by “Doc” Hunter Bush, Staff Writer and Podcast Czar

Get ready to start your spooky season with Philadelphia’s premier genre and independent film showcase: PUFF! For their eighth year, the Philly Unnamed Film Festival is bringing an eclectic assortment of films to South Philadelphia for anyone who wants to enjoy them. PUFF will run from Weds, Sept. 27th to Sun, Oct 1st. I’ve perused the trailers for the films listed (most can be found on the PUFF YouTube channel) so I can give you an idea of what will be available on each of the fest days.

PUFF 8 will run from Weds, Sept. 27th to Sun, Oct 1st.

Tickets are available HERE.

Sept 27th:

The festival kicks off with Caddy Hack (2023), a film that asks the questions: What if the gopher from Caddyshack (1980) was supernaturally evil? and What if there were a lot of them? During a prestigious golf tournament, caddy after caddy are turning up dead from “mutated” gopher attacks and it’s up to the surviving caddies to stop it to save their jobs and their lives. The trailer is short but packs a goopy punch with plenty of sticky-looking dismemberment, glowing-eyed gopher puppet monsters, a nut shot, and even an exploding head! Caddy Hack probably isn’t a lock for the Best Picture Oscar, but it sure looks like a crowd pleaser!

After the Bizarre Block of short films (experimental shorts that defy easy categorization), PUFF is showing Killer Workout (sometimes known as Aerobicide) the 1987 slasher whodunnit set in the then-novel world of physical fitness. Five years after a young model is burned in a tanning salon incident, her twin sister Rhonda (Marcia Karr) is operating a gym where a string of murders begin to take place. The plot is overly complicated, and the kills are only occasionally gym-centric (multiple are committed with a huge novelty safety pin), but the score is great, and you won’t be the only one laughing.

Sept 28th:

The Horror Shorts block kicks things off, followed by Grieve (2023) from writer/director Robbie Smith. The trailer doesn’t give away much as far as narrative, but has buckets of mood and atmosphere! Sans dialogue, under somber piano music we see disassociated imagery of a man (educated guess is he’s grieving) at a remote house in the woods. The description mentions something about an eldritch presence that feeds on (what else?) grief, so I expect this will deal with unclear reality, and focus heavily on the vibes. I love this kind of thing personally. How about you?

The 2nd film of the day is a 10th Anniversary screening of Motivational Growth (2013), which - if you’re anything like me - you heard about due to the involvement of genre legend Jeffrey Combs. In the film, Ian (Adrian DiGiovanni) is a shut-in and habitual loser who hits his head and starts conversing with the enormous mold culture growing in his bathroom (voiced by Combs). The Mold initially helps Ian improve his life before beginning to steer things in a more sinister direction. This film is an odd-feeling balance between silly and brutal but if you can get on its wavelength, you should have a good time.

Sept 29th:

PUFF kicks the weekend off with a steamy revenge thriller. In Emanuelle’s Revenge (2023), the titular Emanuelle (Beatrice Schiaffino) begins an erotically-tinged cat-and-mouse relationship with a wealthy playboy (Gianni Rosato) after his obsession and abuse leads to the death of a young model. I don’t know how graphic this abuse might be, so if you’re especially sensitive to these themes, you might not want to start your day with this one, but - given the title - I’m guessing the bad guy is gonna get his comeuppance. In case that sweetens the pot.

After the Global Grab Bag (an assortment of international shorts) comes writer/director Nick Verdi’s Sweet Relief (2023). The trailer is slim on story, but there are flashes of knife-based violence, a man guiltily emptying a large duffel bag, and a trio of young women all in the woods of New England. There’s also a person online dubbed “Sweet Angel” who appears to be a mouse-man of some kind, who is also briefly seen in the woods. The whole thing happens under a nursery rhyme about dealing with grief. Nick’s previous film, Cockazoid - which I saw at last year’s PUFF and reviewed on MovieJawn - is an intense and fascinating spiral into a fragile male psyche, so I’m interested to see how much this film makes use of its female protagonists. This seems like a potent viewing experience.

