Boston Underground Film Festival hosts New England premiere of Lucky McKee’s 'All Cheerleaders Die'

The 16th annual Boston Underground Film Festival just announced the first wave of films to screen at the historic Brattle Theatre March 26th-30th, and they are stellar! Most notably, the long-awaited “re-collaboration,” between college friends Lucky McKee and Chris Sivertson, All Cheerleaders Die.  The pair first made the film just out of college at USC in 2001, but after a decade plus of working on their own projects decided to remake their own film. Lucky McKee is best known for his debut film May and his most recent success The Woman, while Sivertson has made The Lost and I Know Who Killed Me. BUFF has only announced their first handful of films and promise more surprises!

Here’s all of the pertinent info taken straight from their press release:

Spring must be near because the crescendo of chaos is getting louder as the 16th annual Boston Underground Film Festival returns with a resounding bang to the Brattle Theatre from March 26th through the 30th, bringing with it the East Coast’s most gonzo, unhinged, and otherwise insane celebration of alternative cinema. Prepare yourself for New England’s pompom-touting, pop-laden, bloodbath opening night premiere of All Cheerleaders Die, directed by diabolical duo Lucky McKee & Chris Sivertson. A polished remake of McKee & Sivertson’s 2001 zero-budget debut, All Cheerleaders Die is a supernatural revenge horror-comedy that follows a rebel girl on a mission to take down the captain of her high school football team with the help of the cheerleading squad. This dark teen comedy evokes Carrie, Heathers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and opened the Midnight Madness program with raucous applause at last fall’s Toronto Independent Film Festival (TIFF).

Closing out this year’s fest will be another TIFF discovery, Jeremy Salunier’s Blue Ruin, a classic American revenge thriller about a mysterious outsider and amateur assassin whose quiet life is turned upside down as he winds up in a brutal battle to protect his family. 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, Blue Ruin has garnered rave reviews from its tour of the festival circuit and comes to Boston fresh from its Sundance premiere.

Also on the docket is Ari Folman’s breathtaking fusion of live-action and animation, The Congress, starring Robin Wright as a bizarro version of herself -- an aging, out-of-work actress who sells her soul to the digital devil in exchange for an unthinkable form of immortality. Also featuring Jon Hamm, Harvey Keitel, and Paul Giamatti, Empire Magazine proclaims The Congress “an extraordinary and very touching film that exists somewhere in the twilight zone between the existential brainteasers of Charlie Kaufman and the psychedelic wonders of Hayao Miyazaki.”

BUFF 2014 twists and turns, taking filmgoers on a dark odyssey through the human psyche with the International premiere of Kept, an intense Japanese psychodrama by first-time writer/director Maki Mizui about a survivor’s experience of sexual violence, which will have its world premiere at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival later this month. Things lighten up considerably with the world premiere of My Name is Jonah, a documentary full of heart and badassitude on real life warrior, adventurer, internet celebrity, and harmonica virtuoso Jonah Washins, from local Boston filmmakers Phil Healy & JB Sapienza.

Waving our happily-misanthropic-flag proudly, BUFF is thrilled to present the East Coast premiere of Slamdance darling Crimes Against Humanity, the sophomore feature of Chicago filmmaker Jerzy Rose that will both hilariously and painfully resonate for all 80,000+ of you currently ensconced in that peculiar Dantean milieu of ego and drama known as academia. Additional misanthropic laughs abound in end of the world comedy Doomsdays, starring Justin Rice & Leo Fitzpatrick. A pre-apocalyptic comedy, Doomsdays follows the misadventures of Dirty Fred and Bruho, a pair of free-wheeling squatters with a taste for unoccupied vacation homes in the Catskills, in what is without a doubt “the best American slacker film of the 21st century.”

Full program, schedule, and ticket information will be online by March 10th at: www.bostonunderground.org. Pre-sale festival passes are now available through BUFF’s Kickstarter campaign at a 10% discount, with accompanying limited-edition perks!

Individual screening tickets are $10 and will be available online and at the Brattle Theatre box office on the day of screening. Festival passes, which include admission to all films and parties, are $110 and can be purchased online at www.bostonunderground.org/tickets. Festival passes do not guarantee seating or admission to parties, so arrive early, before they reach full capacity!

BUFF 2014’s second wave of programming will be announced soon.