Fantastic Fest 2012

'Tower Block' is about the last residents of a condemned housing project in London, who are riding out the final days before a government eviction kicks them out of their homes. One seemingly random morning, they wake to find themselves under fire from an unseen sniper, picking off as many of them as he can. The survivors regroup in the hallway, and realize their predicament: though they're safe a

If Scott Adkins isn't the biggest action star in the world in five years, we as a society have failed. Over the last half decade, Adkins has become a dependable stunt performer (he was Weapon XI at the end of 'X-Men Origins: Wolverine') and supporting baddie (he fought Matt Damon in 'The Bourne Ultimatum' and played Jean-Claude Van Damme's toadie in 'The Expendables 2') in mainstream films. His wo

"When you are scared, you are more alive," says Victor Bariteau, the central subject of 'The American Scream,' Michael Paul Stephenson's follow-up documentary to 'Best Worst Movie.' The quote, a nothing special bit of pop psychology ubiquitous in any discussion of "the horror industry," comes as our hero is preparing to make a scary career change, and lands with an unexpected g

Everyone has regrets. Despite the time-shifting mixed-media razzle dazzle of Li Yang and Guo Fan's ambitious and exuberant film 'Lee's Adventure,' this universal truth can't be ignored. The attempts to change the past can sometimes consume an entire life, and exposing this in a grand, heartbreaking scale is what makes this film so unexpectedly tender and wise.

Horror movies don't necessarily need rules, but if they're going to go to the trouble to establish some, they might as well follow them... at least for a little while. The Argentine ghost slasher gorefest 'Memory of the Dead' sets up this whole conceit about a Satanic ritual and the dead rising from their graves, and it makes a big stink about how everyone will be safe from the ghouls as long as t

Leos Carax's 'Holy Motors' is the best dream you'll ever have without actually falling asleep. It's a blast of pure, unbridled subconscious -- or maybe superconscious -- and a brilliant and melancholic love letter to movies, the craft of acting and life itself, which, 'Holy Motors' argues, are all kind of the same thing anyway.

We'd all like to think that if our backs were up against it and we had to fight for our loved ones, we'd all become Liam Neeson in 'Taken.' Of course, not everyone has "a particular set of skills." Or maybe your skill is to try and appease everyone as chaos escalates around you, praying that, somehow, everything will work out if you just keep bluffing? That would appear to be the strateg

14 year old Sandy worships next door neighbor and senior classmate Ashley like the Earth worships the sun, she says. But when the two girls accidentally off one of Ashley's ex-lovers, the two become closer than either of them ever imagined in 'Besties,' a small scale coming of age story from writer and director Rebecca Perry Cutter.

G is for Gimmick But gimmicks are not necessarily a bad thing. 'The ABCs of Death' (which could also be called '26 Ways to Barf') is the mother of all horror anthologies, collecting 26 short films, each from a different director, all representing a different way to bite it.

There are some films that choose to tell their story in a somewhat obtuse manner, staying one step ahead of the audience, making them work a bit to piece tother the logic of the story. Then there are others that just like to throw a bunch of crap up on the screen and hope it all comes together in the wash. (The wash being editing, music, sound design and special effects.) After a few hours of chew