From SXSW Roundup by Mike Ryan at hammertonail.com

Late Phases (Adrian Garcia Bogliano, 95m) — One of the best films I saw in a once again very strong Midnight section was this straightforward-but-brilliant werewolf movie. As with Xan Cassavettes’ Kiss Of The Damned from last year, I am most attracted to genre purists who work within the three-chord structure of their respective genre and through rigorous personal exploration of the core foundations of the code, completely reinvent the genre.

Late Phases starts deceptively simple, with a very tart TV-movie-of-the-week set-up and pacing but, by the middle of the second act, gets torn to bits like the graphic transformation scene in which we watch a trusted deacon in the church pull off his nose and ears as hair pokes through his chest cavity. Or the bizarre scene on a church bench when the head priest (Tom Noonan) and our war hero Ambrose (Nick Damichi) talk about the evil that men do while describing the act of killing innocent children.

The transformation from human to monster is ripe for so much fertile metaphorical relationships; the most obvious one here is the transformation from youth to old age heightened by the fact that the film is set in an old age retirement community. I also particularly liked the father/son relationship, which opened up the idea that as sons, we all become our fathers, as much as we fight the urge; at times, we all feel that matted, nasty smelling hair poking out, or at least clawing to get out. Likewise, we are willing to shoot ourselves in the foot in order to kill that evil beast. Hats off to low-budget horror masterminds Larry Fessenden and Brent Kunkle at Glass Eye Pix, who manage to make creatures and effects feel more real than any mega-budget CGI extravaganza on I am sure what is a nano-percentage of the typical Hollywood budget. This is one film that I hope gets into every megaplex. It’s elevated the werewolf film to a whole other level.

Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s LATE PHASES, from MPI’s Dark Sky Films and Zak Zeman’s Site B Productions, with Fessenden and Brent Kunkle producing for Glass Eye Pix, premieres tonight as part of SXSW’s Midnighters section!

Check out the festival screenings below, and read an interview with star Nick Damici at The Wrap.

Screenings:

World Premiere: Sunday, March 9th, 11:45pm (Alamo Ritz 1&2)
Public Screening #2: Thursday, March 13th, 11:45pm (Alamo Ritz 2)
Public Screening #3: Friday, March 14th, 11:59pm (SXSatellite: Marchesa)

Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s LATE PHASES, from MPI’s Dark Sky Films and Zak Zeman’s Site B Productions, with Fessenden and Brent Kunkle producing for Glass Eye Pix, has been selected for the Midnighters section of SXSW 2014! Get all the details on the film’s World Premiere at SXSW.com.

Synopsis:

Crescent Bay is not the ideal place to spend one’s golden years, especially since the once-idyllic retirement community has been beset by a series of deadly animal attacks from the ominous forest surrounding it. When grizzled war veteran Ambrose McKinley (Nick Damici) is forced into moving there by his yuppie son Will (Ethan Embry), the residents immediately take offense to Ambrose’s abrasive personality. But that take-no-prisoners attitude may be just what Ambrose needs to survive as it becomes clear that the attacks are being caused by creatures that are neither animal nor man, and that the tight-knit community of Crescent Bay is hiding something truly sinister in its midst…

From Gawker.com:

“Adrián García Bogliano’s Here Comes the Devil is what would happen if psychological terror and weird sex shit came to a Mentos commercial. Stilted as fuck, fueled on pregnant pauses and eyeball acting that makes virtually every character appear to have a thyroid condition, the movie revels in the kind of unnaturalness the ’70s schlock it so admires could only settle for….I never stopped wanted to see what the fuck ridiculous thing it was going to throw at me next. It intensifies at certain points into shockingly brutal violence, and is more effective for being so felicitous about that. Without going excessive and taking a torture-porn turn, this movie shows you that it means business and isn’t just some jump-scare-loaded, soft-R-for scary bullshit…”

Check out the full Gawker review here: Here Comes the Devil Is the Most Fun Horror Movie of 2013

HERE COMES THE DEVIL is now playing at Cinema Village in NYC and Sundance Sunset Cinema in LA.

Stay tuned for news on Bogliano’s upcoming feature with Glass Eye Pix, LATE PHASES.

 
By Clark Collis, Entertainment Weekly
Latin America has become a horror film hot spot over the past couple of years, thanks in large part to director Adrián García Bogliano, whose 2011 slow burn terror flick Penumbra is a must-see for fans of the genre. Now, Bogliano is hoping to make a splash in the U.S. with his new movie, Late Phases, which is currently shooting in upstate New York.
The director’s first English-language film, Late Phases relates the story of a cantankerous   Continue Reading »