FANTASTIC FEST
Fantastic Fest 2011: Final Secret Screening of 'Paranormal Activity 3'
Paranormal Activity 3 was shown as the last Fantastic Fest midnight secret screening. It was presented by co-directors Henry Joost, Ariel Schulman, and star Katie Featherstone as an unfinished film. The audience was told the sound was not finished. However, judging by the trailer for the film released earlier in the week and how little footage in that trailer was actually seen in the version of the film we saw last night, one can't help but wonder if more work is to be done before its October 21st release. Either scenes will be put back in for paying audiences to see or Paramount purposefully released a trailer showing as little
› Posted on September 29 in Fantastic Fest 11, Opinions, Review | 11 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011: Adam Wingard's Horror Thriller 'You're Next'
Every sub-genre of film, every specific type of story that falls into a much broader category, has to have itself shaken up every once in a while. A movie comes along that follows the tropes, makes it evident where its heart lies, but its mind offers something fresher, more inventive, and an absolute blast. You can take the Adam Wingard-directed You're Next as one of these sub-genre breakers. It looks, acts, and sounds like a home invasion movie, and it really is. But once you watch it, you will realize the level it's working truly at, the self-awareness that Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett are playing around with.
› Posted on September 28 in Fantastic Fest 11, Opinions, Review | 3 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011 Audio Reviews: 'Take Shelter' & Von Trier's 'Melancholia'
Hello again folks! Tim from The Golden Briefcase with a few more audio reviews from Fantastic Fest 2011 in Austin. The last few days have been busy for us but we wanted to bring you some reviews for two films that we feel are thematically linked and deal with similar subject matter. The first is the Michael Shannon film Take Shelter in which Shannon's character has strange dreams of the apocalypse and an extreme paranoia about the safety of his family. The second one we're reviewing is Lars von Trier's Melancholia, a film also dealing with the potential end of the world and the depression of Kirsten Dunst's character.
› Posted on September 28 in Discuss, Fantastic Fest 11, Review | 3 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011 Awards: 'A Boy And His Samurai' & 'You're Next'
It's already over? Fantastic Fest 2011, held in Austin, TX at the Alamo Drafthouse, is coming to a close in the next few days. To wrap-up the fest, they've announced this year's Fantastic Fest Awards, ranging from Audience favorites including Adam Wingard's highly buzzed about You're Next and Yoshihiro Nakamura's A Boy And His Samurai, as well as jury prizes for just about everything, from AMD & Dell's "Next Wave" Spotlight to Horror and Fantasy prizes as well. There are well over 100 films playing here, mostly obscure, foreign titles, or genre films, but these awards should be a guide for what to keep an eye on from this fest.
› Posted on September 27 in Fantastic Fest 11, Indies, Movie News | Comments Closed
Fantastic Fest 2011: Jeff Nichols' 'Take Shelter' with Michael Shannon
Take Shelter is the scariest film of the year. Don't let that statement mislead you, though. While most are being terrified by ghosts or natural occurrences like global epidemics, Take Shelter hits your scare senses two-fold. At first a riveting story about the possible end of the world, it also examines how one person can believe they are losing their mind and the lengths with which they'll go to prove to themselves that they are completely sane. Aided by a best-of-the-year performance from Michael Shannon, Take Shelter grips you from the beginning and slowly jostles in your brain, unnerving you with its imagery and tonal beauty even
› Posted on September 26 in Fantastic Fest 11, Opinions, Review | 10 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011: Don Coscarelli Previews 'John Dies at the End'
Are you ready to taste the new Soy Sauce? Last night at Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX, just before a showing of Penumbra, filmmaker Don Coscarelli (of Phantasm, The Beastmaster, Survival Quest, Bubba Ho-Tep) introduced an exclusive first look clip and early look at the teaser trailer for John Dies at the End, his crazy new horror film that he already shot late last year. He's still editing and finishing, but as a first look it was quite wild, and Soy Sauce is definitely a key component. Paul Giamatti, Clancy Brown and Doug Jones all co-star in the film, which I could describe as a drug-induced, throwback horror, mind-trip thriller.
