by Hunter Bush & Allison Yakulis

Catch this year’s Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival (PUFF) at Theater Exile (1340 S 13th Street) from Wednesday, September 21 thru Saturday, September 24 (and if you see us there, come say hi!). To kick things off, there will be a special presentation of Satoshi Kon’s Perfect Blue in honor of the film’s 25th anniversary, followed by a program that includes eight independent feature films and almost fifty short films. Most of the shorts are arranged in thematic blocks - Bizarre Block on Wednesday night, International Shorts on Friday morning, Local Shorts on Saturday afternoon, and Horror Shorts on Saturday evening. The International Shorts block will also include the PUFF Legacy Award presentation to director Logan Fry. Get tickets at Film Freeway, and note that the festival is strictly 18 and over.

Having been to previous PUFFs, we can attest to finding some great and unique films presented there over the years. Not everything is for everyone, and your mileage may vary but all-in-all, PUFF has proven to be a rewarding and enjoyable experience each time. Not to mention that it’s a 100% volunteer, nonprofit, independent festival run by genuinely cool, very nice people. This year, we’ll actually be able to review a few of the features before they screen at PUFF, so keep your eyes on MovieJawn; you just might read about something you’ll want to see.

Below, we’ll briefly break down what we can discern of the features, as far as plot, vibe, tone, and whether we - personally - are excited for it. Read on for our thoughts, check out PUFF’s YouTube to see trailers for yourself, and check back for reviews on these and the shorts blocks.

Perfect Blue (1997) (dir. Satoshi Kon)

In the era before knowledge and discussion of anime was as widespread, Perfect Blue still made waves. An animated noir about paranoia and identity, it follows a former pop star who changes careers and quickly loses grip on her sanity. PUFF always kicks things off in a big way and this year is no different. 

Party Dream (dirs. Aaron Hagele & Tim Slowikowski)

A documentary about Gil Mantera’s Party Dream, an electronic synthpop party band that began in Youngstown Ohio and grew a cult following due to outlandish onstage antics and an anything-goes atmosphere to their live shows, before eventually falling out and disbanding. We both love a good documentary, with Hunter being a sucker for docs on musicians. And a good underdog story is something we can all get behind.

The Chamber of Terror (dir. Michael Pereira)

Nash Caruthers is the intended latest victim of the Akerman mob family’s Chamber of Terror - the torture room of their compound in (fictional) Chasden. But something doesn’t go according to plan, resulting in shocking violence and bloodshed that will cause locals to refer to the nearby thoroughfare as Butchery Road in the aftermath. Maybe it’s something supernatural, maybe Caruthers just goes all John Wick on everyone’s butt, we’ll have to wait and see. It looks very low budget and splattery in a way that gave Allison some Troma Film vibes, and hopefully leans into that style to its advantage.

The Alien Report (dir. Braxton Hale)

Done in the faux documentary style, The Alien Report follows a young man (Hale) who utilizes consumer-grade cameras (like iPhone and GoPro) to surreptitiously record supernatural phenomena in his life, including - if the trailer is anything to go on - abduction! This looks wild to say the least, with lots of modest budget special effects and a seemingly very ambitious scope.

Chicken House (dir. Cate Jones)

This one has a dark comedy vibe and seems to be about the culture clash when three roommates - all actresses in a small town - meet their new, mysterious and moody roomie from LA. The trailer itself doesn’t give a lot away, story-wise, but the plot blurb says it tackles “acting, ghosts, religion and the bonds we form that shape our lives” , which is a LOT. Perhaps it’s about one weirdo perverting an entire friend group? Or that the odd duck isn’t always who you think it is? However it pans out, this off-beat looking film shows promise.

The Outwaters (dir. Robbie Banfitch)

When four musicians travel into the Mojave Desert for some reason, they encounter mysterious and deadly phenomena. What this has going for it is natural beauty; I’m sure there will be tons of gorgeous footage of the Mojave before whatever horrors befall the characters, but once that portion of the trailer hit, everything was basically screaming on a black screen, with occasionally a flashlight beam illuminating some bloody person or another. Seems pretty intense! Allison was concerned that this might lean a little too far into The Blair Witch Project (1999) territory due to its “found footage in the wilderness” concept, but hopes there’s enough originality that The Outwaters carves its own path.

Cockazoid (dir. Nick Verdi)

Andrew is one of those disturbed young men you hear about on the news. For his own deluded reasons, he has decided to kill all white men, starting in his hometown somewhere in Massachusetts. While the aggressive edginess of this concept would usually be a bit of a turn-off, Andrew spends the trailer discussing mathematically how little space disposing of all the white men in Massachusetts would actually take, voiced over images of him running around town with a large serrated knife and talking tensely to various other white men in a way that felt like something out of a Chuck Palahniuk novel, which is a little more fun. Hopefully it sustains that wry tone or otherwise manages to maintain depth and dimension.

Two Witches (dir. Pierre Tsigaridis)

Carrying on the family traditions is hard, but can come with some special challenges when your family are witches. Masha’s grandmother is passing the figurative torch to her, with some intensely creepy results. If the trailer is a fair representation of the film, then this movie makes the best of its small budget with canny editing and selective showpieces to yield tense, unnerving results. Looks good, can’t wait.

All Jacked Up And Full Of Worms (dir. Alex Phillips)

Reveling in neon and sleaze, this surreal drug-trip film allegedly showcases “grossout horror” as our two mains down hallucinogenic worms for recreation and go carousing about the back-alleys of Chicago. Like any hard-drugging movie, things will not go well. Unless we’re missing something, this is probably not our cup of tea - but if we’ve got something nice to say, you’ll hear about it!

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If there's one thing you can count on from PUFF films, it's that you don't always know what you're going to get. A flick might seem (from the blurb or the trailer) like it's going to only deliver gore, and then it turns out to have unforeseen depths. Or it may feel like an out-of-box supernatural thriller before the surprising finale. Both of these supposed hypotheticals have happened to us in past years and we couldn't be happier to have been caught unawares.

That means that if anything we've mentioned seems like it might even kinda, just a little bit be your jam, you should visit PUFF's Film Freeway site and pick up some tickets. We hope to see you there, and we hope you'll check back in here on MovieJawn for all our coverage.