Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2024 - Preview

PUFF 9
Sept. 24th - Sept 29th
The Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival returns!

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor, host, and podcast czar

Chockablock with original films of all stripes from gonzo comedy to head-trip horror (and beyoooond!) the spooky season doesn't start for me until the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival is near. For a ninth year (!!!!!!!!!) the fine folks at PUFF have gathered together a truly, madly, deeply eclectic selection of features, shorts, and music videos into one place, for you. They return this year to Theater Exile for an impressive six-day lineup of screenings and events from Tues. Sept. 24th - Sun. Sept 29th, with the film screenings beginning on Thurs. Sept 26th! The old joke goes: Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven ate (eight) nine. Things would have gone very differently if seven tried to eat PUFF 9, I'm sure.

Join me as I check out PUFF for a ninth glorious, gory-ous, weird and way-out year. Below I've highlighted just a few flicks you may want to make time for. And don't forget to take a gander at everything they've got planned here: PUFF 9.

THURS. Sept. 26th:

Lampir: The Immortal Witch
Directed by Kenny Gulardi
Showtime: 6:45 pm
Buy tickets HERE

I've been in a real vampire headspace this year gearing up for Vamp-tober on the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast, so the title Lampir leapt out at me like a ghoul from a tomb. Apparently, if the subtitle is to be believed, the antagonist is an Immortal Witch and not a vampire, but by the time I clocked that fact, it was too late; I was hooked. This Indonesian film follows a group of friends to a pre-wedding photo shoot at an enigmatic villa and the trailer features some really fantastic cinematography! There's a windshield wiper scene transition that legit blew me away! I cannot wait for this one.

FRI. Dept. 27th:

Chainsaws Were Singing
Directed by Sander Maran
Showtime: 10:30 pm
Buy tickets HERE

The trailer for Chainsaws Were Singing states that it has been "in the making" for a decade and, honestly, this seems like a decade's worth of crazy crap (complimentary). This Estonian gonzo, splattery, silly, chainsaw-centric musical looks like nothing else on the PUFF lineup and I have the feeling this will be a real crowd-pleaser to kick your weekend off right!

SAT. Sept. 28th:

Voidcaller
Directed by Nils Alatalo
Showtime: Noon
Buy tickets HERE

I'm a sucker for drug-trip films, because they allow filmmakers to cut loose a little more; arresting visuals, intuitive storytelling, creative edits. In other words: cinema! I'm also drawn to creative black and white photography and stories described as "Lovecraftian" because I'm a sucker for indescribable cosmic horror, kind of especially when done on a smaller budget - again, it forces the filmmakers to be creative! Swedish  flick Voidcaller has a bare-bones description about people suffering from amnesia beginning to suspect they are connected via something cosmic and sinister, but combined with those interest points above means I'll be starting my day the Voidcaller way.

Screening before Voidcaller is an animated short called The One about a man competing against a 30-foot-long monster worm on a dating show. Many of the features have a short film paired with them btw.

Párvulos
Directed by Isaac Ezban
Showtime: 7:00 pm
Buy tickets HERE

I caught this earlier this year as part of my Fantasia International Film Festival coverage and I'm really psyched to see it again! The post-apocalyptic zombie sub-genre might seem as far past its expiration date as the zombies themselves, but Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban manages to introduce enough novelty and creativity into the film's clichés and conventions that it feels not just fresh but genuinely exciting! Combining survival horror with an Amblin Entertainment-style approach to family drama, Párvulos ("little ones") is pure genre dynamite!

SUN. Sept. 29th:

Local Block
Showtime: 1:00 pm
Buy tickets HERE

Each day of film screenings at PUFF includes at least one collection of short films - Thursday's Bizarre Block; Friday's Sci-Fi Shorts; and Saturday's Global Grab Bag and Horror Shorts - but the Local Block is always near and dear to my heart. This collection features all shorts made by local filmmakers! How could I NOT love it? This year's assortment features a lucky 13 entries with subjects ranging from misophonia to a four year-old detective. I love the variety and imagination on display in short films, and the PUFF crew always curate a really broad assortment. I hope you'll join me at this year's festival to appreciate all the hard work of the filmmakers and organizers alike!

