isolation Tagged Articles at Cinematical

As an insatiable horror freak, I maintain a strong affection for both Lionsgate and Bloody-Disgusting.com, so imagine my delight when the two combined for a tantalizing peek at next year's horror slate! Yep, it seems that BD.com does a "horror preview" for each studio every December -- and they logically chose Lionsgate as the first distributor to earn a few spotlights. Nobody snatches up grass-roots film-fest horror titles like Lionsgate does, and I can personally assure you that a good portion of the upcoming genre flicks are actually quite good! Well, a few of 'em, anyway...

Aside from the well-established and obvious titles (like Hostel: Part 2 and Saw 4), Lionsgate will unleash a virtual torrent of horror-style offerings next year. Not to steal any thunder from the BD.com boys (cuz they've done a fine job with their research!), but here's how I break down next year's LG offerings:

• Borderland -- Sean Astin and Rider Strong star in a tale of human sacrifice. I know next to nothing about this one.
• Boy Eats Girl -- Been waiting a while for this one. Love the title.
• Bug -- Saw it at Fantastic Fest -- and was really surprised by how much I liked it. This Shannon guy is a force of nature.
• Catacombs -- Wow, I almost forgot about this one! It's been sitting on a shelf for what, three years?
• The Eye -- Another Asian horror remake, this one allegedly starring Jessica Alba. Pass.
• Fido -- All the Cine-staffers who saw it agree: Fido is fun!
• Isolation -- Saw it at Toronto '05! And I definitely look forward to seeing it again. It's creepy.
• Right at Your Door -- Missed it at Sundance. Heard mixed things. Dig the concept.
• Skinwalkers -- Another one that's been "coming soon" for quite some time now. Still fairly psyched to see it...

(And this isn't including the deluge of After Dark Horrorfest titles that LG is releasing (to DVD) next March! Or their as-yet-undetermined parade of low-low-end DTV titles. Heh)

Ask any experienced writer if they'd like to cover two whole film festivals over the course of three short weeks, and you'll probably get a response like "Um, no." But throughout all of the Toronto International Film Festival, I had a shiny little treat on the horizon: The Second Annual Fantastic Fest, which was to take place at the Alamo Drafthouse (South Lamar) down in lovely Austin, Texas. Upon returning home from TIFF, I was this close to simply bailing on Fantastic Fest, basically because I had a LOT of work to finish, plus I really wasn't all that excited about dealing with airports again so soon.

Fortunately I came to my senses and decided to attend the festival. And get this! A few days before the fest, super-cool festival honcho Tim League asked if I'd like to be a jury member! Now, film critics don't get a lot of back-pats or cap-feathers, but being asked to sit on a festival jury is very flattering indeed. Plus, this festival was mostly horror movies -- so obviously I was grinning like a pig in poop. So now that the festival is over and I've returned home (with a horrific cold), I thought you might be interested to know which flicks won what. So let's get to it...

Horror Jury Awards

Best Picture - Isolation
Best Director - Billy O'Brien, Isolation
Best Script - Dylan Bank and Morgan Pehme, Nightmare
Best Actor - Kane Hodder, Hatchet
Best Actress - Nicole Roderick, Nightmare
Best Supporting Actor - Lance Henriksen, Abominable
Best Supporting Actress - Kristen Bell, Roman
Best Art Direction - Alex Boynton, Unrest
Best Cinematography - Robbie Ryan, Isolation
Best Special Effects - Hatchet
Best Make-up - Broken

The Horror Jury was composed of four film freaks: Jay Slater of Hotdog Magazine & FilmThreat.com, Ed Neal of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Peter Martin of Twitch and Chris Cargill of AICN.

Short Film Jury Awards

Best of Show - The Listening Dead
Best Short Form - Cost of Living
Best Long Form - Rogairi (Villains)
Best Animated - If I Had a Hammer
Best Comedy - They're Made Out of Meat

The Short Film Jury was composed of three AICN writers: Brian Satterwhite, Jay Knowles and (again) Mr. Cargill.

Audience Awards

1st Place - Hatchet
2nd Place - Isolation
3rd Place - Firefly

The audience awards were decided by "average Joe" audience members who opted to cast ballots, obviously.

