Screenings in the Bay (Saturday & Sunday): Hell Fest, Night of the Shifter, Phase IV

I hope everyone is enjoying this overcast bay area weather, I know I am 😊
I'm also looking forward to this year's Fantastic Fest! The majority of this weekend's highlights are from this satellite film festival, but I also need to give some credit to a new release that opened yesterday: Hell Fest. We saw this in a criminally turned down and under attended theatre and I still loved it! It's a solid R rated film with no off screen kills and some very decent gore. It also put me in a serious Halloween decorating mood. I definitely recommend seeing it, and if possible, paying extra to see it in XD. 

Opening This Week

Hell Fest (2018)

Opens Friday 29th (1hr 29min)

Slasher/ Horror (Google)

A masked serial killer turns a horror themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show.

The Outer Wild (2018)

Select Theatres/VOD Friday 28th (1hr 25min)

Adventure/ Horror/ Fantasy (IMDB)

In this post-apocalyptic frontier western, mankind has given way to a new breed of beast, mutated from man. A survivor named Laura may be the cure to these mutations but she flees to save herself. Aided by a hunter sent to catch her, she braves the dangerous unnatural wilderness in order to find a fabled refuge of freedom - and only there will she discover the fate of humanity at the end of the world.

Alamo Drafthouse

Satellite Fantastic

Terrified (2018)

Saturday 29th @ 4pm (1hr 27min)

Horror (IMDB)

When strange events occur in a neighborhood in Buenos Aires, a doctor specializing in the paranormal, her colleague, and an ex police officer decide to investigate further.

Hold the Dark (2018)

Saturday 29th @ 7pm (2hrs 5min)

Mystery/ Suspense (Rotten Tomatoes)

Retired naturalist and wolf expert Russell Core (JEFFREY WRIGHT) journeys to the edge of civilization in northern Alaska at the pleading of Medora Slone (RILEY KEOUGH), a young mother whose son was killed by a pack of wolves. As Core attempts to help Medora track down the wolves who took her son, a strange and dangerous relationship develops between the two lonely souls. But when Medora's husband Vernon (ALEXANDER SKARSGARD) returns home from the Iraq War, the news of his child's death ignites a violent chain of events. As local cop, Donald Marium (JAMES BADGE DALE), races to stop Vernon's vengeful rampage, Core is forced on a perilous odyssey into the heart of darkness.

Satellite Fantastic

Cam (2018)

Saturday 29th @ 10:15pm (1hr 34min)

Horror/ Mystery/ Thriller (IMDB)

CAM is a technology driven psychological thriller set in the world of webcam porn. It follows Alice, an ambitious camgirl, who one day discovers she's been replaced on her show with an exact replica of herself. As this copy begins to push the boundaries of Alice's internet identity, the control that Alice has over her life, and the men in it, vanishes. While she struggles to regain what she's lost, she slowly finds herself drawn back to her show and to the mysterious person who has taken her place.

Satellite Fantastic

The Nightshifter (2018)

Sunday 30th @ 4pm (1hr 50min)
Horror/ Mystery/ Suspense (Rotten Tomatoes)

Stênio works the night-shift at the morgue of a big and violent city. During his toiling hours, he's never alone, for he is gifted with the paranormal ability of talking with the dead. However, when the confidences he hears from the other side unveil secrets of his own life, Stênio unleashes a curse that brings forth danger and death too close to himself and his family.

Satellite Fantastic

Lords of Chaos (2018)

Sunday 30th @ 7pm (1hr 52min)

Drama/ Horror/ Thriller (IMDB)

Oslo, 1987. Determined to escape his traditional upbringing, 17-year-old Euronymous (Rory Culkin) becomes fixated on creating 'true Norwegian black metal' with his band Mayhem. As he works to create increasingly shocking publicity stunts to put the band's name on the map, the lines between show and reality start to blur as his bandmates come to believe the hype. Arson, violence and finally, a vicious murder shock the nation.

