SXSW 2016: Midnighters Include Hush, Jack Goes Home, Carnage Park, and Phantasm: Remastered!
Debi Moore
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The 2016 South by Southwest (SXSW) announcements continued today with the reveal of the fest’s Midnighters lineup, Festival Favorites, Short Film Program, and Special Events. We have a look at the Midnighters below; just click the foregoing links for the rest of the details.
This year’s Midnighters consist of 10 genre films, including 6 World Premieres. They are scary, funny, sexy, controversial – provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.
For more info visit SXSW.com.
Carnage Park
Director/Screenwriter: Mickey Keating
The year is 1978. After botching an ill-conceived bank robbery in a desolate California town, two wannabe crooks named Scorpion Joe and Lenny flee the scene with a hostage, Vivian, and lead the local lawmen on a dangerous high-speed chase. With his partner suffering from a gunshot wound and losing blood fast, Joe takes to the back roads to dodge the heat, but he unwittingly steers them into the path of a far more dangerous evil: a psychotic ex-military sniper who doesn’t take kindly to strangers. Thrust into a wicked game of cat and mouse with a highly trained and mentally imbalanced killer, they begin a harrowing fight for survival. Cast: Ashley Bell, Pat Healy, Alan Ruck, Darby Stanchfield, Larry Fessenden, Graham Skipper, James Landry Hebert, Michael Villar
Hush (World Premiere)
Director: Mike Flanagan, Screenwriters: Mike Flanagan, Kate Siegel
Author Maddie Young (Siegel) has lived a life of isolation since losing her hearing as a teenager, fully retreating into her now silent world. But when the masked face of a psychotic killer appears in the window of her secluded home, Maddie must push herself beyond her mental and physical limits in order to survive the night. Cast: Kate Siegel, John Gallagher, Jr., Michael Trucco, Samantha Sloyan
I Am a Hero (Japan) (U.S. Premiere)
Director: Shinsuke Sato, Screenwriter: Akiko Nogi
Japan’s first major zombie movie based on a blockbuster manga series! Hideo is still a manga artist’s assistant at the age of 35. Increasingly frustrated by his fruitless dreams, Hideo’s girlfriend, Tekko, kicks him out. Days later, Hideo returns to apologize to Tekko, but she’s been infected by the mysterious virus that turns humans into ZQN and attacks him! Hideo flees Tokyo, taking his shotgun with him. The city is already overflowing with people infected with the virus. Amid the panic, Hideo meets high school student Hiromi, and they team together to escape. Hideo and Hiromi seek refuge, along with other survivors, on the roof of a shopping mall where they must shoot ZQNs on sight. Will Hideo be able to protect Hiromi and find a cure for the virus? Cast: Yo Oizumi, Kasumi Arimura, Masami Nagasawa
Jack Goes Home (World Premiere)
Director/Screenwriter: Thomas Dekker
Jack is an educated and well versed magazine editor living in Los Angeles. Grappling with the natural release of his childhood and the promise of his forthcoming adulthood, he is hit hard by the news of his father’s death. In a violent and horrific car crash, his father has perished while his mother has survived. He returns to his hometown of Denver, Colorado, to nurse his mother through her physical and emotional injuries. During his stay at home, he uncovers long buried secrets and lies within his family history, his friends, and his very identity. Jack’s journey to the truth is fueled by madness, sexuality, hauntings, and violence. For Jack, there truly is no place like home. Cast: Rory Culkin, Lin Shaye, Daveigh Chase, Natasha Lyonne, Louis Hunter, Nikki Reed, Britt Robertson
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (World Premiere)
Director: Simon Rumley, Screenwriters: Ben Ketai, Marc Haimes, Tony Giglio
