TABLE OF CONTENTS

Welcome 4

Merchandise 5

Movie Icons 6

Parties & Events 8

Special Programming 10

Films 20

Shorts Programs 52

2019 STAFF TO THANK

Adam Ruhl Dara Moats Kimi Sandel Taylor Schaefer

Adan DeLaTorre David Marmanillo Kody Sandel Tim League
Alex Grimson David Monahan Kristen Bell Tish Sparks
Alexandra Heller-Nicholas David Sotelo Laird Jimenez Windy Bowlsby
Alicia Coombs Devin Steuerwald LeAnn Tinch Zack Carlson
Amy Averett Dylan Jones Lisa Dreyer Zack McGhee
Andrew McEathron Elijah Wood Luke Mullen Birth.Movies.Death.
Annick Mahnert Eric Ortíz Madison Pope Community First! Village
Austin King Evrim Ersoy Martin Soloman Fons PR
Bex Feldbin Heather Smith Mason Scheer Lamar Union
Bill Norris Henri Mazza Maxim Pozderac South Austin Gym
Brad Johnson Jake Isgar Maya Perez The Alamo Drafthouse Video Team
Brad Sorenson James Marsh Mendy Black The Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar Team
Brandy Fons James Shapiro Michael Wilchester The Highball Team
Brenda Kolas Jay Shaw Mike Lawson The Mondo Team
Bret Berg Jean Lauer Monica Detting The Projection Team
Brian Kelley Jenni Palmer-Lee Monte Monreal The Volunteer Team
Brian Salisbury Jenny Jacobi Noah Lee Mórbido Fest
Cara Roberts Jessie Seitz Peter Kuplowsky Latinx Spaces
Chris Billheimer Joe Ziemba Pierce Conran Cine Las Americas
Chris Swiderski John Gross Randy Palmer Cineteca Nacional de Mexico
Chris Tarango Josh Brown Roger Erik Tinch IMCINE
Corey Wilson Josh Hurtado Ryan Fons Fundación Televisa
Curran Nault Karrie League Ryan Schibi NEON
Dan Cofer Kate Bost Sebastian Del Castillo Grupo Galindo
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

Dani Thomas Keith Ruckus Suki-Rose Simakis Consulate General of Mexico Austin
Danny Sorbera Kier-La Janisse Steve Sanders

3
 O ALL YE WHO DARE
ENTER FANTASTIC
FEST...
Fantastic Fest has always stood for cinema at it most
intensely berserk; for the most daringly fearless, kooky,
uncontrollable and/or perception-mangling films. And it
stands for brandishing up-and-coming filmmakers and
spotlighting their efforts in creating their best damn
work, for which we painstakingly scour the globe every
twelve months.
Why? Because it’s through these films that we willingly
force our communal selves to confront and discuss the
scariest, funniest, gnarliest, weirdest, dumbest, and most
beautifully delicate facets of our own humanity. And we
at Fantastic Fest strive to serve up this experience on
a platter of passion, reverence, and pie-in-the-face folly
because that’s how we want the universe around us to be.
Okay, yes, it’s true that we say something along the
lines of the above in this letter pretty much every year
(because it’s true!), and with the current situation of the
world outside the theater walls being so unrelentingly
brutal, you may be asking, “Can’t we all just escape that
ugliness for a bit and watch some movies and drink beer,
for Chingu’s sake?”
Yes! You can! And you should. And you WILL. That’s the
whole point. We are a genre fest, after all… not a socio-
political activism docu-fest (not that there’s anything
wrong with those). But in these strange days on this
unfortunate alternate timeline, it can be so incredibly
hard to point to the positive and not be squashed by the
sorrow surrounding us. We at Fantastic Fest think that if
we’re able to make even a small difference for someone
somewhere, we should give it a shot.
So this year, Fantastic Fest is gonna put our movies
where our mouth is and celebrate kindness, acceptance,
compassion, community and all the bona fide good
4
humans pushing for more goodness the only way we
know how: We’re gonna inaugurate the anti-hate with
the cutting satire of Taika Waititi’s JOJO RABBIT. We’re
gonna LGBQTIA+ it up with tenured Fantastic Fest
programmer Brian Kelley’s gender-neutralizing, he said/
she said/ze said sidebar of Queer Horror (culminating in
a full-throttled and fully self-expressed horror-themed
drag show of cosmetically epic proportions!). And we’re
partnering with local cultural braintrust, Latinx Spaces,
to weave throughout this year’s fest a celebration of the
culture and cinematic contributions of our neighbor to
the south, Mexico.
But that’s not all. Our programming is, as always,
entertaining, challenging and offbeat, but it also crosses
the entire globe and is a reflection of the diversity of the
world at large: from Algeria to Argentina, from Spain to
South Korea, these films come from different backgrounds
and different cultures but help us to recognize ourselves
in all these varied stories. We’re also proudly championing
more female filmmaker voices than ever before as we
strive towards a program that more accurately reflects
the world we live in.
So let’s all go talk to someone who’s standing by
themselves, or ask if the stranger sitting next to you
wants to split a bowl of popcorn, or look a volunteer in the
eye and thank them, or hold a door open for the person
behind you. Let’s do the kind things we can, when we can.
This fest, come lock arms with us as we kumbaya our way
through another retina-razing eight-day thrillgrimage to
movietime mecca. Who knows, you just may make some
friends along the way.
- Fantastic Fest
OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE

FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

5
 MOVIE ICONS
A staple of the Incredibly Strange Don’t want to watch a cult movie with
NEW 2019 ICONS BY MICHAEL SHEILS
Film Festival Guide since 1995, “the extreme violence and animal abuse?
icons” are a quick visual reference No problem! Let the icons before each
guide for the movies and events in the movie summary guide you to complete
ALUMNI DISTURBING DYSTOPIAN EMOTIVE
program. The 2019 Fantastic Fest Guide cinematic satisfaction. Thanks again CONTENT
continues the tradition for discerning to Ant and Mike from the Incredibly
American audiences. Want to watch a Strange Film Festival in New Zealand
flick with children perilously attending for conceiving and executing the genre NICOLAS CAGE SEXUAL SUBTITLES VEHICULAR
VIOLENCE DEATH
a mermaid dinner party? No problem! movie icon art form.

ABORTION ACTION AFRO ALCOHOL ALIEN ALTERNATE ANARCHY ANIMATION ANIMAL ANIMAL APOCALYPSE ASSASSINATION AUTOMATIC BAD TEETH BALD SEX BARE MAN
ABUSE WORLDS ATTACKS VIOLENCE WEAPONRY CHEST

BEAUTIFUL BIG BREASTS BLACK BLINDNESS BLOCKBUSTER BOLLYWOOD BONDAGE BREAKING THE BULLYING BUNNIES CANNIBAL CAR CHASE CASTRATION CHEEZY FX CHILDREN IN CHRIST
HAIR COMEDY FOURTH WALL PERIL

CINEMASCOPE CLASSIC CLOWN COMEDY COPROPHAGILISTIC CREEPY DOLLS DANCING DATE MOVIE DECAPITATION DICKHEAD DINNER DIRTY COPS DOCUMENTARY DOMESTIC DOUBLE FIST DREAM
PARTY VIOLENCE SEQUENCE

DRUGS DUBBED DWARF EATING EXPLOSION EYEBALL FACE FACE TO FACE MELT FANBOYS FAST FOOD FELLATIO FILM WITHIN FISH HOOK FLASHBACK FOOD
DISORDER VIOLENCE SLAPPING CROTCH A FILM VIOLENCE POISONING

FULL FRONTAL FURRIES GANG FIGHT GANGBANG GAY SEX GENDER GENETIC GHOSTS GIALLO GIANT GOING GRAPHIC GROSS OUT HARD-BOILED HEAD HEIST
CONFUSION MUTATION INSANE VIOLENCE DIALOGUE TRAUMA

HIPPY HITLER HOOK FOR HUGE HYPNOTISM INBRED INCEST INFANT ISOLATION JESUS JUNGIAN JUVENILE KAIJU KILLER CULT KILLER KID KITSCH
HAND MOUSTACHES DEATH CONCEPTS DELINQUENT

KUNG FU LARGE LESBIAN LESBIAN LIPOSUCTION LOOKS LIKE A LOW BUDGET LYNCHIAN MAD MARIJUANA MASTURBATION MELODRAMA MENAGE A MENTAL MERMAIDS METAL
ORGANS VAMPIRE DUCK MAGICIAN TROIS ILLNESS

MILD MISCARRIAGE MONSTER SEX MONSTERS MONTAGE MOTHER MOUTH TO MULLET MUSIC MUSICAL NASTY NAZIS NECROPHILIA NO BUDGET NOIR NUDITY
VIOLENCE ISSUES MOUTH ANIMATION

OSCAR PEDOPHILIA PENIS PET ABUSE PETROL POLICE POLITICALLY PORNOGRAPHY POSSESSION PRETENTIOUS PRIMATE LOVE PROSTITUTE PSYCHIC PUBIC HAIR PUNK PUPPET SEX
SHAME TRAUMA SNIFFING BRUTALITY INCORRECT

RACIST RAPE RELIGIOUS REVENGE ROBOTS SATAN SCALPING SCENERY SCHIZO SCIENCE SCIENTIST SCOPOPHILIA SELF SEMEN SEWAGE SHAKEY FACE
CULT CHEWING FICTION MUTILATION

SHOCKING SKELETON IN SLEAZY SPACE SPECIAL STOCK STOP MOTION STRIPPERS STROBE STRONG SEXUAL STUNTS SUICIDE SUPERPOWER SURGERY SURREAL TALKING
ENDING THE CLOSET EXPLORATION EVENT FOOTAGE LIGHTING CONTENT ANIMALS

TALKING TELEPATHY TERRIFYING TOILET TORTURE TRANS4MATION TRASH TREKKIE TRIPPY TRUE STORY TWIST ULTRA UNDERAGE VAMPIRES VIDEO GAMES VOODOO
BRAIN HUMOR DELIGHT VIOLENCE SEX

WEREWOLF WITCH THE WORKS WRESTLING Z-GRADE ZOMBIE

DOCTOR

6
FANTASTIC SPONSORS

PREMIER SPONSORS

SUPPORTING SPONSORS

SPECIAL THANKS FANTASTIC

FEST 2019

7

PARTIES
&
EVENTS
NIGHT BEFORE MIXER AT PETER PAN
PUTT PUTT
9/18/19 • Offsite
Each year, early and excited FF-goers attend our
official/unofficial night-before mingling melee at
Peter Pan Mini-Golf. Festivalizers from across the
globe, from decade-long veterans to FFirst-timers,
are invited to assemble, catch up, and formulate their
attack plans for the next 8 days. And for those who
don’t have the inclination to sit still and chat, there’s 18
holes of neon dinosaurs, wily pirates and good good
times available here for your casual-paced savage
destruction. Peter Pan Mini-Golf is located just a few
blocks from our home base at Alamo South Lamar,
and it actually has a giant pink rabbit; you’re not just
drunk. Okay... maybe you’re drunk.
OPENING NIGHT PARTY: MASKED
HYSTERIA
9/19/19 • Highball
LUCHA LIBRE LIVES! The bell dings and Fantastic Fest
dropkicks into its fifteenth year with a proper show-
stopper for round one as we energize, recognize, and
lionize the muscley masters of Mexico’s lucha libre!
Come donning your most menacing mask and tag
in with us as we honor the legacy of the luchador
with Fantastic Fest flair. Didn’t bring your mask?
We’ll have pros here to paint one on for you. Once
you’re camera ready, step up to the mic and express
your best wrestle threats to make your opponent
sweat! And when you’re finally ready to rumble, step
through the ropes and go warrior against warrior in
actual (arm) wrestling competitions! We’ll also have
snacks to attack, booze to backbreak, a luchador clip
show to inspire the fire, and actual real life in-person
luchadores will be here to show you some mega
mucha lucha moves! So join us as we bodyslam the
boredom, moonsault the mundane, and PILEDRIVE
THIS NIGHT WITH ALL OUR MIGHT!!!
DOUG LOVES MOVIES PODCAST
9/20/19 • Highball
Comedian Doug Benson (SUPER HIGH ME; LAST COMIC
STANDING; CHRONIC-CON) invites surprise filmmaker
and comedian guests to sit down, talk movies and play
movie trivia games... while drunk, stoned or both! The
game is a reimagined version of the Leonard Maltin
Game, which has been described as Name That Tune
with movies instead of songs. The game consists of
Benson reading the cast of an unknown movie in reverse
order (star of the movie comes last) from Leonard
Maltin’s Movie Guide to his guests, who attempt to
guess the movie! Come enjoy a Highball cocktail, kick
back and laugh yourself into oblivion.
8
FANTASTIC DEBATES
9/20/19 • South Austin Gym
Filmmaker fists! Journalist jabs!! Actor attackers!!!
From verbal violence to pugilistic pummeling, we have
the rage you crave at the Fantastic Debates, where
the burning questions facing the fan community
are resolved once and for al! Past Fantastic Debates
have featured screen titans like Keanu Reeves, Elijah
Wood, Michelle Rodriguez, Ti West and Udo Kier (plus
a surprise visit from Dolph Lundgren!), as well as a
host of critics, bloggers, bruisers and movie maniacs.
Debaters to be announced shortly... and brutally!
SCRIPTS GONE WILD: SHOWGIRLS
9/21/19 • Highball
Join Scripts Gone Wild, Los Angeles’ best kept secret,
for their second year of Fantastic Fest shenanigans.
After last year’s disastrous reading of TREMORS (you
had to be there) we thought, “Sure, why not do it
again?” This year, they’ll be tackling Paul Verhoeven’s
epic and under-appreciated 1995 classic, SHOWGIRLS.
JEZEBELS BRUNCH
9/21/19 • Highball
Now in its third year of kicking ass and watching films,
grassroots feminist group The Jezebels invites female-
identifying and nonbinary members of the Fantastic
Fest family and their allies to the Highball to make new
friends and foment revolution! If it’s your first time at
the festival and you don’t know anyone, we encourage
you to come to our meetup, because you can always
sit with us. If you’re a filmmaker or journalist —
whether aspiring or a seasoned professional — we
encourage you to come to our meetup and network
with women working in those industries. If you just
want to talk about films with other women, we’re
going to be doing a lot of that, too! Composed of
women journalists, filmmakers, and fans, The Jezebels
is dedicated to solidarity. So-wanna join a gang?
SWITCHBLADE SISTERS PODCAST
9/21/19 • Highball
Switchblade Sisters is a podcast on the Maximum Fun
network, providing deep cuts on genre flicks from a
female perspective. Every week, film critic April Wolfe
sits down with a phenomenal female filmmaker to
slice-and-dice a classic genre movie — a handpicked
selection from the worlds of horror, exploitation, sci-fi
and many others! Along the way, they cover craft, the
state of the industry, how films get made, and more.
Past guests include, Emily Gordon (THE BIG SICK),
Karyn Kusama (JENNIFER’S BODY; THE INVITATION),
Heather Graham (BOOGIE NIGHTS; HALF MAGIC),
Lynn Shelton (HUMPDAY; OUTSIDE IN), Desiree
Akhavan (THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST),
Kate Berlant (SORRY TO BOTHER YOU), and Tamra
Davis (BILLY MADISON; HALF BAKED).
ROTTEN TOMATOES + SYFY WIRE PANEL
9/21/19 • Highball
Industry heavyweights Rotten Tomatoes and SYFY
WIRE join forces and conquer film-centric topics with
an expert-laden panel.
CHAOS REIGNS! KARAOKE
9/21/19 • Highball
Karaoke has been the beating, bleating, expleting
heart of the festival’s nightlife since its earliest days,
and now that we’re 15 years in, demented revelry
and potential humiliation represent one of our most
sacred-est patented traditions. New and old, tall
and short, talented and not, all FF-ers are invited to
shed their dignity in a communal vein-bulging effort
to satiate the vengeful flesh-ripping Karaoke Gods.
Tonight we LIVE FOREVER!!
MALTIN ON MOVIES
9/21/19 • Highball
Legendary film critic Leonard Maltin and his daughter
Jessie are the ultimate movie fans. They love talking
about movies, especially with people who share their
enthusiasm—from living legends like Mel Brooks,
Carl Reiner, and Quincy Jones to such contemporary
artists as Amy Adams, Viggo Mortensen, Laura Dern,
and Bryan Cranston. You’ll meet all kinds of interesting
people and hear their recommendations of unsung
movies you ought to know.
HORROR QUEERS PODCAST
9/22/19 • Highball
Bloody Disgusting’s Horror Queers podcast, which
looks at horror films through a queer lens, will be
having its first ever live recording as part of Fantastic
Fest’s LGBQTIA+ sidebar! Hosts Trace Thurman and
Joe Lipsett will be discussing the controversial 1985
sequel A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S
REVENGE with the film’s star Mark Patton! The event
is free and open to the public, so you don’t need a
Fantastic Fest badge to be able to attend! Grab a drink
at the Highball at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
to listen to them discuss the making of the film and
how it has gone from the red-headed stepchild of the
NIGHTMARE franchise to wearing the “gayest horror
film ever made” moniker as a badge of honor.
THE MORBIDO CRYPT’S GUIDE TO
MEXICAN FANTASY AND HORROR CINEMA
CO-PRESENTED BY MISKATONIC INSTITUTE OF
HORROR STUDIES
9/22/19 • Theater
For decades Mexican fantasy and horror cinema hid
in the shadows: wearing a luchador mask, surviving
budgets tainted by economic gloom, holding vampires
with a nylon thread, receiving the scorn of nearsighted
critics and consumption by audiences sunk into tongue-
in-cheek appreciation.
But things have changed. Throughout the first 19 years
of the 21st century there has been a clear rise in the
amount, quality and risk found in Mexican horror and
fantasy cinema. It is not by chance that today, in the
midst of a horrifying reality, Mexican genre films enjoy
popularity, freedom and sometimes, profitability. As if
that were not enough, our beloved alpha genre warrior
Guillermo del Toro has recently been knighted by
Hollywood.
Who would have thought that stories filled with
wailing legends from our pre-hispanic past, starved
female vampires, Aztec mummies, monk ghosts, child
practitioners of the dark arts and tropicalized sci-fi
Queens, would become part of our cultural heritage?
We will revisit the origins of Mexican fantasy and horror
cinema and examine its development through the 20th
Century and the start of the 21st. In parallel we will
dissect national legends and traumas that have been
continuously reinterpreted by our national filmmakers
that stand as a reaction to the tragic reality that Mexico
is now experiencing.
Founded by film writer/programmer/producer Kier-
La Janisse in 2010, The Miskatonic Institute of Horror
Studies offers classes in horror history, theory and
production, with branches in London, New York and Los
Angeles, and presents special events worldwide.
QUEENS, SCREAMS, AND DREAMS: A
DRAG HORROR AFFAIR!
PRESENTED BY SHUDDER
9/22/19 • Highball
It’s the scream queen screen scene of your DREAMZZ!!
In tribute to FF’s first-ever Queer Horror sidebar, we’re
yankin’ the monsters out of the closet and tossin’ ‘em
on the dance floor, along with our very own invention:
The Drag-O-Matic! Come in your most fashion-
smashin’ drag queen — and king! — finery, or if you’d
prefer, be transformed live in person! San Francisco’s
supreme horror-drag powermaster Peaches Christ will
join Louisianna Purchase, the cast of A NIGHTMARE
ON ELM STREET 2, and local hero-queeros Die Felicia
for a Scream Queen competition as we drag ‘em, bag
‘em and tag ‘em! Remember, this party’s BYOW: Bring
Your Own Wig!
VHS SWAP THING 2019!
9/22/19 • Highball
BUY! SELL!! KILL!!! DIE!!!! Despite everything we
thought we knew about reality, last year’s FF VHS sale
n’ swap event was a gargantuan success! Probably
because VCRs are a science-free time machine to the
glorious days of our collective past! PLUS!... almost
half the movies released on VHS have never made it
to DVD, Blu-ray OR streaming! So we’re kicking off
our second major rager of VHS-slinging mayhem!
Videomaniaxx will be attending from all over the US!
And thousands upon THOUSANDS of fully functional
escapism rectangles to dazzle our puny branez!
Presented by Video Vortex and End Of An Ear Records!
GAME TIME: MONDO, PANDASAURUS, AND
CINEPHILE
9/23/19 • Highball
Get hip to the tabletop gaming renaissance by joining
the Mondo Games crew for an afternoon of epic
battles, geektastic trivia, and mind-melting puzzles.
We’ll have drinks aplenty and a seat at our table for
anyone who wants to learn a new game! Pit your
favorite characters from literature, film, and legend
against one another in Mondo and Restoration Games’
latest miniatures skirmish game: Unmatched. Does
Bigfoot stand a chance in a fight against Bruce Lee?
Can Medusa take on Robin Hood in a showdown?
Only one way to find out, but remember: In Battle,
There are no Equals. Our friends from Pandasaurus
Games will also be hanging out teaching some of their
most popular games, and we’ll have the creators of
Cinephile: the ultimate card game for film nerds on-
hand to brush up your skills and check your nerd-cred
in between screenings.
5BY5 AT THE MOVIES PODCAST
9/23/19 • Highball
5by5 At The Movies is at Fantastic Fest for the FIRST
TIME! This weekly movie news and “hot takes” show is
changing its format for one night only! This time they’re
bringing you interviews with industry peeps, a review
of the Festival so far, and maybe some surprises! Come
see the show that ranked 21 on Feedlayer’s “Top 50
Movie Podcasts!” Hosted by Keith Ruckus.
AWARDS
9/23/19 • Theater
Each year, FF is electrified to showcase the works
of genre visionaries and trailblazers from across the
globe. A few of these groundbreaking features and
shorts will be spotlighted tonight, as we raise an
honorary pie and smash a face with it in celebration of
cinema, storytelling and the art of having fun. Like last
year, the ceremony itself will be brief and take place
in the Highball.
FANTASTIC FEUD
9/23/19 • South Lamar
Our long-running vulgar display of geek knowledge
pits the globe’s greatest genre goons/scholars against
each other in a galactic onslaught of mental agility,
verbal hostility and brilliant stupidity! Filmmakers,
journalists and various other movie megamasters
collide in this no-holds-barred deathride of useless
cinematic information and on-screen in(s)anity, all
masterminded by Triviadome’s teeny-tiny host Maxim
Pozderac.
YOUTH PANEL: THE VAST OF NIGHT
9/24/19 • Alamo Mueller
For half a decade, the Fantastic Fest Youth Panel
brings together guest filmmakers and programmers
with over 100 high school film students and teachers
from across Central Texas. The event is held at our
Mueller location to protect the youngsters from the
typical FF chaos. This time, students will be enjoying
festival title THE VAST OF NIGHT and will talk with the
filmmakers afterward.
THE RYES OF SKYYWALKER: THE STAR
WARS DRINK COMPETITION
GENNDY
9/24/19 • Highball
The Alamo’s reigning alcoholmeister Bill Norris
combines his love for creative beverages and the Star
TARTAKOVSKY’S
Wars universe in this searing display of interplanetary
talent. Come sample the galaxy’s finest liquors in
impossibly delicious combinations, guaranteed to
PRIMAL
send you to the Dark Side.
SHUT UP AND GUESS ME: COMPETITIVE
MOVIE CHARADES
9/25/19 • Highball
9/24 • 8:00 PM
SHUT UP AND GUESS ME is a movies-only charades
tournament where teams of four players compete
against the clock to guess the film being pantomimed.
Emmy-winning creator Genndy
Standard charades rules apply, and there will be prizes Tartakovsky (DEXTER’S
for first, second and third place! Come prove you got LABORATORY; SAMURAI
the moves to choose the true clues and give your
teammates the title-winning silent treatment!
JACK) is back with a new series
on Adult Swim. The series
DOUG BENSON MOVIE INTERRUPTION: follows a caveman at the dawn
FROM DUSK ‘TIL DAWN of evolution and a dinosaur
9/25/19 • Theater on the brink of extinction.
Once again, America’s least straightedge comedian
joins a hand-picked squadron of beloved wise-asses to Bonded by tragedy, this unlikely
respectfully butcher the movies that we know best. As friendship becomes the only
the film plays in full, Benson and company enhance/ hope of survival in a violent,
verbally abuse it, turning perennial classics into knee-
slappin’ slaughterhouses of no-rules hilarity. primordial world. Genndy
Tartakovsky’s PRIMAL roars to
CLOSING NIGHT PARTY: TO THE END OF life in a 5-night special event,
THE EARTH starting Monday, October 7th
9/26/19 • Offsite (Secret Location!)
After careful consideration, we’ve decided to go ahead at midnight (ET/PT) on Adult
with the interplanetary apocalypse... and YOU’RE our Swim.
honored guest! Outdoing even the wildest FF closing
night parties of yesteryear, we’ll be unraveling reality Fantastic Fest is excited to be
with an aural and visual invasion unlike anything in the able to share a very special
universe, with the live soundtrack to our obliteration
being performed by Intergalactic Creature Band sneak preview of this incredible
Big Nazo. If you’re unfamiliar with these interstellar new show alongside some
rebellers, they’re an actual bona fide live funk rock wonderful surprises.
music group comprised of enormous rubbery cycloptic
aliens and robots. ME NOT LIE. With them leading the
charge, plus a cosmic cornucopia of activities, DJs,
digestibles, tattoos, and unspeakable entertainment,
we solemnly swear that you’ll never forget your last
night on earth!
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
9
 VIVA MÉXICO A CELEBRATION OF MEXICAN GENRE CINEMA