Castro Theatre

Double Feature

The Birds (1963)

Sunday 30th @ 2pm, 4:30pm & 7pm (2hrs)

Horror/ Suspense (Rotten Tomatoes)

The story begins as an innocuous romantic triangle involving wealthy, spoiled Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), handsome Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), and schoolteacher Annie Hayworth (Suzanne Pleshette). The human story begins in a San Francisco pet shop and culminates at the home of Mitch's mother (Jessica Tandy) at Bodega Bay, where the characters' sense of security is slowly eroded by the curious behavior of the birds in the area. At first, it's no more than a sea gull swooping down and pecking at Melanie's head. Things take a truly ugly turn when hundreds of birds converge on a children's party. There is never an explanation as to why the birds have run amok, but once the onslaught begins, there's virtually no letup. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

-with-

Phase IV (1974)
Sunday 30th @ 9:15pm (1hr 24min)
Horror/ Sci-Fi/ Thirller (IMDB)
Saul Bass had a fascinating career as an animator and as designer of title sequences for a number of notable films, including Psycho, Vertigo, Anatomy Of A Murder and Seconds. However, Phase IV was his only credit as director of a feature film. A visually inventive science-fiction story, Phase IV concerns a group of research scientists working in the Arizona desert who find themselves confronted by an Army of super-intelligent mutant ants. The results are more intelligent than the description would lead you to believe, and Nigel Davenport and Michael Murphy turn in good performances as the embattled men of science.

-Huntress

Screenings in the Bay (Monday to Friday): Hell Fest, Fantastic Fest, Night Moves

This is the week of fests as Fantastic Fest begins satellite screenings in San Francisco, while Blood Fest opens in a theatre near you! Early screenings are this Thursday, as per usual, and Friday will be a free for all. This is a pretty familiar premise, and for a while I would get it mixed up with Blood Fest, but I'm still very curious about this one. And it's usually fun to watch slashers in theatres too.

The Outer Wild also opens this week, but only in select theatres. The bay area might need to resort to VOD for this one. 

And finally, Fantastic Fest begins their remote screenings of certain movies this week. We'll have to go to Texas for the full program, but we're still getting a great lineup in the coming days. I've selected a couple to highlight, but you can get the whole lineup at FantasticFest.com!

Opening This Week

Hell Fest (2018)

Early Screenings Thursday 28th 

Opens Friday 29th

Slasher/ Horror (Google)

A masked serial killer turns a horror themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show.

The Outer Wild (2018)

Select Theatres/VOD Friday 28th (1hr 25min)

Adventure/ Horror/ Fantasy (IMDB)

In this post-apocalyptic frontier western, mankind has given way to a new breed of beast, mutated from man. A survivor named Laura may be the cure to these mutations but she flees to save herself. Aided by a hunter sent to catch her, she braves the dangerous unnatural wilderness in order to find a fabled refuge of freedom - and only there will she discover the fate of humanity at the end of the world.

Alamo Drafthouse

Weird Wednesday

Perfect Blue (1997)

Wednesday 26th @ 10pm (1hr 21min)

Horror/ Anime (IMDB)

Mima was a pop idol, worshiped by the masses until fashion dictated otherwise. In order to salvage her career, she is advised to drop music and pursue acting. A soap opera role is offered but Mima's character is less clean cut than desired. Regardless, she agrees and events take a turn for the worse. She begins to feel reality slip, that her life is not her own. She discovers (imagines) her identical twin, a mirror image that hasn't given up singing. Internet sites appear describing every intimate detail of her life and a figure stalks her from the shadows. Her friends and associates are threatened (and killed) as Mima descends into a dangerous world of paranoid delusion. She fears for her life and must unravel fact from illusion in order to stay alive. Perfect Blue represents a major change from traditional anime subject matter, analyzing the pop icon phenomenon, fame and its psychological impact on the performer.

Fantastic Fest

I Was A Teenage Serial Killer (1993)

Thursday 27th @ 7pm (27min)

Comedy/ Short (IMDB)

The 27-minute short I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER was produced with the encouragement of filmmaker George Kuchar, Jacobson's instructor at San Francisco Institute of the Arts. Like SLACKER meets Valerie Solanas, the film depicts a 19-year-old woman who responds to catcalls, condescension and bad sex the only way she knows how: murder.

-with-

Mary Jane's Not A Virgin Anymore (1998)

Thursday 27th @ ~7:30pm (1hr 38min)

Drama/ Romance (IMDB)

MARY JANE'S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE, Jacobson's only feature film, is a vibrant and vital antidote to every phony Hollywood teen picture, bringing lo-fi realness to the coming-of-age genre. Sure, the usual signposts are here — first job, first time, crushes, friendships, fitting in and figuring it out — but all are handled with utter honesty. The sex is bad, the boys are jerks, the future is questionable, and growing up is ultimately a disappointment. It’s a stark contrast to Hollywood's glamorous lies.

