SF’s Wildest Film Festival Is Back This December
Isn’t having a science fiction/horror/fantasy film festival in December aka Material Acquisition Madness Month tres crazy? Not really. Crazy (and stupid) is unwisely returning the spectacularly unqualified Orange Fascist Rapist to the White House. Compared to that, having this year’s Another Hole In The Head Film Festival (hereafter “AHITH”) in December is simply continuing a tradition.
This year, AHITH is now at age 21, old enough to have a drink at The Kilowatt after a Roxie Theater screening. That is, if the festival were being held in the Mission. Instead, this year’s edition runs from December 1-25, 2024 in person at the Balboa and 4-Star Theaters and also online as well. The latter option means that viewers exhausted from a day of making offerings to Mammon via buying stuff can use a night watching an AHITH offering to imagine horrible hideous deaths befalling the obnoxious people they encountered earlier in the day.
Sander Maran’s “Chainsaws Were Singing,” for example, would make a wonderful tension reliever after a day of fighting with aggressive people. It’s a love letter to exploitation cinema loaded with lots of comic violence and more than a few musical numbers. What’s more, this Estonian oddity has finally seen the light of day after 10 years in post-production.
For a different sort of labor-intensive film-making how about hand-drawn animation and live action puppetry put in the service of discussing existentialist philosophy? Don’t say “nah” until you take a look at Walter Santucci’s “I’d Rather Be Turned Into Cat Food,” which stars the voices of punk rock legends Jack Grisham and Keith Morris. AHITH calls the results “a strange confluence of ‘My Dinner With Andre,’ ‘Sid And Nancy,’ and ‘Sesame Street.’”
A far different sort of TV watching experience can be found in Senda Maud Bonnet’s short film “Turn It Off.” A woman fleeing an unknown menace seeks refuge by hiding in a house. The only occupant is a girl watching her TV…whose screen is showing the same film the viewers of Bonnet’s film are currently watching. Is there a connection between the on-screen events and what’s happening in the real world? And what happens if the TV gets turned off?
A supposedly easy baby-sitting job turns into something far more disturbing in Ehrland Hollingsworth’s found footage horror tale “Dooba Dooba.” Sitter Amna learns her charge is a 16-year-old girl named Moony, for whom such things as socializing or the nature of friendship are alien concepts. And why are the two of them constantly monitored by in-home security cameras? It’s safe to say Amna is unlikely to enjoy the answer.
A different but no less disturbing job in a home can be seen in Stefan MacDonald-Labelle’s outsider no-budget science fiction horror film “Head Like A Hole.” A man in dire financial straits is compelled to take a weird yet high-paying job. All the protagonist has to do is move into a home and measure the size of a hole in a basement wall to determine whether the hole’s growing. But as a still from the film shows, things get messy in more ways than one very quickly.
Quite a few more resources and a lot of help brought the 1940s-set Diana Grant and Jacob Pappo’s 3D/2D animated horror short “The MenHeim Clinic” to life. Paperboy Dadrian Hahn’s search for his missing brother Elias leads him to a clinic run by the renowned Dr. MenHeim. But finding out what’s going on soon puts the boy’s life in danger.
For those more interested in high body counts, why not try Austin Snell’s horror Western “They Call Her Death?” The titular “her” is one Molly Pray, who’s on a personal and very bloody vendetta across the American prairie against the criminal forces that screwed her over. But she’s not doing this alone, as the literal embodiment of Death is by her side. Shot on 16mm film using 1960s-era film equipment for that retro visual feel.
Speaking of things retro in nature, why not try an AHITH genre revival? “Night Of The Living Dead” gets a music score performed live by Sleepbomb. For those who haven’t seen George Romero’s O.G. zombie classic, it’s the tale of a group of strangers trapped in a rural Pennsylvania farmhouse under siege by a seemingly endless wave of murderous cannibalistic corpses. Can these strangers survive until an armed posse arrives to rescue them?
Two other genre classics are having 40th anniversary screenings. In Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz’s “The Toxic Avenger,” ordinary janitor Melvin gets dumped into a vat of radioactive toxic waste and is reborn as the titular superstrong seven-foot tall superhero of New Jersey. This 35mm screening will be uncut. Meanwhile, the James Cameron action classic “The Terminator” screening is on a 16mm print in excellent condition. Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) is supposedly fated to birth the future leader of the human resistance to the post-apocalyptic supercomputer tyrants. But the titular cyborg assassin (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been sent back in time to stop this event from happening. To allow history to proceed as expected, a lone warrior is sent to protect Connor. But how can you foil a near-indestructible killing machine?