To celebrate the history of cinema in Mexico is not an easy task. The

country is endlessly exciting and varied, with a film tradition dating all the
way back to the 1800s, creating a selection that’s almost embarrassingly
rich. There’s also a layer of obstacles: unfortunate tragedies over the
years has meant that a lot of films are lost to the ravages of time, with no
original materials surviving. With the help of our friends at Mórbido, we’ll
be representing a wide spectrum of Mexican genre cinema. There’s THE
BLACK PIT OF DR. M, a classic gothic horror representing the Golden Age
of Mexican Cinema; THE SHIP OF MONSTERS, a zany and entertaining
sci-fi that showcases a mischievous sense of humor; and finally TRAMPA
INFERNAL, a straight-to-video slasher that brings genuine style and
entertainment to the table. These three selections showcase some of
what we love from an incredible treasure trove of moviemaking. We
present these films in the best conditions available in the hope that they
inspire you to seek out more of Mexico’s wonderful films.

PRESENTED BY

An unsung masterpiece of gothic horror, THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M is

a tightly plotted and visually intense scarefest that rivals the best of
anything being made elsewhere at the time. Director Fernando Méndez
and writer Ramón Obón were prolific talents responsible for some of the
most interesting genre content coming out of Mexico between the ‘40s
and ‘60s, including films such as THE BODY SNATCHER (EL LADRÓN DE
CADÁVERES) and EL VAMPIRO. Starring Rafael Bertrand who took on a
huge variety of roles, including a stint as Zorro in the mid-‘60s as well as
appearing alongside Boris Karloff in ISLE OF THE SNAKE PEOPLE, there’s
an abundance of talent here both in front and behind the camera, which
explains the end result being such an incredible experience.

Dr. Mazali runs an asylum for the criminally insane, but his real interest lies
in lifting the veil between this world and the afterlife. With his colleague
Doctor Aldama, he makes a pact: whichever doctor dies first will return
from the afterlife and share its secrets with the other. However, it won’t be

THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M

1959 | DIR: Fernando Méndez | 82 min | Mexico
long before the doctors discover that the secrets of life and death are not
to be trifled with, and the real horror of their existence will dawn on them.

With masterful performances from the two leads and an incredible use of
shadows and light, THE BLACK PIT OF DR. M should easily sit next to the
canon of Val Lewton/Jacques Tourneur movies. The electric atmosphere is
enhanced by a bombastic score that only works to highlight the beautifully
macabre ideas at play. Science vs natural order, the supernatural vs the
violence of men, and many more play out in an underseen title that
manages to cram more excitement into its brief running time than any
four Hollywood films of the era. (EVRIM ERSOY)

10
 The prolific Rogelio A. González directed over seventy films, many of
which are considered bona fide classics from the Golden Age of Cinema
in Mexico. Adding in the incredible duo of Ana Bertha Lepe and Lorena
Velázquez, both of whom were crowned Miss Mexico before embarking
on acting careers, THE SHIP OF MONSTERS represents an incredible
snapshot of an industry at the height of its creative powers.

Lepe and Velázquez play Gamma and Beta, two Venusian women who are
sent on a mission to collect male specimens from across the universe in
order to repopulate their planet. Along with their robot servant, Tor, they
will traverse the length of the galaxy collecting some of the most unusual
characters on their ship — from a singing cowboy to Tagual, the Martian
prince! Did I also mention the musical numbers?

Turning American science fiction conventions on their head, THE SHIP

OF MONSTERS is a breath of fresh air, skillfully blending several genres

THE SHIP OF MONSTERS

including sci-fi, western, and horror while always keeping an eye on the
entertainment factor. Despite its low budget, it’s hard not to be enchanted
by the skillful charm and endless kinetic energy of this escapist adventure.
1960 | DIR: Rogelio A. González | 81 min | Mexico
Clever and ridiculous in equal measure, THE SHIP OF MONSTERS
represents Mexican cinema like we don’t often see: fully aware of its own
identity and ready to win over any cynical audience member with endless
invention. Do not miss the opportunity to discover a new side to Mexican
sci-fi, and embark on a journey with fellow audience members across the
galaxy in search of the most fascinating characters you’ll meet all fest
long. (EVRIM ERSOY)

Ah, there’s nothing like a Mexican summer to make you grab a few beers,
fewer friends, and head out to a picturesque mountain range to massacre
grizzly bears. If that sentence made you say, “Whu-whu-WHA?!,” then you
should know that things only slide further into the savage vortex of non-
reality from there.

The home video era hit the independent film world with tornado force,
creating an overnight market where the most outrageous, bizarre, and
anti-human concepts could find an audience regardless of their budgets.
Suddenly, rental store shelves were downright jam-packed with straight-
to-VHS features that redefined viewing forever. This creative explosion hit
hardest in the horror genre, and nowhere was it more inventive than in
Latin America. Mexican VCRs in the mid-’80s through early ‘90s ran on a
steady diet of new wave witchcraft, satanic clown dolls, and manic cocaine
vampires. Looming tall above them all stood TRAMPA INFERNAL’s blade-
fisted, mannequin-faced, uzi-toting psychopath chillingly named… Jesse?!

TRAMPA INFERNAL
1989 | DIR: Pedro Galindo III | 77 min | Mexico
Yep, that’s right. And nothing pisses Jesse off more than when the
drunken antics of big city bear hunters wake him from his comfy cave
nap. Soon, he’s off on a subhuman, grenade-lobbing rampage through
the winding rural roads, laying waste to every man, woman and minivan in
his way. He’s a bona fide homicide machine, equal parts Freddy Krueger,
Jason Voorhees, Grizzly Adams, Ken doll, and that guy who’s currently
whistling under the bench at your local bus stop. In fact, the only thing
in the world that’s less sane than Jesse is EVERYTHING ELSE ABOUT
TRAMPA INFERNAL. If you hate fun, be sure to miss this screening! (ZACK
CARLSON)

the Mórbido crypt’s guide to mexican fantasy

EVENT!
SPECIAL

and horror cinema

CO-PRESENTED BY MISKATONIC INSTITUTE • 09/22/19

Join us for a tour of Mexican genre cinema guided by Mórbido Fest’s head programmer,
Abraham Castillo Flores. Delving beyond luchadores, Abraham unearths Mexican
vampires, ghosts and monsters that fomented a distinctive but barely acknowledged
corner of our cinematic consciousness. [SEE PG 8 FOR MORE INO]
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

11
 QUEER
HORROR
CELEBRATING LGBQTIA+
PORTRAYALS WITHIN
GENRE CINEMA

Although “Queer Horror” is often used for any
number of genre films featuring LGBQTIA+ characters,
often these portrayals represent the negative: even
within genre, where the fear of the “other” informs the
entire genesis of ideas, queer characters can become
marginalized due to their “othernerness.” But amidst the
majority of the output there are groundbreaking films
which dare to challenge preconceptions and it is these
revolutionary titles we wanted to highlight. Whether
it’s real life and film reality clashing violently to create
a moving account of a life in SCREAM, QUEEN! and A
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2, or the very human
lesbian couple at the centre of PREY or a very different
NY where queer is the norm in LYLE, these films dare
us to look at the world with more inclusive eyes and
allow us to celebrate all our differences as opposed to
shirk away from them.
Most importantly, these films are fun in the best way
that genre films can be and invite the audience on
journeys much more entertaining than anything they
see in their real lives. So settle back, dive deep and
drink from the fountain of wonder to see sights that
will truly astonish you with their plethora of colors.

12
LYLE
2014 | DIR: Stewart Thorndike | 65 min | USA
PREY
1977 | DIR: Norman J. Warren | 78 min | United Kingdom

Stewart Thorndike’s masterful queer take on ROSEMARY’S BABY not
only imbues Brooklyn with a sense of fear and paranoia, but it also
subverts cisgender roles and creates an environment not defined by
heteronormative archetypes.
Gaby Hoffmann stars as Leah, a young woman who has just moved into
a Brooklyn brownstone with her partner June and their toddler, Lyle.
It’s not long before tragedy strikes; grief slowly turns to suspicion as
Leah feels sinister forces at work, setting up the scene for a disquieting
confrontation.
Thorndike’s direction is clever and complex without ever sacrificing
efficient storytelling. Her take on Leah and June allows them to exist
as complex people reacting to the fear that takes over their senses.
Hoffmann is especially striking in a role that demands both control
and delivery of high-emotion scenes, not unlike the nuanced portrayal
Isabelle Adjani gives in Andrzej Zulawski’s POSSESSION.
Standing out as a beautiful oddity amidst the slew of ‘70s British
exploitation films, PREY is unusual not only in its treatment of the central
lesbian couple but also the queer sexual politics that pervade every
frame of the film. Add to this an oppressive and uneasy atmosphere
that threatens to tip the film into violence at any given moment, and
what you have is a little-seen but incredibly adept exploration of
gender politics and warfare that could comfortably sit next to films like
Joseph Losey’s THE SERVANT.
Josephine and Jessica are a couple living in an isolated country house
with a host of relationship problems: Josephine is possessive and
jealous and Jessica is having second thoughts about the whole thing.
Into this conflict comes Anders, a shape-shifting alien with malicious
intent who has chosen this couple as his observational subjects. What
follows is a series of increasingly violent games — both verbal and
physical — where the lines between the hunter and the hunted are
frayed to the point of invisibility.

A disquieting and uneasy experience, LYLE is first and foremost a
terrific genre piece which makes full use of its setting and characters
to craft a top-rate tale of terror. Add the female perspective that is all
too rare within genre as well as the questioning of dictated gender
roles, and the end result is both satisfying and unforgettable. Celebrate
and marvel at this perfect tale of paranoia whose unforgettable finale
will be sure to mark you. (EVRIM ERSOY)
With a gorgeous synth score by Ivor Slaney, PREY is one of the most
unusual examples of queer cinema to emerge within mainstream genre
film. With its complex central characters, exceptional character work,
and razor-sharp dissection of relationships, the decades-old feature
remains a provocative big-screen experience. (EVRIM ERSOY)

PLAYS WITH: BATHROOM TROLL [SEE PG 56]

QUEENS, SCREAMS, AND DREAMS:

EVENT!
SPECIAL

A DRAG HORROR AFFAIR!

PRESENTED BY SHUDDER • 09/22/19 • Highball

It’s the scream queen screen scene of your DREAMZZ!! In tribute to FF’s first-ever
Queer Horror sidebar, we’re yankin’ the monsters out of the closet and tossin’ ‘em
on the dance floor, along with our very own invention: The Drag-O-Matic! Come
in your most fashion-smashin’ drag queen — and king! — finery, or if you’d prefer,
be transformed live in person! San Francisco’s supreme horror-drag powermaster
Peaches Christ will join Louisianna Purchase, the cast of A Nightmare On Elm Street
2, and local hero-queeros Die Felicia for a Scream Queen competition as we drag
‘em, bag ‘em and tag ‘em! Remember, this party’s BYOW: Bring Your Own Wig!
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

13

SCREAM, QUEEN! MY
NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
2019 | DIR: Roman Chimienti & Tyler Jensen | 100 min | USA
When A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 2: FREDDY’S REVENGE was
released in 1985, it wasn’t long before people noticed something was
just a little different. The sequel’s premise of a teenage boy named
Jesse (Mark Patton) becoming possessed by Freddy was a departure
from the slasher tropes embraced by the original.
However, it was the film’s homoerotic shower scene, foray into a gay
leather bar, and Patton’s positioning as a screen queen that raised
more than a few eyebrows, and became the main point of discussion
when talking about the film for years to come. Amid backlash and
finger-pointing about his sexuality’s impact on the film, and the fear
of homosexuals and AIDS permeating the culture in the mid-’80s, Mark
Patton left Hollywood. Now, more than three decades later, he wants to
set the record straight.
SCREAM, QUEEN! MY NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET is a special kind
of eye-opening documentary, inviting fans not only to delight in the
batshit uniqueness of NOES2, but also asking them to reckon with
what it means for the film to exist in the first place. Through interviews
with the cast and crew of NOES2, as well as film and queer culture
luminaries like Peaches Christ, SCREAM, QUEEN! directors Roman
Chimienti and Tyler Jensen are unafraid to revel in the love and fandom
that has grown for the film, while also confronting the heartbreaking
and challenging realities that are part of its legacy. At the center of
it all is Mark Patton, a wonderfully gracious and honest man with an
important story who is sure to win the hearts of all.
NOES2 is a surprising example of how attitudes and conversations
around the ideas of queer representation and portrayal in film have
changed over the past thirty years. Derided by most series fans after
its release, eventually embraced by curious audiences, it can now be
celebrated for what it really is. SCREAM, QUEEN! serves as an essential
companion piece to NOES2, allowing Mark to tell his amazing story and
providing crucial context that seals its place in the pantheon of great
horror films, queer or otherwise. (BRIAN KELLEY)
PLAYS WITH: JEREMIAH [SEE PG 57]
14
ARCHIVAL 35MM SCREENING
A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
2: FREDDY’S REVENGE
1985 | DIR: Jack Sholder | 87 min | USA
Jesse Walsh (Mark Patton) and his family are new on Elm Street,
taking up residence in the former home of Nancy Thompson. He is
having trouble with the adjustment, waking up screaming and sweating
from terrifying dreams featuring a killer with a dirty striped sweater
and a glove with knives. Jesse makes friends with a neighborhood
girl named Lisa (Kim Myers), with whom he discovers Nancy’s diary
and learns about her nightmares, and with Ron (Robert Rusler) a
fellow troublemaker at school. As Jesse navigates teenhood, new
relationships, and new feelings, his nightmares grow more intense as
Freddy Krueger threatens to tear him apart from the inside.
Released just a year after the first film, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
2: FREDDY’S REVENGE took audiences by surprise, changing up the
formula set by the first and sneaking into mainstream cinemas one
of the most interesting pieces of queer horror. Despite great effects
by Kevin Yagher including some seriously brutal transformations, a
masterful parent-in-denial performance by the brilliant Clu Gulager,
and a Freddy Krueger still more concerned with being evil than with
telling dad jokes, it has been the now-so-obvious signs of Jesse’s real
inner turmoil that have painted conversations since. A truly talented
and equally handsome up-and-comer, Patton plays it straight (as it
were); despite some of the more over-the-top homoeroticism around
him, his anguish is palpable no matter how you choose to read it.
Viewed now through thirty-years-thick lenses, we can appreciate and
celebrate NOES2 for what it is and have it both ways. It stands as an
audacious sequel, throwing away any notion of convention and setting
out to be something completely different from its predecessor. It is
also a fascinating bit of gaysploitation, taking a monster that feeds on
fear and engorging him with an entire nation’s terror around AIDS and
homosexuality. Either way, it’s horror — queer as hell — that speaks a
bit more directly to that scream queen inside. (BRIAN KELLEY)
PLAYS WITH: THIRST TRAP [SEE PG 58]
 PRESENTS
The American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) is ten years old. Prepare
to party.

Established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 2009, AGFA is the Justice League of

genre film preservation. Housing over 6000 35mm film prints, 800 DCPs, a 4K
film scanner, and theatrical and home video distribution arms, AGFA will never
rest until genre movies rule the world. Through their partnerships with such
major imprints as Arrow Films, Bleeding Skull!, Severin Films, Shout! Factory,
Something Weird, Vinegar Syndrome, and many more, this team of tireless
super-humans have transformed their 35mm film print archive into the largest
distributor of genre movies in this universe — and any other.

To celebrate their tenth anniversary at this year’s Fantastic Fest, the AGFA
team has curated seven premiere screenings showcasing the most important
and unmissable new arrivals from their ever-growing catalog. Guests for these
events include Something Weird boss Lisa Petrucci, outlaw filmmakers Tina
Krause and Dean Alioto, and the entire AGFA team: Director Joe Ziemba, Head
of Film Preservation Sebastian del Castillo, Head of Business Affairs Alicia
Coombs, and Head of Theatrical Sales Bret Berg.

