Horror Highlights: PET Clip, THE UNSPOKEN, HALLOWEED Q&A, RE-ANIMATOR Shirt, Another Hole in the Head Film Fest

13th Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Fest Announced: Press Release: "Another Hole in the Head (aka “HoleHead”) is a film festival celebrating Horror, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and a broad spectrum of related cinema from across the globe. Defying convention, we bring a daring audience the most intriguing genre fare, from both emerging and established filmmakers. Whether you're looking for outrageous Exploitation, dark & offbeat Comedy, awe-inspiring Sci-Fi, or mind-bending Experimental Art, this is two weeks of phenomenal film you won't find in your local cineplex!

As part of the SF IndieFest family, our primary focus is independent film. Whether it's a major production from a professional company, a student film, or a micro-budget labor of love, we are committed to giving each film due consideration.

The festival will take place at New People Cinema, 1746 Post Street in San Francisco’s Japantown. Equipped with HD digital projection, 35mm film projection and a 5.1 THX®-certified sound system, New People is home to many local film festivals, and is a favorite independent theater among those seeking the best and most interesting new storytelling.

After the festival, we give out 15 Audience Awards, including Best Film Overall ($600; 3 night AirBnB stay in the heart of San Francisco's Mission District; Trophy), Best Student Film ($200), and an assortment of region and genre-based awards. We also give two awards for Staff Favorite, Feature, and Short.

Passes for Another Hole in the Head are on sale now!

• Our All-Festival pass gets you into every one of our 47 shows, and is a steal at $149!

• Our 10-show pass is $85—that's 57% off our General ticket price!

• Our 5-show pass is $50—33% off!

Passes are non-transferrable. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before show time to guarantee seating.

The fest starts off at 7 pm on Thursday, October 27th, with “Homegrown Horrors”--A collection of scary short films produced by filmmakers from all over the Bay Area; followed by our Opening Night Feature, The Master Cleanse at 9 pm. Starring Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang) as a heartbroken man who attends a spiritual retreat, only to discover that the course releases more than everyday toxins and traumatic experiences! See the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pilih0pbB4

On Friday, October 28th , the evening begins at 7 p.m. with Weapons of Light, a fascinating documentary about local artist/therapist Philip Lawson, and his conceptual work “Weapons of Light – The Art of Peace.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpcxVpECpl0 Following at 9 p.m., is OH SNAP! THE 90s MUSIC VIDEO SING A LONG SHOW: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL There's a chill in the air, so it must be Fall, which as any 90s TV viewer knows, means it's Halloween Special time on your favorite shows: Saved by the Bell, My So Called Life, Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and of course, The Simpsons. So this version of our insanely popular 90s Music Video Sing A Long Show will feature all the fly video hits and one hit wonders you jammed to in school, plus some seasonal extras. In addition to the must-have classics, we've added a bunch of new songs. And while we know you know all the words, we'll have the lyrics on screen for ya, just in case! 21-up show!! And stick around for our Late Show at 11 p.m., a hilarious film from new Zealand, spoofing 50's B movies and Sci-Fi TV from the 60's & 70's--This Giant Papier Mache Boulder is Actually Really Heavy. https://vimeo.com/170397598

On Saturday, October 29th, we have more short film programs—each with a different theme— starting at 11 am: "Apps Against Humanity”; "Work is Hell” (1 p.m.); “Love is Strange” (3 p.m.); and “Submitted for Your Approval” (5 p.m.)--a collection of works reminiscent of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. At 7 p.m., our feature presentations begin with House of Temptation. Filmed in Bodega Bay by San Francisco filmmaker Doc Zee, it's the story of a teenaged boy struggling to bolster his father's faith in God, while their family falls victim to a Satanic plot. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=lmGajs2rB2I Then at 9, we have another excellent local film, Matthew Abaya's Vampariah, in which a skilled vampire hunter becomes the hunted when she learns that she may have been turned by her sworn foe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7P1YLtPzvI&feature=youtu.be Finally, at 11 pm, our Late Show will be Bed of the Dead. Four twenty-somethings find themselves stuck on a haunted antique bed where leaving means suffering a gruesome death. Plagued with frightening hallucinations, they must figure out the bed's secrets before they are ultimately picked off one by one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpsILqGuQNA

Sunday, October 30th, we wind up our Opening Weekend with two more short film programs, “Crime & Punishment” at 3 p.m., and “It Came from the Grindhouse” at 5, followed at 7 by Aaron Keene's PANOPTICON, a beautifully filmed feature about a reclusive young man who is allergic to sunlight. Desperate for human connection, he hacks into various webcams to take part in the lives of others. https://vimeo.com/146840445 At 9 pm, we close out the evening with Jamie Ball's The Curfew Gang, filmed in Daly City and San Francisco. “They lurk in the shadows. They feast on the souls of wicked men. They're your new best friends.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYNgJ0WgxmA

