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Cannes 2013: Surprises & Notable Absence ...

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Interviews

SXSW Review: Frighteningly Dull 'Haunter' Missing Vincenzo Natali's Usual Edge & Inventiveness

By Drew Taylor
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March 10, 2013 2:43 PM
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2 Comments

Reviews

Vincenzo Natali is one of those genre filmmakers who has the rare ability to inspire loyalty in his small but vocal fan base by maintaining an aura of utter fearlessness. The director of ingenious, high concept doodles like "Cube," "Cypher," and, most importantly, the envelope pushing, outrageously underrated "Splice," can literally go anywhere or do anything. Unlike his contemporaries, Natali isn't happy to ever be pigeonholed or pinned down. You go to his movies not because you know what to expect, but because what you end up seeing is so unexpected. All of this makes "Haunter," his new "reverse ghost story," one of the bigger disappointments of the South by Southwest Film Festival thus far – a dull, repetitive, utterly confounding chiller that had the usually uproarious SXSW midnight crowd as quiet as church mice.

By Benjamin Wright
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May 10, 2012 11:21 AM
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2 Comments

News

It was only last month that we were telling you Vincenzo Natali, helmer of the very underrated sci-fi horror films “Splice” and “Cube,” was set to roll on his next film, "Haunter," with “Little Miss Sunshine” star Abigal Breslin. We did predict that it would have to be a rather quick production, as the maturing Breslin has been gaining significant traction in her career with a lot of gritty and promising roles in projects like the upcoming Brad Anderson-directed flick “The Hive,” a sex comedy entitled “Virgin Mary,” and her first major blockbuster in the highly-anticipated Orson Scott Card adaptation “Ender’s Game.” So yeah, "Haunter" is already underway and now we have our first look.

By Benjamin Wright
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April 4, 2012 11:50 AM
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1 Comment

News

An oddity at the start of summer of 2010, the overlooked “Splice,” from “Cube” director Vincenzo Natali was an equal parts Paul Verhoeven and David Cronenberg-style body horror film, that was fortunately able to sidestep some third act contrivances to create a pretty memorable time at the movies. We liked it quite a bit, but the film bombed at the box office, casting some doubt of the future of the talent Natali’s career. He toyed with the idea of adapting the comic book “Alpha Flight” during press rounds for “Splice,” but most notably lined up a directorial gig with the adaptation of William Gibson novelization “Neuromancer” and a horror anthology film entitled “Paris, I’ll Kill You,” which were all options that piqued our interest at the time. Now it looks as if another project may be moving forward rather quickly for Natali, along with a familiar face joining the cast.

By Todd Gilchrist
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September 26, 2011 4:55 AM
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1 Comment

For folks who don’t hear about regional or niche festivals because of the din of their larger, international counterparts, Fantastic Fest is an Austin, TX-based film festival, now in its seventh year, which focuses on genre fare. Unlike other such festivals like Los Angeles’ Screamfest, however, Fantastic Fest curates its selections from a wide variety of sources, and embraces a particularly liberal definition of “genre” which allows its programmers to assemble a schedule of films with remarkable eclecticism, and an almost shocking consistency of quality. Needless to say, no festival is completely full of winners, but in just the first few days of Fantastic Fest, attendees were able to see more good films than most festivals screen during their entire run.