Romero Zombie Film Tops Second Wave of Fantastic Fest Titles

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Fantastic Fest 2007

The next wave of Fantastic Fest films has been announced today. With one more round to go, one has to wonder just how they're going to top this announcement. There was already an announcement last week about the Uwe Boll Totally Awesome Videogames Filmmaking Competition presented by G4's Attack of the Show and Fantastic Fest.

But even more amazing is that George Romero himself will be bringing his latest zombie film, Survival of the Dead, to the fest. The film focuses on an island where those who want to kill every zombie battle those trying to protect family members until a cure can be found. Romero's Diary of the Dead opened Fantastic Fest in 2007. Having Romero at Fantastic Fest is a huge deal, it's a bit mind boggling to think of how they can top that.

Among the 19 films, there are four world premieres from around the globe. Macabre, an Indonesian cautionary tale of a kindness repaid with a night of unspeakable horror (dir. The Mo Brothers, 2009). First Squad (dir. Yoshiharu Ashino, 2009, Japan) is a WWII occult tale of Nazis raising the spirits of their ancestors to fight, and a psychic Russian teen who may be the only hope of stopping them. Down Terrace (dir. Ben Wheatley, 2009, UK) is a dark comedy following a family of dysfunctional crooks trying to save the failing family business. Lastly, Mandrill (dir. Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, 2009, Chile), centers on a young hit man bent for revenge.

If that's not enough, horror comedy Zombieland (dir. Ruben Fleischer, 2009, US) is also playing, with a cast that includes Abigail Breslin, Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson.

Perhaps my most anticipated film in this announcement is Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig's latest, Daybreakers, which will not open until January 2010. It's been six years since Undead, which turned the concepts of zombies and aliens on their genre-ears, so it'll be be interesting to see what they do with vampires.

A total of 20 features and 14 shorts were announced, bringing the total to 66 films to date. The feature films announced today are:

Crazy Racer (dir. Hao Ning, 2009, China)
Daybreakers (dir. Michael Spierig & Peter Spierig, 2009, Australia)
Doghouse (dir. Jake West, 2009, UK)
Down Terrace (dir. Ben Wheatley, 2009, UK) World Premiere
Duress North (dir. Jordan Barker, 2009, US)
First Squad (dir. Yoshiharu Ashino, 2009, Japan) World Premiere
Hard Revenge, Milly: Bloody Battle (dir. Takanori Tsujimoto, 2009, Japan)
Macabre (dir. The Mo Brothers, 2009, Indonesia) World Premiere
Mandrill (dir. Ernesto Diaz Espinoza, 2009, Chile) World Premiere
Merantau (dir. Gareth Evans, 2009, Indonesia)
Metropia (dir. Tarik Saleh, 2009, Sweden)
Smash Cut (dir. Lee Demarbre, 2009, Canada)
Survival of the Dead (dir. George A. Romero, 2009, US/Canada)
Sweet Karma (dir. Andrew Thomas Hunt, 2009, Canada)
Terribly Happy (dir. Henrik Ruben Genz, 2009, Denmark)
The Human Centipede (dir. Tom Six, 2009, Netherlands/UK)
Van Diemen's Land (dir. Jonathan Auf Der Heide, 2009, Australia)
Yatterman (dir. Takashi Miike, 2009, Japan)
Yesterday (Rob Grant, 2009, Canada)
Zombieland (dir. Ruben Fleischer, 2009, US)

Fantastic Fest runs Sept 24-Oct 1, 2009, and is in its fifth year. For more information, go to the Fantastic Fest website, the blog, as well as follow the festival on Facebook and Twitter.