Fantastic Fest 2008

Some people will go to the greatest lengths in the name of romance. This musical short was nominated for a 2005 Academy Award! Appearing as part of the SHORT FILMS OF NACHO VIGALONDO program. CLICK HERE for details.

Brief Summary: James Tresswick and Mark Vincent are victims of a brutal bully named Gary Parker who has maltreated both boys, marking their bodies and spoiling their young lives. In their last year of high school, James and Mark find a way to stop being victims. They're going to kill Gary... Full Description: High-Schoolers James Tresswick and Mark Vincent were mercilessly bullied throughout childhood by their nemesis Gary Parker. The torment only ended when Gary was hauled off to prison five years ago. Now back on the streets, he is once again beginning to make their lives a living hell. Their outlook is dim until Mark happens to witness a murder burying his victim deep in the nearby woods. The duo crafts what should be a perfect plan: blackmail the killer in to killing again, this time their mortal enemy Gary Parker. This perfect plan, however, doesn't work out exactly as envisioned, and the boys find themselves in a worse predicament than imaginable. ACOLYTES is a perfect accompaniment to our NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD Aussie Retrospective. Director Jon Hewitt shows that he’s a worthy heir to the Ozsploitation throne, delivering a tight knuckle-biter thriller with enough brutal violence to make the likes of Brian Trenchard-Smith stand up and cheer. The film is so much more than just a horror/thriller, though. Hewitt takes time to develop a fully-developed visual world. The first act establishes an idyllic tableau with rich detail and beautiful cinematography. These are innocent kids in a tranquil town living their lives with only childhood concerns. That is, of course, until they toy around with a murderer hell-bent on obliterating their serenity into a chaos of fear and brutality. (Tim League) Director Jon Hewitt will be live in person to introduce the film and answer questions afterwards. We also expect Jon to rock not only the Ozsploitation category of Fantastic Feud but also the subsequent Karaoke microphone.

Brief Summary: A squadron of trained gunmen lay siege to a supermarket at closing time. What first appears to be a robbery soon takes on other worldly dimensions. Full Description: It's the end of yet another night at Hastings Supermarket, an idyllic family grocery store in Buck Lake, Arizona. But the normal closing-time monotony is broken when a group of masked and armed-to-the-teeth militants invade the store, immediately killing several of the employees and shoppers and holding the rest hostage. Though the hostage-takers at first appear to be robbers or terrorists, they reveal themselves to be a cadre of rogue scientists that have discovered and tracked an alien infestation to THIS STORE on THIS NIGHT, and they are determined to find out which of the survivors are extraterrestrials and end the invasion at any cost. ALIEN RAIDERS is a throwback to what we consider the golden age of creature features, the 1980's. This one falls somewhere between the seriousness level of THE THING or TREMORS. Nostalgic without being stale, ALIEN RAIDERS draws strong performances from a young ensemble cast composed of mostly working character actors that you've seen in a million small parts. You might recognize the monster hunting team: Carlos Bernard from his recurring role as Tony Almeida on "24" and Matthew St. Patrick who played Keith Charles on SIX FEET UNDER. The plot explores what happens when you have one of those MEN IN BLACK jobs that you can't really explain to people. When you start invading public spaces to blow shit up, the bystanders naturally think that you're the bad guy, and there's not a lot you can do to convince them otherwise. So you don't bother, and you do your job and damn the consequences. But sometimes those bystanders can b e pretty tough and wily, and some of them ARE the monsters. But which? For a modern alien creature movie, the filmmakers refreshingly rely on practical effects for the punctuations of gore. The carnage happens in the blink of an eye by a monster that you only see in glimpses. This serves to heighten the tension, as you experience the uncertainty of the hostages, who aren't quite sure what just happened, but it's very very bad. You can see them weighing in their minds the present danger of these masked terrorists who are "testing/torturing" them against the mysterious glimpses of a threat that they don't understand. (Karrie League) Director Ben Rock will be live in person to present the film. Check out the trailer here .

