The Boston Underground Film Festival returns to the Brattle
The Surfer
,' the fest's opening-night film. This would be at the top of my list, because it sounds like a cross between the Patrick Swayze-Keanu Reeves movie 'Point Break' and the Aussie macho horror classic, 'Wake in Fright.' In search of the tastiest of waves, Cage travels to the Australian coast with his son. Unfortunately, the guys who run the beach don't take kindly to strangers. Violence ensues, and Cage's response is perfectly in tune with the guy who made movies like 2018's blood-soaked revenge movie 'Mandy.' (Wednesday at 7 p.m.)
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' sounds right up my alley. Director Alexandre O. Phillippe ('Lynch/Oz') has assembled an exciting list of people (Stephen King, Karyn Kusama, Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike) to discuss what Tobe Hooper's groundbreaking 1974 masterpiece means to them. (Thursday at 6 p.m.)
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For those awash in hometown pride, there's '
The Dunwich Horrors
,' one of several shorts programs BUFF is presenting. Shorts are movies, too! And sometimes, they're hidden gems. 'Damn Handy' is the one that caught my eye. The synopsis reads: 'When a plumber visits the remote farmhouse of two murderous sisters, he'll need a trick up his sleeve to survive.' Works for me. (Friday at 5 p.m.)
Still from "The Ugly Stepsister."
Marcel Zyskind
As counterprogramming to this week's release of the live-action Disney remake of 'Snow White,' BUFF brings you '
The Ugly Stepsister
,' a far less family-friendly fairy tale. This Norwegian-language film crosses Cinderella with 'The Substance.' Director Emilie Kristine Blichfeldt presents a gruesome, stomach-churning treatise on beauty. Horrible images of surgical procedures and bodily fluids await the daring viewer — my former editor
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Midnight madness fans will find what they want at the intriguingly named
'Trigger Warning — Midnight Shorts
' program. I'd go just because the title sounds like a dare. (Friday at 11:45 p.m.)
Since I love music videos, the '
Sound + Vision
' shorts program appeals to me. I don't recognize 95 percent of the performers listed, but that's because I'm old. (Saturday at noon)
I do recognize the names Ethan Embry and Michael Patrick Jann. They're the star and director of '
Alma & the Wolf
,' a BUFF world-premiere screening. Embry was in Reese Witherspoon's 2002 comedy, 'Sweet Home Alabama,' and Jann directed the 1999 comedy 'Drop Dead Gorgeous.' I'm sure people will drop dead in this gruesome tale about a mysterious wolf in the woods, and I'm equally sure that the results won't be gorgeous. (Saturday at 6:45 p.m., with Jann in attendance)
Would you rather have some onscreen sexy time? BUFF has you covered with a movie whose title I can't print in this paper. It's called
'[BLEEP]Toys'
and is about a cursed sex worker. Comparisons to Russ Meyer, Radley Metzger and Doris Wishman are in the synopsis. If you know their movies, this one might be for you. (Sunday at 6 p.m.)
If you're still able to stand up after that, look into '
Escape from the 21st Century
,' a Chinese martial-arts time travel movie that sounds a lot like something Empire Pictures would have put out back in 1981. (Sunday at 8:30 p.m.)
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Still from "Re-Animator," Jeffrey Combs, 1985. © Empire Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection
©Empire Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection
Let's say you only have time for one movie. May I recommend the 40th-anniversary screening of the H.P. Lovecraft-based splatter classic, '
Re-Animator
'? Stuart Gordon's masterful tribute to Grand Guignol once held the unofficial record for the most blood splashed all over the screen. This darkly funny take of reanimating the dead stars Jeffrey Combs and the Barbara Steele of my generation, the great Barbara Crampton. (Crampton will be in attendance.) As gory and controversial as this movie is, it earned some unexpected movie-critic fans.
Tickets available at
.
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.
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