Lund is quickly becoming a key stop for European genre films now that the European film that wins in the competition program goes on to compete for the best film at Sitges next month in Spain. There just also happen to be a number of great titles from around the rest of the world as well. Take a gander at the official statement...
It's once again time for Scandinavia's leading film festival for films of the fantastique! A 10 day celebration with over 100 fantastic films. And now the time has come lift the lid of the treasure that is Lund International Fantastic Film festival 2013. This is the second wave of titles that will be screened between September 26th and October 5th.It's surprising that our Scandinavian plundering pragmatists haven't received a lot of love in cinema. Vikings have the culture, the fashion and the blood thirst that suits sword swinging genre film. Yet, except for a dour History Channel series, they have remained sadly unexploited. Farren Blackburn's feature debut Hammer of The Gods is set to tackle that oversight with a nihilistic nordic Heart of Darkness set in the shadows of the scenic, brooding Scottish mountains.Darren Paul Fischer's film OXV: The Manual will have it's european premiere at the festival and is a philosophical-scientific romance. In sections we follow Marie-Curie Fortune and Isaac-Newton Midgley from childhood to adult life. Their relationship is doomed from the start since they are on opposite sides of the frequency. But curiosity and attraction drive them to challenge order and question if knowledge defines destiny. The result is an impressive tale that asks what becomes of a society that knows everything about our genetic potential and what happens if we try to defy it.I Declare War is a suggestive and painfully realistic film about children's wild imagination and what happens when primitive forces take over. It brings to mind both old and new classics like Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games, but also the philosopher Thomas Hobbes' theories on the human "State of nature". For a short while you will wish that you were part of the game. But pretty soon that post-war pizza seems quite far away...May I Kill U? is a film for those who've grown tired of all the colorful and polished superhero movies that have occupied the cinemas for the last decade. A film for those who don't flinch because of some police brutality and for those who think that both Batman and Spider-Man have way too many moral boundaries.Federico Zampaglione's TULPA taps deep into the Italian genre film heritage of Dario Argento, Sergio Martino and Mario Bava and the result is a deliciously lush and intriguing neo Giallo. Based on a story by the legendary Dardano Sacchetti, the style, tone and imagery vibrate with the ambiance and raison d'être of classic seventies Giallo.The demonic countess Elisabeth Bathory, known for slaughtering hundreds of virgins during the seventeenth century in order to conserve her youth and beauty, is still going at it. By means of sharp humor and witty dialogue Chastity Bites stabs decisively at the double standards and sexual hypocrisy of upper-class conservative America. Promiscuous anti-feminists, Botox-consuming housewives, self-conscious It-girls and republican moral censors, they all get theirs.Movie critic Eddie Mullins put his pen down, picked up a camera and crafted the immediate cult classic Doomsdays. Join Dirty Fred and Bruho on an absurd, sometimes nihilistic but throughout deeply humorous journey as many different living rooms, and some companions pass by in bittersweet and perfectly composed images. This is a America you haven't seen on film before. And according to Bruho and Dirty Fred - but pretty much no one else - it will be gone in the next second or so.The overweight and ill-tempered Scott may have the fashion sense of a washed-up roadie for Metallica and absolutely no plans regarding his future whatsoever - but as Game Master he reigns supreme. At first glance appears to be one of those obnoxious, suburban under-achievers that for instance Todd Solondz likes to portray in his darkly humorous works. But Zero Charisma is also a tribute to the world of RPG board-gaming and to every seemingly doomed underdog who is still in the race for a happy ending. And a gruesome revenge.Eighty people with completely different backgrounds suddenly and brutally find themselves removed from their regular lives and thrown into an unknown place and a deceitful life-and-death race. In the wake of Battle Royale and The Hunger Games, with The Human Race Paul Hough has created a raw and unpredictable nerve tickler with sharp twists and refreshing diversity among the characters. To be deaf, old or one-legged does in no way mean that you're less suited to participate in the human race. So, race, or die.Kyosuke Shikijo is a daydreamer who even gets bullied by his own mother (a dominatrix) for being such a wimp. But when danger comes to town, something unexpected happens: his genes get activated, and Kyosuke turns into Hentai Kamen - The Masked Pervert. Based on a cult manga series from the early 90's, this is basically the only superhero movie you'll ever need to see, ever. All other superheroes can go cry in a corner: They are no match for Hentai Kamen's Golden Ball Attack.With soapy girl school-love, a big fat bad guy in pretty flowery undies, a maori family that's had "a wee change of lifestyle", and plenty of drugs and gore, the deliciously tasteless cannibalistic kiwi comedy Fresh Meat is... well, just that: Gut wrenchingly funny.