SF IndieFest presents
ANOTHER HOLE IN THE HEAD FILM FESTIVAL
Horror, Sci-Fi, Mayhem and Merriment
June 5-18, 2009 at the Roxie Film Center in San Francisco


SF IndieFest unleashes ghosts, madmen, monsters, and futuristic merriment at the 6th annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival running June 5-18, 2009 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. For tickets or more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.

If the myriad traumas of daily life in the big city get to be too much and it seems like only neuron-shattering screams or a trip to an alternate universe will ease your mind, then the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival is just what the mad doctor ordered. Once again Hole in the Head presents the finest in contemporary horror, horror-comedy, sci-fi and dark fantasy with a collection of films from America and abroad, all the mayhem that fits on a celluloid print.

All About 6th annual Another Hole In The Head Film Festival

Locals bring death and damnation…and world premieres
Another Hole in the Head is pleased to host the US Premiere of Brazilian Director Paulo Biscaia’s film, MORGUE STORY - SANGUE, BAIACU, & QUADRINHOS. Ana Argento, an accomplished cartoon artist frustrated with her relationships meets two other lonely characters with peculiar lives. Tom is a chronic cataleptic who makes his living selling life insurance. Daniel Torres is a sociopath and rapist coroner. Their lives could only intersect in one place: the morgue.

San Francisco filmmaker Jonathan Lewis gets psycho-sexual with BLACK DEVIL DOLL, a sleazy Blaxploitation Horror film best described as Chucky meets DOLEMITE. A young, moist, buxom teen vixen finds herself hurled into an odyssey of forbidden sex and unspeakable violence after an innocent evening dabbling in the occult. What started as a simple child's game has now become a fight for her life. What is this evil that she has summoned from beyond? And why does it have a ‘fro? What kind of horrific acts will she be subjected to? And what price will her super-hot, half-nude friends have to pay? But more importantly, how much Caucasian blood will have to be shed to stop the BLACK DEVIL DOLL?!!"

Fry up some bacon and dig into THE PIG PEOPLE, directed by David Gueringer and starring rapper and former Oakland resident Master P. After multiple unsolved murders took place in a rural community, myths began to spread about pig people who lived in an abandoned cabin hidden deep in the forest. A group of precocious college students decide to research and investigate the legend and head into the forest armed only with a camera and delusions of exposing the Pig People to the world.

Tales of fright and fun from the US and Beyond
Adam Mason, the director of BROKEN and THE DEVIL’S CHAIR, reigns down psychological madness and Old Testament-style vengeance in BLOOD RIVER, a nuanced fable that combines horror, drama and western influences. Clark and his pregnant wife Summer are driving through the Nevada desert on the way to deliver the news to her parents when their car breaks down. Taking refuge in a ghost town, the two meet a lone drifter who believes he is God’s avenger and sets his sites on the two to answer for their supposed crimes.

American filmmaker Brian S. O’Malley offers us bloody murder and rollicking romance in AUDIE AND THE WOLF. When the moon is full, a friendly wolf turns into a savage, bloodthirsty man and goes on a killing spree in a starlet's Hollywood mansion. AUDIE AND THE WOLF is a dark comedy/horror feature in the spirit of SHAUN OF THE DEAD, AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON, and EVIL DEAD 2 and offers a topsy-turvy take on the classic werewolf legend.

Inspired by the classic 1970’s Rape and Revenge films comes Joseph Guzman’s RUN! BITCH RUN! Catherine and Rebecca are two Catholic School girls going door-to-door selling Religious paraphernalia in order to pay for their books and education. Things go horribly wrong when they knock on the wrong door in the wrong neighborhood. After she is brutally raped and left for dead, Catherine awakes with one thing on her mind: REVENGE.

Also focusing on the subject of revenge comes the action-packed, multi-award winning Australian thriller THE HORSEMEN, directed by Steven Kastrissios. Christian, a divorced father and white-collar businessman grieves over the complicated death of his daughter. When a video arrives anonymously in the mail, featuring his daughter heavily intoxicated and mistreated, Christian sets out on a reckless journey to find answers. Fuelled by rage and sorrow, the death toll quickly rises as he uncovers an ugly truth. Along the way he meets Alice, a young runaway not unlike his daughter and a fragile friendship begins to unfold.

Coming to us directly from the UK is the indie horror/thriller THE DEAD OUTSIDE. In the stark aftermath of a neurological pandemic, two strangers come together on an isolated Scottish farm. April, a 16 year-old survivor with a dark past, has survived alone for months. Daniel, a man bereaved, clings desperately on to hope of life in the outside world. Questioning his own sanity in the face of the maddened and distant cries of the suffering, he finds that the true enemy isn't the virus but something much closer to home. THE DEAD OUTSIDE is the debut feature from Scottish music video director Kerry Anne Mullaney.

Sushi Westerns and High School Violence – Japanese Cinema at its Best!
From Japan comes Takahashi Miike’s CROWS ZERO. Based on Takahashi Hiroshi's best-selling manga Crows, the film takes Miike to familiar territory — high school gang violence — and he cuts through the subject matter at high-octane speed for a stylized, action-packed, and entertaining schoolyard brawl of a movie. The story centers around the character Genji Takaya (Shun Oguri), a newcomer to Suzuran High School who aims to conquer Suzuran. Genji makes a deal with his father, Hideo Takitani (Goro Kishitani) — if he can conquer the school, he will be allowed to succeed his father as the head of his yakuza syndicate.

Inspired by the classic spaghetti westerns comes Kurando Mitsutake’s SAMURAI AVENGER: THE BLIND WOLF. While camping in the desert a family gets attacked by a notorious psychopath. The wife and daughter are slaughtered, and the man is forced to remove his own eyes. Eight years after the massacre, the man has returned to the desert town, now a highly trained samurai swordsman ready to seek justice. But he doesn't know there awaits seven assassins hired by his sworn enemy who want the bounty on his head. Set in nowhere, no time, this bloody modern day fable is a new age hybrid action film with a classic samurai essence and a spaghetti western spirit.

Sci-Fi, Scientists and the Id – A Delightful Documentary
In his feature film debut, Director David Gargani explores Sci-Fi and science in THE MONSTER FROM THE ID. The 1950's was an idealistic time in American History. It was also the Atomic Age where new technology promised to both save humanity as well as destroy it. All of these factors gave birth to the most prolific genres in film history, 1950's Sci-Fi Cinema. More then just little green men, 50's Sci-fi Cinema provided inspiration for the generation who achieved one of the greatest accomplishments of mankind; Spaceflight. Monsters From The Id weaves the intersecting themes of over 30 films in order to tell the untold story of the Modern Scientist and his role in inspiring a nation. The film continues to explore the psychological and cultural impact of 50's Sci-Fi cinema in America and asks, 'where is science inspiration found today?'

Green Filmmaking plus a Sci-Fi Twist equals a Sexually Stimulating Treat
From the demented and eco-friendly mind of Director Mike Davis comes SEX GALAXY, a new sci-fi sexploitation comedy (also known as "scixploitation”). A unique experiment in filmmaking created in the laboratories of Hollywood's infamous Stag Films, "Sex Galaxy" is made of 100% recycled material thus making it the world's first 'green' movie. Taking place one hundred years in the future, sex has been declared illegal on Earth due to overpopulation and the effects of global warming. When a crew of astronauts learn of a distant planet inhabited by insatiable female creatures who exist only to satisfy man’s desires, they decide to take a detour from their routine mission in search of the mythical star system known as the Sex Galaxy. But like all expeditions fueled solely by lust and carnality, risk lurks around every corner, danger and regret at every turn.

Ticket prices and general information
Another Hole In The Head Film Festival runs June 5-18, 2009 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. Advance tickets prices are $10.00 (no advance ticket service charges!) for films. The Hole Head Pass is $100. Advance tickets are available at www.sfindie.com. Same day tickets are $11.00 and only available at the theater. A five film voucher is $45.00 and a ten film voucher is $85.00. Pass holders get first priority on seating. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day. For all screenings please arrive 15 minutes before show time to assure seating.

For more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.

The Sixth Annual Another Hole in the Head Horror/Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival  is now accepting submissions for features and shorts.

Go to www.sfindie.com for more info.

MIDNIGHT CIRCUS

A three weekend series of new and classic Japanese cult cinema!
If you've been coming to IndieFest or HoleHead at all over the last few years, you might have noticed that we love new Japanese cinema. This October you get a chance to catch some classic films, and some soon to be classic films on the big screen at the Roxie.

Oct 10: Takashi Miike's ICHI THE KILLER on 35mm

Oct 11: Takashi Ishii's GONIN on 35mm

Oct 17 and 18: two chances to catch the West Coast Premiere of Yôhei Fukuda's CHANBARA BEAUTY

Oct 24: HoleHead '08 hit film Noboru Iguchi's THE MACHINE GIRL is back for one night only

Oct 25: We wrap the series up with the return of HoleHead's 2008 Closing Night Film Yoshihiro Nishimura's TOKYO GORE POLICE

Your ticket to Chanbara Beauty on Oct 17 gets you into our pre-party that night in a Secret! Underground! location. Come by the Roxie that night for location and details!

