Vertical Entertainment

ENHANCED: James Mark’s New ‘Kill Order’ Goes Wide In The New Sci-Fi Sequel Trailer From Vertical

Lee B. Golden III

It was a few years ago when we first covered Enhanced, stunt multi-hyphenate and filmmaker James Mark’s (On The Ropes)follow-up to 2017 sci-fi martial arts thriller, Kill Order. Hitting up the Toronto After Dark Film Festival in late 2019 with WTF Films repping international sales thereafter, the newest sign of its North American release now comes thanks to Vertical Entertainment with a rollout slated for March 26 on VOD and Digital. Stamped as Mark’s third directorial offering, Enhanced ultimately sees Mark’s brother, actor and industry stunt performer Chris Mark (Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, The Boys, October Faction) make his return to the front of the lens following his starring debut in Kill Order. That film saw the younger Mark in the role of David, a high school student battling bouts of mania and torment connected to mysterious superhuman abilities that awaken when an armed tactical squad raids his classroom. […]

PAYBACK Gets An Official Trailer For Joseph Mensch’s Directorial Crime Drama Debut

Lee B. Golden III

Vertical Entertainment has released the official trailer and poster for Payback. The film is directed by Joseph Mensch (producer: Asher, Bushwick) who penned the script with Metin Aksoy. Mike Markovich, a young stockbroker at a Mob-controlled Wall Street firm, is betrayed and imprisoned for six years. When he is released, his deadly quest for vengeance begins. Payback stars Matt Levett, Anna Baryshnikov (Dickinson, Manchester By The Sea) and Toby Leonard Moore (Billions, Mank) and opens on Digital and VOD from February 5.

BURN IT ALL: Elizabeth Cotter Sets Ablaze To A Criminal Underworld In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Stunt performer and actress Elizabeth Cotter has been on track to make her lead acting debut at some point in the last few years. Needless to say, her hybrid training in both arenas of late are now looking to pay off with her new film, Burn It All, from writer/director Brady Hall. ComingSoon.net posted the exclusive trailer and key artwork on Wednesday signaling the upcoming thriller opening from Vertical Entertainment on VOD beginning February 19. Cotter makes her lead acting debut alongside a cast that includes Emily Gateley, Ryan Postell, Elena Flory-Barnes, and Greg Michaels. With a history of men dominating her fate, a broken woman (Cotter) returns to her hometown to bury her mother only to find a violent organ smuggling ring already has the body and wants no witnesses, but by trying to extinguish her they spark an inferno. Burn It All takes on all the ways men […]

SKYLINES Review: Barnburner Interstellar Action Sci-Fi That Delivers A Franchise Kick To The Senses

Lee B. Golden III

2020 is officially a banner year for hybrid sci-fi action and martial arts films between at least three distinct new film releases, one namely being Liam O’Donnell’s new sci-fi thriller, Skylin3s – aptly coined with the number three in its title. Long-billed as a crowning achievement for O’Donnell, the Skyline franchise serves thusfar as one of the more notable bookmarks for the fandom. The sequel’s festival premiere in 2016 with Beyond Skyline had audiences reveling with praise and galvanizing, much to the benefit of the 2010 inaugural, Skyline, which bodes more as hit-or-miss with some viewers. Point in fact, it would have been a risky bet to suggest the franchise could generate interest. O’Donnell, not to be outdone by the odds, came out of nowhere five years ago and dared to prove the naysayers different, and evidently, he did. How evident? Enter Skylin3s, third in line following directly from the […]

SKYLIN3S: Watch The Incredible Official Trailer For The Third Chapter Of The ‘Skyline’ Saga

Lee B. Golden III

FrightFest’s virtual attendees are just days away from its closing premiere event for Liam O’Donnell’s new movie, Skylin3s. Third in line for a saga that’s made a resounding comeback from 2010 through 2017, Skylin3s bookends the current trilogy forthwith, starring Lindsey Morgan (Beyond Skyline, The 100) in what O’Donnell himself ascribes to as the first superhero movie of the franchise. When a virus threatens to turn the now earth-dwelling friendly alien hybrids against humans, Captain Rose Corley must lead a team of elite mercenaries on a mission to the alien world in order to save what’s left of humanity. Skylin3s is getting a select theatrical and on-demand release on December 18, 2020. In the meantime, you can also read more on the director’s thoughts by clicking here, and with any luck, I’ll be able to check in with more coverage on this film in the weeks and months ahead. Also […]

