Fantastic Fest 2016 Announces The First Wave Of Progamming!

We are precisely 51 days away from the most brain-rupturing week of the year, and we're ready to ramp it up with the announcement of our first wave of programming!

We're bringing back legendary Fantastic Fest alums Tim Burton and Don Coscarelli, we're diving into the world of virtual reality with the introduction of Dark Corner VR, we're taking a trip to South Asia with a programming theme that celebrates Indian cinema of the past and of today. We're doing all of that and much, much more, so read on for the press release and stay tuned for updates in the days to come, because we have a BONKERS amount of surprises in store for you.

And check out the sumptuous new posters by Alamo Drafthouse Art Director Chris Bilheimer: 

Austin, TX - Tuesday, August 2, 2016 - Fantastic Fest announces its first wave of programming for its 12th annual celebration of genre-twisting cinema. This year’s festival sees Tim Burton make a triumphant return for a most peculiar red carpet screening of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children; the World Premiere of Phantasm: Ravager; an Art House Theater Day special screening of Phantasm: Remastered with Don Coscarelli and cast in attendance; breakout star and Texas native Sasha Lane will be in attendance to host Andrea Arnold’s fever dream of youth in revolt, American Honey.

“We really wanted to challenge the edges of what ‘genre’ means this year,” said Tim League, Fantastic Fest Founder and Alamo Drafthouse CEO. “This world of cinema has evolved so dramatically since our first festival in 2005, and we want to be part of the change by exposing audiences to films, formats and filmmakers that they may never otherwise see. I’m proud of the diversity of experiences we’ll be bringing to Austin this September.”

This year’s Fantastic Fest has traveled all the way to South Asia for its annual theme as it embraces the “dishoom!” (the sound of a punch landing in 60’s Bollywood films) of Indian cinema and its superlative culinary delights. A dedicated Indian block of new and repertory features have been carefully crafted to showcase the wildly creative world of the second most populous country. Included in this program is the director’s cut of Psycho Raman, the hyper violent onslaught from India’s most notorious filmmaker, Anurag Kashyareap; the sweeping, 400-year epic of masala madness, Magadheera; and the ultra-stylish Bollywood gangster oddity, Khalnayak.

"It is a dream come true to bring the glorious excess and pageantry of Indian cinema to Fantastic Fest,” said Evrim Ersoy, Head of Programming. “We are celebrating not only Bollywood but also Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam cinema, highlighting the kaleidoscope of textures and content that is as wide and varied as the subcontinent itself. Guests will experience the cutting edge from these regions and discover rare classics. This is a proud and vibrant world of film that that will surprise, shock and astound at Fantastic Fest.”

This year’s Fantastic Fest also celebrates Don Coscarelli’s iconic Phantasm universe with the World Premiere of the series’ latest installment, Phantasm: Ravager. This will be accompanied by a special screening of Phantasm: Remastered, which will stream live to art house theaters all across the country that are celebrating Art House Theater Day on September 24th. Coscarelli will be joined in attendance with cast members and Ravager director David Hartman. Film collectibles specialists Mondo will also be participating with poster, apparel and soundtrack releases made exclusively for the screenings.

This year marks the first time that Fantastic Fest has entered the virtual reality space, and it’s doing so in a big way. Partnering with Los Angeles VR studio Dark Corner, Fantastic Fest will be World Premiering a terrifying VR experience from the team that wrecked senses with their 360-hospital-shocker Catatonic. Founded by commercial director extraordinaire Guy Shelmerdine, Dark Corner is the world’s first genre VR studio and they will be showcasing their very best. Mule is Shelmerdine’s eagerly awaited World Premiere is the follow-up to Catatonic. An emotional, fast-paced hell-ride that catapults the viewer through the final shocking moments of a man’s life (and beyond), Mule will also see the unveiling of a new, custom-designed installation tied to the film’s plot that Shelmerdine promises to be “bigger, more immersive, and more terrifying” than anything they’ve done before.

Dark Corner will also be showcasing Justin Denton’s two-part horror experience, Burlap. Existing as both a traditional 2D short film and an immersive VR experience, Burlap depicts a disturbed killer who zeroes in on an unfortunate babysitter to complete the creation of his secret “masterpiece.” Audiences can watch the short film, then step inside the story with Burlap: Reflections, where they will experience the killer’s sinister obsession firsthand. In addition, Dark Corner will be bringing Catatonic to terrorize Texan audiences for the first time.