Hole Head Announces

SF IndieFest presents
ANOTHER HOLE IN THE HEAD FILM FESTIVAL
Horror, Sci-Fi, Mayhem and Merriment
June 5-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center in San Francisco
3117 16th Street in San Francisco
Tix and info: www.sfindie.com

SF IndieFest unleashes ghosts, madmen, monsters, and futuristic merriment at the 5th annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival running June 5-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. For tickets or more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.

If the myriad traumas of daily life in the big city get to be too much, and it seems like only neuron-shattering screams or a trip to an alternate universe will ease your mind, then the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival is just what the mad doctor ordered. Once again Hole Head presents the finest in contemporary horror, horror-comedy, sci-fi and dark fantasy with more than 30 films from America and abroad, all the mayhem that fits on a celluloid print.

All About 5th annual Another Hole In The Head Film Festival:

Opening and Closing Nights, Bai Ling and Uwe Boll - need we say more?
This year's HoleHead is bookended by two anticipated US premieres: the opening night sci-fi opus THE GENE GENERATION, starring screen vixen Bai Ling, and the closing night Vietnam saga, TUNNEL RATS, from renowned schlock-master-slash-critic-boxing cinematic bad boy Uwe Boll.

On Thursday, June 5 the fest kicks off with Pearry Reginal Teo's THE GENE GENERATION, a gene-bending sci-fi thriller. To wipe out the dregs of society, the government is planning the destruction of the last remaining city on Earth. In its place, they will build a new city, populated only by the best and brightest of the gene pool. As word of this spreads, DNA hackers begin stealing genes to increase their DNA profile. In response, the government hires assassins to wipe out the hackers. Michelle (Bai Ling), one of the assassins, must commit to her duty to the government over her desires for love - a pact that sends her ultimately on a quest for revenge and redemption.

Following THE GENE GENERATION, get your groove on at Annie's Social Club, 917 Folsom Street in San Francisco, for an opening night bash sure to get the neighbors screaming. Featuring music by The Merry Widows, The Zoopy Show, and The Undertaker and His Pals along with previews of HoleHead offerings, short films and more, the party is free with a ticket stub or $5 for the general public.

14 days later the lights will dim for Uwe Boll's TUNNEL RATS. Adored and detested in equal parts, filmmaker Uwe Boll serves up deliciously ridiculous cinematic mania, and his latest is sure to not disappoint. Set in the tunnels of Vietnam, the film follows a select squadron of troops out to do battle with the Viet Cong. Armed only with flashlights and .45s, the soldiers must dodge booby traps and bamboo punji sticks as they seek out their enemies in the dark. A bloody, in-your-face picture, TUNNEL RATS will tunnel into your psyche and give you just the kind of beating you'd expect from a filmmaker who once challenged his critics to face him in the boxing ring.

Locals bring death and damnation… and world premieres
Like dropping acid in hell, Ryan Harper's CIRCULATION, will have its world premiere at HoleHead. Hallucinogenic and surreal, CIRCULATION follows Ana as she escapes from her barbaric husband. Is she running straight into purgatory? Are her dreams of brutality and violence actually real? Is she alive or is she dead? Her story is one of lost souls and a metaphor-rich visualization of the afterlife.

Also having its world premiere is Phillip Hudson's HOME WORLD. With an alien race attacking humankind, a strike team sets out with a virus specially engineered to eradicate them. An effects-laden tour de force, HOME WORLD takes us through the looking glass into a land where nothing is as it seems and the future of the human race hangs on the brink.

San Francisco filmmaker Robert Pratten gets psycho-sexual with, MIND FLESH a Cronenberg style horror thriller about obsession making its US Premiere at HoleHead. The story of a cabbie still nursing the psychological torment of a an event that occurred in his youth, MIND FLESH gets dirty when it's revealed that this trauma has opened up a portal from his mind to the physical world. As his lurid thoughts become manifest, the planes of reality get disrupted like a bad acid trip. When extraterrestrials show up to help mend the breach in reality, the cab driver must take his taxi to the dark side of his past and confront the evils he faced in his youth.

Imagine Alameda overrun by zombies and you get an idea of what goes on inside Kevin Tenney's head. The filmmaker - formerly of Alameda who has since fled to Sacramento - delivers an opus of pus with BRAIN DEAD, the story of six people stranded in a deserted fishing lodge with - what else? - a host of alien-infected, mutant amoeba-controlled zombies at their doorstep.

