Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 2 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies that I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Tuesday, September 27th

JULIA X
P.J. Pettiette 2011 | 3D, Black Comedy, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror | 92 min.

Credited only as The Stranger, Kevin Sorbo’s character in JULIA X 3D (much like in real life) is completely irresistible to women. Turns out the ladies should learn to exercise a bit of caution for, you see, The Stranger is a serial killer. Meeting women on the Internet and setting up dates, The Stranger brings his victims back for a little bit of torture and murder and then brands each one with the next letter in the alphabet. He’s been up to it for a while, too, as his latest victim sports a “W.” However, things don‚Äôt go quite according to plan on his latest excursion as Julia is on to his game and has no intention of becoming his “X”.

The fun of JULIA X 3D comes in the form of some clever bending of expectations and surprises peppered throughout. Sorbo is as charismatic as he’s ever been and his interactions with Julia- their relationship becoming increasingly complicated far exceeding one of just simply hunter and prey- are hilarious. Things do get violent and bloody as other characters are introduced into the mix (including an appearance from Joel Moore) and power struggles get heated.

Director P.J. Pettiette never lets JULIA X 3D’s tone become too serious, it’s a horror movie hellbent on the audience having as much fun as possible. However, it does have a few interesting things to say about gender politics which it does by providing characters that both flip stereotypes in inventive ways and ones that adhere painfully to them. Which is all well and good but, really, it’s all about Sorbo in 3D! (Brian Kelley) Presented by REAL D 3D

HAUNTERS
Kim Min-suk 2010 | Action, Feature, Thriller | 114 min.

50% horror movie, 50% superhero film and 100% Korean thriller, this is one dark, super-powered ride that became a big hit when it was released. Seoul, 1991: A little boy with a prosthetic leg is blindfolded, stumbling through the rain, clinging to his mother’s wrist. She orders him not to remove the blindfold, but when they reach home his abusive father begins beating his mother. In response, the boy removes the blindfold and uses his strange, glittering gaze to make Dad snap his own neck. When his mother fails to kill her telepathic spawn in his sleep, he wanders off into the night, a white-suited phantom lurking on the fringes of humanity, with only his model city to keep him company. From his vantage point, the rest of the world simply looks like…toys.

Seoul, 2010: Kyu-Nam (TV star Koo So) is an out-of-work laborer looking for a new gig. He answers an ad from the local pawn shop and everything seems to be going well until, on his first day of work, the silver-haired mystery man (Korean heartthrob, Gang Dong-Won, of Secret Reunion and M fame) walks in and begins robbing the till. Everyone in the store is helpless against his omnipotent glittering eyes – everyone except Kyu-Nam. So begins a mind-bending game of cat and mouse, with an entire city set against our working-class hero, who must band together with his screwed-up, foreign pals to take down an evil, psychic god who uses every single soul in Seoul as his pawns in a deadly hunt to eradicate the one man who can stand against him.

The directorial debut of Kim Min-Suk, the screenwriter behind The Good, The Bad and the Weird, HAUNTERS is the dizzying lovechild of Unbreakable and The Fugitive, a genre beast that mixes pulse-pounding thrills with gut-wrenching moments like a woman forced to toss her helpless baby in front of a speeding train. This box office hit from Korea shows the dark side of the X-men, portraying a world where the only people with superpowers are psychopaths and it’s up the normal folks to step up and shut them down. (NYAFF)

Melancholia
Lars von Trier | Drama, Feature, Sci-Fi | 120 min.

Not-so-enfant-terrible Lars von Trier (Breaking the Waves) managed to get himself tossed out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival for allegedly voicing sympathy for the Nazis, but this didn’t stop his latest picture, Melancholia, from being nominated for the Palme d’Or. The story is a mash up of Armageddon and The Celebration, with Ingmar Bergman’s Persona tossed in for good measure. It takes its title from the name of an outsized planet lurking behind the sun which threatens to obliterate the earth and end life as we know it. But the approaching Melancholia quickly becomes a metaphor for the emotional malaise of two sisters, played by Kirsten Dunst, in the finest performance of her career (she won Best Actress at Cannes), and Charlotte Gainsbourg. Also catch Kiefer Sutherland and Alexander Skarsgard in supporting roles. Played the New York and Toronto film festivals.

Preview Day 5

Preview Day 7

Fantastic Fest preview Day 6 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 3 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies that I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Monday, September 26th

JUAN OF THE DEAD
Alejandro Brugués 2011 | AMD Next Wave, Comedy, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror | 100 min.

50 years after the Cuban Revolution, a new one is about to begin. That revolution is zombies; filthy flesh-eating zombies. The Cubans face a large enough challenge dealing with a zombie infestation (allegedly started by U.S.-backed radical groups), but their procrastinating hero Juan (Alexis Díaz de Villegas) has to overcome his lazy lifestyle to save the world.

At first, Juan doesn’t pay the growing chaos in Havana any mind. When the rampant “social order disturbances” escalate and start to affect his routine, however, he realizes that the perpetrators are not in fact “dissidents” but rather are bonefide walking dead. Sensing an opportunity for a fast buck, he bands together a ragtag militia and commercializes a zombie cleaning service, “Juan of the Dead,” to rid households of unwanted, undead loved ones.

In the same vein as, well, SHAUN OF THE DEAD, JUAN OF THE DEAD clearly pays homage to George Romero’s original undead masterpieces. The film sets itself apart by taking the story of the zombie infestation in a different direction and like SHAUN, JUAN’s kills are often hilarious, unique, fresh, and definitely blood-drenched. That’s no small feat for a plotline as well-trod as the zombie apocalypse.

