The schedule for the Philly Film Festival was announced recently. As with previous years, my favorite part of the festival is sure to be the Danger After Dark series, which is generally filled with all sorts of genre films. However, in flipping through the program guide, it seems that the PFF is significantly reducing the size of the Danger After Dark series. Last year, there were 19 films in the DAD series. This year? 11. I was talking to someone at a screening last year who said that the guy that used to run the series was great, but that he left and the new guy wasn’t as good. I guess new guy is still there. Particularly noticeable is a lack of Asian gangster films. Just about everything listed is a horror film.
All of that said, looking through the rest of the program, I think I’ll be able to find some other films to pick up the slack. Here are the films I’m most looking forward to:
- 4bia: A Thai horror anthology film with an awkward title that’s supposed to be a sorta pun on Phobia (there are 4 stories in the movie, so I guess it makes sense). Anyway, it looks horrific. In a good way. It is a horror film.
- I Sell the Dead: A retrospective of a pair of gravewrobbers and, uh, their shennanigans or something. Sounds fun, I guess, but it features a cameo by Kaedrin favorite, Angus Scrimm! Score.
- Left Bank: Long distance runner versus an “ancient, unknowable evil.” OK! (Incidentally, if it’s unknowable, how do we know it’s evil? How!?)
- Playing Columbine: A video game documentary about the developer who made a game called “Super Columbine Massacre RPG!” and all the various responses to the controversial game. Doesn’t seem as fun as The King of Kong, but it could be good.
- Landscape #2: Burglers steal a painting, find hidden documents in the painting, and must flee from hitmen hired to get the documents back. Interesting sounding Euro-noir.
- Surveillance: FBI tracks serial killer by piecing together the stories of 3 survivors. Sounds like Rashomon with serial killers. Could be good.
- The Brothers Bloom: Finally! Rian Johnson’s follow up to Kaedrin favorite Brick (it was near the top of my best of 2006 list) is apparently a con movie, which could be great fun. I have to admit that the trailer for this isn’t exactly awe-inspiring, but I’m still looking forward to this. It’s apparently getting a wide release in May, so I may skip it, but we’ll see.
- Moon: This movie is about a lone astronaut on the moon. It stars Sam Rockwell and is directed by… David Bowie’s son? Ok, I’ll give it a shot.
And that about covers it. I probably won’t get to all of these and I might see something not listed, but it looks like it could be a decent festival, despite the lack of Danger After Dark fun. Ah well, maybe I should try Fantastic Fest in Austin instead!