Friday closes out with Hunting for the Hag (2023?) a found footage excursion into the woods of Illinois to find the Hawthorne Hag. This looks a bit like The Blair Witch Project (1999) - hand held camera, three friends (though they’re all women here), some of whom are skeptical, etc. - and maybe that’s all it is. And maybe that’s enough for you (there are some die-hard found footage fans out there, bless them) but the last time I thought a film screening at PUFF looked kind of basic, it was Echoes of Fear (2018) and the third act blew me away. Obviously I’m hoping for something like that here.

Sept 30th:

Saturday at PUFF is jam-packed! Beginning with the Local Block (short films from the Philly area), the first feature is Scream Therapy (2023), a horror comedy from writer/director Cassie Keet. When five thirty-something BFFs head to the desert for a weekend of restorative scream therapy (as well as drinking and drugs), they end up in the sights of an “incel cult” with a looming human sacrifice deadline. This has one really solid joke in the trailer, and the set up seems like it should be both kinda vicious and pretty funny.

Enter the Clones of Bruce (2023) plays next, a documentary about the unusual phenomenon of Bruce Lee-alikes. At the time of his death in 1973, Bruce Lee was just about to break big in America. For a while, his previous films were licensed and re-released to feed fans’ desire for more Bruce Lee movies, but after they had run out, studios turned to more duplicitous means. Hiring martial artists that “looked like” Bruce Lee (re: they were Asian) and giving them stage names like Bruce Li, Bruce Le, Bruce Lai, and Dragon Lee, genre film producers pumped out so many Lee-alikes that - as someone in the trailer points out - some people thought “Bruce Lee” was a character like Sherlock Holmes, played by different actors. This subject is endlessly fascinating to me, and this doc offers some of the “clones” the ability to speak on their times subbing for Bruce Lee, which sounds incredible!

The third film of the day, Psychosis (2023) caught my attention like a fish hook, with dramatic, unique imagery and a mix of black & white and full color footage. Described as a cross between Darren Aronofsky’s Pi (1998) and Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly (book 1977 / film 2006), this seems like a w-i-l-d time. When a man (Derryn Amoroso) who experiences auditory hallucinations is drawn into the orbit of a deranged bargain bin batman vigilante (Pj van Gyen) and a hypnotic guru (Adam MacNeill), reality appears to become unstable. There’s violence, mind control, potential supernatural elements; this looks like a real kitchen sink film and I. am. here for it!

The next film is an as-yet-unannounced Mystery Movie (exciting!), before the night closes out with a screening of T Blockers (2023), the third feature from 18 year old Alice Maio Mackay! When a trans filmmaker and her friends find an old horror film that predicts the future, only they know that their town is being taken over by ancient parasites. Now they’ll have to deal with the problem if they want to get back to partying. This seems like exactly the blood-and-neon soaked way you’d wanna end your evening.

Oct 1st

The final day of PUFF 8 kicks off with the Music Videos block, followed by an afternoon screening of the 2001 - I kid you not - masterpiece that is Josie and the Pussycats! When sinister record label MegaRecords needs a new band with which to spread their subliminal advertising, they choose the titular trio of girl power pop punks (Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson, and Tara Reid), setting off an anti-capitalist adventure comedy with a soundtrack full of ear worms that will get stuck in your head - in a non-sinister way - for days! Legitimately a great cult film.

The fest comes to a close with Hist-o-Rama 3D!: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time (2023), a collection of outdated industrial and educational short films converted into 3D to, and I quote, “given an otherworldly dimension, allowing the past to reach out and touch us in ways their creators never imagined.” I don’t really know what that means in an exact way, but it sure sounds interesting.

I’ve never had a bad time at a PUFF screening. The organizers are friendly, funny, and welcoming to both the audience and, frequently, filmmakers. The vibes, as they say, are impeccable. Please support PUFF whenever and however possible and that includes treating yourself to some of the screenings mentioned above! I don’t think you’ll regret it.

PUFF 8 will run from Weds, Sept. 27th to Sun, Oct 1st.

Tickets are available HERE.