The most compelling aspect of Juan of the Dead is the complete infusion of Cuban attitude, politics, humor, music and even cocktails into the film. First time writer/director Alejandro Brugués delivers a progressive cultural essay encompassing not only the cultural revolution but also the current state of affairs in Cuba, all within the confines of a zombie comedy. Kudos to both Brugués as well as Raul Catro’s new regime for launching Cuba’s very first horror film. We hope this is the start of a long tradition! (Chase Whale)

THE SQUAD
Jaime Osorio 2010 | Action, AMD Next Wave, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror | 107 min.

screens with…
COST OF LIVING | BenDavid Grabinski 2011

In the foggy mountains of Colombia, nine soldiers trudge through muddy terrain in search of an outpost that they believe has been invaded by guerrillas. As they approach their target, one of them is brutally injured, forcing them to prematurely enter the base instead of waiting for backup. Once inside, they’re greeted a pile of dead bodies and a series of ritualistic markings meant to ward off the devil. After discovering a lone, traumatized survivor and a cryptic event log, the men wait, sifting through their own differences with each other. Trapped, confused and cut off from the outside world, they begin to feel the strain of isolation closing in around them. They’ll grasp at anything to resolve what happened there…and what is going to happen to them.

First time director Jaime Osorio Marquez is already a master of storytelling. From the first frames of the film, the characters are in turmoil, engaging in terse, heated snippets of interaction that allow the exposition of their emotional baggage to come out in slow enough drips to keep the audience guessing. Utilizing carefully chosen, confining medium shots, Marquez and his cinematographer Alejandro Moreno build the most suffocating atmosphere since DAS BOOT, one where even the vastest openings are filled with the thick fog of the cloud cover. For most of the movie, neither the characters nor the viewer can see more than a yard in front of their faces, reinforcing the sense of impending doom and keeping you on the edge of your seat.

Featuring a stellar ensemble cast and a searing, pervasive score that builds uneasiness in the pit of your stomach from the first note, THE SQUAD reminds us that, under the right circumstances, the most real of demons are on the inside. (Michael Lerman)

A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI
Yoshihiro Nakamura 2010 | Drama, Fantasy, Feature, Romance | 109 min.

Director Yoshihiro Nakamura blew Fantastic fest audiences away in 2009 with his “punk rock saves the world” movie FISH STORY and then, last year, he returned with the ultimate conspiracy thriller, GOLDEN SLUMBER. Now he takes a radical turn and brings us….a family film? You may already be turning the page, but wait! Because if you know anything about Nakamura you know that his family film is going to be stranger and more immediate than any other flick you’ve seen in a while. And that’s the case with A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI, the tale of a boy, a samurai, time travel, pastries, chef vs. yakuza battles, absent fathers, and single mothers.

Yusa is a single mom, desperately doing her best to get her young son, Tomoya, off to school, remember his books, hold down a boring job that pays the rent, and provides microwaved dinners ready for him when he comes home. The last thing she needs in her life is a time traveling samurai, but that’s exactly what she gets when Kajima (played by popular TV idol, Ryo Nishikido) winds up stranded in her apartment complex after being inexplicably plucked by random forces from the Edo Period.

Not knowing what to do, she invites him to stay but soon, frustrated by his inability to cope with modern day Tokyo, she starts to use him as a babysitter and then as a cook and housekeeper, even though he’s still terrified of the ringing phone. But while doing this, Kajima realizes that he doesn’t like hacking people up in duels over honor and respect. He likes making pastries and wants to turn pro.

Based on a popular manga by Gen Araki, A BOY AND HIS SAMURAI is the perfect male weepie. Ultimately, however, it’s a movie about time travel. And isn’t growing up, after all, a kind of one way time travel? (New York Asian Film Festival)

Japanese films at Fantastic Fest 2011 are presented by WELL GO USA ENTERTAINMENT

Preview Day 4

Preview Day 6

Fantastic Fest preview Day 5 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Lord of Souls: An Elder Scrolls Novel
by Greg Keyes
Cover by Paul Youll

Promo copy:

Forty years after the Oblivion crisis, the empire of Tamriel is threatened by a mysterious floating city, Umbriel, whose shadow spawns a terrifying undead army.

Reeling from a devastating discovery, Prince Attrebus continues on his seemingly doomed quest to obtain a magic sword that holds the key to destroying the deadly invaders. Meanwhile, in the Imperial City, the spy Colin finds evidence of betrayal at the heart of the empire—if his own heart doesn’t betray him first. And Annaïg, trapped in Umbriel itself, has become a slave to its dark lord and his insatiable hunger for souls.

How can these three unlikely heroes save Tamriel when they cannot even save themselves?

Based on the award-winning Elder Scrolls® series, Lord of Souls is the second of two exhilarating novels that continue the story from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, named 2006 Game of the Year by numerous outlets, including Spike TV, the Golden Joystick Awards, and the Associated Press.

Star Wars: Darth Plagueis
by James Luceno

Promo copy:

He was the most powerful Sith lord who ever lived.
But could he be the only one who never died?

“Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? It’s a Sith legend. Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise that he could use the Force to influence the midi-chlorians to create life. He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.”
—Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith

Darth Plagueis: one of the most brilliant Sith Lords who ever lived. Possessing power is all he desires. Losing it is the only thing he fears. As an apprentice, he embraces the ruthless ways of the Sith. And when the time is right, he destroys his Master—but vows never to suffer the same fate. For like no other disciple of the dark side, Darth Plagueis learns to command the ultimate power … over life and death.

