September 28, 2025 • 33 mins
Tony Salvaggio checks in to discuss the highlights of Fantastic Fest 2023, where he watched an impressive 35 movies across various genres. From horror films exploring trauma to unique international cinema, Tony breaks down standout films like "Marama," "Obsession," and the newest "Silent Night, Deadly Night." He shares insights into the current state of genre filmmaking, emphasizing the importance of independent film festivals in showcasing diverse storytelling. Hear about secret screenings, unexpected gems, and Tony's passionate take on why genre cinema remains vibrant and essential.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to another edition of castle Talk. I'm
your host, Jason Henderson, publisher at castle Bridge Media, and
this is our final look at Fantastic Fest out of Austin,
from Tony Savaggio, cast member who has been attending for
us and seeing many many movies. So Tony, welcome out
(00:28):
of the capsule. As it were, how many movies.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Did you see? I ended up seeing thirty five. I
could have seen thirty six, but I took off one
of the slots. It's always hard. I'd never like to
miss a movie, but I had someplace else I had
to go. I went to Ripple Fest, Texas, which to
see a bunch of friends in bands and see a
couple of bands. But yes, thirty five with my final,
my final tally. This year there wasn't a virtual screening room.
(00:55):
When there's that, I actually sometimes go home and watch
more movies, which is to people's probably like what's wrong
with you? But in those cases I've seen up to
forty movies. But this year's thirty five. Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, So last we talked, we left off you had
just been to see The Black Phone too, So what
tell me about the highlights. First of all, the highlights
of the of the second part of the week, but
also of overall.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, I'll probably loop back. I'll go over some of
the I want to go through some of the impressions.
But there were a lot this year was there were
only a couple of things that I was kind of
on the fence on, like everything had some merit, everything
had something cool. And I only had one movie that
was my own. I've talked about on the fest on
(01:43):
the podcast before, like you kind of bring in your
own stuff into the theater, and I had one movie
like that. So after after we talked, I went and
saw The Holy Boy, which is an interesting kind of
you know, what's what's happening with this child? You know,
as he's sending people into the cornfield kind of thing
(02:04):
from Europe. And it was but you know, again a
lot of horror lately. I think everybody's dealing with something,
so it's kind of trauma based, you know, something a
bad it happened, What's going on with this kid? It
was fascinating, a little slower for the morning, but before.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
We got on, do you feel that So this is
a critique I've been hearing about horror for a few
years now. And I'm not sure if it's true, and
I also don't know if if it ever was not
true to the extent that it is. In other words,
people have been saying, well, horror lately is all about
exploring trauma. But I'm like, has it always been? Like
is that in fact different?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I think it has always been, but I think perhaps
it's a bit more overt lately. But again, horror represents
the times. So the seventies horror has a certain feel
politically because of what's going on or upheaval, like you know,
like Soilent Green is like, hey, we don't want job, well,
you know, we're gonna get over populated and this will
(03:03):
happen and all that. So horror I think reflects that.
And I think, you know, collectively, everybody's going through a
lot lately, yeah, or maybe they're maybe now they're just
able to express that in film. I mean, I tend
to dodge some of that just because I'm like, yeah,
I agree, But also I got my own stuff going on,
you know, right, and I was pretty successful except I'll
(03:25):
tell you the movie that kind of got me. I
follow that with Marama, which is just beautifully shot, and
the horror is basically colonizers. So uh, you know, a
woman moves from uh, you know, she's Mallory. She moves,
she gets takes a trip to It's it's period piece,
takes a trip to England and finds out that her
(03:47):
benefactor uh is obsessed with her culture in ways that
are unsettling. And Uh, it was really I mean it
was really well done. Costumes, acting everything like uh and
again when it pops off a little bit of Catharsis,
but also bringing together a lot of a lot of things,
a lot of you know, it's thoughtful and frustrating when
(04:10):
you see what's happening to her and everyone around her,
you know, stuff like that. It was I mahama is fascinating.
I highly recommend it. It might be something we talk about,
I hope. So a lot of people. So the one
that got me A lot of people like obsession, which
is kind of a monkey's paw style. A guy likes
a girl, he wishes that she liked him back, loved him,
(04:32):
loved him, and everything that can happen that's wrong with that. However,
it had like three or four things that triggered stuff
I've been going through lately, which again is no fault
of the director. Like it's a like especially a woman
in the lead is just she is just amazing, like
he's playing it. I mean, she goes places with this.
(04:56):
Uh that you know, but I had this a great
topic for Yeah, continue your thoughts, but that I love.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I love this idea of a horror film about somebody's
growing obsession with their.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Coworker, because that's sort of it's everybody close. Yeah, I mean,
and you know he's it. I will say that the
protagonist I thought was one of the most wishy washy
people ever, But that's kind of his That's why. That's
why it is the way it is, right, Yeah, Like, uh,
it was frustrating to see, but everybody goes for it.
But but because of the stuff I have been going through,
(05:28):
it was a really tough movie for me. And then
I came out of the theater and there's some more
personal stuff and so I was walking out like I'd
likened it to kind of one of those one of
the soldiers in Private Ryan. Yeah, or you just see
them kind of wandering like and of course not that bad, right, Like,
it's not this I saw a movie. It's not like
being in war. No, I'm but like the just kind
(05:51):
of like whoa, what happened?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Well, remember when we came out of the long walk
there were people in the parking lot that way.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, yeah, I mean by no means is my Oh.
I went and saw a movie that triggered some things,
like like what they went through. Like don't get me wrong,
but uh but you know, and that's the Nature film
and horror, right, but it did really well, like it
was a lot of people's favorites and it's a it's
a good horror movie, but it was it was a
rougher movie for me. Luckily. I followed that with Death
(06:20):
Gasm to Gormageddon, which I think the Deaf Gasm they're
they're kind of leaned towards comedy or like over the
top comedy, kind of like bad you know, bad taste,
like Peter Jackson, you know, but boy does it deliver.
And that brought me back around. I mean, it's it's
a filthy movie in all the ways it should be filthy,
and and you know, lots of guts. You know, fans
(06:41):
of Guar would probably I mean, you're gonna like Deathasm too,
right if you like that kind of like, oh my gosh,
I can't believe this is happening. Kind of gore and
and metal. You know, there's tons of there's a band
Woke Back. It's like people I know, you know, ran across,
you know, and there's a whole list of just awesome
metal bands. The director is great, just cool, super cool person.
(07:01):
And so you know that was that was pretty awesome.
I you know, a good follow up, let's say, yeah,
like just just to kind of reset your brain, reset
my brain and kind of go oh, okay, not everything's
the darkest of the dark, but uh yeah, Jason Lee
Howden just really not gonna the park on That followed
by secret screening number one, which was a new Silent Night,
(07:25):
Deadly Night, which I had no idea I had. I
it was off my radar, t uh And how.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Many versions of that has have already been I'm trying
to think. But but great always, I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It's and it's it's interesting, like I don't know if
it's my favorite of the fest, but like it it
goes places that I didn't expect, And I think that's
about you as good as you can do. Sure for uh,
you know slasher. Yeah, so it's a lot of slasher
and what it does was kind of like, Okay, Mike P.
