Screamfest LA - Lazarus Taxon and Else

Horror film afficiandos in the Los Angeles area have reason to celebrate. This coming weekend begins the 9th annual Screamfest LA film festival. This horror festival was formed in August 2001 to give filmmakers and writers in the horror/sci-fi genres a venue to showcase their work.

While we would have loved a chance to attend, that wasn't in the cards. But thanks to Rachel Belofsky, we've had a chance to screen several of the short films being shown this year. Over the next few days, we will post some of our thoughts about the films -- and may even feature a few surprises!

If you are in the LA area, Screamfest runs from Oct. 16-25th. The short film program is this weekend only -- on Oct. 17th and 18th. For more information about the festival (and to get tickets) check out their Web site at www.screamfestla.com

To kick off the reviews, let's take a look at Lazarus Taxon and Else, two short films from Europe that both deal with apocalyptic futures.

Lazarus Taxon

From Spanish director Denis Rovira comes Lazarus Taxon, a film that is beautiful in its bleakness. Set in a "probable future," we watch as a father (Ariel Casas) rows a boat across a new sea to find a cure for his dying daughter. We see the father struggling to breathe and are told by one character that the land is sick, the result of global warming. But the circumstances of this post-environmental future are secondary to the heart-wrenching circumstances. Casas delivers a haunting performance as he crosses the sea with only his hope to guide him. But the solution for helping his daughter live on may have less to do with hope and more to do with resurrecting a long dead practice.

In this short film, Rovira offers something that is soul-sucking and terrifying because it could represent our future. Even so, he manages to challenge our notion of horror. He raises it to a new level, showing us that this genre can be more than death. It can also be life.

Else

In Else, love and horror come together in a bizarre nightmare brought to life. The setting is France, where a poison cloud over the city is turning people into their surroundings. Betty (Caroline Breton) and Todd (Gilduin Tissier), two young lovers, have been quarantined in their apartment. As Betty stares out the window, morbidly fascinated by whatever is out there, she becomes frightened to discover it is staring back at her. Soon, she too is changing. But as Todd sees the woman he loves succumb to this plague, how far will he go to be with her?

Director Thibault Emin creates a grotesque and fascinating film that blurs the line between sexual fantasy and horror. While the premise seems fantastic, it challenges the audience's notion of love in the face of an altered reality. Emin's film is provocative and erotic, but also an artistic achievement.