PUFF 2020 - PUFF Preview

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival
PUFF Preview 2020

by Hunter Bush



Last year, I was privileged to go to the 4th annual Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival with my partner Allison Yakulis and interact with a great group of people who were all passionate about genre films great and small. From the festival organizers to the filmmakers on hand to the audience members. I was even introduced to what ended up being my favorite movie of last year, The Invisible Mother. It is currently, to the best of my knowledge, sadly unavailable (but if you’re reading this Shudder, it’d be right up your alley) but I digress. My experience at PUFF was fantastic! I saw a dozen different pictures (and twice as many shorts), met and interacted with some wonderful people and got to explore a part of the city I’m otherwise rarely in.

Obviously, due to *gestures at viral pandemic* all this, PUFF was forced to go digital this year and has a smaller roster of films at hand, but I’m sure they’re no less interesting. Let’s take a look at the available trailers and see if we can’t find my next favorite movie of the year!

The Silent Party - We’re starting strong with this Argentinian thriller. The trailer is one minute and sixteen seconds of mounting tension and dread. It appears as though a pair of newlyweds attend one of those titular silent parties (where the DJ beams the music into headphones so as not to disturb anyone in the immediate area) and something happens. I’m getting the distinct impression that Laura (Jazmín Stuart) hooks up with somebody from the party and either that person or someone they know ends up with cell phone footage of it? There’s a lot of gun play in the trailer, so I’m guessing the finale of this one might get explosive. Something was itching the back of my mind about this one and I think this is it: it seems to lack a clear black & white morality. Laura sure seems like our protagonist, but might be having an affair right after her wedding? That’s an interesting POV. This one is high on my list.

Poser - The trailer for Poser was well put together but kind of alienating. It gives you very little idea of the plot. There’s a found footage component, somebody is wearing a ski mask and at the end there’s a gun. The plot description however, sounds pretty wild: A local skate legend returns from rehab to star in a documentary and a drug stash is found in one of his old hangouts. Were I just casually browsing trailers, I don’t think this would have made a huge impression on me, but thanks to that synopsis, I’m definitely more interested.

Seeds (2020) - There’s something about Seeds that’s really intriguing to me. It feels very deliberately paced and has the cadence of a drama about a troubled relationship, but with some kind of subplot about cursed seeds? And a spooky kid wearing a blank white mask whispering and pointing? I’m not personally familiar with any lore about seeds that matches what I’m seeing here which is definitely intriguing, but it has a few big hurdles to overcome for me. Namely that the trailer stinks of a pretentious film school project. To be clear: I have not seen the picture and this is in no way a judgment of it or of those involved, but it’s shot in black and white (unprocessed digital from the look of it which makes this a bit too clear for me, but that’s a minor quibble), the dialogue mix seems mumblecore-adjacent, and then some capital-w Weird imagery like the whispering masked kid that’s probably metaphorical. None of these things are deal-breakers for me, but put them all together and this just seems like I’m gonna have to try harder to really Get Into a movie. But that’s just me.

Hail to the Deadites - Y’all know what fandoms are like: people find a movie or books or what-have-you and they take the word “fan” back to its origins in the word “fanatic”. This looks like a fairly standard fandom documentary focusing on the fans of the Evil Dead series (beginning with 1981’s The Evil Dead and continuing intermittently up to the end of the Ash vs. Evil Dead series in 2018). The trailer features some cosplayers, some interviews with principal cast and creators and even a song inspired by the lore! I also thought I saw some folks representing Evil Dead: The Musical, which is a thing that A) exists, B) I have been to and C) absolutely rules. I *love* the Evil Dead flicks so this is high on my interests.

Beasts Clawing at Straws - This South Korean crime thriller looks gorgeous and stylish. There’s a lot of talk about money and the trailer ends with a character saying “When you strike it rich, you can’t trust anyone. Not even your parents.” A glance at the plot summary reveals that it’s a found money / lost money / owed money type of story involving some “hard-luck lowlifes” and a loan shark. This one is giving me serious Coen Bros. vibes but since I don’t really speak Korean, any tonal importance is lost on me. I’m basing this feeling almost entirely on the above photo. That’s gotta be a dead body in the tub right? Pretty funny… and it just feels Coens-y to me.

So, as it stands, I’m most excited for Silent Party and Beasts Clawing at Straws. Hail to the Deadites is going to be a blast for me personally, but the fandom documentaries are hit-or-miss in quality, generally. Poser and Seeds are both interesting and I’ll be happy to check them out, but they’re not exactly must-see for me.

As I mentioned, I’m basing my impression almost entirely on the trailers, and I am happy to be wrong. If you’re interested to see for yourself, you can check out the PUFF youtube channel and watch the trailers for yourself! See which ones you’re excited to check out!

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This piece was written for Moviejawn where you can find tons of other excellent movie-centric writings, a shop where you can subscribe to the quarterly physical zine and also listen to the  I Saw It In a Movie,  Cinematic Crypt  or  Hate Watch / Great Watch  podcasts!

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