The Tribeca Film Festivals Midnight section is one of my favorite categories, and this year’s lineup shouldn’t disappoint. At least, it should keep things interesting as this year’s festival features five new films that inject TFF2015 with some evil levity, weirdness, and horror that include: giant mutant killer wasps (Stung), a wrestler with a mission (Bodyslam: The Revenge of the Banana!), a bad-choice babysitter (Emelie), and more.
On Friday, April 17, the Midnight Festival will feature a unique live performance (think Mystery Science Theater 3000) with the cinephile comedy group, Rifftrax as they screen Tommy Wiseau’s The Room, considered by many as one of the worse films ever made. So, why not feature this cult classic? It’s OK to have fun in Tribeca!
Bodyslam: The Revenge of the Banana!
Directed and written by Ryan Harvie and John Paul Horstmann. (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative
Ronald McFondle, Eddie Van Glam, and other social outcasts made up the Seattle Semi-Pro (SSP) Wrestlers, an off-kilter family of cabaret fighters that spoofed the pros. When a newcomer Paul, The Banana, fell on the wrong end of the joke, he ran to the government to disband the SSP. Bodyslam: The Revenge of the Banana! captures the wrestlers’ fight to keep the theatrics alive.
Emelie
Directed by Michael Thelin, written by Richard Raymond Harry Herbeck (USA) – World Premiere, Narrative
After their regular babysitter can’t make it, the Thompson family turns to her friend Anna to supervise the children while they go out to celebrate their anniversary. At first Anna seems like a dream come true for the kids, as she allows them play with things that are usually off-limits, but as the night creeps along they soon find out that she is not who she seems to be.
Creepy babysitter movies are some of my favorite scary movies.
Hyena
Directed and written by Gerard Johnson (UK) – U.S. Premiere, Narrative
Michael Logan (Peter Ferdinando) may be a corrupt, coke-addled cop, but he’s a bad lieutenant with a conscience. After years of dodging the same laws he was assigned to uphold, Michael suddenly finds himself trying to change while safeguarding a young Albanian woman from the sex trade. Equal parts grit and neon, Hyena blurs the line between cop and criminal and exposes the illicit underworld inhabited by London’s most ruthless policemen. A Tribeca Film release.
Bad cop with a heart of gold?
Rifftrax Live: The Room
(USA) – World Premiere
The brainchild of Mystery Science Theater 3000 alumnus Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy (aka Tom Servo), and Bill Corbett (aka Crow T. Robot), Rifftrax skewers cult classic films with hilarious live commentary.
For their first-ever New York performance the Rifftrax gang will unleash their signature comedic chops on Tommy Wiseau’s modern masterpiece, The Room, for a one-night-only live cinema event.
Scherzo Diabolico
Directed and written by Adrián García Bogliano (Mexico, USA) – World Premiere, Narrative
In Spanish with subtitles.
Armed with a fine-tuned chokehold and penchant for piano sonatas, a wearied accountant breaks his mild-mannered routine when he kidnaps a young woman. What starts as a carefully calculated plan soon crescendos into his worst nightmare. A delightfully twisted black comedy, Scherzo Diabolico is the latest opus from director Adrián García Bogliano.
The Bigfoot segment in The ABC’s of Death (2012) is the only work I’ve seen from Director Adrián García Bogliano and I must say it made quite an impression.
Stung
Directed by Benni Diez, written by Adam Aresty (Germany, USA) – World Premiere, Narrative
For catering staffers Paul and Julia, Mrs. Perch’s fancy garden party at her remote country villa is nothing out of the ordinary. A mishap with toxic plant fertilizer leads to the most unwelcome of dinner guests: giant killer wasps. Director Benni Diez takes audiences on a thrilling, gory rollercoaster ride from campy to creepy, in this delightful and dreadful creature-feature.
Three words, GIANT KILLER WASPS – what’s not to love!
moviefiednyc.com 