Thanks to the Seattle International Film Festival I've seen some of the films disclosed in the final round. Specifically the long delayed All the Boys Love Mandy Lane as well as the Korean film Fatal.
Fatal is a South Korean film which bangs the "all men are sinners" drum pretty hard. A young man is dragged along to witness a rape (off camera). Ten years later he meets the victim accidentally and is torn between his attraction to her and crushing guilt. The story goes in a way I didn't expect making it far more interesting than it sounds. But I'm still not sure interesting enough to recommend it.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is a nicely twisted horror film that I caught and enjoyed this past May when I saw it at SIFF. Somehow the film got delayed in some sort of production hell. Mandy Lane has come into herself shifting from less popular to the much chased after hot girl of the school. With a former friend and possible stalker giving her grief Mandy sets off with the cool kids to a remote ranch for some unsupervised downtime. Which begins feeling just a bit off and then gets downright bloody. Not as engrossing as You're Next the film definitely still manages to do something entertaining with a twist on the sexually focused teens in jeopardy genre. Worth a look of the occasional slasher film is on your movie going agenda.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane is a nicely twisted horror film that I caught and enjoyed this past May when I saw it at SIFF. Somehow the film got delayed in some sort of production hell. Mandy Lane has come into herself shifting from less popular to the much chased after hot girl of the school. With a former friend and possible stalker giving her grief Mandy sets off with the cool kids to a remote ranch for some unsupervised downtime. Which begins feeling just a bit off and then gets downright bloody. Not as engrossing as You're Next the film definitely still manages to do something entertaining with a twist on the sexually focused teens in jeopardy genre. Worth a look of the occasional slasher film is on your movie going agenda.
A pro-tip for folks like me whose real life is keeping then from Austin - All the Boys Love Mandy Lane can be watched in the comfort of your own home via the standard video on demand providers.
Fantastic Fest begins Thursday - so stay tuned for reviews of films as things play at the festival. Lots of greatness ahead... [though less fun on the spot photography as in past years as I won't actually be able to participate on the ground in Austin]. Thankfully due to the wonders of online screening rooms I'll still be able to participate remotely to a degree. Though I'll certainly miss all my festival friends - old and new...
FANTASTIC FEST 2013 ANNOUNCES
CLOSING NIGHT FILM & FINAL WAVE OF PROGRAMMING
Austin, TX-Thursday, September 5, 2013- Fantastic Fest is excited to announce its final wave of film programming, including Terry Gilliam's unique dystopian vision of the future, The Zero Theorem, as the closing night film on September 26th. The ninth edition of Fantastic Fest, will take place September 19 - 26 at Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline in Austin, Texas. See below for descriptions of twenty-five new World, North American & US premiere films at this year's festival.
ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE (USA, 2006)
Special Screening
Director - Jonathon Levine, 98 min
All the boys love Mandy Lane and all the girls want to be her. There's at least one person, though, that wants Mandy and her friends dead.
CHANTHALY (Lao People's Democratic Republic, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director - Mattie Do, 98 min
A sickly young woman experiences visions of her dead mother. Is the apparition simply a side effect of her daily medication, or her mother actually reaching out to her from beyond the grave?
CONFESSION OF MURDER (Korea, 2012)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Jeong Byeong-Gil, 119 min
After the statute of limitations expires on a series of high profile murders, a man writes a book claiming to be the killer, setting off a firestorm of media attention as the families of the dead and the cop in charge of the case hunt for justice.
DETECTIVE DOWNS (Norway, 2013)
World Premiere
Director - Bård Breien, 90 min
What makes Robert a unique P.I. isn't that he has Down Syndrome; it's that he uses empathy to solve his cases. And empathy will come in handy as he investigates a complicated, conspiracy-laden disappearance.
THE DIRTIES (Canada, 2013)
Regional Premiere
Director - Matt Johnson, 83 min
A pair of cinema-obsessed high school geeks are caught up in an escalating cycle of violence when the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur.
ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW (USA, 2013)
Regional Premiere
Director - Randall Moore, 90 min
A family vacation at the happiest place on Earth devolves into a hellish nightmare.
THE FAKE (South Korea, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Sang-ho Yeon, 101 min
Yeun Sang-ho's follow-up to THE KING OF PIGS tells the story of a brutal scumbag who tries to expose a religious fraud.