(08:02):
Nelson gave a he sent in an intro. That's always cool,
like hey, I can't I can't come to the film,
but I wanted to show this my film there and
that was cool. You know, I'm unsure if it works
for people who are fans of the you know, there's
mixed kind of okay, that's neat that it did other stuff,
and then there was some like yeah, I mean what
(08:23):
are you doing with this classic right? Yeah, yeah, when
we were live was awesome to see Jason, I know,
you remember public Access and so seeing a whole documentary
of Austin public access but also a commentary on how
public access is gone, you know now that there's YouTube,
there's kind of like you don't have to go to
(08:44):
a studio, et cetera. But also what was interesting is,
you know, we watched I know I watched Public Access
for like just weird random stuff as well as as music.
But this documentary also has a lot about whole holding
the news and holding the you know bad powers, uh at,
(09:05):
you know, accountable or you know, there was a racial
you know racial incident like you know copy incident, like
you know, answer like it was. It's all about like,
you know, here's somebody who's been beat by the cops
for just being brown, basically in a you know, at
a time in the early nineties before I moved there.
(09:25):
You know it it has a lot. It's a lot
about speaking truth to power and h and how public
access provided that that venue in ways when when the
traditional news wasn't you know, it wasn't really covering things
or it was That part was also really fascinating. That's
an interesting way to take it in a moongst you know,
(09:46):
here's some like here's the person who wears a Carmen
Miranda banana as a common Miranda cross dressing banana show,
like there's that too. I remember that world. You know,
you're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
It's one of those things where I really want to
see this documentary because the whole notion that that was
the way that that people could do their broadcasting and
now there's YouTube, and so YouTube exists.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
And so that is essentially dead and in many in
many cities it totally is. And it was funded by
the government, which so they're cutting all that too, right, right,
So local government provided a place, you know, there was
a mandate, you need to provide voices for people, and
sometimes again sometimes those voices were strong, uh you know,
(10:30):
civil rights voices. There was a lot of amazing or
just random puppet shows. And there was a cult. You know,
we saw the Zendic Cult, which doesn't feature in there.
But here's something cool too that they did. They had
they had just years of footage, right like like literally
years of footage, hours upon hours, so anything a bunch
of stuff that didn't make it into the documentary. They
(10:51):
provided these little vhs label codes like quote unquote Beach
their business cards and you could scan a QR code
and you would get like three clips, and then if
you scanned other people's cards, you would get different clips.
So it fostered a community of people who had seen
that movie to to talk to one another and scan
each other's clips. And that's awesome. Yeah, that's really cool.
(11:14):
I follow that with an interesting swing for the Fences
that that didn't work as well for me because the
sound was it was a last minute submission. The sound
didn't work as well. But a bunch of yeah, it
was a tough one because what you had was a
bunch of uh, you know, stunt people, people buying scenes
for major and they've done major, Like these are stunt
(11:35):
stunt people doing like you know, all the films you've seen,
the big budget films. Yeah, got together like seven grand
and made a crime drama, which you know because so
all the action scenes are gonna be great and there's
like car stuff. I mean it was. It was a
good but uh, you know, marred to me by the
last minute submission, which is really sad because I think
(11:56):
it's cool that they gave a bunch of people who
would normally you don't even see their faces, like you made,
you know, their body double. They might be body doubles
to kind of hey, let's let's put you in front
of the camera. But that's cool. But but that was
a tougher one because of the presentation. And that was
a bummer because I actually skipped it. It was shown
(12:16):
once in the whole festival, and I'm like, I'm going
to watch the thing that they made for seven grand
because I love, you know, champion kind of quote unquote
outsider cinema. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That was followed by Cramp's
a period piece, which is does it's John Waters via
a cast from Louisiana Best to talk about it's actually
a kind of treatise on endometriosis, which the directly had experience.
(12:42):
But then it had you know, drag queens and horror
and about women's issues and you know via kind of
John Waters overly saturated, like you know, saturated the way
the Love Witch is saturated. Yeah, not not trying to
be as seven as slick perhaps is love which but
(13:02):
in a totally different way. And so that was cool.
Secret screening number two was Bugonia Bugonia, which was awesome.
If you if anybody liked Save the Green Planet, Uh,
this is you know it's and it's coming out soon.
Uh I I really it was. It was I had
(13:24):
I know, I had friends who are like, well it
wasn't as good as as as Save the Green Planet,
a Korean film from a while back, but you know,
uh it's got it's you know, English language remake of
that from two thousand and three, but Emma Stone Jesse
Plemon's uh can't go wrong. It was. It was really interesting.
They changed, you know, they changed a few things here
(13:44):
and there, but to kind of modernize it and make
it for an American audience. But uh, it was interesting
and where it goes it keeps you kind of guessing
like is this going the way I think it is?
I don't know, Like but you know, take on conspira
theories and what we're doing to the earth and everything
like that. I thought that was cool and I ended
(14:05):
that with The Curse, which is film from Japan about
basically kind of I hate to make the comparison, but
if you if you could picture kind of a supernatural
the Ring kind of style, like you know, yeah, you
go through social media and bad things happen to you,
but they take an interesting turn because the curse, the
way the curse works is more it goes to Taiwan
(14:29):
because the way that the mythology works is not it
doesn't work the same in Japan. So they go via
this ghost comes via Taiwan or this this entity, this curse,
and that was really cool. I really liked it a lot,
and in an interesting I keep going, I'll try to
do more of the highlights. One thing that was fascinating
I saw bad haircut and this is what I would
(14:50):
love to cover. It's really interesting too because the one
of the actors, Frankie Ray, was like kind of really
in the in the four im like, hey, I'm coming
you like talking about his character and really pushing it,
and you know what, sometimes that could work either way.
But I gotta say he killed it. As this character
(15:11):
mick I goes to get a haircut, his friends taking
and just things go horribly awry. And I will say
this character from I think a lot of people are
gonna make this one of their horror like faves. Still.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I mean, yeah, I'm looking you have to to escape
this crazy Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
No, it's it's like again you kind of want to,
Like I think you tend towards cynicism when people are like, hey,
I'm doing this and like, but you know, Frankie Ray
really he just really kills it. I was pleasantly surprised.
Silver Screamers is this awesome film where they take in Canada.
They you know, it's hard to find funding across the
(15:53):
board for films, so this director had this idea to
make a documentary and a film, a short film with
seniors and put them in roles that compliment things they've
done in their lives. And it's like all behind the screen.
So you know, one guy's cinematographer and they putting behind
the camera. They have somebody doing props. They have a
woman doing sound, and you know how they're dealing with
(16:16):
new technology and they're they're also you know, I thought
a lot about Julia how we started with like, oh
color commentary at the rights and because none of because
he starts with this like really selling the horror aspect
of it, and none of the seniors want to sign up.
They're just like, I don't like horror movies. The cast
is just that they're extremely delightful. It's a really interesting experiment.
(16:39):
And I'll say the short that they've made that they finished,
because they show the short before. It's called The Rugs,
based on a short story the guy's featured in the film.