“We’re incredibly excited to be an integral part of Fantastic Fest and share our experiences with their global audience,” said Dark Corner founder Guy Shelmerdine. “These films represent unforgettable journeys that are intended to push the boundaries of what 360º immersive storytelling can be. We cannot wait to unleash them.”

Internet video skull-rewinders Everything Is Terrible!bring their brain-melting, eye-shattering, jaw-dropping mayhem to Fantastic Fest for the first time with the World Premiere of their latest assemblage of found footage transdimensional travel. From cat massage to Satanic panic to tap-dancing computers, the EIT! experience is like nothing else in the universe, as they distill and compile the most hilarious/disturbing/unacceptable/impossible images from the past several decades and transform them into a 9000-ton bullet aimed right at the human race’s collective cortex.

Legendary exploitation filmmaker James Bryan (Lady Street Fighter; Don’t Go In the Woods) will be on hand to World Premiere his never-before-seen VHS-era horror masterpiece Jungle Trap. Shot in 1990, the film was shelved unedited and without a musical soundtrack, but has finally been cut and scored a quarter century later. A rampaging, top-notch camcorder adventure packed with ghosts, cannibal warriors, drunken pilots and bloodthirsty elderly bellboys, the world is only just now (sort of) ready for the decapitating delights of Jungle Trap.

First wave film lineup below:

24X36: A MOVIE ABOUT MOVIE POSTERS

Canada, 2016

World Premiere, 83 min

Director - Kevin Burke

Through interviews with art personalities from the past four decades, 24 x 36 examines the birth, death and resurrection of illustrated movie poster art.

A DARK SONG

Ireland, 2016

World Premiere, 99 min

Director - Liam Gavin

Sophia is a determined young woman who hires a weird occultist to perform a ritual which will risk not only their lives and souls, but also the very essence of their being.

ALOYS

Switzerland, France, 2016

US Premiere, 91 min

Director - Tobias Nölle

Aloys Adorn is a lonely private investigator who, after the death of his father, finds himself sucked into a mysterious “telephone walking” game with a mysterious woman who might be his only hope.

AMERICAN HONEY

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 158 min

Director - Andrea Arnold

Andrea Arnold’s first US feature follows 18-year-old Star as she leaves her home in Oklahoma and goes in search of adventure, adulthood and America.

BELIEF: THE POSSESSION OF JANET MOSES

New Zealand, 2015

US Premiere, 89 min

Director - David Stubbs

The true story of the Wainuiomata exorcism provides the basis for David Stubbs’ striking debut feature, a documentary exploring the tragic death of Janet Moses in a traditional Maori exorcism ceremony.

THE CREW

France, 2016

US Premiere, 81 min

Director - Julien Leclercq

It’s bad men face versus worse men as thieves face off against dealers in this super slick French heist thriller from the director of Chrysalis and The Assault.

DEAREST SISTER

Laos, France, Estonia, 2016

World Premiere, 100 min

Director - Mattie Do

After moving to the city, a poor woman realizes her recently blinded cousin can not only commune with the dead, but they can provide a path to much-needed wealth.

DOWN UNDER

Australia, 2016

North American Premiere, 87 min

Director - Abraham Forsythe

In the aftermath of massive race riots, two carloads of dim-witted alpha males set off to defend their respective territory with outrageous results in this sharp edged Australian satire.

THE DWARVES MUST BE CRAZY

Thailand, 2016

World Premiere, 92 min

Director - Bhin Banloerit

A Thai village of little people is attacked by evil, butt-munching, fart-tracking Krause spirits - floating heads with attached intestines - in this slapstick horror-comedy.

FAULTLESS

France, 2016

North American Premiere, 103 min

Director - Sébastien Marnier

After burning out in Paris, Constance returns to her home town only to find herself in lethal competition with a younger girl for her old job.

FRAUD

United States, 2016

Texas Premiere, 53 min

Director - Dean Fleischer-Camp

A family’s home movies document a desperate crime, and the subsequent bid to escape the consequences in this impressionistic meta-fiction born from the manipulation of hundreds of hours of innocuous uploads to YouTube. An extraordinary feat of editing, a provocative parable of the pursuit of happiness and a disturbing demonstration of the mutability of the stories we share in the Internet age.

THE GREASY STRANGLER

United States, 2016

Special Screening, 93 min

Director - Jim Hosking

Brayden fears his first love affair is turning his father into a bloodthirsty monster who’s covered in grease and has an 18-inch penis that looks like a dead chicken.