Asian horror will blow you away - literally
Is the image of Rose McGowan's machine-gun-sporting leg from GRINDHOUSE's PLANET TERROR still stuck in your head? Good, then you'll love THE MACHINE GIRL, another title having its US Premiere here at the Festival. Straight outta Japan comes Noboru Iguchi's pop machinist fantasy of a school-girl's vengeance. After her family is slaughtered and her arm severed, the heroine of this tale sticks a machine gun in her stump and slaughters everyone in her path.

From Thailand comes ALONE, a tale of twins by filmmaker Banjong Pisanthanakun. Pim and her sister were born conjoined and their strong bond led them to commit to stay together forever. However, the strength of their love led them down a path of dangerous co-dependence and the bitterness that sprang between them resulted eventually in their surgical separation. Pim's sister doesn't survive the operation, plunging Pim into a world of guilt. Years later, Pim returns to Thailand from Korea - where she has sought refuge from her pain - and the spirit of her dead sister angrily thrusts herself into Pim's life.

Japanese filmmaker Sion Sono's latest, EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS, comes on like a bad hair day. When a cargo container full of dead bodies docks in Tokyo, local authorities are shocked that the corpse of one woman is not full of blood and guts, but hair. Stolen by a hair fetishist, the locks turn against their captor, exploding from the body and embarking on a murderous rampage. Like a really bad perm, EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS will leave you trembling with fear and emotionally devastated. Book salon appointments now - after seeing EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS you may want to get a trim.

A pair of Edo-period homosexual samurai are the focus of Japanese director Kankuro Kudo's comedy YAJI & KITA. Battling drug addition and pondering the meaning of life, join Yaji and Kita as they journey in search of the shrine of Ise, stopping to ride the occasional pink floating elephant.

Tales of fright and fun from the US and two from the UK, too
Based on the Imperium Comics series, TRAILER PARK OF TERROR, Steven Goldmann's film of the same name chronicles six troubled high school students and their chaperone, an optimistic youth ministries Pastor, on their return from an outdoor character building retreat in the mountains. During a raging storm, their bus crashes, hopelessly stranding them in the middle of the Trucker's Triangle, a forgotten locus of consummate evil in the middle of nowhere. The hapless group seeks shelter for the night in a seemingly abandoned trailer park they find down the road. However, when the sun sets, it's not refuge they find. Instead, terror finds them in the form of Norma, a damned redneck reaper with a killer body who dispenses vengeance and death aided by her cursed companions, a bloodthirsty brood of Undead trailer trash.

Childhood trauma, perhaps a theme in this year's Festival (see MIND FLESH and ALONE), appears once again in Jon Knautz's JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER. Jack Brooks has a nagging girlfriend, dead-end therapy sessions, and is taking night classes that put him to sleep. Class is about to get more interesting though, as Jack's new professor is the victim of an ancient curse. It's certainly ominous that Jack's professor is played by Freddy Krueger himself, horror icon Robert Englund. Soon enough, Jack is forced to confront his old demons…along with a few new ones.

Matthew Kohnen's WASTING AWAY is a fresh take on the zombie flick. Tired of the constant droning of zombie after zombie as they stumble awkwardly toward their prey? Always wondered what the heck was going on inside the brain of one of those zombies? Ever feel like a zombie yourself? WASTING AWAY is an oddball comedy from the perspective of the flesh munching monsters themselves. Isn't this the zombie film you've always been waiting for?

An undoubtedly true story based on the recently recovered journals of Texan Dale S. Rogers, THE WILD MAN OF THE NAVIDAD is the new tale of terror by Duane Graves, produced by the team that brought you the original THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Set in a rural Texas community where moonshine flows faster than the local river, townspeople are tormented by a ferocious beast inhabiting the woods. Rogers' journals are the only remaining evidence of the harrowing events, for the first time recreated for the world to witness.

The brothers Daniel and David Holechek (note to Daniel and David: consider changing the last name to "HoleHead") bring their comic mockumentary, 305, based on the online spoof smash of the same name. Set in ancient Sparta, five cowardly soldiers accidentally kill the king and his army of 300. However, with a Persian invasion imminent, the 5 must get their act together and defend their land.

Another comic gem, ATOM NINE, is filmmaker Christopher Farley's family friendly flick. When astrophysicist and mad genius Dr. Adam Gaines and his robo-helper sidekick discover a 3.5 billion year old meteorite, they get more than they bargained for. Soon, celestial terrorist Gremio Flugg and his gang of "Fluggmen" seek to steal the meteor - and the secrets contained within its rocky husk.

What BOYZ IN THE HOOD did for films examining the Los Angeles gang scene, MUTANT VAMPIRE ZOMBIES FROM THE HOOD will do for the zombie gangster genre. A landmark film of this ilk, director Thunder Levin gives us zombies in Compton, intergalactic gangsta high-jinx, and a soundtrack dripping with hip hop.

Batman, Spider-Man, Superman, now Iron Man: who are these people? Have you ever wondered what goes on when a super hero has a day off? What's in their refrigerators? Are they art film lovers, or popcorn flick junkies? Sybil Drew gets to the bottom of these questions, and more, in YOUR FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD HERO, an in-depth documentary look at those whose duty it is to save the day. Featuring interviews with real life super heroes, the film is a closely observed look at what makes these people tick.

For a mix of the gorgeous and gruesome, check out Zach Passero's WICKED LAKE. Warped brothers and their wheelchair bound ringleader attack two women out for an afternoon frolic. The tale of vengeance that follows is neither campy nor fun - beautifully shot, WICKED LAKE sets new standards in the demented realm of splatter and gore.

From the UK comes the US Premiere of Matthew Hope's, THE VANGUARD. Set in the post-oil future where the world is controlled by an entity known only as The Corporation, one man lives a solitary life, immune to the drug force fed by Corporation scientists that turns humans into primitive, ape-like beings called Biosyns. Hunted by the Biosyns, and by Corporation militants called Trackers, this one man must search across the wilds of the countryside to unearth truths that will shatter The Corporation's grip on humanity. With his blood as a possible antidote to the toxic Biosyns, he is the last hope for humankind's existence.

Also from the UK, IndieFest alum Julien Richards (THE LAST HORROR MOVIE, IndieFest '04) delivers the coming-of-age scream fest SUMMER SCARS. A day of truancy turns deadly when a group of kids playing hooky encounter a dangerous loner in the woods. Torture, brutality and murder - always good metaphors for adolescence - become the name of the day as what starts as fun and games becomes a disastrous encounter with a lunatic.

A revival: one of the greatest films of all time
Has it really been 40 years since Jane Fonda floated around naked in a spaceship as the title credits rolled on the Roger Vadim classic BARBARELLA for the first time? Indeed it has, and as this year will bring us Robert Rodriguez's remake, why not revisit the original on the big screen? HoleHead brings you BARBARELLA: QUEEN OF THE GALAXY in all its sci-fi camp glory. Screening twice during the fest, come dressed in Babarella-inspire garb for the June 7 screening and get in free!

Kentucky Jones lassoes the Brava Theatre
As a terrific coda for two weeks of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, head over to the Brava Theatre June 18 - 21 to catch the Primitive Screwheads (Hole Head's sibling theatre troupe) and their brand spanking new production of KENTUCKY JONES AND THE CARPET OF DOOM. When terrorists seek a powerful ancient artifact only one man can stop them: the calamitous Kentucky Jones. Witness the hilarity as he battles terrorists, snakes, and other miscellaneous heathens. Audience members be warned: be prepared to duck!

Ticket prices and general information
Another Hole In The Head Film Festival runs June 5-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. Advance tickets prices are $10.50 (no advance ticket service charges!) for films. The Hole Head Pass is $100. The Pass is good for all screenings June 5-12, the HoleHead Opening Night Party on June 5 and to see the play KENTUCKY JONES AND THE CARPET OF DOOM June 18-21 at Brava. The pass is not good for the repeat screenings June 13 - 19.

Advance tickets are available at www.sfindie.com. Same day tickets are only available at the theater. Pass holders get first priority on seating. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day. For all screenings please arrive 15 minutes before show time to assure seating.

For more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.

Hole Head Press!

The Machine Girl

HOLEHEAD08—Kataude mashin gâru (The Machine Girl, 2007)
Posted by Michael Guillen at 3:25pm.
Posted in Film News , Exploitation, Martial Arts, Action, Horror, Asia, Random Festival News.

San Francisco's Fifth Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival ("Holehead08") had its press conference this morning where the line-up was announced and Noboru Iguchi's The Machine Girl was screened. Boasting its West Coast premiere, The Machine Girl is the kind of date movie that will see blood-frenzied couples rushing out of the Roxie Film Center hungry for tempura or at least some finger food at a house party. Is it really true that revenge is a dish best served cold? Not when there's a wok with bubbling oil around!

Leave it to Iguchi to capitalize on Rose McGowan's machine-gun-sporting leg from Grindhouse: Planet Terror and amplifying it into a no-holds-barred vengeance-inspired blood bath. We're not just talking buckets of blood here; we're talking shower nozzles of blood. There's more spurting severed limbs in this film than you can count and the only thing missing is a Teledyne shower pik for adjustable blood flow: from a smoke-like spray to a pat-pat-pat pulsing massage. Perhaps in the sequel?

Let alone that fashionistas will tremble in their seats appreciating the first drill bra that lifts and (I mean it) separates.