And it looked better than some movies I've seen, you know,
really like some lower budget movies I've seen, Like the
rug looks great. I it's great, and it you know,
gave all these you know, senior citizens like new thing
(17:02):
that they're doing, and everybody it's just super heartfelt. I
loved it. Secret screening number three was the new pt
Anderson film, One Battle after Another, and boy, oh boy,
see that movie really, oh man, I was down. I
like pt Anderson Also, he brought it in the same way,
you know, he against possibly the studio's wishes. He bought
(17:23):
There Will Be Blood to Fantastic Fest years and years
ago as a premier. So he continued that I was
only sad because one of the theaters showed in seventy
millimeter and I think we're still showing in the draft
house and I wasn't in that theater. So I just
had some foamo. I mean, I still saw an amazing movie.
But you know, as a cinephile, it's like, oh yeah, no,
Tai Man was this low budget kind of it was
(17:45):
kind of a joke started by a friend of the directors.
He's like, I'm Thai Man. He had all these ties
on and they just took it to its logical crazy silliness.
And you know, I love absurdity. I've talked about that
a lot. So it's this villain who I mean, this
this uh you know, dark anti hero who wears ties
on his face and he's kind of like a cross
(18:06):
between Shadow, the Shadow and dark Man. I say dark
Man because part of the ties on the face thing is,
you know, he was pushed it to a vat. He's
there's a scientific thing and uh, you know, teams up
with a woman who's a cop? Uh again and it's
just oh, it's so absurd and just oversaturated. Started as
(18:26):
a as a funded, uh actually public access kind of
short like series six episodes and then cut into the movie.
But I really enjoyed it. H director and his partner
now she was the our director, and it's it's got
a bunch of just ridiculous jokes and it worked for
me in a big way. I I really want Drew
(18:48):
to see this, and he's like, I would love to
make this a comic and I'm like, ah, well, let
me let me put you in touch with Drew, so
I will do that. Yeah. And then Beast of War,
which is Shark's an Australian team uh you know, yeah,
it's Ward two ship. Yeah, and then it gets blown
(19:09):
up and uh a shark attacks them mercilessly and they
really smart. Way it was filmed to kind of make
sure that uh you know, it stays within the budget.
But it looks amazing, I uh you know, great, really cool,
uh you know, really cool action, horrific in the you know,
(19:29):
but uh kiro Turner does an awesome job and you know,
coming from you know, Wormwood, which I really dug necatronic,
which I dug. So this is another uh and you
know there's there's uh, you know stuff about you know,
how we treat one of the you know, one of
the characters is Digitus and and you know Maori and
has you know, how they deal it's still the same
we we just dealt with racism throughout, Like, yeah, we're
(19:51):
fighting together, but are we really you know, we're not
the same kind of stuff. And it was like, I
want to go again when we do more Shark Attack movies.
CC two wrote to Revenge. I saw that was amazing.
That was a highlight, kind of more of what you
liked than CC one, but taken to kind of almost
Looney Tunes level. Oh interesting, it's crazy the Desk Stalker remake.
(20:16):
You know, if you they're really good at doing things
like Frankie Frico and Psycho Gore Man Manborg, et cetera.
So if I don't know if it worked for me
as well as some other stuff, just like kind of
a look of it. But it's got references to so
much of the VHS box Swordan's Grocery that you know,
your milas may vary, but it's got it all there.
(20:38):
Night Patrol, which was starts out as a Again this
is one I say, probably don't look at anything online.
Night Patrol starts out as kind of almost training day
kind of thing, justin Long is in it and turns
into something way different, and I really liked where it was,
where it went, and you know, you got cops and
(21:01):
dirty cops and gangsters who you know are having to
deal with stuff, and uh, it goes, it goes somewhere.
I expected a cop drama and got something different and
that was great cool. And the secret screening Number four
was Gorn Verbinsky's good Luck, Have Fun, don't Die. I
am sad because I want to go out and have
(21:21):
everybody watch this movie. Again. This is one like don't
to me, like, don't watch the trailers, just go like
secret screening. I hadn't. I wasn't aware this is on
my radar. A guy comes into a diner and tells
everybody the story and you just go from there. He's
very adamant about and I really think, just don't read
(21:42):
about don't just go in. I think it's in February
and I will hype this movie because I really it
is bonkers. I don't again, I will hype it, but
I will say the parts of it probably like it.
It just goes for it, you know, like it's so
crazy and so absurd, great cast. I mean it looks
amazing seeing for it's you know, it's an indie film,
(22:02):
bye by. I mean it's big budget, but it's still
indy and uh yeah, good luck, have fun, don't die.
Was again, like I said, not on a radar. I
also watched Primate, which is you know, monkeys attack of
chimp attacks a bunch of beautiful actors and actresses. C
w S thought like, then whatever the modern whatever you
think of the modern attractive teens are older team you know,
(22:24):
college age, you know, making stupid choices while a monkey
attacks them. So if you want that, like, it's not bad,
it's just it's definitely of a watches we make a
really dumb choice again into a tale of horror survival
with monkey. Yeah, I mean that sounds great. You know Champ,
(22:47):
a chimp who was their friend, gets brabies and uh
that really bad things and then you know it's scary too.
I mean there there wasn't actual like you know, there's
precedent for this, right, like there was you know Enclosure
where you know, chimp attack the person and just you know,
they ripped faces off and so it's it's bad, by
the way, just don't do that. There's a reason. There's
(23:08):
a reason here, there's you know, they're they're doing linguistics tests,
uh with with you know and these but boy, don't
don't have a chimp and lunatic. The Luna Vachon story
was a you know, just tragic but interesting and you
know view of Lunavachon, a wrestler who had a lot
(23:29):
of hardship, but also it's about the journey for women wrestlers.
It's broader than just her story. And then you know,
and even her dad's like, I don't think women should
be in wrestling, and they because the family in Canada
was this big wrestling family you know and everything, and
that was like heartbreaking and also you know, fascinating. I
(23:50):
watched the Found Footage Festival, the found footage guys who'd
get tapes and crazy that is always very cool. It's
so hilarious. Man. And then close it out with our
friend Ollen Edgerton's whistle. Uh and you know, the director
Owen couldn't show had gotten under the weather and couldn't
show up, and that was a bummer because he's just good.
(24:12):
If you've seen him, Jason, you probably know him from
like Master Pancake and you're just being a comedian and
a really good screenwriter. But korn Hardy was there, gave
a great Q and a you know, your mind was
made vary because you know, it's Aztec death whistle, so
they're probably there are some people who are like, hey,
this is this cultural appropriation, you know, but the way
(24:33):
it's played is more which may be better or worse.
You know, it's it's a trope like things happen when
you blow this whistle, but the things are really fascinating. Again,
you have kind of the similar like you know, attractive
teens under duress, but it looks, it looks really great,
and it's you know, it's kind of neat. It doesn't.
Luckily the whistle isn't. There's a few other like, hey,
(24:56):
let's do some research here and there, but it's all cursory,
so the amount of kind of it bypasses a lot
of the like how deep do you want to get?
