Five undergrad witches come together in order to perform a ritual to invoke the ancient powers of the witch Ashura. The leader of the coven gets carried away and accidentally kills one of the witches during the ritual. She needs the strength of a complete coven to invoke Ashura’s powers and sends them out to find a final witch. As she absorbs power the surviving girls’ plot to take her down but the possessed witch unleashes hell on campus with only one young witch left to stop her.
Before watching Margaret Malandruccolo’s Coven, I was expecting it to be quite bad. I never usually go into a film with that sort of mindset. I try my hardest to be optimistic about every single movie that I watch and to be fair, I was willing to give Coven a chance. But, I was a little hesitant about it. The poster looked as if it was for a direct-to-DVD film that released in the early 90s that nobody had ever heard of. Plus, witch movies have never been ones that I particularly enjoy, but as I said, I was willing to give it a chance.
Unfortunately, instead of being a pleasant surprise, Coven is a cinematic curse and is one of the worst movies of the year so far. It has virtually nothing to offer and will make you want to stop watching at every passing minute. Watching the entire film was definitely a chore for me, and I’m genuinely shocked that I was able to stay awake during it.
It’s a film with a story that doesn’t work for multiple reasons. One – it’s just not interesting. This type of premise has been done hundreds of times before, and better, too. It plays out in an extremely familiar fashion and has no surprises up its sleeves. The plotline goes the exact same direction you think it’s going to go.
Two – it can be incredibly confusing, especially early on. So many weird and zany things happen just in the first ten minutes alone to the point where I was seriously questioning what I was watching. There are lots of scenes here that feel completely out of place and even some that will make you uncomfortable, but not in a good way. Sometimes, it truly feels like an inappropriate movie.
But aside from the heavily messy, dreadfully boring story, one of the other massive problems Coven suffers from is its characters. They are all deeply unlikable and have no redeeming qualities to them. It’s hard to root for the main characters in your movie when they’re all witches that feel trope-ridden and make decisions that make you shake your head.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmCaj8BehF8
Even just aside from that, it’s a visually bland film that doesn’t have anything nice to look at. It would have been delightful if the film, as bad as it is, had some good cinematography and clever use of lighting in order to set the mood for a ritualistic story. But no. It looks and feels like it belongs on the Lifetime channel. It’s poorly lit and features stale cinematography. The film has no memorable shots.
The only redeeming quality of Coven is the fact that it is only eighty minutes in length, including two minutes of credits. If it was any longer, it would have felt like I was under an even worse spell.
Coven is a heavily messy, trope-filled disaster with an array of unlikeable characters and a story that feels dated and familiar.
Tristan Hamm is the Founder and CEO of several companies including Revived Outdoors and Revived Media. Tristan is a large nature, fitness, adventure advocate and entrepreneur. He has been recognized across the globe for making numerous appearances on national TV, the web and social platforms for his mental health efforts and inclusive adventure retreats that guide both new and experienced adventurer’s of all ages. His goal is to bring people together in an adventure community to share their love for nature. By Eleanor Klein.
Today I had the opportunity to catch up with him…
Our readers would love to know more about your backstory. How did your journey as an entrepreneur begin?
As a kid, watching my single mother struggle raising 3 kids with no money and no government assistance, I knew from a very young age that I not only wanted to be in control of my fate financially, but that I needed to. I lived through the hardships and battled the repercussions of being broke and I made a promise to myself that I would never be that person. So entrepreneurship wasn’t a choice for me… It was the only option. Then when the time was right, I made the shift.
What did you want to be when you were a child?
As a child I always wanted to become a “millionaire”, until I realized that becoming a millionaire wasn’t the goal but changing a million lives could be. Now thats a true millionaire.
Was there a particular moment when your success accelerated?
Success accelerated for me when I finally realized that I am in full control of my own fate. That anything I personally do, is likely the first time it has ever been done! And if I think I can do it, it means I can. That means cutting out the doubters and neigh-sayers from my life and shortening my circle of people I allowed to have impact on my emotional state. Because it’s that internal state that keeps me going.
