Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Another Hole In The Head, 2009 - Days 10 and 11

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 tenth day, Sunday, June 14th, with a pair of encore screenings (BE A MAN! SAMURAI SCHOOL and MONSTERS FROM THE ID) before presenting the festival premiere of the night.

AUDIE AND THE WOLF (dir. B. Scott O'Malley, US, 2009, 80 mins.) It has been a few years since a fun werewolf comedy has been produced! And thanks to director and writer B. Scott O'Malley, a new twist has been added to that genre, as this features a wolf which turns into a man under the full moon. It is an inspired bit and the character has fortunately been cast with Derek Hughes. He is an exceptional, physical comedian, as well as having an impish innocence. In other words, he's got puppy dog eyes and is a charmer. All of this works to the character's benefit as well as the film's. The plot it self creaks at points where it should be taking off into farce, but Hughes ably handles the load of maintaining the audience's goodwill in the face of some stumbles. I think director O'Malley may have been afraid of letting the film cross into "zaniness". However, he has a strong enough character and performer in Hughes' "John Doe" that if he chose to, I do think that a little snip here and there would shift it into high gear, without losing the audience. There is a nice amount of gore and blood (which is always appreciated in these things!), that the horror element is well grounded. There just feels like there is a bit of hesitancy, that the production does not trust the formula (the wolf-to-man is exceptionally unique) enough to let it breathe and fly out of control! Regardless, I found it charming (a werewolf film - charming?!) and a delight to watch!

WITHOUT (dirs. Brent Bishop, Gregory Tuzin, US, 2009, 13 mins.) I hate to sound too dismissive, but this is a rather typical, existential short where to strangers meet in limbo and try to figure out the meaning of things, though they are unable to effectively communicate what it is that they are actually searching for. Sort of a "Godot on the Playa", as it looks like it was filmed at Black Rock City, Nevada, aka Burning Man.


The day ends with another encore screening of DETECTIVE STORY.

Monday, June 15th (aka Day 11), is filled with encores:
RUN BITCH! RUN!, FRAT HOUSE MASSACRE, and PIG HUNT.

Maxxxxx says
re AUDIE AND THE WOLF: "Belle! Belle! Sit!" (Belle is my english bulldog.)

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