Do you want to worry about the language? Do you
want to worry about that? And I'm not saying you know,
it depends on where you land. But I thought it
was just it was mostly handled as a as a hey,
let's get to the let's get to the war. And
there's some really I mean, there are some really good kills,
(25:18):
and it kind of goes in some places that you know,
I wasn't expecting. But it does stick to kind of
the traditional horror, you know, storytelling, which isn't bad at all. Right,
it's it's it's a fun you know. It's a shame
that I'm surprised it's not like coming out at Halloween
because it would be perfect and I don't think it is,
(25:39):
but hopefully hope maybe they'll change that. That would be great.
All right, Yeah, that was a full thing, I know.
I think. So you've been doing this show for a
number of years.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
So as we wrap up, like, where does genre film stand?
I mean, like, has any Is it just continuing as
a train and isn't affected by the outside world or
has anything shifted or changed?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I think so. I think it's alive and well because
you're getting movies from all over the world and I
only look, I probably saw half the movies that were there.
If that right, Like anytime I make a choice to
see a film. There's two other movies showing I could
be watching, so obviously we're hitting on something. And like
other things, genre film and they, you know, they've talked
(26:26):
about it, like in Silver Screamers, like, hey, there's just
it's hard to get a film funded. So genre film
is one of those where like, if you can get
enough funding, you can tell a story, and you can
you can talk about politics, you can talk about all
these things in the view of genre and and they're
saying things. There was one about you know, eight generative
AI and kind of you know, what is truth what
(26:48):
is not? And I didn't see it because I was like, well,
I have an idea on how that's going. It's not good.
I don't know the same for the same reason I
don't watch Black Mirror, right, yeah, but like I think
it's and look, I've seen movies people love to go
to TV and kind of watch so bad it's good
movies or like things that look a certain way and
they're like, well that's low budget. But I've seen low
budget movies here that make me go, yeah, you can
(27:12):
do better. If your movie look doesn't look as good,
it's this movie from you know, I don't know Beljium,
you know, like or anywhere, and you're like, I saw,
you know, this movie from Thailand just looks amazing and
granted there's an economy of scale like that. Actually you know,
the dollar amount doesn't translate right right or all of it.
(27:33):
But when you see filmmakers, and again we're this is curated,
so we're only seeing the ones that come that have
big curated But I see a lot of films for
for ex budget and go. That's not to say people
shouldn't be making their films or anything like that. It's
hard to make a film, But when I see something
that just blows my mind that it costs you know,
this amount of money and was made with this and
(27:53):
you know these actors and they're delivering as good as
you know, you know, what we think of is Hollywood,
you know, like really tough, meaty roles and they're in
this genre film and you're like, wow, there there's a
skill too. It shows it shows the skill of the artist,
if that makes sense. That's probably a better way to
put it. And I don't I don't mean to be
(28:15):
harsh on anyone else, right, but I think it's alive
and well just because I've seen so much quality just
from cinematography to acting, to across the board or just
sheer earnest. I must get my movie out there. This
is a story I need to tell, even if it's
possibly as silly as time man, right, Like that's a
(28:35):
silly premise, and but it was the passion of somebody
is going like, I want to bring absurdity and craziness
to this world, and I'm willing to sacrifice my time
and others time, and and you know, put together a
budget and make this happen. So I think it's alive
and well, but I you know, right now, we do
have this thing where it's like either blockbuster movies or indies.
(28:57):
There's not as much mid range anymore. That's absolutely right.
I would love them.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Lets you consider television and streaming to the where those
movies live, because in the theater, yeah, that's right, Right.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
In the theater, we're seeing that clamp. And it's we
talked about it. It's across the board. We see it
in video games, block triple A titles, indie titles. That's
in society. The middle class is getting crunched rich and
you have poor and middle classes is so We're seeing
this across the board. That's another reason why why uh,
genre film festivals like be like fantastic fests like Beyond
(29:32):
Fest which is going on, and boy, I have some
fomo about that this year too, Like I can't go
to every festival that's not feasible, but boy I would
love to. But like we when we see these things
like Jenre, festivals are bringing these outsider voices sometimes or
maybe maybe not so. I mean it's our secret screening
for blockbuster movies, right like pt Anderson and Cory Rovinski.
(29:55):
But it's also others like you know, Silent Idublely Knight,
Mike Nelson's showing this film and in a theater less
and sometimes Fantastic fest. That's just the thing is, like
I can see this on TV eventually, but boy, how
cool is it that I'm in a theater with people
who also dig on this. Yeah, So you know, my
endorsement is as much for for genre film festivals. I
can go to Fantastic Fest, that's amazing, but anywhere go
(30:17):
to Chattanooga Film Fest, go to Beyond Fest. If you
can like see these there's stuff out there. It's like
people who say, oh, rock and roll is dead. I
can go on band camp right now and give you
twenty bands that are as rock and heavy as you
could want. As you know, I like, okay, I can
give you ten. I can give you a dozen bands
following their footsteps that you can listen to. So uh yeah,
(30:38):
and you know, to any filmmaker, I you know, I'll
probably be just wrap up just I'll probably be you know,
these are films will be recommending. Like I didn't get
to see Mother of Flies for example, There's there's a
bunch of stuff that will probably as they come up
and we get press screeners, I'll be either sending him
your way to do interviews, or we'll do interviews, or
hopefully we'll see a bunch of these on our show
(30:59):
you come out. I want to recommend it so it
doesn't just live in the bubble of fantastic fest, right.
That's like we'll want to continue. So if there's if
anybody was listening to this and uh, you know, wants
to know more, like that's also hit us up on
the Facebook page as well as you know, any filmmakers
who may come across this. Uh, you know, we want
(31:20):
to cover we want to cover all those and I'll
be I'll be banging the drum for for a lot
of things I saw here as they come out. So
there's a long there's a there's a year or more
worth of cool stuff. I mean, just look at Toxic Avenger.
I talked about that and it just two years later
it's out right. Yeah, so uh, it doesn't just end
at Fantastic Fest. But I thinks, and thanks Jason for
(31:40):
you know, coordinating all of this. I just love to
talk about this crazy, all these awesome movies at a
film festival. You know, most people think, how can you
see thirty five million, thirty five movies in eight days?
What's wrong with you? And here I am going, man,
I wish I could see some more movies. I don't
know what that says about me.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
No, it's fantastic and and I'm glad that we get
a chance to do this every year. All right, with that,
we should wrap up, but I'm I'll make sure that
this gets posted. And I'm glad that you got a
chance to check back. You're like our distant scout.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
So yeah, yeah, boots on the ground for genre horror, right,
a genre film in general. And also, you know, like
I said, I'm going to advocate for all of these
independent filmmakers across the world who bring us these things.
Is that's that's really that Like that's the universal solvent, right,
Like that's that's what brings us together. How cool is
it that I talk to people from you know, all
(32:38):
over the world and they're just they're showing their movie
and they're passionate about it. There's so many short there's
short films. I didn't even get to you that, you know,
we're bringing short film directors even to introduce their film
and show it in a theater, in a theater to people.
To me, I know, I don't want to get too long,
went on, but like that's originally why we did this,
is because we love cinema in a theater. Yeah, and
(32:59):
I feel so passionately about that. So yeah, thanks again, Jason.