After starring in a hundred movies over
the past two decades, Tina Krause has
established herself as an unstoppable warrior
from the DIY fringes. LIMBO is the first — and
to this day, only — movie written and directed
by Krause. And it’s truly invigorating.
LIMBO presents three days in the life of a
woman named Elizabeth, as she deals with
identity issues, sexist mouth-breathers,
supernatural manifestations… and a possible
trip to hell. Combining video collage
After LIMBO was completed, Krause
submitted it for a screening at a convention.
The movie was rejected. Undeterred, she
resubmitted it under the name “Stephen
Krause.” The movie was accepted. After
the screening, Stephen Krause was called
to the stage for a Q&A. That’s when Tina
Krause addressed the crowd and unleashed
an expletive-ridden tirade about the toxic
gender politics of the film industry. She
raged against the unfairness of it all; here

LIMBO
experiments with nightmarish mood, this
is what might happen if David Lynch and
Nine Inch Nails collaborated on a shot-on-
PRESENTED BY AGFA + BLEEDING SKULL!
video horror movie. Unlike most no-budget
1999 | DIR: Tina Krause | 55 min | USA
productions from the late ’90s, LIMBO isn’t an
ironic slasher or a movie about vampires who
wear leather vests. This is a representation
of a dream on video, complete with intense
emotions, gore-soaked violence, abstract
twists, and a disregard for convention.
was a woman who had years of experience
working on hundreds of productions, both
in front and behind the camera. She could
write, shoot, edit, direct, and act. Anyone
who didn’t understand that could go right to
hell. And that’s what she told them.
Previously only available via VHS, AGFA and
Bleeding Skull! are honored to present a new
transfer of LIMBO from the original S-VHS
master tape with director Tina Krause in
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

person! (JOSEPH A. ZIEMBA)

15
 agfa presents
Big Shim has a hardened glare with a cone
bra to match, and this tough gal commands
the SHE MOB! Leading a gang of escaped
prisoners to a farmhouse hideaway, Big Shim
sets the rules and keeps her ladies in line.
When they want to get their kicks, they hire
Tony the Gigolo for a little company — much
to Big Shim’s chagrin. But when she finds out
Tony is being kept by a wealthy woman, she
turns the housecall into a kidnapping. With
gal pal Baby trying to help Tony escape, and
SHE MOB
a detective named Sweetie East closing in, it
seems the only ransom Big Shim may collect
is Tony’s family jewels!
PRESENTED BY AGFA + SOMETHING WEIRD
A standout among the “roughie” era of
1968 | DIR: Harry Wuest | 82 min | USA
sexploitation, and a hit on VHS and DVD for
The truth isn’t out there... BECAUSE IT’S
RIGHT HERE.
On October 8th, 1983, the McPherson family
gathered together to celebrate the 5th
birthday of Michelle, the littlest member of
their household. Candles were blown out.
Presents were exchanged. Laughs were had.
And everything was captured on VHS by
Michael McPherson and his new camcorder.
Including the alien invasion.
THE MCPHERSON TAPE
A decade before THE BLAIR WITCH
PROJECT terrorized millions, broke box office
records, and redefined the horror landscape,
PRESENTED BY AGFA + BLEEDING SKULL! there was THE MCPHERSON TAPE. Shot for
1989 | DIR: Dean Alioto | 63 min | USA $6000 on a consumer-grade camcorder by
first-time filmmaker Dean Alioto in 1989, this
is the first found footage horror movie on the
planet. Much like Orson Welles’ legendary
radio broadcast of WAR OF THE WORLDS,
THE MCPHERSON TAPE uses minimalist
It’s the 25th Anniversary of 2019’s most
unbelievable repertory film discovery!
Directed by Stewart Raffill — the same
genre warrior behind MAC AND ME, THE ICE
PIRATES, and MANNEQUIN TWO: ON THE
MOVE — TAMMY AND THE T-REX is a love
story as old as time.
This post-JURASSIC jam stars the heavenly
combo of Denise Richards (STARSHIP
TROOPERS; WILD THINGS) and the
SPECIAL “GORE CUT” late Paul Walker (THE FAST AND THE
TAMMY AND
FURIOUS franchise; SHE’S ALL THAT) in
an unprecedented mishmash of rom-com
tropes and R-rated horror thrills. When
THE T-REX
PRESENTED BY AGFA + VINEGAR SYNDROME
Paul is mauled by the local zoo’s toothier
residents, his love affair with Denise doesn’t
cease — even after his brain is transplanted
into an ancient animatronic predator. Oh, and
1994 | DIR: Stewart Raffill | 91 min | USA
did we mention Terry Kiser (“Bernie” from
WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S) is the villain?
16
Something Weird, SHE MOB has it all: textured
B&W cinematography with questionable
framing, women taking charge in standard-
issue 1960s lingerie, and Twig, a Goldie Hawn
look-alike who never stops dancing! Indecent
by any standards — Big Shim rules the roost
in all her butch glory, rendering a compelling,
albeit caricatured, portrayal of lesbianism —
SHE MOB is an uproarious tale of kidnapping
and castration.
AGFA and Something Weird are thrilled
to present the world premiere of this 2K
preservation with Something Weird head
honcho Lisa Petrucci in person! (ALICIA
COOMBS)
methods to create maximum-ist emotional
chaos. Alioto blends the production design of
a Jaycees haunted house with a dead serious
tone to forge a fun, hypnotic nightmare that
upends the concept of reality. The movie was
so convincing that Fox News aired an expose
in 1994 to uncover the “truth” about this
mysterious videotape that allegedly featured
a real-life UFO abduction. Who’s to say it
didn’t actually happen?!
Due to a warehouse fire at the original
distribution company, THE MCPHERSON
TAPE was never officially released. AGFA +
Bleeding Skull! are proud to present the world
premiere of this important milestone in shot-
on-video horror history, newly preserved
from the original 3/4” master tape! For this
special screening, we’ll be joined by director
Dean Alioto, who will hopefully reveal the
truth… once and for all. (JOSEPH A. ZIEMBA)
Originally filmed as a crimson-soaked
gorefest (with impressive splatter by recently
deceased SFX guru John Carl Buechler),
TAMMY’s only minimal release back in the
day was cut to PG-13, funneled straight-to-
video, and inexplicably marketed as a “kids’
film.” Now, thanks to the intrepid efforts of
top-notch archival pals Vinegar Syndrome,
this gonzo gem is sure to tickle both casual
observers and longtime fans of dino-carnage.
From Denise Richards’ fully committed
performance to the T-Rex disemboweling
stoners at a late-nite dance party, this movie
is exactly what life will be like after the world
ends and we lose all hope for anything that
isn’t TAMMY AND THE T-REX. Now fully
restored and ready to scorch your ganglia
into dust! (BRET BERG)

THE PEANUT BUTTER
SOLUTION
PRESENTED BY AGFA + SEVERIN FILMS
1985 | DIR: Michael Rubbo | 93 min | Canada
REFLECTIONS OF EVIL
PRESENTED BY AGFA
2002 | DIR: Damon Packard | 137 min | USA
BLOODY BIRTHDAY
PRESENTED BY AGFA + ARROW FILMS
1981 | DIR: Ed Hunt | 85 min | USA
agfa presents
Exploring the remains of a burned-out
building, 11-year-old Michael experiences
“The Fright,” a ghostly scare that causes him
to lose all his hair! Friendly ghosts — a.k.a.
homeless squatters who fell victim to the
fire — raid Michael’s fridge and offer up a
recipe to cure his hairlessness. Problem is,
the peanut butter solution works too well,
and soon Michael looks like Cousin It and is
removed from school until he can sort out his
distracting hair. Meanwhile, children all over
town are going missing, and Michael’s locks
make him the perfect victim.
Produced as the second film in Quebecois
producer Rock Demers’ TALES FOR ALL
series, THE PEANUT BUTTER SOLUTION was
only seen in the US on the Disney Channel or
VHS. Notorious for being one of the stranger
After being caught while filming
REFLECTIONS OF EVIL inside Universal
Studios, filmmaker Damon Packard was
banned for life from the theme park. He
made the right choice.
One fine day in Los Angeles, Bobby (Damon
Packard) materializes. Bobby is a behemoth
who looks like a walking Salvation Army, with
layers of tattered clothes, a somnambulistic
gait, and dozens of broken headphones
hanging from his neck. Like a mutated analog
of SALESMAN, Bobby wanders the streets
and attempts to sell discount watches. He
loses his shit every time he misses the bus,
makes eye contact with other humans, or
encounters a dog. Everyone that Bobby
meets is mean and aggressive, including a
real-life cop who is disgustingly racist and
homophobic — a true reflection of evil. During
a flashback, it’s revealed that Julie, Bobby’s
sister, ran away and joined a supernatural
drug cult. Is Julie alive or undead? And will
Bobby ever be able to fill the void of her
absence?
REFLECTIONS OF EVIL is like seeing an astral
projection of someone’s mental breakdown
See three cute little rascals on a murderous
rampage!
In June 1970, in the sleepy town of
Meadowvale, California, three babies are born
during a solar eclipse. This may not seem
like a big deal. But when Saturn is blocked
by both the sun and the moon, a funny
thing happens: babies are born without a
conscience! Fast forward to June of 1980 and
the town is plagued with murders. Nobody
seems to be safe; not horny teenagers,
dads, law enforcement, teachers, or even
children. The townspeople are terrified and
the cops aren’t making any progress on
unveiling the identity of the killer, even as the
audience knows that three adorable tots are
responsible for the slayings!
These kids may look sweet and innocent, but
don’t be fooled. They’re as brutal, heartless,
and weird as any serial killer. Little Debbie
children’s films ever made, this movie
features a young child taking on motherly
duties, homeless people facing tragic death,
child trafficking, and a disturbing pubic hair
subplot... you know, kid’s stuff.
These elements combine with a horror/
fantasy premise, music from a then-unknown
Celine Dion, and prominent ad placement
from Skippy peanut butter, resulting in a
recipe far weirder than what young Michael
applies to his scalp.
AGFA is pleased to present the world
premiere of this 2K restoration from Severin
Films. (ALICIA COOMBS)
through the prism of low-budget horror
aesthetics. Produced and self-distributed
by Packard thanks to an unexpected
inheritance, this is a highly personal
psychedelic collage that utilizes 16mm film,
video, and found footage to comment on the
hopelessness of society. Packard’s stream-
of-consciousness style is built on visual
manipulations, breakneck editing, renegade
plagiarism, mismatched audio effects, and
the juxtaposition of tones. This is true genre
anarchy: a rage-filled, 137-minute outsider
manifesto that toes the line between artsy
triumph and genre pastiche. Imagine Steven
Spielberg smoking peyote for the first time
while watching Peter Jackson’s BAD TASTE
at Kenneth Anger’s house and you’re halfway
there.
Unsettling, fascinating, sad, and hilarious,
REFLECTIONS OF EVIL offers a glimpse into
a secret dimension that the vast majority of
the world’s population would violently reject.
For the rest of us, it’s a dream come true.
After watching this movie, you’ll never look
at E.T., The Carpenters, or food the same way
again. (JOSEPH A. ZIEMBA)
calls the shots and is the most manipulative
of the bunch. She charges 25 cents to the
boys in the neighborhood to watch through a
peephole as her sister Beverly (Julie Brown!)
dances in her bedroom. Bespectacled Curtis
cruises the neighborhood at night with a
giant revolver looking for someone to shoot
— teenagers making out in van, children
playing wiffle ball, high schoolers studying,
etc. And Steven? Well, he beats the hell out
of the local sheriff with a baseball bat.
See a teenage couple get murdered in an
open grave! See a car driven by two kids: one
working the gas pedal and the other at the
wheel, while wearing Jason Voorhees’ hood
from FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 2! See a lady
get shot in the eye with a bow and arrow! See
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
all this and more in the brand new restoration
of BLOODY BIRTHDAY! (SEBASTIAN DEL
CASTILLO)
17
 OPENING NIGHT FILM
U.S. PREMIERE
JOJO RABBIT
2019 | DIR: Taika Waititi | 108 min | USA
It is simply impossible to think about Taika Waititi without
recognizing that his heart is so big it could likely power at
least a dozen humans. Throughout his films — from EAGLE
VS SHARK to BOY to WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS
to HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE and even to a Marvel
property like THOR: RAGNAROK — it is apparent that
his affection for his stories and his characters has no
boundaries. That affection is also insanely infectious, as
we also come to love these stories, the worlds he builds,
and the people who fill them. His optimism and sense of
wonder give us a ray of hope when we desperately need it.
Hope in the darkest time is a nice segue into talking about
his latest film: a WWII/Holocaust satire. The Third Reich
and comedy are two things that have rarely gone together
in entertainment. Chaplin’s THE GREAT DICTATOR is a
classic because he was willing to juxtapose war and humor
to advocate that the US join the effort to stop German
fascism and its relocation and murder of Europe’s Jews.
Mel Brooks’ THE PRODUCERS is a perfect comedy in
18
every way, but Brooks was less concerned with making a
political statement than making a cinematic one: comedy
should be limitless.
Considering the importance of the historical precedents
and the endearing heart of Waititi’s films, it’s no surprise
that JOJO RABBIT is an instant and important classic.
It’s brilliant and hilarious, with an incredible amount of
benevolence at its center. He’s not pulling his punches
— the humor in JOJO shows the darkest aspects of
humanity, but that darkness is needed in this film. The
heart, compassion, and charity that fill all of Taika’s films
serve as the ultimate counterpoint to that darkness. And
friends, fear not: JOJO RABBIT has both a wealth of heart
and a great deal of laughs. It’s a special film from a special
filmmaker and it exemplifies all the things that make us
want to share movies with the Fantastic Fest audience.
(JAMES EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
CLOSING NIGHT FILM
SPECIAL PRESENTATION

KNIVES OUT
2019 | DIR: Rian Johnson | 130 min | USA

Acclaimed writer and director Rian Johnson (BRICK;

LOOPER; STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI) pays tribute to
mystery mastermind Agatha Christie in KNIVES OUT, a
fun, modern-day murder mystery where everyone is a
suspect. When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey
(Christopher Plummer) is found dead at his estate just
after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair
Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is mysteriously
enlisted to investigate. From Harlan’s dysfunctional family
to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red
herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind
Harlan’s untimely death. With an all-star ensemble cast
including Chris Evans, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis,
Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, LaKeith
Stanfield, Katherine Langford and Jaeden Martell, KNIVES
OUT is a witty and stylish whodunit guaranteed to keep
audiences guessing until the very end. FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

