2012 San Diego Film Festival Adds Horror Component; Full Lineup Announced

Steve Barton   |  

Sep 25, 2012

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With Dread Central headquarters being located in San Diego, we’re happy to be able to report on a local event that isn’t Comic-Con! The 2012 San Diego Film Festival kicks off soon and will include some really good stuff!

The 2012 San Diego Film Festival begins this Wednesday, September 26th, and runs through Sunday, September 30th. The star of the show for genre fans is Martin McDonagh’s highly anticipated Seven Psychopaths (review here), starring Colin Farrell, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell: A struggling screenwriter inadvertently becomes entangled in the Los Angeles criminal underworld after his oddball friends kidnap a gangster’s beloved Shih Tzu.

Also screening is Below Zero: The film, directed by Justin Thomas Ostensen and written by Signe Olynyk, stars Edward Furlong (T2, Night of the Demons, The Crow: Wicked Prayer) and genre vet Michael Berryman (The Hills Have Eyes, The Lords of Salem) along with Kristin Booth (The Kennedys). It is said to be based upon true events! ‘Jack the Hack’, a less than average but once successful screenwriter, faces writer’s block. Desperate to meet a career-saving deadline and lock out the distractions of his troubled life, Jack arranges to be left alone and locked inside a meat cooler with only vegetarian meals and his imagination to inspire him. As the temperature drops, the lines between reality and fiction blur, and Jack’s script comes dangerously to life. Will he make the most important deadline of his career? Or is Jack ‘just a hack’?

Jonah D. Ansell’s Cadaver animated short film looks to be another one not to miss: A macabre nursery rhyme (most definitely not for kids!) starring Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd, sixteen-year-old fashion icon Tavi Gevinson, and Academy Award winner Kathy Bates. It’s a bittersweet love story that tells the fable of a cadaver who wakes up to say a last goodbye to his wife but discovers a truth in death that he didn’t know in life. Featuring the music of Neil Young, Cadaver is also being published as a picture book for adults this fall.

Additionally SDFF will be featuring a “Stranger in a Strange Land” Shorts Track, where you’ll find the following genre films:

* The Grand Design (West Coast Premiere) – Written and directed by Samuel Bartlett. A metaphysics student must decide between sacrificing his own life or that of a stranger after living the same day twice.
* Zombie Man (World Premiere) – Directed by Scott Wenger. A young man searches for his mother, who was turned into a zombie and taken from him as a child. Finding “Mombie” is the only thing that matters and has taken him deep into the zombie preserve.

The San Diego Film Festival will also be home to several unique events and tributes, including a Gus Van Sant tribute and retrospective on September 27th, the first time his collective works will have been featured in a festival setting. Also on tap are groundbreaking panels, including a discussion and screening of the documentary Trek Nation featuring Rod Roddenberry and panel discussions with top level film executives. The festival’s nightlife promises to be exceptional this year as well. From September 26th–30th, The San Diego Film Festival will transform the entire Gaslamp into a cinematic paradise with dozens of screenings, premieres, and parties, including an “Almost Famous Block Party” and outdoor screening hosted by the original Pennie Lane.

For the first time the Festival will be held at two venues: the Reading Theater in the Gaslamp Quarter (701 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101), and the Museum of Contemporary Art La Jolla, Sherwood Auditorium (700 Prospect Street, La Jolla, CA 92037). Tickets start at $14 for pre-sale/$16 at the door and go up to $75 for a one-day pass and range up to $300 for a Festival VIP Pass to all screenings, premieres, events, and panels on all days. A dramatic expansion this year, Festival organizers anticipate hosting over 100 film screenings.

What we’ve listed above is just the tip of the iceberg. For the full schedule of films and events, visit SanDiegoFilmFest.com.

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