SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL 2011 - HORRORPHILE'S PICKS!
June 3rd 2011 02:54
As in previous years a series of mini-programs within the festival help punters decide on styles and content. They call them “pathways” and the one that excites me the most is called “Freak Me Out”. This year Richard Kuipers (who put together the delicious vampire retrospective last year) has been given the glorious job of curator, and he’s selected nine nightmare movies, “putting the cult back in culture” as the liner notes state. From Norway to Japan, Sweden to South Korea, with the UK, USA and Canada in between, all nine movies have tickled my dark fancy.
Stake Land
Sun 12 June 9.15pm & Sun 19 June 8pm (EV8)
What’s the program without a vampire movie?! A sharp as fangs screenplay with biting social commentary and it’s a gorehound’s delight, this is a new American addition designed to kick the Twilight kids into the middle of next week.
Sun 12 Jun 6.45pm & Thu 16 June 8.30pm (Event Cinemas 8, George Street)
From South Korea this disturbing odyssey into the darker recesses of human nature promises to be an unconventional, yet thoroughly riveting experience like only the Asians can do.
Hobo with a Shotgun
Wed 8 June 8:15pm & Mon 13 June 9pm (EV8)
The director of the outrageous award-winning short Treevenge, Jason Eisener, kicks serious grindhouse butt with this no-holds-barred vigilante flick starring Rutger Hauer as the titular anti-hero.
Corridor
Wed 15 June 8:15pm & Sat 18 June 7.30pm (EV8)
A psychothriller from Sweden and another auspicious debut (there’s a few first features this year), this one capitalises on paranoia and delusion (like all good nightmares).
Sat 11 June 8.15pm & Tue 14 June 8.45pm (EV8)
Extreme comic-book Asian cinema. If you’ve not seen this kind of movie, prepare yourself for hardcore hilarity; foxy femmes with deadly attachments, this is the coming-of-age movie for freakazoids.
Septien
Thu 9 June 8.15pm & Sat 11 June 6.30pm (EV8)
A strange farmhouse, biblical overtones, and a Southern Gothic atmosphere; is this Ingmar Bergman on acid perhaps? Promises to be a darkly humourous tale of twisted family ties is what.
Kill List
Sat 11 June 9.30pm (EV9) & Tue 14 June 6.30pm (EV8)
Brit flick that has been getting serious buzz from Cannes. One man’s problems escalate into an unrelenting and unpredictable nightmare of high calibre proportions. My buddy, Dean, the co-director of A Night Of Horror Film Festival, gave this one the big thumbs up!
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil
Fri 10 June 8.15pm & Sat 18 June 9.30pm (EV8)
Indie flick from Canada, this rib-tickler (and no doubt rib-tearer) takes the buddy comedy and turns it inside out. It’s the hillbillies from hell in a movie designed to entertain movie buffs and horrorphiles alike. I’m salivating already!
The Troll Hunter
Wed 8 June 6pm & Fri 17 June 8.30pm (EV8)
The Scandanavian mythology of trolls is given a fresh and scary infusion of humour and horror. According to Kuipers this is the best yet entry into the “found footage” sub-genre.
And elsewhere in the festival we find several other nightmarish delights worth mentioning to my True Believin’ horrorphile readers:
13 Assassins
Sun 12 June 8.30pm (Dendy Opera Quays 2) & Sun 19 June 8.30pm (EV9)
Takashi Miike, maverick Japanese auteur, turns his hand to the elegance and formalism of 70s-esque samurai movies, but still with his trademark nihilism. I will post a full review early next week.
Take Shelter
Wed 15 June 6.30pm (State Theatre) & Thu 16 June 2.05pm (EV4)
From the brilliant director of Shotgun Stories comes a psychological thriller about one man’s descent into paranoia and obsession. Michael Shannon plays the family man convinced a deadly storm is approaching.
Armadillo
Wed 15 June 11.30am & Sun 19 June 5.05pm (DOQ2)
A war documentary, callous and brutal, a tour-de-force from Denmark following Danish soldiers in southern Afghanistan that echoes Come and See and The Hurt Locker.
Tyrannosaur
Sat 11 June 4.10pm (EV4) & Thu 16 June 6pm (DOQ2)
From actor Paddy Constantine comes this study of violence (Constantine brilliantly played men with anger issues in Shane Meadows’ A Room for Romeo Brass and Dead Man’s Shoes, so he knows a few things). It has been compared to the devastating debuts of Gary Oldman’s Nil by Mouth and Tim Roth’s The War Zone.
Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel
Mon 13 June 6.45pm & Sun 19 June 5.45pm (EV8)
Finally a decent documentary on Roger Corman, the King of American B-movies! This is one for the true genre DIY movie buffs. Yup, that’s me!
Of course there’s bound to be a few other gems I’ve yet to discover. I’ll start providing previews and reviews of festival movies from Wednesday June 8th.
For more information on the festival and the individual films, including shorts and industry talks, please visit sff.org.au
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