A surprisingly tense psychological game of cat-and-mouse, Death Note, a huge hit in Japan, centers around a powerful notebook that grants the ability to kill with the stroke of pen. Any person written within the Death note will die soon. Ryuk. a god of death, grants the notebook to Light, who uses the strange powers as a vigilante executioner. A fascinating confrontation develops between Light and the mysterious "L", a cybernetic Sherlock Holmes.

Beautifully shot, the representation of Ryuk, especially his non-stop conversation with Light (no one beyond those that have touched the Death Note can see the god) and the god’s love of apples, is particularly well handled. Based on the popular manga, Death Note successfully explored several moral and sociological issues while remaining entertaining and accessible.

I was so taken with the first Death Note that I opted for the continuation and skipped the second Ain’t It Cool News secret screening.

Death Note: The Last Name starts immediately at the ending of the previous film with the introduction of a new Death Note and Rem, another god of death. While not quite as good as its predecessor, the second film continues the exploration of morality while introducing new characters and background to the books. Similar to The Mask (both in film and comics) storyline, anyone who acquires the Death Note may use the powers over death in any matter they choose. And like the Mask, the consequences are not always immediate and obvious.

The Death Note duology is part of an entire cottage industry in Japan with an anime show, a line of toys, manga, and a forthcoming "L" movie. Be sure to check these films out out before it’s destroyed by Hollywood.

Documentaries of not well known but influential individuals fascinate me. Blood, Boobs and Beast, the story of cult exploitation filmmaker Don Doehler, explores the history and world of this little known filmmaker. Best remembered as the director, writer, and/or producer of eleven films including underground hits The Alien Factor, Fiend, Night Beast, and Vampire Sisters, the mild-mannered Doehler founded the influential magazine Cinemagic and the pioneering underground comix Wild which featured the early works of Jay Lynch, Skip Williamson, and Art Spiegelman as well as Doehlman’s own legendary creation Pro Junior.

Director John Paul Kinhart skillfully weaves the divergent histories and interests of Doehler’s lengthy creative career throughout the fascinating tapestry of Doehler’s complex and at times tragic family life. Interviews with Doehler protégés (including J.J. Abrahams, whose first professional job was writing the music for Night Beast, and special effects guru Tom Savini), co-workers (There is enough of director and business partner Joe Ripple to almost give him his own documentary), and family (including his second wife, his brother and two children), helped Kinhart create a sympathetic and quite probably realistic view of Doehler. Sadly, Don Doehler died during the film of Blood, Boobs and Beast. Kinhart crafted a fitting tribute and lasting memorial.

Director Kinhart was in attendance and answered questions following the feature. To the obvious question he informed the audience that Doehler did see a cut of the film two weeks before he died and seemed happy with it. The same cannot be said of his partner Ripple who was displeased with the trailer and although he was sent a final copy of the film, Kinhart has no idea if he’s seen it.

Kinart shared that his dream project is an animated version of Pro Junior.

When asked about the super Doehler fans– a pair of obnoxious guys, who insisted on being interviewed together and on wearing different funny hats throughout– and on their hats, the director wrestled with the decision to include them and their goofy hats in the movie. At one point even thinking "Aw shit! This is gonna look stupid." Obviously, the hats stayed. As for if it looks stupid… the jury is still out.

A fairly standard gangster film, the Korean A Dirty Carnival while well made and expertly acted adds nothing to the mob genre. Kim Byung-Doo, a low level mobster, works his way up through the gang rank with intimidation and death. Predictably, his fall occurs in a similar manner. While not a bad film, A Dirty Carnival lacks any real staying power and is ultimately just another gangster film. (Hope I don’t get whacked for writing that.)

Due to some personal matters, I will not be attending Day 5 (Monday) of the Festival. I plan on being there on Day 6.

