Cinematical

Horror fans have lots of good reasons to admire Lionsgate. Say what you will about Saw and/or Hostel, but if you look back through LG's output over the last several years you're bound to find a fright flick (or six) you really admire. And although they have no problem putting together their own movies, some of the 'Gates' most colorful releases have been pick-ups from foreign lands -- High Tension (France), The Descent (UK), Undead (Australia), Ginger Snaps (Canada), Cabin Fever (North Carolina), etc.

But now it looks like another indie distributor has set its sights on doling out some of the foreign horror, and they're called Magnolia Pictures. Best known for supporting really solid titles like Dead Man's Shoes, Keane, Cavite and District B13, Magnolia is also the outfit that brought the original Pulse to American shores -- and now they're going back to the foreign horror well with a pair of highly-anticipated titles.

According to my gore-brothers over at BD.com, Magnolia will release Bong-joon Ho's enthusiastically acclaimed monster movie The Host on January 29th of next year, and they'll follow that up on March 9th with Severance, a "psycho in the woods" romp that comes from Christopher Smith, director of the generally underrated Creep. And here's the very best part: Both of these flicks will be playing at Toronto next month, so I don't have to wait for 2007! Oh wait, that's not the best part. That's the obnoxious part. My bad. In way of apology, please enjoy the Host trailer and the Severance trailer.

Anyway, if this keeps up I expect Lionsgate to just swoop in and say "Hey, good work, Magnolia. We're buying you."