Nitro, Hedgehogs, and Depravity

Oh, that fiendish Tim League. Looks like he got his Fantastic Fest chocolate in SXSW Film's peanut butter again, with the late night SXFantastic programming strand. He called to chat about this year's selection, announced on Thursday. Not bad, considering he only booked the last film at 7.30am on Tuesday via Skype.

Cold Sweat/Sudor Frio
D: Adrián García Bogliano (International Premiere, Argentina)
"During the Peron administration Argentina actually had a state-sanctioned terrorist group called the AAA. They would blow up leftist facilities and assassinate people, and it was a really dirty, dirty operation that eventually got disbanded. So the premise is that there are two guys from the AAA in the '70s who stole a lot of explosives. They were warped and demented people, as kids they became friends, and once they were disbanded they continued the tradition. So what they do now, 30 years later as old men, they use Internet chat rooms to lure young girls into their house and then coat them with nitroglycerin. So there's a political context of the film, but also the villains are geriatric and one of them is on a walker. So it's an interesting play on the cat-and-mouse chase, with the elderly being the villains."

George The Hedgehog/Jez Jerzey
D: Wojciech Wawszczyk (International Premiere, Poland)
"This is based on graphic novel that's very popular in Poland – and nowhere else. It's a pretty wild story line. The hedgehog is something of an alcoholic, loves to party, it's unexplained why he's the only hedgehog in a human world, but he's a skate boarder and he dates this very beautiful girl who is married. But then there's this ridiculous plot with mad scientists and neo-Nazis and cloning. It's all pretty depraved and scuzzy and filled with prostitutes."

Little Deaths
D: Sean Hogan, Andrew Parkinson and Simon Rumley (North American Premiere, UK)
"This is from three Fantastic Fest veterans. It's an anthology film and each story has something to do with sexual deviancy in some way. Once something plays at Fantastic Fest, it's part of our tracking system, so we're always on the hunt for what they're doing next. Usually, if they've been to Fantastic Fest like Sean and Simon have, they keep us informed too."

Kill List
D: Ben Wheatley (World Premiere, UK)
"[Wheatley] world premiered his first film at Fantastic Fest, called Down Terrace. The film sold here, and we've stayed in touch over the years. So I've been watching this project for a while, and depending on what their timing was they were either going to debut it at Fantastic Fest or SXSW. He has made such a tremendous film, and I think it's going to make a really big splash. They don't have distribution yet, and I think there's going to be a lot of eyes on that film."

The FP
D: Brandon and Jason Trost (World Premiere, USA)
"This is a film that I has booked for Fantastic Fest [2010] but there were complications. Just a whole team of folks involved, investors and producers and all that kind of world, and frankly [the film makers] weren't ready either. But it was one of my top two films I was telling everybody about. I was telling them, 'You've got to see this film. It is absolutely asinine, and it speaks so directly to what I absolutely love in a theatrical experience. Brandon Trost (cinematographer on Crank: High Voltage] and Jason, his younger brother, this is their pet project that they've been working on for years. Very low budget, but ridiculous. Their dad financed the movie, their sister did all the costume designs, it's batshit crazy and I love it."