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To this day, filmmaker Bill Posley will not say “Candyman” five times while looking in the mirror. But he will write him a letter.

It sounds strange, but that turned out to be the exact way to summon the attention of a cinematic legend like Candyman actor Tony Todd and to request that he consider a pivotal role in Posley’s new slasher movie and directorial debut, Bitch Ass.

“We were looking for somebody to be our Vincent Price, this Crypt-Keeper type, intro-ing the movie,” Posley says. Eventually, the Bitch Ass writer-director and his collaborators came around to the idea of reaching out to the statesman of the type of Black horror they aimed to resurrect; the only thing was that Todd would only accept queries by mail—and return with a call of his own.

That call eventually came when Posley was on another job. Standing in an Arkansan...

Quiver Distribution has acquired North American rights to “Bitch Ass,” a horror movie that premiered at this year’s SXSW where it won the Midnighter’s Audience Award and earned praise for its sly reinvention of the slasher genre.

The film stars Teon Kelley (“Tyler”), Tunde Laleye (“Black as Night”), Me’lisa Sellers (“Split”), Tony Todd (“Candyman”), and Sheaun McKinney (“The Neighborhood”) and was written and directed by Bill Posley (“Cobra Kai”). Quiver Distribution is planning an October 14, 2022 release.

Quiver says the film blends comedy, horror and social commentary, while telling the story of a gang initiation gone wrong when a group of four recruits break into a house of horror and are forced by Bitch Ass (Laleye) to play deadly games for their lives. Win and you live – lose and you die.

Reviewers liked the movie with Bloody Disgusting praising its “gleeful sense of fun and creativity” and The Austin...

Barely over two years ago, the Den of Geek staff was mere days away from heading to Austin when the inevitable happened: SXSW and all its strange and glorious intersections of film, music, technology, games, and more was canceled due to the then only dawning Covid-19 pandemic. A virtual alternative eventually went forward some months later, and there was a virtual SXSW in 2021 as well, but to concede things haven’t been the same in Austin is an understatement.

Which is perhaps why nearly every face, and every person we spoke with, over the last several weeks in the Texas state capital seemed to have an incorrigible grin on their face. Be they fans or filmmakers, actors or music artists, or even just folks walking down the street, the thrill and good vibes was everywhere. SXSW is back where it once belonged.

During that time, we were able to get...

Bitch Ass Review — Bitch Ass (2022) Film Review from the 29th Annual South by Southwest Film Festival, a movie directed by Bill Posley, written by Jonathan Colomb and Bill Posley and starring Teon Kelley, Tunde Laleye, Me’lisa Sellers, Kelsey Caesar, Sheaun McKinney, A-f-r-o, Belle Guillory, Tony Todd, Jarvis Denman Jr., Tim J. Smith, [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Bitch Ass: Old School Horror Returns to the Screen in a Routine Fashion [SXSW 2022]...

It’s 2022 and except for a few films like Candyman, Blacula, Bones, and Us, there is still a frustrating lack of Black horror villains. Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger, and Ghostface all have their own successful franchises, but genre film clearly still has a lot of work to do as far as representation and diversity. Filmmaker Bill Posley (Culty) is not only putting in the work, but he also created a unique slasher film with the potential to be the first Black horror franchise. Written by Posley and Jonathan Colomb, and directed by Posley, Bitch Ass, features the first Black masked serial killer, as well as an entirely Black cast, and is having its World Premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival.

In Bitch Ass, horror legend Tony Todd (Candyman) is the host of a show called Hood Horror Stories, where he introduces the story of a kid named Cecil,...

Invoking an oft-overlooked canon, actor turned director Bill Posley fabricates a highly entertaining homage to the Black horror of decades past with “Bitch Ass,” a slasher picture set in 1999 aiming to become the heir of cult classics the likes of “Blacula” or “Bones.” Posley’s genuine fondness for his predecessors in the genre is first visible in the perfect casting of Tony Todd, who played the title part in the original 1992 “Candyman,” as a TV horror host — think the famed Elvira, the Cryptkeeper from “Tales from the Crypt,” or Mr. Simms from “Tales from the Hood” — to introduce his

Reveling in an appropriately malevolent laugh, Todd describes Bitch Ass as “the first Black serial killer to don a mask” and then immerses us into his world through an old television set and a VHS tape. Right off the bat, Posley announces his murderous protagonist’s fascination with games of all...

Exclusive: Candyman star Tony Todd wants the world to know he’s not retiring.

Not only is he too busy working on a multitude of projects at any given time, but he also wants to spend more time with his growing family and supporting up-and-coming Black talent like writer Bill Posley. The pair recently collaborated on Posley’s directorial film debut, Bitch Ass, featuring one of the only masked Black serial killers to appear in film.

Deadline has an exclusive clip of Todd as the character Titus Blaq in Bitch Ass above.

Described as Think Don’t Breathe meets Squid Game—but Black, the film is an homage to 90s horror films like Tales From The Hood and People Under the Stairs. It will celebrate its world premiere at SXSW tonight at Alamo Lamar D at 10 p.m.

The film tells the story of Cecil (Tunde Laleye), a normal teenager...