Fantastic Fest: First Wave of programming announced!

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

Let’s just open with the BIG news: Clive Barker’s NIGHTBREED: THE CABAL CUT is playing at this year’s Fantastic Fest. I know the film has been playing in festivals elsewhere, but this is a great “get” for the Austin-based fest. And I wanna see it, dammit!

Anyway, the Fest has just announced its first wave of programming, which is looking pretty good. (It had previously announced that MACHETE KILLS would open the festival.) Check out the list below and let us know if you’re heading to Texas this year for the coolest North American festival around!

BIG BAD WOLVES (Israel, 2013)

Texas Premiere

Director- Navot Papushado & Aharon Keshales, 110 mins

The directing team behind the 2010 cult smash RABIES return to Fantastic Fest with one of the best genre films of 2013.   

BORGMAN (The Netherlands, 2013)

North American Premiere

Director – Alex van Warmerdam, 113 mins

Something wicked this way comes in the form of the ordinary, the polite and the normal as a drifter and his followers invade the home of a bourgeois family.  

CHEAP THRILLS (United States, 2013)

Regional Premiere

Director – E.L. Katz, 85 mins

A recently fired father facing eviction is paid to take on an escalating series of insane challenges from a rich couple with a twisted sense of humor.

COMMANDO – A ONE MAN ARMY (India, 2013)

US Premiere

Director- Dilip Ghosh, 120min

Singing! Dancing! Extreme violence and goofy one-liners from Bollywood’s answer to Tony Jaa and Marko Zaror! If Cannon Films were to relocate to India, COMMANDO would be the result!

EEGA (India, 2012)

Austin Premiere

Director – SriSaila Sri Rajamouli, 107 mins

A murdered man reincarnates as a fly to wreak vengeance on the villain who took his life and his lover. EEGA is an inventive, insane take on a revenge story unlike anything you’ve seen before.

HALLEY (Mexico/The Netherlands, 2013)

Texas Premiere

Director – Sebastian Hofmann, 83 mins

Though Beto’s life may technically be over, he allows himself to experience it one last time before his body completely falls apart in this unique and contemplative horror film.  

KID’S POLICE (Japan, 2013)

North American Premiere

Director – Yuichi FUKUDA, 100 mins

When evil criminal organization Red Venus strikes, there’s only one team of highly specialized cops who can help. Unfortunately, they’ve been dosed with anti-aging gas that has turned them all into children.   

LFO (Sweden/Denmark, 2013)

World Premiere

Director – Antonio Tublen, 94 mins

A solitary man discovers audio frequencies that open the human mind wide to hypnotic suggestion and, ultimately, his total control in this slyly deadpan dark comedy from Sweden.

MAN OF TAI CHI (United States, 2013)

US Premiere

Director – Keanu Reeves, 105 mins

Keanu Reeves stars in and directs this epic tale about a young martial artist who must compete in an underground fight club to protect his way of life. As the fights intensify so does his will to survive.

NARCO CULTURA (United States, 2013)

Texas Premiere

Director – Shaul Schwarz, 103 mins

NARCO CULTURA is a graphically disturbing documentary that examines the parallels between the Mexican drug war and the increasingly popular musical style of narcocorridos (drug ballads).

NIGHTBREED – THE CABAL CUT (United Kingdom, 2012)

Texas Premiere

Directors – Russell Cherrington, 144 mins

NIGHTBREED: THE CABAL CUT is a new director’s cut of Clive Barker’s horror classic that places the film in an entirely different light.

NORTHWEST (Denmark, 2013)

Regional Premiere

Director – Michael Noer, 91 mins

A teen hoodlum in Copenhagen becomes entangled in the criminal underworld   

NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN (Germany, 2013)

North American Premiere

Director – Katrin Gebbe, 110 mins

Tore, a member of the counter-culture Christian movement Jesus Freaks, is befriended and taken in by a family who play an increasingly cruel, violent game and push his capacity to love to its limits.    

ON THE JOB (Philippines, 2013)

US Premiere

Director – Erik Matti, 200 min

Corruption abounds in this stylish, Cannes-selected, ripped-from-the-headlines story of prisoners released on a day pass to work as killers. The cops must bring them in, never knowing how far the corruption spreads and who they can trust.   

RESURRECTION OF A BASTARD, THE (The Netherlands, 2013)

Regional Premiere

Director – Guido van Driel, 89 mins

Adapted from his own graphic novel by first time writer-director Guido van Driel, RESURRECTION OF A BASTARD tells the darkly funny, Coen-esque tale of a career thug caught in an existential crisis.   

SHE WOLF  (Argentina, 2013)

North American Premiere

Director – Tamae Garateguy, 92 mins

A sexual predator roams the streets and trains of Buenos Aires, a beautiful woman who uses sex to lure in her victims. A potent, punk rock spin on Euro-sleaze influences in this raw, erotic thriller.   

VIC + FLO SAW A BEAR  (Canada, 2013)

US Premiere

Director – Denis Côté, 95 mins

An ex-con named Vic and her lover Flo retreat to a sugar shack in a small Quebec town to start anew. Their attempt to live a normal life slowly and disastrously unravels.

 Fantastic Fest runs from September 19-26 at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin. Head over HERE for more details.