› Posted on September 26 in Fantastic Fest 11, Feat, Hype, Opinions | 5 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011 Audio Reviews: 'Kevin' & Adam Wingard's 'You're Next'
Hello again! Tim from The Golden Briefcase with your Fantastic Fest 2011 Day 3 audio reviews! We saw quite a few great films but we primarily wanted to bring you word on We Need to Talk About Kevin and Adam Wingard's You're Next. The former is the new film from Lynne Ramsay about Tilda Swinton & John C. Riley's born-evil son Kevin, played by Ezra Miller. You're Next is the new film from the team behind last year's Fantastic Fest champion, A Horrible Way to Die, and puts an awesome spin on the home invasion horror sub-genre. Both films were very highly anticipated by everyone at the fest and I think it's safe to say
› Posted on September 25 in Discuss, Fantastic Fest 11, Review | 2 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011: Alexandre Bustillo/Julien Maury's Horror 'Livid'
It's always exciting to see a fresh take on something you've witnessed before, when a filmmaker—or in Livid's case, filmmakers —toys with mythology, concocts a clever way of expressing that vision, and scares you senseless with what they've crafted. For Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, that fresh take on an old concept was done near flawlessly with the 2007 home invasion movie À l'intérieur (Inside). With Livid, they do it again, but the great thing about this is you don't even know going in what old clothes they're taking out of the wardrobe to dust off and make presentable again. Nor will I be revealing what that idea is.
› Posted on September 25 in Fantastic Fest 11, Opinions, Review | 6 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011: Julian Gilbey's Thriller 'A Lonely Place to Die'
A group of mountaineering friends come across an awful discovery, a young girl buried in the ground with only bottled water and a breathing tube for air, high up in the Scottish Highlands. As human sympathy naturally kicks in, they take the girl with them hoping to get her safe off the mountain. However her captors soon return, and a chase begins. This simple premise is what sets up Julian Gilbey's A Lonely Place to Die, a taut and engaging idea that sadly ends up creating too many forks in its own road. The idea, the intensity, of having to traverse a mountainous area with a little girl in tow would be thrilling enough.
› Posted on September 24 in Fantastic Fest 11, Opinions, Review | 1 Comment
Fantastic Fest 2011 Audio Reviews: Danish 'Clown' & French Horror 'Livid'
Hey everyone! Tim from The Golden Briefcase back for Day 2 updates from Fantastic Fest 2011! Among today’s films we had the distinct pleasure of checking out two, one of which was a very pleasant surprise. We saw Clown (aka Klovn: The Movie), a comedy from Denmark starring stand-up comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen that put awkward situations to the extreme and brought some of the best laughs I've had. We also got to see the follow-up film from the directors of French horror Inside, Julien Maury & Alexandre Bustillo, titled Livid (aka Livide). The film ended up being quite divisive with many viewers.
› Posted on September 24 in Discuss, Fantastic Fest 11, Review | 2 Comments
Fantastic Fest 2011 Audio Reviews: 'Sleepless Night' & 'Human Centipede 2'
Hey it's Tim from The Golden Briefcase, here to drop off the first few audio reviews from Fantastic Fest 2011 in Austin, TX. The fest is well underway and Jeremy and myself are already hitting the festival with guns blazing. Two of the films we were looking forward to were Frédéric Jardin's French thriller Sleepless Night and Tom Six's controversial sequel The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence), the latter being the subject of Jeremy's morbid curiosity. The opening night, Thursday, showed both of these flicks and we were eager to give everyone at home a taste of what we thought! Listen to quick audio reviews with guests.
› Posted on September 23 in Discuss, Fantastic Fest 11, Review | Comments Closed
Fantastic Fest 2011: Tom Six's 'Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence)'
This is going to be a truncated review for The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) to kick off our Fantastic Fest coverage. It's not because there's nothing that can be said about the follow-up to one of the more talked about horror films of recent memory. It's because this sequel neither needs nor deserves 1000 words analyzing what it is, what it has to say, and how it's all executed. Tom Six, the Dutch returning writer/director, didn't feel like he shocked moviegoers enough with the 2009 film. The idea of a mad scientist surgically connecting three people ass-to-mouth-to-ass-to-mouth apparently didn't go far enough.
› Posted on September 23 in Fantastic Fest 11, Opinions, Review | 14 Comments
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