NO ESCAPE Review: Will Wernick’s Latest Hardly Escapes Stark Reality

Lee B. Golden III

Escape Room director Will Wernick’s return to the escape room horror genre bodes as fruitful ground worth exploring if you’re a fan of the genre and love to see how certain films get reinvented. His latest, No Escape (f.k.a. Follow Me), throws in an influencer twist for a more palpable take with audiences and surely enough, it doesn’t hold back on its fair share of gore and violence. Moreover, it leads to something much more darker and twisted, and almost foreseeable if you have an extra sense about these kinds of films. Think of all the times you’ve seen one two many viral videos where people put themselves in certain uncomfortable situations, and the good chance of controversy arising in the aftermath from one thinkpiece to the next, and sort of get the gist where Wernick’s No Escape is headed. Joined by his entourage comprised of Dash (George Janko), X-gamer […]

Trailer: Will Wernick’s NO ESCAPE Ups The Ante For Online Fame

Lee B. Golden III

Vertical Entertainment is proudly unveiling the official trailer for Will Wernick’s intense new thriller, No Escape. The film stars Keegan Allen, Holland Roden and Ronen Rubinstein, and will release On-Demand and Digital starting September 18. A social media star travels with his friends to Moscow to capture new content for his successful VLOG. Always pushing the limits and catering to a growing audience, he and his friends enter a cold world of mystery, excess and danger. As the line between real life and social media is blurred, the group must fight to escape, and survive.

HARD KILL: Jesse Metcalfe And Bruce Willis Battle Kidnappers And Terrorists In The Official U.S. Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Bruce Willis is still stacking up the action movie pile well into the summer, and his latest, Hard Kill, comes from director Matt Eskandari, from a script by Joe Russo and Chris Lamont. When billionaire tech CEO Donovan Chalmers (Bruce Willis) hires a team of mercenaries to protect a lethal piece of technology, security expert and team leader Derek Miller (Jesse Metcalfe) finds himself in a deadly showdown with an old enemy. The mission becomes even higher risk when Chalmers’ daughter is kidnapped by a terrorist group who will stop at nothing to obtain the tech. Miller and his team must race against the clock to save her and protect the fate of the human race before it’s too late. Collider first broke the story, and we now have an official trailer and poster making the rounds. Vertical Entertainment will release Hard Kill in theaters and on VOD beginning August […]

AVA: Jessica Chastain Goes In For The Kill In The First Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Managing to fend off a spate of controversy a few years ago with a handover of the director’s chair to Tate Taylor, Jessica Chastain’s new assassin thriller, now Ava (formerly Eve) lives on. The official trailer is circling online ahead of an expected September 25 release from Vertical Entertainment, via theatrical and iTunes. Ava is a deadly assassin who works for a black ops organization, traveling the globe specializing in high profile hits. When a job goes dangerously wrong she is forced to fight for her own survival. Notwithstanding the credited screenwriter whose name will go unmentioned here, the film joins Chastain with actors Colin Farrell, Common, John Malkovich and Ioan Gruffudd, Joan Chen and Geena Davis.

DARKNESS FALLS In The Official Trailer For Julien Seri’s New Crime Thriller

Lee B. Golden III

Julien Seri hasn’t directed a lot of films, but when he directs, he knows how to attract audiences. He leapt onto the scene with parkour action adventures Yamakasi and The Great Challenge before heading into darker, grittier territory with Scorpion and in 2015 with Night Fare. His latest, Darkness Falls, seems to be a continuation of that very tone he’s become akin to, which is fine by all accounts. Vertical Entertainment is leaning on a VOD and Digital/multi-platform June 12 release for the pic which stars Shawn Ashmore, Gary Cole, Richard Harmon, Daniella Alonso, Sonya Walger, Vahina Giocante, and Lin Shaye. (Hat tip to Peter Martin at Screen Anarchy) After his wife’s suicide, Detective Jeff Anderson (Shawn Ashmore) becomes convinced that she has in fact been murdered. Obsessed with his investigation, Anderson finds out that his wife was the victim of a team of father-and-son serial killers. He’ll have to […]

