Sunday, December 7, 2014

Jason goes to Holehead--Day 2

Holehead continued on Saturday, so let's jump right in to the big 5 program day. And this year, Holehead is packed with shorts.

Shorts Program 1:
GHOST LIGHT: A mystery dinner off route 66 in the middle of nowhere is the setting for odd alien events with a gruff father and a troubled son.
HOUSE CALL: A man interrupts a lonely dentist's night, insisting he pull his cuspids before a horrible transformation is complete.
MEET YOUR MAKER: What if the Higgs boson was discovered in the 50s? Or at least in a cheesy 50s sci-fi film? Pretty cool. And for the record, in regards to the theological question, the reason the Higgs is called the "God particle" is because the publisher wouldn't let them call it the "Goddamn particle."
LOVING MYSELF: This caused some controversy, as people thought a humorous music video about masturbation wasn't really right for Holehead--a sci-fi/fantasy/horror festival. Personally, I don't care about that, and I practically am the hairy soul man who stars in this.
EVIL TWIN: Technology to jump through time and space propels this cool sci-fi fight flick everywhere (and when.)

Shorts Program 2:
BASH: A crime-and-revenge story, a student film (that shows the rough edges of the learning process.) Bash, along with his friend cutthroat, seeks revenge on the crime boss who just ruined his life--killed his parents, kidnapped his sister, and almost killed him.
KILLER KART: A hilarious film (and another student film) about the difficulty of being a night-shift manager of a supermarket when the shopping carts finally rise up and attack people.
MR. DENTONN: A super-stylish Spanish film about the dangerous and ghostly Mr. Dentonn. Very cool.
REUNION: Revenge in the Australian crime world. Cool.

Shorts Program 3:
DOG CATCHERS: Well, animal control. But in the post-zombie-apocalypse world, their skills have been put to better use. A funny little flick about the tedium of a job you don't really like.
KIBBLES N' HITS: A newlywed couple moves into an apartment to find their German neighbor has a very strange, deadly business. A morality tale about not getting involved where you don't belong. Ha! Just kidding, it's a sick little flick about artisan beef jerky.
CASSANDRA: A medieval adventure with thieves vs. priests fighting over a valuable artifact.
INVITATION: Due to a programming glitch (a couple of shorts didn't arrive on time) this was a last second replacement. And it was pretty darn good. A woman's boyfriend has just passed away (after a big fight, so she has some guilt issues.) Her neighbor invites her in to talk, but she refuses. She starts having migraines, hears a dripping faucet all the time, and is kind of going mad. Until she finally accepts the invitation, and there's the big reveal, which was a good and gruesome surprise.
SENSITIVE 70'S TURTLENECK TOUGH GUYS: A cool, funny flick about...well, exactly as the title says, sensitive 70's tough guys in turtlenecks. They sit in a bar, talking about their feelings, while flashbacks show the awesome fights they got into earlier in the week. Pretty awesome, and may become a feature film or web series or something soon.

And then the night time on the weekends is feature film time, starting with CALL GIRL OF CTHULU. Now that sounds like the movie was made entirely for that pun. But it's not...it's made for tons of Lovecraftian puns. Like a condom brand called "The Deep Ones" made by Love Crafts. Or a Chinese Restaurant called "Dagon Wok." Oh, and the movie is also a blatant excuse to show lots of titties, so I liked that. And, actually, the story was pretty cool. A Cthulu cult is opening a door so that Cthulu can impregnate his chosen vessel (a call girl with a Cthulu shaped birthmark on her butt) and bring about the end of the world. A lonely graphic artist gets caught up in all of this, and eventually has to save the world, in between ridiculously overused editing jokes. Pretty damn funny.

And finally, we ended the night with CHRYSALIS, a deliberately paced zombie-apocalypse film. Josh and Penelope have been together since they were kids. Their world is a barren wasteland, this is a second-generation zombie apocalypse story. They go days or weeks without seeing anyone, just surviving. Their solitude is broken when they meet Abira, a woman who tells them of a meeting place of survivors. They make their way there slowly, while the zombie attacks seem to be increasing. Until the final act, the film is pretty light on action, but does well in building characters, playing with the balance of trust and suspicion, and creating an eerie, desolate, destroyed world.

Total Running Time: 426 minutes
My Total Minutes: 375,588

No comments: