Year: 2016

Director: André Øvredal

Writer: Ian B. Goldberg & Richard Naing

Cinematography: Roman Osin

Cast: Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Ophelia Lovibond

Country of Origin: UK

Rating: R

Time: 99 mins.

Sal from Crome Yellow and I had the privilege of attending Beyond Fest--LA's best and baddest genre film festival--where we got to watch the scariest film of this year, The Autopsy of Jane Doe. After the police find numerous gruesome murders in a house and a seemingly pristine corpse of a nude woman in a shallow grave, father and son coroners, Austin and Tommy Tilden must find out how she died. As their examination progresses and no closer to a conclusion than they started, they start to speculate that a supernatural element is at play.

Brought to you by the Filmmaker who brought us The Troll Hunter, Øvredal expertly crafts a minute by minute mystery thriller that creates a suffocating atmosphere that never lets up. This has got to be the scariest film I've seen this year along with South Korean film, The Wailing. I love it when the initial premise morphs into another theme that I would've never imagined! The film's incorporation of supernatural elements creates a chilling climax that you soon won't forget. So if you're a masochist like me, go watch this film when comes out December 21st so you'll be plagued with nightmares for the rest of your life!

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Year: 2016

Director: Ana Lily Amirpour

Writer: Ana Lily Amirpour

Cinematography: Lyle Vincent

Cast: Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Keanu Reeves, Jim Carrey, Diego Luna

Country of Origin: USA

Rating: R

Time: 118 mins.

Sal from Crome Yellow and I had the privilege of attending Beyond Fest--LA's best and baddest genre film festival--where we got to watch the another cannibalism film, this time directed by Ana Lily Amirpour called The Bad Batch! Arlen (Waterhouse) is thrown into a fenced-off desert wasteland past the Texas border where all the "bad batch" of society now live. After getting her leg and arm chopped off by local cannibals, she ends up finding hope and love. Trust me when I say, you have never seen a film like this. Like Amirpour's previous hit film, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, I enjoy and appreciate her work immensely as an experience rather just a film. With it's incredible cast of new and old school actors and a banging soundtrack, psychedelic vibe, The Bad Batch surely is not to be missed!

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Year: 2016

Director: Julia Ducournau

Writer: Julia Ducournau

Cinematography: Ruben Impens

Cast: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella

Country of Origin: France | Belgium

Rating: R

Time: 99 Min.

Sal from Crome Yellow and I had the privilege of attending Beyond Fest--LA's best and baddest genre film festival--where we got to watch the best cannibalism movie of this year, Julie Ducournau's Raw. Following a veterinary college initiation ritual where she has to eat a rabbit kidney, vegetarian Justine becomes consumed with cannibalism tendencies. This film has everything I love: sisterly love, exploration of female sexuality, and a refreshing spin on the cannibalism genre! This is Ducournau's directorial debut feature and it's an absolute stunner that is crafted with confidence and innovativeness.

Raw took the FIPRESCI prize at Cannes Film Festival and even made grown men faint when they saw it at Toronto International Film Festival! Sal and I are not sure EXACTLY which scene they fainted because there isn't anything outrightly grotesque that warrants a fainting spell so for those with weak stomachs, this film is A-OK! It's all around intensely engrossing film with a brutal coming-of-age story that will give you sweat-inducing flashbacks of your college years and an in-depth look at a girl's transition to womanhood, blood and all. 

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The trailer for André Øvredal's The Autopsy of Jane Doe is here and let me just say, it's the scariest film I saw this year. I had the honor of watching this magnificent film at Beyond Fest and I did not sleep well after. Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch play father and son coroners who investigate the death of a beautiful "Jane Doe". Don't let this terse trailer fool you, there's so much more to this story than what is shown. This film truly is filled with crippling tension and it's haunting storyline will have you disturbed for days. So great that IFC Midnight will be releasing this film December 20th! Sal from Crome Yellow and I will be doing a review very soon so look out for that!