BLOOD ON HER NAME Review: A Darkly-Redemptive Exercise On Moral Flexibilty

Lee B. Golden III

Having found its way into festival favor in the past year, Matthew Pope’s feature directing debut presents a stunning, dramatic glimpse into middle-American suburbia in cerebral crime drama, Blood On Her Name. Opening with the shot of a tipped-over gas can, the movie begins with a follow-up shot of Leigh (Bethany Anne Lind), mildly wounded and struggling to compose herself after what appears to have been a physical struggle. A bloodied wrench lies next to the body of a seeming male assailant who is dead, his corpse lying in plain view of the open drive-in door of Leigh’s garage. The film follows Leigh’s every desperate attempt to hide the body before eventually dumping it in the shed of the owners related to the corpse. It is during this process that Leigh’s actions continue to weigh heavily on her mind as it slowly begins to affect her day-to-day routine as a […]

BLOOD ON HER NAME Stains With Foreshadowing In The New Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Director Matthew Pope’s Southern-Goth crime drama, Blood On Her Name, was a winning crowd favorite at the festivals last year. He shares scripting duties with writer Don Thompson for a story that brings actress Bethany Anne Lind to the forefront of a grisly tale of a desperate mother willing to do anything to protect her family. The dead body lies at her feet, its blood still draining onto the floor. It was an accident, borne of self-defense, but its discovery could have devastating consequences for local garage owner Leigh Tiller and her son. In a panic, Leigh decides to conceal the crime, cleaning the bloody scene and scrambling to dispose of the body. But can she actually disappear a man from the earth—from his family—leaving them forever wondering? As Leigh is torn between her primal instincts and tortured conscience she struggles to keep her sins hidden from her estranged father–a […]

Blood On Her Name 2.jpg

BLOOD ON HER NAME: Vertical Nabs New Matthew Pope Thriller

Christina Ortega

According to Deadline, Vertical Entertainment has acquired English-speaking world rights to the film Blood on Her Name. The film is described as a neo-noir thriller that “follows a single mother (Lind) whose panicked decision to cover up an accidental killing spirals out of control when her conscience demands she return the dead man’s body to his family.” The film premiered at the Fantasia International Film Festival and stars Bethany Anne Lind (Ozark), Will Patton (Remember the Titans) and Elizabeth Röhm (American Hustle). Matthew Pope not only directs, but also wrote this film with Don M. Thompson.

CODE 8: Jeff Chan’s Crowdfunded Feature Sci-Fi Goes To Vertical

Lee B. Golden III

Three years in the making since the online release of the winning sci-fi short, Code 8 is now a feature film reality with a late 2019 day-and-date release in tow from Vertical Entertainment. The project is a culmination of efforts by director Jeff Chan who helmed the short that launched the successful Indiegogo campaign in 2016 fronted by cousins, lead actor Robbie Amell and co-star Stephen Amell. Code 8 takes place in a world where superhumans comprise 4% of the human population and are heavily policed and forced into poverty. For an “electric” named Connor Reed (Robbie Amell) things are no different now that he’s on the run after committing a petty crime. To make matters worse, paying for his ailing mother’s treatment hasn’t gotten easier. He soon aligns himself with a lucrative criminal network led by Garrett (Stephen Amell) who teaches him to use his powers to pull off […]

DAUGHTER OF THE WOLF Howls Online With A Brand New U.S. Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

After snagging the rights to sci-fi space-Nazi romp sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race, Vertical Entertainment has recurred on the radar once more this month with its forthcoming release of David Hackl’s new thriller, Daughter Of The Wolf. Releasing day-and-date on June 14, Daughter Of The Wolf returns Gina Carano back to the screen as Clair McKenna, an ex-military specialist on a harrowing mission to rescue her son from a group of ransomers looking to collect the large fortune she’s inherited from her late father. The official U.S. trailer is finally online and looks way better than the initial trailer from earlier this year; that trailer got taken down in about a day when an overseas distro banner jumped the gun. Hence, the trailer above in all its awesome appeal. Carano is joined by Richard Dreyfuss, Brendan Fehr, Sydelle Noel and Anton Gillis-Adelman.

