Beauty School : Severin Films’ Tales of the Uncanny to Premiere at Wales’ Abertoir Festival

Severin Films’ Tales of the Uncanny to premiere at Wales’ Abertoir Festival

After originally starting out as a bonus feature for Severin Films’ upcoming Special Edition Blu-ray of The Theatre Bizarre, the documentary Tales of the Uncanny — The Ultimate Survey of Anthology Horror expanded into a feature-length project filmed over Zoom and is now coming to Abertoir — The International Horror Festival of Wales for its world premiere!

Co-hosts/producers David Gregory, director of the award-winning Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau, and Kier-La Janisse, author of House of Psychotic Women: An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films, queried a global roster of more than 60 horror writers, directors and scholars that include Eli Roth, Joe Dante, Mark Hartley, Mick Garris, Ernest Dickerson, Joko Anwar, Ramsey Campbell, David DeCoteau, Kim Newman, Jovanka Vuckovic, Luigi Cozzi, Tom Savini, Jenn Wexler, Larry Fessenden, Richard Stanley, Michael Gingold, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Brian Yuzna, Gary Sherman, Rebekah McKendry and Peter Strickland in a candid discussion of such film/TV classics as Dead of Night, Black Sabbath, Kwaidan, Spirits of the Dead, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors, The House That Dripped Blood, Asylum, Tales From the Crypt, The Twilight Zone, Creepshow, Tales From the Darkside, Trilogy of Terrror, Two Evil Eyes, V/H/S, XX and more.

“We had a lot of fun with our COVID Project, and it gave friends and colleagues a chance to ponder and articulate the enduring appeal of the format,” co-producer Kier-La Janisse said in a statement. “The anthology horror film is an extension of much older traditions of storytelling that are especially valued in the horror community, and though the films are by nature a mixed bag, there’s a reason we keep returning to them again and again.”

“I’ve loved horror anthologies since seeing The Monster Club when I was 9,” director/co-producer David Gregory said in a statement. “And most horror filmmakers and fans love them too, often getting into heated discussions about their favorites. Kier-La and I decided to ask our horror industry colleagues and friends to determine the experts’ Top 5 films and segments that would make the ultimate horror omnibus movie. The results surprised us all.”

Tales of the Uncanny — The Ultimate Survey of Anthology Horror is set to debut at Abertoir from October 28 – November 1 and will be widely available this November, in tandem with The Theatre Bizarre Special Edition, as a Sever Films’ Limited-Edition Blu-ray featuring special anthology horror archival rarities.