News
Fantastic Fest Second Wave Brings ‘Halloween’ with Jamie Lee Curtis in Attendance
Fantastic Fest’s first wave announcement was stellar with awesome titles like J.J. Abram’s Overlord and Gareth Evans’ Apostle. Our minds were already about to implode from innate excitement. The second wave announcement pretty much solidifies the suspicion that Fantastic Fest programmers are trying to destroy us through pure joy.
For starters, Halloween is set for opening night with none other than Jamie Lee Curtis in attendance to talk all things Shape. Added to that, Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark is looking to blow our fandom fuses out, considering his last film Green Room rocked audiences at FF a couple of years back and remains one of my all time fave genre films.
High on my list of anticipation is Deadly games with director René Manzor in attendance. This French gem is intense. This is Home Alone meets Saw in a bloody home invasion thriller that has a little kid setting up traps to try to thwart a demented Santa Clause’s plans of slaughtering the poor lad on X-mas. It’s amazing, and seriously shouldn’t be missed.
“2018 is proving to be a remarkable year for genre cinema. It is a constant delight to be able to discover both seasoned directors and newcomers pushing the boundaries of what genre can mean, using cinematic language to bring incisive, intelligent commentary on the current state of the world and still find enough ingenious methods to terrify, thrill and twist! This second wave represents the best genre filmmaking talent on the planet, and it is all crashing into Austin next month!” said Festival Creative Director, Evrim Ersoy.
Tons here to be excited about folks! Check out the full second wave list below and head over to fantasticfest.com to attend Fantastic Fest 2018.
THE ANGEL
Argentina, Spain, 2018
US Premiere, 120 min
Director – Luis Ortega
In 1971 Argentina, Carlitos is a baby-faced youth whose good looks match his confident swagger. Carlitos’ passion is stealing; the things he covets, he takes. But when he meets Ramon at his school, he embarks on his true calling: armed robberies and violent crimes.
THE BASTARDS’ FIG TREE
Spain, 2017
Texas Premiere, 103 min
Director – Ana Murugarren
In Attendance – Director Ana Murugarren and Producer Joaquin Trincado
In Ana Murugarren’s whimsical THE BASTARDS’ FIG TREE, a fascist soldier in the Spanish Civil War becomes a fig-tree obsessed hermit after looking into the vengeful eyes of a young boy whose father and brother he had violently executed.
BLOODLINE
USA, 2018
World Premiere, 95 min
Director – Henry Jacobson
In Attendance – Director Henry Jacobson, Actor Seann William Scott, Producer Adam Hendricks, and Writer Avra Fox-Lerne
Evan (Seann William Scott) values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learns that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
THE BOAT
Malta, United Kingdom, 2018
World Premiere, 89 min
Director – Winston Azzopardi
In Attendance – Director/Co-Writer Winston Azzopardi and Actor/Co-Writer Joe Azzopardi
A lone fisherman on his daily run finds himself lost in a thick fog which proves impossible to navigate. The worst is yet to come when his encounter with a seemingly abandoned sailboat becomes a fight for survival against an enemy unknown.
BORDER
Sweden, Denmark, 2018
Texas Premiere, 108 min
Director – Ali Abbasi
When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.
CHAINED FOR LIFE
USA, 2018
Regional Premiere, 91 min
Director – Aaron Schimberg
In Attendance – Director Aaron Schimberg and Producer Vanessa McDonnell
Mabel (Jess Weixler, TEETH) and Rosenthal (Adam Pearson, UNDER THE SKIN) – both hired for their looks – meet on the set of a horror movie in this surreal examination of how those with physical differences are portrayed on film.
CLIMAX
France, 2018
US Premiere, 96 min
Director – Gaspar Noé
Consistent provocateur Gaspar Noé outdoes himself with his latest feature CLIMAX, a trippy horror-musical featuring twenty sensuous dancers partying hard and living their best lives, until a bad batch of sangria plunges them into insanity.
DEADLY GAMES
France, 1990
North American Premiere, 90 min
Director – René Manzor
In Attendance – René Manzor
DEADLY GAMES (3615 CODE PÈRE NOËL) is the terror version of HOME ALONE. A 9-year old kid in his house, tormented by a demented Santa Claus, fights for his survival by setting traps. Christmas will never be the same again.
DOGMAN
Italy, France, 2018
Texas Premiere, 102 min
Director – Matteo Garrone
Marcello is a gentle dog groomer whose tumultuous friendship with violent neighbourhood thug Simone engulfs him in a violent series of events that will leave him forever scarred.
DONNYBROOK
USA, 2018
US Premiere, 101 min
Director – Tim Sutton
In Attendance – Tim Sutton
Frank Grillo and Jamie Bell are just two of the desperate men and women headed for “The Donnybrook” – a no-holds-barred bare-knuckle fight contest with a $100,000 prize – in this midwestern gothic journey into a heartland of darkness.
