Another Hole In the Head 2011 Film Festival runs June 2nd through the 16th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Check out the Festival Genius site for film schedules and tickets. Yakuza Weapon Directed by Tak Sakaguchi Shozo Iwaki (Tak Sakaguchi) is a kick-ass mercenary on a mission in the jungle. Bullets whiz by his head and bombs go off beneath his feet, but he continues on with a grimace and a growl. And a fedora. He gets word after single-handedly wiping out the tens of machine gun-toting baddies that his father has been murdered back in Japan, so he heads home and discovers his clan in disarray. Enemy yakuza are vying for power, a madman with a motorized dildo is threatening Shozo’s ex-girlfriend, and his old friend Tetsu is causing havoc with a very powerful, very deadly, and very naked weapon. And yes, he’s holding it in the picture above.

Another Hole In the Head 2011 Film Festival runs June 2nd through the 16th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Check out the Festival Genius site for film schedules and tickets. I Am Nancy Directed by Arlene Marechal The question on everyone’s lips since 1984′s A Nightmare On Elm Street premiered has always been “Who is Nancy?” And by “always” I of course mean never. It’s not a question that anyone has ever been concerned with… until now. Nancy Thompson of course is the heroine of three of the films in the Elm Street series, and she’s played by Heather Langenkamp. The one constant throughout all of the original films is and will always be Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund), the razor-wielding, burned, revenge-seeking kiddie killer (or diddler depending on your interpretation). He is the icon of the series for obvious reasons, but Langenkamp and filmmaker Arlene Marechal are wondering why Nancy never reached those same heights. The answer seems pretty obvious, but let’s give them seventy plus minutes to explore the question anyway.

Another Hole In the Head 2011 Film Festival runs June 2nd through the 16th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Check out the Festival Genius site for film schedules and tickets. Ubaldo Terzani Horror Show Directed by Gabriele Albanesi Tue, June 14th @ 520pm Alessio Rinaldi (Giuseppe Solari) is a young director who loves his horror wet, red, and slathered across naked women. Sadly, he can’t find a market for his interests and the studio won’t work with him anymore if he insists on making movies in that splattery vein. He concedes and accepts the screenwriting help of a well known author of artistic, plot-driven horror novels named Ubaldo Terzani (Paolo Sassanelli). He’s soon besieged by graphic nightmares, and as the two begin their collaboration the source of Ubaldo’s horrific inspiration comes clear. And by clear I mean barely visible behind a crimson shower of blood.

Another Hole In the Head 2011 Film Festival runs June 2nd through the 16th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Check out the Festival Genius site for film schedules and tickets. The Moleman Of Belmont Avenue Directed by Mike Bradecich & John LaFlamboy Jarmon (John LaFlamboy) and Marion (Mike Bradecich) aren’t the brightest bulbs in the silverware drawer, but they mean well. That’s not true. They don’t really mean that well at all and are really only interested in doing what they have to do to keep their tenants from leaving. The apartment building they inherited was once a respectable place, but they’ve let it fall into ruin in a record amount of time. The handful of tenants that remain are hardcore and can live with the lack of proper maintenance, the electricity “borrowed” from the church next door, and the absence of much-needed repairs, but they have to draw the line someplace… and that line is apparently a creepy, flesh-eating creature living in the basement.

Another Hole In the Head 2011 Film Festival runs June 2nd through the 16th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Check out the Festival Genius site for film schedules and tickets. Eaters Directed by Luca Boni and Marco Ristori Fri, June 3rd @ 1130pm Tues, June 14th @ 920pm Americans may have started the zombie craze by way of George Romero’s Living Dead series, but we no longer corner the market. Germany, Norway, and France are just some of the countries that have released zombie films in recent years, but there’s one other nation that has been at it for years. Italy’s been dabbling in the shambling dead for almost as long as the US has, and thanks to the likes of Lucio Fulci and Michele Soavi they’ve actually churned out some some stellar entries. It’s been a while since they’ve made an effort to return Italian flesh-eaters to the big screen, but apparently they were just waiting for the right producer to come along and lower their standards. And before your soon to be devoured tongue can even begin to utter ‘dannato non Uwe Boll!’… it’s time for a zombie apocalypse!

Another Hole In the Head 2011 Film Festival runs June 2nd through the 16th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Check out the Festival Genius site for film schedules and tickets. Haunted Changi Directed by Andrew Lau Fri, June 3rd @ 520pm Thur, June 9th @ 720pm The old Changi Hospital in Singapore has seen better days, but it’s also seen far worse ones. It was closed for good in 1997, and the locals have viewed it as a haunted building better off avoided ever since. Before becoming a civilian hospital the building was occupied by the insane, the incarcerated, and several hundred prisoners of war who were abused, experimented upon and beheaded by the Japanese occupiers. A documentary crew arrives thirteen years after the hospital’s doors were closed to explore the halls and discover the truth of the building’s blood-filled history. I think we all know where this is heading right?

Another Hole In the Head 2011 Film Festival runs June 2nd through the 16th at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco. Check out the Festival Genius site for film schedules and tickets. Auschwitz Directed by Uwe Boll Fri, June 10th @ 920pm Mon, June 13th @ 720pm If nothing else, Uwe Boll means well. The self-acknowledged purpose of his new film Auschwitz is to remind people of the atrocity that occurred in the infamous concentration camp almost seventy years ago. Does the world actually need reminding? Boll says yes as not only have the details faded over time but genocides are still a modern day reality in places like Rwanda and Bosnia. He’s right of course on both counts, but does that mean he’s the best man for the job? It’s easy to criticize any (and all) of Boll’s films, but that task is made even simpler with a movie that begs to be taken seriously yet has no qualms about showing babies shot in the head, a young boy graphically burning in a furnace, and lengthy scenes of naked men, women, and children choking to death in suspiciously dry showers. Not to mention an extended shot of a bored Nazi guard, played by Boll himself, standing idly by while people slowly and painfully die in the room behind him. Tough to argue against accusations of exploitation when you cast yourself in such a role. So yes, he may mean well, but…

Every Saturday, I abuse my power as Publisher of this website to pick and choose the best content from the past week. This week, it’s all about Inception. With Christopher Nolan’s latest in theaters, the halls of FSR were buzzing with coverage from the junket, chats with the composer and a milestone: our first A+ grade of the year. But wait! There’s more to the story this week. As we go around the horn, we check in with Rob Hunter’s fetish for the weirdest films of the world, we get ready for Comic-Con and we’re not exactly sold on David Fincher’s Facebook movie. This and more in The Week That Was…

Comic-Con is a fun event for film fans hoping to get their first peek at upcoming blockbusters and the stars behind them, but I’ve always been a lot more partial to film festivals. Why? Because film fests are all about actually watching films. (Yes, I know studios have recently started hosting screenings during Comic-Con but they still number in the single digits and they’re always future wide-release movies anyway.) Trailer previews and scenes are fun to watch at the Con, and while I won’t be attending this month I hope to get back again with the FSR crew next year. But a solid film festival trumps everything the Con has to offer by virtue of the number and variety of films available. The best fest, hands down, is Austin’s Fantastic Fest (which I’ll be eating, drinking, and breathing this September), but it’s not the only one worth watching…