PRESS RELEASE
Umbrella Entertainment is thrilled and excited to announce that our Australian film THE BABADOOK is creating a buzz at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival having just been picked up by Wild Bunch for France, Germany and Switzerland in one of the Festival's most high profile deals.
Shot in Adelaide, Director Jennifer Kent has made her feature film debut to much excitement and buzz in Sundance's Park City At Midnight section with 3 sell-out sessions and 2 more screenings this week, and has drawn a flood of enthusiastic reviews.
Starring Essie Davis, Noah Wiseman and Daniel Henshall The Babadook is a genre-busting psycho thriller / horror about a widowed mother forced to deal with her son's deep rooted fear of monsters, and a supernatural presence that emerges in the house.
Film industry website Indiewire said about the film and screenings "an unknown filmmaker make her debut with a flat-out masterpiece…The Babadook establishes first-time writer-director Jennifer Kent "as a major voice in the field".
Jerome Rougier of Wild Bunch said, "Incredibly scary of course but also very smart and stylish, Jennifer Kent's film easily matches recent outstanding horror films like The Orphanage or Insidious and we couldn't be more excited to release it."
Kristina Ceyton and Kristian Moliere produced The Babadook and Umbrella Entertainment will release in Australia later this year.
The Babadook is one of two Umbrella Entertainment titles screening at Sundance this year, the other being Jim Mickle's small town neo-noir thriller COLD IN JULY starring Michael C.Hall, Sam Shepard & Don Johnson based on the Joe R. Lansdale cult novel. Early press in Sundance has been positive with The Hollywood Reporter saying, "Don, Michael, and Sam are perfect together. The combination is genius". Umbrella will be releasing the film later this year.