The Machine Girl has been pretty much covered by the Twitch team. Gommorahizer first announced the project had gone into production a little under a year ago, including early production stills provided by the film's special effects wizard Yoshihiro Nishimura (whose work can also be seen in another Holehead08 West Coast premiere Exte: Hair Extensions).

Dispatching from the 2007 American Film Market where The Machine Girl had its world premiere, Todd Brown described it as a "low budget, futuristic sci-fi response to the huge budget historical fantasy Dororo" and over the course of the next week offered up several behind-the-scenes effects shots and production stills. When Todd finally secured the trailer for the film, it resulted in the highest spike in last year's Twitch traffic. The popularity of that trailer inspired Todd to hunt down trailers for Iguchi's other films.

Earlier this year Todd interviewed Iguchi who admits that there's "not really" any such thing as too much blood and violence and—concurrent with its upcoming June 3 DVD release—San Franciscans have the opportunity to decide for themselves when The Machine Girl screens three times at Holehead08: on June 6 at 9:30PM, June 12 at 5:00PM and June 14 at 9:30PM. Should you still feel ambivalent, here's Ardvark's review from the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival wherein he indirectly suggests that this is the movie that should have been entitled There Will Be Blood.

Cross-published on The Evening Class

Alone, Machine Girl, Yaki and Kita
Asian Films at Another Hole In the Head

Another Hole In the Head. Of all of Frisco Bay's film festivals SF Indie Fest's genre outpost certainly has the most eye-catching name. Taking over the Roxie for two weeks in June, it offers an assortment of selections tailored for horror, science fiction, fantasy and superhero buffs. Few of the films announced for this year's program have been 'done to death' on the festival circuit, and nearly all of them have never screened in Frisco before. It seems unlikely that many will screen again here anytime soon, so if this sounds like your thing, mark your calendars for June 5-21.

I'm not familiar with the line-up's English-language titles, most of which are US or UK productions (though Tunnel Rats, an Uwe Boll film co-produced in Canada and Germany, is programmed as "closing night" film June 19th). It's the Asian titles that are catching the lion's share of my interest. Always on the lookout for Thai films in Frisco cinemas, I'm hoping to catch Alone, made by the directing pair behind the original version of Shutter, Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom. Peter Nellhaus notes the film's many connections to horror films familiar in the West, but recommends it as a quality production that rises above the usual lazy pastiche.

Though Another Hole In the Head has and deserves a reputation as a "horror film festival", the three Japanese selections in this year's line-up exhibit more diversity than that label implies. One film, Exte: Hair Extensions looks to be a straight J-horror film with the requisite ghostly long-black-hair imagery, in this case starring Chiaki Kuriyama of Battle Royale and Kill Bill, vol. 1. Thanks to my friend Seiko for pointing out Chiaki's involvement in this creepy-looking film!

Yaji & Kija: the Midnight Pilgrims, on the other hand, looks about as far-removed from J-horror as possible; it's apparently a fantastical twist on the samurai film genre that comes recommended by none other than Filmbrain. It's also notable as one of only two films explicitly mentioned in the Another Hole In the Head program guide as being shown in 35mm prints (the other being the 40th anniversary screenings of Barbarella just before midnight on the first two Saturdays of the festival).

The Another Hole In the Head programmers know that many of the most outré genre film offerings come from the rough and tumble world of digital filmmaking and distribution. The third Japanese festival offering the Machine Girl, which I viewed after the festival's press conference, typifies this. The film industry is unlikely to take a chance on using the expensive film medium to make and distribute something as bizarre, bloody, cheesily-acted and un-scary as the Machine Girl. Less a horror film than a blood-and-gore-saturated revenge comedy, the film has assets in its unflagging energy and its surfeit of money shots for gorehounds (including one shot that made the film a must-program for a festival called Another Hole in the Head.) But its greatest asset is surely its refusal to take itself seriously at all, a quality I suspect is a function of the cheap video technology being used.

Michael Guillén captures the Machine Girl's tone perfectly in his overview of Twitch's coverage of the film. I'd like to add my admiration for the brazenly illogical plot structure, in which an action-packed opening-credits sequence that I didn't think could possibly be lived up to (how wrong I would be) flashes back to Machine Girl's origin before she's sent on a "kill the foozle" revenge quest. I wasn't the only one in the audience to realize that writer-director Noboru Iguchi had made a film with two climaxes: one to grab your attention at the beginning, and a different one to send you out satisfied. Does it matter if the two sequences fail to reconcile in the film's narrative timeline? I'm not sure it does.