I definitely want to you know, let's wrap it up,
but we'll we'll be talking more about these films, all right,
Good luck, my friend. I will talk to you. Take care,
welcome back. I'm glad you survived. Yeah, I guess see
you tomorrow night. Take care,
Hello, and welcome to another edition of castle Talk. I'm
your host, Jason Henderson, publisher at castle Bridge Media, and
this is our final look at Fantastic Fest out of Austin,
from Tony Savaggio, cast member who has been attending for
us and seeing many many movies. So Tony, welcome out
(00:28):
of the capsule. As it were, how many movies.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Did you see? I ended up seeing thirty five. I
could have seen thirty six, but I took off one
of the slots. It's always hard. I'd never like to
miss a movie, but I had someplace else I had
to go. I went to Ripple Fest, Texas, which to
see a bunch of friends in bands and see a
couple of bands. But yes, thirty five with my final,
my final tally. This year there wasn't a virtual screening room.
(00:55):
When there's that, I actually sometimes go home and watch
more movies, which is to people's probably like what's wrong
with you? But in those cases I've seen up to
forty movies. But this year's thirty five. Wow.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Okay, So last we talked, we left off you had
just been to see The Black Phone too, So what
tell me about the highlights. First of all, the highlights
of the of the second part of the week, but
also of overall.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Well, I'll probably loop back. I'll go over some of
the I want to go through some of the impressions.
But there were a lot this year was there were
only a couple of things that I was kind of
on the fence on, like everything had some merit, everything
had something cool. And I only had one movie that
was my own. I've talked about on the fest on
(01:43):
the podcast before, like you kind of bring in your
own stuff into the theater, and I had one movie
like that. So after after we talked, I went and
saw The Holy Boy, which is an interesting kind of
you know, what's what's happening with this child? You know,
as he's sending people into the cornfield kind of thing
(02:04):
from Europe. And it was but you know, again a
lot of horror lately. I think everybody's dealing with something,
so it's kind of trauma based, you know, something a
bad it happened, What's going on with this kid? It
was fascinating, a little slower for the morning, but before.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
We got on, do you feel that So this is
a critique I've been hearing about horror for a few
years now. And I'm not sure if it's true, and
I also don't know if if it ever was not
true to the extent that it is. In other words,
people have been saying, well, horror lately is all about
exploring trauma. But I'm like, has it always been? Like
is that in fact different?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
I think it has always been, but I think perhaps
it's a bit more overt lately. But again, horror represents
the times. So the seventies horror has a certain feel
politically because of what's going on or upheaval, like you know,
like Soilent Green is like, hey, we don't want job, well,
you know, we're gonna get over populated and this will
(03:03):
happen and all that. So horror I think reflects that.
And I think, you know, collectively, everybody's going through a
lot lately, yeah, or maybe they're maybe now they're just
able to express that in film. I mean, I tend
to dodge some of that just because I'm like, yeah,
I agree, But also I got my own stuff going on,
you know, right, and I was pretty successful except I'll
(03:25):
tell you the movie that kind of got me. I
follow that with Marama, which is just beautifully shot, and
the horror is basically colonizers. So uh, you know, a
woman moves from uh, you know, she's Mallory. She moves,
she gets takes a trip to It's it's period piece,
takes a trip to England and finds out that her
(03:47):
benefactor uh is obsessed with her culture in ways that
are unsettling. And Uh, it was really I mean it
was really well done. Costumes, acting everything like uh and
again when it pops off a little bit of Catharsis,
but also bringing together a lot of a lot of things,
a lot of you know, it's thoughtful and frustrating when
(04:10):
you see what's happening to her and everyone around her,
you know, stuff like that. It was I mahama is fascinating.
I highly recommend it. It might be something we talk about,
I hope. So a lot of people. So the one
that got me A lot of people like obsession, which
is kind of a monkey's paw style. A guy likes
a girl, he wishes that she liked him back, loved him,
(04:32):
loved him, and everything that can happen that's wrong with that. However,
it had like three or four things that triggered stuff
I've been going through lately, which again is no fault
of the director. Like it's a like especially a woman
in the lead is just she is just amazing, like
he's playing it. I mean, she goes places with this.
(04:56):
Uh that you know, but I had this a great
topic for Yeah, continue your thoughts, but that I love.
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I love this idea of a horror film about somebody's
growing obsession with their.
Speaker 2 (05:07):
Coworker, because that's sort of it's everybody close. Yeah, I mean,
and you know he's it. I will say that the
protagonist I thought was one of the most wishy washy
people ever, But that's kind of his That's why. That's
why it is the way it is, right, Yeah, Like, uh,
it was frustrating to see, but everybody goes for it.
But but because of the stuff I have been going through,
(05:28):
it was a really tough movie for me. And then
I came out of the theater and there's some more
personal stuff and so I was walking out like I'd
likened it to kind of one of those one of
the soldiers in Private Ryan. Yeah, or you just see
them kind of wandering like and of course not that bad, right, Like,
it's not this I saw a movie. It's not like
being in war. No, I'm but like the just kind
(05:51):
of like whoa, what happened?
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Well, remember when we came out of the long walk
there were people in the parking lot that way.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, yeah, I mean by no means is my Oh.
I went and saw a movie that triggered some things,
like like what they went through. Like don't get me wrong,
but uh but you know, and that's the Nature film
and horror, right, but it did really well, like it
was a lot of people's favorites and it's a it's
a good horror movie, but it was it was a
rougher movie for me. Luckily. I followed that with Death
(06:20):
Gasm to Gormageddon, which I think the Deaf Gasm they're
they're kind of leaned towards comedy or like over the
top comedy, kind of like bad you know, bad taste,
like Peter Jackson, you know, but boy does it deliver.
And that brought me back around. I mean, it's it's
a filthy movie in all the ways it should be filthy,
and and you know, lots of guts. You know, fans
(06:41):
of Guar would probably I mean, you're gonna like Deathasm too,
right if you like that kind of like, oh my gosh,
I can't believe this is happening. Kind of gore and
and metal. You know, there's tons of there's a band
Woke Back. It's like people I know, you know, ran across,
you know, and there's a whole list of just awesome
metal bands. The director is great, just cool, super cool person.
(07:01):
And so you know that was that was pretty awesome.
I you know, a good follow up, let's say, yeah,
like just just to kind of reset your brain, reset
my brain and kind of go oh, okay, not everything's
the darkest of the dark, but uh yeah, Jason Lee
Howden just really not gonna the park on That followed
by secret screening number one, which was a new Silent Night,
(07:25):
Deadly Night, which I had no idea I had. I
it was off my radar, t uh And how.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Many versions of that has have already been I'm trying
to think. But but great always, I mean.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
It's and it's it's interesting, like I don't know if
it's my favorite of the fest, but like it it
goes places that I didn't expect, And I think that's
about you as good as you can do. Sure for uh,
you know slasher. Yeah, so it's a lot of slasher
and what it does was kind of like, Okay, Mike P.
