Killer Rats and Dark-Web Chess: Eight Genre Films Head to AFM

New Zealand sales company Black Mandala and its Red Owl label will bring eight genre films to the American Film Market (AFM), led by British horror "Rise of the Rats" and the dark-web chess thriller "The Rules of the Game." Black Mandala handles four titles; Red Owl brings four independent features. Between them, the slate covers horror, psychological thriller, supernatural and dark fantasy.

"Rise of the Rats," directed by Stephen Roach, follows Kayla Thornhill, a punk who travels with her estranged father to Ditchfield, the village where he grew up. The rat infestation there conceals something worse: old violence and village secrets resurface, and a figure known as the Rat-Man sets a bloodbloodthirsty swarm loose. Grace Gallagher, Adrian Annis and Mark Collier star.

What else does the Black Mandala slate include?

• "Landlord" — Remington Smith's film plays out over a hot summer in a run-down apartment block. A Black bounty hunter retrieving a stolen briefcase must shield a young boy, Alex, from the white vampire who owns the building — and so needs no invitation to enter. After the vampire kills Alex's mother, the pair team up against him and the humans who work for him. Adama Abramson, Cohen James Cooper and William McKinney lead the cast.
• "Haunted" — Myles McEwen and Ripley Stevens co-direct. Set in One Season, a remote Australian town hit by a fierce storm and an unexplainable event on Oct. 19, 2003, it jumps four years ahead: local teenagers vanish, and a recluse whose house is slated for demolition must face a hidden truth tied to the town's trauma and his own identity. David Daradan, Joseph Baronio and Nathaniel Kelly star.
• "The Realm of Eldervin: Gallowmere" — Oliver Hollingdale's dark fantasy, which Variety previously reported Black Mandala had acquired. Dark magic has struck the village of Gallowmere with a strange illness, and Jonas the Mage assembles Dagon, Nimue and Solomon to trace its origin. Martin Portlock and Craig Standen star, with Jason Flemyng ("Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels") providing voiceover narration.

And on the Red Owl side?

Lani Castle and Jon Cohen's psychological thriller "The Rules of the Game" centers on Evie, a gifted chess player abducted with her sister, who has a chronic illness, and forced into a lethal game streamed on the dark web. She and seven other prisoners each stand in for a chess piece; any piece taken is killed. Evie alone understands the game, and she must make agonizing calls as the others turn on one another. Lola Merewether, Gezel Bardossi and Alyson Rudlin star.

• "Mister Sandman" — Chad Costen's horror-comedy reunites onetime summer camp outcasts at a deserted camp to investigate a shared ghost story. Each, working through grief's five stages, faces a personal fear that surfaces as a nightmarish vision linked to old trauma. Elodie Doumenc, Justine Warrington and Amy King star.
• "Saturnalia" — Daniel Lerch's homage to Italian giallo (the stylized 1970s murder-mystery genre), set in 1979. After her parents die mysteriously, Miriam Basconi enrolls at Alstroemerias Academy, run by the cruel Headmistress Hemlock, where pupils disappear after dark. Her investigation uncovers a surreal hidden world where dreams and waking life blur. Sophia Anthony, Velvet and Dante Blake star.
• "The Driftless" — Tim Connery's anthology draws on American Midwest folklore. An enigmatic antique dealer introduces four stories: cults along the Mississippi River, a cursed bottle of liquor, a motel pool attendant who recovers time-altering objects, and a woman who takes bloody revenge after death. Ira Amyx, Torrey Hanson and Justin Marxen star.

Black Mandala has built an international profile as a sales outfit devoted to horror and genre fare, with Red Owl extending that remit to independent titles with distinctive premises. Teams from both banners plan to meet buyers, distributors, platforms and festivals at AFM — a slate that signals where genre buyers' money may flow next.