V/H/S



Friday APRIL 27th // 10:15pm // Brattle Theatre // Tickets
115mins // directed by:David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Radio Silence, Joe Swanberg, Ti West, and Adam Wingard // featuring:Calvin Reeder, Lane Hughes and Adam Wingard

V/H/S has managed to stuff enough snuff and scares onto one tape to take you back to that wonderful time in horror when you never really knew what you were getting yourself into before pushing “play.”

David Bruckner (THE SIGNAL) sends us out for the night with three college bros who hope not only to score chicks, but to capture the coital conquests on hidden camera. They manage to pull some prime talent back to their motel room, but they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Ti West (THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL) takes us on a second honeymoon, but the couple’s romantic desert road trip takes a horrifically wrong turn. Glenn McQuaid (I SELL THE DEAD) drives us to a lake in the woods with a group of college kids who seem to have forgotten that the serene setting was recently the scene of grisly murders. Ghost stories from Joe Swanberg (HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS, IFFBoston 2007) and the video collective Radio Silence continue raising the bloody bar, making PARANORMAL ACTIVITY look like an episode of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

V/H/S is a Frankenstein’s monster of a film, equal parts intelligence and extreme gore, stitched together by some of the finest frighteners in the business. —Mark Anastasio

Beyond the Black Rainbow



Saturday APRIL 28th // 11:30pm // Brattle Theatre // Trailer // Tickets
110mins // directed by:Panos Cosmatos // featuring:Michael Rogers, Eva Allan and Scott Hylands

The year is 1983. A young woman, Elena, is being held hostage in a high-tech facility created by Dr. Mercurio Arboria, a scientist who researches methods of spiritual enlightenment. His protégé, Dr. Barry Nyle, observes his prisoner with pleasure. Elena’s psychic powers are being controlled by heavy sedation and a mysterious, glowing white pyramid. When not scheming to control Elena, Drs. Nyle and Arborio do drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.

Watching BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW, you may begin to feel like you’ve discovered a vintage sci-fi B movie from the early ’80s. Maybe you will even experience a vague, unsettling memory of having seen it on Night Flight as a teenager, having dozed off only to enter its dreamy atmosphere when you inadvertently awoke at 3 a.m. BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW is not, in fact, a vintage film, but it so perfectly captures the creepy weirdness of the low-budget works from the period it depicts that it could easily be mistaken for one. Director Panos Cosmatos pays homage to dozens of sci-fi greats, from Cronenberg to Kubrick to Carpenter. But with its dazzling, hallucinogenic imagery and hypnotic soundscape, Cosmatos’s film is a unique cinematic experience all its own. —Kristina Aikens 

Best of Fest Short:

Best of Fest Feature: Manborg
Runner-Up: Inside Lara Roxx

Most Effectively Effectively Offensive:
Happily Never After
Runner-Up: The Virgin Herod

Director’s Choice Short:
The Life and Freaky Times of Uncle Luke
Runner-Up: The Family Unit

Director’s Choice Feature: Excision
Runner-Up: Gandu

Well folks, this is it! BUFF 14 has reached its closing night. Sad as we are to end this year’s festivities, we’re extremely proud to bring you one final lineup of delightful visual and aural treats. We’re proudly kicking things off with the incredible Karate-Robo Zaborgar, a wonderfully fun throwback to 1970s Japanese tokusatsu/kaiju.

You won’t want to miss King of the Trill, a dope collection of music videos and short films sampling the best in contemporary hip-hop visual culture. Check out the program trailer on Vimeo now, and be sure not to sleep on this superb shorts program.

We’re exited to bring the New England premiere of Gandu, the  latest from visionary director Q.  This self-proclaimed anti-Bollywood film masterfully eschews the tropes of traditional Indian cinema.

For a well-seasoned balance of comedy, slasher fare, and family drama, don’t miss Some Guy Who Kills People. It’s like Dexter with the gleeful energy of “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space.”

Finally, our closing night film, Klovn, is essential viewing fare. It would be an understatement to describe this as the funniest film we’ve seen in the past year. A Curb Your Enthusiasm-style comedy that follows two terminally immature grown men making hilarious bad decision after bad decision, this is the Danish Hangover with extreme sex. It’s a Larry David machination with more ass, dick, and crude humor. Klovn is low-brow comedy in its highest, purest form, and if you’re not screaming in your seat by the very end, you may want to have your pulse checked.

Be sure to join us for tonight’s closing night award ceremony at Fire + Ice. We’ll be celebrating fine underground filmmaking and honoring our filmmakers. Come out and celebrate the end of BUFF 14 in style!

Saturday night at BUFF is packed chock full of goodies for you guys! It was a late night last night so this update is coming a little late today, so by now a lot of you have probably already checked out our Saturday morning cartoon program and the triumphant return of BUFF album Jamie Heinrich with his new feature Happily Never After. But we still have more great things planned for tonight!

Steven Kostanski’s Manborg is the do-not-miss feature of the evening! Do you remember when we had to go to this place called stores to get a movie to watch at home? Then you’re going to love the hell out of this pastiche of an homage to the lazy-day, suburban video store spelunking of yesteryear. Kostanski’s first feature delivers everything your laser-craving heart could hope for, drawing direct inspiration from 1986’s Eliminators, but with the unique post-millennial stamp of a mind brined for some time in liquid VHS and Pixy Stix. Allow the opening moments to wash over you, sucking you into a world so fully-realized that you see past the most creatively utilized microbudget into the eyes of the godhead itself.