How do you define success?
To me, success is measured by the amount of lives I have positively impacted, the amount I have added to this world.
How have you navigated you businesses through the pandemic?
When I started my first company, I never had funding other than my own savings. This meant that I had to form multiple revenue streams to keep the business funded through the startup phase. This is where my media/marketing side really shined. Marketing services is something that every company needs, and with every eye on social media, it was truly the way for us to bring in extra funding to fuel Revived Outdoors. So from day 1 of the launch of my adventure company, we already had a full in house production company and marketing agency lined up, ready to generate funds. These are services that can be utilized at any moment no matter the pandemics of the word because there are millions of companies that need to stay alive. So when Covid hit, and the income we relied off for our trips paused, we simply went back to our old roots. I took everyone at Revived Outdoors and instead of laying everyone off, we adjusted and re-focused that energy into forming our very own media agency “Revived Media” and started wholesaling out production and influencer marketing services out to agencies! This is a big win for agencies as they now get direct insider access to our success stories and direct access to our in-house team at Revived Outdoors!
Where do you see yourself in five years time?
In 5 years, I see the launch of our wilderness rehabilitation program and underprivileged children program at Revived Outdoors, and I foresee hundreds of thousands of lives being changed by inspiring more people to turn to nature and the outdoors when they are battling something internally. I also see us being the leader in Retreat services in America for any company looking to run am adventure retreats, we are going to be on their wish list.
What is the best advice you have ever received?
Keep your corner tight. You can welcome in thousands to your community! But be very careful to those you let in your corner. Your corner is sacred, its the fountain for your inspiration and motivation. If you let the wrong people in, those waters will be contaminated and slowly work its way throughout your entire body until you feel weak! If you keep your corner tight, you can be the gatekeeper to your own life, only allowing in positive individuals that want nothing but the best for you. So keep those waters pure and keep that corner tight.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
My advice would be to find your own path. The only thing you will find in someone else’s footsteps are empty prints. But what you can do is learn from someones footsteps, study their footsteps, and find a way to adjust your trek on your very own path.
Folklore Edition: Bits & Pieces – As a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather to plot a war to wipe out millions, one man must race against time to stop them. Discover the origins of the very first independent intelligence agency in “The King’s Man.”
Premiering in lounge rooms this August, an exhilarating new science-fiction thriller that’ll have you “begging for more”*, Invasion Earth. The story follows a group of addicts who attend therapy to avoid being sent to prison, while a TV journalist goes undercover and joins the group to try and expose this as a scam. However, all of their lives are thrown into chaos by the beginning of an alien invasion.
After deciding they would be each other’s “first,” Liza (Mikey Madison) and Brett (Sean H. Scully), a young couple trying to figure out love and growing up in the summer of ‘66, take a motorcycle road trip up the California coast. With one last chance to live like there’s no tomorrow in a world filled with war, fear, and change, fate will offer them more than they ever expected to find on the warm and winding highway.
Around The Sun is an indie romantic drama with a sci-fi twist. It’s an intimate tale of love, reason and realising you’re not the centre of the universe. Bernard (Gethin Anthony), a film location scout, tours a repossessed and crumbling French château. Over the course of an afternoon, he falls for both the place and its owner’s flirtatious representative, Maggie (Cara Theobold), who recounts the story of an influential popular-science book written and set there. But is their present-tense connection for real, or just a projection of the book’s 17th-century characters?
After testing his sobriety at a bachelor party on the Vegas strip, Gavin, a recovered drug addict and former TV star and his childhood friends return to their hotel room. Gavin finds that his unresolved past with his friends and his “savior” girlfriend present much more of threat to his sobriety than the strip did. As the night escalates, Gavin and his friends are forced to face their demons within the walls of the hotel room…with or without each other’s help.
