Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Another Hole In The Head, 2009 - Day 9

Another Hole In The Head, two weeks of sci-fi, horror and fantasy, runs June 5th through June 18th, with screenings at the Roxie Film Center, 3117 16th Street (at Valencia) and live performances and events at CellSpace (2050 Bryant) and Great Star Theater (630 Jackson). Tickets and additional info at WWW.SFINDIE.COM.

Another Hole In The Head begins its ninth day on Saturday, June 13th, with an encore screening of the sick and twisted BLACK DEVIL DOLL, before the festival premiere of an even stranger flick.

The evening starts off innocently enough with THE VAGINA SONG (dir. John Madden, US, 2009, 3 mins.), a music video for Maya Prickett's original song. I earlier misstated it as being a "cover of The Bloodhound Gang's underground classic."! ack!! THIS deserves to become an underground classic in its own right! The production design is delightfully colorful and cute, and thoroughly surreal!

Speaking of surreal, I'm not sure quite what to make of PIG HUNT (dir. James Issac, US, 2008, 100 mins.). There are shades of that even-as-strange flick, RAZORBACK, but this is a bit more chatty. Also, setting it in Northern California opens up the opportunity to run into a unique, feminine commune, as it were. The production values are all professionally executed and the cinematography does actually "mutate" along with the story, as it travels from the yuppie gloss of the San Francisco beginning, then grows murkier upon running into the DELIVERANCE inspired locals in the mountains, before going all horrific when the title character makes its climatic appearance. I sort of wish that the film had spent more time on that final act, or actually expanded it while cutting back on the mountain locals section, which was just a bit too derivative and not nearly as inspired as the finale. But that's just me being an armchair producer. I can see where this could build a cult following.

RUN BITCH! RUN! (dir. Joseph Guzman, US, 2008, 90 mins.) This is a classically structured rape revenge story, though executed pretty graphically enough, it pushes itself into the exploitation genre. The sex and violence is played out fairly darkly, but Peter Tahoe's performance as the sadistic leader has a sly humor underneath it, which plays in contrast to Cheryl Lyone's exceptionally still and focused victim. These two performances kept me engaged in what would have otherwise been a routine sexploitation film. Oddly enough, as intense as I found the experience to be at the time I viewed this, in retrospect, I am not really remembering it as graphically as what I do THE HORSEMAN, which is thematically similar. (The accompanying short subject was unavailable for preview.)

Day 9 ends with an encore screening of SOMEONE'S KNOCKING AT THE DOOR.

Maxxxxx says
re PIG HUNT: Squeals

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