Editor’s Note: We’d like to introduce our newest contributor, Atlanta-based cinephile Alex Spivey covering this year’s Fantastic Fest. Hi, everyone! Alex here, bringing you all the fun and mayhem happening in Austin this Fall. 2023 marks the 18th year that the best damn fest in the world has been celebrating and pushing genre cinema. Over the years, I’ve been here to witness the calamity, insanity, brutality and hilarity from filmmakers like Scott Derrickson, Bong Joon Ho, David Gordon Green, Rian Johnson and many, many others. This year Austin is again flooded with spectacular titles (and Secret Screenings!) that pull no punches, and the opening night film of this year’s fest…
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[Fantastic Fest 2018]…Quick Take Reviews: The Quake, Overlord, Werewolf, Piercing, Starfish, and The Standoff at Sparrow Creek
Fantastic Fest 2018 was one for the books. A blur of films, fun, and memorable experiences, it was the best 84 hours I’ve spent at a film festival yet. My time in Austin was limited, but I got a lot done: I saw eleven films, wrote four full reviews and sat for three interviews. The “quick takes” below are capsule reviews for a bite-size run down. Covering a festival means you have to split your time and put focus on what you feel is important and worthwhile. The brevity of each of these does not mean they aren’t worth seeking out. They totally are. I mean, if I didn’t like…
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Exclusive: A Look Into the Mondo Creative Process and Preview of MondoCon 2015
Film fans around the globe are becoming increasingly aware of and familiar with the Alamo Drafthouse’s boutique poster label Mondo. What started out as a small Austin, TX based outfit has quickly become a major player in film circles for simply outstanding movie art – be it posters, vinyl soundtracks, or, recently, toys. While they have built brand awareness by producing a prolific and dizzying array of spectacular releases, Mondo is committed to two main goals: they seek to educate people about films as much as they want to celebrate them, but also, they aim to get film fans to see cinema the way they do. The Mondo team is a uniquely…
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Final Wave of Fantastic Fest Programming Announced!
It is exactly 8 days and counting until Austin, Texas explodes from the awesomeness of weird and wild films, talent and fans descending upon on it. To make this year all the sweeter (aside from the first ever Mondo-Con), Fantastic Fest is back in the newly renovated South Lamar Alamo Drafthouse where it belongs!! This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Alamo’s film fest which the programmers are simply calling FFX. We’ve started looking at the line up and are as excited about the films as the filmmakers who will be in attendance. For now we’ll just drop three big names on you: Nicolas Winding Refn, Nacho Vigalondo and, woah,…
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‘Nightcrawler’ to Close FANTASTIC FEST 2014!
Celebrating its 10th anniversary, Fantastic Fest is excited to announce the second wave of events, special guests and film programming. Fantastic Fest 2014 takes place September 18–25th in Austin, Texas at the newly reopened Alamo South Lamar and Highball. Get ready to be blown away by Lionsgate’s latest action-packed thriller, John Wick starring Keanu Reeves, with a red carpet gala screening with Reeves and directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski in attendance. JOHN WICK is the story of a former ex-hitman who comes out of retirement to track down the gangsters that took everything from him. With New York City as his bullet-riddled playground, John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is a fresh and stylized take…
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Alamo Drafthouse Cinema DFW Announces Location #3: Alamo Las Colinas
It’s almost too good to be true. 3, count them, 3 Dallas-area Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas you say? The mind reels! That means that Tim League continues his iron-fisted extermination of cinematic mediocrity, one city at a time…or maybe we’re misreading the sub-text. Anyway it’s great news that means more of that Alamo goodness to go around. Huzzah! After the rousing success of the Alamo DFW in Richardson, the Drafthouse gang is on a fast track to further populate the metroplex with unparalleled cinematic awesomeness and that’s reason to celebrate. Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s third DFW location has been confirmed in Las Colinas and, to show you they mean business, there will be a…
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Alamo Drafthouse Cinema’s 2nd North Texas Location Confirmed on South Lamar Street in Dallas
Good news film fans! If you’re just loving what the Alamo gang is doing at the Richardson DH location then you’ll be thrilled to hear of more Drafthouse-related awesomeness coming to North Texas!!
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What The Alamo Drafthouse Means To Me
I’ve never been more excited for a new business moving into the DFW Metroplex than I am right now. That’s because a mere 15 minutes away from me is an Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a haven for true movie fans. They cater to the people that aren’t simply content with the average cinema experience. We want more. Talking, texting, and cell phone use are not just against their policy, they actually enforce that rule with eagerness. You get one warning then you’re gone. Without that we are left with a safe place for cinema to flourish, but not just the blockbuster flicks at every megaplex. Instead, the Drafthouse also does repertory showings,…
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Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘Trailer War’
From the deepest darkest pit of forgotten film reels comes Drafthouse Films’ latest time capsule feature. Trailer War is simply a collection of off-beat, hokey and trailers for some of the film world’s oddest flicks. Although cast off, they are not trash. After all, films like these are what have influenced scores of filmmakers, most notably Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez, for decades. War is a patchwork of advertisements for films the likes of which have seen by only a handful of modern day film audiences or people from the time of the film’s release. But this presentation isn’t just a brainless compilation of trailers lined up end to end for 110 minutes. No, there’s a little more to…
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Off the Shelf…Drafthouse Films’ ‘Miami Connection’
Story has it that one afternoon in 2009, a curator from Austin, TX’s Alamo Drafthouse Cinema stumbled across an eBay listing for a 35mm print of something called “Miami Connection.” The Alamo bought Connection unseen and just as blindly added the print to their film archive. Like opening a time capsule that no one (including the people involved with the film) hoped would ever be found came a film that most likely would be a dud. Well luck favored the Alamo that day as Miami Connection was not a bad investment. Quite the opposite in fact as this deliciously wretched B-Movie has been wonderfully accepted at off-beat festivals and movie houses across…
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Fantastic Fest Kicks Off This Week! 15 Films G-S-T Is Looking Forward To
Fantastic Fest 2012 kicks off this Thursday in Austin, TX. Dubbed the largest genre film festival in the US it specializes in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, action and just plain fantastic movies from all around the world. If you ever wanted to see really crazy films, this is the place as the features and shorts are bat shit nuts….just have a look at the insanely humorous categorical breakdown of the films. The full schedule has been released and Festival goers will be eager to see the Opening night and closing night films (respectively, Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie 3D and Red Dawn) but the real draw of the Fest are all the oddball films in between. Anyway before I head down…
