Special
Screening! Bravo
Television Presents
THE 100 SCARIEST MOVIE MOMENTS
At last year's first Boston Fantastic Film Festival we were
privileged to present a portion of Bravo Television's Halloween
programming and we enjoyed it so much we're doing it again this
year! Bravo's 2004 Halloween mini-series is a highly anticipated
count down of the top 100 scariest moments in film history. Now,
these aren't necessarily from horror films, but you gotta figure
these guys have done their homework. Featuring clips from some
terrific movies and interviews and commentary from a who's who
of genre cinema luminaries: Directors Wes Craven, John Carpenter,
Peter Jackson, Dario Argento, Clive Barker, George Romero, Tobe
Hooper, Joe Dante, Rob Zombie, Eli Roth, and Guillermo del Toro;
Actors Robert Englund, Bruce Campbell, Angus Scrimm, Lance Henriksen,
Ron Perlman, Rutger Hauer, Jennifer Tilly, Kane Hodder, Patricia
Hitchcock and Tony Todd; and Authors Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman,
Steve Niles, David Skal and even the elusive, rarely interviewed
Stephen King! Exactly which of the hour-long episodes we'll be
screening is still up in the air, but it's bound to be a fun and
fright-filled couple of hours.
New
England Premiere!
ALIVE
(2002) dir Ryuhei Kitamura w/Hideo Sakai, Tak Sakaguchi, Ryo,
Shun Sugata, Koyuki [120 min, Japanese w/English subtitles]
From the director of the infamous, over-the-top sci-fi/zombie/yakuza
action flick, 
Versus
comes another superb action-fantasy flick. In a futuristic
prison, two murderers (Sakai and Sakaguchi both of Versus)
somehow survive the electric chair and are given a choice - face
death for real or become part of a mysterious experiment. One
guess as to which fate they choose? What follows is a tense claustrophobic
duel between the two prisoners, one a man who sought revenge on
his girlfriend's rapists, the other a sadistic serial killer with
plenty of kills under his belt. The two spend much of the movie
trapped in a cell together and the experiment seems to involve
the scientists pushing the prisoners to attack each other but
without any clear purpose. When the scope of the film expands
outside of the room, it's revealed that the experiment is even
more bizarre than it seems and the very future of the Earth is
at stake. Kitamura (now filming the 'final' Godzilla film in Japan)
packs all of the insane kineticism of Versus into the confines
of one room and the results are explosive! "A
movie that will stun even the most jaded action fan." - Eye
Weekly, Toronto
Official
Site
US Premiere!
APPLESEED
(2004) dir Shinji Aramaki [105 min, Japanese w/English subtitles]
This gorgeous new anime feature is like nothing you've ever seen
before. Adapted from Masamune (Ghost In The Shell) Shirow's manga
masterpiece APPLESEED features a striking mixture of traditional
cel and 3D computer animation.
The result is an otherworldly vision of the future and its robotic
and human inhabitants. The year is 2135 AD and the Earth has been
pushed to the brink of destruction by a cataclysmic war. Deunan
is one of the many soldiers who, with lines of communication cut,
are still out in the badlands fighting a war that is already over.
One day Deunan is captured and brought to the utopian city, Olympus.
Once there, her former lover Briareos (now a cyborg with over
75% of his organic body replaced by machine) tries to help her
adjust to the new world she is thrust into. In the city, mankind
lives side-by-side with a new race of clones, the Bioroids. This
alarming fact brings the unexpected change in everything around
her (including Briareos) into sharp focus and she begins to suspect
that everything is not as it seems in this utopian society. Why
has Briareos changed? Can the Bioroids be trusted? Does Olympus
represent an ideal, or a nightmare? Deunan must face her own tortured
past, and overcome the disorienting present, in a battle over
the future of humanity itself! This may well be the only screening
in the U.S. of the original Japanese language print, so do yourself
a favor and don't miss this one!
Official
Site (Japanese)
U.S. Premiere!
THE BOTTLED FOOL
(2004) dir Hiroki Yamaguchi w/Luchino Fujisaki, Masato Tsujioka,
Ikuma Saisyo, Kae Minami, Yuko Takarada, Ryousuke Koshiba, Kouji
Yokokawa, Keisuke Urushizaki [80 min, Japanese w/English subtitles]
Teenage schoolgirl Luchino Fujisaki hasn't been to school in months.
Today, she's heading back - but what a day to choose! Fujisaki
lives in a vast, strange complex, a block of hundreds of towns
stacked one atop the other, connected by a network of giant elevators.
She boards one, and it passes town after town (or rather, floor
after floor), taking on a variety of disconcerting fellow passengers.
