Fantastic Fest 2008

Brief Summary:
Jennifer Lynch (BOXING HELENA) helms a crime thriller with overtones of RASHOMON. None of the eyewitness accounts in a roadside serial killer massacre seem to match up. The FBI is called in to cut through the confusion before the killer can strike again.

Star Bill Pullman and writer Kent Harper will be live in person to introduce the first screening and will conduct a Q&A after the film.

Full Description:
At first, SURVEILLANCE comes off a bit like your run-of-the-mill RASHAMON rehash. FBI agents Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond are tracking a serial killer across the nation. After a recent mass murder on an isolated highway, they simultaneously question the three remaining survivors in the three different interrogation rooms, inevitably ending up with three wildly different stories. But while RASHOMON played with the conventions of the different characters giving different untruthful accounts, the flashback scenes in SURVEILLANCE are based on the honest points of view of the characters, so the audience is always seeing what actually happened. And because the flashbacks introduce us to many other characters who don't make it to the police interview, we also know that the events we are seeing are going to culminate in some seriously fucked up shit. The surviving police officer talking about his partner? Something must happen to keep that partner from making it to the questioning. The suburban family accompanying the little girl in the station wagon? The little girl is the only one who makes it to the interview. The boyfriend of the drugged up girl? Also conspicuously missing. And while your blood bubbles over with the Oh-Shit-Is-This-It? tension every time the characters get close to each other, you'll be blindsided when the killing spree finally begins. (Henri Mazza)