2020 is the year that keeps on giving. The star attraction has been COVID-19. It’s wreaked havoc with the film festival circuit. Many festivals have cancelled or postponed for the foreseeable future, others have pivoted into the online platform. One such festival is Sydney Underground Film Festival, now in its 14th year.
The usual main program of features and feature-length documentaries has been jettisoned, and instead there is an online Inhuman Screens conference, a focus on Ukranian cinema, and the Take48 Challenge entries. But the featured event is the SUFF short film programs the Festival is (in)famous for.
The spine of film festivals are the short films. A chance to see talented, emerging filmmakers on the often long and arduous road to recognition. Rest assured, SUFF only plays the best and weirdest, spread out over seven different categories. There’s the strictly Aussie flavours in “OzPloit!”, the deep mind-fuckery of “WTF!”, the tripped-out hits in “LSD Factory”, the perverted desires of “Love/Sick”, the creepy nightmares in “Sh!t Scared”, the doco treats in “Reality Bites”, and a bunch of wacky adult animations in “Late Night Cartoons”.
I took a gander at the “Love/Sick” and “Sh!t Scared” programs, and the sick shit I was subjected to is well worth buying an online ticket for.
LOVE/SICK
Sex and romance gets a real working over in these twelve short films. “Deep Clean” sees one queer man taking his objectophilia to the next level, as he gets it on with an old-fashioned hoover. All set to the bump and grind of electro-pop song “Sexual”. “The Plunge” is an old-fashioned rom-com about going the extra distance for your lover, “Dinner For Two” puts the goosebump back in roast chicken, ’nuff said. A couple of diner work mates are forced into a painful situation, in “I Love Your Guts”, but through the blood they may find love. “Fucking Ghosts” is exactly what the title says, but with sheet in cheek. “Smiles” is like a lovely meeting-the-parents dream gone, horribly, horribly wrong. “Lovesong” tackles the age-old siren scenario with plenty of salt in the wound. A sustained closeup of a young woman reflecting on her troubled youth, is actually still in her troubled youth, in the sticky “Heatstroke” (my fave of the program, just because its so minimal, hypnotic and wtf?!). “Stream” takes the love of pissing to a whole new level. Yup. “Nailbiter” is not a thriller, it’s a pedicure, with a difference. “Some Kind of Humanity” starts with a warning to viewers, and it should be taken with some heed … seriously. Leaving us, rather suitably, with “Karaoke Night”, a sleazy performance that will leave you reeling in hilarity and disgust. You’ve been warned. Now, go buy your tickets, and settle in for 90 minutes of outrageous titillation and sexual depravity.
SH!T SCARED
Nine blood-curdling nightmares, some garish and extreme, others shrouded in strangeness, and some just plain fucking bizarre. We kick off with the blackly comic family shenanigans of “Satanic Panic 87” channeling the dark heart of the 80s, then we’re into the deeply frightening slow burn pursuit of “Regret” (definitely my fave of the horror bunch). From there we find a poor mother trying to protect her young son … from something, at “Bed Time”. “Ferine” features a feral woman seeking sustenance in a seemingly foreign world (a most curious, twisted delight), while “Double Tap” plays on our worst social media fears (terrific, funny stuff). “The Devil’s Harmony” is a high school tale of sly choral revenge and more, while the monochrome “Mushi” feels like the most tenebrous and Lynchian of bad dreams, and “Taylor and Vanessa” is just plain depressing, but beautifully done. Finally, the fabulous Caitlin Stasey is put through the psychological wringer as she battles with her shocking inner demon in “Laura Hasn’t Slept” (another wee fave). If you’re looking for a horror kick to lead you into A Night of Horror International Film Festival (Sept 24-26), then SUFF have got the goods, so get yourself a ticket for this kick-arse program.