SF IndieFest's annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, which features 16 entertaining, inexplicable days of contemporary, comedic, sci-fi and dark fantasy horror films, continues for another week. The event is hosted by Roxie Theater. More at sfindie.com.
SF IndieFest's annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, which features 16 entertaining, inexplicable days of contemporary, comedic, sci-fi and dark fantasy horror films, continues for another week. The event is hosted by Roxie Theater. More at sfindie.com.
SF IndieFest's annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, which features 16 entertaining, inexplicable days of contemporary, comedic, sci-fi and dark fantasy horror films, continues for another week. The event is hosted by Roxie Theater. More at sfindie.com.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.
Tom Weidlinger creates a cooking show that offers surprises for the slow-foodie.
Tom Weidlinger creates a cooking show that offers surprises for the slow-foodie.
Tom Weidlinger creates a cooking show that offers surprises for the slow-foodie.
SF International's 54th wide-ranging program is announced.
SF International's 54th wide-ranging program is announced.
SF International's 54th wide-ranging program is announced.
SFFS Screen's 'How I Ended This Summer' is a taut drama set in the Arctic.
SFFS Screen's 'How I Ended This Summer' is a taut drama set in the Arctic.
YBCA’s ‘Go To Hell For The Holidays: Horror in December’ series continues with Kiwa Moethaisong’s ‘Meat Grinder,’ the story of a disturbed chef who increases her noodle soup sales by adding a simple and grotesque ingredient. More at ybca.org.
Simon Rumley’s low budget Texas-set horror film tells the story of a disconnected, promiscuous young woman who finds friendship in a mysterious Iraq veteran. ‘Red White & Blue’ kicks off YBCA’s Go To Hell For The Holidays: Horror in December series. More at ybca.org.
Horror legend George Romero offers fundraising advice to first-timers: "Just make the movie. Don’t worry about the money."
Horror legend George Romero offers fundraising advice to first-timers: "Just make the movie. Don’t worry about the money."
Horror legend George Romero offers fundraising advice to first-timers: "Just make the movie. Don’t worry about the money."
Marc Huestis presents the '80s horror classic at the Castro Theatre with a tribute to star JoBeth Williams preceding the screening. This special event includes (of course) a live performance, and it's titled ‘Poltergayest, A Horrific Fashion Show.’ An autograph signing concludes the night’s otherworldly celebration. More at castrotheatre.com.
A Greek film incriminates the viewer.
A Greek film incriminates the viewer.
The San Francisco movie theater landmark Clay Theatre hosts one last screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show along with the Bawdy Caste before closing its doors for good this weekend.
Three vampire films capture more than the imagination. That the vogue for vampire melodramas may have run its course is clear enough from the appearance of Vampires Suck (in theaters as of this writing, though not likely much past it) and the news that the American redo of the 2008 Swedish indie hit, Let the Right One In, will be titled "Let Me In." Just like that, a lovely slice of pop-baroque gets reprocessed as a pathetic whine. No matter: as long there is cinema, the vampire will reemerge. Ever since the twin pinnacles of Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932), in which two of early cinema’s. . .
Three vampire films capture more than the imagination. That the vogue for vampire melodramas may have run its course is clear enough from the appearance of Vampires Suck (in theaters as of this writing, though not likely much past it) and the news that the American redo of the 2008 Swedish indie hit, Let the Right One In, will be titled "Let Me In." Just like that, a lovely slice of pop-baroque gets reprocessed as a pathetic whine. No matter: as long there is cinema, the vampire will reemerge. Ever since the twin pinnacles of Nosferatu (1922) and Vampyr (1932), in which two of early cinema’s. . .
Elliot Lavine speaks of noir, noirishness, and the series of potent, paranoid, and often genre-busting classics he brings to the Roxie.
Elliot Lavine speaks of noir, noirishness, and the series of potent, paranoid, and often genre-busting classics he brings to the Roxie.
Elliot Lavine speaks of noir, noirishness, and the series of potent, paranoid, and often genre-busting classics he brings to the Roxie.
Think summer's almost over? In the Bay Area, think again: Outdoor screenings are just getting started.
Think summer's almost over? In the Bay Area, think again: Outdoor screenings are just getting started.
Think summer's almost over? In the Bay Area, think again: Outdoor screenings are just getting started.
SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.
SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.
SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.
SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.
Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll is a conceptual gamble pulled off with a master’s grace and subtlety.
Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll is a conceptual gamble pulled off with a master’s grace and subtlety.
Judging from Saturday night s festivities, half the capacity Castro Theatre audience had worked on or otherwise invested in Joshua Grannell a.k.a. Peaches Christ s debut feature.
To be from the Bay Area and called The Butcher Brothers might mean you get mixed up with purveyors of grass fed meats.
The moving arrow anoints a new hot spot of contemporary cinema every few years, and then moves on. Yet Germany never makes the cool list.
