Another Hole in the Head Film Festival

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.

Another Hole in the Head Film Festival

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.

Another Hole in the Head Film Festival

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.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

Another Hole in the Head Scares Up New Round

The adventure of Another Hole in the Head Film Festival requires you risk seeing the occasional dud to seek out the gems.

‘Kiss the Cook’ Sparks Weidlinger’s Appetite

Tom Weidlinger creates a cooking show that offers surprises for the slow-foodie.

‘Kiss the Cook’ Sparks Weidlinger’s Appetite

Tom Weidlinger creates a cooking show that offers surprises for the slow-foodie.

‘Kiss the Cook’ Sparks Weidlinger’s Appetite

Tom Weidlinger creates a cooking show that offers surprises for the slow-foodie.

SFFS Announces 2011 SF International Film Festival Titles, Events

SF International's 54th wide-ranging program is announced.

SFFS Announces 2011 SF International Film Festival Titles, Events

SF International's 54th wide-ranging program is announced.

SFFS Announces 2011 SF International Film Festival Titles, Events

SF International's 54th wide-ranging program is announced.

Arctic 'Summer' Story Chills Screen

SFFS Screen's 'How I Ended This Summer' is a taut drama set in the Arctic.

Arctic 'Summer' Story Chills Screen

SFFS Screen's 'How I Ended This Summer' is a taut drama set in the Arctic.

‘Meat Grinder’

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.

'Red White & Blue'

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.

Going Guerrilla with Zombies

Horror legend George Romero offers fundraising advice to first-timers: "Just make the movie. Don’t worry about the money."

Going Guerrilla with Zombies

Horror legend George Romero offers fundraising advice to first-timers: "Just make the movie. Don’t worry about the money."

Going Guerrilla with Zombies

Horror legend George Romero offers fundraising advice to first-timers: "Just make the movie. Don’t worry about the money."

‘Poltergeist’ with JoBeth Williams in Person

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 Family Implodes in Biting 'Dogtooth'

A Greek film incriminates the viewer.

A Family Implodes in Biting 'Dogtooth'

A Greek film incriminates the viewer.

One Last Rocky Horror Picture Show

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.

A Vampire Weekend at YBCA

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. . .

A Vampire Weekend at YBCA

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. . .

Noirish New Lavine Series Hits the Roxie

Elliot Lavine speaks of noir, noirishness, and the series of potent, paranoid, and often genre-busting classics he brings to the Roxie.

Noirish New Lavine Series Hits the Roxie

Elliot Lavine speaks of noir, noirishness, and the series of potent, paranoid, and often genre-busting classics he brings to the Roxie.

Noirish New Lavine Series Hits the Roxie

Elliot Lavine speaks of noir, noirishness, and the series of potent, paranoid, and often genre-busting classics he brings to the Roxie.

Looking to the Skies for Cinema

Think summer's almost over? In the Bay Area, think again: Outdoor screenings are just getting started.

Looking to the Skies for Cinema

Think summer's almost over? In the Bay Area, think again: Outdoor screenings are just getting started.

Looking to the Skies for Cinema

Think summer's almost over? In the Bay Area, think again: Outdoor screenings are just getting started.

7th Heaven: Another Hole in the Head

SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.

7th Heaven: Another Hole in the Head

SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.

7th Heaven: Another Hole in the Head

SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.

7th Heaven: Another Hole in the Head

SF Indiefest unveils its 7th annual showcase of the wildest and weirdest in independently produced sci-fi, horror and fantasy.

Kore-eda Breathes Life into 'Air Doll'

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll is a conceptual gamble pulled off with a master’s grace and subtlety.

Kore-eda Breathes Life into 'Air Doll'

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Air Doll is a conceptual gamble pulled off with a master’s grace and subtlety.

SFIFF53 Reports: Divine Madness at 'All About Evil' Premiere

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.

SFIFF53 Reports: The Butcher Block; Opening Night

To be from the Bay Area and called The Butcher Brothers might mean you get mixed up with purveyors of grass fed meats.

Beyond 'Berlin,' Eggers' New German Gems

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.

Val Lewton's Brooding Mood, Chilling Themes

Horror movies were once dismissed by most grownups (and nearly all critics) as juvenile, silly, even offensive. Val Lewton seriously challenged that thinking,

Butchers Chop Shop at Sundance

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.

Robert Mailer Anderson on Mendo Madness of 'Pig Hunt'

After ripping it up at various genre fests, the Bay Area indie horror flick settles in for a theatrical run at the Red Vic.

Robert Mailer Anderson on Mendo Madness of 'Pig Hunt'

After ripping it up at various genre fests, the Bay Area indie horror flick settles in for a theatrical run at the Red Vic.

The horror, the horror: 'Tweaker With an Axe'

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.

The horror, the horror: 'Tweaker With an Axe'

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.

Frameline33: Something Old, Something New

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.)

'All About Evil'-doer Joshua Grannell in post

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.

'All About Evil'-doer Joshua Grannell in post

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.

Another Hole in the Head

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.

Another Hole in the Head

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.

Raimi's Return to Horror: Drag Me to Hell

Despite a few flaws in story and continuity, Drag Me to Hell offers the pleasures of a first-class entertainer thoroughly enjoying himself.

Raimi's Return to Horror: Drag Me to Hell

Despite a few flaws in story and continuity, Drag Me to Hell offers the pleasures of a first-class entertainer thoroughly enjoying himself.

Back to Nature with Ben Rivers

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.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa and a Cinema of Disaster

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.

SF Indiefest 2009

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.

SF Indiefest 2009

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.

Autobio-Animation and the Horrors of War

Waltz with Bashir is another animated feature that embraces a more grown-up story and audience than anything in the long history of "cartoons."

Supernaturalism with 'Let the Right One In'

Based on John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, Let the Right One In is a poignant, nuanced, original addition to the cinematic vampire canon.

Documenting the Lyme Epidemic

Andy Abrahams Wilson talks about Under Our Skin, his elegantly crafted film on the underreported epidemic of Lyme disease.

Documenting the Lyme Epidemic

Andy Abrahams Wilson talks about Under Our Skin, his elegantly crafted film on the underreported epidemic of Lyme disease.

Dead Channels 2008 Comes Alive

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.

Dead Channels 2008 Comes Alive

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.

Baloney Sandwiches With No Cheese: Ted V. Mikels' Wild World

'It takes your guts and your entrails and your soul to make a film,' Mikels once proclaimed. 'It takes everything you possess within you!'

Mendocino's Swine Country

"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."

Mendocino's Swine Country

"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."

Hard Look at China in 'Blind Mountain'

Li Yang speaks about commercial pressures in Chinese film and the story behind Blind Mountain.

Critic's Notebook: Hole Head, Week One

Dennis Harvey covers the first week of low-budget geeks, weirdos and gore on display at the Another Hole in the Head Festival.

Critic's Notebook: Hole Head, Week One

Dennis Harvey covers the first week of low-budget geeks, weirdos and gore on display at the Another Hole in the Head Festival.

Travel Guide Through Another Hole in the Head Film Festival

The Hole Head Festival takes audiences back to terrifying locales and dangerous situations that should be pleasantly familiar to horror aficionados.

Travel Guide Through Another Hole in the Head Film Festival

The Hole Head Festival takes audiences back to terrifying locales and dangerous situations that should be pleasantly familiar to horror aficionados.

Asia Argento, In Full Flower

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.

Asia Argento, In Full Flower

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.

Review: "The Signal"

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.

Review: "The Signal"

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.

Undying Love for George A. Romero

It probably wasn't Romero's original dream to become semi-famous for movies about the flesh-eating undead.

Undying Love for George A. Romero

It probably wasn't Romero's original dream to become semi-famous for movies about the flesh-eating undead.

"Shrooms" Screams Bloody 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.

"Shrooms" Screams Bloody 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.

SF-Based Distributor Viz Pictures

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.

Jesse Hawthorne Ficks's Midnight Movie Empire

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's "Culture" war

Lynn Hershman Leeson discusses her new project, ÔStrange Culture'.

Bruce Fletcher, Dead Channels and the Living

Fletcher explains what will hopefully be an annual event that encompasses all kinds of worldwide cult-skewing fun.

'Joshua's' George Ratliff

George Ratliff talks about his first feature narrative Joshua, described by Sundance as a "horror story disguised as a sophisticated family drama."

'Joshua's' George Ratliff

George Ratliff talks about his first feature narrative Joshua, described by Sundance as a "horror story disguised as a sophisticated family drama."

"The Prodigy," The Roxie, Delirium, God

San Franciscans have a poignant symbiotic relationship with William Kaufman's freshman feature, The Prodigy, which returns to the city this week.

Guillen's Top Five from Another Hole in the Head

Five recommendations chosen from among the gore, ghouls, ghosts, gags, and animation at Indiefest's Holehead festival.

Guillen's Top Five from Another Hole in the Head

Five recommendations chosen from among the gore, ghouls, ghosts, gags, and animation at Indiefest's Holehead festival.

Dead Channels : The San Francisco Festival of Fantastic Film

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.

Grace Lee on the Zombie in You and Me

Director Grace Lee talks about the personal horror movie genre in American Zombie and the ethical dilemmas documentary filmmakers face.

Cheryl Eddy, Behind the New "SF360 Movie Scene"

The latest launch under the SF Film Society's SF360 banner premieres this week on ComcastSF, Channel 11.

Indiefest Lineup Announcement

SF IndieFest's founder/director Jeff Ross announced the ninth edition of the Bay Area's indie showcase festival

SF to Sundance

At least three Bay Area-based filmmakers will be making the trek to Park City this year, Jon Else, Steven Okazaki, and Jay Rosenblatt.

Cheryl Eddy's Badder Santas

You can't imagine a critic like Cheryl Eddy,with her dazzlingly caustic skepticism, ever believed in Santa Claus.

Cheryl Eddy's Badder Santas

You can't imagine a critic like Cheryl Eddy,with her dazzlingly caustic skepticism, ever believed in Santa Claus.

Otto Motives, A Preminger Perspective

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.

Pacific Film Archive's "A Theater Near You"

This 2006 series of recent releases and restorations that played theaters for only a day or, at most, a week is exceptionally varied.

Preteens on Surprise Endings

A California Film Institute-procured class of 13somethings needed no help deciding their top ten list of surprise movie endings.

Rare Horror

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.

Rare Horror

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.

A Talk with SFIAAFF Directors Chi-hui Yang and Taro Goto

Asian America everywhere: A talk with San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival directors Chi-hui Yang and Taro Goto.

'Il Divo' outdoes himself

Paolo Sorrentino takes on the notorious Italian Prime Minister, Giulio Andreotti, in Il Divo.

Delicious 'All About Evil' In Production

Michael Fox goes behind the scenes on Peaches Christs' slice-'em-up.