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Arriving at my place of lodging shortly before 3:00 a.m. very late on Saturday night (or early this Sunday morning), it felt like a short night at Fantastic Fest. That's not to say that everybody parties until dawn, but with three (sometimes four) screens pumping out a steady stream of genre flicks all day long -- some of which don't start until well past midnight -- Fantastic Fest attendees might be forgiven for losing track of "normal" hours.

That's what happened to me on Friday night, which stretched well into Saturday morning. But before that craziness ensued, there were the films, and I got to see a typically odd combination, beginning with Ole Bornedal's Just Another Love Story. One of two productions that the Danish director made last year, Just Another Love Story plays like While You Were Sleeping on acid, which is basically how Alamo Drafthouse / Fantastic Fest programmer Zack Carlson described it in his introduction. A family man is mistaken for the boyfriend of an accident victim in a coma. When she wakes up, the deception ensues.

Rather than romantic comedy hijinks, Just Another Love Story pushes quickly into dark dramatics and the fantasy of a mid-life crisis before circling back around to the territory inhabited by Jonathan Demme's Something Wild. I followed that up with The Substitute, also directed by Bornedal, which was a big box office success in Denmark. It's easy to see why. The terrific Paprika Steen lets her hair down, so to speak, as a farmer's wife who is possessed by an alien life form.

Once again we're bouncing around the trailer-verse, finding a preview of interest and letting word association zig us into one trailer before zagging into another. Here we go ...

The Spirit
The Spirit teaser made the movie look a bit too much like a Sin City sequel, but this full length trailer seems to give a better look at what it's all about. Tons of bizarre imagery to digest here, with a strong emphasis on The Spirit's love interests, which appears to be pretty much every woman in the cast. I've only read a few Spirit comics over the years so I wasn't sure what to expect. Still, Frank Miller is giving this a major dose of visual style which has me looking forward to the December 25 release date. Here's Elisabeth's take on it.
And speaking of all things spiritual...

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Up through Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire I felt the film adaptations of J.K. Rowling's novels improved with each installment. I also liked Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but for the first time I thought too many details from the book were glossed over or left out entirely, making the movie feel more like highlights from the book than a complete adaptation. I'm hoping I don't get that feeling when the Half-Blood Prince hits theaters because I'm liking this trailer. We really get the feel of the series' increasing darkness as we see a flashback of Professor Dumbledore's first meeting with Tom Riddle, the boy who will grow up to become Lord Voldemort. I'm expecting great stuff for Harry's sixth year at Hogwart's. Here's what Erik had to say on the trailer.
And speaking of school...

I'll admit it: Most of the indie / foreign horror films that I see at film festivals and then recommend like crazy ... are not exactly "mainstream" titles. My apologies if you watched Inside, Teeth, or Frontier(s) with your mom -- although she'd probably like The Signal. Heck, even my preferences in studio horror fare tend to run towards the bleak, and hats off to The Mist, The Ruins and The Strangers for keeping me on my toes.

So what's my point? There's one particular indie that is absolutely NOT a gorehounds-only affair. I actually expect quite a (relatively) mainstream groundswell of support once Gregg Bishop's Dance of the Dead hits DVD -- and according to good ol' Bloody-Dee, that DVD will arrive on October 14. Yes, the movie is about a prom that's been overrun by zombies, leaving only the dateless outcasts to save the day, and sure, it's got some gore, some salty language, and some playful sexiness -- but dang if the Dance of the Dead doesn't feel like something Spielberg might have done as a newcomer. (And actually liked horror movies.) It's quick and colorful and jaunty and amusing -- and I think that's the first time I've ever used the word "jaunty" in any capacity. Anyway, toss a red circle around this title. It's not just for the horror fans. (No less than eight Cinematical staffers saw and really enjoyed it.)

And hey, get this! Lionsgate is absolutely GUSHING horror flicks on October 14! Not only the Dance will hit DVD on that date, but seven more titles as well: Brotherhood of Blood, Dark Floors, The Last House in the Woods, No Man's Land: The Rise of the Reeker (cool!), Room 205, The Substitute, and something Russian called Trackman (that looks pretty wild). Now that sounds like a Halloween party!

This year's crop of Academy Award nominated Live Action and Animated shorts might well have been called the "longs." It takes nearly 4 hours to watch all ten of them back-to-back. As a whole package, none of them gets anywhere near masterpiece status, but none are particularly awful, either. The longest one, the Danish live action film, At Night, looks to be the sure-fire winner, setting its luxurious 40 minutes in the cancer ward of a hospital between Christmas and New Year's. Three young women (Julie Ølgaard, Laura Christensen and Neel Rønholt) deal with their illnesses in various ways while agreeing to meet up together for their own private New Year's party. This one was practically made for awards.

The 36-minute The Tonto Woman is a mini-Western based on an Elmore Leonard story (it's available in the same collection as "3:10 to Yuma"). But somehow it plods a little too slowly and heavily to capture Leonard's usual zing. It's somber and grave and rather ignores outdoor spaces and rhythms. The French The Mozart of Pickpockets (31 minutes) is a tad cutesy and predictable; two blundering would-be pickpockets find themselves in the company of a mute child -- who happens to be quite skilled at the same job.

We last visited Denmark to tell you about The Substitute, a so-called "children's thriller" that had a strong performance at the box office in June. Weeks later, The Substitute is still drawing Danes into theaters; it was the top-grossing local film this past weekend. The Substitute has been selected to play in the Sprockets Family Zone at the Toronto film festival in September, which may help it land a US distribution deal. Several upcoming releases also look to have international appeal.

Room 205 is due August 10; it's a horror picture about a university student who unwittingly unleashes an angry spirit seeking revenge. The trailer (available at the official site) makes it obvious we're not talking about Casper, The Friendly Ghost: young girl comes to city, is seduced by loud music and sexy dancing, and soon blood and body parts are flying. Two weeks later, Just Another Love Story rolls out. Directed by the suddenly busy Ole Bornedal (The Substitute), it's a thriller that starts when a weary family man causes an auto accident, resulting in a young woman losing her memory. The family man is then mistaken for her new boyfriend and assumes his identity. It looks like a very dark, intriguing twist on While You Were Sleeping.

September takes a comic turn with Thomas Vinterberg's A Man Comes Home, in which a small town kitchen worker's romances get mixed up with the arrival of a famous opera singer. (The breezy, jazzy trailer is NSFW.) Finally, Paprika Steen (star of The Substitute) returns to the director's chair for With Your Permission, scripted by the gifted Anders Thomas Jensen. The film is described as a tragic comedy: "Sometimes you should let go of your dream and let another dream come true." All the trailers are available at one convenient site.

If you cast your eye upon the top 10 most-attended films in Denmark last weekend, you'd spot some familiar titles: Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Fantastic Four 2, Ocean's 13 and even Death Proof (Quentin Tarantino's stand-alone version). You might also recognize the controversial The Art of Crying, which garnered mixed reactions when it played at the Toronto film festival last year. You might try to pronounce Cykelmyggen og Dansemyggen -- evidently a lovely animated family film about a dancing mosquito -- and dislocate your tongue. Or you might idly wonder how that old Tom Berenger mercenary vs. gangs flick The Substitute managed to finish #2. Of course, you'd then wake up and realize it must be another film, and how right you would be!

The Danish title is Vikaren, but in any language, it sounds tantalizing. Paprika Steen, wonderful in films as different as Adam's Apples and Okay, stars as a new substitute teacher for a class of sixth-graders. "She wants to train the class for an international competition in Paris," says the description by the Danish Film Institute. "But something isn't right. How is she able [to] read kids' minds? Why is she so mean? And how does she manage to convince everyone's parents she is so great when the whole class knows she is really an alien?" It's categorized as a "children's thriller," but the trailer, even without subtitles, suggests it might also have a deliciously dark sense of humor. Among the cast is Ulrich Thomsen, who was also in the superb Adam's Apples and will be featured in the upcoming Hitman. I'm not familiar with the work of director Ole Bornedal; his previous film, I Am Dina, was released pretty much everywhere but in North America. I'm hoping The Substitute will make it across the Atlantic; it definitely looks like something I want to see.

Perhaps the only thing better than going to a lot of great short films is to get a night of short cinema's crème de la crème -- wonderfully-shot movies on a much smaller scale. The gala for the Worldwide Short Film Festival was held last week and it featured a great group of award-winners (everything from Oscars to Golden Bears) that covered animation, live action, happiness and bittersweet sadness. They're projects that throw their middle finger up to the notion that acclaimed filmmaking must be serious, and show the many different embodiments of comedy and dramedy. Obviously, a long review could rival the length of these shorts, so here's just a bit to whet your appetites.

Imagine This
Best Irish Short Special Mention, Cork Film Festival

Put together by John Callaghan, Imagine This is a darkly humorous mash-up that pairs George W. Bush with John Lennon -- one that you might have seen across the net in the last year. (The link above will take you to its YouTube page.) It's impressive to see Bush's words collected in a way that makes it seem like he's singing Lennon's Imagine, but what really works about this mash-up short is its ability to show how the meaning of words can change depending on who says them. "Imagine there's no countries; it isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too" takes on a whole different light under the voice of Dubya, rather than Lennon.