Darth Sidious: Plagueis’s chosen apprentice. Under the guidance of his Master, he secretly studies the ways of the Sith, while publicly rising to power in the galactic government, first as Senator, then as Chancellor, and eventually as Emperor.

Darth Plagueis and Darth Sidious, Master and acolyte, target the galaxy for domination—and the Jedi Order for annihilation. But can they defy the merciless Sith tradition? Or will the desire of one to rule supreme, and the dream of the other to live forever, sow the seeds of their destruction?

Transformers: Exiles
by Alex Irvine
Cover by John Van Fleet

Promo copy:

The epic battles between Optimus Prime and Megatron have long thrilled Transformers fans. But these two giants weren’t always great leaders and bitter foes. This new novel continues the electrifying saga that started with Transformers: Exodus, unveiling the origins of the conflict—the explosive events that unfolded before Optimus and Megatron arrived Earthside, forever altering the destiny of their kind.

Once allies, Optimus and Megatron are now enemies in a civil war. To prevent Cybertron from falling into Megatron’s hands, Optimus jettisons the planet’s heart, the AllSpark, into space, then sets out to find it with Megatron hot on his heels. Optimus is determined to defeat Megatron, bring the AllSpark home, and restore Cybertron to its former glory.

But a saboteur lurks aboard Optimus’s spaceship, and ahead lie lost colonies, some of them hostile. Optimus needs help of the highest caliber, but from whom? Heroes such as Solus, Nexus, and Vector Prime are just names from make-believe stories of long ago. Or are they? Maybe it’s time for Optimus Prime to find out. Maybe it’s the only chance he has to vanquish mighty Megatron.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Revan
by Drew Karpyshyn

Promo copy:

There’s something out there:
a juggernaut of evil bearing down to crush the Republic—
unless one lone Jedi, shunned and reviled, can stop it.

Revan: hero, traitor, conqueror, villain, savior. A Jedi who left Coruscant to defeat Mandalorians—and returned a disciple of the dark side, bent on destroying the Republic. The Jedi Council gave Revan his life back, but the price of redemption was high. His memories have been erased. All that’s left are nightmares—and deep, abiding fear.

What exactly happened beyond the Outer Rim? Revan can’t quite remember, yet can’t entirely forget. Somehow he stumbled across a terrible secret that threatens the very existence of the Republic. With no idea what it is, or how to stop it, Revan may very well fail, for he’s never faced a more powerful and diabolic enemy. But only death can stop him from trying.

Uncharted: The Fourth Labyrinth
by Christopher Golden
Cover by Jon Foster

Promo copy:

The official novel of Naughty Dog’s award-winning videogame franchise!

In the ancient world there was a myth about a king, a treasure, and a hellish labyrinth. Now the doors to that hell are open once again.

Nathan Drake, treasure hunter and risk taker, has been called to New York City by the man who taught him everything about the “antiquities acquisition business.” Victor Sullivan needs Drake’s help. Sully’s old friend, a world-famous archaeologist, has just been found murdered in Manhattan. Dodging assassins, Drake, Sully, and the dead man’s daughter, Jada Hzujak, race from New York to underground excavations in Egypt and Greece. Their goal: to unravel an ancient myth of alchemy, look for three long-lost labyrinths, and find the astonishing discovery that got Jada’s father killed. It appears that a fourth labyrinth was built in another land and another culture—and within it lies a key to unmatched wealth and power. An army of terrifying lost warriors guards this underground maze. So does a monster. And what lies beyond—if Drake can live long enough to reach it—is both a treasure and a poison, a paradise and a hell.

Welcome to The Fourth Labyrinth.

Books received 9/18/11 Del Rey media tie in edition was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 4 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies that I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Sunday, September 25th

THE CORRIDOR
Evan Kelly 2010 | AMD Next Wave, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror, Sci-Fi | 100 min.

Director Evan Kelly live in person!

When Tyler’s mom Pauline OD’s, something snaps in his head. His friends arrive to find Pauline face down in the hallway and Tyler jumps out of the closet, sputtering nonsense. He cuts one friend’s face and stabs another in the hand before being restrained.

Several years later, Tyler’s getting out of the institution and his four best friends are meeting him to give Pauline a final farewell and scatter her ashes. They head out to the small cabin she kept deep in the woods, but the years have changed them. They’ve grown apart. Old wounds open and none of them are sure how to treat Tyler. While the meds he’s taking seem to be working, there’s a latent fear that they can’t acknowledge or ignore.

Tyler takes a walk late on the first night and discovers a strange hallway, some kind of supernatural corridor in the woods. While he wonders if his mind is playing tricks on him, he convinces his best friend to go with him the next morning and check it out. The other three follow them and they can all see and experience the corridor, allowing Tyler to breathe a sigh of relief at not being crazy. But the corridor has strange, supernatural properties and its effects will change the five friends in ways they could never expect.