19
 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
4X4
2019 | DIR: Mariano Cohn | 93 min | Argentina, Spain
In an affluent neighborhood in Argentina, brash car thief Ciro
(Peter Lanzani) sees his latest target: a gleaming 4x4 sitting
unguarded. A quick and efficient professional, he effortlessly
enters the sleek new car, ready to take what he needs, clueless
that his nightmare is about to take off. Within minutes Ciro
realizes he’s locked in the car, there’s no way out, and this is going
to be one trip he’ll never forget.
A neat, claustrophobic thriller that kicks off in fourth gear and
only revs up higher, 4X4 is the kind of high-concept thriller we
often dream about discovering. With a killer central performance
from Lanzani as the rash thief, the film wastes no time in
establishing its central concept and taking it as far as it can go.
What could have been a slow burn tale of entrapment is instead a
neck-breaking speed thriller where everything that can go wrong
will go wrong. Our lead will try, try, and try again even though
each audacious attempt will cost him a touch more of his body,
of his mind, and of his soul.
Blessed with one of the best sound designs of any film this year,
4X4 invites its audience to go on a wild ride exploring the recent
sense of insecurity in Argentina, while never losing track of its
one true goal: give the audience a thrill ride they’ll remember long
after the credits have rolled. (EVRIM ERSOY)
20
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
ABOU LEILA
2019 | DIR: Amin Sidi-Boumédiène | 139 min | Algeria, France,
Qatar
In 1994, Algeria was three years into a destructive civil war in
which multiple Islamic factions rose up against their government
after it actively blocked an Islamic party from ruling the country.
As the war raged on, some of the factions became excessively
violent — killing women and children, and turning on fellow
Muslims deemed less loyal to the cause — throwing the country
into a state of fear and mistrust.
Amidst this turmoil, childhood friends S. and Lotfi journey into
the desert to find a terrorist named Abou Leila, whom S. believes
is responsible for a series of mysterious deaths across the region.
Lotfi wants to help S. with his plan, but S. has a problem: he falls
into hallucinogenic fugues, forgets the passage of time, and has
traumatic dreams that leave him screaming. If what he sees can’t
be trusted, perhaps their whole journey is in vain.
Beyond its historical relevance, ABOU LEILA is also a touching
story about the enduring power of friendship, and a critical
exploration of masculinity. The lead characters were raised from a
young age to be not only comfortable with the sight of blood, but
willing and ready to shed it at any time. In this war-torn country,
men like Lotfi and S. had to choose whether to be predator or
prey.
Featuring astounding lead performances and haunting imagery,
ABOU LEILA eventually becomes a more complex, shocking, and
universal film than it originally lets on. Ultimately, the film serves
as a pointed allegory for the inherent hypocrisy of war, begging
the question: what do you do when the enemy you’re fighting
looks and thinks just like you? (LOGAN TAYLOR)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
ADORATION
2019 | DIR: Fabrice du Welz | 98 min | France, Belgium
FF alumnus Fabrice du Welz (CALVAIRE; VINYAN) returns to
Austin with probably his most personal film to date, a deeply
moving tale about two children falling in love, going against
conventions and the adult world. Paul’s mother works as a nurse
in a mental institution, and together they live on the grounds.
The instructions are very clear: he’s not allowed to engage with
patients. But when Gloria is admitted, he’s immediately attracted
to her and breaks the rules by instigating conversation. What
starts as a friendship quickly turns into fascination and obsession:
Paul will protect Gloria, come what may.
In any other director’s hands, this story could have turned into
something perverse and uneasy, but du Welz infuses so much
fragility, innocence, and humanity into his characters that
the viewer also succumbs to adoration of these children and
understand Paul’s commitment to Gloria. Brilliantly played by
Fantine Harduin, Gloria shows such an extraordinary range of
emotions that you just want to hug her and tell her everything
is going to be alright. Meanwhile, Thomas Gioria’s interpretation
of Paul is so moving that you will never question for a minute
the decisions he makes, despite going against common sense.
Fabrice du Welz is a master in depicting relationships on screen.
From his early work to ALLELUIA and MESSAGE FROM THE
KING, his characters are center stage, driving the story and never
just the means to an end. Du Welz cares deeply for them, and
every single one seems to have a special significance to him.
Beautifully shot on Super-16mm by Manuel Dacosse, with whom
du Welz worked on ALLELUIA, the Belgian director’s latest opus
will move you to tears with the authenticity of his characters
and their unconditional love. In a world governed by rules and
conventions, we all could certainly use a little bit of adoration in
our lives. (ANNICK MAHNERT)
TEXAS PREMIERE
AFTER MIDNIGHT
2019 | DIR: Jeremy Gardner & Christian Stella | 83 min | USA
Hank is a good ol’ boy, a small town kid; a little rough around
the edges, sure, but with a good heart. His time is mostly spent
managing a local bar, hunting, and fixing up his huge familial
home that’s constantly in disrepair. The best thing he ever did
was fall in love with Abby, the girl of his dreams. But Abby was
never really a small town girl, and after ten years together with
no children and no ring, Abby takes off, leaving Hank and her cat
behind. Hank is beside himself, and, unable to cope with the loss,
he spirals into a cycle of drinking and depression.
While he’s clearly not in a good place, it’s the monster that
shows up every night that really starts to drive him crazy. Abby’s
brother Shane tries to help, telling him that it must be a bear or
something logical. But Hank knows the woods around his house,
knows the animals that live there, and — after eventually catching
a glimpse of the creature — knows what he saw. It’s no animal;
it’s something otherworldly. Unable to convince Shane or even
his hunting buddy Wade, Hank sleeps on a couch facing the
front door with a 12-gauge, waiting for the monster he knows
will return.
Jeremy Gardner (THE BATTERY) co-directs with his long-time
cinematographer Christian Stella, and the results are phenomenal:
a beautiful, lyrical love story that swells with an emotional gut
punch. The sentiments are real and raw and relatable, anchored
by Gardner and co-star Brea Grant who seem to have an
effortless chemistry that instantly rings true. Their moments
together are funny and sweet and poignant, accentuated by
later conversations that reveal the heartbreak just below the
surface. Produced by Fantastic Fest alums David Lawson, Aaron
Moorhead, and Justin Benson (and starring Benson as Shane),
AFTER MIDNIGHT is a film about discovering what you want out
of life, and finding the courage to face your monsters — both real
and imagined — to get it. (LUKE MULLEN)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
21
 WORLD PREMIERE
AMIGO
2019 | DIR: Óscar Martín | 83 min | Spain
I guess there are basically two types of friendships. The first is
the one where you’re acquainted but don’t really know who the
other person is. Then there’s the other type, the friend you share
real experiences with: life events, laughs, tears, and the legitimate
dramas. David is the second type, a real amigo. He’s responsible
for Javi’s state, having been at the wheel of the car that almost
killed him. Is it guilt that pushes David to care for his friend, or is it
a genuine act of camaraderie? Little by little, Javi gets on David’s
nerves, pushing his buttons (and a bell). The slowly building
tension is like steam forming in a pressure cooker, but how long
does it take for the cooker to crack?
Oscar Martin explores the human soul in such an interesting and
original way that you can only be amazed by the authenticity of
the relationship — because most of us have been there and, to a
certain extent, experienced that kind of cannibalistic friendship.
It doesn’t usually end well. Fun fact: during production, the team
jokingly referred to the film as “THE INTOUCHABLES but with
sons of bitches.” This should give you an idea of the tone.
The film, jointly written by real-life friends Oscar Martin, David
Pareja, and Javier Botet (who has been referred to as “real fuel
for nightmares” by another FF programmer), was shot in only
one week. When you think of it, it’s absolutely incredible that it
took Martin so long to finally direct his first feature after such an
extensive career in the audiovisual field working on commercials,
shorts, and music videos. No one will deny that all those years
certainly taught him everything he needed to know to tackle his
first film, but damn do I wish he would have started earlier as
I truly consider him as one of the most interesting new voices
to come out of Spain. Mark my words, it won’t be long until the
Powers That Be of the film industry get a hold of him. (ANNICK
MAHNERT)
PLAYS WITH: DING-DONG [SEE PG 56]
22
U.S. PREMIERE
THE ANTENNA
2019 | DIR: Orçun Behram | 115 min | Turkey
Set within a dystopian vision of Turkey, the central government
has decided to install new TV antennae throughout the country
to allow every citizen to tune in to their nightly broadcasts. In a
crumbling building block that isolates residents from every layer
of society, the building superintendent Mehmet oversees the
deployment of the antenna. Within minutes of its installation, the
worker falls to his death from the roof. His death signals the start
of a mysterious process which will affect all the residents, causing
bloody havoc throughout the building.
Mixing the body-horror elements of David Cronenberg with a
keen political sensibility, Orcun Behram’s brilliant debut heralds
the arrival of a new voice within Turkish genre cinema. Digging
deep into Turkey’s checkered history, its totalitarian governments,
and endless sense of oppression, Orcun unearths a chaos and
horror to rival those of H.P. Lovecraft’s Old Gods. Here is an
apartment block right next to our own and yet nowhere; this
sense of displacement is reflected both within the larger picture
and each of the characters we encounter.
As the newly installed antenna drips black goo that rots any object
it touches, Mehmet desperately tries to identify the malevolent
force pushing them ever closer to destruction. Meanwhile, the
family tragedies, domestic squabbles, and commonplace violence
of daily life find their wavelengths amplified with a little help from
the antenna.
With striking cinematography and instantly unnerving imagery,
Orcun concocts a world that is both familiar and alienating. With
the help of a killer electronic soundtrack, beamed to us from a
future unknown, this is one trip into the heart of corruption that
encourages the audience to think deep and hard about what
signals we let into our lives. (EVRIM ERSOY)
TEXAS PREMIERE
BLISS
2019 | DIR: Joe Begos | 80 min | USA
Dezzy’s having a rough week. Her last commission check is
two weeks late, her rent is overdue, her boyfriend is a drag, her
agent is dropping her, and — oh yeah — the gallery owner who
commissioned her latest work wants it now or not at all. All of
that would actually be fine if she could just figure out what the
fuck her latest painting is, and get it out of her head and onto
the canvas. Facing a total lack of inspiration and a potentially
premature end to a promising career, she turns to her sometime
dealer who hooks her up with an especially potent mix of cocaine
and DMT. On the drug, Dezzy spirals completely out of control,
partying hard until she blacks out. But it does the trick, and while
she can’t really remember doing it, she somehow managed to
produce some of her best work. Unfortunately, it also triggers a
blood-lust within Dezzy, and she has to go hard again and again
if she wants to finish what could be her masterpiece.
Fantastic Fest alum Joe Begos is back with another insane,
carnage-filled slice of mayhem for us to feast upon. He’s teamed
up with his usual crew of reprobates including cinematographer
Mike Testin, editor and multi-hyphenate Josh Ethier, as well as
actors Graham Skipper, Matt Mercer, Jeremy Gardner, and many
more to create this beautiful hellscape. Filmed on glorious 16mm
film, BLISS looks incredible — kinetic and alive and absolutely
dripping in sleaze and neon. It’s almost like the very personification
of sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll coming alive in front of your eyes.
Anchored by Dora Madison’s dizzying lead performance, this is
a blood-soaked punch-to-the-gut midnighter that will leave you
screaming for more. (LUKE MULLEN)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
BLOOD MACHINES
2019 | DIR: Seth Ickerman | 50 min | France, USA
Making a splash on the Internet in 2016, Seth Ickerman (the
alias for the talented French duo of Raphaël Hernandez and
Savitri Joly-Gonfard) created a music video for the mysterious
synthwave artist Carpenter Brut titled “Turbo Killer.” Featuring
a retro-futuristic, cyberpunk phantasm of frenzied car chases,
crucifix spaceships, stunning cultist women, mysterious gas-
masked henchmen, and intense pumping music — influenced by
soundtracks of both films and video games of the 1980s — this
FX-driven rager garnered over 7,000,000 views on Youtube, and
left everyone wondering just what the heck happened to their
brains and eyeballs… and just what was coming next.
BLOOD MACHINES is here to answer the question. Continuing
where “Turbo Killer” leaves off, Seth Ickerman pulls out all the
stops in their insanely creative and visionary work to expand
upon their previous galaxy building. Here, you will meet two
space hunters who are on their way to track down the Mima,
a renegade ship piloted by an AI which is trying to free itself,
when they encounter a ghost in the machine, literally. A beautiful,
nude woman with a glowing crucifix on her chest emerges from
the disabled ship, as if the machine itself has a soul. Now these
hunters must come to terms with this newly presented mystical
quandary about the possible life of these mechanical beings.
What sets BLOOD MACHINES and its creative team apart is
their stylistic singular vision, seemingly influenced by the music
of John Carpenter and Justice, as well as heavy metal, comic
books METAL HURLANT, the spaceship artwork of Chris Foss,
B-movies from the ‘80s, and neon lights — all mashed together in
a heavenly cocktail of technofuturistic tastiness. There is nothing
like BLOOD MACHINES, and Fantastic Fest is proud to present
a bombastic screening alongside the music video “Turbo Killer.”
Hop in your Lamborghini, put on your glowing crucifix, slick back
your hair and crank up the synthwave tunes because it’s going to
be one audacious ride! (NOAH LEE)
PLAYS WITH: SPICE FRONTIER [SEE PG 58] + DOCKING [SEE PG 56]
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
23
 WORLD PREMIERE
BUTT BOY
2019 | DIR: Tyler Cornack | 100 min | USA
What makes Fantastic Fest unique? Among many other things, we
have the world premiere of BUTT BOY, about a guy named Chip
who becomes addicted to putting anything and everything up his
butt. It’s a movie that screams “Fantastic Fest!”… but it’s also kind
of brilliant. Yes, it’s a very, very, VERY silly, one joke movie, but it’s
also told as straight as possible while being presented almost as
a David Fincher homage. Seriously.
The most remarkable aspect of BUTT BOY is how it maintains
its serious tone the whole movie, and it works. It opens with a
frustratingly “here we go again” premise about a middle-class guy
with a boring job, a boring marriage, and a life he’s sleepwalking
through… until his first prostate exam jolts him wide awake. When
Chip becomes addicted to putting things in his tuchus, it leads to
all kinds of problems and then even crime. Suddenly, BUTT BOY
is a pulpy crime thriller about a cat-and-mouse chase between
the grizzled and stereotypically hard-edged detective and Chip.
And we haven’t even gotten to the big twist in the film, which has
to be seen to be believed. Again, all this is funny, but the movie
is told completely straight. It’s almost a miracle it manages to
maintain its tone and its joke, and make it compelling throughout
its running time. It’s a tribute to writer/director Tyler Cornack and
his writing partner Ryan Koch that their storytelling elevates this
film above its premise.
This is an idea born out of sketch comedy that will find a cult
audience on streaming in the near future, but don’t miss the
chance to watch the best butt movie of the year with a roomful
of other eager viewers and a pitcher of beer. Just secure all loose
objects. (JAMES EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
PLAYS WITH: BUTTFANTASIA [SEE PG 56] +
THE PROCEDURE 2 [SEE PG 58]
24
WORLD PREMIERE
THE CLEANSING HOUR
2019 | DIR: Damien LeVeck | 95 min | USA
In this age where countless people spend their time watching
streaming celebrities rather than television or movies, it’s easy to
see how Reverend Max (Ryan Guzman, STEP UP REVOLUTION;
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME) and his best friend Drew (Kyle
Gallner, VERONICA MARS; JENNIFER’S BODY) can make a hefty
living with their live exorcisms. Their worldwide audiences aren’t
aware that their show is actually a well-staged fraud, but that
doesn’t matter: they’re doing good business hawking their wares
to their fans. Any concerns about authenticity are an afterthought
at best.
One night, Drew’s fiancé Lane (Alix Angelis, THE MAGNIFICENT
SEVEN) chooses to sit in the hot seat and have an exorcism
“performed” to free her of demonic possession. Unfortunately
for her and the entire crew of the show, this is the evening a
particularly evil and vengeful demon visits and actually does
possess Lane. A demon who is hell-bent not just on torturing them,
but exposing their deception to their fans — which coincidentally
is also gaining them a larger audience by the minute.
Director Damien LeVeck and his co-writer Aaron Horwitz have
adapted their original short film into a rollicking midnighter. Not
only are they exposing Internet culture’s hollow view of what
is and isn’t real, but they’re doing it with a cleverly developed
concept. Each scene builds upon what came before, delivering a
steady stream of exciting, shocking moments.
THE CLEANSING HOUR is a rollercoaster of a horror film, with
clearly defined rules, wicked CGI, practical effects, and thrilling
performances from its talented cast. Strap yourself in, grab your
prayer towel, and get ready to save the souls of the Reverend
Max, Drew, and Lane! (NOAH LEE)
PLAYS WITH: MAKR [SEE PG 57]
WORLD PREMIERE
CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER
2019 | DIR: Mickey Reece | 90 min | USA
After averaging two films a year, OKC auteur filmmaker Mickey
Reece somehow eluded our attention until 2018, when his
STRIKE, DEAR MISTRESS, AND CURE HIS HEART landed in our
laps, causing quite a stir with Fantastic Fest programmers and
the FF audience.
CLIMATE OF THE HUNTER, according to Reece’s local online
newspaper THE OKLAHOMAN, is best described as “a visual
interpretation of The Jesus and Mary Chain’s 1985 debut album,
PSYCHOCANDY.” Two sisters, Alma and Elizabeth, along with a
dog who’s described as a “philosopher,” have come to Alma’s
remote house to reconnect with Wesley after twenty years. Alma
is recently divorced, Elizabeth is a workaholic in Washington, D.C.,
while Wesley lives in Paris dealing with a wife recently struck with
a fatal disease. When the three come together for dinner it has
all the makings of a lovely adult melodrama about loneliness, and
the desire to connect and share our lives with someone… but
we must add to the mix one otherworldly piece of information:
Wesley could be a vampire.
This is Reece in a nutshell. His narratives and characters are
equal parts classical, adult, and complicated; his set-ups best
described as pure humanism; and then Reece attaches a quality
that tilts the whole film wonderfully off its axis. Not to mention
his dialogue, which extends beautifully from lines like, “I learn
to trust my intuitions and my prejudices” to “Just typical of him
thinking about pussy in his twilight years.” If Alfred Hitchcock
made his movies in Oklahoma City with no budget and only local
actors and artists, I’d like to think they would closely resemble
this. (JAMES EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
U.S. PREMIERE
COLOR OUT OF SPACE
2019 | DIR: Richard Stanley | 111 min | USA
When Ward Phillips is sent to survey the county land and water
outside Arkham, he stumbles on Lavinia Gardner and her family.
She lives on an old farm with her parents, brother, and an
assortment of horses, dogs, alpacas, and other animals. The only
other person who lives nearby is Ezra, a quirky off-the-grid hippie
stuck in time. When a meteorite lands on the Gardners’ front
lawn, no one can make heads or tails of it. A thunderstorm hits
the next night and the lightning seems drawn to the meteorite,
striking it over and over. Meanwhile, Ward discovers strange
anomalies in the water supply. While the meteorite itself shrinks
until it completely disappears, the fallout is just starting, and it
will infect every living thing on the Gardners’ land. Nothing and
no one is safe.
The combination of H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Stanley, and Nicolas
Cage is a match made in genre film heaven; all three are all-star
Hall of Famers in their own right. Stanley hews pretty closely to
the essential elements of Lovecraft’s story, while simultaneously
modernizing and putting his own distinct twists on it. The film is
beautifully shot and spectacularly complemented by the special
effects, and when the shit really starts to hit the fan, the sound
design combines to create a truly otherworldly and unsettling
experience. COLOR OUT OF SPACE is enthralling: a strange,
psychedelic canvas of grotesque terrors and alien enigmas sure
to put a smile on your face. Strange days, indeed. (LUKE MULLEN)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
25
 TEXAS PREMIERE
COME TO DADDY
2019 | DIR: Ant Timpson | 94 min | New Zealand, Canada, Ireland
Ant Timpson’s directorial debut feels like a film that’s been long
in the making. During all those years of working within genre film
as a producer and curator, he must have been incubating this
incisive blend of daddy issues, senseless violence, and gross-out
humor.
Elijah Wood is Norval, a hipster 30-year-old fraught with nerves
and already full of issues when we meet him trying to navigate
some very specific instructions in a remote part of Oregon. It
seems that Norval and his father Brian have long been estranged,
and Norval has received an unexpected invitation begging him
to come visit. The stage seems set for a beautiful family reunion,
until Norval actually meets Brian, a drunk, rude man who was
most certainly not expecting his son to turn up on his doorstep.
Full of kinetic energy, stylish visual touches, and a sense of
character, COME TO DADDY is also astounding in the assurance
with which it explores the heart of its story without ever letting
up on the tension. Sure, there are further plot developments that
take the story in unimaginable directions, but not for one second
does Norval ever feel anything other than real and very, very
human.
Working with an incredible cast, perhaps Ant Timpson’s greatest
achievement is getting to the pathos at the heart of this
outlandish tale: the grief of losing a parent, whether physical
or metaphorical, without ever having the chance to face them.
COME TO DADDY is a film that signals a real voice arriving within
the genre space. Fully-formed, confident, and incredibly funny,
audiences will respond to its charm in the only way possible, by
surrendering fully. (EVRIM ERSOY)
PLAYS WITH: DIDDIE WA DIDDIE [SEE PG 56]
26
WORLD PREMIERE
COSMIC CANDY
2019 | DIR: Rinio Dragasaki | 95 min | Greece
Anna lives an ordinary life. She works as a cashier at a local
supermarket, sleeps alone in a noisy apartment complex, and
drifts through her daily routine. The one thing that makes her feel
alive is Cosmic Candy, a potent version of Pop Rocks that sends
its user into a dreamlike, hallucinogenic state.
One day, Anna’s neighbor goes missing, and his daughter shows
up outside her door, anxiously hoping for companionship and
care. In different circumstances, Anna may have ignored this cry
for help, but on the cusp of losing her job, she accepts a chance
for change.
First time director Rinio Dragasaki shows a remarkable grasp of
her characters and their environment, utilizing a vibrant pastel
color palette and impeccably detailed production design to show
Anna’s hopeful perspective of the world around her. Dragasaki
crafts surreal atmospheres that alternate gracefully between a
somber reality and a mind-bending space of childlike imagination.
With refreshingly endearing lead performances and a bubbly,
hypnotic score, COSMIC CANDY is the kind of charming comedy
that will leave audiences optimistic and hopeful. It’s also a tale of
female friendship and maternal bonding featuring a very catchy
song about French toast.
A sweet comedy elevated by fantastical bursts of color and
sound, COSMIC CANDY is an exciting debut film out of Greece
that illustrates how in any circumstance, there’s a chance to find
beauty in the world if you’re willing to change your outlook (and
maybe pop some sugary confections while you’re at it). (LOGAN
TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: LOVE IT [SEE PG 57]
AUSTIN PREMIERE
THE DEATH OF DICK LONG
2019 | DIR: Daniel Scheinert | 107 min | USA
From Daniel Scheinert, one half of the duo behind the inventive
SWISS ARMY MAN, THE DEATH OF DICK LONG is the kind of
unclassifiable cinema that engages, questions, and ultimately
touches the heart while being simultaneously outrageous, funny,
and utterly squirm-inducing.
Dick is dead thanks to a night that veered out of control after
band practice, and best friends Zeke and Earl are determined
to make sure the truth about what happened never comes out.
However, the unexpectedly dogged Officer Dudley from the
sheriff’s department and their ever-inquisitive friends and family
constantly threaten to derail the dimwitted duo’s desperate
distractions from the truth.
Half outrageous buddy comedy and half a touching and
melancholy exploration of fragile masculinity, THE DEATH OF
DICK LONG is the kind of cinematic tightrope walk only attempted
by the bravest of directors. The fact that Scheinert not only pulls
it off but does it with aplomb is a testament to one of the most
creative and unique voices working in film. Special mention must
go to the tender depiction of this small town in Alabama; giving
it a humanity probably not seen since FARGO, Scheinert is honest
but gentle in his portrait of everyday folk, finding humor in their
personalities as opposed to mockery.
Perhaps it’s this tender streak that sets the film so spectacularly
apart, a beating, emotional heart in its weird, gross-out chest.
THE DEATH OF DICK LONG is the kind of film that makes you
glad weird cinema is alive and well. (EVRIM ERSOY)
PLAYS WITH: SHUCKY DARN [SEE PG 58]
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
DEERSKIN
2019 | DIR: Quentin Dupieux | 77 min | France
Somewhere between an absurdist comedy and a realistic French
drama lies Quentin Dupieux’s new foray into the world of the
weird and the mundane. Striking a razor-sharp balance between
abject oddity and laugh-out-loud humour, DEERSKIN is a master
class in the pitch black humor of the unexpected.
Jean Dujardin stars as Georges in what feels like a role tailor-made
for him: a middle-aged man on a quest to be the only person
wearing a jacket in the whole world. We meet Georges on his way
to purchase his new obsession, a 100% deerskin jacket, or “the
jacket of your dreams.” As Georges’ obsession with his overcoat
grows, he will find himself recruited by it to rid the world of other
outer garments, all the while encountering a series of small town
characters, each slowly infected by touches of his madness.
Adapting a visual style clearly influenced by ‘70s French cinema,
Dupieux paints a portrait of rural France not often seen in modern
cinema: a place of abject boredom, lonely landscapes, and an
array of oddballs suffocated by their lives and their surroundings.
The arrival of Georges and his jacket catalyzes the countryside
to acknowledge its own share of madness. As the entire world
tumbles into some kind of hell, all the audience can do is admire
the audacity of one of the most brilliant comedies of the year.
(EVRIM ERSOY)
PLAYS WITH: WAKEY WAKEY [SEE PG 58]
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
27
 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
DIE KINDER DER TOTEN
2019 | DIR: Kelly Copper & Pavol Liška | 90 min | Austria
It’s a tale as old as time — the dead have risen to eat the living
— but DIE KINDER DER TOTEN is not content to stick to the
formula.
From the eponymous epic novel by Elfride Jelinek (the writer of
THE PIANO TEACHER), directors Kelly Copper and Pavol Liška
have crafted a deeply complex interpretation of a story that had
previously been considered unfilmable, and which remains to this
day untranslated in English. Shot entirely without dialogue in the
style of a Super 8 home movie, the film relies largely on a brass
band score and heightened soundscape to create a peculiar,
uneasy atmosphere. The result is hilarious, self-referential, and
loaded with visual gags, zany characters, and political satire.
Both a pointed denouncement of Austria’s fascist history and a
broader exploration of racism and social apathy, this challenging
experimental work rewards patient and observant viewers with a
singular experience that is at once joyful and absurd.
Even as DIE KINDER DER TOTEN wears its many inspirations on
its sleeve (including but not limited to the French New Wave,
found footage films, and of course NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD),
this is an entirely original and profoundly memorable filmgoing
experience. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
28
U.S. PREMIERE
DOGS DON’T WEAR PANTS
2019 | DIR: Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää | 105 min | Finland, Latvia
Don’t let the catchy title fool you; DOGS DON’T WEAR PANTS
isn’t about whether canines may or may not wear clothes to
cover their bottoms. If that’s the movie you’re looking for, you’re
at the wrong festival. No, this third film from Finnish filmmaker
Jukka-Pekka Valkeapää (THE VISITOR; THEY HAVE ESCAPED)
is impressionistic, complex, brilliant, and one of the major
discoveries at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
DOGS DON’T WEAR PANTS is initially about the pain of true loss.
Pekka Strang (from Dome Karukoski’s terrific TOM OF FINLAND)
is heartbroken surgeon Juha, who mends the hearts of others
on the operating table. Ten years after the drowning death of
his wife — which may or may not have been accidental — Juha
is barely living, and sleepwalking through raising his fiercely
independent daughter. On her birthday, Juha agrees to take
her to a tattoo shop to have her tongue pierced. Wandering
downstairs, he finds a bizarre statue (is it a statue?) and is then
tackled by a dominatrix who pins him to the ground, choking him
with her foot.
What happens next is best left to discover on your own, but
this movie will make you feel every emotion possible. Valkeapää
announces himself not just as an expert in staging, lighting,
and photography, but as a filmmaker skilled at surprising an
audience in the best way possible. Combined with two acting
performances (Strang and his co-lead Krista Kosonen) that
transcend excellence, DOGS DON’T WEAR PANTS is not just a
highlight of this Fantastic Fest, but a highlight of what you’ll see
all year. (JAMES EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
U.S. PREMIERE
FIRST LOVE
2019 | DIR: Takashi Miike | 108 min | Japan
Perhaps Takashi Miike’s most compact and contained film of
recent years, FIRST LOVE sees the master at his absolute best:
zany, madcap, violent, and utterly hilarious.
Leo, a brilliant and aspiring boxer focused entirely on winning,
gets the news that he might be fatally sick, knocking him off
course and into the path of Monica, a drug-addicted call girl
involved with a Yakuza underling and his girlfriend. The scene
is quickly overrun with armies of Chinese mafia, the Yakuza,
assassins, corrupt cops, and a whole load of meth...all in the
course of one fateful night. With that inimitable and masterful
Miike style, it will all end in bloodshed.
Full of incredible characters, endless style, and arresting visuals,
FIRST LOVE slams the audience at breakneck speed from post
to post, taking them on a wild ride. Miike’s direction, assured and
deliberate, is aided by the incredible performances of the game
cast; especially Becky who plays Julie, a force of nature who will
win the heart of every audience member.
Recalling early Miike efforts with an energy only the master
can muster, FIRST LOVE is an unmissable treat: a violent and
funny foray into the world of nighttime Tokyo, a twilight land of
encounters weird and wonderful. (EVRIM ERSOY)
WORLD PREMIERE
FRACTURED
2019 | DIR: Brad Anderson | 100 min | USA
Brad Anderson’s tense, taut, and incredibly tight thriller is an
impressive turn for Sam Worthington. Genre specialist Alan B.
McElroy crafts a screenplay that uses an impressive array of tricks
and turns to deliver a finely-tuned cinematic expression of terror.
Worthington stars as Ray, buckling under the pressure of his
responsibilities as a father and husband. When a routine stop to
refuel their car ends with an accident that breaks his daughter’s
arm, Ray and his wife Joanne rush her to the nearest hospital.
After the exhausted Ray falls asleep in the waiting room, he
wakes to a world of nightmare and uncertainty: His family has
gone missing. In fact, according to the hospital, they never came
in. Taken to his absolute limit, Ray will go to any extreme to
discover what has happened to his beloved wife and daughter.
But there’s more to the story than he suspects, and the truth will
not be pleasant.
Channeling a similar vibe to the wonderful BREAKDOWN,
Anderson’s FRACTURED differs in its focus on developing the
characters: Worthington’s Ray is an everyman whose motives
are explored throughout the film, and it’s the believability of his
actions that have the audience so closely relating to him. Without
ever losing sight of the end goal, this incredible thriller ratchets
up the suspense in a series of set pieces that will keep you
guessing at what the truth may be.
Sharp as a razor and relentlessly harrowing, FRACTURED is an
example of what can be achieved when a filmmaker mines the
personal to explore the repercussions of an individual’s actions
on the world around them, and leaves the audience with some
pointed questions to explore long after the screen has faded to
black. (EVRIM ERSOY)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
29
 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
THE GOLDEN GLOVE
2019 | DIR: Fatih Akin | 110 min | Germany
In the early 1970s, Hamburg was a city stuck between worlds. On
one hand, the newly vigorous German economy was propelling
citizens to comfort and prosperity. On the other, the generation
that struggled economically through WWII were sidelined and
forgotten. Those forgotten hide in Hamburg’s Red Light District,
where they escape their depression via long, drunken nights at
The Golden Glove. Even within the grotty district, The Golden
Glove is the lowest dive.
Fritz Honka, a hunched, bug-eyed Golden Glove regular, has a
penchant for prostitutes and abusive sexist inclinations that
quickly turn murderous. He preys on the despair of female bar
patrons, luring the loneliest souls to his vile apartment before
inflicting appalling sexual and physical violence upon them. It
is essential to note, however, that the film does not delight in
this violence. Instead, the camera seems deeply ashamed of
Honka’s actions, turning away from or blocking our view of the
worst atrocities he commits. The film’s opening ten minutes tell
you everything you need to know about the world Fatih Akin
has unapologetically built: brutal, grim, and shocking. There’s no
gentle build up. For better or worse, it’s clear what we’re in for.
While this may sound like a film that hates its characters as
much as the world they inhabit, Akin is remarkably empathetic
in his depictions. Each bar patron has a distinct personality,
vulnerability, and — in many cases — charm. With every poor
choice a character makes, Akin seems to question not why they
made said choice, but whether another option was ever available
to them. Jonas Dassler, an objectively handsome 23-year-
old actor, transforms himself down to the smallest physical
tic, creating a Peter Lorre/Quasimodo hybrid that will haunt
audiences from his first appearance on screen.
Infamously panned following its Berlin premiere, THE GOLDEN
GLOVE is not an easy film to sit through. It requires a strong
stomach from its viewers but rewards those who endure with a
masterpiece of staging, performance, and storytelling that elicits
genuine sympathy towards the underbelly of society so often
forgotten or insulted in mainstream media. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
