Back in April, I did a column call Straight for the Kill short film program that took place at the Philadelphia Film Festival. I promised a part three. Oops. I totally forgot until the other day, when cleaning up my computer. Here is the final part to my coverage of that short program. To get get caught up with this here are the links to part one and part two

Part One - "Side Effect", "Treevenge": http://www.filmarcade.net/2009/03/2009-philidelphia-film-festival-and.html

Part Two - "Rite","The Fairy Princess": http://www.filmarcade.net/2009/04/2009-philidelphia-film-festival-and.html

The Painter of Skies
AKA: O Pintor De Ceos
Year: 2008
Director: Jorge Morais Valle
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 25 Mins
Language: Spanish with English subtitles

“The Painter of Skies” (O Pintor De Ceos) is about a painter, who hides in the darkness of the lost cliffs. He and his assistant are trying to find out the solution to the perpetual storms that causing problems his darkly lit house. Soon the two find that the waves in the water are becoming powerful to the point that is destroying their home. The only things that can save them from this potential disaster are a magic boiler and tormented ghosts, if they will be able to see the light.

“The Painter of Skies” is a very visual animated film that adults will love. One of the film’s success is that the fact that all the animation is very visual, which makes it a very good film to watch for a visual stances. Director, Jorge Morais Valle, does a great job making the animation really stand out, as its just great to look at the images that on the screen. He also does a very good job making it look, very vivid. That’s done through the various magical effects that created, in the animation process. It really makes this a very good film to look at from art form standpoint and an animation standpoint.

The screenplay written by Morais and writer Silvia Pazos really goes into the painter character, during the course of this film, which the story come alive. The writers do a very good job of exploring the painter and the struggles that made life, so dark. It examines why the painter is tormented by his past. They explore in a way that you feel sorry for the character, as his life is consumed by the darkness outside and inside of his heart, which makes you feel some sympathy for the character and want him to break through the darkness that’s upon him. The writers also go a good job, going into the painter’s backstory, as it explains how the character became who he is at the beginning of the film. Another thing that I liked about the screenplay was that they added a sidekick for the painter. That character perfectly placed there, so film would have a little dark humor to it, as it helped the film not become too dreary and dull.

“The Painter of Skies” is a very vivid animated film that fans of the Bill Plympton and Mike Judge crowd will enjoy.


White Radishes
Year: 2009
Director: Christina Won
Stars: Jack Dimich, Fairly Tull, Alison Johnson
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 13 Mins

“White Radishes” is about a man, who is obsessive compulsive. He finds that his neighbor next door is hiding a young woman in the attic. The man finds her one day, covered in dirt and roots. He finds a horrifying discovery that she is also growing vegetables out of her own skin. When he tries to rescue her, he going to learn that some things is better left alone.

“White Radishes” is a very dark and twisted story. Director Christina Won does a good job making this film seem like a grim fairy tale. I liked how she directs some of film’s shots. Some of the scenes really brought a sense of intensity of dark atmosphere that is needed for a weird film like this to succeed. Won also does a good filming some the dialoug-less scenes, especially in the beginning, at it helped introduce the film’s characters, which made up for the lack of backstory to one of the film’s key characters. Another reason that this film being dark and fairy tale like, the way that Won directs her actors. She makes all the performance feel odd. It helped bring the oddness that a film like this has to have, in order for it to succeed.

Wou’s screenplay was for the most part good. She does a good job building up the suspense and tension. The moments helped build up everything that was going on in the film, as it kept me interested in the characters and the story. It makes for one interesting and twisted story. Another thing that helped make this film good, the way the film ends. It was one of those films, which I thought something was going to happen, but instead the direct opposite happens. It’s done effectively, so that it provides the twistedness of the story that you just witnessed. If there was one problem that I had with this film, it was the fact that it moves at a pace that you don’t get to know much about the neighbor living next door or the fact that we don’t know how the young woman got be this way. It would’ve been nice to have a backstory to explain how this happened, but I still enjoyed this film, nonetheless.

“White Radishes” is very twisted but entertaining fantasy film.

Review Rating: 3.5 Stars

I Don’t Sleep, I Dream
Year: 2009
Director: J.P. Chan
Studio: Medium 10-12
Stars: Jo Mei, Debargo Sanyal
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 15 Mins

“I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” is about a woman, who is driving on a deserted road, then is stopped when she hits something with one of her tires. Soon her fears come back to haunt her, as things begin to happen mysteriously. Now in order to her

“ I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” is a very imaginative and visually sound film. The visuals helps makes this a very entertaining short. Director J.P. Chan does a great job making all the images that you see, during the course of this film feel dreamlike. It helps make the film come off as dreamlike, with its visual effects. But what makes this film entertaining, the way Chan manages to get not one but two very good performances from Jo Mei, who plays the two main characters in the film. One of the things that I liked about the performances is the fact that they come off differently from one another. It easily helps distinguish the two characters in the film. You had one character, who was the straight one, while the other is pretty much in her own dreamlike world. Another thing that made it work was the fact that they weren’t recognizable, as I thought there were two actresses in the film, not one.

Chan’s screenplay is very imaginative. He does a great job creating a story that’s relies on things that you usually wouldn’t see visually. It makes the films very vivid and darkm while bringing a different tone that makes it interesting for the viewer. The imagery also helped create some of the suspense that this film has. The reason this works, there is a lot tension with the strange things that are happening, during the course of the film. It makes you get into the story and the situation the characters are in.