First time feature director Evan Kelly delivers exactly what we are looking for in an AMD Next Wave film: a vibrant, fresh supernatural concept with unexpected turns and deeply developed characters. Look out for what Kelly does next. (Luke Mullen)

HEADHUNTERS
Morten Tyldum 2011 | Feature, Romance, Thriller | 100 min.

screens with…
THE CANDIDATE | David Karlak 2010

Based on Jo Nesbo’s bestselling book of the same name, Morten Tyldum’s HEADHUNTERS follows Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie of MAX MANUS), Norway’s most successful headhunter. He’s also secretly Norway’s top con artist, using his job to slyly recruit people he plans on stealing from. He’s charming but suffers from what’s called “Little Man Syndrome.” His wife Diana (an impressive first performance from Synnøve Macody Lund) is tall and beautiful. To make up for those lost inches, he steals from people and buys her things he can’t afford, putting himself deeper in debt than even M.C. Hammer could imagine. So, Roger goes for one final hit – the one that will cure all of his financial woes. That last job is a painting worth millions, and it’s in the hands of Clas Greve (Nikolaj Cster-Waldau of “A Game of Thrones”), a former mercenary with excellent hunting skills.

HEADHUNTERS eventually turns into a brutally satisfying game of cat and mouse. Throughout the chase, our characters discover the meanings of love, deceit, faith and revenge. There are virtually no truly likable characters in HEADHUNTERS, and that’s what really makes it work – you find yourself rooting for the bad guy, but he’s the good guy by comparison.(Chase Whale)

CARRE BLANC
Jean-Baptiste Léonetti 2011 | Feature, Guest in attendance, Sci-Fi | 77 min.

Director Jean-Baptiste Léonetti, Producer Benjamin Mamou, and Executive Producer Camille Havard Bourdon in attendance

After his mother leaps to her death from their high-rise apartment balcony, Phillipe attempts his own suicide only to be thwarted by his classmate Marie. Phillipe is sent to a school run by the government where he is molded into a fit member of society via physically and psychologically tormenting techniques. Years later, Phillipe (Sami Bouajila) is now a disciplined and successful business man putting applicants through strange, sometimes painful tests and is estranged from Marie (Julie Gayet) to whom he is now married. Marie, however, is determined to prove correct her inkling that there is still love in their relationship and that it is mutual.

Writer/director Jean-Baptiste Léonetti takes an aggressively economical approach to his first feature. The visual palette and sound design perfectly match the gaunt view of a future where capitalistic society has reached an extreme and is on the verge of endgame. Instead, he focuses on what matters, Phillipe and Marie’s relationship, leaving the viewer to fill in the blanks about the details of life in this future using clues mostly revealed via clever editing.

As the film progresses, audiences will become more and more familiar with their surroundings as they navigate through a world only barely familiar, one full of odd touches like a mysterious voice over a loudspeaker that constantly announces seemingly random numbers, body bags that share the same logo as packaged meat, and what seems to be a cultural obsession with croquet. It’s a tribute to Léonetti’s enormous talent that it never becomes overbearing, the initially surreal elements make sense and there’s a dark vein of wit that runs through it all. At times it would almost be funny if it didn’t feel so damn prophetic. In the end, it’s a small character story painted in strokes of big sci-fi ideas. (Brian Kelley)

Preview Day 3

Preview Day 5

Fantastic Fest preview Day 4 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

MetaMaus: A Look Inside a Modern Classic, Maus
by Art Spiegelman

Visually and emotionally rich, MetaMaus is as groundbreaking as the masterpiece whose creation it reveals.

In the pages of MetaMaus, Art Spiegelman re-enters the Pulitzer prize–winning Maus, the modern classic that has altered how we see literature, comics, and the Holocaust ever since it was first published twenty-five years ago.

He probes the questions that Maus most often evokes—Why the Holocaust? Why mice? Why comics?—and gives us a new and essential work about the creative process.

MetaMaus includes a bonus DVD that provides a digitized reference copy of The Complete Maus linked to a deep archive of audio interviews with his survivor father, historical documents, and a wealth of Spiegelman’s private notebooks and sketches.

Compelling and intimate, MetaMaus is poised to become a classic in its own right.

WOW!

Master of the World

Promo copy:

Elements of the Jules Verne novels Master of the World and Robur, The Conqueror are combined in this marvelous science-fiction thriller. Vincent Price stars as Captain Robur, a 19th-century scientist who builds a gigantic airship and sets out to eliminate the world’s weapons in an effort to abolish war. With Charles Bronson, Henry Hull, Mary Webster. 99 min.

Let’s see: Vincent Price, Charles Bronson, Henry Hull, screenplay by Richard Matheson, and airships. What could be bad?

Habibi
by Craig Thompson

Promo copy:

From the internationally acclaimed author of Blankets (“A triumph for the genre.”—Library Journal), a highly anticipated new graphic novel.

Sprawling across an epic landscape of deserts, harems, and modern industrial clutter, Habibi tells the tale of Dodola and Zam, refugee child slaves bound to each other by chance, by circumstance, and by the love that grows between them. We follow them as their lives unfold together and apart; as they struggle to make a place for themselves in a world (not unlike our own) fueled by fear, lust, and greed; and as they discover the extraordinary depth—and frailty—of their connection.

At once contemporary and timeless, Habibi gives us a love story of astounding resonance: a parable about our relationship to the natural world, the cultural divide between the first and third worlds, the common heritage of Christianity and Islam, and, most potently, the magic of storytelling.

I reviewed Habibi in the current “Nexus Graphica.”

Stuff received 9/17/11 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 5 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies that I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Saturday, September 24th

DRAWN AND QUARTERED: Animated Shorts
various | Feature, Short | 91 min.

screens with…
PATH OF BLOOD: DEMON AT THE CROSSROADS OF DESTINY | Eric Power 2011
A lone samurai sets his course towards the path of blood where unknown dangers and terrors await.