30
TEXAS PREMIERE
HAPPY FACE
2018 | DIR: Alexandre Franchi | 97 min | Canada
In a therapy workshop for those with facial differences, there
is an imposter. Whereas all the other members in the group
— including its body-conscious and confidence-lacking leader
— must return to a world that rejects them for lack of beauty,
Augustine hides a secret. Under his bandages, he is really Stan.
His face no longer distorted, he’s an attractive and imaginative
teenager who plays D&D, picks up girls at bars, and lately has
the difficult task of taking care of his cancer-stricken mother.
Stan’s visits to the group are his way of learning to cope with the
disease that is physically destroying a once-beautiful woman, and
with his overwhelming guilt in being unable to face her. When the
members of the group find out about Stan’s deception, he strikes
a deal to stay while helping them weaponize their differences
against a world that’s hostile towards them.
HAPPY FACE is director Alexandre Franchi’s deeply personal
sophomore feature. After 2009’s surprising and clever LARPing
thriller debut THE WILD HUNT, Franchi had his own complicated
battle with bone cancer that took a portion of his leg. Wanting
to make a film based on the loss of his mother to a cancer that
increasingly rendered her physically different, he also drew on the
stories of his cast, all with real facial differences, to shape HAPPY
FACE’s final narrative.
The result is a wondrously emotional and often very funny
experience, a delicate balance of exasperation and anger at
a beauty-obsessed world, and a startlingly tender expression
of empathy. HAPPY FACE celebrates its unique cast, but more
importantly, allows them to inhabit fully-realized characters
with relatable flaws, insecurities, hopes, and dreams that often
have nothing to do with the way they look. Fans of singular, all-
inclusive, and challenging films with a healthy dose of dark humor
should not skip out on HAPPY FACE. (BRIAN KELLEY)
PLAYS WITH: FORT IRWIN [SEE PG 56]
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
HOMEWRECKER
2019 | DIR: Zach Gayne | 86 min | Canada
Two women find themselves in all the same places: the same
yoga class, the same coffee shop...what are the odds! But
when the intense, extroverted Linda (Precious Chong) coerces
the reserved, deferential Michelle (Alex Essoe) into visiting her
home for a spontaneous interior design consultation, it quickly
becomes clear that Linda has something more sinister on her
mind than throw pillows.
Everyone knows if a gun appears in the first act, it must go off
by the finale. Yet despite the fact that the first thing Michelle
notices upon entering Linda’s home is a large sledgehammer
hung as décor on the wall, she presses on — as if compelled by
an outside force whispering in her ear, “Be polite! Don’t make
a fuss!” After reluctantly drinking a cocktail prepared by Linda
(garnished with a cheeky stirrer declaring “Liquid Therapy!”),
Michelle soon realizes that society’s conditioning to be a “good
girl” is now being weaponized against her. Linda has been let
down by a lifetime of fairytale expectations, and she’s not letting
Michelle leave until she’s evened the score.
The film is propelled along by an incredibly smart and acerbic
screenplay crafted by Essoe and Chong, along with director
Zach Gayne. The three have created their own microcosm, equal
parts absurdity and horror, where a vintage video board game
called Party Hunks can lead to emotional disclosure and physical
distress, and all the jokes land as forcefully as the inevitable
violence. Essoe and Chong give their all in this film, pushing
themselves to the absolute limit in an epic battle that engages
all the tools, both psychological and physical, at their disposal.
As the saying goes, when women fight each other, no one wins…
except for the audience in this delightfully deranged film. (LISA
DREYER)
PLAYS WITH: NOBODY LIKES YOU AS MUCH AS I DO [SEE PG 57]
U.S. PREMIERE
I LOST MY BODY
2019 | DIR: Jeremy Clapin | 82 min | France
Poetic and deeply moving, I LOST MY BODY is a lyrical journey
that combines the best elements of handmade animation with
the quirky trappings of genre film. Essentially a dramatic poem
told through the viewpoint of a severed hand, the narrative not
only operates as an adventure but also a deep rumination on the
nature of what it is to be human.
A severed hand comes alive in a laboratory in Paris, ready to be
dissected. Determined to escape this unhappy fate, it sets off on
a one-of-a-kind adventure across the city, taking on enemies and
obstacles of all kinds with one singular goal in mind: to reunite
with Naoufel, a young pizza boy, who has hopelessly fallen in love
with Gabrielle.
By cleverly limiting the viewpoint to that of a severed hand, I
LOST MY BODY gives the audience a chance to experience a
familiar story through very unfamiliar eyes. As the journey across
Paris gets more and more perilous with pigeons and rats and
other hurdles in the way, the hand remembers its life up until the
moment of severance, each moment filtered through the way a
hand might experience the world: the sensation of objects, the
awkwardness of movement, the lyricism that lies in the motion
of the body.
Using a hand-drawn animation style, the film depicts Naoufel
and Paris in a way that makes the whole setting come alive.
Combining nuanced and complex characters with a fantastical
backdrop, director Jérémy Clapin creates a compelling world in
which all seems possible. (EVRIM ERSOY)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
31
 WORLD PREMIERE
IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON
2019 | DIR: Jim Mickle | 115 min | USA, Canada
In Jim Mickle’s brilliant hybrid of science fiction and thriller, Boyd
Holbrook stars as a Philadelphia police officer who finds himself
on the hunt for a strange serial killer after a series of murders
shake the city to its core. As his investigations lead him further
down the rabbit hole, a pattern emerges within the crimes, and
soon the stakes become infinitely larger and more personal.
Recalling the prime of ‘80s big screen sci-fi, IN THE SHADOW OF
THE MOON is an exciting ride that never fails to respect its setting
or its characters. Working with an incredible cast including the
wonderful Michael C. Hall and Bokeem Woodbine, Mickle’s astute
direction imbues the action with a real place and time.
Without ever taking his eye off the questions the film is asking,
Mickle finds a way to explore the obsessions at play at the core
of this story. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON shows a talent
working at the top of his game, bending and blending genres
with ease, examining pertinent ideas that go way beyond the
final frame. IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON is love letter and
evolution blasted into one. (EVRIM ERSOY)
32
WORLD PREMIERE
IN THE TALL GRASS
2019 | DIR: Vincenzo Natali | 90 min | Canada
Vincenzo Natali takes on double duty by adapting this wonderful
take on the novella IN THE TALL GRASS by Stephen King and
Joe Hill, entering the pantheon of directors who manage to really
capture the spirit of King on the big screen.
Laysla De Oliveira and Avery Whitted star as Becky and Cal, two
siblings en route to California who stop by a large grass field in
Kansas when the heavily pregnant Becky feels nauseous. Hearing
a young boy calling for help somewhere nearby, the two venture
in and discover that the grass holds more secrets than they could
have ever imagined...and they may never find their way out again.
Imbuing a field of grass with a sense of horror and utter
helplessness is the kind of achievement only a seasoned writing
duo like King and Hill can achieve, but to successfully transplant
those feelings into the medium of cinema is the kind of
masterwork we’ve grown to expect from a mastermind like Natali.
Recalling his earlier works like CUBE, Natali once again shows
that less is more, trapping his characters in a spiral of terror using
nothing more than a sense of helplessness and the suggestion
that something might be stirring close by.
As Becky and Cal encounter a series of characters and fumble
towards an understanding of the mysteries of the grass, time and
space seemingly warp, disorienting the characters and terrifying
the audience. With incredible sound design and a roving camera
seemingly everywhere at once, the film looks at what happens
when human beings find themselves at the mercy of nature.
As a Stephen King fan, it’s been an absolute joy seeing the
wonderfully successful adaptations of the last few years, and IN
THE TALL GRASS is no exception. Scary, succinct, and utterly
mesmerizing, this is one tall tale you’ll be keen to revisit as soon
as the credits roll. (EVRIM ERSOY)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
IRON FISTS AND KUNG FU KICKS
2019 | DIR: Serge Ou | 107 min | Australia
Filling a long overdue gap with a thoroughly examined, endlessly
entertaining, and utterly wonderful documentary looking at the
width and breadth of the history of kung fu movies, IRON FISTS
AND KUNG FU KICKS is a blazing roundhouse of a film that splits
at the seams with interviews, anecdotes, and utterly outrageous
memories.
Starting in the early ‘60s with the establishment of the Shaw
Brothers studio, and traveling all the way to the current stars
of the genre, director Serge Ou chooses the best of the best to
demonstrate how kung fu movies became a global phenomenon.
Interviewing everyone from experts like Grady Hendrix, to stars
Cheng Pei-Pei and Cynthia Rothrock, as well as choreographer/
directors like Yuen Woo-Ping and many, many more, IRON FISTS
AND KUNG FU KICKS is paced to match the martial arts films
that are its subject, and breathlessly takes the audience on a
journey from Hong Kong to New York to Australia and more.
A brilliant historical artifact, a terrific anecdotal piece, and an
incredible excuse to rediscover the gems of kung fu cinema that
may not have been visited in a while, IRON FISTS AND KUNG FU
KICKS is a breath of fresh air. Delivering long overdue respect at
the door of a genre that has and continues to inspire countless
artists working within the industry, this is a historical thrill ride
practically custom-made for Fantastic Fest. (EVRIM ERSOY)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
KEEP ME COMPANY
2019 | DIR: Gonçalo Almeida | 82 min | Portugal
Silvia and Clara have been secret lovers for years. Silvia lives
a comfortable life and has yet to find the strength to tell her
husband about Clara. Now, Silvia is pregnant with their first child.
Clara, realizing she’ll never be the most important person in
Silvia’s life, has reached a point of frustration and hopelessness.
The two women set up a clandestine meeting in the countryside
to repair their relationship.
The couple spend much of their time lounging around the
luxurious pool on the property, though they often find themselves
distracted by strange noises coming from the pump. These noises
fluctuate and grow, and sometimes sound strangely like voices.
Eventually, these sounds start penetrating their sleeping minds,
and the boundaries between illusion and reality begin to crumble.
On its surface, KEEP ME COMPANY is a thoughtful, well-acted
character study about the complexities of relationships. But as
each evening brings an increasing level of surreality, an intricate
maze of dream logic takes over.
Gonçalo Almeida’s film resourcefully uses simple yet striking
visuals, powerful symbolism, and an impressively rich
soundscape to create his mind-bending fever dream. So often, his
aesthetic choices veer into womb-like territory that is somehow
simultaneously comforting and unsettling, particularly given
the thematic importance of pregnancy and water as a form of
baptismal cleansing within the story.
KEEP ME COMPANY is a psychologically fascinating film
exploring the breakdown of a relationship and questions of fate.
Are we really in control of our own emotions and bonds, or are we
at the mercy of forces greater than ourselves? (LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: FURNITURE [SEE PG 56]
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
33
 TEXAS PREMIERE
KNIVES AND SKIN
2019 | DIR: Jennifer Reeder | 109 min | USA
KNIVES AND SKIN takes place in a tiny rural midwest town like
many a high school film before it, but the happenings in this
particular locale are far from conventional. The film follows a
group of teenage girls grappling with the disappearance of one of
their own: pretty blonde marching band captain Carolyn Harper.
The girls feel lost, maybe afraid that if someone hurt Carolyn,
they could be next. Or maybe they’re just lost because they’re
teenage girls, a challenge even without the added mystery.
Like many high school movies, there are different cliques
represented: fashionable rebels, sexually confused cheerleaders,
horny jocks, wholesome brainiacs, and all the rest. Yet Reeder’s
film transcends the cliché divides of high school life. The feelings
she explores are deeply human and are often made clearest in
song form. At key moments in the film, the characters break
out into melancholic interpretations of ‘80s New Wave hits —
sometimes in realistic situations like a choir class, and sometimes
in fourth-wall-breaking musical moments. In every case, it’s a
moving and original technique that gets to the heart of these
characters.
The script features a peculiar and consistent kind of detached
dialogue. People don’t speak authentically, but they do speak
honestly, as if all the veneer of propriety, subtlety, sarcasm, and
passive-aggression has been stripped from their lexicon in the
face of this tragedy. Such bald honesty has various effects on the
townsfolk, allowing some to explore their sexuality more freely,
and causing others to destroy their families and homes.
Much like David Lynch before her (whose work is a clear and
constant reference point for the film), Reeder digs deep beneath
the suburban surface to find the ugliness underneath. Featuring
a Badalamenti-esque score, neon-soaked production design, and
gorgeous bucolic scenery, it’s a fully absorbing, surreal world.
KNIVES AND SKIN is the kind of film that only gets better with
repeat viewings. It’s also the kind of film that works best when
you let it wash over you in all its strangeness and ambiguity. It
doesn’t have to tie up every loose end to be powerfully moving,
deeply affecting, and gorgeously magical. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
34
TEXAS PREMIERE
KOKO-DI KOKO-DA
2019 | DIR: Johannes Nyholm | 86 min | Sweden, Denmark
Tobias and Elin have been married for many years. When we first
meet them, they are playful and in love. Then, a painful tragedy
tears their relationship apart. In an attempt to reconnect and heal
their wounds, they decide to take a camping trip. Unfortunately,
a band of mischievous characters descends upon their campsite,
submerging the couple in a stream of traumatic experiences as
they try to escape.
This may sound like your typical survival-in-the-woods narrative,
but KOKO-DI KOKO-DA has many surprises in store. For one,
the villains are no back-country cannibals — they’re characters
from a child’s music box come to life. An old man in a white suit,
straw hat, and cane leads the group. His followers include a giant
woman in pigtails walking a vicious pit bull, a hulking strongman
carrying a second, dead pit bull, and an ominous white cat in a
bow tie. Their shocking appearance is nothing compared to the
surreal forms of torture they inflict on this poor couple.
Just as upsetting are the lengths to which the couple must go to
survive and escape. Told in a seemingly endless loop that brings
us back to the moment chaos begins, Johannes Nyholm creates
an evil form of GROUNDHOG DAY. As frustrating as this seems,
there’s a tenderness underpinning the whole endeavor, made
clearest in a series of poignant animations of a family of bunnies.
Nyholm has previously created many similar animations and his
experience with the medium is put to great effect here.
As strange and playful as the film may sound, KOKO-DI KOKO-DA
contains some of the most disturbing imagery ever put to screen,
punctuated by the catchiest, ear-wormiest piece of children’s folk-
song goofiness audiences will struggle to forget. This malevolent
camping trip from hell may also be one of the most touching
meditations on grief to come out in years. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: GRIEF [SEE PG 57]
TEXAS PREMIERE
THE LAST TO SEE THEM
2019 | DIR: Sara Summa | 79 min | Germany
“On a Saturday night in late summer 2012, the Durati Family was
killed during the robbery of their house.” This event, based on a
true story, occurs at the very end of Sara Summa’s debut feature,
THE LAST TO SEE THEM, and yet this is not a spoiler. That first
sentence is the opening title card of the film, telegraphing the
main characters’ fates in a few brief, tragic words.
THE LAST TO SEE THEM takes an unorthodox storytelling
approach, exploring in immense detail the lives of the four
members of the Durati family the day before the robbery. Despite
her characters’ inevitable demise, Summa shows endless empathy
for each family member through a patient, observant account of
the minutiae of everyday domestic life. As audiences grow more
attached to these characters, their most casual lines of dialogue
take on unexpected gravitas. All plans for the future feel like tiny
stabs in the audience’s heart.
Summa elicits arresting and peculiar performances from her
actors. There’s a sense that each character is “going through the
motions,” trying to keep up appearances and maintain order even
as each seems deeply unsettled when witnessed in moments
alone. The characters seem almost possessed or haunted — at
the very least overcome by something intangibly askew.
The production team makes careful use of space, choreographing
a domestic dance around the home reminiscent of a stage play.
The camera lurks in these spaces like a fly on the wall. Helpless to
stop what’s coming, the audience is left with the eerie, unsettling
realization that they will, in fact, be the last to see the characters
alive.
Summa’s debut feature is a revolutionary exercise as a sort of
anti-found-footage film. Artfully exploring cinema’s unique
ability to play with temporality, it deftly probes major existential
questions about life and how to best live it in the face of our
inevitable, unpredictable end. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: GIRL IN THE HALLWAY [SEE PG 57]
TEXAS PREMIERE
THE LODGE
2019 | DIR: Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala | 108 min | USA
GOODNIGHT MOMMY was one of the rare films that crossed
between genre and arthouse audiences. It announced the
emergence of two major talents, Austrian co-directors Severin
Fiala and Veronika Franz. The rare aunt/nephew filmmaking duo
found ways to creep under our skin and into our nightmares with
a tale of a mother and her two twin sons, isolated in the country
as she recuperates from surgery. As the twins grow increasingly
worried about their mother, the pressure of being alone with each
other grows past the boiling point.
Talking about THE LODGE and its story is not easy without giving
away its secrets, so let’s not even try. It’s similar to GOODNIGHT
MOMMY in that it deals with a fractured family dynamic, and
again puts adults and kids in tense situations where nothing good
can happen. Its craft is as accomplished as GOODNIGHT MOMMY,
and it’s scary as all hell, but what is most impressive about the
film is how the narrative takes its time. Layer by layer, everything
the audience needs in their heads for the finale is revealed bit by
bit throughout the film. When the third act hits, you’re watching
a jigsaw puzzle come together before your eyes. This is a riddle
that’s not about monsters or the Devil. It’s not about demons
or vengeful spirits. This is as human as a horror film can be, and
what makes it both great and terrifying.
THE LODGE opened this year’s midnight section at Sundance, and
— like THE WITCH and HEREDITARY — was the one midnight film
that left with a distribution deal and Park City still buzzing. We
don’t play a lot out of Sundance, but something this scary can’t
be ignored and must be shared with Fantastic Fest audiences.
Kiss sleep goodbye, and try to keep warm. (JAMES EMANUEL
SHAPIRO)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
35
 U.S. PREMIERE
THE LONG WALK
2019 | DIR: Mattie Do | 115 min | Laos, Spain, Singapore
Fantastic Fest alumna Mattie Do continues to cement her name
as one of the most unique voices working within genre — or any
other — cinema by delivering a science fiction and fable hybrid
that continuously challenges the audience with unexpected
twists and turns. It’s a deeply visually arresting film about the
cyclical nature of life.
An old Laotian hermit lives with the painful memories of his
childhood; the death of his mother is the wellspring of his lifelong
sadness. Discovering that the ghost of an accident victim can
transport him into his own past propels him to correct the
mistakes of yesterday in order to make amends for his life. But
each choice comes with consequences, and the old man will
discover that sometimes mistakes are there to teach us — and
changing them can alter the world in ways he could never have
imagined.
Atmospheric, smart, and beautifully constructed, THE LONG
WALK explores the width and breadth of the results of human
action without ever resorting to cheap lectures. Do finds a
midpoint between Eastern spiritualism and Western philosophy
through which to examine the idea of karma and consequences,
and does so in the most accessible way possible. Add to the mix
the unexplored background of Laos, where science fiction and
rural tradition mingle to create an otherworldly setup, and what
you have is a film unlike any other. (EVRIM ERSOY)
36
TEXAS PREMIERE
MEMORY: THE ORIGINS OF ALIEN
2019 | DIR: Alexandre O. Philippe | 93 min | USA
There was a time before ALIEN and a time after ALIEN. There
are many films that rank as the best in both science fiction and
horror, but none have left a mark on fandom, general audiences,
and other filmmakers like Ridley Scott’s 1979 masterpiece. It
has three sequels, two prequels, and has even been merged
into another cinematic universe. The four original ALIEN films
have been released and re-released on every conceivable home
video format. The devoted have pored over every special feature
created (most from Fantastic Fest alumni Charles de Lauzirika),
and yet the genesis of Dan O’Bannon’s story and HR Giger’s
designs has never been told in as captivating and complete a
way as in Alexandre O. Philippe’s MEMORY.
Phillippe leans hard into O’Bannon’s story. Having passed away
in 2009 from Crohn’s disease, O’Bannon’s presence in the film
is achieved through archival interviews and new interviews with
his widow, Diane. We are led from O’Bannon’s childhood in
suburban St. Louis, to his thirty-page treatment called MEMORY,
and ultimately to the unforgettable chest-buster scene, directly
influenced by the disease O’Bannon imagined was eating him
alive from within.
Philippe’s films work well because he understands why we
love movies like PSYCHO and ALIEN, and his analysis explains
to us <i>why</i> we love them, plus how the love filmmakers
have for them continues to influence cinema today. Through his
deconstruction, we are given a new appreciation for the collective
art in ALIEN, and learn so much that we want to watch these
films again immediately afterward to reflect upon where all the
pieces came from and what they mean. His documentaries are
always among the genre events of the year. (JAMES EMANUEL
SHAPIRO)
PLAYS WITH: EVERYTHING
YOU WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT
SUDDEN BIRTH* (*BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK) [SEE PG 56]
WORLD PREMIERE
THE MORTUARY COLLECTION
2019 | DIR: Ryan Spindell | 108 min | USA
When a young girl attends a funeral in an old mortuary, she
stumbles upon a secret room full of curiosities where she meets
the towering, ominous mortician: a startling figure of a man
existing somewhere between Lurch and PHANTASM’s Tall Man.
The mortician guides the young girl through his collection,
sharing four stories of wild, unique, and memorable deaths.
Thus begins the narrative skeleton surrounding Ryan Spindell’s
(THE BABYSITTER MURDERS) delightful, morbid, and clever
anthology. Where many anthologies can feel either one-note or
tonally scattered, Spindell’s has an admirable amount of both
cohesion and variety.
Each of the four stories brings us into a fully realized, impeccably
designed period piece, moving chronologically from the 1950s
through the 1980s. A ‘50s housewife struggles with a mysterious
presence in her bathroom; a ‘60s college boy gets a taste of
his own fraternizing medicine; and a ‘70s husband makes some
tough decisions about his wife — all culminating in Spindell’s
hugely popular ‘80s-set BABYSITTER MURDERS.
Each film showcases Spindell’s remarkable talent for balancing
humor and terror, as well as his startling ability to completely pull
the rug out from under the audience. With a vibrant variety of
tones, timely and important themes, and enough laughs, screams,
and squirm-inducing moments to make its two-hour runtime fly
by, THE MORTUARY COLLECTION is a wild ride that’s sure to
thrill. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: FATALE COLLECTIVE: BLEED [SEE PG 56]
WORLD PREMIERE
NAIL IN THE COFFIN - THE FALL
AND RISE OF VAMPIRO
2019 | DIR: Michael Paszt | 88 min | Canada
Ian Richard Hodgkinson is better known by his professional
wrestler name Vampiro, his ghostly face-painted alter ego.
Although Hodgkinson got his start as a wrestler in Montreal,
Canada, his formative years were spent working in Mexico in
their wrestling federations, better known as lucha libre. However,
many fans will recognize him from television, where he worked on
World Championship Wrestling in the late ‘90s/early 2000s and
became a tag team champion with The Great Muta.
NAIL IN THE COFFIN explores Hodgkinson’s history, highlighting
his job running Lucha Libre AAA in Mexico and Lucha
Underground in Los Angeles, while balancing being a father
to his daughter who lives in his hometown of Thunder Bay,
Canada. Unlike many professional wrestling documentaries
before, director Michael Paszt has constructed a fascinating and
heartfelt look at a wrestler who has overcome and still continues
to overcome psychical injuries, sexual abuse, and drug addiction.
Not to mention the wild stories of working for Milli Vanilli, or
wrestling alongside the punk rock band The Misfits. Vampiro’s
stories are multi-faceted and completely enthralling.
Told through an engrossing collection of home videos and
interviews with his daughter Dasha, NAIL IN THE COFFIN paints a
touching picture of a wrestler doing whatever he can to raise his
daughter, while keeping the business he also clearly loves running
smoothly. We’ve seen plenty of documentaries about the darker
side of the professional wrestling business, and almost all of them
focus on American wrestling. This is something quite different.
Not just for fans of spandex and sweat, the film provides an
entrancing history of a very human, down-to-earth character,
his daughter, and a striking look at Mexican lucha libre history.
(NOAH LEE)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
37
 WORLD PREMIERE
NIGHT HAS COME
2019 | DIR: Peter Van Goethem | 56 min | Belgium
Disclaimer: I take full responsibility for this film being programmed
at your beloved Fest. I fought for it because once in a while, every
programmer stumbles upon something so magical that they have
to share it. I am warning you, though, this film may not be for
everyone. You may even hate me for playing it, but I’ll gladly take
the hit.
Essayistic and experimental, NIGHT HAS COME is mesmerizing.
Director Peter Van Goethem assembled Royal Belgian Film
Archive footage from the last century to create an original story,
narrated by a fictional man as a memory piece. While it may
take a bit of patience to fall into the experiment, once you’re
in, it’s a beautiful experience. The director has put together a
post-apocalyptic tale tackling philosophical questions that easily
competes with more traditional post-apo features.
A virus erupts and children are the first victims. The people call
it “night” because it steals memories and leaves only darkness.
The State steps in with a new program that can store memories
and begins to harvest them all, “just in case.” But is the virus
really of natural origin? Or was it engineered to provide the
next generation with a fresh start (and the State with an easily
controlled population)? Quarantine, resistance, riots — Van
Goethem throws it all into the mix, and brilliantly uses archival
footage to take you on a fictional journey only a step away from
reality.
Like the chicken and the egg, you have to wonder which came
first in the creation of the film: the narrative text or the choice of
images? The editing is superb, and Guy Van Nueten’s enthralling
score is a perfect match for this out-of-the-ordinary proposal.
It’s also worth mentioning that the director did this film within
the framework of his Doctorate in the Arts at the University of
Brussels, and we should celebrate not only the film but also the
research work behind it. (ANNICK MAHNERT)
PLAYS WITH: TRANSMISSIONS OF UNWANTED PASTS [SEE PG 58]
38
U.S. PREMIERE
NOBADI
2019 | DIR: Karl Markovics | 90 min | Austria
The Fantastic Fest programming team scours the planet, going
to every festival and looking under every rock to find true
discoveries. With U.S. distributors being ever more wary to take
chances thanks to the streaming market, often the only way to
see films like NOBADI is at festivals like FF. Your programmers
find them, watch them, love them, and exuberantly share them.
Knowing how few will ever even see these films makes each
discovery even more precious, and that’s why NOBADI is one of
the movies I most adore this year. It’s a pretty simple premise
we’ve seen many times before: two people with nothing in
common converge by circumstance and are forced to work
together. NOBADI takes this basic premise and layers in timely
social commentary about refugees and immigration and extreme
right-wing ideology, and then it also makes it funny and bizarre
and tense and shocking and wonderful.
NOBADI is about two people who spend 24 hours together,
changing their lives forever. Their chance meeting is random in a
way that can only happen in movies, and what happens to them
can only happen specifically in a Fantastic Fest movie. What does
that mean? You’ll have to take time out of your busy schedule
to find out. I’m begging you to do so. This is one of the tiny
discoveries we look for and fall in love with, and it’s likely the only
time you’ll get to see this gem of a movie. (JAMES EMANUEL
SHAPIRO)
U.S. PREMIERE
THE OTHER LAMB
2019 | DIR: Malgorzata Szumowska | 97 min | Ireland, Belgium,
USA
From director Malgorzata Szumowska, whose previous work has
included the brilliant and challenging MUG and BODY, comes
a searing examination of the patriarchy as filtered through the
microcosm of a cult.
Selah follows the Shepherd, a mysterious man who founded the
cult she belongs to. All members of the cult are women, labelled
either sisters or mothers by Shepherd, and live a life strictly
governed by his rules. However, as Selah takes her first steps into
young adulthood, her growing bond with the outcast Sarah sows
the seeds of doubt, starting Selah on a journey of destruction
that will engulf not only her but also the only world she has ever
known.
Blessed with an electric atmosphere and quiet but impactful
performances, THE OTHER LAMB mercilessly examines the
power politics of societies ruled with didactic tenets, as well as
the oppressive nature of patriarchy. With Shepherd, Szumowska
crafts an enigmatic figure that is dictator, seducer, and father all
rolled into one, a complex other who incites the fires of oppression
within his followers by whatever means necessary.
Designed to shock, to provoke, and to instigate, THE OTHER
LAMB is ferocious filmmaking at its best: brute force delivered
through a whisper with exquisite imagery. (EVRIM ERSOY)
TEXAS PREMIERE
PARASITE
2019 | DIR: Bong Joon-ho | 131 min | South Korea
Eighty years ago, Jean Renoir’s classic THE RULES OF THE GAME
upset the ruling class in France so much that one critic angrily
tried to burn the theater down immediately after seeing the film.
We are hopefully not on the brink of another world war, but the
division between the haves and the have-nots is widening daily.
With the political divide so stark that empirical truth is up for
interpretation, the world is ripe for a good yarn about classism,
and Bong Joon-ho is certainly no stranger to class critique.
Unlike SNOWPIERCER, Bong doesn’t rely on budget or science
fiction for this narrative. PARASITE may use symbolism in its title,
but there’s very little allegory here. Grounded and real, you will
recognize this world and how we’re all living in it.
The less said about PARASITE’s narrative the better. Bong’s
previous films have deftly woven their way through different
genres and managed to balance a comic and tragic tone, but
PARASITE is beyond anything he’s done before. It’s a film that
transforms into something else the moment you thought you
knew where it was going.
Will PARASITE drive someone to try to burn a theater down?
Probably not. PARASITE’s wealthy characters may not be as
sympathetic as the ones living in poverty, but they aren’t evil or
idiots. Simple and lacking self-awareness, yes...but nice. Even so,
as one character observes: “Hell, if I had all this money, I’d be
nice too!” Take away a person’s comforts, then their basic needs,
and people quickly become something very not nice. The class
system rests on the idea that not everyone can win. The only
exception is the Fantastic Fest audience members who catch
Bong’s latest — and for my money — greatest work. (JAMES
EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
39
 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
PATRICK
2019 | DIR: Tim Mielants | 97 min | Belgium
Set within a nudist camp in Belgium, Tim Mielants’ masterful
tragicomedy PATRICK successfully blends the uncomfortable
with the undeniable to create a film so unique that it needs to be
seen to be believed.
Patrick lives on a nudist campsite owned by his mother and his
domineering father, Rudy. He works as a handyman, taking care of
small repair jobs, helping the residents and generally just getting
by. The sudden demise of his father throws his entire world into
disarray, and while trying to deal with his feelings, Patrick also
realizes that his hammer is missing. Setting off to find the tool will
lead Patrick down very strange paths indeed, even as the seeds
of rebellion are being planted within the campsite.
Featuring a seemingly impossible amount of nudity, director
Mielants uses the physical nakedness of his actors to disarm
the audience and present complex human beings who can only
be judged by their characters. By populating the campsite with
an eclectic array of people, some helpful to Patrick, others a
hindrance, the director effectively creates a micro-universe that
is within our own and yet totally isolated.
With a killer central performance from Kevin Janssens as the
titular Patrick and Jemaine Clement in a beautiful turn as a new
guest at the campsite, PATRICK is a one-off kind of film that truly
belongs at Fantastic Fest. In turns funny and uncomfortable,
the story of a man and his hammer will leave a mark not unlike
encounters with previous titles like FORCE MAJEURE and TONI
ERDMANN. (EVRIM ERSOY)
40
U.S. PREMIERE
PELICAN BLOOD
2019 | DIR: Katrin Gebbe | 121 min | Germany, Bulgaria
Katrin Gebbe’s terrific debut feature, NOTHING BAD CAN
HAPPEN, shook the Drafthouse Films team to its core at 2013
Cannes. That film’s protagonist endures horrific suffering, seeing
it as part of his divine mission to save a brother and sister from
their evil, abusive parents. Clearly, Gebbe finds faith to be a
compelling motivation as she again uses it in her second film,
PELICAN BLOOD.
This time, Gebbe is working with German thespian Nina Hoss who
has twice won the Adolf Grimme acting award, as well as the
Silver Bear for Best Actress both at Berlinale and the Lolas. Hoss
plays Wiebke, a single mother of an adopted 9-year-old named
Nicolina. Wishing to adopt a sister for Nicolina, she finds her
new daughter in 5-year-old Raya. But when Wiebke and Nicolina
bring Raya home, she immediately starts acting out. Raya isn’t
just challenging her boundaries; something is really wrong with
her, and it could be something beyond physical understanding.
Gebbe’s inspiration for NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN was a
news article about an abused, homeless teen, and the film
was remarkable in its assured vision and strong performances.
PELICAN BLOOD shows her evolving as a mature and strong
auteur, inspired by becoming a mother herself. Working with
her husband Moritz Schultheiß, one of Germany’s best up-and-
coming cinematographers, Gebbe explores the driving forces of
motherhood and a mother’s bond with her child. Comparisons to
the EXORCIST are valid: mothers and daughters bound together
both by love and something possibly evil. The results here are
considerable and even beautiful in the face of the darkest and
most horrible possibilities. (JAMES EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE U.S. PREMIERE