She's sharing her ride with, among others, an oddly robotic lady
conductor, a troop of identical salarymen, a silent hipster in
shades and headphones, a nervous scientist and a little boy with
a particularly creepy plaything. At Level 99, a sadistic police
officer boards with his charges - a pair of monstrous convicted
criminals, brutal sex killers eager to resume their evil ways.
Add to that the shocking psychic flashes Fujisaki is having about
the other commuters, and the flashbacks to a traumatic episode
in her own past, and the situation in the claustrophobic elevator
is starting to seem downright terrifying. BOTTLED FOOL is
the first feature film from Japan's Hiroki Yamaguchi, a 26-year-old
prodigy whose second short film took the grand prize at Japan's
Indie Movie Festival when he was only 19. Working with a staff
composed mostly of student volunteers and sets created almost
entirely out of industrial scrap material, Yamaguchi has conjured
up a unique and intense vision of abstract, psychologically-charged
sci-fi/horror. Most of BOTTLED FOOL takes place in the
cramped transport elevator, generating a volatile, paranoid tone.
Dark, violent secrets abound-the only thing that's certain is
the young Yamaguchi is an exciting new talent with a clear personal
vision of what indie film can be, and how far it can be taken!
- Notes from the Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal
The Sci-Fi Channel Presents
Special Theatrical Premiere!
DARKLIGHT
(2004) dir Bill Platt w/Shiri Appleby, Richard Burgi, John
de Lancie, Richard Gnolfo, David Hewlett
A reformed demon and one kick-ass monk join forces to battle the
forces of darkness in this well made supernatural sci-fi film.
Roswell's Shiri Appleby is Lilith, the original wife of
Adam who was cast out of Eden, who, over the centuries, has left
piles of dead bodies in her wake. To combat her, a secretive society
called The Faith was formed and, eventually, captured her. Her
memory was wiped out and she was given the opportunity to start
a new life as an innocent. Unfortunately, some seriously misguided
experimenting with immortality goes awry (with a little help from
a traitor within The Faith) and a scientist is transformed into
the Demonicos... a big nasty demon that carries a super contagious
plague in its bite. As it turns out, the only one who can defeat
the thing is Lilith. And it falls to an old nemesis from The Faith
to help her train her newly rediscovered powers in order to combat
the new threat. With some nifty effects for a TV movie and a couple
of decent turns from supporting actors Richard Burgi and John
"Q" de Lancie, DARKLIGHT is an occult action thriller
that hooks you at the beginning and drags you along breathlessly
by its 5-foot-long barbed tongue right up until the climactic
battle. Also included in the program will be previews of upcoming
Sci-Fi Channel programs including Battlestar Galactica and the
much-anticipated Earthsea.
Official
Site
U.S. Premiere!
FIVE CHILDREN AND IT
(2004) dir John Stephenson w/Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Izzard,
Zoe Wanamaker, Freddie Highmore, Jonathan Bailey, Jessica Claridge,
Poppy Rogers, Tara Fitzgerald, Alex Jennings, John Sessions [80
min]
E. Nesbit's turn-of-the-century children's classic, FIVE CHILDREN
AND IT, is lovingly brought to the screen with the help of an
enormously talented cast and a filmmaking
team with the perfect eye for whimsy. Five British children are
moved to their uncle's isolated house during the war when their
father joins the air force and their mother becomes a nurse. What
they find there at first depresses them: a creepy, dark old house,
a dotty math and rule obsessed uncle, and a mean, brat of a cousin
with a 'monster' collection in the basement. But, when the mischievous
Robert defies the rules and explores the forbidden greenhouse,
the children find a mysterious door that leads to a hidden beach
where a strange creature lives. That creature (created by the
Jim Henson Workshop) is 'It,' a sand fairy who has the power to
grant wishes... wishes that always have a strange way of going
comically awry. With sparkling performances by Freddie Highmore
(Finding Neverland and the new version of Charlie and the Chocolate
Factory) as Robert, Kenneth Branagh as Uncle Albert, and the terrific
Eddie Izzard as the voice of It.
New England Premiere!
FREEZE FRAME
(2004) dir John Simpson w/Lee Evans, Rachel Stirling, Colin
Salmon, Sean McGinley, Ian McNeice [100 min]
This beautifully paranoid thriller from Ireland features the remarkably
talented stand-up comic Lee Evans in a starkly dramatic role.
Evans plays Sean Veil, a man once accused of murder who now records
his every waking second in an attempt to establish a permanent
alibi for himself. He knows that the people who tried to put him
away the first time will stop at nothing to get him where they
think he belongs... rotting in a cell. The irony, of course, is
that Veil has created a prison for himself. He lives in a subterranean
complex and rarely goes outside. Every moment of his life is recorded
by dozens of cameras and he painstakingly categorizes each tape
in a vault. When he does go outside, he brands himself a freak
with his paranoid mannerisms and the camera harness that he constantly
wears. When his oppressors, the obsessed, dying Detective Mountjoy
(Salmon) and the fleshy, pompous criminologist Saul Seger (McNeice),
finally do come calling, Veil thinks he's prepared. There's been
another murder and they swear it's him. But he's got the tapes
that prove he was safely at home at the time of the murder...
or does he?