TWO FRIENDS | 2010
Albert and his best friend Jonas are orphans. They live in the future in a harsh dystopia where the women and children are all dead and the men have begun to change.

BEDTIME FOR TIMMY | Thomas Nicol 2010
Night falls, shadows creep out, and the time has come for little Timmy to go to bed. But can he brave the ominous gaze of his closet door?

SK8RZ | Robin Todd 2011
Set in a world where love exists as forward momentum, sk8rz carry each other over precarious obstacles until they crash in bitter disagreement.

THE LAST NORWEGIAN TROLL | Pjotr Sapegin 2010
Three young goats decide to get rid of an old Troll who lives under a bridge. Little do they know that he is the last survivor of his species, the very last Troll of Norway…

THE HOLY CHICKEN OF LIFE AND MUSIC | NOMINT 2010
The magnificent Holy Chicken is worshiped and exploited in this tale of love and regret, art and science, life and music.

LADY CRUSH | Hanna Sköld 2011
An unhappy couple long to be other than they are in this absurd, associative tale about love, role-playing and the longing to be seen.

BLACK DOLL | Sofia Carrillo 2011
Two sisters share their life imprisoned in a strange place. The mundane routine, along with their curiosity, will cause them to break their boundaries.

CREATE | Dan MacKenzie 2011
A young mad scientist sets out to create a pet monster within the parallel worlds of an imaginary laboratory and the reality of the boy’s bedroom.

YUICHI : THE BEGINNING OF THE END | Aaron D. Guadamuz 2011
After the planet is decimated, Yuichi and his dog venture into the charred landscape of cult film artifacts in search of a television tube.

THE LADY PARANORMA | Vincent Marcone 2011
Estranged from the rest of the townsfolk, an eccentric lady is haunted by ghostly whispers and follows an eerie call to an unusual happily-ever-after.

INNERCITY | Alain Fournier 2011
In a lonely city, a young boy has only pigeons for company. When he spies a pretty neighbor, he tries all manner of inventions to catch her eye.

LAZAROV | NIETOV 2010
Refusing to accept the decline of the USSR, a handful of Russian scientists work secretly to resurrect the Soviet power.

DICKFACE | Thomas Seeberg Torjussen, Eric Vogel 2011
Portrait of the artist as a young man…if he had no hands and a dick for a nose.

CALIBRE 9
Jean-Christian Tassy 2011 | Action, AMD Next Wave, Bizarre, Fantasy, Feature, Guest in attendance | 84 min.

screens with…
SHIFTER | Ben Parker 2011

Director Jean-Christian Tassy & Producer Axel Guyot live in person!

Sarah is a down-on-her-luck hooker. She’s been trying to get out of the life and has one last client scheduled, a big spender whose money will allow her to move on. But while he’s getting ready in the next room, her pimp Frank drops in. A fight breaks out and Sarah manages to stab him, get his gun and kill him. Sarah is badly hurt but before she dies, her client returns to the scene. He happens to be from Senegal and was paying Sarah to be a participant in a supernatural ritual. He decides to do a favor for her.

Yann is a pretty typical guy. He goes to work, comes home, eats dinner, checks on his mom, goes to bed, gets up and does it all again. He works as a city planner in the mayor’s office. Unfortunately the mayor is an asshole, and the entire city government is corrupt, Yann included. Bribes and intimidation are standard tactics. While delivering falsified construction authorizations to a job site, a threatening note is discovered in the paperwork. When Yann is confronted about it, he hears voices from his briefcase. He opens it to find a gun that jumps into his hand and fires on its own, killing the rich land developer and his bodyguards. When the mercenaries hired by the land developer show up to avenge him, all hell breaks loose.

Director Jean-Christian Tassy defines what we are seeking in our AMD Next Wave showcase: fresh young debut director with an alarmingly original story up his sleeve. CALIBRE 9, the action-packed story about a gun possessed by the soul of a dead hooker is sleazy, bloody and more than somewhat crazy. What more do you need?(Luke Mullen)

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON
John Landis 1981 | Comedy, Fantasy, Feature, Guest in attendance, Horror, Repertory | 97 min.

Let’s be blunt… John Landis directed one of the most important movies ever made. Prove it? Ok! Lots of people credit this as being the movie that ushered in the horror comedy genre and its “star” is widely considered to be Rick Baker’s special effects. In fact, the effects were so mind blowing that the Oscars created an awards category to recognize their importance. The King of Pop himself liked this movie so much that he called Landis to make a video for one of his songs that was slipping in the pop charts. This video became the most influential music video of all time. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON is a lot of things to a lot of people and like a stone being tossed into a stagnant lake, the ripples it created are still being felt in Hollywood 30 years later. (Justin Ishmael)

KNUCKLE
Ian Palmer 2010 | Documentary, Feature, Guest in attendance | 93 min.

When videographer Ian Palmer was hired to film a Quinn family wedding, he unexpectedly stumbled upon a documentary subject that would occupy him for over a decade. KNUCKLE centers around a feud between the Quinns and a neighboring clan, the Joyces. Both are part of a large group of ethnic Irish known as Travellers. Travellers are generally poor, travel from place to place in search of lodging and work and are often the victims of discrimination in Ireland.

In addition to sharing a Traveller heritage, the Quinns and Joyces are united by mutual hatred. Instead of resolving their issues in court or killing each other, the menfolk engage in bare-knuckle fights for honor and cash. One would think that a couple of fights would be enough to end a feud. However, the two families hated each other so much that they have continued to beat each other up for over 12 years.