PHIL TIPPETT - MAD DREAMS AND THE PLATFORM

MONSTERS 2019 | DIR: Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia | 90 min | Spain

2019 | DIR: Gilles Penso & Alexandre Poncet | 80 min | France

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s exquisite debut is the kind of midnight
movie audiences dream of. His killer setup — a vertically tiered
When I describe this documentary as sad, I mean it in the most
prison where prisoners are taunted by a moving platform laden
respectful way possible. Phil Tippett is a too often unsung hero
with exquisite food but available for only brief windows of time
of the visual effects industry. If you’re not sure who I’m talking
— is a jumping-off point to deliver a state-of-the-union about
about, he’s the guy who did stop-motion, designs, and visual
Spanish society. The result is satisfying as a genre film while also
effects on STAR WARS, DRAGONSLAYER, ROBOCOP, INDIANA
working as a poignant commentary on the disturbing nature of
JONES, JURASSIC PARK, and fucking STARSHIP TROOPERS,
mankind, the atrocious deeds we are capable of, and what the
just to name a few — all films that have rocked the cradle of
true meaning of humanity may be.
our cinephile childhoods. He’s an artist whose craft was done
by hand, meticulously and lovingly, with hours and hours spent When we meet Goreng (Ivan Massagué in a beautifully
making sure every detail was right. understated role), he has just arrived on The Platform and has
been assigned to the level of old-hand Trimagasi (Zorion Eguileor
The film takes us deep into Tippett’s beginnings, influences,
in top form) who explains to him the rules: the levels are assigned
collaborations, and his struggle with the industry. When I say sad,
randomly, those in the upper tier get to eat and those in the lower
it’s because he’s just one of the many victims of technological
tier have to fight for survival. Although Goreng is reluctant at first
advancements in favor of digital VFX. I’m not saying this is bad —
to accept the system he finds himself in, it isn’t long before his
I’m the first one to go see AVENGERS at the theater — but your
survival instincts kick in, igniting a battle that spirals all the way
heart bleeds for a man who dedicated his entire life to making us
down to the core of what it means to be a human being.
believe in worlds imagined by amazing storytellers. I remember
shaking at the apparition of the dragon in DRAGONSLAYER Visually striking, filled with unforgettable imagery and a sense
(a dragon design that in my opinion has never been matched) of rhythm that delivers, THE PLATFORM takes the audience on
or screaming at the arachnid bugs of STARSHIP TROOPERS. an emotional and visceral journey that constantly questions the
Somehow they felt real… and that’s what it was about. beliefs we hold dear. Looking at society through the microcosm
of this brutal prison system, the film confirms there’s more to us
Alexandre Poncet is a journalist who writes for the French
than meets the eye: sometimes frightening, sometimes vicious,
equivalent of FANGORIA and Gilles Penso has been in the
but always, always tinged with the inherent kindness that can
French movie industry for a while. Their fascination for the SFX
exist somewhere within us. And as the world loses its mind, The
and VFX lead them to collaborate on the amazing portrait of
Platform continues to move downward, never stopping, never
yet another hero of the VFX industry, Ray Harryhausen. In 2015,
slowing down.
they co-directed CREATURE DESIGNERS - THE FRANKENSTEIN
COMPLEX which explored the history of special effects in film. Destined to be one of the biggest talking points of Fantastic
With PHIL TIPPETT - MAD DREAMS AND MONSTERS, Poncet Fest, THE PLATFORM delivers thrills, chills, and lateral spills in
and Penso take us on the powerful and emotional journey of the most unique way possible. (EVRIM ERSOY)
an artist who had to adapt to a quickly evolving industry which
rendered his amazing skills almost obsolete. It’s the story of our
time, where artisans are too often neglected in favor of quicker
and cheaper processes. The Frenchmen’s fantastic documentary
gives credit where credit is due, putting Tippett back where he
belongs, on the Olympus of visual effects alongside the creatures
he created. (ANNICK MAHNERT)

PLAYS WITH: NIGHT OF THE FLUFFET [SEE PG 57]

FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

41
 TEXAS PREMIERE
THE POOL
2018 | DIR: Ping Lumprapleng | 90 min | Thailand
Let’s be frank: this is essentially an OPEN WATER sequel. In a
pool. Without water. But the pool is in Thailand, and it just so
happens that a passing crocodile likes the looks of it. Now that
we’ve outlined the premise, add twists and turns and missed
opportunities so cleverly engineered that you’ll be screaming
“Come ON!” at the screen in joyous frustration. Saying anything
more would be spoiling it, and avoid the trailer if you can!
(Granted, I did spoil the croc, but there is so much more bad shit
coming at this poor guy that the croc is almost the least of his
problems.)
Ping Lumpraploeng has crafted a fast-paced nail-biter that offers
little relief until the end. He plays as much with his main character
as he does with the audience, and has absolutely no problem
torturing both. Obviously, filming with a real croc would have
been a production nightmare, but I can sincerely say that the
quality level of the VFX is pretty remarkable and will give you
an indication of what level the South Eastern Asian film industry
is playing on. For various reasons, I will disclose here that Lucky
the dog should have been named differently; and if there is a
message in this film, it would be that when you fall asleep at the
pool, you may face far worse dangers than sunburn. (ANNICK
MAHNERT)
42
WORLD PREMIERE
RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE
2019 | DIR: Jay Baruchel | 80 min | Canada
Todd Walkley (Jesse Williams) and his publisher Ezra (Jay
Baruchel) made their careers crafting a comic book based on
a real-life serial killer called Slasherman. On a press tour to
announce the launch of their final issue, they visit the town where
Slasherman wreaked havoc twenty years earlier. Upon their
arrival, a series of new murders unfold… murders that look eerily
familiar to imagery in Todd’s Slasherman comics. Speculation and
paranoia build regarding the identity of the mysterious killer.
As the title of the film suggests, RANDOM ACTS OF VIOLENCE
has no shortage of extreme, gruesome, graphic bloodshed.
Whoever is committing these crimes is driven by tremendous
anger. The brutality of these murders should not be taken lightly.
In his directorial debut, Jay Baruchel not only explores the
extremities of violence, he also probes important questions
about the nature and origin of violent instincts. At a time when
video games, music, and genre films are suspected to be causes
of horrible real-life crimes, Baruchel’s feature is a necessary and
thoughtful commentary on the ways these media may or may not
be tied to violent acts.
Through a grimy aesthetic and sharp, incisive writing, RANDOM
ACTS OF VIOLENCE rises far beyond its shocking gore to become
an important and stirring conversation piece on timely issues in
the genre art community. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: IN SOUND, WE LIVE FOREVER [SEE PG 57]
U.S. PREMIERE
RIDE YOUR WAVE
2019 | DIR: Masaaki Yuasa | 96 min | Japan
From Masaaki Yuasa, director of the wonderful THE NIGHT
IS SHORT, WALK ON GIRL and MIND GAME, comes a deeply
effective anime that is both a love letter to the sea and a moving
rumination on the nature of loss.
Hinako is a college student whose main passion is surfing. Shortly
after she moves into her new apartment, an accident causes the
place to catch fire and brings handsome firefighter Minato into
her life. Soon the two are inseparable and slowly start to fall in
love. However, a tragic accident will force the newfound lovers
apart, and the two will have to explore very different paths to
potentially find each other again.
Just like Yuasa’s previous work, RIDE YOUR WAVE is filled to
the brim with interesting characters, stellar style, and a sense
for the story that never falters or takes a false step. Exploring
love and loss entwined within the same moment, the film is
both melancholic and charming, an amazing piece of heartfelt
storytelling that resonates without ever being mawkish.
Though he never loses his unique sense of the weird, Yuasa
manages to create one of his most accessible works in RIDE
YOUR WAVE. With its incredible color palette and drawing style,
it’s an exceptional blend of the emotional and the supernatural
that pops off the screen. (EVRIM ERSOY)
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
ROCK, PAPER, AND SCISSORS
2019 | DIR: Macarena García Lenzi & Martín Blousson | 83 min |
Argentina
Jesus and Jose Maria are siblings living in a closed-off world
constructed of strange games, bursts of violence, relentless
madness, and of course, THE WIZARD OF OZ. When their half-
sister Magdalena returns to Argentina from Spain to inquire about
her share of their inheritance, their solution is to enmesh her in
the weirdest family reunion of all time — a brilliant and bloody
affair which may end in death for one or all.
Directors Macarena García Lenzi and Martín Blousson channel
the high-camp hijinx of classic genre films like WHATEVER
HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? to create a gory black comedy that
sets itself apart with stunning performances, offbeat and razor-
sharp humor, as well as a hysterical attitude toward violence.
Set almost entirely within the house of the trio’s recently deceased
father, ROCK, PAPER, AND SCISSORS sees the three engage in
emotional, mental, and physical warfare that will leave permanent
scars. With visual cues constantly influenced by popular culture,
including an unrelenting obsession with Oz, this Argentinian
chamber piece lures you in from its first minute and keeps you
laughing and squirming until its gore-soaked end.
Produced by genre stalwart Javier Diment, ROCK, PAPER, AND
SCISSORS is the sort of directorial debut that genre lovers pray
for, as sharp as a fang and as mean as a wolf. (EVRIM ERSOY)
PLAYS WITH: MOMMY’S PICKLES [SEE PG 57]
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
43
 U.S. PREMIERE
SEA FEVER
2019 | DIR: Neasa Hardiman | 91 min | Ireland, Sweden, Belgium
Siobhán is a serious student of marine biology. She’s focused,
passionate, and more comfortable around lab equipment than
people. When she reluctantly joins the crew of a fishing trawler
to gain valuable field experience for her doctorate, she finds
herself among a rowdy group of wizened fishermen…all of whom
have plenty to teach her about the hardships of the sea, including
the risk of sea fever from lack of sleep and prolonged time in
confined spaces.
Immediately out of place with her naiveté, studiousness, and red
hair (bad luck according to fisherman lore), Siobhán finds her
scientific coldness at odds with the stubborn, familial bond of
the crew members. When their boat gets marooned after hitting
a mysterious object, Siobhán discovers that something sinister
might be happening, but struggles to convince the crew of her
dark interpretation of their situation.
Neasa Hardiman’s first narrative feature is patient, unsettling, and
beautifully shot. She coaxes dynamic performances out of each
of her actors, most recognizably Connie Nielsen as the boat’s
hardened matriarch and Dougray Scott as her wily partner in
crime.
In a vein of psychological terror as visceral and unnerving as
ALIEN, SEA FEVER builds tremendous tension using its narrow
spaces, colorful cast of characters, and eerie atmosphere. It’s
a fresh, haunting take on the creature feature that combines
psychological terror with the far more tangible, fleshy, tentacled
kind we’ve come to expect. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: PLAINSONG [SEE PG 58]
44
U.S. PREMIERE 4K RESTORATION
SON OF THE WHITE MARE
1981 | DIR: Marcell Jankovics | 81 min | Hungary
In 1981, the animated film SON OF THE WHITE MARE
(FEHÉRLÓFIA) burst onto the scene, astounding audiences with
its explosion of color and unparalleled creativity and artistry.
Based on Hungarian myth, it tells the story of three brothers born
to a mythical white mare, tasked with journeying to the Underworld
to save their kingdom from a horde of dragons. A bedtime story
on acid, nothing is as it seems in this intensely original world.
While it has been compared to other giants of animation, such
as BELLADONNA OF SADNESS and FANTASTIC PLANET, this
twisted fairytale has a kaleidoscopic style completely its own,
resplendent with neon-drenched dreamscapes, and mythical
gods and monsters that fluidly shape-shift before our eyes.
Widely unavailable since its original release, Arbelos Films
commissioned a team of over twenty artists to breathe new
life into the animation, restoring the eye-popping colors from
the original camera negative, in a project years in the making.
Director and animation legend Marcell Jankovics supervised the
entire process, and the film is once again ready to take its rightful
place as one of the greatest animated features of all time. (LISA
DREYER)
TEXAS PREMIERE
SWALLOW
2019 | DIR: Carlo Mirabella-Davis | 94 min | USA
Hunter has everything some women dream of: a beautiful home,
a handsome husband, and loving, attentive in-laws. Clad in chic
‘50s housewife attire and living in a mid-century modern mansion
straight from BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS, she’s the picture
of idyllic wifeliness from a bygone era.
Her in-laws coddle her and her husband worships her, especially
once she reveals she is pregnant with their first child. All this
fawning, however, conceals a growing condescension and control
over Hunter’s every move and choice. Everyone wants to keep
Hunter in her place: safe and secure in the stylish home her
husband built for her. As long as she fulfills her wifely duties
— keeps the home clean, a nice dinner on the table, and her
husband’s workday clothes washed and pressed — everything
will be okay.
But as the pressure to be perfect mounts and the loneliness of
her lifestyle creeps in, Hunter finds herself inexplicably drawn to
consuming household objects. It starts innocently enough, but
her experiments escalate, ultimately causing her physical and
emotional destruction. The film purposely avoids explaining each
of Hunter’s choices, instead allowing viewers to put themselves
in her shoes and embrace her charming character with empathy
and patience.
Carlo Mirabella-Davis creates a world that exists separate from
our time, hovering between contemporary and ‘50s-era gender
politics. The initial impression feels antiquated, a reminder of
a past that is blessedly forgotten; but Mirabella-Davis’s subtle,
complex sense of time and place revives and reanimates the
stubbornly resilient cultural baggage.
Haley Bennett shines as a Marilyn Monroe-esque figure, all buxom
curves bound in dainty twin sets with carefully coiffed hair and
a delicate, wispy voice. But like Monroe before her, Hunter drifts
between the world’s expectations of her and her own needs and
lingering psychological damage.
Ultimately, SWALLOW is a gorgeous, fascinating allegory about
autonomy, femininity, family, and trauma told by a master
filmmaker and a thrilling young actress worth watching. (LOGAN
TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: EXAM [SEE PG 56]
U.S. PREMIERE
SYNCHRONIC
2019 | DIR: Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead | 96 min | USA
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead continue to cement their
status as the foremost chroniclers of intelligent genre cinema in
their brilliant follow-up to THE ENDLESS. Anthony Mackie and
Jamie Dornan star as a pair of paramedics who find their world
embroiled in endless tragedy when a new designer drug called
Synchronic starts to infect the streets of New Orleans.
Capturing a new side of New Orleans, a land of twilight and
endless melancholy, Benson and Moorhead create a world that
sits somewhere between the works of Martin Scorsese and Ridley
Scott. The descent into tragedy of those addicted to Synchronic
feels all too real in an age where the opioid crisis is destroying
countless lives. Using genre smarts, the directors bring an
otherworldly angle to the proceedings that keeps the rhythm of
the piece ticking. Blessed with sensitive portrayals from their two
leads, Benson and Moorhead clash genres together to create a
symphony of discord that would have felt crass and inferior in
the hands of less talented directors. Add to the mix a ravishing
score and breathtaking cinematography and SYNCHRONIC is
guaranteed to linger for a long time.
Truly a journey worth taking, SYNCHRONIC feels like the next
natural step in the evolution of the power duo, an expansion of
their idiosyncratic world view without ever losing their razor-
sharp ability to shape the experience of the film. This is a big
screen blast that will leave everyone and everything reeling in its
wake. (EVRIM ERSOY)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
45
 NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF
WOLFBOY
2019 | DIR: Martin Krejčí | 88 min | USA
Martin Krejčí’s directorial debut is the kind of wondrous, life-
affirming accomplishment that audiences wait decades to
experience. Combining his background as a commercial director
with a sense of fantasy embedded deep within Czech cinema,
he constructs a fairytale world that’s enchanting without being
mawkish and streaked with an underlying melancholy.
Paul is thirteen, and very aware that he doesn’t fit in due to his
hypertrichosis (a condition resulting in an abnormal amount of
hair growth over the body). All he wants to do is hide and be left
alone. When an unexpected package from his mother combines
with a failed birthday party with his dad, Paul sets out on an
unusual journey alongside unique characters to places previously
unimagined.
Emotionally astute and sensitively constructed, THE TRUE
ADVENTURES OF WOLFBOY tackles tolerance and acceptance
without being preachy. It captures the magic of childhood
without ever becoming whimsical and — most importantly —
connects the audience with a roster of characters that are hard
to forget. Featuring Jaeden Martell as Paul, John Turturro as a
somewhat devilish fairground owner, and Sophie Giannamore as
the unbelievably mesmerizing Adriana, the film is blessed with
incredible performances from every member of the cast.
From the exquisite hand-drawn chapter cards that accentuate
the journey, to Olivia Dufault’s incredibly crafted script, every
aspect of THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF WOLFBOY feels magical.
Clearly a project of love and dedication, it’s the kind of title that
will capture the imagination of the Fantastic Fest audience like no
other in the line-up. (EVRIM ERSOY)
46
TEXAS PREMIERE
THE VAST OF NIGHT
2019 | DIR: Andrew Patterson | 90 min | USA
Sometime in the 1950s, the sky is turning to dusk in Cayuga,
New Mexico, and the United States is on the cusp of the space
race. Everett (Jake Horowitz) is the local DJ and technical whiz
who helps the high school with its radio gear for recording
sporting events. His friend Fay (Sierra McCormick), a talkative
young student, works as a telephone operator connecting the
townspeople on her switchboard. One quiet evening during a
school basketball game, they begin receiving strange signals over
the telephone lines, which sends both of them down a rabbit hole
of intrigue, trying to figure out just what that odd sound may be.
Director Andrew Patterson’s first feature film is quite the
accomplishment. THE VAST OF NIGHT channels THE TWILIGHT
ZONE; its mystery dissolves into a tasty mesh of strange noises
over a phone line, old timey radio, long lost recordings in a
library, long-take interviews with people who may know what’s
going on, and pitch perfect hard-boiled dialogue. Patterson
establishes Cayuga as an accurate representation of the down-
home town, where doors are never locked, everyone knows
everyone’s business, and a squirrel chewing through the lines
at the high school is big news. That is, until bigger news starts
unfolding for Everett and Kay and their radio listeners, in real
time, unbeknownst to everyone at the basketball game.
Featuring some mind-blowing cinematography and tracking shot
work by M.I. Littin-Menz, his collaboration with Patterson pulls us
into that little black and white TV screen of days past, and then
fills it with both a sense of homeyness and underlying dread. The
dialogue and story from writers James Montague and Craig W.
Sanger capture the intrigue one would get from the classic “walk
and talks” of Aaron Sorkin at his peak.
Frankly, THE VAST OF NIGHT is the whole package. For fans of
classic science fiction, quality stories told well, and the journey
into a fifth dimension, you cannot do better. (NOAH LEE)
WORLD PREMIERE
VFW
2019 | DIR: Joe Begos | 92 min | USA
Like the best assault films, Joe Begos’ latest puts a bunch of
likable characters in a contained space, inserts an element that
puts them in danger, and then sits back while the shit hits the
fan. For VFW, the “likable characters” are faces we all know and
love: Stephen Lang, William Sadler, David Patrick Kelly, George
Wendt, Martin Kove, and Fred Williamson. Friends who served
together in Vietnam, they’ve come together for Fred’s (Stephen
Lang) birthday, and tonight, after the bar closes, they’re taking
him out on the town.
And here’s where the trouble starts: America is in the shitter
thanks to a new drug called Hype that’s turned the country into
a John Carpenter-like war zone. The users are beyond addicts
— they’re punk mutants, subhuman and rabid without their fix.
Naturally, the local drug lord Boz (Travis Hammer) has chosen to
hole up across the street from the VFW. When his stash is stolen
by a woman named Lizard who then takes shelter with our old
crew, Boz sets loose his army of addicted animals to bring back
the Hype by any means necessary.
Begos’ VFW is no foreign war. This is an all-out bloody rampage
in the main characters’ home away from home. This is their turf,
and once Lizard finds haven there, they will defend it and her with
all the skills and training Vietnam gave them. When the blood
starts spraying and the guts start flying, Begos continues to make
good on the promise of ALMOST HUMAN and THE MIND’S EYE
by delivering visceral and exciting action and violence. With VFW,
Begos has a cast worthy of the time needed to make us care
about them. This is an adrenaline-fueled love letter that we all can
embrace. (JAMES EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
WORLD PREMIERE
VHYES
2019 | DIR: Jack Henry Robbins | 72 min | USA
Ralph is a 12-year-old boy who just got a new video camcorder
from his parents and now spends his days recording himself
goofing around with his pal Josh. He also discovers from his Dad
that he can hook it up to the TV to record his favorite late night
shows and the wondrous commercials that air between.
Director Jack Henry Robbins and writer Nunzio Randazzo clearly
have a deep affection for the 1980s, and especially the demented
television shows and their scraggly commercials that permeated
the era’s airwaves. In VHYES, Robbins has assembled a veritable
who’s who to bring to life his demented version of the idiot
box, including notables like his parents Tim Robbins and Susan
Sarandon, Thomas Lennon, Charlyne Yi, Madeline Zima, and Kerri
Kenney.
While visiting the eerily familiar shows of many a Gen Xer’s youth
is one hell of a journey, you’ll also experience a shrewdly woven
insight into a formative week in the psyche of our young hero,
Ralph. If every known media was on a VHS tape in a midwest
Blockbuster in 1987, VHYES would exist on a shelf alongside the
sketches of Tim & Eric, the late night Adult Swim works of Alan
Resnick, and the pop culture send-ups of Vernon Chatman. So
fire up your VCR and get ready to journey back into the magic
airwaves of the past with VHYES! (NOAH LEE)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
47
 U.S. PREMIERE
VIVARIUM
2019 | DIR: Lorcan Finnegan | 98 min | Ireland, Belgium, Denmark
Gemma and Tom live simple, working class lives as an elementary
school teacher and a landscaper, respectively. Unmarried,
childless, and young, they’re nonetheless willing to explore the
idea of suburban life in the Yonder housing complex, especially if
it’s really as affordable and fulfilling as advertised.
They decide to tour of one of the available homes with their
peculiarly proper realtor. Taking in the endless line of identical
green houses with awkward floorplans and a photo of the house
itself on the mantelpiece, Gemma and Tom can immediately
tell this world is not for them. Still, they politely go through the
motions of the tour until their realtor disappears, along with their
ability to leave the development.
What follows is a dizzying, inescapable game of Life, complete
with the requisite checkpoints of homemaking and child rearing.
It’s within these confines that Gemma and Tom must try to forge
a meaningful existence. Can their love for each other survive this
ultimate test of domestic “bliss”?
Director Lorcan Finnegan (WITHOUT NAME) delves deep into
the concept of the American Dream, exploring major questions
about happiness and life’s true purpose. The sharply written
script deftly alternates between painfully funny and haunting. It’s
an uneasy ride through an initially familiar world made all the
more striking through spectacular, uncanny production design in
the vein of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS and BLUE VELVET.
With bold lead performances by the always expressionistic
Imogen Poots and an idiosyncratic Jesse Eisenberg, VIVARIUM is
an epic, unforgettable descent into the hell of living a life devoid
of freedom and choice. (LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: PEOPLING [SEE PG 58]
48
WORLD PREMIERE
THE WAVE
2019 | DIR: Gille Klabin | 87 min | USA
Frank is a bored corporate lawyer who is about to get the biggest
promotion of his life. To celebrate, he lets loose with a night out
on the town with his single friend, Jeff. Many shots into their
night, the guys follow a pair of flirtatious women to a house
party where a persuasive drug dealer convinces Frank to try a
mysterious white powder. Frank blacks out immediately, only to
wake up alone in the house with no memory of the night before
and a lot of unanswered questions. Thus begins a twisted time
travel journey that’s equal parts LOOPER, GROUNDHOG’S DAY,
and DUDE, WHERE’S MY CAR?
The film stars the always-delightful Justin Long, leaving behind
the early hipster charm of the “Apple Guy” for a far more “PC
Guy” brand of white-collar yuppie. Even in a more contained role,
he and costar Donald Faison inject the film with goofy, expressive
humor that keeps things lively even in the most cerebrally
complex plot moments.
Featuring a driving futuristic score, hallucinogenic camerawork,
and the most surreal use of rotoscope animation in modern
cinematic memory, Gille Klabin’s narrative debut heralds an
original new talent with a clear eye for fast-paced action. With
whip-smart dialogue, comically over-the-top characters, and
enough time travel twists to keep the biggest sci-fi fan on the
edge of their seats, THE WAVE is a fresh take on a classic genre
that is guaranteed to simultaneously confound and entertain.
(LOGAN TAYLOR)
PLAYS WITH: POWER [SEE PG 58]
U.S. PREMIERE
THE WHISTLERS
2019 | DIR: Corneliu Porumboiu | 97 min | Romania
You love a good noir? You want twists? Turns? Beautiful femmes
fatales? Epic shootouts? Snitches? Exotic Mediterranean scenic
beauty? Laughs? Intrigue? An epic love story? Opera? Friends,
THE WHISTLERS is the film for you. It blew audiences away this
year at Cannes, and it’s one of the best crime thrillers in recent
memory.
THE WHISTLERS starts with poker-faced, middle-aged cop
Cristi (Vlad Ivanov) coming to the island of Gomera. He’s been
seduced into the trip by Gilda (an incredible Catrinel Marlon) to
help wealthy criminal Zsolt escape from prison. Knowing Cristi’s
corrupt, his superiors have tapped his phone, forcing him to learn
the language of the island’s criminal underground: silbo whistling.
Created to communicate without discovery, the whistles transmit
simple phrases and sentences over distance, indistinguishable
from bird song.
THE WHISTLERS keeps layering the narrative by throwing a new
twist or turn at the audience every ten minutes, and you might
have some trouble keeping up. The film’s narrative becomes
almost comically dense, but you’ll recognize these tropes if
you’ve seen Hollywood noir classics like THE MALTESE FALCON
and CRISS CROSS. Cristi is in love with Gilda and desperate for
the wealth that will provide for a better life. His partners in crime
are only interested in getting out alive with as much cash as
possible, and Cristi’s superiors want him caught, dead or both.
Gilda? She’s the femme fatale so her motives are naturally known
only to her. If all this backstabbing gets confusing, all you really
need to know is that no one can be trusted. While your head may
be spinning, you’ll also be smiling as the film breezes by. (JAMES
EMANUEL SHAPIRO)
TEXAS PREMIERE
WHY DON’T YOU JUST DIE!
2019 | DIR: Kirill Sokolov | 100 min | Russia
Matvei is a normal, loving boyfriend. So when his girlfriend Olya
asks him to kill her father, explaining that he assaulted her when
she was a young teen, Matvei does what anyone would do: he
shows up at Olya’s parents’ apartment with a hammer, ready
to do the deed. But Olya left out some key details, like the fact
that her father Andrei is a cop, and that Matvei has unwittingly
brought a hammer to a gunfight. Plus Andrei is not just any cop:
he’s basically the Russian Vic Mackey, with a long string of dirty
dealings, any one of which could have come back to bite him in
the ass. So after their initial brawl, the kid ends up handcuffed to
the pipes in the shower while Andrei tries to figure out who the
hell he is, and why he’s come to kill him.
Writer/director Kirill Sokolov’s first feature film is an impressive
display of technical craftsmanship, solid stunt work, and an ample
amount of blood. Sokolov utilizes exaggerated close-ups, snap
zooms, and slick camera moves to pull you in and ratchet up the
tension. The sound design is fantastic, and the stomach-turning
sound effects sell the pain of broken bones, cracking skulls,
bodies flying into walls, and so much more. The fights are wild,
chaotic, and occasionally seem to defy the laws of physics. This
is a raucous, roller-coaster ride of a film, filled with crazy action
from the first frame to the blood-soaked conclusion. (LUKE
MULLEN)
FANTASTIC
FEST 2019
49
 WORLD PREMIERE
WRINKLES THE CLOWN
2019 | DIR: Michael Beach Nichols | 78 min | USA
Back in 2014, a video appeared on the Internet and took it by
storm. This terrifying, blurry CCTV footage shows a young girl
sleeping in her bed when the storage drawer under it begins to
open. As the choppy footage continues, we see crawling out the
freakiest clown you could imagine. Dressed in a red polka dot
outfit, with dark gloves and a wrinkly, white, semi balding mask
with deep, dark holes where eyes should be, the figure stands
and stares at the girl, then proceeds to turn straight towards the
camera, grasp it, and shut it off.
Latching onto the fear center of parents everywhere, this footage
and other unsettling videos became a viral sensation, garnering
jokes from late night talk hosts, an interview on a local NBC
station, and quickly becoming a real-life urban legend. Soon
after, people in Naples, Florida were able to hire — via Craigslist
and from stickers around town — this clown, now known as
Wrinkles, to terrify their children into behaving. A call to his
gravelly voicemail, perhaps images of Wrinkles, or even just the
knowledge of his existence are sometimes enough to threaten
kids onto the path of righteousness.
Director Michael Beach Nichols, who previously scared audiences
with his documentary on the attempted takeover of a small
town by white supremacists in WELCOME TO LEITH, returns
for another fascinating deep dive into the cultural phenomena
of coulrophobia, or fear of clowns. Nichols doesn’t just follow
and talk to Wrinkles himself, but excavates the history of clowns
in horror media and how the appearance of Wrinkles has acted
as a catalyst for a widespread fear of clowns in the public
consciousness, prompting copycats to pop up in other cities
throughout the United States.
WRINKLES THE CLOWN is a fascinating look at one man’s
development into his own legend and much, much more. If you
suffer from coulrophobia, WRINKLES isn’t going to help, but
make sure you watch it anyway, or you may find a clown hiding in
your closet at night, ready to pounce! (NOAH LEE)
50
WORLD PREMIERE
WYRM
2019 | DIR: Christopher Winterbauer | 106 min | USA
The Whitners are a strange family dealing with the aftermath
of the death of their oldest son, Dylan. Mrs. Whitner is off on
a thousand-mile trail trek, Mr. Whitner spends most of his time
at work or in the bathroom, and twins Myrcella and Wyrm are
basically being raised by their Uncle Chet. Myrcella and Wyrm
also happen to be two of the last kids in their grade to pass their
level one sexuality requirement: a school-mandated program
enforced by electronic collars that detach when the wearer kisses
someone. But when Wyrm hears Myrcella has just made out
with the foreign exchange kid, it leaves him as the only one still
waiting to pop his collar. And because of the No Child Left Alone
program, if he doesn’t pop it soon he won’t be able to move on
to the next grade — not to mention the fact that the damn collar
will still be on. Running out of time and frustrated with his sister’s
snotty sense of superiority and self-righteousness, Wyrm tries
everything he can think of to find someone to kiss, move on, and
grow up.
Writer/director Christopher Winterbauer has crafted a truly
impressive debut feature. Working from his Sundance-selected
short of the same name, Winterbauer, along with badass
production designer Melanie Jones, has built an incredibly
detailed, occasionally lo-fi, analog-heavy world reminiscent of
an alternative 1990s. It’s recognizable and easily relatable, but
just slightly foreign in a way that immediately pulls you in and
piques your curiosity. The performances, particularly from Azure
Brandi as Myrcella and Theo Taplitz in the title role, are confident
and assured and really sell the awkwardness and insecurity of
adolescence. It sounds a little trite to call it a coming-of-age
story, and it’s certainly on a different wavelength than most
movies with that theme. It’s an odd mix of family drama, sci-fi, and
super-dry dark comedy — like the strange, slickly-made lovechild
of Yorgos Lanthimos and Todd Solondz. WYRM is funny and sad,
heartbreaking and heartwarming, a fascinating and wholly unique
discovery. (LUKE MULLEN)
TEXAS PREMIERE SPECIAL EVENT

