While the majority of headlines dealing with the film coverage of this year’s SXSW Festival were dedicated to such notable screenings of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell or Seth Rogen’s Observe and Report, the real success stories are the winners themselves. Despite the downturn in the economy, the fest achieved actual growth this year and is solidifying its place as both a home to independent cinema and a friend to the studio hype machine. While it’s hard to say how the latter will effect the fest in the long run, we can delight in this year’s winners circle as proof that the spirit of indie cinema is alive and well. Read on for the list of winners, as well as their corresponding trailers and further links for the fest.
… but just can’t seem to summon the motivation to hop up from your chair and get those legs swinging, this trailer for the moody independent mystery Sex and Justice should do the trick.
Every once in a while, a trailer comes along that is so technically and aesthetically inept that all the viewer can do is sit back and marvel at the sheer pokiness of it all. Enter Hangar Rats, a low-budget film about… actually, we don’t know what the hell it’s about since there’s absolutely no mention of a plot whatsoever in the trailer. But who needs such technicalities as a storyline to draw in potential viewers when you have shots of guys standing around, stock footage of military helicopters, music mixed so loud that it’s impossible to hear dialogue, overlapping audio, directors calling “action” at the beginning of a shot, and Fred ‘the D.O.M.’ shooting a skunk-eye that possesses the city-leveling power of Godzilla’s atomic breath. All of that plus a mysterious disembodied scream, a joke with a missing punchline, and thirty seconds of black on the backside makes the trailer for Hangar Rats a head-scratcher that’s sure to cause excessive scalp bleeding.
I’ve just happened upon one of the most beautiful trailers I’ve ever seen, for an animated film entitled $9.99. Never heard of it? You aren’t alone; it debuted theatrically on the 12th of this month and (so far, anyway) seems consigned to mostly Los Angeles cinemas.
Drop the name Bruce Campbell to genre fans, and chances are good that their faces will light up as their thoughts drift back to the first time they saw one of the Evil Dead films, or his surprisingly poignant performance in Don Coscarelli’s endearingly bizarre Bubba Ho-Tep back in 2001. For me, it was the thrill of spending the night at a friend’s place back in eighth grade and sneaking into a forbidden midnight viewing of Evil Dead. It was so over the top that we didn’t really even know what to make of it, we only knew that we were completely exhilarated by the time it ended, and we would be burnt toast if we ever accidentally slipped up and mentioned it to our parents. Years later, I showed Evil Dead II to my college girlfriend on our first date — a kind of trial by fire to try and gauge whether she’d be able to tolerate my bizarre taste in movies — and she laughed so hard that I was actually kind of frightened…. What choice did I have but to eventually marry her?
Plan on being in Chicago this coming weekend and feeling like you’re ready for a little Halloween horror fun? Then why not wander over to the historic Music Box Theater and catch the 4th Annual Music Box Massacre? Not only is host Rusty Nails offering up twelve shockers that are guaranteed to terrify, but there will also be special appearances by horror legends Clive Barker, Joseph Zito, and Lucky McKee.
Vendor tables allow horror fans to purchase some of the hottest horror-related merchandise and collectibles out there, free Monster energy drinks provide the energy to endure all twenty-four hours of fear, and a live auction for AIDS charity Vital Bridges ensures that the terror is all for a good cause. Add to that appearances by Count Midnight and Horror 101 editor Aaron “Dr. AC” Christensen, and this is sure to be a frightfully good time.
As a die-hard horror fan, one of my favorite things is to walk into a movie theater and witness something truly unexpected and terrifying. To me, the thrill of gazing up at the screen and being rattled to the core by something I’ve never seen before is what makes it all worthwhile. It’s a bit of a rarity these days, but it still happens on occasion, and it’s reassuring to know that some filmmakers are still interested in exploring our fears by telling great stories — rather than simply remaking one of their favorite films or cashing in by churning out an endless series of uninspired sequels.
Looking ahead towards the dark horizon of horror, it appears that there are some sinister treats in store for macabre-minded moviegoers in the coming months. Though it’s impossible to tell whether any film will ultimately live up to the hype that precedes it (it is, after all, fairly easy to cut a great trailer for a crappy flick), here is a list of promising horror films that have gotten some recent buzz while making the festival rounds and setting the blogs ablaze.
Please keep in mind that given the genre and subject matters, many of these trailers are NSFW.
Ahh, the haunted house film — a terrifying cinematic cornerstone where suburban structures come alive to wreck havok upon their owners, renters, or any poor landscaper that dares go near them. The tropes of the genre are well known; madness is a recurring theme, often resulting in one member of the house going batty and probably violent on his or her oblivious relatives. Secrets are another big piece of the thematic puzzle, since they are often the things that fuel the madness or the tortured souls that are left behind to relate their tale (sorrowfully or otherwise) to the new tenants. And of course, atmosphere is a huge part of the equation as well. From the early days of Robert Wise’s The Haunting to the new school of Jaume Balagueró’s Darkness or last year’s The Orphanage, the slow, brooding nature of the films needs to be conveyed to the audience in style and skillful pacing. Modern remakes have often tried to inject more grime into the material to muck it up, but nothing compares to the spooks presented by those who stay true to the genre. Thus, in celebration of candles going out by themselves and various bumps in the night, here is a hand-picked roundup of some of the best haunted house trailers throughout time (leaving most of the remakes and sequels for another post). So turn your desk lamp off and get that Netflix cue ready, because a-haunting-we-will-go!
While the majority of headlines dealing with the film coverage of this year’s SXSW Festival were dedicated to such notable screenings of Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell or Seth Rogen’s Observe and Report, the real success stories are the winners themselves. Despite the downturn in the economy, the fest achieved actual growth this year and is solidifying its place as both a home to independent cinema and a friend to the studio hype machine. While it’s hard to say how the latter will effect the fest in the long run, we can delight in this year’s winners circle as proof that the spirit of indie cinema is alive and well. Read on for the list of winners, as well as their corresponding trailers and further links for the fest.
I’ve just happened upon one of the most beautiful trailers I’ve ever seen, for an animated film entitled 
Drop the name 
Plan on being in Chicago this coming weekend and feeling like you’re ready for a little Halloween horror fun? Then why not wander over to the historic Music Box Theater and catch the 4th Annual Music Box Massacre? Not only is host 
Ahh, the haunted house film — a terrifying cinematic cornerstone where suburban structures come alive to wreck havok upon their owners, renters, or any poor landscaper that dares go near them. The tropes of the genre are well known; madness is a recurring theme, often resulting in one member of the house going batty and probably violent on his or her oblivious relatives. Secrets are another big piece of the thematic puzzle, since they are often the things that fuel the madness or the tortured souls that are left behind to relate their tale (sorrowfully or otherwise) to the new tenants. And of course, atmosphere is a huge part of the equation as well. From the early days of 
