#Fangoria Studios Announces First Movie with Creature Feature Sitora

Legendary horror magazine Fangoria is officially getting into the movie business. Through Fangoria Studios, they have announced Sitora, which is described as a new modern creature feature. This will mark the first feature in the brand’s long, storied history. Since the magazine was revived several years ago, they have branched out into podcasting and publishing books. Now, they are making the jump to movies as well.

Per the announcement, Sitora is set in the rural fringes of a rapidly expanding urban sprawl. Production will focus on practical effects and real village locations. Fangoria promises the movie “will be sweaty, kinetic, feral and, like a tiger, wildly unpredictable.” The story centers on a tyrannical shaman who peddles the threat of a supernatural half-man, half-tiger, as a means of preserving his feudal control. It unravels current events in an unexpected setting, forcing us to examine some of our thorniest issues with a fresh perspective.
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The project takes its inspiration from a lost Malay horror movie from 1964 entitled Sitora Harimau Jadian. It is written and directed by Malaysian auteur P. Ramlee and was shown at least once on Radio Television Malaysia. It is rumored that the movie was destroyed in a flood. Filming is set to take place on location in Malaysia. Diffan Sina Norman has been set as the writer/director. He is a Kuala Lumpur-born artist, filmmaker and writer. His work has been featured at Sundance, SXSW, Rotterdam and Clermont Ferrand. Fangoria had this to say about it in a press release.

“Sitora is a perfect example of who we are. Fangoria Studios’ mission is to celebrate genre filmmaking by providing a platform for scary stories with deep roots in culture, folklore, legends and the macabre on the international stage. We believe that horror is truly global and has cross-demographic appeal. Fear is universal. When it comes to horror, everyone screams in the same language. This film is a love letter to horror fans and, with Diffan at the helm, audiences are in for a wild ride.”

Fangoria has been around since 1979. While it hit a bit of a rough patch in 2016 after going through a number of editors and stopped being published for all of 2017. But it was revived in 2018 as a quarterly print publication. The brand was acquired by producer Tara Ansley and serial entrepreneur Abhi Goel in 2020. Since then, it has expanded more into the digital space, while also maintaining its quarterly print run. But with Sitora, Fangoria is demonstrating that it wants to be a larger part of the horror conversation in general, becoming a full-on multimedia outlet dedicated to the genre space.

Wan Hanafi Su is on board to play Sir. Tara Ansley, Armen Aghaeian, and Abhi Goel are set to produce on behalf of Fangoria Studios. There is no word yet on a possible release date but we’ll be sure to keep you posted as any further details on the project are made available. This news comes to us via Fangoria.com

Topics: Fangoria