Fantastic Fest

Drug Stories: Narcotic Nightmares and Hallucinogenic Hellrides (2018)

Friday 27th @ 10:15pm (1hr 20min)

Various

What’s the best way to prevent young people from turning on, tuning in, and dropping out? Government entities of the ‘60s and ‘70s seemed to believe that hardline DRAGNET-style narration, groovy medical animation, and dramatic reenactments of bad trips would do the job. Of course, when the old tricks didn’t work, filmmakers had to get more creative. Maybe a small child could better relate the cold, hard facts about dope? And maybe the dangers of hallucinogens could be explained by a sentient tab of LSD?

Castro Theatre

Double Feature

Chinatown (1974)

Friday 27th @ 7pm (2hrs 10min)

Drama/ Mystery/ Thriller (IMDB)

A private detective, Jake Gittes, hired to investigate an adultery case, stumbles on the plot of a murder involving incest and the privatization of water through state and municipal corruption, land use and real estate. If he doesn't drop the case at once he faces threats of legal action, but he pursues it anyway, slowly uncovering a vast conspiracy.

-with-

Night Moves (1975)

Friday 27th @ 9:25pm (1hr 40min)

Crime/ Drama/ Thriller (IMDB)

Private eye Harry Moseby is hired by actress Arlene Iverson to locate her missing daughter Delly. Moseby follows a twisting trail of clues to Delly and returns her to her mother. When Delly is killed in a freak accident, Moseby investigates the girl's death and discovers that she was murdered.

Roxie Theatre

I Am Not A Witch (2018)

Wednesday 27th & Friday 27th @ 7pm (1hr 33min)

International/ Drama (Rotten Tomatoes)

Following a banal incident in her local village, 8-year old girl Shula is accused of witchcraft. After a short trial she is found guilty, taken into state custody and exiled to a witch camp in the middle of a desert. At the camp she takes part in an initiation ceremony where she is shown the rules surrounding her new life as a witch. Like the other residents, Shula is tied to a ribbon which is attached to a coil that perches in a large tree. She is told that should she ever cut the ribbon, she'll be cursed and transformed into a goat.

-Huntress

Bluray Tuesday Featuring: Solo: A Star Wars Story, The [REC] Collection & Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich

September 25th 2018

The last Bluray Tuesday of September has arrived! There are some solid and collection worthy releases being put out today. Starting off with Solo: A Star Wars Story. When the trailer was first released, Solo looked like a weak cash grab. I had no intention of checking out right away but decided to buy tickets last minute and I was thoroughly surprised by how much I enjoyed the film. This week's number one pickup for me. Target will carry a bonus disc version as its exclusive in a book packaging and Best Buy will carry an exclusive steelbook. Long awaited US Bluray release of The [REC] Collection from Scream Factory finally comes out today with a new scan of all 4 films in the series. The first and second are the only ones I've seen so I'm looking forward to checking the rest out. Next up on Bluray and 4K Ultra HD is Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich which looks promising but for some reason falls flat. Vinegar Syndrome this week releases Body Melt and The House on Tombstone Hill. Both have really cool covers but blind buys for me. Severin is releasing Absurd and Anthropophagous for the first time on Bluray and if you order directly from Severin's site you can get an exclusive plushie from the Anthtopophagous film. Rounding out the week is comedy Uncle Drew, slasher film The Row, and 4K release of 1978's Halloween for it's 40th anniversary. So what will you buy, rent or skip this week? Let us know in the comments. Until next week!

Solo: A Star Wars Story: Best Buy - $22.99

4K: Best Buy - $29.99

Young Han Solo finds adventure when he joins a gang of galactic smugglers, including a 196-year-old Wookie named Chewbacca. Indebted to the gangster Dryden Vos, the crew devises a daring plan to travel to the mining planet Kessel to steal a batch of valuable coaxium. In need of a fast ship, Solo meets Lando Calrissian, the suave owner of the perfect vessel for the dangerous mission -- the Millennium Falcon.

 

 

Steelbook: Best Buy - $34.99

 

Bonus Disc: Target - $32.99

 

The [REC] Collection: Amazon - $49.99

[REC]: 
Late-night TV host Angela and her cinematographer are following the fire service on a call to an apartment building, but the Spanish police seal off the building after an old woman is infected by a virus which gives her inhuman strength.

[REC] 2: A doctor and a SWAT team enter a quarantined building where a virus has turned the residents into a pack of ravenous monsters.

 [REC] 3:  Newlyweds (Leticia Dolera, Diego Martín) watch their wedding reception descend into chaos and carnage when their guests become infected by a virus that turns them into hungry zombies.

