Smash Cut

For a lot of us genre hounds, Evil Dead creator Sam Raimi’s name has probably lost a bit of its cultural value ever since he seemingly began to devote himself to running the Spider Man franchise into the ground and to producing endless watered-down J-Horror remakes on the side.

But…dang it all, if I haven’t given up hope on the guy. I mean, I think that 1981’s kids-terrorized-by-demonic-book fright-fest The Evil Dead still has teeth to this day, and that his 1998 thriller A Simple Plan remains one of the most handsomely-crafted potboilers in the last decade or so. Even his less-acclaimed Spaghetti Western homage, The Quick and the Dead, has its charms for me.

So I must admit that I, for one, am pretty thrilled about his return to horror cinema, Drag Me To Hell. If the buzz is to be believed, this pic about a loan officer facing a diabolical curse is a real return to form for Raimi, and something that’ll make all of his old-school fans happy.

And…if you’re one of those fans, and happen to be in the great city of Austin, Texas in mid-March to boot, then head on over to the South by Southwest Film Festival, where, on March 15 at midnight, Raimi and stars Alison Lohman and Justin Long will introduce a special “work-in-progress” screening of Drag Me To Hell. Damned if I didn’t wish I was down south right now, and it’s not just because of our pain-in-the-butt New York snowstorm.

Go to the official SXSW Film website for more info, and the Drag Me To Hell page to stay up-to-date on ticket availability and venue details.

Back in 1961, a film distributor dubbing itself the Art Theater Guild started up in Japan to bring edgy European cinema to the country’s masses. I guess the organization — which came to be known as the ATG — got bitten by the movie-making bug and found influence in the esoteric foreign fare it released, because in 1967 the Guild started to independently produce its own feature films.

The movies made by ATG were innovative, experimental and quite often taboo-busting, dealing with a myriad of controversial subjects including incest, homosexuality, and anarchy. Some of Japan’s most highly-regarded directors, such as the always provocative Nagisa Oshima and the avant-garde Shuji Terayama, had their first tastes of international recognition through the work they made for Art Theater Guild. And yet, the distributor/production company is still relatively unknown, even in its native Japan.

The daring folks at New York’s Japan Society are hoping to rectify that oversight, starting today, February 18, with their series “Shinjuku Ecstasy,” which is named for the ATG’s main theater, the Shinjuku Bunka, which allowed countercultural artists of all stripes to gather, create and exhibit their ground-breaking work.

The series runs until March 1, and you can go here to check out the schedule and buy tickets. Some of the highlights include the groundbreaking 1969 queer cinema feature Funeral Parade of Roses (pictured at the top), and 1971’s rebelliously-titled Throw Away Your Books, Let’s Go Into the Street, which probably deserves your time and money just for its name alone! You can toss some molotovs and let flashbacks melt your brain while you watch the psychedelic English-subtitled trailer for the latter here.

Fans of Asian cinema, from the sublimely arty to the enjoyably trashy, have come to know that the Italian city of Udine is synonymous with that film movement. That’s because it’s the home of the Far East Film Festival, which is now entering its 11th year, having established itself as the place to go to screen that continent’s hottest blockbuster hits and discover its brand-new, unknown gems.

We’re not talking about pics that only come from the usual suspects of Japan, China (and Hong Kong), Thailand, Korea and India either. Even Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia get represented. Seriously, when’s the last time you actually saw an Indonesian movie? When the Far East Film Festival says “Asian,” it puts its schedule where its mouth is and provides a beautifully diverse line-up that’s hard to match anywhere else.

This year’s fest, which sports the European premiere of the runaway Thai blockbuster Ong Bak 2, runs from April 24 through May 2, and you can go to the festival’s official website to stay in the loop.

Okay, I know this makes two film festival-related posts back-to-back, but hey, when venues for checking out relatively hard-to-find flicks pop up or get underway, I figure I oughta give ‘em a push.

Austin’s always been a great place, but starting tomorrow, Sept. 18, it’s just gonna be that much greater when the Fantastic Fest 2008 begins its eight-day run (it closes on Thursday, Sept. 25). Where else in the good ol’ U.S. of A. are you gonna have a chance to check out an Australian exploitation retrospective or a Japanese “pink” film tribute on the big screen? Only in the capital of the Lone Star state, natch, courtesy of the FF and some terrific venues, like the Alamo Drafthouse and the historic Paramount Theatre. Sci-fi, horror, anime, comedy, you name it…if it’s cinematically “fantastic,” they’ll try to show it. Not to mention all the premieres, special events, and parties. Face it, would you even know that there was a documentary about stalkers of the ’80s teen pop sensation Tiffany or a “100 Best Kills” shindig without the efforts of this fest’s crazy programmers? Didn’t think so.

You can visit the festival’s official website main page to navigate its news, schedules, and info at your own rate, or go straight to the full list of films and events here.

If that headline didn’t ring any bells with you, then you haven’t yet heard of the — and I mean the — preeminent celebration of fantastic cinema in our whole, wide-old world.

The 2008 SITGES International Film Festival is gearing up for its October 2-12 run, and it promises to be a tasty treat for film freaks (perhaps with heavier emphasis on the latter word). Based in Spain on the Catalan coast, SITGES is now in its 40th year, after its auspicious 1968 debut as the 1st International Week of Fantasy and Horror Movies. Everyone who is anyone in genre cinema has graced its red carpets, from the well-known, such as George A. Romero and Quentin Tarantino, to the relatively obscure (even if undeservedly so), like Takashi Miike, Narciso Ibáñez Serrador and Paul Naschy.

The fest has unveiled its competition line-up here, and it looks terrifically strong. Also exciting is the fact that they’ll be honoring some classic warhorse directors like Abel Ferrara and John Carpenter with “Time Machine” awards in celebration of their memorable bodies of work.

If you’d like to visit the official SITGES website and check out all of its events and screening line-ups (including the out-of-competition films), you can do so here.