V/H/S: VIRAL screened at the 2014 Fantastic Fest, and fans of this horror anthology series just love it. Each segment offered something unique, dark and twisted and this leg of the purported trilogy really went for the throat. We had the chance to speak with directors Gregg Bishop, Marcel Sarmiento, and Nacho Vigalondo who share their experiences filming their violent, intense and jaw-dropping sequences. This installment might have fans and critics split, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Click here to read our review from Fantastic Fest. FYI, the bulb on our light kit went out halfway through the interview session. Instead of starting over, we decided to run with it and…
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Interview…’V/H/S: Viral’ Directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
The purported final leg in the horror anthology series, V/H/S: VIRAL screened at the 2014 Fantastic Fest. In short, it was nuts but the crowd just loved it. Now, outside of the festival circuit, this installment might have fans and critics split, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Click here to read our review from Fantastic Fest. While at the Fest, we got to sit with directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead as well as the cast of the insane “Bonestorm” segment. They offer their experiences filming one of the series’ most intense sequences. Sure wish they could have done something with the skydiving idea they head, but this sequence still…
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Interview…’Tombville’ Writer/Director Nikolas List
Writer/Director Nikolas List studied film directing at the IAD in Belgium. Ange, his final university project, was selected by more than 50 international film festivals and awarded many prizes. List’s follow-up effort, Tombville, is also his full-length film debut and is a story that will stick with you long after you’ve seen it. Tombville follows 25 year old David, a man who wakes up in a village plunged into darkness with no memory of what happened or how he ended up there. He quickly realizes that it is impossible for him to escape: whatever direction he takes, he always finds himself back at the same point. Memories of his past come back to him bit by…
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Video Interview…’ABCs of Death 2′ Directors – E.L. Katz, Alejandro Brugues, Jim Hosking & The Soska Sisters
While at Fantastic Fest, we got to do several interviews, including a few with the talented directors who helped bring ABCs of Death 2 to life… er, death? A vast improvement over the first ABCs film (check out our capsule review here), it will fright and delight fans of just about every genre. Before we get started, we want to offer our apologies for the extremely bad lighting here – the rooms they used for interviews weren’t lit at all, unfortunately. This was done in the newly refurbished Highball bar, inside the karaoke rooms at the Alamo Drafthouse, which explains the lack of bright light. Up first is E.L. Katz,…
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2014 Fantastic Fest Recap: The Best and the Rest of the Best Damn Fest There Is
Any film festival that you are lucky enough to attend as Press will find you struggling with, among other things, 1. seeing as much as you can, 2. writing about as much as you can, and 3. somehow finding time for sleep so you can keep doing both. Ah, tis a wonderfully viscous circle if ever there was one. Well, as with the best of intentions, sometimes your review aspirations have to yield to personal health (and sanity). You’re there to enjoy the fest after all, so the main thing is that you don’t get burned out. Pace yourselves dear friends, pace yourselves. In 2012 I learned that sometimes a festival…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…V/H/S: Viral
Horror anthologies don’t come along all that often. But thanks to Brad Miska, fans of Creepshow, and similar short-form storytelling would no longer lament the lack of fantastic but short glimpses into strange horror themed universes. V/H/S, and its sequel, went all out and brought the idea of “found footage” horror to new levels. Depending on who you talk to, you’ll likely find people praising one film over the other, but each has its fair share of exceptional segments that stay with you long after lights come up. So here we are with an equally enjoyable and effective third outing which shows strong signs that this series has found its…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films
America has long been considered the land of opportunity. If you had a dream, and a desire to make it come true, anything was possible. From 1967 to 1993, Cannon Films produced a distinctive line of low- to medium-budget films. But, while trying to make their versions of polular films they admired (or envied), they wound up releasing films that were spectacularly awful. That just about sums up this history lesson about the long defunct company. But, for a time, and not lacking any ambition, they certainly made a run at rivaling (or outright copying) anything coming out of the major Hollywood studios. Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus – two strong,…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Wastelander Panda: Exile
Of all the oddities found at Fantastic Fest, some titles seem tailor-made for the genre fans who flock to Austin every September. Now Wastelander Panda may come across like something between an Old Spice commercial and a love of anime, but, as ludicrous as it sounds, the story works. The plot – giant pandas making their way thorough an apocalyptic outback – is really kind of cool, and even more so if you just go with it. This 60 minute story is a fantasy piece that builds very well, and the episodic nature of the story keeps you wanting more. The future depicted in the savage world of the Wasteland universe…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…The Man In the Orange Jacket
Latvian horror film The Man In the Orange Jacket takes home invasion to a new level. Well, maybe not new, but different that’s for sure. It’s not as gruesome as the French slasher Inside. This isn’t even as disturbing as Funny Games. But this, another feature film just a hair over an hour playing at Fantastic Fest, starts with a bang and certainly doesn’t waste any time getting to the killing. The film is about a construction worker who kills the CEO and his wife in their Italian vacation home following a company-wide layoff. But once the so-called revenge has been extracted, things get quiet…a little too quiet. It’s then that Aik Karapetian…
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[Fantastic Fest Review]…Norway
A quick glance at the synopsis for the Greek film Norway is sure to grab your attention with this line, “a vampire who must dance to keep his heart beating”. Even if the film is an utter mess, it sounds like a train wreck worth the price of admission. Good news is that while the log line sounds ridiculously comical, this film, from the production team behind Dogtooth (one of the more captivating but odd films of the past 10 years) is weirdly interesting on many levels. It never gets where it’s going but still, writer/director Yiannis Veslemes has to be lauded for putting such a wildly unique spin on…