Drafthouse Films Buys ‘Mister Organ,’ ‘The YouTube Effect,’ ‘Everyone Will Burn’ (EXCLUSIVE)

Drafthouse Films has acquired three films that it will release theatrically in U.S. theaters followed by digital releases across major streaming platforms.

They include Mister Organ, a documentary from journalist and filmmaker David Farrier, whose 2016 film Tickled explored the dark underbelly of competitive endurance tickling, will be released in theaters this fall. As he turns his camera on another stranger than fiction story, Farrier finds himself caught in an increasingly dangerous game of cat and mouse with a mysterious character who expertly manipulates the lives of anyone who dares to expose his secrets. The film, Produced by Ant Timpson and Firefly Films Emma Slade and Alex Reed, was a critical and audience favorite at Fantastic Fest 2022, and has become a box office hit in Farriers native New Zealand.

I am incredibly happy to be working with Drafthouse Films, said Farrier Watching this funny, disturbing, and deeply weird documentary with an audience is the way to see it. It has been seven years since Tickled, so I am more than ready to do a little in-person roadtrip of America and present some of these screenings in person.

Drafthouse Films will release the Spanish supernatural horror film Everyone Will Burn, which premiered at the Sitges Film Festival and racked up multiple festival wins around the world. Directed by David Hebrero, the film follows Luca, a strange little girl who just might be connected to a local legend about stopping an impending apocalypse. International sales agent Raven Banner represented the filmmakers in the deal.

The YouTube Effect is the latest documentary from director Alex Winter, whose previous films The Panama Papers and Zappa have made him one of the most interesting and acclaimed documentary filmmakers working today. His latest featurewill be released in partnership with educational streaming platform Kanopy this summer. A Tribeca Film Festival 2022 world premiere, the film presents an eye-opening and troubling look at a platform that grew from humble origins to a content behemoth that is now so powerfully embedded in our daily lives. The film features exclusive access to YouTube stars Anthony Padilla, Natalie Wynn, ContraPoints and Susan Wojcicki, YouTubes former CEO. The pic is produced by Gale Anne Hurd and Glen Zipper. The deal was negotiated for the filmmakers by Amanda Lebow at CAA. The YouTube Effect will open exclusively with Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas on July 7, before expanding nationwide July 14.

We are in this business because we know there are others just like us who want nothing more than to sit in a dark theater enjoying the movies they care about, says Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas founder and executive chairman Tim League. With this robust slate of bold films, we are looking forward to bringing independent cinema back to theaters in a big way!

Audiences are asking for more genre films and encouraging filmmakers to push their limits. All three of these movies are horrors, including Mister Organ and The YouTube Effect, where real life is actually scarier than fiction, says Ahbra Perry, who heads theatrical acquisitions for Drafthouse Films.

Founded in 2010, Drafthouse Films was launched by League, who also created the Alamo Drafthouse chain of theaters.