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After a long flight on my part and a far longer drive for both of us, Scott Weinberg and I have finally arrived in Montréal for the FanTasia International Film Festival (their thirteenth, our first). The genre-heavy festival lasts for nearly three weeks; alas, we've but one to spare, so without much further ado, here's a look at what I've seen already and what I hope to see before Scott tips his own hand with a title or two to recommend.

Of the features playing, I can highly recommend Michael Paul Stephenson's Troll 2 doc, Best Worst Movie; the Aussie revenge thriller, The Horseman (not to be confused with the barely-seen Dennis Quaid vehicle, Horsemen); and Paul Solet's beautifully bloody baby horror, Grace. Those looking for something a bit stranger might end up being a bit more fond of Black and The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle than I was, though I also seemed more easily pleased by the Nazi zombies of Dead Snow than most, so I guess it all balances out. My enthusiasm for the ultra-kitschy likes of Alien Trespass and Lesbian Vampire Killers, not to mention the admittedly boundary-pushing Deadgirl, is all a bit less than what's already been mentioned, so let's just leave those at that.

Read the rest at HorrorSquad!

Every day seems to bring a new channel for delivering great, unheralded film right to your television or laptop. The latest is Film Buff, a video-on-demand channel run by Cinetic, and overseen by Matt Dentler, former producer of the legend that is Austin's SXSW. Variety has the details great and small.

I can't describe this channel better than Cinetic president John Sloss, who says its "as if your most film-literate friend programmed your Netflix queue and it was immediately available." They plan to offer as many as 15 first run films and classics per month, and the first slate is pretty tasty: The Carter (the Lil Wayne documentary that premiered at Sundance), Enzo Castellari's original The Inglorious Bastards, the 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, Richard Linklater's Slacker, and Michael Almereyda's New Orleans, Mon Amour. Dentler stresses that they won't be limited to Cinetic repped titles, nor will they only showcase new releases. FilmBuff also aims to champion older films in need of rediscovery, especially if they're tied into a hot trend or remake, such as Quentin Tarantino and his Basterds.

So you wanna rake in the indie cred in Austin at next year's South by Southwest Festival? You have a skootch more than a week left to submit proposals for panels and/or rate the ones that have already been submitted for SXSW. But lucky for you, the SXSW Panel Picker is at your fingertips any time of the day or night. This cool new tool allows for everyone to have a say in what panels get okay'd for the festival.

According to the official site, "SXSW thrives on the creative intersection that takes place when great minds get together, and we feel the Panel Picker truly celebrates that. We believe that the real experts at SXSW are the people who bring the event to life - you, the thousands of people who attend every year. You know what you want to see, so this is your chance to help make that happen."

Previous panels include "The Incredible Shrinking (Expanding?) Film Critic Profession," which featured Cinematical's very own Scott Weinberg, "From Script to Screen," a Stanley Kubrick discussion, and much more. Get on your horse and head over 'cause the Panel Picker closes its doors on July 10th.

You can also stay up to date on all the latest SXSW-related film news and reviews over at the official blog. They gave Erik Davis' earlier post on the real girl behind SXSW's indie hit 500 Days of Summer a nice shout out, too. Even if you don't get your very own panel, you should do yourself a favor and hit up the festival since it's filled to the gills with enough media to burn your retinas and pop your eardrums. Plus, you can eat some BBQ with the peeps you Tweet at. Hey, just sayin'.

(Spoilers herein.)

Okay, so you lot have had two weekends now with which to see Sam Raimi's sublimely ridiculous Drag Me to Hell, and I'm seeing the debate that a couple of us waged out in front of the Paramount at SXSW last March coming back around on a grander scale, so I want to open up the floor.

Some have claimed that the third-act twist -- in which Alison Lohman's character mistakenly gives away an envelope with a quarter instead of an envelope with a cursed button and is consequently dragged to, um, Hell -- is telegraphed so far in advance that it takes the suspense out of the last reel or so, while others (including yours truly) believe that Raimi is smarter than that, and knows that we're in for this ride anyway, so even if we know that her efforts to pass on the curse are futile, we'll take a certain pleasure in knowing that her fate is sealed regardless.

Sure, Raimi could have simply cut out an insert shot of everything falling on the floor and mixing up, thus letting himself slightly, temporarily off his own hook. Lohman's character could have simply reached into her boyfriend's bag and grabbed the wrong one (oddly enough, the button falls out of her purse -- which she's holding -- but the quarter was placed in her boyfriend's bag, which is nowhere to be seen...). But he does seem to go just enough out of his way to let us know what's afoot. If you've seen the film, what do you think - rookie mistake or intentional wink?

