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In a blitz of blood spatter and body counts, the Alamo Drafthouse and Ain't It Cool News today released a portion of the sure-to-be incredible program for the 5th annual Fantastic Fest, which will burn down the South Lamar location in a cinematic firestorm September 24 - October 1, 2009.
Genre films are not everyone's cuppa tea, but one of the things that we love about Fantastic Fest is that amidst the bevy of gore and all out wackness, there are some slightly more mainstream films that those with more delicate sensibilities can enjoy right alongside all the fan boys, including this year's kick-off film Gentlemen Broncos. Michael Angarano plays Benjamin, a teenaged aspiring fantasy writer who attends a fantasy convention to promote his first novel, Yeast Lords, which is summarily cribbed by legendary fantasy novelist, Ronald Chevalier (Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame), whose well of new ideas has all but dried up. Jennifer Coolidge and Sam Rockwell round out the cast. Clement, director Jared Hess, and screenwriter Jerusha Hess (the duo behind everyone's favorite mouth-breathing-dance-machine Napoleon Dynamite) will be in attendance. Queue the squealing!
In news that is certain to have Alamo senior programmer and Weird Wednesday helmsman Lars Nilsen in a fit of ecstasy (seriously), it was also announced that Fantastic Fest will bestow its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award upon Jess Franco, creator of a catalog of over 50 years of sexually charged horror films, his best known among them being 99 Women. Franco will be accompanied by his long-time partner, muse and starring actress Lina Romay. Franco was given Spain's main national film accolade, the Goya Award, last year.
Besides just soaking in the excitement of knowing that FFest will soon be here again, the list of 32 features and 15 short films deserves further investigation. A few early stand-outs to us are Robo Geisha, a film by Noburu Iguchi (whose Machine Girl is one of our all time favorite bloodbaths), The Children, a British horror film that is supposedly lighter on the gore and heavier on the psychological terror side of things, and Kenny Begins, a Swedish sci-fi comedy (we love the Swedes!) about a would-be Galaxy Hero who is just trying to escape the family business, which happens to be hairdressing—the Drafthouse deems it "A Swedish Spaceballs", which is definitely something we are interested in.
Not to be overlooked, FFest 2008 award winner Yoshihiro Nishimura is back with Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl (his Tokyo Gore Police totally shredded our brain with its mix of splatter, black humor and screwball antics last year). We are also intrigued by Truffe, a Canadian flick that has something to do with noses, furry, mind-controlling creatures and Truffles. Weird. We like it.
Keep in mind that by the time FFest rolls around this year, the Alamo's newest funhouse The Highball (which was being called The Palace) will be open. Your brain will need a chance to recover from the throttling that it will receive in the theater, and what better way is there to restore yourself than through a soothing game of bowling or perhaps a quick jaunt into one of the karaoke rooms? We can only imagine that there will be some late-night partying happening, which is definitely a FFest specialty.
Keep an eye on the Fantastic Fest Blog for more news and be sure to snatch up a festival badge before they are all gone. After this announcement, they are sure to go fast.
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