The line for the first Ain’t It Cool News secret screening extended around the building with some 300 people. So instead, I opted for the Hong Kong crime film, Flash Point. From what I heard, this turned out to be the wise move. AICN screened the forthcoming Southland Tales, the latest from Richard Kelly, the director of Donnie Darko. Feedback was decidedly mixed, ranging from horrible to disinterest. Everything pointed toward mediocrity.

I knew I made the right choice when the 1970s public service anti-vandalism short Destruction: Is It Fun or Just Dumb? began. Following that bit of seventies propaganda were trailers for John Milius‘ Dillinger, 1978’s Stunt Rock, the 1955 western Shotgun, Vanishing Point(1971), and the legendary Sonny Chiba’s The Streetfighter’s Last Revenge. Mixed within all this fun was Nick Frost‘s educational and humorous film on how to defend yourself from someone wielding a baseball bat, and a clip from a 70’s crime film with Jack Palance. The perfect preamble to Flash Point concluded with with AC/DC’s "Jailbreak" video.

Starring renowned Hong Kong actor and director Donnie Yen as a no nonsense Dirty Harry-type cop in pre-Chinese takeover Hong Kong, Flash Point offers the perfect combination of cop drama and martial art combat. As the film begins, Inspector Jun Ma (Yen), known for his violent treatment of suspects, is demoted to being charge of the police music division. When Ma’s undercover partner encounters problems with the Viet mob, Ma doesn’t let a little thing like a demotion stand in his way. At a slim 88 minutes, Flash Point thrives on character development and well placed action scenes. The climatic battle between Yen and the collection of bad guys is mind boggling.

Offscreen scrambled my neurons, leaving me stunned as if hit by a blunt object. Some ten hours later and I’m still not sure how to codify this movie.

Highly respected Danish actor Nicolas Bro decided to film his life for one year in hopes of uncovering a feature film. Shortly after beginning the shoot, he decides to make the film about the love between him and his wife Lene. Less than 1/4 of the way into the movie, she leaves him. Bro continues, recording the degeneration of a man who had almost everything but loses everything in his quest for the one thing he cannot have.

Shortly after the film begins, I forget this story was fiction and was lost in the intense reality of the story. Bro films everything using a handheld camera, only enhancing the intensity. The camera becomes an obsession with Bro as he falls deeper into the depths of voyeurism and exhibitionism. By the end of the film, you hate Bro and the man he has become and you pity the man he once was.

One of the more disturbing and excellent films I have ever seen. I was amazed just how far Bro was able to fall into the depths of depravity.

After the two excellent Thursday movies, the Russian action film Sword Bearer disappointed on many levels. Born with a blade that emerges from his right hand, Sasha spends most of the movies as a defective Wolverine, slashing his way through people, guns, and trees. Due to his power and a wicked temper, Sasha spends his life as an outcast until after a chance meeting he falls in love with Katya, portrayed by the beautiful Chulpan Khamatova. Thanks to Sasha’s predilection for getting into fights and slicing people up, both the mob and police are looking for him.

The pacing, plot, and acting (except for the excellent Leonid Gromov, who plays the cop in charge of finding Sasha) are atrocious. Either there is too much exposition and story detail in scenes that are abundantly clear or the inverse in parts that are murky. The ludicrous romance between the leads plays like something out of a softcore Cinemax film. Sasha and Katya meet on the stairwell outside of her apartment where he is hiding. They flirt for a few moments then start kissing. After three different sexual encounters, they finally learn each others name. Overally melodramatic, Sword Bearer even ends with a sunset!

I learned three things about Russia from watching this movie:

1) Russian girls are easy.
2) There are random piles of money everywhere.
3) Gangsters are the same the world over.

Thankfully, my second movie excelled or I might not have come back to the Festival. The Backwoods, a joint Spain, English, and French production, follows two English couples as they vacation in rural Spain. While there, they uncover a young girl locked within a closet in a seemingly abandoned house. Several of the locals come looking for the girl that the couples are hiding. As you might imagine, trouble ensues.

