Magnolia acquires US rights to EMERGO

When Rodrigo Cortés looks back on the early days of 2012, he will no doubt do so with a smile. His second feature film, Red Lights, impressed audiences at Sundance and was picked up by Millennium Entertainment. And now Emergo, written by Cortés and produced by him and longtime collaborator Adrian Guerra, has been acquired for US distribution by Magnolia, via its Magnet label. It has been doing well in international sales, having already sold to major territories such as the UK, Canada, Germany, Australia and Japan.

The film, performed in English by a mainly American cast, is a found-footage tale of paranormal phenomenon. A parapsychologist and his team of investigators come to the small apartment of a single father and his two children, who are apparently being terrorized by a particularly angry ghost. I saw it at the Sitges festival last October, and it was one of my favourites there. Rarely falling into cliche, it blended the paranormal scares with good family drama, anchored by a solid script and excellent direction by Carles Torrens in his first feature film outing.

Magnet is one of the best distributors of genres films in the industry, with recent releases such as Trollhunter, Down Terrace and The Innkeepers, and upcoming ones such as God Bless America showing not only a wide range of acquisitions, but the know-how and muscle to promote these films to their target audiences. They plan for a VOD release on April 27th, with a theatrical release six weeks later on June 1st. Cortés and Guerra's film could not be in better hands.