"First-time
writer-director John Simpson shows a raw but defiantly ambitious
talent with this claustrophobic thriller. A virtually unrecognisable
Lee Evans stars, his comic mannerisms filtered through his deeply
troubled character until they stop being funny and start being
creepily disconcerting... An intriguing premise and an atmospheric
film" - The Times
Official
Site
New England Premiere!
INFERNAL AFFAIRS
(2002) dirs Wai Keung (Andrew) Lau & Siu Fai (Alan) Mak
w/Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang [100 min, Mandarin
and Cantonese w/English subtitles]
After some lean years after many of the most talented directors
defected to Hollywood, Hong Kong is experiencing a film renaissance.
A new wave of great films is coming from
Hong Kong and INFERNAL AFFAIRS is leading the pack. A huge hit
at home, this thrilling, complex tale of cops-and-robbers has
already been tapped for a remake by Martin Scorsese starring Brad
Pitt and Matt Damon (and, incidentally set in Boston) and will
be released in Boston by Miramax this fall. The film begins with
the police desperately trying to crack down on one particular
Triad boss who always seems to slip through their fingers at the
last minute. The answer is simple, of course, he has an informant
in the police force. But, little does the Triad boss know the
police have also planted a mole in his ranks. A terrific cat-and-mouse
showdown ensues when the police and the gangsters discover almost
simultaneously that they are both being double-crossed. With the
formidable Tony Leung and Andy Lau as the undercover cop and gangster
respectively, INFERNAL AFFAIRS packs about as many breathless
twists and turns as one can take in a 100 minute movie.
Official
Site
Special Preview Screening!
ONG BAK: MUAY THAI WARRIOR
(2003) dir Prachya Pinkaew w/Tony Jaa, Perttary Wongkamlao
[105 min, Thai w/English subtitles]
We had a hard time believing the hype about this movie (watch
out Jackie Chan and Jet Li, etc.)... But then we saw the film
at last year's Toronto Film Festival and we have three words for
you: UN... BE... LIEVABLE! Tony Jaa is one of the most spectacularly
vibrant
and acrobatic martial artists to be seen on screen in a long time
and, yeah, Jackie Chan and Jet Li are tired old fogeys next to
this guy. The basic plot of the movie is that this precious Buddha
head (the Ong Bak of the title) has been stolen from a backwoods
village in Thailand and taken to the big city by thieves. It falls
upon the village's toughest but (this is Thailand after all) most
easy-going character to pursue the crooks to the city and retrieve
the statue's head. He tries to do this without violence but, of
course, it doesn't work out that way. This film puts recent action
cinema to shame in almost all respects. Not only does it feature
some incredibly brutal and stunningly original fight scenes but
it also one-ups Jackie Chan on some super complex stunt sequences
done without wires and without stunt doubles. Not only that but
it's got characters and a plot that you actually care about! Thrill
as Tony Jaa jumps two stories and lands an elbow on some poor
badguy's noggin! Gasp and chuckle as he navigates an everything-but-the-kitchen-sink
chase scene (watch out for those glass panes)! Basically, come
see this movie! You won't be disappointed and you'll be cheering
along with everyone else in the theater up to the very end!
Official
Site
From The Vaults! Super Rare Screening of Director's Cut!
PERDITA DURANGO
(1997) dir Alex de la Iglesia w/Rosie Perez, Javier Bardem,
Aimee Graham, Harley Cross, James Gandolfini, Screamin' Jay Hawkins,
Alex Cox [126 min, English and Spanish w/English subtitles]
What do you do when you're one of Spain's most popular directors
but you've been virtually unheard of in the U.S.? Whatever the
hell you want!! At least that's the case with the insanely talented
Alex de la Iglesia. His blackly comic repertoire includes a demonic
Christmas film (Day of the Beast) and homages to Spaghetti Westerns
(800 Bullets), Hitchcock (Ferpect Crime), and even Dean Martin
& Jerry Lewis (Dying of Laughter). This film is a ludicrously
over-the-top, hyper-violent, sexy sequel of sorts to David Lynch's
Wild At Heart! Based on a novel and with a screenplay by neo-noir
author Barry Gifford, PERDITA DURANGO follows the infamous adventures
of the title character (played by Isabella Rosselini in Wild At
Heart and here portrayed with gusto by Rosie Perez) and her sinister
lover Romeo Delorosa (Oscar nominee Javier Bardem). Perdita and
Romeo are asked to do a job by a crime boss involving the traffic
of human fetuses for the cosmetic industry or something but end
up on the run after they kidnap a couple of innocent American
tourists (Graham and Cross) to use in a satanic ritual. PERDITA
DURANGO features superlatively bizarre performances from Bardem
and Perez and some wickedly funny cameos by the likes of cult
director Alex Cox (Repo Man), gravel throated singer Screamin'
Jay Hawkins and even Tony Soprano himself, James Gandolfini. Released
in the U.S. in a criminally hacked-up video version called Dance
With The Devil, this is the original 126-minute director's
cut version!