SF IndieFest presents
ANOTHER HOLE IN THE HEAD FILM FESTIVAL
Horror, Sci-Fi, Mayhem and Merriment
June 6-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center in San Francisco


SF IndieFest unleashes ghosts, madmen, monsters, and futuristic merriment at the 5th annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival running June 6-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. For tickets or more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.

If the myriad traumas of daily life in the big city get to be too much, and it seems like only neuron-shattering screams or a trip to an alternate universe will ease your mind, then the Another Hole in the Head Film Festival is just what the mad doctor ordered. Once again Hole Head presents the finest in contemporary horror, horror-comedy, sci-fi and dark fantasy with more than 30 films from America and abroad, all the mayhem that fits on a celluloid print.

All About 5th annual Another Hole In The Head Film Festival

A duo of locals bring death and damnation
Imagine Alameda overrun by zombies and you get an idea of what goes on inside Kevin Tenney's head. The filmmaker – formerly of Alameda who has since fled to Sacramento – delivers an opus of pus with BRAIN DEAD, the story of six people stranded in a deserted fishing lodge with – what else? – a host of alien-infected, mutant amoeba-controlled zombies at their doorstep.

San Francisco filmmaker Robert Pratten gets psycho-sexual with, MIND FLESH a Cronenberg style horror thriller about obsession. The story of a cabbie still nursing the psychological torment of a an event that occurred in his youth, MIND FLESH gets dirty when it's revealed that this trauma has opened up a portal from his mind to the physical world. As his lurid thoughts become manifest, the planes of reality get disrupted like a bad acid trip. When extraterrestrials show up to help mend the breach in reality, the cab driver must take his taxi to the dark side of his past and confront the evils he faced in his youth.

Asian horror will blow you away - literally
Is the image of Rose McGowan's machine-gun-sporting leg from GRINDHOUSE's PLANET TERROR still stuck in your head? Good, then you'll love THE MACHINE GIRL. Straight outta Japan comes Noboru Iguchi's pop machinist fantasy of a school-girl's vengeance. After her family is slaughtered and her arm severed, the heroine of this tale sticks a machine gun in her stump and slaughters everyone in her path.

From Thailand comes ALONE, a tale of twins by filmmaker Banjong Pisanthanakun. Pim and her sister were born conjoined and their strong bond led them to commit to stay together forever. However, the strength of their love led them down a path of dangerous co-dependence and the bitterness that sprang between them resulted eventually in their surgical separation. Pim's sister doesn't survive the operation, plunging Pim into a world of guilt. Years later, Pim returns to Thailand from Korea – where she has sought refuge from her pain – and the spirit of her dead sister angrily thrusts herself into Pim's life.

Five tales of fright and fun from the US and one from the UK, too
Based on the Imperium Comics series, TRAILER PARK OF TERROR, Steven Goldmann's film of the same name chronicles six troubled high school students and their chaperone, an optimistic youth ministries Pastor, on their return from an outdoor character building retreat in the mountains. During a raging storm, their bus crashes, hopelessly stranding them in the middle of the Trucker's Triangle, a forgotten locus of consummate evil in the middle of nowhere. The hapless group seeks shelter for the night in a seemingly abandoned trailer park they find down the road. However, when the sun sets, it's not refuge they find. Instead, terror finds them in the form of Norma, a damned redneck reaper with a killer body who dispenses vengeance and death aided by her cursed companions, a bloodthirsty brood of Undead trailer trash.

Childhood trauma, perhaps a theme in this year's Festival (see MIND FLESH and ALONE), appears once again in Jon Knautz's JACK BROOKS: MONSTER SLAYER. Jack Brooks has a nagging girlfriend, dead-end therapy sessions, and is taking night classes that put him to sleep. Class is about to get more interesting though, as Jack's new professor is the victim of an ancient curse. Soon enough, Jack is forced to confront his old demons…along with a few new ones.

Bai Ling stars in Pearry Reginal Teo's THE GENE GENERATION, a gene-bending sci-fi thriller. To wipe out the dregs of society, the government is planning the destruction of the last remaining city on Earth. In its place, they will build a new city, populated only by the best and brightest of the gene pool. As word of this spreads, DNA hackers begin stealing genes to increase their DNA profile. In response, the government hires assassins to wipe out the hackers. Michelle (Ling), one of the assassins, must commit to her duty to the government over her desires for love – a pact that sends her ultimately on a quest for revenge and redemption.

Matthew Kohnen's WASTING AWAY is a fresh take on the zombie flick. Tired of the constant droning of zombie after zombie as they stumble awkwardly toward their prey? Always wondered what the heck was going on inside the brain of one of those zombies? Ever feel like a zombie yourself? WASTING AWAY is an oddball comedy from the perspective of the flesh munching monsters themselves. Isn't this the zombie film you've always been waiting for?