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Year: 2016

Director: Karyn Kusama
Writer: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi

Cinematographer: Bobby Shore

Cast: Logan Marshall-Green, Emayatzy Corinealdi, John Carroll Lynch, Michiel Huisman, Tammy Blanchard

Country of Origin: USA

Time: 100 min.

Crome Yellow and I went to Beyond Fest and one of our favorite films was Karyn Kusama's The Invitation! While attending a dinner party and his former home, Will (Marshall-Green) thinks his ex-wife Eden (Blanchard) and her new husband (Huisman) have other sinister intentions for him and the guests. I have been a huge fan of Kusama's earlier works like Girlfight and Jennifer's Body but The Invitation is by far her most masterful work yet! She crafts this suffocatingly tense thriller with such precision and  artistry, the results will make you completely rethink dinner parties for good! Drafthouse Films is releasing the film next April which cannot come soon enough! 

- Trailer & Poster -

This post was originally posted 12/9/15

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Year: 2015

Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Writer: Ah Cheng, Chu T'ien-wen, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Hsieh Hai-Meng, Pei Xing (short story)

Cinematographer: Lee Ping Bin

Cast: Shu Qi, Chang Chen, Tsumabuki Satoshi

Country of Origin: China/France

Time: 105 min.

Sal from Crome Yellow and I got to witness one of the most beautiful films of this year at Beyond Fest which is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's The Assassin. In ninth-century China, an exiled assassin must choose between love and her duty when she is ordered to kill a man from her past. This is unlike any other martial arts film you have ever seen! The film showcases the most stunning and breathtaking cinematography that will transport you through time and space to witness a story truly visionary and masterful. Any fan of Hou knows the steady pace he utilizes and to some it may be too slow, but with these kind of rich visuals, who cares!

The Assassin is China's official entry to the Oscars for Best Foreign Language film. It might have some serious competition with Deniz Gamze Ergüven's Mustang from France but regardless, you should experience these two singularly powerful films for themselves. I had a chance to go to a q&a with Hou a day after where he went over his filmography and filmmaking style. All I can say is that he is such a wacky cat! I need to definitely to check out his previous works because if they are anything like The Assassin, I am in for a real treat! 

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Year: 2015

Director: Takashi Miike
Writer: Yoshitaka Yamaguchi

Cinematographer: Hajime Kanda

Cast: Hayato Ichihara, Lily Franky,  Yayan Ruhian, Reiko Takashima

Country of Origin: Japan

Rating: R

Time: 125 min.

Sal from Crome Yellow and I went to Beyond Fest, the biggest and baddest genre film festival in Los Angeles! We had the privilege of witnessing Takashi Miike's latest genre-bending and mind-blowing film, Yakuza Apocalypse and we were not disappointed! The story follows Kageyama, a young yakuza who is ridiculed by his peoples for not being able to get tattooed. His bossman, the notorious and revered Kamiura is in secret, a vampire. After getting defeated by rival gangs, Kamiura passes his powers to Kageyama, forcing him to seek revenge on the syndicate. Sal and I get down on all the deets and why we'll be forever Miike fans!

With blood-sucking Yakuza vampires, super-strong fighting Keroppies, and all around madness, Yakuza Apocalypse may be one of the craziest films you will see this year! Miike is no newbie when it comes to controversial subjects in his work and while his previous films have pushed the boundaries of terror with Audition and Ichi the Killer, it's pleasant to see a bit of a more wackier side to his film palette like seen in his kid's film, Ninja Kids!!! Sure, this film wasn't perfect but it was 100% Miike and that's what we wanted to see. Fans across the globe will be excited to see another work from this auteur and guaranteed, they will be roaring in ecstasy that they did!