Creating waves on the US festival circuit and garnering best feature awards galore Echoes of Fear is set to scare the living daylights out of UK audiences as it arrives on digital and DVD this summer from Second Sight Films.
Modern Films are pleased to release the UK trailer for the adrenaline-filled Italian Academy Award submission THE TRAITOR,which will be released in UK and Irish cinemas and via virtual theatrical screenings on 24 July 2020.
COUP 53, the debut feature documentary thriller by Iranian director Taghi Amirani, will receive a unique digital release on 19thAugust 2020, the 67th anniversary of the CIA/MI6 coup in Iran. For one night only, the film will take the unprecedented step of being screened virtually in collaboration with 300+ venues in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. A ticket for the screening also includes an exclusive Q+A with the team behind the film including Amirani and editor Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Conversation, The English Patient) which will be available on 20th August.
The official trailer and artwork by Lorenzo Ceccotti for The Book of Vision, from Carlo S. Hintermann, launches today. His debut feature film opens the 35th Venice International Film Critic’s Week in Italy on September 3rd 2020.
Two couples on an oceanside getaway grow suspicious that the host of their seemingly perfect rental house may be spying on them. Before long, what should have been a celebratory weekend trip turns into something far more sinister, as well-kept secrets are exposed and the four old friends come to see each other in a whole new light. Alison Brie, Dan Stevens, Jeremy Allen White, and Sheila Vand star in this unnerving and sophisticated debut thriller from Dave Franco (NEIGHBORS, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, THE DISASTER ARTIST).
After committing a violent robbery, brothers Mathias and Jamie are making a getaway with their loot when a simple stop at a gas station escalates into a shoot-out due to Jamie’s violent impulses. With Mathias mortally wounded, trigger-happy Jamie is forced to stalk a trauma doctor named Rich (Chad Michael Murray) from the hospital to his home. Holding Richʼs wife, daughter, and ex-sheriff father hostage, Jamie demands Rich operate on Mathias and either save his life or lose his family…
Immediately gripping, ominously scored and truly frightening, SPUTNIK is the debut feature from Egor Abramenko, based on his short film of the same name. A gripping cross between Species and Chernobyl, or Arrival with fangs, this Cold War-era sci-fi chiller features a wonderful lead performance from Oksana Akinshina (Lilya 4-Ever, Bourne Supremacy) and is a smartly-scripted examination of a society unready, or unwilling, for change. This striking, unexpectedly moving debut from Abramenko delivers, and it comes as no surprise that SPUTNIK has proved the top-streaming title in Russia in the past two years.
High schooler Julie (Madison Reyes) lost her passion for music after her mom died last year. But when the ghosts of three dreamy musicians (Charlie Gillespie, Jeremy Shada, Owen Patrick Joyner) from 1995 suddenly appear in her mom’s old music studio, Julie feels her own inner spirit beginning to reawaken, and she’s inspired to start singing and writing songs again. As their friendship with Julie grows, the boys convince her to create a new band together: Julie and the Phantoms. From Emmy Award-winning director Kenny Ortega (High School Musical, Descendants), executive producers Dan Cross and Dave Hoge (The Thundermans, Pair of Kings), and choreographer Paul Becker (Descendants, Mirror Mirror) comes a fresh and exciting new musical series about embracing life’s ups and downs, following your dreams, and discovering the power of your own voice.
Fifteen years ago, two teenage girls were murdered at Merrymaker Campgrounds. The case was filed as an animal attack, the camp was condemned, and the killer never found. But something horrific still waits in those woods, ready to kill again.
ILY Films are thrilled to announce the upcoming digital download release of action royalty Bruce Willis’ (Die Hard) latest high octane thriller ‘Hard Kill‘ on September 14th across all major platforms.
Street Artist 1Penemy is the artist responsible for creating THOSE viral mugshots of supermodels around the streets of Soho, New York City. With fans of his work including Cindy Crawford, Hannah Ferguson and Michaela Vybohova, 1Penemy is quickly becoming a household name in the world of street art. By Eleanor Klein.
