Frenzy Moon
33 of the 94 Films Screening at Amazing Fantasy Fest were produced in Western New York, half of them directed by women.
Buffalo, New York – Amazing Fantasy Fest returns to Dipson’s Amherst Theatre for seven days, Friday, Sept. 12th – Thursday, Sept. 18th, and to The Screening Room Cinema and Arts Café for two days, Friday, Sept. 19th and Saturday, Sept. 20th. The film festival celebrates horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, animation and experimental films, but also showcases films of all kinds produced in Western New York by local artists. Ninety-four films will screen, including 33 produced in WNY, half of those directed by women. The schedule breaks down as 16 features and 78 shorts, including world premieres and filmmaker Q&As.
Western New York features include the world premiere of festival direcor Gregory Lamberson’s werewolf film Frenzy Moon, shot in Clarence; Dyngus Day, a horror-comedy from “the September Brothers,” Michale Buttino and Golden Groves; the world premiere of Justin Brylinski’s relationship comedy AngelFish; and a 30th anniversary screening James Gribbins’s campy monster movie Shadow Creature. Short Features include Taylor Martin’s horror film The Shoffeur and Cydney Ramos’s drama Nastell.
Nastel
Features created outside WNY include Straight On Till Morning, a horror film about two lesbian lovers on a road trip who encounter a family of psychopaths, directed by Craig Oullette; Zombie Chronicles, depicting the undead apocalypse in New York City, directed by Bronx filmmaker Manny Suarez; Astral Plane Drifter, a sci-fi/kung fu comedy directed by Mike Caravella; and Cain Came Home, an offbeat ghost story from returning filmmaker Brett Cameron Glassberg.
Lamberson cites Dead, White & Blue, created by Mike Davis, as the kind of movie he wants AFF to be known for: a “green movie” made of recycled footage from over 300 stock and public domain films with a new storyline and dialogue. A rogue FBI agent teams up with the United States Army to defeat the KKK, which has invaded the body of an innocent black man killed by a racist cop.
“You can’t pigeonhole us,” the festival director says. “We run the gamut from monster movies to musicals, with an underlying goal of promoting local artists.”
Cherry Bomb
AFF devotes most of its opening weekend to genre film premieres, then divides weekdays between international films for matinees and WNY films in the evening. The closing weekend at The Screening Room includes the World Premiere of Adam Holley’s Cherry Bomb, a lesbian-themed thriller filmed in Binghamton; the Shadow Creature anniversary; a block of 15 animated shorts, and the New York premiere of Adam Griswald’s The Other Christmas Show, a musical-comedy about community theater.
Dead, White & Blue
Local shorts cover romance, drama, comedy and crime thrillers in addition to horror and fantasy. A full schedule is available at www.amazingfantasyfest.com. A Festival Pass can be purchased at the Amherst Theatre and Screening Room for $80 ($60 for students and seniors). Individual screening tickets for the first week will be available at www.dipsontheatres.com one week before the festival.