Festivals: HOFF
HOFF 2011: THE CATECHISM CATACLYSM Review
Father Billy may be one of the least competent priests ever to wear the collar. Not because he's malicious. Not because he doesn't care. No, it's just that being a decent priest requires you to be an adult and Billy...
HOFF 2011: ATROCIOUS Review
Meet the children of the Quintanilla family. There is July, the teenage daughter. She is not quite rebellious but certainly chafes against her mother's care. And there is Christian, slightly older but in many ways simpler. All Christian wants...
HOFF 2011: Norwegian Ninja
Here is what is true about Norwegian Ninja. In 1984 Norwegian diplomat Arne Treholt was convicted of high treason and selling state secrets. He was convicted to a twenty year prison term and served eight of them before being pardoned in...
HOFF 2011: KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR Review
(As it just played at the Haapsalu Film Festival we're reprinting our review, originally published for the IFFR this year) Known primarily for making films which contain buckets of blood and some naughtiness (or sometimes the other way round even),...
HOFF 2011: HATCHET II Review
[Adam Green's Hatchet 2 screens as part of a North American indie spotlight at the HOFF festival in Estonia, providing a handy excuse to revisit a previous review.]Splatter fans will have a field day. Adam Green's sequel to his 2006...
STAKE LAND: It's A Kitchen Movie.
Jim Mickle's Stake Land screened to great response earlier today at HOFF in Estonia to great success. And while promotional activities at home in the US kept him from attending the festival himself Mickle, producer Larry Fessenden and writer-star Nick...
HOFF 2011: HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN Review
It can be a tricky proposition to adapt a highly successful trailer into a feature length film. Whether because of budget concerns, story problems, or inexperience, too often a filmmaker will hold back on the outrageous elements that made the...
HOFF 2011: A HORRIBLE WAY TO DIE Review
Atmospheric. Haunting. Subversive. They're words that could be applied to virtually anything in the Adam Wingard canon and they are no less true here with his latest feature, A Horrible Way To Die. But what Wingard has now that has,...
HOFF 2011: HOUSE OF THE DEVIL Review
[Ti West's House of the Devil screens as part of a North American indie spotlight at the HOFF festival in Estonia, providing a handy excuse to revisit a previous review.]What does it say about the current state of American horror...
HOFF 2011: BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW Review
Ethereal and Transgressive (Capitals E & T being very important), Beyond The Black Rainbow and its director, Panos Cosmatos, largely live up to their strange namesakes. It would be far too easy to label Cosmatos' first feature effort as overly...
HOFF 2011: JULIA'S EYES Review
Seldom has a film with as many impressive moments as the Guillermo Del Toro produced, Guillem Morales directed Julia's Eyes struggled so mightily to link them together in any sort of meaningful way. Designed as an atmospheric throwback to...
HOFF 2011: RED, WHITE AND BLUE Review
It could be hard to sell people on Simon Rumley's Red, White & Blue. It is frequently a brilliant film, make no mistake (and yes, it more than justifies the hype we've given it), yet - without resorting to spoiling...
HOFF 2011: THE PACK (LA MEUTE) Review
Eschewing the Raimi-inspired, bloody splatter approach originally promised when the film was announced, Franck Richard's The Pack has instead opted for a much darker and moodier path. Instead of being a movie about shock and adrenaline - though it features...
IFFR 2011: KARATE-ROBO ZABORGAR review!
This year the International Film Festival Rotterdam had a weird treat in store: the World Premiere of Noboro Iguchi's "Karate-Robo Zaborgar". Known primarily for making films which contain buckets of blood and some naughtiness (or sometimes the other way round...