Well paced, plotted, and acted, Koldo Serra directs a top notch thriller, very much in the vein of Straw Dogs. While all the actors were good, as expected Gary Oldman stole the show as the understated Paul, the English leader. The Backwoods, set in 1979, takes advantage of the era to create a true feeling of isolation as the townspeople close in on the tourists.

Serra was in attendance and introduced in broken English the movie.

The director/screenwriter stayed around after the film and answered audience questions.

When asked, "Why 1979?", he replied, "I hate movies with cellphones."

On how he convinced Oldman to star in his film: "[When I first met Gary I told him], Hi Gary. I like Dracula."

Serra revealed that Oldman speaks NO Spanish, yet in the film he sounds fluent. He learned his lines phonetically. (Oldman had both English and Spanish lines)

Also, in regards to Oldman, Serra revealed that the film’s budget was four million dollars with two million of that going to Oldman.

After someone commented that next time he comes to Fantastic Fest, Serra should bring the two sexy, gorgeous leading ladies (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Virginie Ledoyen), who both appear nude in the film, the screenwriter admitted that the "first scene I wrote was the naked scene and wrote the rest of the movie around it."

Days before the Festival began, Lions Gate picked up the film for US distribution.

NEXT: Scrambled neurons

Video game slacker Miroku accidentally stumbles upon a strange new game, one with deadly implications. Wicked Flowers, a Lewis Carollian mixture of David Fincher’s The Game and the cult film Cube wrapped within a non-linear video game structure, offers some powerful imagery in a very transparent commentary on contemporary Japanese society. Unlike The Cube, The movie ends far too neatly, feeling the need to offer unnecessary explanations to nearly event. Overall, Wicked Flowers is neat little package with some occasionally interesting puzzles and dazzling set pieces.

Not seeing The Last Winter was a blunder of my own doing since I left my schedule at home, relying on my memory. I knew I wanted to see both Winter and Timecrimes, but got the times wrong. No worry, I can see Winter later in the Festival.

A well-crafted, ingeniously plotted time travel thriller, Timecrimes made its WORLD premiere at the Festival last night. Not only that, director Nacho Vigalondo had literally just finished the final cut one week before. Previously nominated for an Oscar for the 2003 short film "7:35 de la mañana", Vigalondo beautifully shot his first feature on a tiny budget. Like all great time travel stories, Timecrimes lures you with red herrings and misdirection. The film lags a bit in the second act as it falls into stereotypical plotting, but is redeemed with a fantastic third act and superior acting throughout.

The conversation with Vigalondo after the film– he was in attendance- was entertaining. Vigalondo, whose English is self-admittingly not that good, provided several purposefully humorous and insightful moments.

Someone in the audience asked a complex time travel question which Vigalondo could not understand in English. Another patron translated it into Spanish. The director shook his head. "I don’t even understand the question in my native tongue. Next."

When discussing the overall morality theme of the movie: "[When a cheating man is caught with his mistress by his wife], the only way to save the marriage is to kill the girlfriend."

On how he raised the funds for his first feature: "I’m the only one in the world to use an Oscar [nomination] to make a time travel movie."

Due to Yom Kippur, there may not be another entry until Sunday morning, when I should have four films to review.

[  Mood: Happy ]

The eagerly awaited Fantastic Fest 3 finally started last night as I managed to not see either film I planned on, saw several people I knew and had a hell of a time.

My film day actually started much earlier on Thursday as the new Austin Chronicle came out with my review of King Kung Fu.

While this had nothing directly do with FF3, it left me eager to see some GOOD movies.

Arriving a bit later than I expected to the Festival, the line for George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead wrapped around the building with well over 300 people in line! I wasn’t too terribly shattered since I knew Diary will get a wide release and my chance to see it will come. After Diary ended, I did speak to Austin Chronicle reviewer Marc Savlov, who sputtered excitedly about the film saying something about it being a biting social commentary and the best Romero yet. Chris Cox (aka Cyrus) of Spill relayed similar sentiments and promised to post the entire post-film Romero discussion on the site (not up yet).

