murphy and Thandie Newton as a couple taking a holiday on a small island when an armed man (Jamie Bell) washes ashore claiming that the mainland has been crushed by a virus that floats on the air. Check it out for yourself:

Why Watch? We all hold cameras in our hands now. People have started using the iPhone 4 to make films, and it’s a strong representation of a new low-budget filmmaking technique that’s still a bit wobbly. Park Chan-wook and Park Chan-kyong made a pro flick with the phone, and we’ve featured an amateur iPhone movie (that was pure joy), but this is the first to truly evoke a 1970s sense of horror without a budget. It’s a sense that the person behind the camera has skill even if the equipment has severe limitations. Plus, director Vinod Bharathan borrows more than a few angles from the thrillers of the past, and having an attractive, pantsless blonde walking around with a knife is something everyone can enjoy. What does it cost? Just 5 minutes of your time. Check out Limbo for yourself:

While at Cannes, our own Simon Gallagher called Miss Bala, “a blend of situational horror and politically-laced action thriller that I’d have no trouble recommending to anyone.” As a Briton, that’s the most excited he can legally get. The film from Gerardo Naranjo focuses on a young woman named Laura (played by Stephanie Sigman) who is entering the Miss Baja competition with a friend. When thugs shoot up the place and leave her alive, she finds herself in the quicksand of the drug cartel world where she’s in near constant danger. The film is also a social comment on how bad things have gotten in Mexico, told with the kinetic language of bullets and desperate situations. Now, you can check out the trailer for yourself:

It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a film from legendary Scarface director Brian De Palma. The last was an Iraq war drama called Redacted that came out in 2007, but honestly I don’t even remember that one happening. The last time he did something that I even recognized as a De Palma film was The Black Dhalia in 2006. And before that there was 2000’s Mission to Mars, which I only remember because of how laughably bad it was. Suffice to say, Brian De Palma has been off of the radar for a while. It felt a little strange today to see his name randomly pop up when Deadline Lenexa reported that he had signed on to direct a film called The Key Man. Written by relative newcomer Joby Harold, The Key Man is said to be tonally in tune with that spat of 70s thrillers that took over for a while and was probably best encompassed by Marathon Man and Three Days of the Condor. It’s going to be about a single father being tracked by government agents because his body contains important national secrets. In his body? How did that happen? “Million to one shot, doc.” Gross. All possibilities of anal insertion humor aside, is anybody looking forward to a thriller directed by Brian De Palma? The 70s style throwback makes it sound a little intriguing to me, but this is a director I wrote off a while ago. Do we have any indication that he might [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

Editor’s Note: This review originally ran during Fantastic Fest 2010, but every word of it still applies today as Cold Fish sees a limited release this week. The key to making someone disappear is to cut up the body into tiny bite sized chunks and to separate the meat from the bone. From there, you can burn the bones in an industrial barrel and drop the diced human into the river to be eaten by the fish. It takes a time commitment, but it’s really a simple procedure. This is just one of the many lessons presented in the movie Cold Fish, the new work from Sion Sono that tells the story of Shamoto (Mitsuru Fukikoshi), a timid tropical fish store owner who is bullied by his daughter and shut out from sexual intercourse by his wife. Murata (Denden), a fellow entrepreneur in the fish world, helps the family out by employing the rebellious daughter, leaving the household open for fornication to commence, and making Shamoto his latest business partner on a big score. Of course, all of this comes at a heavy cost, and Shamoto soon learns how to make someone disappear.

A box just landed on my doorstep, and as the UPS man drove away, I opened it up to find a device that gets rid of germs on cell phones using some sort of UV light. Why would a marketing department send me that? Because inside was a USB drive containing the first trailer for Contagion – the forthcoming viral outbreak thriller from Steven Soderbergh. What better way to kick everything off? Plus, the trailer is gripping. Matt Damon brings the intensity, Laurence Fishburne brings the expertise, the rest of the cast (including Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard and Jude Law) bring anxiety, but behind every single performance is a major element of fear. Holy hell, this looks great:

Can we all take a moment and be thankful that Paul Schrader – the man who wrote Taxi Driver and Rolling Thunder and Raging Bull and Mosquito Coast and wrote/directed American Gigolo – is still pumping out films? His recent work doesn’t belong on the sky-high pedestal that these names do, but Adam Resurrected was a pretty solid movie, and his lack of retired status means he can team with Bret Easton Ellis to deliver Bait. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Schrader is going to work with Ellis on the script (and direct the film) which sees a young man taking revenge on the wealthy by weaseling his way into a yacht club, snagging a boat, and taking a few fat cats out to the deep end where hungry fish await. It’s unclear what propels the revenge, but this pairing is a dream come true. Don’t expect this one to be PC. Or pretty.