IRON SKY: THE COMING RACE Nabs U.S. Day-And-Date July Release From Vertical

Lee B. Golden III

Timo Vuorensola’s space Nazi parody sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race, will open in North America for a day-and-date release on July 19. Veritcal Entertainment made its acquisition public this week with Deadline‘s Patrick Hipes reporting for its world sales at Cannes from Myriad Pictures. The highly anticipated sequel to the worldwide cult hit Iron Sky. The survivors of the war with the Nazis must leave their base on the dark side of the moon to travel to a hollow Earth in search of a life saving energy. Plan B actress Julia Dietze returns to reprise her role from the first film along with Udo Kier, and with Lara Rossi, Tom Green, Vladimir Burlakov and Kit Dale. The film is currently the second in a forthcoming trilogy with Chinese-set threequel, Iron Sky: The Ark, which received co-production backing from China Film Group in 2017, and with Max Wang (Wolf Totem) […]

THE HEAD HUNTER: Jordan Downey’s Award-Winning Medieval Horror Gets A U.S. Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Director Jordan Downey’s niche appeal is all the more visible if his IMDb page is anything to go by. He now adds multi-award winning Sitges favorite, The Head Hunter, titled aptly by Vertical Entertainment following their acquisition of the rights to the film back in October. On the outskirts of a kingdom, a quiet but fierce medieval warrior protects the realm from monsters and the occult. His gruesome collection of heads is missing only one – the monster that killed his daughter years ago. Driven by a thirst for revenge, he travels wild expanses on horseback, using sorcery to aid in his quest. When his second chance arrives, it’s in a way far more horrifying than he ever imagined. A heartbreaking fairytale with a black soul, the film is constructed with very few elements, minimalistic and epic at the same time, where fantasy and horror find their more physical and […]

GENESIS: Layered Sci-Fi Sees Deadly A.I. Run Amuck In The Official Trailer

Lee B. Golden III

Film duo Freddie Hutton-Mills and Bart Ruspoli share a sizable list of writing and producing credits together with the latter spanning with his own notoriety as an actor. They also share the helm when filmmaking and their latest partnership brings some intriguing dystopian sci-fi thrills in Genesis, now hailing as the first of an ambitious new trilogy to come. Deep in a subterranean silo, the last remnants of humanity is divided by a caste system that keeps the politicians and scientists away from the rabble and crowd. While the civilians starve, freeze and are forced to work in a hazardous, chemically lethal environment above ground, all resources are dedicated to the construction of ABEL, a humanoid life-form designed to forage, search, recover and make contact with any other survivors. Dr. Eve Gabriel, lead scientist, works with the huge burden of the fate of mankind on her soldiers. But when a […]

2307: WINTER’S WAR Lands A Chilling New Trailer For The Upcoming Action Sci-Fi

Lee B. Golden III

Joey Curtis’s award-winning sophomore outing is just weeks away from a limited theatrical U.S. release for 2307: Winter’s Dream. The new indie sci-fi action thriller has had a fantastic run at the festivals and with Vertical Entertainment invested in distributing the new pic, we now have an official trailer and key art in our midst as seen above and further below. The year is 2307 A.D. The Earth is frozen over and virtually uninhabitable. The remaining humans live underground, unable to survive the sub-arctic temperatures. With no “man power,” scientists bio-engineered Humanoids that possess great strength, speed, and tolerance to extreme cold. When a rogue humanoid escapes and threatens to lead a rebellion against mankind, an elite team of soldiers, led by decorated killer Commander Bishop, must hunt and kill the fugitive. 2307: Winter’s Dream stars Paul Sidhu, Arielle Holmes, Timothy Lee DePriest, Anne-Solenne Hatte, Branden Coles, Kelcey Watson and Brad […]

Joe Miale’s Alien Invasion Thriller, REVOLT, Lands A Fall Release On Demand And In Theaters

Lee B. Golden III

Director Joe Miale’s leap from shortfilms to feature narratives looks as ambitious a sci-fi as one should of its kind. Revolt brings an end of the world battle to save what’s left and with an official trailer from Vertical Entertainment host to a stellar sample of gritty sci-fi goods for U.S. audiences. Set in the war-ravaged African countryside, an American soldier (Lee Pace) and a French foreign aid worker (Bérénice Marlohe) team up to survive the alien onslaught. As they journey through the battlefield in search of refuge, their bond will be tested when the soldier discovers his true identity. Revolt opens exclusively on DirecTV Cinema starting on October 19th followed by a limited theatrical release on November 17th.