YOU DON’T NOMI SCRIPTS GONE WILD: SHOWGIRLS

2019 | DIR: Jeffrey McHale | 94 min | USA 09/21/19 • Highball

In a filmography that includes such widely loved and studied Join Scripts Gone Wild, Los Angeles’ best kept secret, for their
mainstream films as ROBOCOP, TOTAL RECALL, and STARSHIP second year of Fantastic Fest shenanigans. After last year’s
TROOPERS, Paul Verhoeven’s 1995 film SHOWGIRLS — the first disastrous reading of TREMORS — you had to be there — we
and only NC-17 movie to get a wide release in the US — stands decided... sure, why not again? And they’re tackling something
as one of his most confusing, often maligned, and misunderstood fairly epic: Paul Verhoeven’s under-appreciated 1995 classic,
(if you’re to believe some of the pundits in YOU DON’T NOMI). SHOWGIRLS. Apart from breaking new Scripts Gone Wild ground
Exploring the new life it has found years after its Razzies sweep by doing it with an ALL-FEMALE CAST, they’re also stepping up
(where Verhoeven was the first person ever to accept a Razzie their game with new multimedia, on stage sound effects, and a
award in person), YOU DON’T NOMI is a striking rumination on 90-minute-or-less runtime that could either be a thing of beauty
a movie and a career that has come to mean many things to or the stuff of nightmares. So join some insanely awesome ladies
different people. (they’ll be announced leading up to the reading) as they play a
drinking game where the screenwriter and the audience dictate
There are no talking heads in YOU DON’T NOMI. Instead, various pretty much everything that happens, for better or worse!
experts and critics — from IT DOESN’T SUCK: SHOWGIRLS
author Adam Nayman, to film critic Barbara Shulgasser who
dismisses the film as “garbage by a great director” — present the
gamut of takes on the film and its continued legacy, while writer/
director/editor Jeffrey McHale expertly weaves together clips of
SHOWGIRLS and Verhoeven’s other work. Exploring the film’s
evolving status in the zeitgeist, McHale touches on its surprising
and unintended impact, like the success of April Kidwell who has
worked through past trauma by portraying Elizabeth Berkley in
BAYSIDE! THE MUSICAL! and SHOWGIRLS! THE MUSICAL!

The result is a sometimes dreamlike and always riveting journey

through the themes and motifs that have shaped Verhoeven’s
work and birthed the perverse and audacious mystery that is
SHOWGIRLS. (BRIAN KELLEY)

CO-PRESENTED BY

FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

51
 FANTASTIC SHORTS
BASE CAMP
2019 • DIR: Anthony Collamati • 21 min • USA
A woman’s discovery of a frozen mountain climber on the front lawn of her
suburban home precedes a persistent nocturnal manifestation whose surreal
mystery inspires her towards a whimsical but necessary resolve.

BOLÉRO
2019 • DIR: Sarah Gross • 19 min • USA
In a dystopian future where telepaths are deployed at the service of a militant
regime, a mute girl takes revenge on her father’s killer while simultaneously helping
the resistance.

THE COLOUR OF YOUR LIPS

2018 • DIR: Annick Blanc • 18 min • Canada
Resurfacing into a world where the air has suddenly become unbreathable, a scuba
diver sets out into an eerie apocalypse.

SNOWFLAKES
2019 • DIR: Faye Jackson • 15 min • United Kingdom
As two women are forcibly deported from the United Kingdom, they discover that
the experimental drug meant to pacify them has a unique and spectacularly deadly
side effect when injected into their oppressors.

TWO BODIES ON A BEACH

2019 • DIR: Anna Paavilaine • 20 min • Finland
Two distinct archetypes of female representation traverse a series of striking
cinematic spaces, all the while negotiating who’s to blame for their lack of agency
within this male-driven collective imagination.

YOUR LAST DAY ON EARTH

2019 • DIR: Marc Martínez Jordán • 13 min • Spain
Barreling at a breakneck pace as it ricochets from high-concept comedy to
poignant sentiment, a grief-stricken man takes a desperate risk during a spell of
recreational time travel.

Please see website or webapp for icon assignments for the shorts programs.
52
SHORTS FUSE
PRESENTED BY STAGE 13

3 DAYS
2019 • DIR: Julie Sharbutt • 12 min • USA
Three women keep a grip on each other’s nerves as encroaching sounds outside
their tent inflame their fearful anxieties and eventually bring to light a dreadful
revelation.

BAD HAIR
2019 • DIR: Oskar Lehemaa • 15 min • Estonia
Proceeding as if David Cronenberg shot THE PEANUT BUTTER SOLUTION (also
playing at this year’s Fantastic Fest), prepare to squirm, cringe, and shriek in dis-
comfort as a hair growth formula overdelivers.

THE DEVIL’S HARMONY

2019 • DIR: Dylan Holmes Williams • 14 min • United Kingdom
A cappella music’s inherent eeriness is judiciously amplified in this comedic mu-
sical creepshow about the leader of a high-school choir wreaking vengeance on
bullies with her supernatural harmonies.

THE HAUNTED SWORDSMAN

2019 • DIR: Kevin McTurk • 16 min • USA
The latest in acclaimed puppeteer Kevin McTurk’s SPIRIT CABINET series follows a
ronin samurai (Jason Scott Lee) on a supernatural quest for vengeance with only a
severed head (James Hong) as his guide.

MAGGIE MAY
2018 • DIR: Mia’kate Russell • 14 min • Australia
After losing their mother, Sam attempts to reconnect with her estranged sister
Maggie, but when a stomach-churning mishap calls for Maggie to rise to the occa-
sion, shocking and sinister apathy ensues.

PLACE
2019 • DIR: Jason Gudasz • 11 min • USA, Italy
An average family moves into a note-perfect parody of high-concept hauntings.

SAILOR
2019 • DIR: Jacob Wiebe • 28 min • Canada
Prolific character actor Julian Richings (SUPERNATURAL; THE WITCH) is pitted
against an enigmatic murderer during a whispery and labyrinthine interrogation in
FANTASTIC

this chilling and eldritch chamber horror.

FEST 2019

Please see website or webapp for icon assignments for the shorts programs.
53
 SHORTS WITH LEGS

MEDIUM RARE
BUBBLE 2018 • DIR: Luca Cioci • 5 min • USA, Italy
2018 • DIR: Vicente Manzano • 15 min • USA
Fragments of domestic scenarios are lyri-
A young woman discovers that when life’s
cally animated through stop-motion, before
monotony has you hemmed in, happiness
becoming increasingly surreal as recurrent
is taking your own advice and stepping
textures and iconography manifest in dis-
outside your bubble.
tinct permutations.

BUNNY SIN ULTRA

2019 • DIR: Hunter Ray Barker & Tucker Tripp 2019 • DIR: Amanda Kramer • 8 min • USA
• 13 min • USA The deadpan employees of an industrial
A magnificent rhapsodic ode to the film- environment that perpetually manufactures
maker’s mother, the legendary transgen- dead women are momentarily perturbed
dered tap-dancing cult diva Sandie “The when a corpse suddenly springs into a
Goddess Bunny” Crisp, that will send your dance. Sublime surrealism courtesy of LA-
heart straight into orbit. DYWORLD’s Amanda Kramer.

STORIES FLOATING
FARCE
2019 • DIR: Robin Jensen • 11 min • Norway ON THE WIND
2018 • DIR: Nao Yoshigai • 9 min • Japan
Romance doesn’t get much more perverse
One of Japan’s most promising new film-
or deranged than the gory mayhem that
makers masterfully whistles her camera
transpires throughout this absurdist mixed
through a small Japanese coastal town sin-
media animation as it unravels a riotous tale
uously trailing after a young cyclist and the
of courtly love and meat grinders.
people, animals, and entities she encounters.

GOD’S NIGHTMARES VALERIO’S DAY OUT

2019 • DIR: Daniel Cockburn • 5 min • Cana- 2019 • DIR: Michael Arcos • 9 min • Colombia
da, United Kingdom A sedated young jaguar dispassionately
A meditative collage of iconic and esoteric ruminates over his latest victims as well as
movie clips are artfully set to the measured the object of his affection in this mesmeriz-
but troubled reflections of the man upstairs. ing video diary.

IMBUED LIFE
2019 • DIR: Ivana Bosnjak & Thomas Johnson
• 12 min • Croatia
A taxidermist carefully restores and returns
deceased animals to their natural habitat.
Before doing so she removes a roll of film
from their heads, and the developed images
only increase her desire to connect more
fully with the environs they represent.

Please see website or webapp for icon assignments for the shorts programs.
54
MÉXICO FANTÁSTICO
MEXICAN SHORT FILM SIDEBAR

9:40
2018 • DIR: Jorge Morrell • 12 min • Mexico
Kristyan Ferrer (SIN NOMBRE; 600 MILES) stars as one of a group of passengers
whose bus trip goes hauntingly off the rails.

COUSINS
2018 • DIR: Federico Gutiérrez Obeso • 10 min • Mexico
A psychedelic and animated adventure offers a fresh take on the age-old
questions “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?”

IN LUCIA’S SKIN
2018 • DIR: Mayra Hermosillo & Ángel De Guillermo • 13 min • Mexico
Struggling to keep her dark past a secret from her daughter, Lucia finds herself
forced to face her trauma and negotiate a means of managing it in order to move
forward; exquisite performances, sensitively captured.

THE ORIGINAL
2018 • DIR: Michelle Garza Cervera • 13 min • United Kingdom
The decision to go through with an experimental medical procedure yields every-
thing Alana could hope for, but not without leaving her with a disturbing ethical
dilemma in this strikingly photographed sci-fi drama.

SCULPTED
2017 • DIR: Christian Antonio Hernández Olivares • 13 min • Mexico
An elderly woman’s clay creation comes to life, and in visits to her
in the nursing home, imbues her world with mystery and transfor-
mation.

THE WANDERING WITCH

2018 • DIR: Sofia Carrillo • 16 min • Mexico
Soaked in entrancing atmosphere as it weaves a small town wedding
with the dark designs of feuding covens, Sofia Carrillo (CERULIA) returns
to Fantastic Fest with her first live-action short, and the results are both
haunting and beautiful.

WHAT DO DRAGONS SEE IN A GIRL LIKE

ME?
2018 • DIR: Gerard Mates • 15 min • Mexico
A princess discovers that the picture perfect world outside her castle tower isn’t
FANTASTIC

really so perfect after all.

FEST 2019

Please see website or webapp for icon assignments for the shorts programs.
55
 SHORTS PAIRED WITH FEATURES
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO
KNOW ABOUT SUDDEN BIRTH*
BATHROOM TROLL (*BUT WERE AFRAID TO ASK)
2018 • DIR: Aaron Immediato • 17 min • USA
2019 • DIR: Scott Calonico • 11 min • United
When a clique of mean girls bully Cassie Kingdom, Germany, USA
for not “looking like a girl,” they awaken a The making of a shocking and accidentally hilarious
dangerous rage that her zealous mother educational film from the 1960s is exhaustively re-
forces her to channel towards ritualistic searched for your incredulous pleasure. Fair warning:
revenge. the film does include the miracle of birth in all its vivid
gory — um, I mean glory.

EXAM
2019 • DIR: Sonia K. Hadad • 15 min • Iran
BUTT FANTASIA Anchored by an extraordinary lead
2019 • DIR: Mohit Jaswal • 6 min • USA
performance, a teenage girl is reluctantly
Hold onto your butts, ‘cause you’re about to
saddled with serious contraband ahead
see a lot of butts.
of an important exam in this disquieting
understated thriller.

FATALE COLLECTIVE: BLEED

DIDDIE WA DIDDIE
2019 • DIR: In order of segments: Lola Blanc,
2019 • DIR: Joshua Erkman • 8 min • USA
Francesca Maldonado, Danin Jacquay, Linda Chen,
A close encounter inspires an estranged Natasha Halevi, Megan Rosati • 13 min • USA
couple’s reunion, but as this freaky and In this brisk six-shooter anthology, an ensemble of
funny gross-out demonstrates, relationships women share entertainingly twisted tales that span
remain a messy business no matter what disturbing subjects and sick styles through decidedly
planet you’re from. feminist lenses.

DING-DONG
2019 • DIR: Suki-Rose • 7 min • USA FORT IRWIN
2019 • DIR: Quinn Else • 11 min • USA
An inane chat is interrupted with a sudden
To confront his past trauma, an amputee
outburst of violence, followed by an insistent
veteran participates in a vivid and visceral
invitation for a reprisal in this uncanny
military reenactment.
mobius short.

DOCKING FURNITURE
2019 • DIR: Trevor Anderson • 4 min • 2019 • DIR: Anthony Pitsilos • 6 min • USA
Canada A young man takes accepting people as
Somewhere in space, this could all be they are to a bit of an extreme, but what can
happening right now. it hurt to stay for a cup of tea?

Please see website or webapp for icon assignments for the shorts programs.
56
 GIRL IN THE
HALLWAY
2019 • DIR: Valerie Barnhart • 11 min • LOVE IT
Canada 2019 • DIR: Pam Covington • 3 min • USA
Expressive chiaroscuro animation Two social influencers go on an Insta-spree
evocatively captures the unsettling that turns from #blessed to #hell after one
circumstances surrounding a child’s gram too many.
disappearance and a man’s remorse towards
his own silence and inaction.

GRIEF
2019 • DIR: Brock Bodell & Daniel Perry • 14 MAKR
min • USA 2019 • DIR: Hana Kazim • 15 min • UAE
Parents struggling to cope after the horrific A bereaved holy man who has lost his faith
death of their son are visited by a stranger prepares for a sham exorcism in order to
whose motives are unclear, all of which con a man who claims his wife is possessed
compounds the understandable mix of fear, by a Djinn, and encounters a frightening
grief, and blame that permeates every move phenomena he’s not prepared for.
they make.

MOMMY’S PICKLES
2019 • DIR: Vadim Dozmorov • 13 min •
IN FULL BLOOM Belarus
2019 • DIR: Maegan Houang • 11 min • USA
The contemporary political milieu of Belarus
The surreal manifestation of a black hole
are slyly commented upon as this short
within her home impels an agoraphobic
slides from comedy into horror, escalating
widow to make a difficult choice.
a familiar domestic scenario wherein a boy-
friend meets his in-law to an alarming end.

NIGHT OF THE
IN SOUND, WE LIVE FLUFFET
FOREVER 2018 • DIR: Raymond Wallace • 8 min • USA
2019 • DIR: Joshua Giuliano • 12 min • USA Camp performances and bargain-bin
Image and sound brilliantly converge aesthetics brim with endearing enthusiasm
from distinct temporalities in this taut and throughout this rambunctious cautionary
terrifying experimental slasher. nightmare that warns against sticking your
hand up any old puppet’s butt.

NOBODY LIKES YOU

JEREMIAH AS MUCH AS I DO
2019 • DIR: Kenya Gillespie • 10 min • USA 2019 • DIR: Jerzy Rose • 15 min • USA,
A high-school football player is stalked France
by a shape, its ominous presence pushing After a night of revelry in Paris, an American
him towards a difficult but necessary couple awakens to a nagging worry that
confrontation. festers into awkward friction and nuanced
character-driven comedy.

SHORTS PAIRED WITH FEATURES

FANTASTIC
FEST 2019

Please see website or webapp for icon assignments for the shorts programs.
57
 SHORTS
PAIRED WITH
FEATURES

PEOPLING SPICE FRONTIER

2019 • DIR: Jalil Sadool & Adam Meyer • 9
2019 • DIR: Lucas Amann • 9 min • USA
min • USA
Kimmy Robertson (TWIN PEAKS) plays
A hapless interstellar chef and his
possessive matriarch to her adult son who
exceedingly capable cyborg companion
accidentally creates a doppelganger from
explore a derelict space station to recover
his own jizm. A deranged and deadly do-
flavors not tasted since the destruction of
mestic triangle ensues.
Earth.

PLAINSONG
2019 • DIR: Alexis Fortier Gauthier • 18 min
• Canada THIRST TRAP
2019 • DIR: Steve Flavin • 4 min • USA
Three friends’ vacation by the sea is inter-
A witty “motion selfie” about a thirsty
rupted by a spellbinding siren song thats
creature of the night. Vamps like us, baby
obscure intent eventually reveals itself to be
we were born to swipe.
decidedly more monstrous than any of them
could have anticipated.

TRANSMISSIONS OF
POWER
2019 • DIR: Chris Foito • 12 min • USA UNWANTED PASTS
2019 • DIR: Prabda Yoon • 24 min • Thailand
A mother tries to reconnect with her son
A satellite technician’s enthusiasm towards
across memories, missed calls, modern
her extraordinary discovery is not shared by
distractions, and the distance of neglected
her bureaucratic superiors in this pointed
relationships.
and patient socio-political critique.

WAKEY WAKEY
THE PROCEDURE 2 2019 • DIR: Mary Dauterman • 3 min • USA
2019 • DIR: Calvin Lee Reeder • 3 min • USA
An amusingly idiosyncratic surrealist
A man is again kidnapped and once more
comedy about how some bad dreams are
forced to undergo a disturbing experiment.
hard to shake, and how their paranoid vibes
Same shit, different butt, still funny.
can motivate an impulsive mistake.

SHUCKY DARN WATER HORSE

2019 • DIR: Katie Graham & Andrew 2019 • DIR: Sarah Wisner & Sean Temple • 8
Matthews • 11 min • USA min • USA
It’s the end of the world, and this Texas An abandoned canoe interrupts a family’s
pie-eating champion has the best laid plan, idyllic riverside retreat, swiftly splintering
but you’re darn tootin’ that it’s gonna go and spiraling them into an oblique, dread-
ridiculously awry. laced nightmare.

Please see website or webapp for icon assignments for the shorts programs.
58