DRUG STORIES! NARCOTIC NIGHTMARES AND HALLUCINOGENIC HELLRIDES, FEATURING THE TRIP BACK – PRESENTED BY AGFA AND SOMETHING WEIRD
USA, 2018
World Premiere, 80 min
In Attendance – Something Weird Video’s Lisa Petrucci
AGFA and Something Weird present a compilation of classroom scare films about boozers, users and losers, all in brand new 2K preservations and featuring the legendary anti-drug diatribe known as THE TRIP BACK.
FERAL
Mexico, 2018
World Premiere, 97 min
Director – Andrés Kaiser
In Attendance – Andrés Kaiser
The mountains of Oaxaca harbor the remains of a ravaged and burnt shelter, once home to a psychoanalyst priest who used it to look after savage children, trying to re-integrate them into society. Through videotape diaries and interviews, the truth of what happened is shockingly revealed.
FP2: BEATS OF RAGE
USA, 2018
World Premiere, 89 min
Director – Jason Trost
In Attendance – Jason Trost
JTRO gave Frazier Park everything he had, but his challenges aren’t over. Now he must journey into the destruction of The Waste to rekindle the passion he needs to win the ultimate Beat-Beat Revelation tournament and fulfill his destiny.
GIRLS WITH BALLS
France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, 2018
World Premiere, 77 min
Director – Olivier Afonso
After winning a competition, a women’s volleyball team heads home aboard their minibus. Forced to take a shortcut, they end up at a tavern where they upset the local degenerate rednecks… and then the hunt begins.
HALLOWEEN
USA, 2018
US Premiere, 105 min
Director – David Gordon Green
In Attendance – Jamie Lee Curtis and Producers Malek Akkad, Jason Blum and Bill Block
Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.
HOLD THE DARK
USA, 2018
US Premiere, 125 min
Director – Jeremy Saulnier
In- Attendance – Director Jeremy Saulnier and Co-Writer/Actor Macon Blair
A gripping psychological thriller unfolds in the treacherous Alaskan wilderness when a retired wolf expert is summoned to investigate a child’s disappearance.
IN FABRIC
United Kingdom, 2018
US Premiere, 118 min
Director – Peter Strickland
Peter Strickland (THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY; BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO) returns to Fantastic Fest in full, flourishing style with IN FABRIC, a film that’s part surreal thriller, part giallo love letter, part fashion collage, and all hypnotic originality.
THE INNOCENT
Switzerland, Germany, 2018
US Premiere, 113 min
Director – Simon Jaquemet
In this dark and fantastical tale about religion versus science and good versus evil, a woman’s faith is being tested as her ex-lover reappears in her life after twenty years in jail.
KNIFE + HEART
France, 2018
North American Premiere, 102 min
Director – Yann Gonzalez
In Attendance – Director Yann Gonzalez
In Yann Gonzalez’s second feature, a masked serial killer stalks a producer and her film company in this love letter to European giallo, American grindhouse cinema, and ’70s gay porn.
MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU
Indonesia, 2018
North American Premiere, 110 min
Director – Timo Tjahjanto
At her father’s deathbed, Alfie learns that she and her family must give the Devil his due when he comes to collect on the pact made years before in this electrifying horror film from Indonesian master storyteller Timo Tjahjanto.
SAVAGE
France, 2018
World Premiere, 83 min
Director – Vincent Mariette
In Attendance – Director Vincent Mariette
Summer is in full swing and men are going missing. People are talking about a leopard on the loose in the area. A mysterious horror writer is in the bungalow next door. And Laura’s most disturbing summer has only just begun.
THE STANDOFF AT SPARROW CREEK
USA, 2018
US Premiere, 88 min
Director – Henry Dunham
Over the course of one grueling night, a militia tears itself apart as it searches for the perpetrator of a mass shooting among its own.
STARFISH
United Kingdom, USA, 2018
World Premiere, 99 min
Director – A.T. White
A girl. A mixtape. And Armageddon. A uniquely honest portrayal of loss as a young woman struggles with the death of her best friend while dealing with the horrific Lovecraftian end of the world, driven by a beautiful indie music soundtrack.
SUDDEN FURY
Canada, 1975
World Premiere of New Restoration, 91 min
Director – Brian Damude
When a well-intentioned bystander rushes to the scene of a violent car wreck, he finds himself embroiled in a hot mess of desperate homicide in this wickedly taut and unpredictable thriller, recently rescued from Canadian obscurity and restored by exploitation video label Vinegar Syndrome.
TUMBBAD
India, 2018
US Premiere, 108 min
Directors – Rahi Anil Barve & Adesh Prasad
In Attendance – Co-Director/Writer Adesh Prasad
In the rural village of Tumbbad, a decaying castle hides an immeasurable ancestral fortune guarded by something ancient, sinister, and monstrous. Vinayak thinks he can control it, but how long will it be until his own greed destroys everything he’s built?