Director Ian Palmer followed the Quinns and Joyces for years to document the arc of their long-running dispute. He captures numerous fights, most of which are brief and brutal, as well as the daily routines of various participants. The individual incidents that lead to the fights seem petty and slight, giving the impression that the family dispute has more to do with adrenaline and testosterone than family honor. However, a serious grudge borne of a real tragedy fuels the flurry of smashed faces. KNUCKLE isn’t just about fighting; it’s about a group of outsiders trying to survive in a world that is hostile to their way of life. (Rodney)

KNUCKLE will also be the theme of our signature festival event: Fantastic Debates. At the Fantastic Debates, press, filmmakers & film professionals enter the arena for a formal debate followed by two rounds of boxing. In the ring, the great issues facing the fan community are solved once and for all, first by words, then by fisticuffs. Four debates are scheduled, culminating in the main event, a bout featuring KNUCKLE star and undefeated bare-knuckle brawler James Quinn McDonagh versus Fantastic Fest Co-Founder Tim League. (Rodney Perkins)

Preview Day 2

Preview Day 4

Fantastic Fest preview Day 3 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just 6 days.

As a lead up, I’m previewing the movies I’m planning on attending and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Friday, September 23rd

THE YELLOW SEA
Hong-jin Na 2011 | Action, Crime, Drama, Feature | 157 min.

At Fantastic Fest 2008 Na Hong-jin blew audiences away with his incredibly assured debut feature THE CHASER. For his sophomore film THE YELLOW SEA, Na has reassembled his two leads from THE CHASER and crafted a hyper-violent, border crossing crime epic sure to become another audience favorite.

Gu-nam (Ha Jung-woo) is a cab driver in Yanji City, a Chinese region between North Korea and Russia dominated mostly by Joseonjok, Chinese citizens of Korean ancestry. After going into extreme debt with shady types who smuggle his wife into Korea to work, Gu-nam fears his wife has left him in Yanji for good when he hasn’t heard from her for six months. The opportunity for him to pay off all liabilities comes in the form of an offer from Myung-ga (Kim Yun-seok), a powerful crime boss to whom Gu-nam owes many mahjong gambling losses. Myung-ga offers to smuggle Gu-nam into Korea where he will kill someone for him. Gu-nam accepts but gets far more than he bargained for when his plans go off the rails. He must then struggle to maintain balance in an increasingly chaotic series of events and find the time to track down his wife.

THE YELLOW SEA unravels organically, Na taking time to follow Gu-nam in his confusion as he loses track of shifting loyalties. The world he finds himself caught up in, though, is extremely volatile and he soon finds himself on the giving and receiving end of many sharp objects. Featuring enough chaotic knife antics, stress-inducing hatchet acrobatics, extended chases and car crashes to fill 5 movies, THE YELLOW SEA is a the kind of dark, violent crime epic we have come to expect from Korea and a film that firmly establishes Na Hong-jin as a major force in Korean cinema. (Brian Kelley)

INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI
Oh Young-doo 2011 | Action, Comedy, Feature, Sci-Fi | 75 min.

screens with…
BRUTAL RELAX
David Muñoz, Rafa Dengrá, Adrián Cardona 2010

This micro-budget movie from Korean filmmaker Oh Young-doo (THE NEIGHBOR ZOMBIE) is a brilliant journey into the bizarre. A martial arts romp, the film’s got everything we look for in an Asian cinema: beautiful girls in states of undress, aliens, sweet ‘70s-style mustaches, killer body parts, sperm demands, etc.

The whole film, shot with a budget under $5,000, has all of the excitement and freshness and young passion of a film like THE EVIL DEAD; it was made by a bunch of kids who clearly spent their youth perfecting elaborate martial art stunts, in much the same way that people like Raimi grew up concocting fake blood recipes. Every frame of this film is steeped in the kind of deep love of genre film that can only come from fanaticism. These kids are good and they know their stuff.

The budgetary limitations are often played as camp, as is the case with the hero’s vigilante disguise; he wears a cheap, totally artificial mustache that is constantly peeling off. This only helps Oh Young-doo and Co. in their reverent send-up of genre; from the imperfections and self-referential moments come a very clear message that these filmmakers are having fun, a quality that all too few films are able (and are brave enough) to portray. In that same spirit of play, they manipulate the images, fool with the editing, and do all sorts of other mischievous filmmaking tricks to keep it moving and light.

INVASION OF ALIEN BIKINI also features what is undoubtedly the first ever romance scene to take place over a game of Jenga. If you’ve ever been turned on by your partner slipping out the middle block with a seductive index finger, you’ll completely understand this movie’s most tender and yet most uncomfortable moment. (Daniel Metz)

EXTRATERRESTRIAL
Nacho Vigalondo 2011 | Comedy, Feature, Guest in attendance, Romance, Sci-Fi, Thriller | 90 min.

screens with…
WE, TIME MACHINES
Raul Navarro 2010

Director Nacho Vigalondo and Producer Nahikari Ipiña live in person!

