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[Tribeca ’13] Spotlight and Midnight Titles Include ‘V/H/S/2,’ ‘Dark Touch,’ ‘Frankenstein’s Army’ and More; FIRST Ever Imagery!
The Tribeca Film Festival today announced its feature film selections in the Spotlight and Midnight sections, projects in the new Storyscapes section and Special Screenings. The 12th edition of the Festival will take place from April 17 to April 28 in New York City.
The Spotlight section features 33 films — 21 narratives and 12 documentaries — that blur the lines of independent and mainstream filmmaking. Twenty-three films in the selection will have their world premieres at the Festival, a record number for the section. The Midnight section – formerly known as Cinemania – will open with Dark Touch and offers an international menagerie of seven raucous and rousing new horror titles. Our very own V/H/S/2x (pictured above), which premiered at Sundance, and plays this weekend at SXSW, also will continue its festival run!
Here are the genre films selected for Midnight and Spotlight, as well as a huge batch of first ever images!
The Tribeca Film Festival today announced its feature film selections in the Spotlight and Midnight sections, projects in the new Storyscapes section and Special Screenings. The 12th edition of the Festival will take place from April 17 to April 28 in New York City.
The Spotlight section features 33 films — 21 narratives and 12 documentaries — that blur the lines of independent and mainstream filmmaking. Twenty-three films in the selection will have their world premieres at the Festival, a record number for the section. The Midnight section – formerly known as Cinemania – will open with Dark Touch and offers an international menagerie of seven raucous and rousing new horror titles
Here are the genre films selected for Midnight and Spotlight…
MIDNIGHT: Kicking off the rebranded Midnight section is Marina de Van’s stylish Dark Touch, the disturbing story of a traumatized young girl whose subconscious begins to lash out at those who have wronged her. The young girl at the center of Dark Touch is not Midnight’s only superwoman either. Between the man-made super-warrior slowly discovering her sentience in The Machine, and Zoe Bell’s modern-day gladiator fighting her way through an army of opponents in the action-packed Raze, strong women dominate Midnight. Strange and superhuman powers are also lurking in the mysterious figure haunting a young married couple at their mountain retreat in the found-footage supernatural thriller Mr. Jones. But found footage really reaches its apotheosis as a genre in the horror extravaganza V/H/S/2, an omnibus of the most cutting-edge genre filmmakers working today that includes zombies, cultists, ghosts and alien invasions. Between action, horror, sci-fi and found-footage, Midnight offers seven films for all genre tastes.
• Dark Touch, directed and written by Marina de Van. (France) – International Premiere, Narrative. “Niamh is the lone survivor of a bloody massacre after the furniture and objects in her family’s isolated house take on a monstrous life of their own. The police ignore her wild stories and the family friends and social worker who take her in try to introduce a new life. But in this psychological thriller, Niamh is unable to leave her violent past behind her, endangering everyone who crosses her path.”
• Frankenstein’s Army, directed by Richard Raaphorst, written by Chris W. Mitchell and Miguel Tejada-Flores. (Netherlands) – International Premiere, Narrative. “In the waning days of World War II, a team of Russian soldiers finds itself on a mysterious mission to the lab of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. They unearth a terrifying Nazi plan to resurrect fallen soldiers as an army of unstoppable freaks and are soon trapped in a veritable haunted house of cobbled-together monstrosities. Frankenstein’s Army is the wild steampunk Nazi found-footage zombie mad scientist film you’ve always wanted.”
• Fresh Meat, directed by Danny Mulheron, written by Briar Grace-Smith. (New Zealand) – New York Premiere, Narrative. “After a poorly executed escape from the police, a gang of dysfunctional criminals flees to the suburbs and gets more than it bargained for when it crash lands in the garage of an upper-class Maori family whose refined palates have developed a taste for human flesh. This action-packed horror comedy tells a blood-spattered tale of basement butchery and shifting allegiances as these unlikely adversaries enter a deadly showdown.” A Tribeca Film release.
• The Machine, directed and written by Caradog James. (U.K.) –World Premiere, Narrative. “Caradog James adds another layer to the Frankenstein story in the latest gripping sci-fi adventure to come out of the U.K.. Already deep into a second Cold War, Britain’s Ministry of Defence seeks a game-changing weapon. Programmer Vincent McCarthy unwittingly provides an answer in The Machine, a super-strong human cyborg played by the impressive Caity Lotz (The Pact). When a programming bug causes the prototype to decimate his lab, McCarthy takes his obsessive efforts underground, far away from inquisitive eyes.”
• Mr. Jones, directed and written by Karl Mueller. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. “Scott (Jon Foster) is a filmmaker in need of inspiration. He and his girlfriend Penny move into a desolate house hoping to make a breakthrough. Then they discover their neighbor, the elusive Mr. Jones. Famous for his haunting sculptures, Mr. Jones has remained a mystery to the world. Scott and Penny, convinced that they have found the perfect film subject, sneak into his workshop and realize that their curiosity may have chilling consequences. Who is Mr. Jones?”