JUNGLE TRAP : Presented By Bleeding Skull

United States, 1990/2016

World Premiere, 80 min

Director - James Bryan

Exploitation demigod James Bryan’s massively entertaining, decapitation-fueled shot-on-video horror masterpiece about a jungle hotel haunted by kill-crazy ghosts in loin cloths, shot in 1990 and unreleased until THIS VERY MOMENT.

KHALNAYAK

India, 1993

Repertory Screening, 190 min

Director - Subhash Ghai

Ballu is an unrepentant gangster who has dedicated his life to the celebration of villainy. He is a bad, bad man and not ashamed one bit. However, with the help of his mother and a sympathetic cop, Ballu will rise above his circumstances to gain satisfying redemption.

MAGADHEERA

India, 2009

Repertory Screening, 157 min

Director - S.S. Rajamouli

Harsha, a dirt bike racer, lives for thrills. One day he crosses paths with Indu, a girl with whom he feels strangely connected. Through this bond, Harsha discovers his hidden identity: a reincarnated warrior king.

MISS PEREGRINE'S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN

United States, 2016

Special Screening, 123 min

Director - Tim Burton

From visionary director Tim Burton, and based upon the best-selling novel, comes an unforgettable motion picture experience. When Jake discovers clues to a mystery that spans alternate realities and times, he uncovers a secret refuge known as Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. As he learns about the residents and their unusual abilities, Jake realizes that safety is an illusion, and danger lurks in the form of powerful, hidden enemies. Jake must figure out who is real, who can be trusted, and who he really is.

ORIGINAL COPY

Germany, 2016

Texas Premiere, 95 min

Directors - Florian Heinzen-Ziob and Georg Heinzen

In the heart of Mumbai, behind the screen of one of the last Hindi Film cinemas, lives Sheik Rahman, the city’s last painter of film posters. This is his story.

PHANTASM: REMASTERED (1979)

United States, 1979

Special Screening, 88 min

Director - Don Coscarelli

One of the most influential and important horror films of all time, Don Coscarelli's Phantasm returns to Alamo Drafthouse's screens in a gorgeous 4k remaster.

PHANTASM: RAVAGER

United States, 2016

World Premiere, 87

Director - David Hartman

The fifth and final film in the classic Phantasm film series, Phantasm Ravager follows our intrepid everyman hero Reggie on his quest across dark dimensions as he struggles to confront and vanquish the sinister Tall Man.

POPOZ

The Netherlands, 2015

International Premiere, 85 min

Directors- Erwin van de Eshof & Martijn Smits

Festival favorite Huub Smit (New Kids Nitro; New Kids Turbo; Bros Before Hos) stars as a Dutch cop raised on far too many American action films in this outrageous action comedy.

PSYCHO RAMAN

India, 2016

US Premiere, 127 min

Director - Anurag Kashyap

Raghavan is a cop: brutal, violent, and drug-addicted. Ramanna is a criminal: psychotic, unpredictable, and vicious. It’s only a matter of time before they meet and when they do, Mumbai's slums will be colored deep crimson.

SALT AND FIRE

Mexico, 2016

U.S. Premiere, 93 min

Director - Werner Herzog

Herzog’s most wildly unpredictable film, Salt and Fire is a meticulously slow burning, quasi-ecological thriller punctuated by moments of the lyrically poetic and the inexplicably, outrageously absurd.

S IS FOR STANLEY

Italy, 2016

North American Premiere, 82 min

Director - Alex Infascelli

Alex Infascelli’s documentary about Emilio D’Alessandro, Stanley Kubrick’s personal assistant for more than thirty years, which provides never-before-seen insight into the private auteur.

THE VOID

Canada, 2016

World Premiere, 90 min

Directors - STEVEN KOSTANSKI & JEREMY GILLESPIE

Trapped in a hospital with a handful of people, a small town sheriff finds himself caught up in the demented plot of a death-obsessed madman.

WE ARE THE FLESH

Mexico, 2016

Texas Premiere, 80 min

Director - Emiliano Rocha Minter

Somewhere within a ruined city, a man makes an offer to a pair of siblings who wander into his abandoned building: food and shelter in exchange for building a strange room…

ZOOLOGY

Russia, France, Germany, 2016

US Premiere, 87 min

Director - Ivan I. Tverdovsky

Natasha is a lonely, middle-aged woman who still lives with her mother and feels insecure about her tedious life… until she grows a tail.

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