Fantastic Fest: Day 2 Wrap Up, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days
Fantastic Fest 2010, Red Carpet
On day two, we got several screenings in, and an interview. Here’s how it all went down.
Mother’s Day Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Starring Jaime King, Rebecca De Mornay, and Deborah Ann Woll.
Jane’ thoughts: Mother’s Day is an interesting remake of the 1980 Charles Kaufman feature. Bousman updates the original by changing the story from a camping trip gone wrong (in which several campers are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family) to a horrifying tale of home invasion – based on actual events – (in which friends at a birthday party are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family).
Mother’s Day maintains a palpable tension throughout it’s running time as the party-goers turned hostages are humiliated, tortured and killed by this extremely dysfunctional family. There are several nods to it’s roots in Troma – particularly Rebecca De Mornay’s performance, which is peppered with camp - though for the most part the torture and kill scenes play without a wink. This film went on a little bit long for my tastes, but to it’s credit kept my heart rate up for it’s entirety.
Interview: Edward Norton
Shannon: I got to attend a round table interview with Edward Norton, who was in Austin to promote Stone, co-starring Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich.
Edward was charming and intelligent, and gave us some insight into how he prepared for his role as an inmate, why ambiguity is not a bad thing in movies, and gave us some details regarding the creative process that director John Curran worked through to bring the movie to fruition. Interview is forthcoming. (more…)
Fantastic Fest: Star Kiele Sanchez, Director Ben Ketai & Writer/Author Steve Niles Live in Person
Fantastic Fest: Star Kiele Sanchez
Almost a year since the Alaskan town of Barrow’s population was decimated by vampires during its annual month-long sunset. Riddled with grief over the death of her husband, bound by nightmares and void of all emotions beyond hate and sorrow, Stella (Sanchez) has spent the past months traveling the world, trying to convince others that vampires exist. Met with skepticism and laughter, Stella is ready to throw in the towel when a group of lost souls (Coiro, Baird and Perrineau) offers an incredible opportunity: the chance to exact revenge upon Lilith (Kirshner), the vampire queen responsible for the assault on Stella’s sleepy Alaskan town. With nothing remaining to live for, and nothing left to fear, Stella joins their mission and ventures into the uncharted underbelly of Los Angeles where she pushes herself to the most extreme limits to stop the evil from striking again.
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