An undoubtedly true story based on the recently recovered journals of Texan Dale S. Rogers, THE WILD MAN OF THE NAVIDAD is the new tale of terror by Duane Graves, produced by the team that brought you THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Set in a rural Texas community where moonshine flows faster than the local river, townspeople are tormented by a ferocious beast inhabiting the woods. Rogers' journals are the only remaining evidence of the harrowing events, for the first time recreated for the world to witness.

From the UK comes Matthew Hope's, THE VANGUARD. Set in the post-oil future where the world is controlled by an entity known only as The Corporation, one man lives a solitary life, iImmune to the drug force fed by Corporation scientists that turns humans into primitive, ape-like beings called Biosyns. Hunted by the Biosyns, and by Corporation militants called Trackers, this one man must search across the wilds of the countryside to unearth truths that will shatter The Corporation's grip on humanity. With his blood as a possible antidote to the toxic Biosyns, he is the last hope for humankind's existence.

Kentucky Jones lassoes the Brava Theatre
As a terrific coda for two weeks of horror, sci-fi and fantasy, head over to the Brava Theatre June 18 – 21 to catch the Primitive Screwheads (Hole Head's sibling theatre troupe) and their brand spanking new production of KENTUCKY JONES AND THE CARPET OF DOOM. When terrorists seek a powerful ancient artifact only one man can stop them: the calamitous Kentucky Jones. Witness the hilarity as he battles terrorists, snakes, and other miscellaneous heathens. Audience members be warned: be prepared to duck!

Ticket prices and general information
Another Hole In The Head Film Festival runs June 6-19, 2008 at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 Sixteenth Street, in San Francisco. Advance tickets prices are $10.50 (no service charges!) for films. The Hole Head Pass is $100. The Pass is good for all screenings June 6-12, the Hole Head Launch Party on June 5 and to see the play KENTUCKY JONES AND THE CARPET OF DOOM June 18-22 at Brava. The pass is not good for the repeat screenings June 7 – 19.

Advance tickets are available at www.sfindie.com. Same day tickets are only available at the theater. Pass holders get first priority on seating. The box office opens 30 minutes before the first show of the day. For all screenings please arrive 15 minutes before show time to assure seating.

The complete lineup of films and events will be announced on May 13th.

For more information please call (415) 820-3907 or click on www.sfindie.com.

Get Ready for the scariest/funniest/goriest/craziest show yet: Night of the Living Dead: LIVE!!!

When: June 13th-16th and 20th-23rd

Tickets: $20

 

To Get Tickets, go here:

 

Here's what  the show is about!!!

 

Six strangers are trapped in a small farmhouse in the countryside of Pennsylvania… Why? Because the dead are coming back to LIFE and want FLESH!!! You've seen it millions of times, but now see it as you've never seen it before—RIGHT IN YOUR LAP! Night of the Living Dead: LIVE! is a live, interactive, theatrical production that parodies, yet remains faithful to George Romero's classic horror films. Combining elements from Night, Dawn and Day of the Dead, this show will blow your mind if zombies don't eat it first. Be ready for Nudity! Brains! Dismemberment! Gore! And as always, lots and lots of BLOOD!!! as only The Primitive Screwheads Theatre Co. can bring to you!

 

WARNING: BLOOD AND GORE WILL SHOWER DOWN UPON THE AUDIENCE IN AN UNHOLY THUNDERSTORM FROM HELL!!!! Don't wear your nice clothes.

The 4th Annual ANOTHER HOLE IN THE HEAD: Two Weeks of Fantasy, Sci Fi and Horror will take take place June 1-14 at the Roxie Cinema. And new to HoleHead this year will be SF IndieFest:Gets Animated, a full Animation Sidebar at HoleHead, a program of great new and classic animated features and shorts.

We hope to have the full festival program on our site by the first week of May. We now have discount festival passes, launch party tickets and HoleHead Membership Scheme™ Packages on sale at www.sfindie.com/catalog.

BENEFIT/LAUNCH PARTY
I'm really looking forward to this year's HoleHead launch party! The party takes place Thursday May 31 at the DNA Lounge and will feature Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, The Rock N Roll Adventure Kids and a special performance by the lovely zombie dance troupe The Living Dead Girlz! Plus short film screenings, drink specials and festival preview.

AT THE HOLEHEAD PLAYHOUSE
We also have tickets on sale for our co-presented live theater presentation of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, presented by our long time partners in horror/comedy mayhem The Primitive Screwheads. Like previous years, this show will sell out, so get tickets early!