• Raze, directed by Josh Waller, written by Robert Beaucage. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative. “Stuntwoman Zoe Bell (Inglorious Basterds, Kill Bill 1&2) headlines this sly subversion of the women-in-prison genre. After Sabrina (Bell) is abducted, she finds herself in an underground lair, forced to do battle with other innocent women for the amusement of unseen spectators. Each of these reluctant warriors has something to lose, but only one will remain when the game is done. Violent and relentless, Raze takes its video game aesthetic to the deepest and darkest places, rarely surfacing for air.” Includes Rachel Nichols and Tracie Thoms.
• V/H/S/2, directed by Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard, Eduardo Sanchez, Gregg Hale, Timo Tjahjanto, Gareth Evans, Jason Eisener, written by Barrett, Jamie Nash, Tjahjanto, Evans, Eisener, and John Davies (USA, Indonesia) – New York Premiere, Narrative. “Investigators break into a house, find a vast collection of VHS tapes and play them one by one. The videos include visions of the paranormal, flesh-eating zombies, a shockingly genuine scene of hell on earth and a slumber party gone horribly awry.” This highly anticipated sequel to last year’s horror breakout V/H/S features contributions from contemporary genre filmmaking’s leading talents, including the creators of Hobo with a Shotgun, The Raid, You’re Next and The Blair Witch Project. In English, Indonesian with subtitles. A Magnet Release.
SPOTLIGHT: Tribeca’s Spotlight section offers World Premieres and advance premieres with bold-faced names, topics of interest from both established and emerging filmmakers.
• Big Bad Wolves, directed and written by Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado. (Israel) – World Premiere, Narrative. “A vigilante cop and a vengeful father capture and interrogate an accused serial killer. Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado’s brutal follow-up to Rabies (TFF 2011) examines a horror that most would not want to imagine: what would you do if someone hurt the one you loved most? A revenge thriller with teeth, Big Bad Wolves delivers on its raw tension and operatic drama.” In Hebrew with subtitles.
• Byzantium, directed by Neil Jordan, written by Moira Buffini. (U.K., Ireland) – U.S. Premiere, Narrative. “Neil Jordan’s exploration of vampirism began with Interview with the Vampire. Now he returns to this lurid, malevolent realm through Clara (Gemma Arterton) and her daughter Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan). Creatures from Clara’s past come calling, and these immortals are forced to relocate. Dire consequences follow anyway when Eleanor makes a connection with a local boy (Caleb Landry Jones) and slowly reveals the truth of who they are and how they survive.” An IFC Films release.
• A Single Shot, directed by David M. Rosenthal, written by Matthew F. Jones. (U.K., USA, Canada) – North American Premiere, Narrative. “A Single Shot brings together a wealth of indie stalwarts, including Sam Rockwell, William H. Macy, Melissa Leo and Jeffrey Wright, to paint a tense portrait of John Moon, a man attempting to win back his estranged family while desperately outrunning an accidental crime. Director David M. Rosenthal returns to the Festival with this ominously atmospheric and suspenseful backwoods tale of circumstance, based on Matthew F. Jones’s 1996 novel.”
Exclusives
‘Dead Mail’ Exclusive Images: SXSW Horror Movie Begins With a Blood-Stained Postal Box Delivery
One of the genre films we’re looking forward to checking out at SXSW this year is Dead Mail, written and directed by Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy and premiering on March 9.
Meagan Navarro will be reviewing Dead Mail for Bloody Disgusting as part of her SXSW coverage, and she writes in her preview for the upcoming fest: “Dead Mail leans heavily into the ’80s analog aesthetic, delivering a unique crime thriller unafraid to get offbeat with its dark narrative. Expect its characters to be as atypical as Dead Mail‘s sense of style.”
In the SXSW 2024 horror film…
“On a desolate, Midwestern county road, a bound man crawls towards a remote postal box, managing to slide a blood-stained plea-for-help message into the slot before a panicking figure closes in behind him. The note makes its way to the county post office and onto the desk of Jasper, a seasoned and skilled “dead letter” investigator, responsible for investigating lost mail and returning it to its sender. As he investigates further, Jasper meets Trent, a strange yet unassuming man who has taken up residence at the men’s home where Jasper lives.
“When Trent unexpectedly shows up at Jasper’s office, it becomes clear he has a vested interest in the note, and will stop at nothing to retrieve it…”
Sterling Macer, Jr., John Fleck, Susan Priver, Micki Jackson, Tomas Boykin, and Nick Heyman star in Dead Mail. Preview the film with an exclusive image gallery below.
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