Turns out all it takes to become a big star these days is flowing blonde locks, bulging muscles, a sly grin, and a giant war hammer. Who knew? After playing the Norse God of Thunder in Marvel’s most recent hero flick Thor, actor Chris Hemsworth has become a bit of a hot commodity. Good for him. Never to miss an opportunity, Sony has capitalized on this new Hemsworth craze by finding the actor a brand new movie to star in. They’ve acquired the rights to a film called Shadow Runner, which will see Hemsworth playing the leader of a covert team who specializes in taking on impossible tasks. The film is loosely inspired by a real life event where an Israeli hit team took out a Hamas leader in a five star hotel in Dubai, but it doesn’t appear as if that specific story is the one that will be told in the movie. So, I guess, one of the producers of this film just read an article about covert ops, had his mind blown, and decided to make a movie about it. What’s the over under on how long it takes before this thing gets retooled to be about Seal Team Six?  [Deadline Coronado]

Decades before Scream made us afraid of the telephone, Midnight Lace scared Doris Day to death with the damned thing. Rex Harrison plays her loving husband, whose accent is the most frightening thing of all. It’s a truly terrifying thriller where nothing is ever clear, everyone is suspect, and Day’s character might even be making the whole thing up. Or she might be insane. That’s always an option. Everything is on the table in this incredible mystery that makes great use of its twist ending. Fortunately, the trailer dares the audience not to be fully creeped out by the first few lines.

Updated: The original, poorly dubbed trailer has been replaced by a subtitled version that’s much, much, much better. Huzzah! Original Post: First of all, the dubbing in this trailer is terrible. It’s laughably bad, as most dubbing is. Please ignore it. For if you do, you’ll get a much better experience of a gripping, increasingly tense trailer. Miguel Angel Vivas’s Kidnapped takes a very familiar conceit and seeks to squeeze every ounce of fear out of it. A group of criminals takes a family hostage in their home and forces the credit cards out of their pockets. Unfortunately, crime doesn’t pay, because (unlike the morons in Funny Games) this family fights back. Apparently, there will be blood.

Wait Until Dark is undoubtedly one of the most terrifying movies made in the 1960s, and it’s probably the scariest thing Audrey Hepburn ever starred in (unless you’re deathly afraid of vocal coaches (or were really hit hard by Charade)). Here she plays a blind woman (Hepburn even learned to read Braille for the role) who has a trio of villains (led in a dynamite role by Alan Arkin) in her apartment after a doll they believe is filled with delicious heroin. In a deft move, the film focuses directly on Hepburn’s Susy Hendrix, but her character doesn’t even make it to the screen until almost half an hour into the action. It’s an incredibly taut thriller that stays just as frightening on repeat viewings.

The second film of the day, and one of the reasons why I so enjoy the Un Certain Regard section of this festival: for among the intentional oddities, and the boring experiments there are usually a number of gems that fit the competition’s manifesto of presenting films that are “worth a look” extremely well, Miss Bala is an incredibly terse, and successfully tense situational horror/thriller. The film begins conventionally enough, with Laura (Stephanie Sigman), attempting to enter the Miss Baja California with her friend Suzu, and then joining her at a club with its own police-devoted VIP section (or so it seems), in order to – as Suzu suggests – get in with some powerful men who can help them win the contest. Following an altercation with one of said policemen, Laura finds herself in the toilet, surrounded by armed gang members, who shoot the place up, leaving Laura to survive, but to fret over her friend’s fate. Attempting to track down what happened to her, Laura ends up being delivered to the same cartel, after approaching the wrong policeman, and becomes embroiled in an endlessly progressing spiral of events alongside the charismatically malignant cartel leader. Miss Bala presents a Mexico that is rotting from the inside: corruption runs rampant to the extent that no one is to be trusted, regardless of what their badge might suggest, drug trafficking and running gun battles are an everyday occurrence, and the value of human life is far less than the appeal of power [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]