Instead of Diary I attended the screening of Wicked Flowers, a surrealist Japanese film about slackers and video games. Attending movies at the Alamo Drafthouse is unlike anywhere else. First off, they have an entire menu. You aren’t stuck with just popcorn and candy. The menu offers some twenty different types of beer, wine, burgers, pizza, fancy desserts, and the like. (Course that means I have to be careful. I could go broke eating at this festival!). The other oddity is that when you enter the theater, there are NO slides with bad trivia and no commercials. No piped in commercial music. They show clips that somehow relate to the movie you are about to say. In the past, they’ve had an Elvis concert playing before Bubba Ho-Tep and the Japanese Spider-man before the Spider-man 2. You get the idea.

My first image related to Wicked Flowers was what appeared to be a Japanese version of a US-style family sitcom complete with laugh track. The characters spoke to one and other in both English and Japanese interchangeably. When English was spoken, Japanese subtitles appeared below the text. The family for some reason were trying to act "ghetto", using the word "nigga" a lot. Some bizarre shit there.

Following the sitcom, there was a series of strange (well to this American) Japanese commercials including one with a dude in a cape and helmet, a stuffed monkey (in a similar outfit) resting on his shoulder. I can’t remember what he was promoting.

In a scene out of Lost in Translation, one of Charles Bronson’s Mandom commercials played next. I couldn’t find the exact commercial on You Tube, but this one was close.

NEXT: I see some movies.

My final day (Thursday, Sept. 27) at the Festival begins with the very unusual anime feature Princess, an exploration of the sleazy world of the porn industry. This one promises to disturb and titillate within an orgy of violence and blood. This should be interesting.

A Chilean martial arts film is a must see especially one that combines South American verité film styles and spaghetti westerns with a heavy dose of Hong Kong influence. Kiltro, a box office and critical success in its native land, stars fighter and stuntman Marko Zaror in this action thriller. Star Marko Zaror, producer Derek Rundell and director Ernesto Díaz Espinoza will be there live in person!

After starting my day with those two features, I know I’ll need something a little more "innocent" and calm. So rather than take my chances with the mysterious Closing Night Film, I chose the safer The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Winner of the 2007 Japanese Academy Award for Best Animated Film, this recounts the story of Makoto, a girl who can journey through time. Based on the popular YA novel, the talent for this feature includes art director Nizou Yamamoto (Princess Mononoke) and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Neon Genesis Evangelion).

Is there a more perfect ending to this festival than with a good old fashion, loud, fast, action-packed, adrenaline-pumping, and explosive Hong Kong action film? Invisible Target promises just that with a frenetic pace and energy using better CGI, better wirework, better sound effects than the older action films.

Next: SHOWTIME!

An odd film in a festival full of oddities, Sex and Death 101, starring Simon Baker, Winona Ryder, and Patton Oswalt, has perhaps the best chance of any film this week of appearing in your local cineplex. Baker plays a successful engaged man who receives a mysterious e-mail containing the names of every woman he has had sex with and, eerily, every woman he will have sex with in the future. To make matters worse, he encounters a femme fatale (Ryder) who targets men guilty of sex crimes against women. This strange film was directed by Daniel Waters, writer of the magnificent Heathers. Director Daniel Waters and star Patton Oswalt will be there live in person!

Considering my previous misgivings, attending the Ain’t It Cool News Secret Screening #3 might be pushing my luck. But what the hell, you only live once.

Part of the No Borders, No Limits: 1960s Nikkatsu Action Cinema Retrospective, Toshio Masuda’s 1967 Japanese thriller, Velvet Hustler aka: Kurenai no nagareboshi, recounts the story of a Tokyo hitman who likes his women like he likes his cars: fast and dangerous. He embroils himself within some gang activities and must flee Toyko. Film noir Japanese style. What’s not to like?