New England Premiere!
SAW
(2004) dir James Wan w/Leigh Whannell, Cary Elwes, Danny
Glover, Monica Potter, Ken Leung [100 min]
A hit at this year's Sundance Film Festival and an instant cult
favorite, SAW is a new indie horror film that is bound to contribute
to the reenergizing of the horror genre that has begun over the
past couple of years. Two men (Cary Elwes and screenwriter 
Leigh
Whannel) wake up chained to the pipes in a mysterious room. What
happened? How and why did they get there? Why are they bound and
who is responsible? And who is that dead body lying on the floor?
These are all of the questions that pop into both the audience's
and the character's heads immediately, but do we really want to
know the answers when the truth is too terrifying to imagine?
It turns out these guys are captives of a serial killer who, technically,
has never killed anyone... he finds ways for his victims to kill
themselves, or each other. Thus begins a brutal and sadistic game
where the two victims are pitted against each other while the
killer watches and helps them to reveal the clues and tools that
he has left in the room. Meanwhile, on the outside, a particularly
obsessed cop (Danny Glover) tries to unravel the secrets of a
killer who he was once almost a victim of.
"SAW
may be the best independent horror film to have come out since
The Blair Witch Project . It's certainly better than Blair
Witch, and more fun, more gruesome, and more macabre. In a
very delightful way." - Film Threat
Official
Site
New England Premiere!
SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE
(2002) dir Chan-wook Park w/Ha-kyun Shin, Dong-jin Park, Du-na
Bae, Kang-ho Song, Ji-Eun Lim, Bo-bae Han
With his elegantly brutal Oldboy burning up the festival circuit,
we're pleased to present the New England premiere of Chan-wook
Park's stunning second feature, SYMPATHY FOR MR. VENGEANCE. No
one who saw Park's first feature, the wildly popular political
thriller Joint Security Area, would be prepared for this ornately
constructed revenge tragedy. The excellent Ha-kyun Shin plays
Ryu, a deaf/mute who is desperate to find a kidney transplant
for his beloved sister. No legitimate one is available and he
is not a viable match. He tries the black market (even trading
one of his own kidneys) but he is ripped off. Finally, a legit
organ becomes available, but the botched illegal deal has left
him without the necessary medical costs. To raise some quick cash,
he and his girlfriend team up to kidnap his boss's daughter. But
what should have been easy quickly goes south and Ryu ends up
on the run with two dead bodies in his wake. And that's just the
set up for the rest of the film! With a straightforward yet somehow
still thrillingly stylish style, Park is making his (and by extension
Korea's) mark on the international filmmaking community... don't
miss your chance to catch up with this major new talent.
New England Premiere!
A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
(2003) dir Ji-woon Kim w/Su-jeong Lim, Geun-yeong Mun, Kap-su
Kim, Jung-ah Yum [115 min, Korean w/English subtitles]
A great new twist on the new wave of Asian "hair horror"
films. Korean filmmaker, Ji-woon Kim (The Foul King, The
Quiet Family), takes the folklore inspired 
female
ghoul of The Ring and The Grudge and infuses her
story with an unexpected dash of family drama. The result is a
thrilling, spooky ghost story that also resonates as a psychological
drama. Two loving sisters are returning home to their father after
a mysterious absence. Once there they find they must contend with
the proverbial wicked step-mother as well as an apparently haunted
house. It seems the girls have been in an institution since their
mother died... but was she sick or did she commit suicide or was
she offed in some way by the other woman. And just what is the
malicious ghost inhabiting the house? Is it the mother? Or something
even more troubling? This gorgeous horror film is remarkably intricate
and the layers of plot and interpretation peel back to reveal
a powerfully intense conclusion. The performances by Su-jeong
Lim and Geun-yeong Mun as the tormented and troubled sisters are
particularly strong and Jung-ah Yum is picture perfect as the
step-mother wielding her sugar-coated, arbitrary cruelty like
a deadly weapon. All-in-all, a haunting and frightening film that
will linger in your mind for days afterward... and you'll never
look under the sink without caution again.
Official
Site (Korean)
