FILM | ANDREA CHASE
The 16th Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, brought to you by the fine people at SFIndieFest, gathers a scintillating collection of the best of the genres of sci-fi, horror, fantasy and just plain odd films currently out there, along with the now traditional rescoring of a classic.
The fest is running now through December 15 at the New People Cinema in Japantown, and there’s not a dud in the program.
Here are some highlights.
The aforementioned rescoring is Drone/doom collective Sleepbomb’s rethinking of Conan the Barbarian (December 8, 7 p.m.). Dialogue and sound design intact, Sleepbomb, in live performance, adds new music, proving the power of a soundtrack in revealing a film’s meaning.
Artik (December 9, 9 p.m.) is an ode to the grindhouse school of horror with an arresting take on the psychotic killer doing God’s will by torturing and killing innocent bystanders to find the chosen one. Relying on suspense as much as gore, on psychological tension as much as violence, Tom Botchii Skowronski delivers an almost introspective horror film, with understated direction that avoids the cliche of jump-and-scare in favor of slowly creeping us out.
Self-consciously ridiculous, with an irresistible, feel-good campiness and an ersatz Elvis, Housesitter . . . The Night They Saved Siegfried’s Brain (December 10, 7 p.m.), with a delicious homage to schlock exploitation flicks of the 1950s, is a film released in 2019, but made in 1987. Richard Gasparian and Robin Nuyen shot their footage in an actual haunted mansion. But, alas, their spoof on mad scientists, brain transplants and Elvis obsession didn’t have post-productions funds. Until now.
Sweden’s Adrián García Bogliano’s Black Circle (December 12, 7 p.m.) combines ethereal doubles, recreational ketamine and a secret cult dedicated to better living through psychic magnetism as one sister’s well-meaning attempt to get the other one’s life back on track goes horribly wrong for both of them. Suffused with eerie absurdity, it contemplates the disturbing depths of the human mind.
Michael Thomas Daniel’s unsettling Get Gone (December 15, 5 p.m.), rife with Coppolas and Insidious’s Lin Shaye, finds a film crew recreating a supposedly supernatural viral video with predictably unfortunate results. Along the way, Daniel takes a few well-aimed jabs at workplace team-building, while also freshening up the classic cabin-in-the-woods trope with environmental flourishes and a refreshing new take on the scary guy in a mask.
Closing night offers the socially aware, morally fraught, animated gem To Your Last Death (December 15, 9 p.m.) Featuring the voices of Lorena Baccarin, Ray Wise and the always hyperbolic William Shatner as the narrator, it follows Miriam DeKalb, a warrior for justice who takes justice into her own hands when her billionaire stepfather’s crimes push her to the edge of reason. Which may account for the mysterious woman in a superhero (supervillain?) outfit that only she can see who offers her a temporal loophole. Jason Axinn’s gripping excursion into fantasy is an intelligent horror film drawn in graphically noir style and rooted all too uncomfortably in the real world.
More information about the 2019 Another Hole in the Head Film Festival.
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