I Don’t Sleep, I Dream, is very vivid on imagery, while the performances help make this not another effects film.

Review Rating: Four Stars.

This is the first of a three-part look at the short films that are playing in Danger After Dark's short film program, Straight for the Kill, a collection of some of the horrific shorts from around the world.


Treevenge
Year: 2008
Director: Jason Eisener
Studio: YerDead Productions
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 15 Mins
Official Website: http://www.treevenge.com/





(Please note, this review is a repost from 12/16/2008)

If you thought “Splatter Disco” was the only Christmas themed horror film that I could come with, this year, I was sadly mistaken. There is another film that has the holiday theme and fits into the Christmas season, very well. The film that I’m talking about is Treevenge. This film could also be called, “Attack of the Killer Christmas Trees”, as that’s what I thought at the end of this short. The film has won the Audience Award for Best Short Film at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival, New York City Horror Film Fest and Toronto After Dark Film Festival and will be playing at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in January.

“Treevenge” is the latest creation from the guys who came out last year during around the time that “Grindhouse” came out with the notorious grindhouse faux trailer “Hobo With a Shotgun”, which won the SXSW Grindhouse Trailer Cut contest, last year, in conjunction with Quentin Taratino and Robert Rodriquez’s “Grindhouse”. The film is about, the experiences and lives of the Christmas trees. After being chopped down to be sold and shipped from their homes, they aren’t happy being used for display purposes. This Christmas will be definitely be different, as the trees will fight back and try to end civilization and the Chirstmas hoiliday, as we know it.

‘Treevenge” is a holiday filled gorefest that’s so demented you’ll be shocked. The direction of this film has the same grindhouse type feel that made “Hobo with a Shotgun"faux trailer very entertaining and earned cult like status on myspace. I liked how, director Jason Eisener goes for that vibe again, with this project. It help makes this film very odd, from most films that I usually see, especially when you have trees talking with subtitles. I’m not kidding. The pace of the action was good, as Eisener (who’s also the editor) does a good job editing; as the action doesn’t take away the film’s story. He also makes the violence very gory. The gory effects were very good, as there were a couple of very graphic images that were gruesome to watch, as he replicates the violence that was seen in his previous project.

Eisener and Rob Cotterill’s screenplay was good and original. The writers did a great job making the action very shocking. They did that, by making the death horrifying, as it added to the film’s shock level. There were moments that were very gruesome. Their development of the characters was solid. They do a good job developing the time between when the trees get cut in the beginning of the film to Christmas day, where this is not a Christmas to remember. They also did a good job getting the tree’s perspective oddly enough. They did that, by making their dialogue subtitled, which made more than just the typical boring B-movie monster. In that same time, the writers did a good job developing the soon to be victims. They did that to make sure that you are shocked, when the trees attack.

Treevenge will definitely make you think twice, before deciding to put up a tree, this Christmas.

Review Rating: 4 Stars



Side Effect
Year: 2009
Director: Liz Adams
Studio: AFI’s Directing Workshop for Women
Stars: Virginia Newcomb, Suzy Cote, Jonathan Nail
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 13 Mins
Official Website: http://www.sideeffectthemovie.net/






"Side Effect is about an attractive, over achieving student, who takes a job as a babysitter, for a wealthy couple. The couple trusts her with their kids, as they head out for a social gathering. While watching the kids, she begins to work on her schoolwork. Being frustrated with it, she takes a couple of pills to help focus on her schoolwork. Soon the pills take its effect and helps her balance everything that she needs to do, but these pills have a side effect that might end up with deadly consequences.

“Side Effect” is a very effective and shocking short film. Liz Adams’ direction was very good. She does great job looking at the dangers of abusing drugs while creating images that were shocking and downright horrifying. What made this effective was Adams’ ability to create an atmosphere that is very dark and creepy, by setting up the tension in the film’s beginning, so that you’re led in a different direction. She also directs some of the film’s action very well, as it really helped show off the character’s state of mind from the beginning of the film until it’s end, as some of this film reminded me of Darren Aronofsky’s second film “Requiem of a Dream”, which also tackles the same subject. But what makes this character study work was the way that Adams directs her leading lady, Virginia Newcomb, as her performance helps carry this film. She pulls off her role very well, as she shows different sides of her character. This helps her performance become believable and helps the film be a very shocking film.

Adams’ screenplay was also very good. One of the things that make this screenplay good, the fact the film has a constant message about the dangers of pill addiction. This message is present in the film’s story and action, which I hope some of you, who watches this get it, because it’s something that’s not explored enough in cinema. Another thing that makes the screenplay and story very good, the way Adams makes this film a character study instead of a film that focuses on shock value. There is shock value here, but that’s not the main focus of the story. She focuses on the story and the effects that the main character is having with these pills and the dangers that such an addiction poses. It makes the film very dark and makes you interested in the dangers, when you misuse pills just to keep yourself up all night.

Side Effect is a shocking and horrifying short that carries a powerful message regarding the dangers of misusing pills.

Review Rating: Five Stars

Upcoming Screenings for the Straight for the Kill Short Film Program presented by Danger After Dark.

Sunday March 29th, 9:15 PM International House Philadelphia, PA
Sunday April 5th, 4:30 PM International House Philadelphia, PA