Today we had the opportunity to catch up with him…
When did you first get into street art?
Well that’s an interesting question, it was back in 2016 I started emerging as a street artist that is now starting to catch the attention of the art community. Everyone knows me as Dr. Nicholas Toscano due to the famous model faces I treat in my office but my 1Penemy artwork became known for the popular mug shots of famous models that I wheatpaste around New York City. My edgy artwork degrades the glamour of high fashion to an ideological statement that is so poignant today.In addition to the famous models I treat in my office, I also take care of over 100 artists in NYC, Miami, and LA which include such famous artists as Bradley Theodore, Jeremy Penn, Layer Cake, Tripp Derrick Barnes, BY Flore, Producer BDB, Jason Ackerman, Alan Jeffery and many others. Over the years these artist where very generous with me not only giving me their art but also inviting me out to their shows and many became my close friend. Through their influence I developed a natural passion for the arts and decided to give it a go.
When did you reveal yourself as 1Penemy and why?
Well Street art and graffiti art is not exactly legal, so I decided to come up with a name reflective of that, the name 1PENEMY stands for Number 1 public enemy. I have a passion for art but I wanted to keep the graffiti street art part of my life a secret as I built my art brand. So, I decided to keep my dental life separate from my street art until recently. I started my art in 2016 and from 2016 to 2020 people would take pictures next to my famous 1penemy SOHO model line street installations and they would tag my art instagram. As my art page grew so did the requests for people to buy my art. During the quarantine, I had time to step away from my busy dental practice and focus on my art. I finished over 30 new works of art while expanding my street presence with my installations. So the quarantine was a great time to finally reveal my secret art persona and the responce as been amazing. People love it and have been so supportive of my work.
What has been your favorite piece to date?
There are so many. But as people know im a big Batman fan and my Joker series I did most people love. My 1PENEMY street art is influenced by Warhol’s most highly-priced and prominent pieces featured female celebrities, such as Marilyn Monroe, Liza Minelli, Liz Taylor, Debbie Harry, and Joan Collins. His work explored the shallowness of fame and the sensationalism of death – highlighting a society that considered women to be products rather than human beings. My 1PENEMY work embraces this spirit by degrading his high-profile female subjects, not only by featuring them in a mugshot and displaying them in “lineup”, but also by wheat pasting them like “wanted” posters in back alleys and on graffitied walls. It’s a forceful statement about society’s perception of women – holding them to an unrealistic standard of perfection and shaming them to an unbridled degree for falling short. My SOHO model lineup achieves something very similar, placing the ultimate symbol of glamour and perfection in a context that represents society’s greatest failings. My Joker series features the makeup of Marvel’s Joker villain, it speaks to the fact that women are not only expected to accept the status quo but should grin and bear it as well.
A collection of 1Penemy Art
Who or what are your three biggest inspirations?
Warhol the godfather of Pop Art, Banksy one of the most iconic street artists today and Jean Michel Basquiat for his artistic genius. What is the best advice you have received? You’re never out of the fight —-A navy seal made me memorize their creed “My Nation expects me to be physically harder and mentally stronger than my enemies. If knocked down, I will get back up, every time. I will draw on every remaining ounce of strength to protect my teammates and to accomplish our mission. I am never out of the fight” I relate this to my goals and aspirations and will never give up until I accomplish my goals.
I had the wonderful opportunity to interview Xinyi Zhu, director of the brilliant new short-film: Kindling. This Coming-of-Age Drama focuses on estranged friends who reunite when one needs the other’s support through an abortion.
Hi Xinyi, where are you calling from today?
I’m in Los Angeles; I’ve been here since the start of the lockdown. I’m planning to move back to my home country, China, maybe soon, but I currently live in LA.
Did you move to LA to study film?
I moved to LA seven years ago for my undergraduate study in Psychology at UCLA, but I’m now studying film at USC.