(08:02):
Nelson gave a he sent in an intro. That's always cool,
like hey, I can't I can't come to the film,
but I wanted to show this my film there and
that was cool. You know, I'm unsure if it works
for people who are fans of the you know, there's
mixed kind of okay, that's neat that it did other stuff,
and then there was some like yeah, I mean what
(08:23):
are you doing with this classic right? Yeah, yeah, when
we were live was awesome to see Jason, I know,
you remember public Access and so seeing a whole documentary
of Austin public access but also a commentary on how
public access is gone, you know now that there's YouTube,
there's kind of like you don't have to go to
(08:44):
a studio, et cetera. But also what was interesting is,
you know, we watched I know I watched Public Access
for like just weird random stuff as well as as music.
But this documentary also has a lot about whole holding
the news and holding the you know bad powers, uh at,
(09:05):
you know, accountable or you know, there was a racial
you know racial incident like you know copy incident, like
you know, answer like it was. It's all about like,
you know, here's somebody who's been beat by the cops
for just being brown, basically in a you know, at
a time in the early nineties before I moved there.
(09:25):
You know it it has a lot. It's a lot
about speaking truth to power and h and how public
access provided that that venue in ways when when the
traditional news wasn't you know, it wasn't really covering things
or it was That part was also really fascinating. That's
an interesting way to take it in a moongst you know,
(09:46):
here's some like here's the person who wears a Carmen
Miranda banana as a common Miranda cross dressing banana show,
like there's that too. I remember that world. You know,
you're exactly right.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
It's one of those things where I really want to
see this documentary because the whole notion that that was
the way that that people could do their broadcasting and
now there's YouTube, and so YouTube exists.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
And so that is essentially dead and in many in
many cities it totally is. And it was funded by
the government, which so they're cutting all that too, right, right,
So local government provided a place, you know, there was
a mandate, you need to provide voices for people, and
sometimes again sometimes those voices were strong, uh you know,
(10:30):
civil rights voices. There was a lot of amazing or
just random puppet shows. And there was a cult. You know,
we saw the Zendic Cult, which doesn't feature in there.
But here's something cool too that they did. They had
they had just years of footage, right like like literally
years of footage, hours upon hours, so anything a bunch
of stuff that didn't make it into the documentary. They
(10:51):
provided these little vhs label codes like quote unquote Beach
their business cards and you could scan a QR code
and you would get like three clips, and then if
you scanned other people's cards, you would get different clips.
So it fostered a community of people who had seen
that movie to to talk to one another and scan
each other's clips. And that's awesome. Yeah, that's really cool.
(11:14):
I follow that with an interesting swing for the Fences
that that didn't work as well for me because the
sound was it was a last minute submission. The sound
didn't work as well. But a bunch of yeah, it
was a tough one because what you had was a
bunch of uh, you know, stunt people, people buying scenes
for major and they've done major, Like these are stunt
(11:35):
stunt people doing like you know, all the films you've seen,
the big budget films. Yeah, got together like seven grand
and made a crime drama, which you know because so
all the action scenes are gonna be great and there's
like car stuff. I mean it was. It was a
good but uh, you know, marred to me by the
last minute submission, which is really sad because I think
(11:56):
it's cool that they gave a bunch of people who
would normally you don't even see their faces, like you made,
you know, their body double. They might be body doubles
to kind of hey, let's let's put you in front
of the camera. But that's cool. But but that was
a tougher one because of the presentation. And that was
a bummer because I actually skipped it. It was shown
(12:16):
once in the whole festival, and I'm like, I'm going
to watch the thing that they made for seven grand
because I love, you know, champion kind of quote unquote
outsider cinema. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That was followed by Cramp's
a period piece, which is does it's John Waters via
a cast from Louisiana Best to talk about it's actually
a kind of treatise on endometriosis, which the directly had experience.
(12:42):
But then it had you know, drag queens and horror
and about women's issues and you know via kind of
John Waters overly saturated, like you know, saturated the way
the Love Witch is saturated. Yeah, not not trying to
be as seven as slick perhaps is love which but
(13:02):
in a totally different way. And so that was cool.
Secret screening number two was Bugonia Bugonia, which was awesome.
If you if anybody liked Save the Green Planet, Uh,
this is you know it's and it's coming out soon.
Uh I I really it was. It was I had
(13:24):
I know, I had friends who are like, well it
wasn't as good as as as Save the Green Planet,
a Korean film from a while back, but you know,
uh it's got it's you know, English language remake of
that from two thousand and three, but Emma Stone Jesse
Plemon's uh can't go wrong. It was. It was really interesting.
They changed, you know, they changed a few things here
(13:44):
and there, but to kind of modernize it and make
it for an American audience. But uh, it was interesting
and where it goes it keeps you kind of guessing
like is this going the way I think it is?
I don't know, Like but you know, take on conspira
theories and what we're doing to the earth and everything
like that. I thought that was cool and I ended
(14:05):
that with The Curse, which is film from Japan about
basically kind of I hate to make the comparison, but
if you if you could picture kind of a supernatural
the Ring kind of style, like you know, yeah, you
go through social media and bad things happen to you,
but they take an interesting turn because the curse, the
way the curse works is more it goes to Taiwan
(14:29):
because the way that the mythology works is not it
doesn't work the same in Japan. So they go via
this ghost comes via Taiwan or this this entity, this curse,
and that was really cool. I really liked it a lot,
and in an interesting I keep going, I'll try to
do more of the highlights. One thing that was fascinating
I saw bad haircut and this is what I would
(14:50):
love to cover. It's really interesting too because the one
of the actors, Frankie Ray, was like kind of really
in the in the four im like, hey, I'm coming
you like talking about his character and really pushing it,
and you know what, sometimes that could work either way.
But I gotta say he killed it. As this character
(15:11):
mick I goes to get a haircut, his friends taking
and just things go horribly awry. And I will say
this character from I think a lot of people are
gonna make this one of their horror like faves. Still.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
I mean, yeah, I'm looking you have to to escape
this crazy Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:31):
No, it's it's like again you kind of want to,
Like I think you tend towards cynicism when people are like, hey,
I'm doing this and like, but you know, Frankie Ray
really he just really kills it. I was pleasantly surprised.
Silver Screamers is this awesome film where they take in Canada.
They you know, it's hard to find funding across the
(15:53):
board for films, so this director had this idea to
make a documentary and a film, a short film with
seniors and put them in roles that compliment things they've
done in their lives. And it's like all behind the screen.
So you know, one guy's cinematographer and they putting behind
the camera. They have somebody doing props. They have a
woman doing sound, and you know how they're dealing with
(16:16):
new technology and they're they're also you know, I thought
a lot about Julia how we started with like, oh
color commentary at the rights and because none of because
he starts with this like really selling the horror aspect
of it, and none of the seniors want to sign up.
They're just like, I don't like horror movies. The cast
is just that they're extremely delightful. It's a really interesting experiment.
(16:39):
And I'll say the short that they've made that they finished,
because they show the short before. It's called The Rugs,
based on a short story the guy's featured in the film.