Tomorrow.. The Preview Finale!

My Tuesday starts with an old fashioned low-budget horror film, Five Across The Eyes, a tale of lost cheerleaders and blood. The description claims that directors Ryan Thiessen and Greg Swinson have a "fresh vision." I guess I can ask them since the duo plus actress Sandra Paduch will be there in person.

While working with Mojo Press, I had the honor of editing a collection of Moebius’ classic Blueberry comic. Now I get to see a retrospective of this amazing artist’s life and career. Moebius Redux: A Life in Pictures really brings out my inner geek unlike any other film in the Festival. Director Hasko Baumann and editor Martin Eberle will be there in person. Too bad Jean "Moebius" Giraud couldn’t make it himself.

I’m a sucker for a well done time-travel thriller. If Timecrimes aka: Cronoscrimines is as half as interesting as the description makes it sound, I’m in for a hell of a good time. If not, I can complain to Director Nacho Vigalondo and producer Nahikari Ipiña who will be there in person!

What would a sf film festival be without at least one post-apocalyptic thriller? My second zombie feature of the festival, The Cold Hour aka: La Hora Fria tells the tale of seven adults and two children trapped in a huge building confronting mindless and not so mindless mutants. Promises to be a story of style. We’ll see.

Three days until the Festival starts and two days left to preview…

The Ferryman from New Zealand looks to be one creepy and scary horror film. I think this description is far better than I could do.

The Entrance, a good vs. evil story with origins in the early 17th century that plays out in contemporary Canada, was nominated for three Canadian Leo awards, and is supposedly based on actual events. Director Damon Vignale will be there in person!

And now for a change of pace… The comedic The Rug Cop features a police detective who harnesses the power of his ill-fitting toupee in a parody of 70s cop dramas. I kid you not! Saying this looks a little odd is an understatement. But after the previous two selections, I welcome some comedic oddness.

The new film from the always controversial Uwe Boll closes out my Monday at the Festival. Postal, perhaps Boll’s most absurd, schlock-filled, and vulgar film yet, stars Zach Ward and Dave Foley. This almost indescribable comedy features a frontal nude shot of former Kid in the Hall Dave Foley, Boll appearing on screen gleefully claiming to finance his films with Nazi gold, and the World Trade Center hijackers attempting to change course because there’s a shortage of virgins in the afterlife. Social satire at its strangest. Director Uwe Boll and star Zack Ward will be there in person to try and make sense of it all.

More Fantastic Fest next time!

Sunday will be a full day with four movies starting at 12:30 with the Festival premiere of Shusuke Kaneko’s screen adaptation of the popular manga Desu nôto, Death Note. I’m not huge manga fan but this one does sound fascinating. The story elements that could emerge from the discovery of "a magical book that has the power to kill anyone who’s name is written inside" are practically endless. Better see this one now before someone makes a bad American remake ala The Ring.

Yesterday, I discussed my concerns surrounding an AICN Secret Screening, but it isn’t stopping me from going to the second such event of the Festival. Curiosity wins out again. Hope I don’t end up like the damn cat.

One of the more hyped events and my first documentary of the Festival, Blood, Boobs, and Beast chronicles the career of legendary low-budget genre-filmmaker Don Dohler, the brains behind exploitation fare such as The Alien Factor (1978), Fiend (1980), Blood Massacre (1991), and everyone’s favorite Vampire Sisters (2004). I tend to like this sort of documentary. And, oh yeah, director John Paul Kinhart will be there live in person!

Beginning with the great Cagney films of the 1930s through to the Godfather and The Sopranos, I’ve had a real weakness for gangster flicks. So imagine my thrill when I spotted the acclaimed Korean gangster flick A Dirty Carnival on the Festival schedule. Acclaimed for it’s fantastic action sequences, elegance of style, and fascinating story, I am looking forward to this one.

Next… Monday’s selections