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Year: 2014
Director: Alexandre Aja
Writer: Keith Bunin (screenplay), Joe Hill (novel)
Cinematographer: Frederick Elmes
Cast: Daniel Radcliffe, Juno Temple, Max Minghella, Joe Anderson, Kelli Garner
Country of Origin: USA | Canada
Rating: R
Time: 120 min

I saw Alexandre Aja's Horns starring Harry Potter aka Daniel Radcliffe at this year's Beyond Fest. Horns is a highly entertaining love story that entails a murder mystery with horror elements all in one! You can tell that Radcliffe is trying to shed his Potter image and for the most part, he does it superbly! Despite some superfluous scenes and music within the film, Horns continues to bring huge laughs and sincere performances. Although the costuming and make-up was flawless, something about Radcliffe being demonic wasn't as convincing and can easily come off as silly. But nevertheless, this is a great assemble of extremely talented and young actors that complement each other really well! I have not read the book but like so many others, I'm sure the book is better. B-

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The second ever Beyond Fest has finally come to a close! Beyond Fest is one of the best film festivals for genre and horror films in Los Angeles, hands down! Their line-up continues to amaze and bring once-in-a-lifetime events whether it was having Goblin perform the scores of Dario Argento films last year or reuniting John Carpenter and Jamie Lee Curtis for a very special Halloween screening! As a novice to the genre, it is always a pleasure to be schooled on the fundamentals on these films that I am rarely exposed to from real xxxcore fans! I had the pleasure of having the boys of Beyond Fest tell me in their own words what the festival is all about so be sure to check my recap video! I watched twelve features in total which I have all graded for you down below. 

Horns (Dir. Alexandre Aja) B+

The Editor (Dir. Adam Brooks & Matthew Kennedy) B-

20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard) A

Nightcrawler (Dir. Dan Gilroy) A (See Review) 

V/H/S Viral (Dir. Justin Benson, Gregg Bishop, Todd Lincoln, Aaron Moorhead, Marcel Sarmiento, Nacho Vigalondo) A

Starry Eyes (Dir. Kevin Kolsch & Dennis Widmyer) A

Possession (Dir. Andrzej Zulawski) A

R100 (Dir. Hitoshi Matsumoto) C+

Halloween (Dir. John Carpenter) A

The Town that Dreaded Sundown (Dir. Alfonso Gomez-Rejon) B+

Tokyo Tribe (Dir. Sion Sono) A-

Photos!

   

   

   

   

See more Beyond Fest related things! 

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If you have been following my blog, you already know that I watched Sion Sono's EPIC cinephile lovin' yakuza film, Why Don't You Play in Hell at last year's Beyond Fest! I also reviewed it for yall with Crome Yellow so check that out!! Sadly, the film didn't get a U.S. distribution till now thanks to Drafthouse Films! They also released a new trailer and poster and it looks EXACTLY as crazy as the film is! This is another masterpiece written and directed by Japanese filmmaker, Sion Sono who knows exactly the right angle to jab us with his Katana Sword just the way we like!

Why Don't You Play in Hell follows an inexperience but passionate film crew The Fuck Bombers who are on the quest to make the ultimate action epic! These amateur cinephiles' world collides with the war going on between two Yakuza clans in hopes of capturing a real live battle to death all on 35mm! 

If that doesn't sound fantastically bonkers, I don't know what is! This is the kind of madness I want to see in filmmakers and in their filmmaking. It was an absolute joy to watch this film as it combines every particle of what cinephiles love especially when it comes to violent and Japanese films! This is one of the rare films that I can think of besides John Water's Cecil B. Demented that chronicles xxxcore film buffs to xxxtremes to prove their loyalty! I am overjoyed that this little gem will finally be coming out! the You can finally witness the madness that is Sion Sono's manic brain in limited theaters early next month on November 7th! 

Check out my review of Why Don't You Play in Hell with Crome Yellow!

