Austin's annual entertainment smorgasboard, SXSW, is set to explode all over Central Texas beginning on March 9th, and today the Film Festival announced the lineup for my favorite section of the event, the Midnighters.
These are the films that Screen Anarchy readers and writers alike await most eagerly every year, and 2018 looks like a great year for this dedicated section of genre films from around the world with entries from Japan, the U.K., India, Turkey, Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, France, Canada, and the U.S.
There are a couple that I'm really excited about. Producer Ant Timpson (ABCs of Death, Turbo Kid, Housebound) brings his newest anthology project, The Field Guide to Evil for its world premiere. The film features acclamined genre film directors from around the world including Baskin's Can Evrenol, Miss Lovely's Ashim Ahluwalia, The Rambler's Calvin Lee Reeder, Duke of Burgundy's Peter Strickland, and more together to tell the folk tales that scared the wits out of their native lands. Also grabbing my attention is Jenn Wexler's debut feature, The Ranger, about a group of snotty punk rockers on the run from a deranged park ranger. The rest of the lineup is really interesting as well, let us know what's got you curious!
MIDNIGHTERS
Scary, funny, sexy, controversial – ten provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.
Ajin: Demi-Human
Director: Katsuyuki Motohiro, Screenwriter: Kouji Seko
Endless battle between human being and immortal demi-human “Ajin”. A stunning, strikingly original action masterpiece! Cast: Takeru Satoh, Go Ayano, Tetsuji Tamayama, Yu Shirota, Yudai Chiba, Rina Kawaei, Minami Hamabe (North American Premiere)
Blood Fest
Director/Screenwriter: Owen Egerton
In Blood Fest, fans flock to a festival celebrating the most iconic horror movies, only to discover that the charismatic showman behind the event has a diabolical agenda. Cast: Robbie Kay, Jacob Batalon, Seychelle Gabriel, Tate Donovan, Barbara Dunkelman, Nick Rutherford, Zachary Levi (World Premiere)
Untitled Blumhouse-Bazelevs Film
Director/Screenwriter: Stephen Susco
A 20-something finds a cache of hidden files on his new laptop and is thrust into the deep waters of the dark web. From the makers of Unfriended, this thriller unravels in real-time, entirely on a computer screen. A warning for the digital age. Cast: Colin Woodell, Betty Gabriel, Rebecca Rittenhouse, Andrew Lees, Conor del Rio, Stephanie Nogueras, Savira Windyani (World Premiere)
Field Guide to Evil (Austria, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Poland, Turkey, U.S.)
Directors: Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Peter Strickland, Agnieszka Smoczynska, Katrin Gebbe, Can Evrenol, Calvin Reeder, Ashim Ahluwalia, Yannis Veslemes
They are known as dark folklore. Created to give logic to mankind’s darkest fears, these stories and others laid the foundation for what we now call the horror genre. (World Premiere)
Ghost Stories (United Kingdom)
Directors/Screenwriters: Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman
An arch skeptic debunker of the supernatural embarks upon a terror filled quest when he stumbles across a long lost file containing details of three cases of inexplicable 'hauntings'. Adapted from the Olivier Award Winning hit stage play. Cast: Martin Freeman, Alex Lawther, Jill Halfpenny, Andy Nyman, Paul Whitehouse (North American Premiere)
Hereditary
Director/Screenwriter: Ari Aster
When Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry. Cast: Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Ann Dowd, Alex Wolff, Milly Shapiro
A Prayer Before Dawn (United States, France)
Director: Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, Screenwriters: Jonathan Hirschbein, Nick Saltrese
Based on the international best-seller, A Prayer Before Dawn is the true story of Billy Moore, a troubled young British boxer sent to one of Thailand's most notorious jails. Cast: Joe Cole, Vithaya Pansringar, Panya Yimmumphai, Nicolas Shake (North American Premiere)
The Ranger
Director: Jenn Wexler, Screenwriters: Jenn Wexler, Giaco Furino
Teen punks, on the run from the cops and hiding out in the woods, come up against the local authority—an unhinged park ranger with an axe to grind. Cast: Chloë Levine, Granit Lahu, Jeremy Pope, Bubba Weiler, Amanda Grace Benitez, Jeremy Holm, Larry Fessenden (World Premiere)
Upgrade
Director/Screenwriter: Leigh Whannell
In a utopian near-future when technology controls everything, a technophobe avenges his wife's murder and his own paralysis-causing injury with the help of an experimental computer chip implant - STEM - that turns out to have a mind of its own. Cast: Logan Marshall-Green, Betty Gabriel, Harrison Gilbertson, Benedict Hardie (World Premiere)
What Keeps You Alive (Canada)
Director: Colin Minihan, Screenwriters: Colin Minihan, Brittany Allen
Majestic mountains, a still lake and venomous betrayals engulf a female married couple attempting to celebrate their one-year anniversary. Cast: Hannah Emily Anderson, Brittany Allen, Martha Macisaac, Joey Klein, Charlotte Lindsay Marron (World Premiere)
Screen Anarchy will be on the ground on day one, looking for the most exciting news just for you. Let us know what you want to hear about!