I'll keep this short: There's a horror flick coming out later this year called Grace. Lots of people (including me and Eric Snider) like it a lot, such as former Cinematical scribe (and mother of five) Kim Voynar, who went to the Sundance screening after I basically commanded her to. When I saw her later she was both grateful (for recommending it) and angry (for not seeing it with her). Then it hit Austin and earned even more fans -- and not just horror geeks, mind you, although they're the ones who seemed to dig it the most.

The flick is still shuffling through the festival circuit, but Anchor Bay will deliver the DVD before year's end, and it looks like my pals over at FEARnet have scored the first look at the "red-band" (R rated) trailer for Grace. Click right here to take a look at the rather impressive new promo clip, and then come back for some friendly advice. (Pause.) OK, back? Good: This movie is not suitable for pregnant women. Frankly you should spend three years in jail if you show Grace to a pregnant woman. Ten years if you make it a double feature with Inside.

Toronto's Hot Docs film festival kicked off last night, and among the acclaimed documentaries playing there is Best Worst Movie, which we reviewed at SXSW last March. The short synopsis: Michael Paul Stephenson was embarrassed to star in Troll 2 as a young lad, only to find himself and other members of the cast coming to terms with the film's growing cult popularity years later. The long version: life's a funny thing.

The Toronto Star's Peter Howell, in covering the film and its inspiration, has premiered the latest trailer for it -- see if you can't spot our very own Scott Weinberg in it (hint: he's not the super-genial dentist).

For any of you lucky readers in or around Toronto, it's showing tonight, tomorrow night, and Sunday afternoon. For more information, here's the official Hot Docs page and the official website.

Having not attended Sundance, last month's SXSW Film Festival was my first chance to catch up with Duncan Jones' acclaimed sci-fi drama, Moon, and I'm happy to say that my expectations were well-met, with Sam Rockwell giving what is bound to be one of the more uniquely layered performances of the year.* (You can read James Rocchi's review here.)

Well, it looks like the guys over at IGN got their hands on the trailer, which we've embedded after the jump and which carefully embraces the intrigue of the film's central conceit. Jones himself told us that the development in question isn't exactly a spoiler in his mind, but don't worry, we're not about to give it up here. All in all, it's a smart sell, and one accurately representative of the movie. AICN, meanwhile, happens to have one snazzy poster on display. Mere coincidence? We may never know...

Co-starring Kevin Spacey (sort of), Moon gets a NY/LA opening on June 12th before rolling out to other markets, where it'll should prove a welcome respite to the comparatively mindless summer fare.

*Trust me, I'm not just saying that.

The first poster for Adventureland gives "from the director of Superbad" the lowest, smallest billing. The most recent poster puts it first and foremost, even making it more colorful than the title and, one could argue, the cast itself.

In the weeks leading up to its release this Friday, the marketing campaign for Adventureland has been slowly, steadily, understandably tweaking itself to play up director Greg Mottola's last hit teen comedy, Superbad, but ever since seeing the film, I've been convinced that those expecting something so raucous this weekend will soon find themselves shifting in their seats as they watch something that's a bit more concerned about the 'age' in 'coming-of-age' than the 'coming.' It's not a tremendously misleading sell, but rather a matter of tone, and as such, here's seven reasons why you should look forward to the film beyond thinking it's the Next Big Quotable Comedy.

We wanted our SXSW '09 coverage to be pretty much wrapped up by this point, but then we figured ... what's the rush? At this point we'd be covering mostly the smaller films anyway, none of which have been seen outside the festival circuit, and it'd be stupid to pack our Cine spotlight into storage without shining it a few more times for the indie guys.

So yes, Drag Me to Hell was damn fun; Observe and Report was shockingly funny and unexpectedly ... dark; and everyone pretty much loved I Love You, Man. (Oh man, and don't even get me started on the Bruno footage!) Thanks to SXSW for programming some fun, flashy studio fare -- but now we're gonna tone the budgets down just a little. Not that it matters really. A movie is a movie is a movie, right? And I'd rather pick through any of the following flicks than deal with 80% of Hollywood's summertime output. (Ummm, fine. Let's say 70%.)

My first "little" favorite is a dry indie comedy called The Overbrook Brothers, which seems a lot like every "dry indie festival comedy" I've ever come across ... for the first few minutes. But once the tone is laid down and the two leads settle into an effectively fractious chemistry, it becomes a very funny road trip with a few moments of real insight and strange warmth. It's about two brothers (Nathan Harlan and Mark Reeb) who discover that they're adopted, and so they (along with one long-suffering girlfriend, excellently played by Laurel Whitsett) hit the road to an Austin adoption agency. Much banter, backbiting, and bickering ensues, but director John Bryant keeps a solid balance between absurd behavior and sincere heart.