Fantastic Fest Jury Awards

Best Film - The Living and the Dead
Best Director - Simon Rumley, The Living and the Dead
Best Script - Larry Kent and Daniel Williams, The Hamster Cage
Best Actor - Leo Bill, The Living and the Dead
Best Actress - Jodie Jameson, Venus Drowning
Best Supporting Actor - Alan Scarfe, The Hamster Cage
Best Supporting Actress - Kate Fahy, The Living and the Dead
Best Art Direction -Starfish Hotel
Best Cinematography - A Quiet Love
Best Special Effects - Puzzlehead
Best Make-up -The Living and the Dead
Special Jury Mention - Blood Tea and Red String

The Fantastic Fest Jury was composed of Christian Hallman of the Lund International Fantastic Film Festival, Wiley Wiggins of Dazed and Confused and Waking Life, and Scott (dork) Weinberg of eFilmCritic.com, Cinematical.com and Rotten Tomatoes.

And I'll take this quick opportunity to share some opinions with you: I attend a solid handful of film festivals every year -- and Fantastic Fest was (far and away) one of the most entertaining trips I've ever taken. From fest-head Tim League down to the part-timiest festival volunteer, these folks were absolutely sterling. If you have even a passing interest in films best described as horror, sci-fi, fantasy or "plain old weird," I could not recommend Fantastic Fest highly enough. In only its second year of existence, FF looks to be one of North America's premiere genre festivals -- and I can only imagine what the 2007 event will look like.

Ever notice how you'll often see articles about how "horror is making a comeback!" -- yet you never really see many pieces entitled "Boy, horror is quite unpopular these days!"? That's because there will always be a market for high-end kick-ass horror movies ... at least until something like I Know What You Did Last Summer Part 7: Still Somewhat Aware or a lame-o remake of Prom Night comes along and tosses a bucket of water onto the campfire for a few months.

Every year or two yields a "breakout" hit, be it an indie like Saw or The Blair Witch Project or a teen-friendly multiplexer like The Ring, The Grudge, or ... The Brush. But it seems that the popularity of horror flicks has comes as big shock to the people over at the Cannes Film Festival. The fest itself offers only a small sampling of horror flicks (the Pang Brothers' Re-Cycle is one of 'em), but the surrounding film markets are absolutely crammed with slasher tales, ghost stories, and monster mashes.

This particular Hollywood Reporter piece should make for a fun read if you're a horror geek. The appeal of the genre is, once again, given a fresh spotlight, plus it has some solid interview bites from William (The Exorcist) Friedkin and David (The Fly) Cronenberg. Plus if you act now you just might get the early word on titles like The Living Hell, The Quick and the Undead, and Poultrygeist.

You want the scoop on upcoming horror flicks that deserve some love? Remember these titles: Isolation, Evil Aliens, Reeker, Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, and the unbelievable ass-kickage known as The Descent.

My favorite component of any given film festival should be pretty obvious by now. Sundance calls it Park City After Midnight. Toronto calls it Midnight Madness. Over at SXSW, the program's known as 'Round Midnight, and here in the beautiful city of Philadelphia, our local film festival calls it Danger After Dark. No matter what you call the program and no matter what city you happen to be in, any half-decent film festival will always offer a colorful variety of horror flicks, cult-type comedies, and genre fare that's not easily classifiable, but will undoubtedly appeal to the more intrepid movie geeks out there.

So while the Philadelphia Film Festival is obviously not on the same playing field as a Toronto or a Sundance, that doesn't prevent Danger After Dark programmer Travis Crawford from cobbling together one heck of a genre display, year after year. And while it seems unlikely that a professional festival-goer would call the Philly Fest "the finest in the country," there's little denying that the Danger After Dark program gets more exciting (and more popular) with each passing year. Basically what I'm saying is: The festival as a whole is a darn good time, but if genre fare is what you're after, make sure you get down to Philadelphia next April! (We're one of those shiny spots right near New York, Baltimore, and Atlantic City.)

My first Philly Fest was in 2003, and while I was psyched enough to see all the "regular" movies, my eyeballs kept focusing on the Danger After Dark lineup, which back then included titles like Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Dark Water, Eternal Blood, Love Object, Mimic: Sentinel, and Beyond Re-Animator. Nothing too staggering, but I got a good introduction to Chan-wook Park and Hideo Nakata, and a few DTV Dimension titles that, despite common sense, I always get a little psyched for.