How did you get involved as a director on Kindling?
Kindling was made in a class at USC. Every semester the school chooses three narrative films to fund, they selected three directors and gave us a bunch of scripts. Usually they are pretty non-relevant stories, but I found Kindling and I really felt like that was me and my friends, and just my experience told in another way. So I pitched for it and I got it.
Did you work much with the writer throughout the process?
Yeh- The writer came up with the original script, which is structurally and tonally very different to what is now the final film. I would say I worked a lot with the writer. Originally the script was kind of snarky and there were a lot more plot lines, but I wanted to cut down on all the extraneous stuff to have this prolonged silence and unspoken conflicts between the two women. I think the writing process never stopped until the end product. A lot of the actual footage came not from the re-writes, but from the rehearsal.
So the writer, Sheridan Watson, was happy for you to make those changes and move things around a bit?
Yeh! I really appreciated the essence of the story she had originally. And I think she appreciated my point of view as a director. When I made my pitch, it was not just that I chose the story but she also chose me. She watched my reel and we all agreed to work together.
Do you have experience with writing? Is that something you are interested in doing yourself?
I do write, it was just the class’s structure that every person only had one position. I’m a writer/director. I actually just finished my first feature script during the pandemic.
What subject matter are you attracted to as a director?
I’m interested in topics about women and women’s rights. Growing up, as a teenager exploring my gender and sexuality I didn’t have much guidance. I was reading old French books like The Second Sex and stuff like that. I couldn’t find a lot of contemporary stuff that would be much easier to absorb as a teenager. Even now I am constantly looking for that. I love when films talk about women’s issues and women’s lives in a normal situation. I feel like people shy away from talking about abortion, saying “it’s in Alabama it’s not around us”, but that’s so not true. I know so many women who have had abortions. That’s from my Grandma to my Mum, to my friend’s Mums, to my friends. I think it is really important to normalize these conversations.
I also feel like as a woman, all of the female relationships I’ve been in, especially the ones that are super close, they aren’t as simple as “just friendship”. I think there’s a big sense of family in it when we get really close, and a bit of romance as well. It’s really ambiguous but I think the only way to define it is to call it women’s intimate relationships. I’ve always wanted to make a film about that.
Would you say you were trying to convey a message with this film? If so what was it?
I think there is a pro-choice message in there for sure. But I think the portrait of the pro-choice is created by showing the two women making a choice. I think the pro-life and pro-choice debate is kind of meaningless, because to me it’s so obvious that a human being needs to have a choice. Pro-choice means she can choose life if she wants, because pro-choice is so big it covers pro-life. I think showing a woman making a choice is the message.
The film seems to be getting some attention for awards, why do you think that is?
First of all I think I had two really amazing actresses who had really amazing chemistry. Also, I think the subject matter is quite “current”. I’m happy that people are thinking that this is worth showing- the concept of normalizing woman’s struggles.
Why and how did you get into directing, and what are some of your career goals?
I got into directing actually quite late. I always liked filmmaking but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do in it, and I really tried lots of things. I started with producing and production design. When I decided to study at USC, I thought I would only work on writing/directing because that’s what I want to do even though it’s a risking profession. I think I can only write what I can direct, but I enjoy directing so much that I want to direct everything. Going forward, I want to move towards work that has more of an Asian heritage, set in my home town, is literally about my own story and that’s culturally specific.
What’s next for you career-wise?
I’ve joined a new media group where I will direct animation that’s about female sex education, and it’s in Chinese. I’m really passionate about this project because when I was growing up nobody educated me about these things. Even when I as reading some of the research I was like “I never knew this”! I also just finished a short-film script about a teenage girl who wants to run away before the collage entry exams, but that’s all been put on hold during these lockdowns. Then the feature that I just wrote- which is set in my home town- I’ve been sending around to some contacts. I’ve also been making plans to act in a friend’s project about two women’s relationships, which I think she wants to make into a feature. I just feel like I can’t stay still!
