MILL CREEK NIGHTMARE WORLDS: House of the Living Dead (1974)
Also known as Shadows over Bridge Farm, Curse of the Dead, Doctor Maniac and even Kill, Baby, Kill, this is a South African/British coproduction that mixes science fiction and horror. Yes, it did just straight up take that Bava title. It’s also kind of House of Usher, as Lady Brattling wants her family to end, what with her son […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: Scooter (2022)
Abandoned by her boyfriend in the middle of the night, Adrienne (Anita Abdinezhad, Eradication) picks up a scooter and rides — Pushes? Shuffles? Kick, kick pushes? — off to her destiny: a rescue mission with a tied-up woman trapped in the back of a van. Director and writer Chelsea Lupkin has created an intriguing film […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: The Civil Dead (2022)
Clay (Clay Tatum, the director and co-writer of this movie) is an unemployed photographer and scam artist who decides to hang out with an old friend named Whit (Whitmer Thomas, who co-wrote the script) when his wife Whitney (Whitney Witt) is out of town. He soon learns that the acquaintance whom he lost track of […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: Please Baby Please (2022)
Amanda Kramer’s (Ladyworld) new film takes place in 1950s Manhattan — maybe not our version of that time and place, but a neon world of music and dance — where Arthur (Harry Melling) and Suze (Andrea Riseborough) — he’s a clarinetist, she’s a housewife — witness a murder committed by a gang of rough trade greasers […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: Black Dragon (2018)
Starring Matthew Del Negro (Scandal, The Sopranos) and with make-up/VFX from the teams behind Pirates of the Caribbean, Tron Legacy and Super 8, Black Dragon looks and feels way stronger than you’d expect from a festival short. Colonel Palmer (Del Negro) is simultaneously suffering from the fact that his platoon has just wiped out a village of probably […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: Kafkas (2021)
Fran (Patsy Ferran, a force of nature in this) has the idea that if she looks through the phone book and cold calls men all across the country with the last name Kafka that she can find her soul mate. She has no job, a Ph.D. and a $700 phone bill from all those calls […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: Break Any Spell (2021)
Break Any Spell impacted me more than nearly any other short that I’ve seen in some time, as it made me think about the deteriorating mental condition of my father and how lost we become thanks to dementia and Alzheimer’s and just plain age. Directed by Anton Jøsef, who co-wrote the film with Lisi Purr, […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: Wild Card (2022)
Daniel (Billy Flynn) and Toni (Tipper Newton, who directed and wrote this short) have been matched by a video dating service that feels inspired by the Found Footage Festival Videomate videos. The date is awkward, as every time Daniel seems to impress Toni or gain ground, she tears him down, builds him up and then […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: Rachels Don’t Run (2021)
While monitoring late-night calls at an AI companionship service, a lonely customer support agent named Leah (Sera Barbieri, Potato Dreams of America) acts as one of the artificial dream girls — Rachel — to chat with Isaac (Anthony Shipway), a customer that she’s in love with. As we grow more disconnected and alone in our private […]
NORTH BEND FILM FEST: While Mortals Sleep (2022)
Susan’s (Carie Kawa) has had her career as a cold case writer fall apart, so she’s hiding out at a friend’s remote vacation house. When she gets there, she meets Eddy (Will Brill) and Abby (Grace Morrison). He’s digging sludge out of the backyard; she makes a spot of tea a strange and not altogether […]
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