The Circuit

As mentioned earlier, Fantastic Fest's second round of pics has Nicolas Lopez's "Santos," Mark Hartley's "Not Quite Hollywood," and now the world premieres of "Blair Witch" co-director Edward Sanchez's "Seventh Moon" and John Gulager's "Feast 2," the followup to his Project Greenlight pic, "Feast," which world premiered at Fantastic's first year.

UPDATE:  Mabrouk El Mechri's JCVD, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme in his own twisted biopic, has been added to the lineup.  While reception to the film was mixed at Cannes, it has some legs for the fest circuit.  Before Fantastic, it'll play Toronto's Midnight Madness.

Fantastic Fest - Second Wave

Santos
World Premiere / dir. Nicolás López / Chile / 2008 / 100 min.
Three years after his SXSW debut feature PROMEDIO ROJO, Chilean prodigy director Nicolás López returns with SANTOS, a wild, sweeping tale of comic book nerds versus superheroes in a battle for the future of mankind. Think Ultraman with a Latin American brain transplant.  From the producers of SIN CITY and THE ORPHANAGE, visual effects by Troublemaker Studios.

Seventh Moon
World Premiere / dir. Edward Sanchez / USA / 2008 / 90 min
While honeymooning in rural China during the "Hungry Ghost" Festival, newlyweds Melissa (Amy Smart) and Yul (Tim Chiou) find themselves stranded at night in the middle of a superstitious ritual that may be more real than folk legend. 

Acolytes
US Premiere / dir. Jon Hewitt / Australia / 2008 / 91 min.
Three teens blackmail a killer into taking down the violent bully who has been making their lives hell.  An explosive first feature from Australian Jon Hewitt who will be in attendance to present the film.

Chocolate
US Premiere / dir. Prachya Pinkaew / Thailand / 2008 / 110 min.
The director of ONG BAK returns with his new protégé, who was in training for five years for this role. Ammara Siripong portrays an autistic girl who learns martial arts from watching Tony Jaa and Bruce Lee films so as to exact revenge on those who bankrupted her mother.

Deadgirl
US Premiere / dir. Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento / USA / 2008 / 99 min.
Exploring an abandoned sanatorium while ditching school, two high school burnouts discover a girl strapped to a gurney in a secluded chamber.  Debut directors Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento craft a new breed of teen angst drama set against a backdrop of humor black enough to make John Hughes retreat to a fetal state. Both directors will be in attendance to present the film.

Fear(s) of the Dark
Austin Premiere / dir. Various / France / 2007 / 85 min.
An animated anthology of films by six of the world's hottest graphic artists and cartoonists. All films are rendered in black and white, and all are based on their creators' own nightmares and fears.

Feast 2
World Premiere / dir. John Gulager / USA / 2008 / 90 min.
John Gulager returns to the Alamo to premiere the second installment in his FEAST franchise.  The original crowd-pleasing splatterfest FEAST world-premiered at Fantastic Fest in our first year.

JCVD
US Premiere / dir. Mabrouk El Mechri / France / 2008 / 96 min.
Jean-Claude Van Damme portrays an aging action star whose career in Hollywood is all but washed up. Returning to his homeland in Brussels, he lands in the middle of a bank heist and may have to actually save the day.

La Crème (THE Creme)
Regional Premiere / dir. Reynald Bertrand / France / 2007 / 83 min.
Under the Christmas tree, unemployed loser François Margin mysteriously finds a jar of face cream that once applied, temporarily turns him into the most famous celebrity in France.

Not Quite Hollywood
US Premiere / dir. Mark Hartley / Australia / 2008 / 102 min.
A documentary that traces the secret and not so secret history of Ozploitation, Australian exploitation cinema.

Rule of Three
US Premiere / dir. Eric Shapiro / USA / 2007 / 85 min.
Set in one night in a seedy hotel, cult Novelist Eric Shapiro's debut feature intertwines two stories of sexual encounters gone horribly awry.

Surveillance
North American Premiere / dir. Jennifer Lynch / USA / 2008 / 98 min.
Jennifer Lynch (BOXING HELENA) helms a crime thriller with overtones of RASHOMON. None of the eyewitness accounts in a roadside serial killer massacre seem to match up.  The FBI is called in to cut through the confusion before the killer can strike again.

Tokyo!
Regional Premiere / dir. Joon-ho Bong, Leos Carax, Michel Gondry / 2008 / 90 min.
An anthology of three 30-minute short films, all reflections on Tokyo by three non-Japanese directors. Michel Gondry's Interior Design, Bong Joon-Ho's Shaking Tokyo and Leos Carax's Merde.

Wicked lake
Regional Premiere / dir. Zack Passero / USA / 2008 / 95 min.
Four buxom ladies head out to the country for some good old-fashioned naked lesbian Wiccan frolicking. The locals who bust in on their retreat quickly regret their imposition when the witching hour arrives.

Zombie Girl
World Premiere / dir. Aaron Marshall, Justin Johnson, Erik Mauck / USA / 2008 / 91 min.
A documentary covering the two years that it took 12-year-old Austinite Emily Hagins to write and direct the feature-length zombie movie PATHOGEN.