The 9th Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival runs from Sept. 24th - Sept 29th. Get tickets HERE.

Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 - Week 2

The Fantasia International Film Festival, week 2!

by: "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor & podcast czar

My second week of Fantasia International Film Festival offerings has been incredible. I've been lucky enough to watch some films I've been eagerly anticipating, and been caught off-guard by films I'd underestimated - remember, kids: You Can't Trust the Trailers. below are just a few feature and short film recommendations. Check back with MovieJawn next week for a wrap-up round-up with a few more, and I'll also be doing a full write-up of Tilman Singer's Cuckoo, so if you're interested in that one, stay tuned.

Features:

Párvulos

Written by Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes, Isaac Ezban
Directed by Isaac Ezban
Running time 1 hour, 58 minutes

Párvulos ("Little ones") is the film I've been most excited to tell everyone about. Director Issac Ezban (co-writing with Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes) takes the zombie movie - a genre which at this point seems as past-its-prime as the zombies themselves - and actually manages to inject new life (no pun intended) into it. With characters that are easy to care about, interesting world building with a tone akin to Amblin at times, and a unique twist on the desaturated visuals (where you can just see the color underneath, like remembering the world that was) Párvulos is absolutely dynamite. Don't let the surprisingly lighthearted first half fool you though, this film has sharp teeth just waiting for you to let your guard down.

The Silent Planet
Written and directed by Jeffrey St. Jules
Running time 1 hour, 35 minutes

If I can be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect with The Silent Planet. I knew the underappreciated Elias Koteas was playing a man imprisoned on a penal planet alone until a ship carrying a new prisoner (Briana Middleton) lands. I was not prepared for what is essentially a classic episode of Dr. Who! Between the lived-in worldbuilding, moral and socio-political analogies, character-defining monologues, and occasionally cheesy special effects (complimentary), I was in old school sci-fi heaven. The above-listed qualities, and measured pace may not work for everyone but them most assuredly worked for me.

The Soul Eater
Written by Annelyse Batrel, Ludovic Lefebvre, based on the work of Alexis Laipsker
Directed by Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
Running time 1 hour, 48 minutes

The Soul Eater stood out to me from this year's Fantasia features because it managed to be something unique and apart from anything I've watched so far, and to manage a tone that feels, similarly, just a mite different from anything else this year. A French crime procedural with potentially supernatural undercurrents and the general feeling of overturning a rock in the forest and seeing what scurries out from underneath, The Soul Eater is an unsettling watch to say the least. With some shocking violence, and other even more disturbing crimes (mercifully implied indirectly) at its fringes, the film feels like an adaptation that will appeal to fans of the Jack Reacher series, or maybe Laird Barron's Isaiah Coleridge novels.

Salute your Shorts:

Berta
Written by Lucía Forner Segarra
Directed by Lucía Forner Segarra
Running time 17 minutes

Berta is the third in a thematic trilogy of feminist horror shorts from Spanish writer/director Lucía Forner Segarra. The subject matter is relatively dark, but the tone has a populist sensibility that almost feels akin to the type of revenge thrillers that see broad theatrical release. The world build around Berta (Nerea Barros) and her victim Alex (Elías González) feels real, reasoned, and fully conceived. In just under 20 minutes Segarra delivers something that could, and does, function as a complete story, but that you wouldn't mind spending more time with. I'll be looking for somewhere to watch the two previous thematic installments - Marta and Dana - ASAP.

FACES
Written by Blake Simon
Directed by Blake Simon
Running Time 14 minutes

Like Párvulos above, I've been dying to spread the word about this short from Blake Simon. "I wanted to explore something that I had been witnessing around me that nobody was openly talking about" Simon says in the press materials "...that search for identity that lies under the surface of all of us." But before you get the wrong idea, this insight into the human experience didn't lead Simon to creating an austere drama, but a genuinely unsettling supernaturally-tinged urban legend of a horror short. Supported by solid performances (notably Ethan Daniel Corbett) and the excellent, creative cinematography of Andrew Fronczak, FACES is a really intriguing short-form chiller.

The 28th Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 18th to August 4th in Montreal. Get tickets HERE.