Monday, October 31st we celebrate Halloween with two fan favorites from the 1980's. Screening at 7 p.m., Killer Klowns from Outer Space is one of those rare movies that manages to be laugh-out-loud funny and genuinely creepy at the same time. While the basic structure is a sendup of 1950's B-Horror films, it's filled with sly references to much later Horror and Sci-Fi classics. With Watsonville and Santa Cruz standing in for the fictional Crescent Cove, CA, Killer Klowns is, to date, the only feature film directed and written by legendary FX artists, the Chiodo Brothers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrFl800iYWI At 9 p.m., we witness the night no one came home, in Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Kids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Meanwhile, an ER doctor uncovers a sinister plot by Silver Shamrock's owner... This third installment in John Carpenter's Halloween series bears no relation to the two previous films. Producers Carpenter and Debra Hill intended to turn the Halloween films into an anthology series of standalone movies, with the holiday itself being the only common theme. While the film turned a profit during its initial release, it didn't match the popularity of the Michael Myers saga, and to date is the only film in the franchise to depart from the original formula. In the years since its original theatrical run, Season of the Witch has gained major cult status, thanks to viewers willing to judge it on its own merits as a film with a truly terrifying premise, tour de force performances, and shocking special effects. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MnaYzBhx0A

On Tuesday, November 1st we'll present Geoff Redknap's The Unseen at 7 p.m. Years after abandoning his family, a man risks everything to find his missing daughter—including exposing the fact that he's becoming invisible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDJT8sQfF0E At 9 pm, join us for “At the Movies of Madness,” a marathon of animated and live-action short films showcasing H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos and related horrors.

Wednesday, November 2nd starts off at 7 p.m., with Always Shine, directed by Sophia Takal. Best friends Anna and Beth take a weekend trip to Big Sur, hoping to re-establish a bond broken by years of competition and jealousy. Tensions mount, however, leading to an unexpected yet inevitable confrontation, changing both of their lives...forever. Following at 9 p.m. will be Horror Maestro Guillermo del Toro's 2006 epic, Pan's Labyrinth. Set in 1944, the Spanish Civil War is over, and the Fascists have won. Ofelia, a young girl obsessed with fairy tales, travels with her pregnant mother to live with her stepfather, a sadistic falangist army captain. After discovering an abandoned, overgrown labyrinth on her stepfather's property, she meets an assortment of fantastic beings, including an ancient and mysterious faun. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=RTHgdpuzmTw

Thursday, November 3rd at 7 p.m., we begin an evening of Film Noir-influenced cinema with “Neo-Noir is the New Black,” a collection of Neo-Noir and Near-Noir short films from the U.S. and around the world. Following at 9 p.m. is Virtual Revolution, a Noir-SciFi hybrid written and directed by Guy Roger Duvert. This smart Cyber-Thriller is set in 2047, when most of the population spend all their time online, immersed in a system of virtual worlds, and no longer care about reality. Nash, a private investigator with a troubled past, is hired by a multi-national corporation to hunt down and eliminate a group of terrorists who threaten to destroy the system. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=uk_jMDn7A3o

Friday, November 4th's first feature is Carson Mell's Another Evil (7 p.m.). A couple hires an "industrial grade exorcist" after the husband encounters a ghost in the family's vacation home. But they soon realize that ridding the home of evil won't be as simple as it seems. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Zh_WxXoh9Jo At 9 p.m., The Dark Tapes, directed by Vincent J. Guastini & Michael McQuown, takes the screen. Ghosts, creatures, demons, and more, collide with rational curiosity in this genre-defying mixture of horror, sci-fi, mystery, and thrills, told as four interlocking tales in one intelligent anthology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAnO6sG4lY4 Then, at 11 p.m., we present a psychedelic nightmare, Atmo Horrox, directed by Pat Tremblay. “Through a very surreal chase of spying and surveillance, Catafuse, a dubiously dressed 'creature', hunts down specific human targets with the help of Molosstrap. But in a world completely run by the shadowy hands of the pharmaceutical industry, the lines of reality become so blurry and complex, that the mastering of insanity might just be the only way out…” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHSDcFHGj1k

Starting at 11 a.m. on Saturday, November 5th we present another set of four theme-based short film programs: “Advenures in Time & Space”; “Androids, AI's, & Other Good Neighbors,” (1 p.m.); “Myths, Legends, & Fairy Tales,” (3 p.m.); and at 5 p.m., “The Bold, the Beautiful & the Bizarre,” -- a collection of art/experimental and animated works. At 7 p.m., the feature film, Let Her Out, directed by Cody Calahan will screen. The story follows Helen, a bike courier who suffers a traumatic accident. As she recovers, she begins to experience strange, episodic black-outs which lead her to discover that she has a benign growth--the remnants of a "vanishing twin" absorbed in utero. Over time, as the tumor begins to manifest as a demented “evil twin,” Helen's psychological state deteriorates, causing her to act out in psychotic episodes that make her a danger to herself and those around her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISHQbTmiqNs

Then at 9 pm, we present Seoul Station, the animated companion piece to the recent live-action hit, Train to Busan. The plot focuses on several pockets of characters dwelling on the fringes of Seoul society, and fighting for survival amid the same zombie pandemic that occurs in Train to Busan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Eypr18meE8 Our final film of the evening will be Tokyo Grand Guignol at 11 pm. Four French directors (Nicolas Alberny; Francois Gaillard; Gille Landucci; Yann Moreau) directed one segment apiece in this eerie and beautifully shot horror anthology, set in Japan's most well-known city. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAqCiSYl55Y

Sunday, November 6th begins at 11 a.m. with “Not Another Hole in the Head,” a special presentation which is not officially a part of the festival. While Another Hole in the Head does try, in various ways, to push the envelope of what it means to be a Genre Festival, sometimes we receive submissions that simply don't fit into any of the categories we promote. However, there are times when these same films are just too intriguing to pass by. So this year, we chose to inaugurate a special presentation of short films by local filmmakers, which, while not eligible to compete for our awards, we felt deserved a chance to be seen here on their home turf. This year, we present five such films, in the hope of encouraging these and other new talents to continue their contributions to the art of Film.

Starting at 12:30 p.m., we present “Random Acts,” an extended program of eclectic short films, followed by “Inappropriate Behavior,” at 3pm, and at 5 pm, our final shorts program of the festival, “Dark Rainbow,” a collection of Genre films with an LGBT+ theme. Following at 7 pm, we have The Alchemist Cookbook, directed by Joel Potrykus. Young outcast Sean has isolated himself in a trailer in the woods, setting out on alchemic pursuits, with his cat Kaspar as his sole companion. Filled with disdain for authority, he’s fled the daily grind and holed up in the wilderness, escaping a society that has no place for him. But when he turns from chemistry to black magic to crack nature’s secrets, things go awry and he awakens something far more sinister and dangerous. https://vimeo.com/182915986

At 9 p.m., join us for a very rare screening of the 1966 KQED documentary, Drugs in the Tenderloin. Director Robert Zagone will be on hand to answer questions. Drugs in the Tenderloin captured the Tenderloin as it transformed into a center for young queers and drug users. “A stark and often harrowing look into the life of the street denizens of the notorious San Francisco district which was a haven for junkies, prostitutes, and pushers during the Sixties... it takes a real gutter-level look at its subject, the grainy night photography capturing beehive-haired hookers and turtle-necked dope dealers plying their trade against a smoky backdrop of seedy neon, while meth users pontificate about their high, and a youth worker takes a couple of shocked city officials on a walking tour of the area, pointing out such lurid landmarks as Market Street, known in the area as the 'Meat Rack' thanks to the male hustlers who ply their trade there.”--John Harrison, Pop Culture Historian. Join us for some incredible footage of the Tenderloin's past.

On Monday, November 7th we present Ryan M. Andrews' Save Yourself at 7 p.m. Five female filmmakers, en route to screen their new horror film in Los Angeles, experience their own real life terror when they cross paths with a deranged scientist hellbent on using them for his twisted experiments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdK_D8PK7c4 Followed at 9 p.m. by a special Secret Screening.

On Tuesday, November 8th, escape your Election Night worries with our 7 p.m. screening of FEMALE WEREWOLF, indie filmmaker Chris Alexander's intimate psychodrama about one woman's search for sex and sanity. Carrie Gemmell portrays a girl in the grip of a waking fever dream, a slave to erotic, bloody fantasies. As her sexual tensions and anxieties spiral, she slips into madness, believing that she might be turning into a monster. This is a surreal experimental horror film, shot entirely by Alexander on a series of iPhones, and featuring a moody score by Alexander and The Gotham City Drug Store. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sgrZnJsuIE Then at 9 p.m., we'll announce and screen the three winning videos from Christopher Coppola and Delirium Magazine's “Another Hole in the Head Cellphone Shoot Out” followed by the 1988 film, Dracula's Widow, an early work by local director and longtime festival supporter Christopher Coppola, starring Sylvia Kristel (Emmanuelle, Private Lessons) in the title role. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ksAukUvh-xM

Wednesday, November 9th we come into the home stretch with an early-bird, encore screening of Doc Zee's House of Temptation at 5 p.m. At 7 p.m., we offer another encore, this time of Drugs in the Tenderloin, Robert Zagone's 1966 documentary. Finally, at 9 p.m., we bid our audience farewell for another year with our Closing Night film, Beyond the Gates, starring scream queen Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator, From Beyond). Two estranged brothers reunite at their missing father's video store to liquidate the property and sell off his assets. As they dig through the store, they find a VCR board game dubbed “Beyond The Gates,” which holds a connection to their father's disappearance, and deadly consequences for anyone who plays it. This show will feature a special guest appearance. https://vimeo.com/159313385"