Returning for a sixth exciting year, Other Worlds, one of the premier SciFi Film Festivals in the US, features some of the best and unheralded genre films. Beginning on Thursday December 5 at Austin’s Galaxy Highland 10, the four day event includes over 20 feature films, a slew of shorts, a screenwriting workshop, and the Mary Shelley Award. This year also features the return of Under Worlds, which brings the best of indie to Austin.
Not terribly surprising to anyone who regularly follows my writings, I’ll be there.
Here’s what to expect at Other Worlds 2019.
Thursday, December 5
7:42PM Dreamscape (35TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING)
LAUNCH FILM
Joseph Ruben | USA | 99 min | 1984
Writer: David Loughery, Chuck Russell, Joseph Ruben
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Kate Capshaw, David Patrick Kelly, Max von Sydow, Christopher Plummer
Psychic Alex Gardner escapes his life of petty crime to join a government research project in which he uses powers to enter dreams of those with sleep disorders. However, as his talents develop and he delves deeper into the experiment, he discovers not everyone on the team shares the same motives and he may be the only one who can stop a plot against the project.
Featuring a great cast and the perfect mix of SciFi, Horror, and Action, DREAMSCAPE was only the second film to receive a PG-13 rating. We are very proud to bring together Director and co-writer Joseph Ruben, Producer and co-writer Chuck Russell and Screenwriter David Loughery for this exclusive 35th Anniversary Screening care of 20th Century Fox.
David Loughery broke into television with a story for HART TO HART. After the success of DREAMSCAPE, Loughery wrote STAR TREK V: THE FINAL FRONTIER. He teamed up with Rubin again for Wesley Snipes/Woody Harrelson buddy cop film MONEY TRAIN.
Joseph Ruben broke into film with sexploitation films like THE SISTER IN LAW and teensploitation films like THE POM POM GIRLS before achieving cult status with DREAMSCAPE and THE STEPFATHER. His greatest success came with the 1991 Julia Roberts thriller SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY and 1993 Macauley Culkin thriller THE GOOD SON.
Friday, December 6
4:15PM The Final Land (North American Premiere)
(screens again Sunday, 7:40PM)
Marcel Barion | Germany | 113 min
Writer: Marcel Barion
Cast: Milan Pešl, Torben Föllmer
A runaway convict and his pursuer escape a prison planet in an old spaceship in search of a new home. As they search for a place to go, their separate paths to this moment become a point ofconflict, as well as the strange history of this derelict ship that they now drive. Then a strange signal gives them hope of a new future. In the grand tradition of 2001 and SOLARIS, THE FINAL LAND plays off the mystery of vastness of space and our still miniscule understanding of our place inside it.
4:30 Under World Shorts: Dark Nights & Dark Thoughts
4:40PM Afterlife (Texas Premiere)
(screens again Saturday, 7:20PM)
Willem Bosch | The Netherlands | 93 min
Writer: Willem Bosch
Cast: Sanaa Giwa, Romana Vrede, Gijs Scholten van Aschat, Jan-Paul Buijs
After her mother’s passing, teenage Sam takes up most of the household responsibilities. When she, too, ends up in the afterlife and finds out she can get a do-over, Sam gives life another try with the sole mission of saving her mother. A fantasy science fiction film, Afterlife tugs on the heart strings and deals with the hard realities of life and death.
7:10PM Time After Time (40TH ANNIVER. SCREENING)
Defender of the Universe Film
Nicholas Meyer | USA | 112 min | 1979
Writer: Nicholas Meyer
Cast: Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, Mary Steenburgen
Serial murderer Jack the Ripper escapes Victorian England using a time machine built by SciFi writer H.G. Wells. Pursing the criminal to 1979 San Francisco, Wells fails to find the socialist utopia he expects, instead landing in a world more suited for Jack the Ripper’s tastes. After reading an unpublished early draft of his friend’s novella, Meyer optioned the work and developed in into a charming comedy of two men, out of time, and the woman who gets caught between them, as well as a not so subtle dig at modern times.
Nicholas Meyer is often referred to as the man who saved the STAR TREK Franchise, his STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982) setting a world record for its first-day box office gross and overcoming a perceived lackluster response to the first film. He went on to co-write STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986), and write and direct STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY, as well as write for STAR TREK: DISCOVERY. Other major films include VOLUNTEERS (1985), THE DECEIVERS (1988), SOMMERSBY (1993), the television event film THE DAY AFTER (1983), which set a record as the highest-rated television film and the two-part History channel HOUDINI (2014) starring Adrien Brody. An accomplished fiction writer as well, Meyer adopted his first novel, THE SEVENPER-CENT SOLUTION, into an Academy-Award nominated screenplay. The Sherlock Holmes story was followed by three more, including THE ADVENTURE OF THE PECULIAR PROTOCOLS released this year.
7:15PM Z (Texas Premiere)
Brandon Christensen | Canada | 83 min
Writers: Brandon Christensen, Colin Minihan
Cast: Keegan Connor Tracy, Jett Klyne, Sean Rogerson
Cynical Beth feels trapped by her status as mom. She takes care of others before taking care of herself. She doesn’t think anything of it when her son, Josh, brings Z, an Imaginary Friend, into the house, ignoring small signs that her son’s new friendship may not be a healthy one. After a particularly tragic play date, Beth drugs Josh, leaving Z without a friend to play with. And he turns to Beth.
7:20PM Alien Addiction (US Premiere)
(Screens again Sunday 5PM)
Shae Sterling | New Zealand | 96 min
Writer: Shae Sterling, Melanie Price and Ricky Silvester
Cast: Jimi Jackson, Thomas Sainsbury, Harry Summerfield, Jojo Waaka, Ayham Ghalayini
Riko lives in a small town in the middle of nowhere (well, Waikato, New Zealand). Life is pretty normal, that is until two aliens crash-land near his house. Fortunately for Riko, the aliens like to get high and chill as much as he does and they develop an intergalactic friendship of epic proportions, as well as a strange relationship to human feces. However, unknown to the happy go-lucky visitors, alientologist Peter Mackintosh is hot on their trail and plans to capture them and reveal them to the world.
9:55 PM Enhanced (US Premiere)
OPENING NIGHT FILM
James Mark | Canada | 97 min
Writer: James Mark, Matthew Nayman, Peter Van Horne
Cast: Alanna Bale, George Tchortov, Adrian Holmes
A secret task force hunts down a group of enhanced mutant outcasts, until their team leader begins to question if he is on the right side. When forced to capture a young girl just learning how to use her powers, he instead joins her to fight the government that is after her. But they are not the only ones on the tail of the mutants, as a super powerful enhanced serial killer seems intent to take down others of his kind.
Other Worlds 2019 gets a jump start with the action packed, high tension ENHANCED as its Opening Night Film. The programming team selected this film to set the tone as to what to expect from this year’s line-up. This is the superhero genre that has taken over the cineplex, but told in a fresh, indie way. James Mark utilizes his experience as a stunt man and fight choreographer to fill the screen with intense action scenes. He combines this with a strong narrative and real characters with heart and drive.
9:45PM Spiral (Texas Premiere)
Kurtis David Harder | Canada | 90 min
Writers: Colin Minihan, John Poliquin
Cast: Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman, Ari Cohen, Jennifer Laporte
In the mid-nineties, same-sex couple, Aaron and Malik, move to a small town so they can enjoy a better quality of life and raise their 16-year-old daughter, Kayla, with the best social values. However, nothing is as it seems in their picturesque neighborhood. At first, Malik holds back his suspicions and covers up bigoted vandalism in their home. Nevertheless, when Malik witnesses the folks next door throwing a very strange party, his suspicions become a Lovecraftian reality.
10:05PM Lake Michigan Monster (Texas Premiere)
Ryland Brickson Cole Tews | USA | 78 min
Writer: Ryland Brickson Cole Tews
Cast: Ryland Tews, Erick West, Beulah Peters
The eccentric Captain Seafield hires a crew of specialists in his revenge plot against the creature that killed his father. After several failed attempts, Seafield is forced to take matters into his own drunken hands. What began as a simple case of man versus beast soon plunges down a rabbit hole of mysterious unknowns and Lovecraftian hijinks.