And it looked better than some movies I've seen, you know,
really like some lower budget movies I've seen, Like the
rug looks great. I it's great, and it you know,
gave all these you know, senior citizens like new thing
(17:02):
that they're doing, and everybody it's just super heartfelt. I
loved it. Secret screening number three was the new pt
Anderson film, One Battle after Another, and boy, oh boy,
see that movie really, oh man, I was down. I
like pt Anderson Also, he brought it in the same way,
you know, he against possibly the studio's wishes. He bought
(17:23):
There Will Be Blood to Fantastic Fest years and years
ago as a premier. So he continued that I was
only sad because one of the theaters showed in seventy
millimeter and I think we're still showing in the draft
house and I wasn't in that theater. So I just
had some foamo. I mean, I still saw an amazing movie.
But you know, as a cinephile, it's like, oh yeah, no,
Tai Man was this low budget kind of it was
(17:45):
kind of a joke started by a friend of the directors.
He's like, I'm Thai Man. He had all these ties
on and they just took it to its logical crazy silliness.
And you know, I love absurdity. I've talked about that
a lot. So it's this villain who I mean, this
this uh you know, dark anti hero who wears ties
on his face and he's kind of like a cross
(18:06):
between Shadow, the Shadow and dark Man. I say dark
Man because part of the ties on the face thing is,
you know, he was pushed it to a vat. He's
there's a scientific thing and uh, you know, teams up
with a woman who's a cop? Uh again and it's
just oh, it's so absurd and just oversaturated. Started as
(18:26):
a as a funded, uh actually public access kind of
short like series six episodes and then cut into the movie.
But I really enjoyed it. H director and his partner
now she was the our director, and it's it's got
a bunch of just ridiculous jokes and it worked for
me in a big way. I I really want Drew
(18:48):
to see this, and he's like, I would love to
make this a comic and I'm like, ah, well, let
me let me put you in touch with Drew, so
I will do that. Yeah. And then Beast of War,
which is Shark's an Australian team uh you know, yeah,
it's Ward two ship. Yeah, and then it gets blown
(19:09):
up and uh a shark attacks them mercilessly and they
really smart. Way it was filmed to kind of make
sure that uh you know, it stays within the budget.
But it looks amazing, I uh you know, great, really cool,
uh you know, really cool action, horrific in the you know,
(19:29):
but uh kiro Turner does an awesome job and you know,
coming from you know, Wormwood, which I really dug necatronic,
which I dug. So this is another uh and you
know there's there's uh, you know stuff about you know,
how we treat one of the you know, one of
the characters is Digitus and and you know Maori and
has you know, how they deal it's still the same
we we just dealt with racism throughout, Like, yeah, we're
(19:51):
fighting together, but are we really you know, we're not
the same kind of stuff. And it was like, I
want to go again when we do more Shark Attack movies.
CC two wrote to Revenge. I saw that was amazing.
That was a highlight, kind of more of what you
liked than CC one, but taken to kind of almost
Looney Tunes level. Oh interesting, it's crazy the Desk Stalker remake.
(20:16):
You know, if you they're really good at doing things
like Frankie Frico and Psycho Gore Man Manborg, et cetera.
So if I don't know if it worked for me
as well as some other stuff, just like kind of
a look of it. But it's got references to so
much of the VHS box Swordan's Grocery that you know,
your milas may vary, but it's got it all there.
(20:38):
Night Patrol, which was starts out as a Again this
is one I say, probably don't look at anything online.
Night Patrol starts out as kind of almost training day
kind of thing, justin Long is in it and turns
into something way different, and I really liked where it was,
where it went, and you know, you got cops and
(21:01):
dirty cops and gangsters who you know are having to
deal with stuff, and uh, it goes, it goes somewhere.
I expected a cop drama and got something different and
that was great cool. And the secret screening Number four
was Gorn Verbinsky's good Luck, Have Fun, don't Die. I
am sad because I want to go out and have
(21:21):
everybody watch this movie. Again. This is one like don't
to me, like, don't watch the trailers, just go like
secret screening. I hadn't. I wasn't aware this is on
my radar. A guy comes into a diner and tells
everybody the story and you just go from there. He's
very adamant about and I really think, just don't read
(21:42):
about don't just go in. I think it's in February
and I will hype this movie because I really it
is bonkers. I don't again, I will hype it, but
I will say the parts of it probably like it.
It just goes for it, you know, like it's so
crazy and so absurd, great cast. I mean it looks
amazing seeing for it's you know, it's an indie film,
(22:02):
bye by. I mean it's big budget, but it's still
indy and uh yeah, good luck, have fun, don't die.
Was again, like I said, not on a radar. I
also watched Primate, which is you know, monkeys attack of
chimp attacks a bunch of beautiful actors and actresses. C
w S thought like, then whatever the modern whatever you
think of the modern attractive teens are older team you know,
(22:24):
college age, you know, making stupid choices while a monkey
attacks them. So if you want that, like, it's not bad,
it's just it's definitely of a watches we make a
really dumb choice again into a tale of horror survival
with monkey. Yeah, I mean that sounds great. You know Champ,
(22:47):
a chimp who was their friend, gets brabies and uh
that really bad things and then you know it's scary too.
I mean there there wasn't actual like you know, there's
precedent for this, right, like there was you know Enclosure
where you know, chimp attack the person and just you know,
they ripped faces off and so it's it's bad, by
the way, just don't do that. There's a reason. There's
(23:08):
a reason here, there's you know, they're they're doing linguistics tests,
uh with with you know and these but boy, don't
don't have a chimp and lunatic. The Luna Vachon story
was a you know, just tragic but interesting and you
know view of Lunavachon, a wrestler who had a lot
(23:29):
of hardship, but also it's about the journey for women wrestlers.
It's broader than just her story. And then you know,
and even her dad's like, I don't think women should
be in wrestling, and they because the family in Canada
was this big wrestling family you know and everything, and
that was like heartbreaking and also you know, fascinating. I
(23:50):
watched the Found Footage Festival, the found footage guys who'd
get tapes and crazy that is always very cool. It's
so hilarious. Man. And then close it out with our
friend Ollen Edgerton's whistle. Uh and you know, the director
Owen couldn't show had gotten under the weather and couldn't
show up, and that was a bummer because he's just good.
(24:12):
If you've seen him, Jason, you probably know him from
like Master Pancake and you're just being a comedian and
a really good screenwriter. But korn Hardy was there, gave
a great Q and a you know, your mind was
made vary because you know, it's Aztec death whistle, so
they're probably there are some people who are like, hey,
this is this cultural appropriation, you know, but the way
(24:33):
it's played is more which may be better or worse.
You know, it's it's a trope like things happen when
you blow this whistle, but the things are really fascinating. Again,
you have kind of the similar like you know, attractive
teens under duress, but it looks, it looks really great,
and it's you know, it's kind of neat. It doesn't.
Luckily the whistle isn't. There's a few other like, hey,
(24:56):
let's do some research here and there, but it's all cursory,
so the amount of kind of it bypasses a lot
of the like how deep do you want to get?
Do you want to worry about the language? Do you
want to worry about that? And I'm not saying you know,
it depends on where you land. But I thought it
was just it was mostly handled as a as a hey,
let's get to the let's get to the war. And
there's some really I mean, there are some really good kills,
(25:18):
and it kind of goes in some places that you know,
I wasn't expecting. But it does stick to kind of
the traditional horror, you know, storytelling, which isn't bad at all. Right,
it's it's it's a fun you know. It's a shame
that I'm surprised it's not like coming out at Halloween
because it would be perfect and I don't think it is,
(25:39):
but hopefully hope maybe they'll change that. That would be great.