FATAL (South Korea, 2013)
Texas Premiere
Director - Lee Don-ku, 103 min
A Korean teen's desire to overcome a horrible crime committed as a youth turns into violence in Lee Dong-ku's passionate and moving debut.
GATCHAMAN (Japan, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Touya Sato, 113 min
The classic anime series - known variously as BATTLE OF THE PLANETS and G-FORCE - explodes on the big screen with its first live action adaptation.
GREATFUL DEAD (Japan, 2013)
World Premiere
Director - Eiji Uchida, 97 min
A young female peeping tom develops a fatal attraction to a virile old man.
JODOROWSKY'S DUNE (USA, 2013)
Texas Premiere
Director - Frank Pavich, 88 min
This is the story of the greatest film never made: Alejandro Jodorowsky's adaptation of Frank Herbert's DUNE.
JOURNEY TO THE WEST: CONQUERING THE DEMONS (China, 2013)
North American Premiere
Directors - Stephen Chow & Chi-kin Kwok 110 min
One of the undisputed Chinese masters of comedy, Stephen Chow (SHAOLIN SOCCER; KUNG FU HUSTLE) returns with an action-packed love story about competing demon hunters vying for the same conquests.
LOVE ETERNAL (Ireland, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Brendan Muldowney, 94 min
When a young shut-in is forced back out into the real world following the death of his mother, he discovers he can find peace and love only amongst the dead.
METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER 3D (USA, 2013)
Regional Premiere
Director - Nimród Antal, 92 min
Director Nimrod Antal creates a groundbreaking 3-D motion picture event, combing a bold narrative and spectacular live-performance footage of one of the most influential rock bands in history.
MISS ZOMBIE (Japan, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director - Hiroaki Tanaka, 85 min
Cult director Sabu returns with his first original story in a decade! When a family has a zombie unexpectedly delivered to their house, they decide to keep her as a domestic servant.
MOEBIUS (South Korea, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Kim Ki-duk, 89 min
A transgressive taboo-shattering psychodrama from Korean auteur Kim Ki-Duk.
MONSOON SHOOTOUT (India, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director - Amit Kumar, 88 min
When a rookie cop corners a suspected murderer, he must make a choice with far-reaching effects in this violent Indian thriller.
NINJA II: SHADOW OF A TEAR (USA, 2013)
World Premiere
Director - Isaac Florentine, 95 min
Scott Adkins returns as Casey Bowman, a Ninjitsu master out to avenge the death of his wife in director Isaac Florentine's follow-up to his 2009 film NINJA.
RAGNAROK (Norway, 2013)
World Premiere
Director - Mikkel Brænne Sandemose, 100 min
The ancient and modern worlds collide in this rousing Norwegian action adventure.
RIGOR MORTIS (Hong Kong, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Juno Mak, 105 min
A former movie star gets a battle he didn't bargain for when he moves into a haunted public housing tenement inhabited by various degrees of the undead.
THE STRANGE COLOR OF YOUR BODY'S TEARS (France, Belgium, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Directors - Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet
A man finds violence and sex at every turn as he searches his apartment building for his missing wife in this stylish mystery from the directors of AMER.
WE ARE WHAT WE ARE (USA, 2013)
Texas Premiere
Director - Jim Mickle, 105 min
Director Jim Mickle paints a gripping portrait of an introverted family struggling to keep their macabre traditions alive.
WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE (USA, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Simon Hawkins & Zeke Hawkins, 91 min
Three fun-seeking teenagers end up on the VERY wrong side of a bloodthirsty crew of rural crimelords.
WOLF (The Netherlands, 2013)
U.S. Premiere
Director - Jim Taihuttu, 120 min
Freshly released on parole and hailing from an immigrant family, Majid's only real assets are his fists. He's inexorably drawn into the worlds of competitive fighting and organized crime in this gritty crime thriller.
THE ZERO THEOREM (United Kingdom, 2013)
North American Premiere
Director - Terry Gilliam, 107 min
An eccentric and reclusive computer genius plagued with existential angst works on a mysterious project aimed at discovering the purpose of existence - or the lack thereof - once and for all. However, it is only once he experiences the power of love and desire that he is able to understand his very reason for being.
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