Best in indie genre comes to S.F.
If you’re a fan of grindhouse movies, you’ve probably thought about making a pilgrimage to Austin, Texas, for Fantastic Fest, the mecca of genre cinema. Since its inception 12 years ago, Fantastic Fest has become increasingly important — “Apocalypto,” “There Will Be Blood” and “John Wick” made their world premieres there.
Well, good news, Bay Area fans: Fantastic Fest is coming to you this weekend, with 11 selections from the just-completed 13th festival in Austin screening at the Alamo Drafthouse’s New Mission Theater in San Francisco.
“This is more of a condensed blast of insanity,” said New Mission creative manager and programmer Mike Keegan. “We’re covering a wide variety of genre stuff.”
Keegan and his team at the New Mission, private and community events director Liz Duran and marketing manager Amy Waine, personally picked the selections.
“We booked them with the sensibility of, ‘if you like one of these, you’ll probably like these other things,” Keegan said.
Fantastic Fest San Francisco opens Thursday, Sept. 28, with a 7 p.m. screening of “The Square,” the latest outrageous satire from “Force Majeure” director Ruben Östlund starring Zoë Kravitz and John Cho, followed by a party at Gray Area near the Mission District theater.
The fest closes at 7 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1, with “Brawl in Cell Block 99,” a violent prison picture starring Vince Vaughn, followed by a party at El Rio.
In between are such flicks as “Jailbreak,” a Cambodian martial arts epic; “Applecart,” an American horror indie; “Haunters: The Art of the Scare,” a documentary about haunted houses; “My Friend Dahmer,” a creepy look at serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer as a high school student; and Keegan’s personal favorite, “Gemini” a neo-noir set in Los Angeles that Keegan calls “Michael Mann-y.”
“It’s a neon-lit, great character piece,” Keegan said. “It’s obviously aware of the filmmaking language of the ’80s neo-noir. And it has great performances and a great score.”
Also on the schedule are two retrospectives: A 40th anniversary, 4K restoration presentation of Dario Argento’s classic 1977 shocker, “Suspiria,” and a rare Ed Wood film from 1970, “Take it Out in Trade.”
Keegan and his team have greased the wheels for Fantastic Fest by consistently showing genre films since the theater’s opening in December 2015. Regular events have included Terror Tuesdays, Weird Wednesdays, Girlie Night, a series on music in movies, a regular showcasing of Japanese anime and classic genre films, as well as specifically tailored themes, including a recent “Road to Nowhere” series of post-apocalyptic films anticipating next week’s release of “Blade Runner 2049.”
Though the main breadand-butter continues to be Hollywood releases such as “Battle of the Sexes” and “Kingsman: The Golden Circle,” the genre offerings have become increasingly popular at the theater that offers food and drinks served at your seat during the screenings.
“The repertory stuff is insane; it’s going super-well,” Keegan said. “Terror Tuesday and Weird Wednesday are juggernauts.”