[REC] 4: Survivors of a strange contagion which turns humans into ghouls find themselves aboard a ship where a doctor is trying to isolate the source of the outbreak.

 

Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich: Amazon - $14.99

4K: Amazon - $18.99 

Recently divorced and reeling, Edgar returns to his childhood home to regroup his life. When Edgar finds a nefarious looking puppet in his deceased brother's room, he decides to sell the doll for some quick cash. Girl-next-door Ashley and comic book pal Markowitz, join Edgar for a doomed road trip to an auction celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the infamous Toulon Murders. All hell breaks loose when a strange force animates the puppets at the convention, setting them on a bloody killing spree that's motivated by an evil as old as time.

 

 

The Row: Amazon - $14.99

An incoming college freshman must endure cruel hazing rituals and somehow evade a demented serial killer who is targeting her sorority sisters.

 

Anthropophagous: Amazon - $26.99

Tourists take a boat to a remote island, where they find that most of the people have disappeared, and something is stalking them. They find a hidden room in the big mansion on a hill, and an ancient diary, which gives them clues to the source of the terror - the Anthropophagus Beast.

  

The Bride: Amazon - $27.99

This gothic tale, inspired by the indelible themes and characters originally brought to life by Mary Shelley, follows Frankenstein's creations as they search for their place in the world — the gorgeous Eva by declaring her independence, and her grotesque intended mate Viktor by learning self-worth from a compassionate circus dwarf. Can Dr. Frankenstein survive when the monster returns to claim his intended?

 

Absurd: Amazon - $27.99

A priest comes to a small town to help get rid of a monster whose blood coagulates very fast. This creates problems as the monster is very hard to kill and then decides to go on a killing spree of its own.

 

The Baby: Amazon - $25.99

A social worker who recently lost her husband investigates the strange Wadsworth family. The Wadsworths might not seem too unusual to hear about them at first - consisting of the mother, two grown daughters and the diaper-clad, bottle-sucking baby. The problem is, the baby is twenty-one years old.

 

Halloween (1978) 4K: Amazon - $17.99

Fifteen years ago, Michael Myers brutally murdered his sister. Now, after escaping from a mental hospital, he’s back to relive his grisly crime again, and again...and again.

 

American Psycho 4K: Amazon - $16.99

Patrick Bateman is a Wall Street yuppie, obsessed with success, status, and style, with a stunning fianceé. He is also a psychotic killer who rapes, murders and dismembers both strangers and acquaintances without provocation or purpose. Based on the controversial novel by Bret Easton Ellis, the film offers a sharp satire to the dark side of yuppie culture in the 80s, while setting forth a vision that is both terrifying and chilling.

 

Exorcist 2: The Heretic: Amazon - $29.99

It's four years after 12 year old Regan was possessed by Pazuzu...and supposedly exorcised of the demon. Recovering from the effects of personally hosting evil, Regan is still plagued by memories of those horrific events. A Vatican investigator discovers that the evil in Regan, apparently exorcised, is only dormant.

 

Body Melt: Amazon - $25.99

Residents of peaceful Pebbles Court, Homesville, are being used unknowingly as test experiments for a new 'Body Drug' that causes rapid body decomposition (melting skin etc.) and painful death.

 

The House on Tombstone Hill: Amazon - $25.99

Eight friends go to fix up an old house that Mark has purchased. Upon arriving they find the grave of Annabelle (the former owner) in the back yard. She had killed her husband back in the 40's. Bob (one of Mark's friends) smashes the headstone and awakens Annabelle, this begins the carnage. But the dead don't stay dead and the living can't escape as the house locks down to keep them in.

 

The Day of the Jackal: Amazon - $25.99

A professional assassin codenamed "Jackal" plots to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France.

 

The Swarm: Amazon - $21.99

A huge swarm of deadly African bees spreads terror over American cities, killing thousands of people.

 

Memories Within Miss Aggie: Amazon - $25.99

Memories Within Miss Aggie is a 1974 pornographic film directed by Gerard Damiano and starring Deborah Ashira, Eric Edwards, and Harry Reems. The film pays homage to both Damiano's previous skin flick The Devil in Miss Jones and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

 

Gotti: Amazon - $14.99

Raised on the streets of New York, young John Gotti found his way into the Gambino crime family, eventually having the boss removed and becoming head of the powerful family. His wife asked only one thing from John: to never expose their children to his profession. But he broke the vow, and John Jr. took his place as his father's Capo.