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Lists
Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.
They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.
We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.
We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.
#1. Abigail
An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.
#2. Ready or Not
This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.
#3. Scream (2022)
While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.
#4 Southbound (The Way Out)
Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.
#5. V/H/S (10/31/98)
The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.
#6. Scream VI
Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.
#7. Devil’s Due
Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.
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News
Perhaps the Scariest, Most Disturbing Series of The Year
You may have never heard of Richard Gadd, but that will probably change after this month. His mini-series Baby Reindeer just hit Netflix and it’s a terrifying deep dive into abuse, addiction, and mental illness. What is even scarier is that it’s based on Gadd’s real-life hardships.
The crux of the story is about a man named Donny Dunn played by Gadd who wants to be a stand-up comedian, but it’s not working out so well thanks to stage fright stemming from his insecurity.
One day at his day job he meets a woman named Martha, played to unhinged perfection by Jessica Gunning, who is instantly charmed by Donny’s kindness and good looks. It doesn’t take long before she nicknames him “Baby Reindeer” and begins to relentlessly stalk him. But that is just the apex of Donny’s problems, he has his own incredibly disturbing issues.
This mini-series should come with a lot of triggers, so just be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The horrors here don’t come from blood and gore, but from physical and mental abuse that go beyond any physiological thriller you may have ever seen.
“It’s very emotionally true, obviously: I was severely stalked and severely abused,” Gadd said to People, explaining why he changed some aspects of the story. “But we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people it’s based on.”
The series has gained momentum thanks to positive word-of-mouth, and Gadd is getting used to the notoriety.
“It’s clearly struck a chord,” he told The Guardian. “I really did believe in it, but it’s taken off so quickly that I do feel a bit windswept.”
You can stream Baby Reindeer on Netflix right now.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.
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Movies
The Original ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel Had an Interesting Location
Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s sequels to hit movies weren’t as linear as they are today. It was more like “let’s re-do the situation but in a different location.” Remember Speed 2, or National Lampoon’s European Vacation? Even Aliens, as good as it is, follows a lot of the plot points of the original; people stuck on a ship, an android, a little girl in peril instead of a cat. So it makes sense that one of the most popular supernatural comedies of all time, Beetlejuice would follow the same pattern.
In 1991 Tim Burton was interested in doing a sequel to his 1988 original, it was called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian:
“The Deetz family moves to Hawaii to develop a resort. Construction begins, and it’s quickly discovered that the hotel will be sitting on top of an ancient burial ground. Beetlejuice comes in to save the day.”
Burton liked the script but wanted some re-writes so he asked then-hot screenwriter Daniel Waters who had just got done contributing to Heathers. He passed on the opportunity so producer David Geffen offered it to Troop Beverly Hills scribe Pamela Norris to no avail.
Eventually, Warner Bros. asked Kevin Smith to punch up Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, he scoffed at the idea, saying, “Didn’t we say all we needed to say in the first Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?”
Nine years later the sequel was killed. The studio said Winona Ryder was now too old for the part and an entire re-cast needed to happen. But Burton never gave up, there were a lot of directions he wanted to take his characters, including a Disney crossover.
“We talked about lots of different things,” the director said in Entertainment Weekly. “That was early on when we were going, Beetlejuice and the Haunted Mansion, Beetlejuice Goes West, whatever. Lots of things came up.”
Fast-forward to 2011 when another script was pitched for a sequel. This time the writer of Burton’s Dark Shadows, Seth Grahame-Smith was hired and he wanted to make sure the story wasn’t a cash-grabbing remake or reboot. Four years later, in 2015, a script was approved with both Ryder and Keaton saying they would return to their respective roles. In 2017 that script was revamped and then eventually shelved in 2019.
During the time the sequel script was being tossed around in Hollywood, in 2016 an artist named Alex Murillo posted what looked like one-sheets for a Beetlejuice sequel. Although they were fabricated and had no affiliation with Warner Bros. people thought they were real.
Perhaps the virality of the artwork sparked interest in a Beetlejuice sequel once again, and finally, it was confirmed in 2022 Beetlejuice 2 had a green light from a script written by Wednesday writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar. The star of that series Jenna Ortega signed on to the new movie with filming starting in 2023. It was also confirmed that Danny Elfman would return to do the score.
Burton and Keaton agreed that the new film titled Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice wouldn’t rely on CGI or other other forms of technology. They wanted the film to feel “handmade.” The film wrapped in November 2023.
It’s been over three decades to come up with a sequel to Beetlejuice. Hopefully, since they said aloha to Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian there has been enough time and creativity to ensure Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will not only honor the characters, but fans of the original.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will open theatrically on September 6.
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