Thanks to Twitch for the tip and scoring the first look. It's pretty amazing to think that a director's whole style could be mechanical arms, blood, guts, and figuring out new and creative ways to shove things in his characters eyes. I believe that was fried shrimp eyes that we get a glimpse of in this trailer. Can't wait to see more Iguchi.

Vampire Girl Vs. Frankenstein Girl is from Naoyuki Tomomatsu and Yoshihiro Nishimura (who are infamous for the venus fly trap ladies from Tokyo Gore Police.) The movie's title is pretty self-explanatory, although it seems like it'll be hard to tell what's happening in the completely mental little film.

The world premiere will be at the New York Asian Film Festival on Friday June 26th. I'll be there, with hands placed firmly over my eyes for the buckets-of-blood moments. Won't you?

The Crazies

Yes, they are remaking The Crazies. Say what you will, I'm sure it will be just like the original with slightly better cameras, although I'm not saying that's a good thing. I'm riding the fence on this YARM, which follows a little town that has to deal with a descent into murder and madness when their water supply is contaminated with an unknown virus/bioweapon. Timothy Olyphant is starring in the remake, and he's never really bothered me too much apart overdoing the loony-eyes here and there. Here's one of the first stills. Crazy, no?


The Mercury Men
Pretty new pulp-pop webseries The Mercury Men certainly has grabbed my attention:

Edward Borman, a lowly government office drone, finds himself trapped, when the deadly Mercury Men seize his office building as a staging ground for their nefarious plot. Aided by a daring aerospace engineer from a mysterious organization known as "The League," Edward must stop the invaders and their doomsday device, the Gravity Engine.

The black and white look is quite crisp, and it's good to see some interesting new things popping up on the web. I especially like the outlined baddies and our hero's retro cap. I'm even willing to overlook the slightly clunky acting just for the feel alone. The first episode is not yet released, but here's a trailer. Thanks to Twitch for pointing this out.

In other very exciting cult news, the New York Asian Film Festival has just released their line-up of films and special appearances. Besides the stellar round-up of movies from 20th Century Boys to The Forbidden Door, there's going to be a Tokyo Gore Night. Unbelievable! Check out the description of the Gore festivities:

TOKYO GORE NIGHT
One of the most insane new voices in cinema is the screaming howl of Yoshihiro Nishimura, director of TOKYO GORE POLICE, and special effects genius (who also did the effects for LOVE EXPOSURE and SAMURAI PRINCESS, screening in this year's festival). He couldn't join us for the premiere of TOKYO GORE POLICE last year so for one weekend only we'll be hosting him at the New York Asian Film Festival and holding a special TOKYO GORE NIGHT event. First up will be screenings of several completely nuts short films from Nishimura and his cabal of lunatics all set in the TOKYO GORE POLICE and MACHINE GIRL universe. Then there will be a special onstage presentation by these madmen followed by a screening of TOKYO GORE POLICE during which we'll record a live audio commentary for the movie's upcoming special edition DVD. Accompanying Nishimura will be Noboru Iguchi, the director of MACHINE GIRL and the maniac responsible for the short film SHYNESS MACHINE GIRL which we'll also be screening that night. Also coming will be Tsuyoshi Kazuno, a visual effects supervisor on SAMURAI PRINCESS, MACHINE GIRL and many others. More surprises are in store, so make sure you wear something that you don't mind getting soaked with blood.

It sounds so delightful that wild snail norks and venus flytrap ladies couldn't keep me away from this. The festival runs from June 19 - July 5, and I've rounded up some of the stand-out entries from this year, with trailers included:

Pintu Terlarang (The Forbidden Door)
I'm hearing this film is ultra creepy, and here's the official synopsis form The Forbidden Door's site:

"A successful sculptor whose life run by domineering wife and mother discovers a secret organization in which members can watch the lives of most dysfunctional, depraved families in the town which are fed from hidden cameras. When he stumbles upon a channel showing a little boy whos being viciously abused by his parents, he tries to find the kid to save him. But his quest leads him back to a secret door in his own house that could be the answer to many puzzles."

20th Century Boys
A group of kids create their own little post-apocalyptic sci-fi, writing about how the world will end at the hands of a robot. Fast forward to years later, and the kids are miserable and working crap jobs until the stories they dreamed up in their youth start to come true. Now it's up to them to save the world.

The Clone Returns Home
We've been following this sad little clone drama since Sundance. An astronaut loses his life on the job and the government replaces the original worker with a memory-imprinted clone. Unfortunately for the clone, he gets stuck on a memory from the original astronaut's past involving the death of his twin, and runs away to his childhood home.

K-20
In this alternate history, WW2 never happened. Takeshi Kaneshiro is a masked thief just trying to make it through the steampunky world.

I love all the bolts coming out of Frankenstein Girl's face, and all the weird dismemberments. Not to mention the Terminator-y skull thing that gets twirled around over and over. Oh, and the teacher with ten cigarettes in his mouth. You'll have to watch this trailer ten times to catch all the weird throw-away (or slash-away) stuff.

English Translation Trailer:

[Twitch]