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Nightcrawler has got to be one of the best and my favorite films of the year! This is Dan Gilroy's directorial debut film and it is an absolute knock out of a film with its razor sharp screenplay, Los Angeles setting, and Jake Gyllenhaal's incredible transformative performance that is sure to get under your skin and stay with you! Gyllenhaal is Lou Bloom, a petty thief that will stop at nothing till he succeeds is today's modern day success story despite its grim and twisted outline! Gyllenhaal shed 30 pounds for the role and completely lost himself during the process aka smashing a mirror during one intense scene! Gyllenhaal really gives it his all and it is one of the most chilling performances I have seen as of lately that is bound to hear some Oscar buzz.

This is one film that I MUST watch on repeat because as a Los Angeles native and actually seeing L.A. story on screen that is ACTUALLY SHOT IN L.A. is pure euphoria. Jake Gyllenhaal has proved himself to be Hollywood's rare gem, repelling blockbuster films after stumps like Prince of Persia (remember this atrocity?!) to pursue more challenging indie pieces like Denis Villeneuve's Prisoners & Enemy and now Nightcrawler. Riz Ahmed is a joy to watch as Bloom's aloof and nervy "intern" and so compelling that I was shocked to know that he is actually British! If you just cut the fat off Bloom's psychotically twisted view of success, the film serves to be one of the most inspirational and motivational pieces I have ever seen or is that my psycho brain talking?! Regardless, Nightcrawler is a rare film birthed out of Tinseltown because it has the meat of an art film and the shine of a Hollywood film! You can't ask for anything better than that! The film comes out October 31st. GET READY.

Poster & Trailer // Teaser 

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Goblin came to Beyond Fest and was their centerpiece showcase where they performed three sold out events following by a screening of Dario Argento's classic films such as Suspiria, Deep Red, and Tenebrae. One of the most incredible experiences I have had the pleasure of witnessing. Beyond Fest out did themselves this year! Check out what we had to say about the phenomenal event and Dario's greatest films!

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Crome Yellow and I went to Beyond Fest to watch Mike Dougherty's Trick 'r Treat (see review!). I had not seen it before and it was absolutely one of the best Halloween films I've ever seen! Beyond Fest transformed the American Cinematheque into a haunted playground and it was awesome! I also got a free poster so I want to do giveaway so the rules are: 

1. Share this vid on Twitter and tag either me (@ssoyunum) or @CromeYellowWeb

or

2. Share this vid on facebook and tag either me or Crome Yellow

or

3. Share through Google+ and I'll be able to see who shared it! 

I will be picking a winner on the 20th of November!

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Beyond Fest: @BeyondFest

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Crome Yellow and I went to Beyond Fest to watch A Field in England. I can only describe this film as something I have not seen before. It has such a hypnotizing and alluring effect on you. Definitely go see this if you like experimental films with a bomb-ass soundtrack.

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Year: 2013

Director: Sion Sono

Writer: Sion Sono

Cinematographer: Hideo Yamamoto

Cast: Jun Kunimura, Fumi Nikaidó, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Hiroki Hasegawa

Country of Origin: Japan

Rating: N/A

Time: 129 min.

Crome Yellow and I went to the very first Beyond Fest this year in Hollywood. Beyond Fest caters to all nerdism from the comic book culture to ultra horror fans to all things COOL aka why this is the perfect festival for Crome Yellow (& I'm just tagging along!). David Choe, the graffiti artist and his DVDASA podcast friends came to host and a do live show of their podcast where award winning porn star, Asa Akira made out with an audience member. It was utterly fantastic! Then of course, we saw the outrageously, ridiculous, bat-shit crazy, film by Sion Sono, Why Don't You Play in Hell which is hands down, one of the best films to watch this year!

Why Don't You Play in Hell is the one film that every cinephile needs to watch before they die! This seems like an exaggeration but the film is a nonstop, bloody, thrill ride that'll massage the crap out of all your senses till it overloads! I have always loved Sono's films and this one is no different! I am so honored to have been one of the few people in AMERICA to have watched this beautiful piece of cinema for the first time! Cross your fingers that this film gets distribution or a VOD deal!

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