All right, Yeah, that was a full thing, I know.
I think. So you've been doing this show for a
number of years.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
So as we wrap up, like, where does genre film stand?
I mean, like, has any Is it just continuing as
a train and isn't affected by the outside world or
has anything shifted or changed?
Speaker 2 (26:04):
I think so. I think it's alive and well because
you're getting movies from all over the world and I
only look, I probably saw half the movies that were there.
If that right, Like anytime I make a choice to
see a film. There's two other movies showing I could
be watching, so obviously we're hitting on something. And like
other things, genre film and they, you know, they've talked
(26:26):
about it, like in Silver Screamers, like, hey, there's just
it's hard to get a film funded. So genre film
is one of those where like, if you can get
enough funding, you can tell a story, and you can
you can talk about politics, you can talk about all
these things in the view of genre and and they're
saying things. There was one about you know, eight generative
AI and kind of you know, what is truth what
(26:48):
is not? And I didn't see it because I was like, well,
I have an idea on how that's going. It's not good.
I don't know the same for the same reason I
don't watch Black Mirror, right, yeah, but like I think
it's and look, I've seen movies people love to go
to TV and kind of watch so bad it's good
movies or like things that look a certain way and
they're like, well that's low budget. But I've seen low
budget movies here that make me go, yeah, you can
(27:12):
do better. If your movie look doesn't look as good,
it's this movie from you know, I don't know Beljium,
you know, like or anywhere, and you're like, I saw,
you know, this movie from Thailand just looks amazing and
granted there's an economy of scale like that. Actually you know,
the dollar amount doesn't translate right right or all of it.
(27:33):
But when you see filmmakers, and again we're this is curated,
so we're only seeing the ones that come that have
big curated But I see a lot of films for
for ex budget and go. That's not to say people
shouldn't be making their films or anything like that. It's
hard to make a film, But when I see something
that just blows my mind that it costs you know,
this amount of money and was made with this and
(27:53):
you know these actors and they're delivering as good as
you know, you know, what we think of is Hollywood,
you know, like really tough, meaty roles and they're in
this genre film and you're like, wow, there there's a
skill too. It shows it shows the skill of the artist,
if that makes sense. That's probably a better way to
put it. And I don't I don't mean to be
(28:15):
harsh on anyone else, right, but I think it's alive
and well just because I've seen so much quality just
from cinematography to acting, to across the board or just
sheer earnest. I must get my movie out there. This
is a story I need to tell, even if it's
possibly as silly as time man, right, Like that's a
(28:35):
silly premise, and but it was the passion of somebody
is going like, I want to bring absurdity and craziness
to this world, and I'm willing to sacrifice my time
and others time, and and you know, put together a
budget and make this happen. So I think it's alive
and well, but I you know, right now, we do
have this thing where it's like either blockbuster movies or indies.
(28:57):
There's not as much mid range anymore. That's absolutely right.
I would love them.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
Lets you consider television and streaming to the where those
movies live, because in the theater, yeah, that's right, Right.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
In the theater, we're seeing that clamp. And it's we
talked about it. It's across the board. We see it
in video games, block triple A titles, indie titles. That's
in society. The middle class is getting crunched rich and
you have poor and middle classes is so We're seeing
this across the board. That's another reason why why uh,
genre film festivals like be like fantastic fests like Beyond
(29:32):
Fest which is going on, and boy, I have some
fomo about that this year too, Like I can't go
to every festival that's not feasible, but boy I would
love to. But like we when we see these things
like Jenre, festivals are bringing these outsider voices sometimes or
maybe maybe not so. I mean it's our secret screening
for blockbuster movies, right like pt Anderson and Cory Rovinski.
(29:55):
But it's also others like you know, Silent Idublely Knight,
Mike Nelson's showing this film and in a theater less
and sometimes Fantastic fest. That's just the thing is, like
I can see this on TV eventually, but boy, how
cool is it that I'm in a theater with people
who also dig on this. Yeah, So you know, my
endorsement is as much for for genre film festivals. I
can go to Fantastic Fest, that's amazing, but anywhere go
(30:17):
to Chattanooga Film Fest, go to Beyond Fest. If you
can like see these there's stuff out there. It's like
people who say, oh, rock and roll is dead. I
can go on band camp right now and give you
twenty bands that are as rock and heavy as you
could want. As you know, I like, okay, I can
give you ten. I can give you a dozen bands
following their footsteps that you can listen to. So uh yeah,
(30:38):
and you know, to any filmmaker, I you know, I'll
probably be just wrap up just I'll probably be you know,
these are films will be recommending. Like I didn't get
to see Mother of Flies for example, There's there's a
bunch of stuff that will probably as they come up
and we get press screeners, I'll be either sending him
your way to do interviews, or we'll do interviews, or
hopefully we'll see a bunch of these on our show
(30:59):
you come out. I want to recommend it so it
doesn't just live in the bubble of fantastic fest, right.
That's like we'll want to continue. So if there's if
anybody was listening to this and uh, you know, wants
to know more, like that's also hit us up on
the Facebook page as well as you know, any filmmakers
who may come across this. Uh, you know, we want
(31:20):
to cover we want to cover all those and I'll
be I'll be banging the drum for for a lot
of things I saw here as they come out. So
there's a long there's a there's a year or more
worth of cool stuff. I mean, just look at Toxic Avenger.
I talked about that and it just two years later
it's out right. Yeah, so uh, it doesn't just end
at Fantastic Fest. But I thinks, and thanks Jason for
(31:40):
you know, coordinating all of this. I just love to
talk about this crazy, all these awesome movies at a
film festival. You know, most people think, how can you
see thirty five million, thirty five movies in eight days?
What's wrong with you? And here I am going, man,
I wish I could see some more movies. I don't
know what that says about me.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
No, it's fantastic and and I'm glad that we get
a chance to do this every year. All right, with that,
we should wrap up, but I'm I'll make sure that
this gets posted. And I'm glad that you got a
chance to check back. You're like our distant scout.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
So yeah, yeah, boots on the ground for genre horror, right,
a genre film in general. And also, you know, like
I said, I'm going to advocate for all of these
independent filmmakers across the world who bring us these things.
Is that's that's really that Like that's the universal solvent, right,
Like that's that's what brings us together. How cool is
it that I talk to people from you know, all
(32:38):
over the world and they're just they're showing their movie
and they're passionate about it. There's so many short there's
short films. I didn't even get to you that, you know,
we're bringing short film directors even to introduce their film
and show it in a theater, in a theater to people.
To me, I know, I don't want to get too long,
went on, but like that's originally why we did this,
is because we love cinema in a theater. Yeah, and
(32:59):
I feel so passionately about that. So yeah, thanks again, Jason.
I definitely want to you know, let's wrap it up,
but we'll we'll be talking more about these films, all right,
Good luck, my friend. I will talk to you. Take care,
welcome back. I'm glad you survived. Yeah, I guess see
you tomorrow night. Take care,
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