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.
Saturday, December 6
11:30AM SciFi Shorts 1: Love in the Time of Robots
11:30AM Dementer (Texas PREMIERE)
Chad Crawford Kinkle | USA | 80 min
Writer: Chad Crawford Kinkle
Cast: Larry Fessenden, Katie Groshong, Stephanie Kinkle, Scott Hodges
Katie begins to put her life back together after escaping a backwoods cult by taking a job in a home for special needs adults. Then the dark messages of her past tell her one of the sick patients needs more than just medicine. Dementer is an art house horror passion project that came to life when director, Chad Crawford Kinkle wanted to make a film with his special needs sister. Shot in an almost documentary style, the film embraces and properly represents the developmentally disabled, both in the script and in the actual casting, while still being both thrilling and disturbing.
11:45AM I Am Human (Texas Premiere)
Taryn Southern, Elena Gaby | USA | 90 min
I AM HUMAN explores the co-evolution of humans and technology, focusing on a small group of people with different ailments that choose to use robotic implants to cure themselves. Diving deep into the current technology and where science could take us in the future, I AM HUMAN fills its frames with heart-warming stories of real people and their process of deciding to accept technology as a part of their bodies.
1:50PM 1BR (TEXAS PREMIERE)
David Marmor | USA | 90 min
Writer: David Marmor
Cast: Nicole Brydon Bloom, Taylor Nichols, Giles Matthey
After leaving behind a painful past to follow her dreams, Sarah scores the perfect Hollywood apartment. But something is not right. Unable to sleep, tormented by strange noises and threatening notes, her new life quickly starts to unravel. By the time she learns the horrifying truth, it’s too late. Caught in a waking nightmare, Sarah must find the strength to hold onto her crumbling sanity…or be trapped forever in an existential hell.
2PM SciFi Shorts 2: Crossing Over to the Future
2:15PM LIVE FROM OTHER WORLDS FILM FEST – IT’S “SCIENCE VS FICTION”
Scott Weinberg is a veteran film critic. Steven DeGennaro is a doctor of astrophysics. Every week they compare and contrast two noteworthy SciFi films on their popular podcast “Science vs Fiction,” where they discuss the artistic quality of the films, whether they get the science right, and whether or not that even matters. Past pairings have included ARMAGEDDON vs DEEP IMPACT, ALIENS vs STARSHIP TROOPERS, and JASON X vs LEPRECHAUN IN SPACE IN SPACE.
Other Worlds, they will open the massive can of worms that is cinematic time travel when they turn their talents on the 1979 classic (and Opening Night Film!) TIME AFTER TIME.
4:20PM The SciFi Lecture: The Old Dark Trope
“It was a dark and stormy night.” The couple’s car breaks down, blows a tire, crashes into a tree and runs out of gas. Yes, all at the same time. An ominous Victorian house at the top of the hill is the only refuge for miles and miles. They have nowhere to go and must seek refuge in THE OLD DARK HOUSE.
This year at Other Worlds, we are exploring the trope of the Old Dark House, how it originated, other tropes and stories that appear in within the Old Dark House, and how the trope has evolved and continues to be used today. Join Other Worlds Programmer and Screenwriting Director Eric Harrelson for a discussion and curated clip show curated by Other Worlds newest Programmer Wyatt Walker. Find out why old tropes never die, they just get subverted.
4:25PM Long Shorts: Lingering Visions
4:35PM Dead Dicks (US PREMIERE)
Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer | Canada | 83 min
Writers: Chris Bavota, Lee Paula Springer
Cast: Heston Horwin, Jillian Harris, Matt Keye
When a young nursing student named Becca receives a series of panicked messages from her older brother Richie, she rushes over to check on him. Following a seemingly successful suicide attempt, Richie, who suffers from mental illness, discovers what appears to be his own dead body. When Becca gets to his apartment, they find more dead versions of Richie as well as a strange hole in his bedroom wall. Together, they must figure why his suicide just won’t keep.
4:20 UW Shorts: Dark Nights & Dark Thoughts
7:20PM Afterlife
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.
7:30PM The Ascent (North American Premiere)
(screens again Sunday, 2:15PM)
Tom Paton | UK | 100 min
Writer: Tom Paton
Cast: Rachel Warren, Simon Meacock, Bentley Kalu
Special ops squad “Hell’s Bastards” are sent to infiltrate a civil war to retrieve intel. The unit soon find themselves trapped on a never-ending stairwell forced to climb or die. To survive, they must revisit their past sins if they ever want to get off.
9:45PM Doppelganger (Founder’s Choice)
10PM Volition (Texas Premiere)
Tony Dean Smith | USA | 91 min
Writers: Tony Dean Smith, Ryan W. Smith
Cast: Adrian Glynn McMorran, Magda Apanowicz, John Cassini
On a rain-soaked night in 1991, two cars collide, leaving all drivers dead on the scene, including the mother of the lone survivor – a child – James Odin. Seven-year-old James foresaw the accident happening two days prior and tried to prevent it, but who’s going to believe a kid who claims to see the future? Twenty-plus years later, James is a product of the failed foster care system, using his ability for petty crime and cheap thrills. But when a pre-sentient vision reveals to him his own imminent murder, James must go on the run and change a fate he knows is fixed.
10:15PM Scare Package (Texas Premiere)
Under Worlds Centerpiece Film
USA | 103 min
Directors: Emily Hagins, Baron Vaughn, Noah Segan, Chris McInroy, Anthony Cousins, Hillary & Courtney Andujar, Aaron B. Koontz
Cast: Toni Trucks, Joe Bob Briggs, Dustin Rhodes, Chase Williamson, Baron Vaughn, Noah Segan
A meta Horror-comedy anthology film where each segment subverts a different set of Horror tropes, SCARE PACKAGE intertwines its components around the on-boarding of a mysterious new employee at a struggling genre video store: Rad Chad’s Horror Emporium.
This year’s Under Worlds Centerpiece film is very special for our programming team for many reasons. It’s an intelligent, creative look at the Horror genre that is both hilarious and scary. Furthermore, three of the segments were shot here in Austin by local filmmakers, one of whom is an Other Worlds alumni. The producing team for the film does a great job managing the tone of the anthology while still maintaining each director’s vision. It is rare to see an anthology film where connecting material is just as compelling as the individual parts, but the team has done it here.