Horror movies were once dismissed by most grownups (and nearly all critics) as juvenile, silly, even offensive. Val Lewton seriously challenged that thinking,
The Butcher Brothers The Violent Kind is a nightmare-with-bikers-in-the-woods fantasy shot in Petaluma and Cotati, and it fits their collaborative moniker.
After ripping it up at various genre fests, the Bay Area indie horror flick settles in for a theatrical run at the Red Vic.
After ripping it up at various genre fests, the Bay Area indie horror flick settles in for a theatrical run at the Red Vic.
An interview with Flynn Witmeyer about his debut feature Tweaker With an Axe, and the desire to make genre films—horror or sci-fi or fantasy—that incorporate gay and lesbian characters.
An interview with Flynn Witmeyer about his debut feature Tweaker With an Axe, and the desire to make genre films—horror or sci-fi or fantasy—that incorporate gay and lesbian characters.
A dose of self-affirmation arrives with Frameline33 (or, if you prefer, the multiple-breath-intake-requiring San Francisco International Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Film Festival.)
Blood-soaked, darkly comic All About Evil has writer-director Joshua Grannell and editor Rick LeCompte on an express-train schedule rare for an independent feature.
Blood-soaked, darkly comic All About Evil has writer-director Joshua Grannell and editor Rick LeCompte on an express-train schedule rare for an independent feature.
At a film festival called Another Hole in the Head, dedicated to sci-fi, horror and fantasy, catastrophic carnage meets comedy more often than not.
At a film festival called Another Hole in the Head, dedicated to sci-fi, horror and fantasy, catastrophic carnage meets comedy more often than not.
Despite a few flaws in story and continuity, Drag Me to Hell offers the pleasures of a first-class entertainer thoroughly enjoying himself.
Despite a few flaws in story and continuity, Drag Me to Hell offers the pleasures of a first-class entertainer thoroughly enjoying himself.
Ben Rivers makes his Bay Area debut this week presenting in person two programs, both providing a slightly dislocative experience at once tranquil and sinister.
The retrospective offers fascinating, if not always exemplary, viewing of what could be called a cinema of disaster: characters face the worst, or are living in its aftermath, and like the audience, they are provided with no easy answers.
With a roster that sprawls from horror to softcore to verite-style drama and documentary, the only constant is that you won't be bored.
With a roster that sprawls from horror to softcore to verite-style drama and documentary, the only constant is that you won't be bored.
Waltz with Bashir is another animated feature that embraces a more grown-up story and audience than anything in the long history of "cartoons."
Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, Let the Right One In is a poignant, nuanced, original addition to the cinematic vampire canon.
Andy Abrahams Wilson talks about Under Our Skin, his elegantly crafted film on the underreported epidemic of Lyme disease.
Andy Abrahams Wilson talks about Under Our Skin, his elegantly crafted film on the underreported epidemic of Lyme disease.
Those inclined toward healthy doses of sleaze, gore, and retro-shlock can rejoice that it's time for the second annual edition of Dead Channels.
Those inclined toward healthy doses of sleaze, gore, and retro-shlock can rejoice that it's time for the second annual edition of Dead Channels.
'It takes your guts and your entrails and your soul to make a film,' Mikels once proclaimed. 'It takes everything you possess within you!'
"Horror films can hold a lot of crazy ideas and political ideas and no one blinks," says Pig Hunt writer and producer Robert Mailer Anderson, "and that serves our purposes."
"Horror films can hold a lot of crazy ideas and political ideas and no one blinks," says Pig Hunt writer and producer Robert Mailer Anderson, "and that serves our purposes."
Li Yang speaks about commercial pressures in Chinese film and the story behind Blind Mountain.
Dennis Harvey covers the first week of low-budget geeks, weirdos and gore on display at the Another Hole in the Head Festival.
Dennis Harvey covers the first week of low-budget geeks, weirdos and gore on display at the Another Hole in the Head Festival.
The Hole Head Festival takes audiences back to terrifying locales and dangerous situations that should be pleasantly familiar to horror aficionados.
The Hole Head Festival takes audiences back to terrifying locales and dangerous situations that should be pleasantly familiar to horror aficionados.
Motherhood has supposedly had a slowing-down effect on Asia Argento, though at present evidence points rather wildly to the contrary. Not only does she star in this week’s San Francisco International Film Festival official opener, Catherine Breillat’s costume intrigue The Last Mistress, she also figures heavily in two other SFIFF features. Both are programmed in the culty "Late Show" section: Go Go Tales, Abel Ferrara’s most acclaimed film in years, and The Mother of Tears, a latest horror opus directed by her own fan-idolized gorehound dad Dario Argento. A couple weeks ago yet another vehicle opened commercially, Olivier Assayas’ Boarding Gate, which is entirely dominated by her feverish and highly physical performance.
