by Britt Hayes

The South by Southwest (SXSW) festival is held every March in Austin, Texas (aka The Greatest City Ever), showcasing the newest, bestest, and brightest of film, music, and more. This year’s SXSW film festival takes place March 12th-20th, and this week the official site posted the list of films we can look forward to. I’ve taken a look at the list and compiled films relevant to our readers’ interests below.

But before I get to that, I wanted to point out that Kick-Ass is playing the festival. I had a chance to see Kick-Ass at Butt-Numb-a-Thon in December, but since it is a comic book film, I didn’t think much about posting a review here; HOWEVER, the film is bloody, brutal, and balls-out, so I ask YOU, the reader: If I so happen to make it down to Austin for SXSW, would you like to see a review of Kick-Ass? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

And now, behold! SXSW Brutal Films!

HEADLINERS:

Kick-Ass
Director: Matthew Vaughn. Screenwriters: Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn
A twisted, funny, high-octane adventure, based on the comic written by Mark Millar and John S. Romita, Jr. The film tells the story of average teenager Dave Lizewski, a comic-book fanboy who decides to take his obsession as inspiration to become a real-life superhero.
Cast: Aaron Johnson, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Mark Strong, Chloë Grace Moretz and Nicolas Cage. (World Premiere)

EMERGING VISIONS:

Red White & Blue (United Kingdom)
Director and Screenwriter: Simon Rumley
In Austin Texas, the lives of three young people “Erica, Franki and Nate” intertwine in a fateful, tragic way and head down a rocky and violent road to heart-rending oblivion.
Cast: Noah Taylor, Amanda Fuller, Marc Senter (North American Premiere)

LONE STAR STATES:

Wake
Director and Screenwriter: Chad Feehan
Driving to a wedding in Los Angeles through the Mojave Desert, Paul and Adrienne pull off the highway and into Roy’s Motel and Café. This roadside artifact proves to be a strange and surreal place with an unsettling mix of travelers, who force our couple to discover the secret hidden between them and ultimately, the horrifying reality of their current situation.
Cast: Josh Stewart, Jamie-Lynn Sigler, Chris Browning, Angela Featherstone, Afemo Omilami, Trevor Morgan (World Premiere)

MIDNIGHTERS:

Amer (Belgium)
Directors: Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani. Screenwriter: Bruno Forzani
Ana is confronted to Body and Desire at three key moments of her life. Cast: Bianca Maria D’Amato, Cassandra Forêt, Charlotte Eugène-Guibbaud, Marie Bos, Harry Cleven (U.S. Premiere)

Cannibal Girls (Canada)
Director: Ivan Reitman. Screenwriter: Robert Sandler
They do EXACTLY what you think they do! Second City TV regulars Eugene Levy and Andrea Martin star in Ivan Reitman’s Canuxploitation classic as a couple on a romantic holiday who settle into a quaint little bed-and-breakfast run by a trio of flesh-eating ladies who fancy them for tomorrow’s menu.
Cast: Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Ronald Ulrich, Randall Carpenter, Bonnie Neilson

Cotton (U.S.)
Director: Daniel Stamm. Screenwriters: Andrew Gurland and Huck Botko
After a career spent helping the devout through prayer and trickery, Rev. Cotton Marcus invites a film crew to document his final fraudulent days as an exorcist.  Soon his faith is truly tested when a desperate plea from the father of a possessed girl brings him face to face with the devil himself.
Cast: Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones (World Premiere)

Enter the Void
Director and Screenwriter: Gaspar Noé
Oscar and his sister Linda are recent arrivals in Tokyo. Oscar is caught in a police bust and shot and as he lies dying, his spirit, faithful to the promise he made his sister that he would never abandon her refuses to abandon the world of the living. It wanders through the city, his visions growing evermore distorted, evermore nightmarish. Past, present and future merge in a hallucinatory maelstrom.
Cast: Nathaniel Brown, Paz de la Huerta, Cyril Roy, Emily Alyn Lind, Jesse Kuhn

Jimmy Tupper VS. The Goatman of Bowie
Director and Screenwriter: Andrew Bowser
Jimmy Tupper is no one, he’s nothing, until one night he sees something in the woods that can’t be real. It becomes his mission to prove its existence and find his purpose.
Cast: Andrew Bowser, Pedro Gonzalez, Chris Jones, Michael Eller, Tim Kuczka (World Premiere)

The Loved Ones (Australia)
Director and Screenwriter: Sean Byrne
Brent, a 17-year-old student grieving after the recent loss of his father, politely declines an invitation to the school formal from Lola, the quietest girl in school. Devastated by the rejection, Lola and her overly protective father kidnap Brent and force him to endure a macabre Formal of their own creation…
Cast: Xavier Samuel, Robin McLeavy, Victoria Thaine, Jessica McNamee, Richard Wilson

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (Canada)
Director: Eli Craig. Screenwriters: Eli Craig and Morgan Jurgenson
Two West Virginian hillbillies go on vacation at their dilapidated mountain cabin, but their peaceful trip goes horribly awry.
Cast: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss

SX FANTASTIC:

Higanjima (Japan/Korea)
Director: Tae-Kyun Kim. Screenwriter: Tetsuya Ôishi
Two years after losing contact, Akira discovers that his long-lost brother may be found on Higanjima Island.  He may also find on Higanjima an army of blood-sucking vampires.
Cast: Koji Yamamoto, Hideo Ishiguro, Dai Watanabe, Asami Mizukawa (North American Premiere)

Monsters (UK)
Director and Screenwriter: Gareth Edwards
Six years after a NASA probe crashes, bringing alien life forms to Earth, a journalist agrees to escort a shaken tourist through an infected zone in Mexico to the safety of the US border.
Cast: Scoot McNairym, Whitney Able (World Premiere)

Outcast
Director: Colm McCarthy. Screenwriters: Colm McCarthy and Tom McCarthy
Mary and Fergal live their lives on the run, using an ancient form of magic to hide from a terrifying hunter.
Cast: James Nesbitt, Kate Dickie, Niall Bruton, Hannah Stanbridge (World Premiere)

Serbian Film / Srpski Film (Serbia)
Director: Srdjan Spasojevic. Screenwriters: Aleksandar Radivojevic and Srdjan Spasojevic
Facing financial difficulties, a retired porn star is lured back for one final film by a wealthy, eccentric producer.  This experience, however, will be vastly more taxing than his previous shoots.
Cast: Sergei Trifunovic, Srdjan Todorovic, Katarina Zutic, Ana Sakic (World Premiere)

That’s it for the lineup. Personally, I’m excited to see Kick-Ass again before its wide release in April. Enter the Void and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil have been getting good word of mouth out of Sundance, and I’m looking forward to all the Midnighters, especially Cannibal Girls! Serbian Film looks interesting, and I’m curious to see how Serbian folks handle horror. There is one movie sorely missing from the festival, and that’s The Killer Inside Me. I have been dying to see this controversial film based on the Jim Thompson novel, but I guess I’ll have to wait. Anything you guys are especially excited about? Leave it in the comments!