Based on true events. Amarillo, Texas, Halloween, 1968, Sister Tadea Benz, a 76-year-old nun is raped and murdered in her bedroom in her convent. A teenager from the wrong side of the tracks, Johnny Frank Garrett, is arrested but claims innocence. His trial is a farce, and he is sentenced to death. On the day of his execution, Garrett writes a curse letter saying his spirit will return and kill not only those involved with his sentencing and death but the members of their families too. Sure enough, soon after, those involved in the execution start dying, and it is left to one of the jurors to try to solve the riddle of who actually killed Sister Tadea Benz to save his son. Cast: Sean Patrick Flanery, Erin Cummings, Devin Bonne, Mike Doyle
My Father Die (World Premiere)
Director/Screenwriter: Sean Brosnan
Deaf and mute since having his hearing knocked out at the age of 12, Asher has been training for almost two decades to avenge himself on Ivan, the man that killed his older brother, 21 years ago. And now that his nemesis is out of prison, he gets his chance. But Asher’s target also happens to be his father. Cast: Joe Anderson, Gary Stretch, Candance Smith, Kevin Gage, John Schneider, Gabe White, Ross Britz, Michael Francis Murphy, William Mark McCullough, Frances Reagan James
Pet (World Premiere)
Director: Carles Torrens, Screenwriter: Jeremy Slater
In the vein of Hard Candy and Gone Girl, PET is a psychological thriller that deals with the themes of identity, loneliness, selflessness, and what it means to truly belong to another. It’s told through the prism of two isolated people, Seth and Holly, seemingly different yet more similar than they even knew. PET is at its heart a dark love story which examines how much one is willing to sacrifice in the name of love. Cast: Dominic Monaghan, Ksenia Solo, Jennette McCurdy, Nathan Parsons, John Ross Bowie, Da’Vone McDonald, Janet Song
PHANTASM: Remastered
Director/Screenwriter: Don Coscarelli
Filmmaker J.J. Abrams and his company Bad Robot have undertaken a meticulous 4K restoration of writer/director Don Coscarelli’s beloved horror fan favorite about a young boy confronting the embodiment of death in the form of the sinister “Tall Man.” In Don Coscarelli’s PHANTASM, the residents of a small Oregon town have begun dying under mysterious circumstances. Upon the death of a family friend, thirteen-year-old Mike finds himself compelled to investigate. After discovering that the town’s mortician (a sinister and malevolent character Mike nicknames “the Tall Man”) is responsible for murdering and reanimating the dead, Mike seeks help from his older brother, Jody, and best friend and ice cream man Reggie. Working together, these three friends must break into a local mausoleum, lure out and confront the Tall Man, all the while avoiding his dangerous minions and his wicked flying chrome killing device, the deadly silver sphere. Cast: Michael Baldwin, Bill Thornbury, Angus Scrimm, Reggie Bannister, Kathy Lester
Under the Shadow (Jordan, Qatar, UK)
Director/Screenwriter: Babak Anvari
Tehran, 1988: Shideh lives amidst the chaos of the Iran-Iraq war. Having been accused of subversive behaviour and blacklisted from medical college, she is in a state of malaise. Furthermore, her husband, Iraj, is at war, leaving her alone to protect their young daughter, Dorsa. A missile hits their apartment building and doesn’t explode. Soon afterwards, Dorsa falls ill and her behaviour becomes increasingly disturbed. Searching for answers, Shideh learns from a superstitious neighbour that the cursed, unexploded missile might have brought in Djinn – malevolent spirits that travel on the wind. She becomes convinced that a supernatural force within the building is attempting to possess Dorsa. Cast: Narges Rashidi, Avin Manshadi, Bobby Naderi, Arash Marandi, Ray Haratian, Hamid Djavdan, Nabil Koni
Untitled Fede Alvarez/Ghost House Thriller (World Premiere)
Director: Fede Alvarez, Screenwriters: Fede Alvarez, Rodo Sayagues
A group of teens break into a blind man’s home thinking they’ll get away with the perfect crime. They’re wrong. Cast: Jane Levy, Dylan Minnette, Daniel Zovatto, Stephen Lang
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