A less well-known film by a major horror talent is Tobe Hooper’s “Toolbox Murders.” This film is a loose remake of the 1978 film “The Toolbox Murders.” Nell and Steven Barrows are new tenants at the Lusman Arms, a former luxury hotel undergoing renovations. However, something sinister is going on at the Lusman. There’s a mysterious ski-masked man in a balaclava murdering the other tenants. Nell is directed to rooms that don’t exist. And what connects the Lusman with a bizarre cult trying to mix science and magic?
For those who prefer their cultish behavior with a touch of comedy, try Mike Hayhurst’s offbeat “And Through The Portal We Go.” Katie, Craig, and Mikey are the last three members of a cult dedicated to perfecting its members so they can achieve spiritual transcendence. Now that they’ve completed their final duties, the trio can step through a portal and achieve their final goal. Except that when they do so, they find themselves starting the previous day over again. Why? Is it because they haven’t been following the cult’s teachings closely enough? Or do they need to learn more about themselves – and each other?
Renee A. Penaloza and Hitoshi Inoue’s music video “Life Is Too Short” may offer the familiar (but always welcome) message of enjoying every moment of life. But it’s hard to hate on this video too much given that it draws its visual style from the 1960s and 1970s and features people at different stages of life finding enjoyment in ways big and small.
Jeno Lock and Martin O’Brien III’s documentary “Between The Beats” may be a late addition to the AHITH lineup. But it’s still a wildly entertaining portrait of the early days of San Francisco’ Rave dance scene of the early 1990s. The Balboa Theatre’s sound system may make the film’s music pop out better for those who don’t have a fancy soundbar for their home video set-up. However, in-person attendees should still bring their own “Vitamin E” pills.
What do you get when you mix together the music of Fleetwood Mac with David Lynch’s enigmatic classic “Twin Peaks?” The answer is Dan Noall’s visual album “Fleetwood Peaks,” which uses footage from Lynch’s TV series to reinterpret Fleetwood Mac’s music.
Where else but at an SF Indie Film Festival will you see a Danish tribute to Chinese horror films? The short film in question, Christoffer Sandau Schuricht’s “The Curse Of The Velvet Vampire,” concerns a pair of Chinese horror movie aficionados whose screening of the titular film goes off the rails when the film’s reality and the fans’ reality begins to merge. Other influences to be found in Schuricht’s short include 1970s giallos and Euro trash films as well as contemporary Korean films.
Instead of having dreams about sugar plum fairies, why not go for dreams about a worm-like creature with jagged teeth popping out of your chest? That’s one of the images to be found in Chad Ferrin’s H.P. Lovecraft adaptation “Unspeakable: Beyond The Wall Of Sleep.” It’s the story of renowned oneirologist Dr. Ambrose Lordon’s investigation of Arkham Asylum patient James Fhelleps. Supposedly, the patient is possessed by the personality of long vanished primitive man Joe Slater, who lived in the Catskill Mountains. But Dr. Lordon’s use of his Dream Machine to investigate Fhelleps’ dreams accidentally releases into the world an alien entity with world-destroying capabilities.
A different sort of nightmare can be found in the highly-charged election that forms the backdrop of Tyler Mann’s suspense tale “I Voted.” In Mann’s fictional setup, a polling location is forced into lockdown, trapping a group of strangers together. Talking to pass the time is one thing, but talking about politics turns out to be a great way of cranking up the interpersonal tensions dial.
Speaking of passionate people getting their panties in a bunch, DC or Marvel fanboys who hate superhero fiction acknowledging the existence of LGBT characters will loathe Tom Paul Martin’s short film “Where Are All The Gay Superheroes?” For the rest of us, it’s the story of two superheroes (Sterling and Meridian) who finally have a rare moment of downtime. But after their suits come off, their self-delusions also come off as well.
Eric Millikan’s experimental short “The Dance Of The Nain Rouge” concerns a Detroit folk legend whose dances foretell the oppressed successfully rebelling against their oppressors. This short film, video, soundtrack, and voiceover may have been made with a trained A.I. However, in keeping with the class warfare spirit of this piece, the hardware used was “a hacked-up second hand MacBook laptop.”
(For further information about the 21st AHITH and to order advance tickets, go here.)
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