For a dramatic change of pace, you can also check out Mia Donovan’s powerful documentary Inside Lara Roxx. Lara’s tragic claim to fame was as a porn star infected with HIV within months of arriving in Los Angeles to begin her career. This dark and riveting portrait examines Lara’s troubled life after coming to grips with the news while simultaneously promoting the understanding that HIV no longer needs to be a death sentence in 2012.

The night continues with the return of Midnight Transgressions, the dark, twisted corner of BUFF programming. This year, rather than delve into darkness as the night wears on, the program is inverted; the most harrowing work is up front with the bright white beautiful beam of light that is the Whore Church’s fantastic new video mixtape capping off the program.

And don’t forget to stop by the Crimson Lounge at Tommy Doyle’s for a taste of Karaoke Kaos with the BUFF staff, filmmakers, and friends!

The first full night of BUFF programming is here! After a successful sold-out screening of John Dies at the End, we are super stoked to bring you more treats from this year’s program. The evening kicks off at 5:45 with Look At This Fucking Shorts Program, an irreverent deconstruction of hipsterdom. Whether you’re there to laugh at them or with them, you’ll certainly see shades of people you might know (or even yourself) in these hilarious shorts.

After the shorts program, we are positively thrilled to bring you the east coast premiere of Richard Bates Jr.’s Excision at 7:30. This film was selected to this year’s midnight programming at Sundance with very good reason. Based on an award-winning BUFF short, Excision is the sort of horror-comedy destined to become a cult classic. Be the first of your friends to see it on the big screen! We have director Richard Bates Jr. in person to talk about the making of the film and answer any questions you might have!

And you won’t want to miss the rest of tonight’s programming either! We’ve got the New England premiere of Katsuhito Ishii’s psychotic Smuggler at 9:30. This demented delight should be right up your alley if you’re an anime/manga fan or you’ve ever enjoyed a film by Takashi Miike or Sion Sono. We wrap up the night with a special 25th anniversary midnight screening of Canuck cult classic Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare. While we may not have muscle-bound rock god Thor in attendance, we do have director John Fasano in the house to share his anecdotes about making this crazy flick!

Finally, if you want to grab a drink or mingle with other festival guests, be sure to stop by the Crimson Lounge at Tommy Doyle’s tonight where Walkmaster Flex will be playing some #based #rare rap music for y’all as part of our Trilluminati #Secrete Society party!

We kick things off at 8pm tonight with Don Coscarelli and his latest feature JOHN DIES AT THE END!

Based on the novel by Cracked.com’s David Wong, JDATE (no, not that JDATE) is being lauded as our generation’s BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. There is no one better qualified to bring Wong’s twisted, hilarious drug odyssey than the beautiful mind that envisioned and committed BUBBA HO-TEP and PHANTASM to celluloid. And he’ll be here, to answer your questions and possibly crack open your mind with his awesome and imminent wisdom.

Afterwards, head over to the Crimson Lounge at Tommy Doyle’s for scintillating sounds from DJ Brother Cleve!

BUFF’s triumphant return to Harvard Square includes a solid program of shorts and features unearthed for the unsuspecting New England masses, including:

• an irreverent deconstruction/lampooning of Hipsterdom
• sights and sounds from the hip-hop underground
• a dedicated music video celebration
• Saturday morning cartoons
• and features that will shock, amuse, and provoke deep contemplation.

There is something for everyone. Check out what’s going on this weekend as we descend upon Cambridge with our madness.

Brace yourself for Thursday’s Opening Night film, JOHN DIES AT THE END, with director Don Coscarelli in-person!

Based on the novel by Cracked.com’s David Wong, JDATE (no, not that JDATE) is being lauded as our generation’s BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA. There is no one better qualified to bring Wong’s twisted, hilarious drug odyssey than the beautiful mind that envisioned and committed BUBBA HO-TEP and PHANTASM to celluloid. And he’ll be here, to answer your questions and possibly crack open your mind with his awesome and imminent wisdom.

Join us for the culmination of a winter’s-worth of ‘Tussin, cussin’, and late nights of Redbull-fueled marathon-viewing; seriously, we’re like the weird-but-funny kids at Show & Tell and we can’t wait to show you some of the best films you’ve never heard of. Come check us out!

@FTER DARK AT THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE

85mins // directed by:Robert Houston // featuring:Tomisaburô Wakayama, Masahiro Tomikawa. 1980

He whips out his sword and relieves his victims of their heads!

More of a greatest hits movie than an actual stand-alone film of its own, Shogun Assassin is the delirious hybrid of two episodes of the popular Baby Cart series dubbed into English and fused together into a hyper-violent bloodbath ballet that’s sure to entertain the samurai-film enthusiast with a strong stomach.

View the trailer:

@FTER DARK AT THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE

95mins // directed by:Ruggero Deodato // featuring:Robert Kerman, Francesca Ciardi and Perry Pirkanen. 1980

The most controversial movie ever made returns to the Coolidge!

Banned and heavily censored throughout the world, here is a film that surpasses its reputation as a shotgun blast to the senses. Cannibal Holocaust presents the found footage of four documentary filmmakers who experience brutal death at the hands of a savage South American tribe of flesh-eaters.

View the trailer:

@FTER DARK AT THE COOLIDGE CORNER THEATRE

1hr 54mins // directed by:Alejandro Jodorowsky // featuring:Alejandro Jodorowsky, Horacio Salinas and Zamira Saunders

Alejandro Jodorowsky’s follow-up to El Topo is a riot of mystic and religious imagery underlining its vision of a spiritual quest towards enlightenment.

An austere figure known as The Alchemist (Jodorowsky), holed up in a sheer-faced tower, brings together a diverse group of disciples from every culture and corner of the galaxy to embark with him on a journey to the Holy Mountain, where together they will try to unseat the immortal beings who secretly rule the universe.

View the trailer: