Vienna’s SLASH Film Festival is set to kick off in a couple of days, and it’s a stunner! From the world premieres of Austrian features Rupture and Mother Superior to the opening episodes of Lars von Trier’s Kingdom Exodus to a fine selection of other horror features and shorts from around the globe boasting monsters, murderers, and all other sorts of mayhem, SLASH Film Festival is a can’t-miss event. Following is the official press announcement.
The time has finally come! Starting Thursday, September 22, SLASH film festival is once again bringing all things gorgeously gruesome and fantastic to the big screens of Wiener Filmcasino, Metro Kinokulturhaus and Gartenbaukino. The time-honored opening night at Gartenbaukino kicks things off with Andrew Semans’s dark psychothiller RESURRECTION and a live DJ set. For tickets and the entire festival line-up, go to www.slashfilmfestival.com.
Festival Guests: Patricia Quinn Cancels
Unfortunately Patricia Quinn, alias Magenta from THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Sept 9, 8:30 p.m. at Filmcasino, presented by oeticket), had to bow out of the festival due to unforeseen circumstances. We are, of course, saddened, especially as we know that so many people have been looking forward to her appearance at the screening. Butthe show must go on and all fans of the cult musical adaptation will surely get their money’s worth with the twisted preshow by drag superstar Peaches Christ and our goodie bags containing the most essential essentials to participate in the spectacle.
Screenings with Guests
H4Z4RD is Jonas Govaerts’s gas-guzzler of an actioner—without doubt one of the party movies of the year. The screening will take place in the attendance of the director. Sept 9, 8:30 p.m., Filmcasino
Peaches Christ gives us not only drag performances in our satellite program but the honor of her presence (under her given name Joshua Grannell) at a screening extraordinaire, as the director of ALL ABOUT EVIL—a heartwarming, blood-drenched gem of a B-movie. Sept 25, 6 p.m., Metro Kinokulturhaus
The European premiere of the director’s cut (almost) of KILLER CONDOM, in which a gay cop hunts a sharp-toothed killer condom through the seedy underbelly of New York City, features an additional seven minutes of footage. Viewers can look forward to the attendance of Martin Walz (director) and Jörg Buttgereit (special effects). Sept 25, 9 p.m., Metro Kinokulturhaus
In the documentary INFERNO ROSSO: JOE D’AMATO ON THE ROAD OF EXCESS, Manlio Gomarasca and Massimiliano Zanin tackle the more-than-200-films-spanning career of Joe D’Amato, a Renaissance man of exploitation cinema. One part of the directing duo, Manlio Gomarasca, will be present at the SLASH screening. Sept 26, 8:30 p.m., Metro Kinokulturhaus
A special highlight at this year’s festival will be a double feature of two world premieres of domestic productions, each a directing debut: MOTHER SUPERIOR by Marie Alice Wolfszahn and RUPTURE by Paul Ertl. The premieres will be in the attendance of the directors as well as film crew members. Sept 29, 8:30 p.m., Metro Kinokulturhaus. Due to high demand, there will be an additional screening of the two films on Oct 2, 3 p.m., at Metro Kinokulturhaus.
We are also delighted to announce that several directors and producers will be present at the short film screenings. The screening of MANIVELLE – LAST DAYS OF THE MAN OF TOMORROW (shown before THE TIMEKEEPERS OF ETERNITY) will see the presence of producers Bernadette Klausberger and Niklas Hlawatsch. Sept 29, 6 p.m., Metro Kinokulturhaus
The FANTASTIC SHORTS COMPETITION – CHAPTER I will welcome two directors: Gabriela Ortega will present the European premiere of HUELLA and Sarah Lasry the Austrian premiere of SPELL ON YOU. Sept 28, 8:30 p.m., Metro Kinokulturhaus.
FILM DESCRIPTIONS
ALL ABOUT EVIL
US 2010 | DCP | 98’ | English OV
D: Joshua Grannell
The title alone is a reference to a definitive silver-screen classic, and Joshua Grannell’s feature debut doesn’t make any secret of his unconditional love for (horror) cinema: Natasha Lyonne inherits an old movie theater and shoots splatter miniatures to draw an audience. What nobody suspects: The kills are all real. Lovingly handcrafted and adorned with subcultural icons from John Waters staple Mink Stole and Cassandra “Elvira” Peterson to Grannell’s drag queen persona Peaches Christ, All About Evil is a B-movie gem that’s at once heartwarming and blood- drenched.
In attendance: Joshua Grannell
METRO, SO. 25.9. ►18:00
KILLER CONDOM – DIRECTOR’S CUT (ALMOST)
DE/CH 1996 | 35mm | 114’ | German OV
D: Martin Walz
This souped-up pulp fiction about a gay cop who hunts a sharp-toothed condom through the seedy underbelly of New York City must be one of the whackiest—i.e., most entertaining, i.e., best—German movies of the 1990s. Few people agreed when it came out, probably not least because the adaptation of two graphic novels by Ralf König swaggers our way with unapologetic queerness unlike any other movie of its time. Need more convincing? Jörg Buttgereit was in charge of special effects; H.R. Giger (!!!) designed the killer condom.
In attendance: Martin Walz, Jörg Buttgereit
METRO, SO. 25.09. ►21:00
H4Z4RD
BE 2022 | DCP | 87’ | OV with English subtitles
D: Jonas Govaerts
Noah has put the wild years behind him and is now trying to sail for calmer seas with his girlfriend and daughter. When his behaviorally challenged cousin Carlos asks him to be the driver for a little courier job—which of course, is only harmless on paper—he puts the pedal to the metal of his souped-up ride, license plate H4Z4RD. With car speakers blasting the roughest EDM (Darude! Tiësto!), Jonas Govaerts’s gas-guzzler of an action comedy is filled to capacity with insane ideas and buck-wild shots that simply won’t stop. One of the party movies of the year!
In attendance: Jonas Govaerts
FILMCASINO, FR. 23.09. ►20:30
MOTHER SUPERIOR
AT 2022 | DCP | 71’ | English subtitles
D: Marie Alice Wolfszahn
It’s 1975, and Sigrun is starting her job as the caregiver of the eccentric Baroness Heidenreich in her sprawling estate, Villa Rosenkreuz. While the young woman encounters traces of her heritage there, the childless aristocrat is ready to go very far in her quest for an heiress. In her first feature, director Marie Alice Wolfzahn has crafted a horror miniature rooted in the Gothic tradition. Floating particles from the past glide through the museum-like premises, where fascism and New Age intersect, in order to conjure the most unholy spirits. Chilling.
In attendance: Marie Alice Wolfszahn
Double Feature with RUPTURE.
METRO, DO. 29.09. ►20:30
METRO, SO. 02.10. ►15:00
RUPTURE
AT 2022 | DCP | 53’ | English subtitles
D: Paul Ertl
Frau Pospisil lives alone in her old Viennese apartment. Her son takes the old lady’s increasing forgetfulness as an opportunity to try to convince her to move to a nursing home. But then a rupture appears in a wall in her apartment, through which something enters Frau Pospisil’s world that will change her life forever. Paul Ertl’s highly efficient and beautiful Rupture is scary, mid-length psychological fare that metamorphoses into a debonair, original yet somewhat unsettling utopia and finally makes a forceful case for the autonomy of elderly people.
In attendance: Paul Ertl
Double Feature with MOTHER SUPERIOR.
METRO, DO. 29.09. ►20:30
METRO, SO. 02.10. ►15:00
INFERNO ROSSO: JOE D'AMATO ON THE ROAD OF EXCESS
IT 2021 | DCP | 70’ | OV with English subtitles
D: Manlio Gomarasca, Massimiliano Zanin
The wondrous 200+ film career of Joe D’Amato, né Aristide Massaccesi, can be approached but never completely grasped. Brimming with rare images and footage, the documentary Inferno Rosso by the two experts Manlio Gomarasca and Massimiliano Zanin is a palpable crystallization of a decades-long, research-intensive fascination with this Renaissance man of exploitation cinema and a perfect gateway drug for anyone who has never come into contact with the pulpy beauty and charm of D’Amato’s oeuvre.
In attendance: Manlio Gomarasca
Double Feature with BEYOND THE DARKNESS.
METRO, MO. 26.09. ►20:30
