REVIEW ‘ZERO KILLED’ @ SF BAY GUARDIAN, 7X7SF & SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

Chopping spree – ‘Tis the season for ghouls and gore at Another Hole in the Head film fest

by Cheryl Eddy | San Francisco Bay Guardian, Nov. 27, 2012

Closing night looks to be a decidedly less festive affair, with Austrian director Michal Kosakowski’s unsettling Zero Killed — a feature film spun from his video installation and short film project, Fortynine. From 1996 to 2006, Kosakowski interviewed people about their murder fantasies, then used the tales (suicide bombings, school shootings, dog attacks, dinner-party poisonings, stabbings, shoving people into traffic or letting them slip off cliffs, etc.) as short-film inspiration, starring the storyteller as either perpetrator or victim.

A haunting musical score ups the creep factor, as Kosakowski tracks down each participant (many, but not all, are actors by trade) to interview them about their specific fantasies and other troubling topics, like revenge, torture, and “What is evil?” Zero Killed is a uniquely disturbing mix of fiction and documentary, cutting between horrific, blood-soaked vignettes and clinical talking-head interviews — often featuring the same subject.

Read the review on sfbg.com

IndieFest’s Another Hole in the Head Sets the Table for Its 9th Gory Season

by Jackson Scarlett | 7x7SF, Nov. 29, 2012

The macabre closing night film of this year’s HoleHead is, by technical description, a documentary–and not of the Tobe Hooper variety either. Pairing staged footage of homicidal fantasies told to him by interviewees (on the condition that they act in them as either as the murderer or victim) with years-later decompressions on subjects like torture, the military, and media dominance, German director Michal Kosakowski’s film plays out like a grim riff on Michael Apted’s Up series. Ranging from absurd bloodbaths to chilling snuff films, the most effective vignettes play out in stark counterpoint to the interviews, adding a heightened meaning to the necessarily political talk on display.

Read the review on 7×7.com

Nothing too violent for Hole in the Head fest

by Hugh Hart | San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 2, 2012

Another Hole in the Head Film Festival screens loads of murder and mutilation, but audiences tend to be a jovial bunch, according to founder George Kaskanlian Jr. “It’s kind of like … a reunion every year,” he says. “A lot of people know each other and feel comfortable screaming, saying stupid stuff and having a good time.” This year’s edition, continuing through next Sunday at the Roxie, includes “G-String Horror” (Wednesday), shot by Charles Webb at the old Sid Grauman movie palace in San Francisco. The festival also presented “The Killing Games,” rejected by the Edmonton International Film Festival for being too graphic. Does Kaskanlian draw the line at extreme screen violence? “There is no line,” he says. “People know what they’re getting when they come to the festival. If a movie is too gory, we’ll make it a late-night screening.”

Closing-night film “Zero Killed” pushes that envelope. “People get interviewed about their murder fantasies and then they re-enact them,” Kaskanlian says. “When I was watching it for the first time … I got pretty weirded out because I thought it was real. ‘Zero Killed’ was pretty crazy. I thought, ‘I’ve got to put this in the festival.’ ”

Read the review on sfgate.com