Julio wakes up with one hell of a hangover. As he gradually takes in his surroundings, it’s obvious he’s not in his own bed. He introduces himself to Julia, his apparent hookup from the night before, and they go through the typically awkward conversation. Julia is clearly trying to get him out of her apartment as soon as possible. But as he gathers his belongings they realize that things are much too quiet, even for a Sunday. A quick trip to the balcony reveals absolutely no one on the street. They gaze off into the distance and see a huge spaceship looming on the horizon. While they struggle to understand what they’re seeing, Julia’s neighbor Angel stops by. Angel brings news of the alien invasion, and it becomes apparent that he’s obsessed with Julia and maybe even spying on the apartment. When Julia’s live-in boyfriend Carlos comes home, things become even more complicated. The four acquaintances must try to find a way to survive threats from both outside and within, and maybe make some sense of their situation.

Fantastic Fest favorite Nacho Vigalondo is back with his second feature film. EXTRATERRESTRIAL showcases Nacho’s sure-handed direction and tight pacing, bringing the audience in and then keeping things moving steadily towards the conclusion. The acting is top-notch, bringing to life a witty, sharply-written script. Engaging and funny, EXTRATERRESTRIAL is a worthy follow up to 2007’s wildly successful TIMECRIMES. (Luke Mullen)

Preview Day 1

Preview Day 3

Fantastic Fest preview Day 2 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the U.S., specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world, starts here in Austin in just one week.

Over the next seven days, I’m previewing the movies I’m planning on seeing and blogging about over the course of the week long festival.

Thursday, September 22nd

LET THE BULLETS FLY
Wen Jang 2010 | Action, Comedy, Feature | 132 min.

Notorious bandit Pocky Zhang is the Robin Hood of 1920s China. He and his gang steal from the wealthy and have genuine concern for the poor. When they try to rob a train, they discover that the Governor traveling inside is a fraud. He conned his way into his position and is now preying on small villages and collecting illegal taxes from those who have never seen the real official. Zhang decides to team up with this conman and try the clever scam in a the next town down the line. Once they arrive, however, they must battle the equally Machiavellian Master Huang, the local godfather who has beaten them to the punch and already holds the town in his tyrannical grip.

The powerhouse acting trio of Chow Yun Fat (The Killer, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and about a 1000 other films) is joined by director/actor Jiang Wen (Red Sorghum, The Lost Bladesman) and arthouse mainstay Ge You (Farewell My Concubine, To Live) to deliver a crackling dense script full of twists, turns and genuine belly laughs. By their actions, the trio of characters are all fairly loathsome, morally bankrupt individuals, but they follow their broken moral compass with such genuine charisma, you can’t help but fall under their spell.

From the meticulous décor to the non stop barrage of guns blazing action (the title is most definitely not a red herring), LET THE BULLETS FLY is a classic martial arts comedy romp that gleefully harkens back to both the Leone Spaghetti Westerns but also the golden age of Hong Kong action, where a movie ticket was almost always a gateway to perfect, gleeful escapism.(Luke Mullen)

KILL ME PLEASE
Olias Barco 2010 | Black Comedy, Feature, Guest in attendance | 96 min.

Director Olias Barco live in person!

KILL ME PLEASE is the heart-warming story of one of the world’s foremost euthanasia clinics. Dr. Krueger and his well-trained staff have created the optimal environment for the terminally ill, the hopelessly depressed, and those with a generally abysmal quality of life to quietly and peacefully drift off the mortal coil. As one would predict given the controversial nature of his work, not everyone is a fan of Dr. Krueger and his clinic. As the ire of the local villagers rises to the boiling point, Dr. Krueger must contend with forces both within and outside his own facility that seek to bring ruin to his reputation…as well as to his clientele.

If there is anything funnier than euthanasia, I haven’t seen it. Kill Me Please does require some patience; not because it is poorly paced, but because it plays its motives close to the vest for the first half hour. Its true colors are playfully obscured in black-and-white and it’s flush with the trappings of French new wave. It flirts with melodrama as well as early ‘90s indie films and generally feels at odds with traditional Fantastic Fest fare. But stick with it, because as it gets rolling, its qualifications for this festival become remarkably clear.

It slowly transforms from contrived drama to something in the neighborhood of violent thriller and finally bursts out as an absurd black comedy. The overall experience of KILL ME PLEASE is spectacularly unique and provides an interesting balance of deeply introspective character moments and farcical humor. By the time the fat lady sings, you may not know exactly what to make of KILL ME PLEASE, but you will be grateful for the ride on which it has taken you. (Brian Salisbury)

POLVORA NEGRA
Kapel Furman 2011 | Action, Feature, Guest in attendance, Thriller | 89 min.

When Carlos hunts down his mistress who has run away, he brutally murders her and shoots her brother in the head leaving him for dead. Years later, the brother returns, minus an eye, but somehow miraculously alive.

He now goes by the name Castilho and has been hired as a hitman to help deal with an inheritance squabble caused by the death of Carlos. Carlos was a bit of a crime kingpin in the small Brazilian town of Piedade. Now his son Merino runs things, but a new judge will soon give a ruling on the estate Carlos left behind and the illegitimate daughter he had with his former mistress may cause problems. Everyone in the town seems to bear a subtly different grudge against someone else, all connected by blood or money. In the end, however, there is far more blood than money on the streets of Piedade.

Although shot on a budget in rural Brazil, first-time director Kapel Furman creates a rich landscape of gritty bars, sweaty cafes and dusty plazas. The scenery matches well to the screenplay, inspired no doubt by the criss-cross revenge plots of classic Spaghetti Westerns. Also akin to the Spaghettis, the world of POLVORA NEGRA is peppered with eccentric supporting characters who lend both depth as well as a welcome dash of comic relief. Beef punching cooks, obsessive-compulsive restaurant owners, and fruit-fancying mercenaries all circle the main action in the periphery, adding small doses of humor in between the mayhem.

