DARK WAVE CREEPS UP ON THE CITY

San Francisco Film Society to Present Three Nights of Extreme Cinema

For the fourth year, the San Francisco Film Society celebrates films that go to the extreme and beyond with Dark Wave, the series of international horror, fantasy and cult cinema, Friday, October 18 ­ Sunday, October 20 at the Roxie Cinema, 3117 16th Street, in the Mission District of San Francisco.

Opening the series is the supernatural thriller INTACTO featuring death-defying games of Russian roulette played by the preternaturally lucky. New this year will be Dark Wave at Midnight with the zombiefied yakuza action film VERSUS and the wide-angle gore and guns of TEENAGE HOOKER BECAME KILLING MACHINE IN DAEHAKROH. There are more frights to discover in DARK WATER, the latest psycho thriller from Hideo Nakata, the director of RING; the full-blooded monster movie, KAT; the chilling Japanese ghost story, INUGAMI; DOG SOLDIERS, a supercharged blend of ALIENS and THE HOWLING in which soldiers are stalked by werewolves and THE UNKNOWN, the Swedish Dogma-style answer to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Dark Wave dares Bay Area chillseekers to explore the dark and dangerous side of cinema. With eight San Francisco premieres hailing from Denmark, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, Japan, the United Kingdom and the U.S., Dark Wave presents an international selection from the extreme genre.

Carl Spence, Director of Programming for the Film Society calls Dark Wave "a celebration of the subculture of movies that departs from the often serious agenda of filmmaking and boldly explores alternative visions in the realm of the extreme. The great audiences at the inaugural Other Side of Midnight series at this year¹s 45th San Francisco International Film Festival ratcheted up our enthusiasm for showing films that appeal to the edgier sensibilities as we planned for Dark Wave #4."

INTACTO Opening Night
Max von Sydow plays a master gambler presiding over a futuristic casino on a desolate island in this genre-defying supernatural thriller. A frustrated disciple searches for someone who might be desperate enough to beat the master at his chosen game, an elaborate version of Russian roulette and the unlucky recruit (Leonardo Sbaraglia) must run a diabolical gauntlet of elimination rounds to save his girlfriend from death. Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo fashions a shocking film about good fortune and human nature. Spain 2001, 108 min. Dir. Juan Carlos Fresnadillo.

DARK WATER (Honogurai mizu no soko kara)
In this unnerving new psycho thriller from the director of RING and RING 2, its chilling first sequel, an attractive divorcée and her six-year-old daughter are up against the demonic forces gripping a creepy, old Tokyo apartment building. Based on an original story by Koji Suzuki (the Stephen King of Japan), this deeply unsettling film firmly establishes its director at the forefront of the Japanese cinematic New Wave. Japan 2002, 101 min. Dir. Hideo Nakata.

DOG SOLDIERS
A squad of soccer-obsessed, hilariously foulmouthed British soldiers on a training mission in the Scottish Highlands find themselves stalked by enormous werewolves. After a disastrous encounter in the woods, the soldiers hole up in an abandoned farmhouse. Then the fun really begins, as various members of the squad start to transform, an enigmatic local girl (Emma Cleasby) turns up and the hero, Cooper (Kevin McKidd from TRAINSPOTTING), is forced to perform emergency surgery with Super Glue. Don't ask, just watch. United Kingdom 2002, 90 min. Dir. Neil Marshall.

INUGAMI
In a remote mountain village on the island of Shikoku, the women of the Bonomiya family are duty bound to watch over the Inugami (wild dog) gods. When Miki Bonomiya, a lonely woman in her 40s, falls for a young stranger, the village is soon cloaked in an eerie fog, suspicions arise and strange events disturb the community, awakening the spirits. Japan 2001, 105 min. Dir. Masato Harada.

KAT U.S. Premiere
When Maria thinks that her boyfriend is cheating on her, she starts to develop a psychic connection to a series of bestial killings that are always committed close to a place she has just been. Her obsession with the killings slowly takes her further and further away from real life until finally the truth about her boyfriend, her girlfriend and the murders can no longer be repressed. REPULSION-style paranoia slowly but surely grabs the audience by the throat. Denmark, 2001, 90 min. Dir. Martin Schmidt.

TEENAGE HOOKER BECAME KILLING MACHINE IN DAEHAKROH
When a teacher discovers one of his teenaged students is a streetwalker, he blackmails her into becoming his sex slave. When she becomes pregnant, he hires hit men to off her, then slice and dice the corpse. A twisted Dr. Frankenstein fashions what's left into an unstoppable cyborg and soon RoboHooker is hot on the trail of her killer. Wide-angle shots, gore, weird lighting and guns TEENAGE HOOKER has it all and more. South Korea 2001, 60 min. Dir. Nam Gee-Woong. Preceded by the short: GRIDLOCK Belgium, 2002, 6 min. Dir. Dirk Beliën.

THE UNKNOWN U.S. Premiere
This Dogma-Meets-BLAIR-WITCH-PROJECT effort effectively provides scares and thrills without relying on frenetic camera movements. Five biologists travel to a remote area to explore a forest that burned down a few years ago. On the first day of exploration they find something strange. This begins a week marred by horror, paranoia and a steady erosion of common sense. Against their will the biologists have taken a step into the unknown. Suddenly the way back to civilization seems very far away. Sweden 2001, 90 min. Dir. Michael Hjorth.

VERSUS
Japanese director Ryuhei Kitamura's VERSUS is a high-voltage zombie yakuza action fest that plays like an unholy hybrid of THE EVIL DEAD, RESERVOIR DOGS and THE MATRIX. Tak Sakaguchi stars as a moody, pretty-boy convict who finds himself trapped with a nasty crew of gun-wielding hoodlums in an ancient, evil-infested forest where the dead come back to life. Japan 2001, 119 min. Dir. Ryuhei Kitamura.

Friday, October 18
7:30 INTACTO
9:45 DOG SOLDIERS
12MID VERSUS

Saturday, October 19
2:30 INTACTO
5:00 VERSUS
7:30 DARK WATER
9:45 THE UNKNOWN
12MID TEENAGE HOOKER BECAME KILLING MACHINE IN DAEHAKROH

Sunday, October 20
2:30 TEENAGE HOOKER BECAME KILLING MACHINE IN DAEHAKROH
5:00 DARK WATER
7:30 INUGAMI
9:45 KAT

Ticket prices are $9 general admission, $8 for Film Society member (Associate level and above), students, seniors and person with disabilities; Dark Wave Series Pass is $50 general admission, $45 for Film Society members (Associate level and above), students, seniors and person with disabilities. Tickets and passes will go on sale Monday, September 30, online at www.sffs.org, by fax to 415.561.5099 or in person at Lost Weekend Video, 1034 Valencia.

Dark Wave is sponsored by GreenCine and Guinness. Media sponsor, SFSTATION.COM.

If you need a photo or would like a screener tape, please contact Hilary Hart at 415.561.5022 or publicity@sfiff.org.

Dark Wave is a presentation of the San Francisco Film Society, presenter of the 46th San Francisco International Film Festival (April 17 - May 1, 2003), a nonprofit arts organization whose goal is to lead in expanding the knowledge and appreciation of international film art and its artists.