Conventional logic might suggest all this visibility means it’s "breakthrough" time for Asia Argento, that moment when an actor goes from being a familiar face to a marquee name that can singlehandedly draw folks into the multiplex, or at least the arthouse. (In Europe she’s already quite well-known.) But as her project choices among other things bear out, Argento probably isn’t very interested in becoming a "star" in the conventional sense. In fact, she seems the girl most likely to run from any such fate.
Motherhood has supposedly had a slowing-down effect on Asia Argento, though at present evidence points rather wildly to the contrary. Not only does she star in this week’s San Francisco International Film Festival official opener, Catherine Breillat’s costume intrigue The Last Mistress, she also figures heavily in two other SFIFF features. Both are programmed in the culty "Late Show" section: Go Go Tales, Abel Ferrara’s most acclaimed film in years, and The Mother of Tears, a latest horror opus directed by her own fan-idolized gorehound dad Dario Argento. A couple weeks ago yet another vehicle opened commercially, Olivier Assayas’ Boarding Gate, which is entirely dominated by her feverish and highly physical performance.
Conventional logic might suggest all this visibility means it’s "breakthrough" time for Asia Argento, that moment when an actor goes from being a familiar face to a marquee name that can singlehandedly draw folks into the multiplex, or at least the arthouse. (In Europe she’s already quite well-known.) But as her project choices among other things bear out, Argento probably isn’t very interested in becoming a "star" in the conventional sense. In fact, she seems the girl most likely to run from any such fate.
An idea so vivid yet simple you've got to wonder why more movies haven't used it: Something happens that turns the populace into irrational maniacs.
An idea so vivid yet simple you've got to wonder why more movies haven't used it: Something happens that turns the populace into irrational maniacs.
It probably wasn't Romero's original dream to become semi-famous for movies about the flesh-eating undead.
It probably wasn't Romero's original dream to become semi-famous for movies about the flesh-eating undead.
The Irish flick might put the leper back in leprechaun, but it's still at heart a reassuringly formulaic hunk of bloody commercial horror.
The Irish flick might put the leper back in leprechaun, but it's still at heart a reassuringly formulaic hunk of bloody commercial horror.
The live-action film division of Viz Media has just marked its second year of bringing a broader range of Japanese film to the growing audience for Japanese pop culture.
Midnites for Maniacs unearths populist yet esoteric genre and exploitation flicks that have mostly disappeared into the netherworld of discarded VHS rental tapes.
Lynn Hershman Leeson discusses her new project, ÔStrange Culture'.
Fletcher explains what will hopefully be an annual event that encompasses all kinds of worldwide cult-skewing fun.
George Ratliff talks about his first feature narrative Joshua, described by Sundance as a "horror story disguised as a sophisticated family drama."
George Ratliff talks about his first feature narrative Joshua, described by Sundance as a "horror story disguised as a sophisticated family drama."
San Franciscans have a poignant symbiotic relationship with William Kaufman's freshman feature, The Prodigy, which returns to the city this week.
Five recommendations chosen from among the gore, ghouls, ghosts, gags, and animation at Indiefest's Holehead festival.
Five recommendations chosen from among the gore, ghouls, ghosts, gags, and animation at Indiefest's Holehead festival.
Taste a bit of the vintage grindhouse experience at the last of Dead Channels' Month of Sleazy Sundays triple bill of under-the-radar movies.
Director Grace Lee talks about the personal horror movie genre in American Zombie and the ethical dilemmas documentary filmmakers face.
The latest launch under the SF Film Society's SF360 banner premieres this week on ComcastSF, Channel 11.
SF IndieFest's founder/director Jeff Ross announced the ninth edition of the Bay Area's indie showcase festival
At least three Bay Area-based filmmakers will be making the trek to Park City this year, Jon Else, Steven Okazaki, and Jay Rosenblatt.
You can't imagine a critic like Cheryl Eddy,with her dazzlingly caustic skepticism, ever believed in Santa Claus.
You can't imagine a critic like Cheryl Eddy,with her dazzlingly caustic skepticism, ever believed in Santa Claus.
The director, producer and sometime actor enjoyed a painless ride from well-off circumstances to well-connected beginnings to one of Hollywood's biggest names for decades.
This 2006 series of recent releases and restorations that played theaters for only a day or, at most, a week is exceptionally varied.
A California Film Institute-procured class of 13somethings needed no help deciding their top ten list of surprise movie endings.
Highlights from the 4th year ofAnother Hole in the Head, the S.F. Indiefest-produced celebration of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and just plain sick cinema.
Highlights from the 4th year ofAnother Hole in the Head, the S.F. Indiefest-produced celebration of horror, sci-fi, fantasy and just plain sick cinema.
Asian America everywhere: A talk with San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival directors Chi-hui Yang and Taro Goto.
Paolo Sorrentino takes on the notorious Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, in Il Divo.
Michael Fox goes behind the scenes on Peaches Christs' slice-'em-up.