 

Molly: Amazon - $9.99

In a post apocalyptic world where bullets have become currency and medicine is rare, a clan of marauders uses a home brewed drug to turn innocent people into rabid beasts to have them fight each other in their fighting pits for their entertainment. When their leader discovers rumors of a girl with superpowers roaming the beach near their fort, he sends his best people out to capture her. Meanwhile, the girl, Molly, has discovered a young child, living alone in a cabin in the wasteland, waiting for the return of her parents, who are probably dead. Molly has to protect the child and fight off the marauders at the same time.
 

 

Uncle Drew: Amazon - $19.99

 4K: Amazon - $24.99

After draining his life savings to enter a team in the Rucker Classic street ball tournament in Harlem, Dax (Lil Rel Howery) is dealt a series of unfortunate setbacks, including losing his team to his longtime rival (Nick Kroll). Desperate to win the tournament and the cash prize, Dax stumbles upon the man, the myth, the legend UNCLE DREW (NBA All-Star Kyrie Irving) and convinces him to return to the court one more time. The two men embark on a road trip to round up Drew's old basketball squad (Shaquille O'Neal, Chris Webber, Reggie Miller, Nate Robinson, and Lisa Leslie) and prove that a group of septuagenarians can still win the big one.

 

 

DC's Legends of Tomorrow (Season 3): Amazon - $24.99

Time Master Rip Hunter travels back in time to the present day where he brings together a team of heroes and villains in an attempt to prevent Vandal Savage from destroying the world and time itself.
 

 

   - The Impostor

Screenings in the Bay (Friday to Sunday): Mandy, Assassination Nation, I Am Not A Witch

Hey guys, happy Friday!

There's one title in particular that I have been hearing is amazing and it's the only one that's sold out at the Alamo all weekend. But you can still catch it on VOD and in some difficult showtimes next week. I'm talking about Mandy! I've heard everything from it's the second best movie of the year to "not even the people who went to laughing through the whole thing could ruin it". And I'm in!

Also this week, I Am Not A Witch opens at the Roxie Theatre, Perfect Blue returns to the Roxie, and Assassination Nation opens everywhere.

Opens This Week

Assassination Nation (2018)

Screening All Weekend (1hr 50min)

Drama/ Mystery/ Suspense (Rotten Tomatoes)

High school senior Lily and her group of friends live in a haze of texts, posts, selfies and chats just like the rest of the world. So, when an anonymous hacker starts posting details from the private lives of everyone in their small town, the result is absolute madness leaving Lily and her friends questioning whether they'll live through the night.

Alamo Drafthouse

Mandy (2018)

Screening All Weekend (2hrs)

Action/ Horror/ Thriller (IMDB)

Pacific Northwest. 1983 AD. Outsiders Red Miller and Mandy Bloom lead a loving and peaceful existence. When their pine-scented haven is savagely destroyed by a cult led by the sadistic Jeremiah Sand, Red is catapulted into a phantasmagoric journey filled with bloody vengeance and laced with fire.

Also on VOD

Roxie Theatre

I Am Not A Witch (2018)
Friday 21st & Saturday 22nd @ 7pm (1hr 33min)
Sunday 23rd @ 6:45pm
International/ Drama (Rotten Tomatoes)

Following a banal incident in her local village, 8-year old girl Shula is accused of witchcraft. After a short trial she is found guilty, taken into state custody and exiled to a witch camp in the middle of a desert. At the camp she takes part in an initiation ceremony where she is shown the rules surrounding her new life as a witch. Like the other residents, Shula is tied to a ribbon which is attached to a coil that perches in a large tree. She is told that should she ever cut the ribbon, she'll be cursed and transformed into a goat.

Perfect Blue (1997)

Saturday 22nd @ 2:30pm (1hr 21min)

Sunday 23rd @ 2pm

Horror/ Anime (IMDB)

Mima was a pop idol, worshiped by the masses until fashion dictated otherwise. In order to salvage her career, she is advised to drop music and pursue acting. A soap opera role is offered but Mima's character is less clean cut than desired. Regardless, she agrees and events take a turn for the worse. She begins to feel reality slip, that her life is not her own. She discovers (imagines) her identical twin, a mirror image that hasn't given up singing. Internet sites appear describing every intimate detail of her life and a figure stalks her from the shadows. Her friends and associates are threatened (and killed) as Mima descends into a dangerous world of paranoid delusion. She fears for her life and must unravel fact from illusion in order to stay alive. Perfect Blue represents a major change from traditional anime subject matter, analyzing the pop icon phenomenon, fame and its psychological impact on the performer.

-Huntress