Hey folks, Harry here with the second day of Augustus Gloop's Fantastic Fest coverage. For some reason, he didn't gorge himself like he did yesterday - going for just a double feature. But he seemed to make it a good double feature. SPIRAL has distribution from ANCHOR BAY and is directed by Adam Green and the "star" of his earlier film HATCHET and the upcoming James Cameron epic AVATAR - Joel David Moore. And FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is a hokey fun piece of fluff that seems to have been put in the NEW LINE pipeline to feed off the success of SNAKES ON A PLANE, but then when that didn't perform, it went into the straight to DVD land - it's release is coming in October, I believe. Here ya go...

Day 2, and having a great time. I only made it to two features today.

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King in the Box (5 stars)
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The very first time I saw a Burger King commercial with the King standing outside someone's window, I told myself it was the stuff of horror. That costume is too creepy for network tv. Why does the FCC want to censor Janet's nipple, but they let us watch this? So this 8 minute short by Ryan Schifrin and Adam Green was nothing but delightful. This is what famous horror directors do for fun on zero budget at Halloween (a different short film every year, wouldn't mind seeing the rest of them).

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Spiral (4.5 stars)
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Spiral is not Hatchet. I can't stop there, but I just had to get that out of the way. All the photos and description I've read make this look like a very bloody nasty affair. I wasn't interested at first, but when something generates as much buzz as this, I like to reconsider and give it a shot. WOW am I glad I did. Spiral is nothing short of brilliant as it explores a rare theme in horror: the image of the monster as victim.

Spiral plays in some ways like a horror film in reverse; we begin with man who is almost completely unlikable who seems to be trapped in the horror that is his own mind. As he meets Amber and their relationship progresses, he comes out of his shell, and we begin to like him. With his frequent panic and asthma attacks, we're not really sure if Mason is a killer or just the victim of memories that are revealed as the story unfolds. Even at the end, there's noone here to hate. A very cerebral film, Spiral leaves much to the imagination, but it's no blank canvas. Fantastic use of color, it is beautifully shot, primarily in reds. The opening shot sets the tone with a gorgeous red, blue, and green reflection in a puddle of a diner window.

Visually, this is a masterpiece, and the live acoustic jazz score fits perfectly. I could just listen to this movie and still have a good time. The only reason I don't give it 5 full stars is because of an ending that is a little too long, that explicitly tells the audience whether everything they've seen is real or delerium while the rest of the film has worked so hard to leave that up to the imagination. All the performances are outstanding, especially Joel Moore. I don't know how he managed to bottle up and contain so much charisma to turn himself into Mason. Amber Tamblyn is stunning and the perfect charming counterpoint to creepy Mason. Nice cameo by Tricia Helfer, good to see her as a non-Cylon, though she's still just as sexy.

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It Came From The West (2 stars)
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This 16 minute piece out of Denmark is like everything else I've seen from Denmark: just plain weird. The premise is OK, Indians raise the dead to fight the invading cowboys for them. Something in the dialogue I think is lost in translation, and the voices really distract from a western feel. The puppets are nothing short of grotesque, and not just the zombies. The brightest spot? Puppet zombie Steve Buscemi. Yeah, there was one that looked just like him.

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Flight of the Living Dead (3.5 stars)
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Zombies on a Plane. It's ZOMBIES... on a PLANE. Well, seriously, it's much better than that other ...on a plane movie. Solid B-movie stuff here. The usual solid performances from Erick Avari and Kevin J. O'Connor doing their thing. This feels like it ran a little too long, and seriously, don't they ever run out of bullets? But the makeup was fantastic (especially for Avari's zombie incarnation) and most of the kills were fun. More was done here to establish likable characters, and the end sets things up nicely for a non-airborne sequel.

Augustus Gloop