Furman’s leg up on this indie production is his long history in stunts and special effects. The production team from Polvora Negra seemingly smash up every cart, van, window and stick of furniture in the town and load up enough squibs to make Sam Peckinpah proud. (Luke Mullen)

Preview Day 2

Fantastic Fest preview Day 1 was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.

Blackdog
by K. V. Johansen
Cover by Raymond Swanland

Promo copy:

Long ago, in the days of the first kings in the north, there were seven devils…

And long ago, in the days of the first kings in the north, the seven devils, who had deceived and possessed seven of the greatest wizards of the world, were defeated and bound with the help of the Old Great Gods…

And perhaps some of the devils are free in the world, and perhaps some are working to free themselves still…

In a land where gods walk on the hills and goddesses rise from river, lake, and spring, the caravan-guard Holla-Sayan, escaping the bloody conquest of a lakeside town, stops to help an abandoned child and a dying dog. The girl, though, is the incarnation of Attalissa, goddess of Lissavakail, and the dog a shape-changing guardian spirit whose origins have been forgotten. Possessed and nearly driven mad by the Blackdog, Holla-Sayan flees to the desert road, taking the powerless avatar with him.

Necromancy, treachery, massacres, rebellions, and gods dead or lost or mad, follow hard on the their heels. But it is Attalissa herself who may be the Blackdog’s—and Holla-Sayan’s—doom.

Hearts of Smoke and Steam (Society of Steam, Book Two)
by Andrew P. Mayer
Cover by Justin Gerard

Promo copy:

Sir Dennis Darby has been murdered, the Automaton has been destroyed, and Sarah Stanton has turned her back on a life of privilege and comfort to try and find her way in the unforgiving streets of New York. But Lord Eschaton, the villain behind all these events, isn’t finished with her yet. His plans to bring his apocalyptic vision of the future to the world are moving forward, but to complete his scheme he needs the clockwork heart that Sarah still holds.
But she has her own plans for the Automaton’s clockwork heart—Sarah is trying rebuild her mechanical friend, and when she is attacked by The Children of Eschaton, the man comes to her rescue may be the one to make her dreams come true. Emelio Armando is a genius inventor who had hoped to leave his troubles behind when he and his sister left Italy for a life of anonymity in the New World. Now he finds himself falling in love with the fallen society girl, but he is rapidly discovering just how powerful the forces of villainy aligned against her are, and that fulfilling her desires means opening the door to a world of danger that could destroy everything he has built.

THE SOCIETY OF STEAM takes place in a Victorian New York powered by the discovery of Fortified Steam, a substance that allows ordinary men to wield extraordinary abilities, and grant powers that can corrupt gentlemen of great moral strength. The secret behind this amazing substance is something that wicked brutes will gladly kill for, and one that Sarah must try and protect, no matter what the cost.

Lightbringer
by K.D. McEntire
Cover by Sam Weber

Promo copy:

Wendy has the ability to see souls that have not moved on—but she does not seek them out. They seek her. They yearn for her … or what she can do for them. Without Wendy’s powers, the Lost, the souls that have died unnaturally young, are doomed to wander in the never forever, and Wendy knows she is the only one who can set them free by sending them into the light.

Each soul costs Wendy, delivering too many souls would be deadly, and yet she is driven to patrol, dropping everyone in her life but her best friend, Eddie—who wants to be more than friends—until she meets Piotr.

Piotr, the first Rider and guardian of the Lost, whose memory of his decades in the never, a world that the living never see, has faded away. With his old-fashioned charms, and haunted kindness, he understands Wendy in ways no one living ever could, yet Wendy is hiding that she can do more than exist in the never. Wendy is falling for a boy who she may have to send into the light.

But there are darker forces looking for the Lost. Trying to regain the youth and power that the Lost possess, the dark ones feed on the Lost and only Wendy and Piotr can save them—but at what cost?

Lightbringer is a YA urban fantasy/romance set in a world a breath away from our own. Similar in tone to Tithe and Unleashed, Lightbringer tiptoes down the line between love and horror as Wendy discovers herself and the darkest parts of the afterlife.

The Doctor and the Kid: A Weird West Tale
by Mike Resnick
Cover by J. Seamus Gallagher

Promo copy:

This is the rip-roaring steampunk sequel to popular The Buntline Special, filled with adventure, excitement, and more than a little gun-slinging action! The time is 1882. With the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral behind him, the consumptive Doc Holliday makes his way to Deadwood, Colorado, where he plans to spend the rest of his short life. But one night he gets a little too drunk and loses everything at the gaming table. He realizes that he needs to replenish his bankroll, and quick, so that he can live out his days in comfort. He considers his options and hits upon the one most likely to produce income in a hurry: he’ll use his shooting skills to turn bounty hunter. The biggest reward is for the death of the young desperado known as Billy the Kid. It’s clear from the odds the Kid has faced and beaten, that he is protected by some powerful magic. Doc enlists the aid of both magic (Geronimo) and science (Thomas Edison), and goes out after his quarry. But as he soon finds out, nothing is as easy as it looks.

Books received 9/14/11 Pyr edition was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: In Love ]
[ Currently: Editing the Podcast ]
"He’s not perfect. You aren’t either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn’t going to quote poetry, he’s not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don’t hurt him, don’t change him, and don’t expect for more than he can give. Don’t analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he’s not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don’t exist, but there’s always one guy that is perfect for you."
— Bob Marley