Brief Summary: Hildur, a high-society socialite, is left bankrupt and alone after her corrupt husband is whisked off to prison. With no other prospects, she gets a job selling role-playing games and accessories at Astropia, the town's geek Meccas. Full Description: Leave it to Iceland to deliver a charming film in which LARPing could possible save all humanity. If in an alternate universe, Edgar Wright had an Icelandic brother making his own SPACED feature for the fanboy and comic book culture, the ASTROPIA (Dorks and Damsels) is at that film and Gunnar B. Gudmundsson is that brother. A politically incorrect satire that will make you think of Monty Python in THE OFFICE, and manna from heaven for those who have ever LARPed, been to Comic-Con, played a role playing game, bought a comic book or rented CUJO to a kid under 5, this hilarious low budget Indie should find a welcome home in Austin, with audiences that can totally relate to many of the characters in the film. While mainstream media tries to stigmatize fanboys and comic culture, ASTROPIA gives nerds their mojo in a big way. The beautiful thing here is you don't have to know a single dam thing about the culture; its a fully accessible story to all, but with some succulent, juicy bones thrown to the geek-dogs. The beginning of ASTROPIA feels very much like something ripped off the latest U.S. gossip mags, with a self-centered glamor girl hitting the skids. the out-of-control girl beauty here is Hildur, who is riding a dangerously overloaded gravy train belonging to a no good scammer named Jolli (the great Peter Stormare). Jolli pushes his luck too far and gets thrown in the slammer leaving Hildur homeless and on her own to make things work. Hopeless, without a true friend, her salvation comes from an unexpected direction. It's a magical comic book store called ASTROPIA. Through this metaphysical portal, she departs on a nerd odyssey (or nerdyssey) where the fantasy world of hers and others might just save the day, save the world and get rid of Jolli's evil once and for all. Director Gunnar Gudmundsson, screenwriters Ottó Geir Borg and Jóhann Ævar Grimsson and producer Ingvar H. Pórõarson will be in attendance! This screening is sponsored in part by Gamecock Media Group and their new game Legendary. Check it out at www.gamecockmedia.com

Brief Summary: A cross-country manhunt searchers for an abducted woman and a marauding Indian tribe, but the real villains don't ride horses...they burrow from beneath the ground. Full Description: I appreciate it when horror elements are thrown into an unconventional scenario. This year SAUNA flips a horror body slam on Finnish Spa culture, and THE BURROWERS does the same to the American old west. The story opens with a young man named Coffey (Karl Geary) rehearsing and fumbling with his words. He has a wedding band in his hand and intends to propose to his sweetheart that very night. We cut to the scene of her house where domestic tranquility is interrupted by the all too familiar sound on the desolate prairie, the thundering hooves and whooping calls of an Indian attack. The women and children cloister themselves in a locked barn while the men try to ward off the attack. We catch fragments of the battle only through the sounds audible from inside the barn, but can soon tell that something is different about this attack, something foreign. No bodies are found, and Coffey sets out to follow the trail of the Indians in the seemingly desperate hope that his fiancee is still alive. He joins a scouting mission set on exterminating the tribe, but as they close on the trail, odd sounds are emanating from the perimeter of their camp and members of the party go missing in the middle of the night. Victims' bodies are later found, still twitching and half-alive, buried in shallow graves in the prairie. The search party's only information is filtered through a shifty Indian interpreter who - through a mix of willful manipulation and outright ignorance - informs the party that the "tribe" they are seeking is called "the burrowers", but he fails to warn of the deadly consequences of continuing the hunt. Compared by many to TREMORS (and there are similarities), THE BURROWERS creates an original and elaborate mythology of "the burrowers", steeped in Native American folklore with a subtle dash of environmentalist agenda. J.T. Petty paints a lush, classically western portrait with strong characters, both good and bad, and effectively evokes the hopelessness of the most famous wild west manhunt in film history, THE SEARCHERS. Since his first feature, SOFT FOR DIGGING, (which played the Alamo Drafthouse as part of Kier-la Janisse's Cinemuerte Film Festival) J.T. Petty has steered clear of the pitfalls of the modern horror film: booming musical cues, superficial characters and music-video inspired editing. His films are rooted in the classics with sure camera work, rich characters and stories and plenty of good old-fashioned gothic horror creepiness. THE BURROWERS delivers plenty of chills and thrills, but they are produced with a respect and an understanding of the western and film history in general. (Tim League) With director J.T. Petty live in person.

Technology and intimacy are at war. This movie is a genuinely creepy exploration of the casualties. With director Davy Sihali and members of the production team in attendance.

A man awakens several times at once and is forced to team up with several versions of himself to discover what's gone wrong. Appearing as part of the SHORT FILMS OF NACHO VIGALONDO program. CLICK HERE for details.

The follies of youth are lost on the old. Nacho Vigalondo stars as a man driven over the edge in a gaming arcade. Appearing as part of the SHORT FILMS OF NACHO VIGALONDO program. CLICK HERE for details.

A gripping tale of high-impact, two-fisted science fiction in the 25th Century!!! Kind of. Appearing as part of the SHORT FILMS OF NACHO VIGALONDO program. CLICK HERE for details.