The Second PDXtreme Film Festival Showcases the, uh, “Best” in Extreme Horror and Grindhouse

Oil up your chainsaw and lower your expectations: a lot of blood and guts are coming to the Academy Theater.

(courtesy of Big World Pictures)

Frankenstein Created Bikers begins with a decapitation and ends with a severed head being thrown off a cliff. In between, an undead biker gang captures Sasquatches while fighting with their hillbilly rivals. A one-eyed vigilante seeks revenge against evil cops and her incestuous brother, and a naked woman tries desperately to escape from a dungeon run by a sadistic Austrian in a suit and tie. Shot on 35 mm film and coming in at just over two hours long, the "Ben Hur of grindhouse" (according to the press release) has more nudity, more violence and worse acting than anything you've seen.

It's also best in show at the PDXtreme Film Festival, the indie-horror and grindhouse festival taking over the Academy Theater this weekend for the second year.

"We gave it our Best of Fest trophy this year," explains Jeremy Jantz, the 40-year -old director of PDXtreme. "We actually invented the category just for that film; we didn't have Best of Fest last year. That's just how good it is."

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Frankenstein Created Bikers isn't a conventionally good film. But, like the best of its indie-horror and grindhouse brethren, it is an unconventionally good one: a maximally goofy pseudo-horror film that gets its best moments through pushing the boundary of good taste to its breaking point with Itchy and Scratchy-level cartoon violence, joyful vulgarity and levels of nudity so gratuitous that they become meta-commentary on gratuitous nudity.

The fun that the cast had while making the film oozes out in every mutant Sasquatch maiming and exploding cop car.

"The cast is a who's who of people who are hot in indie horror right now," says Jantz. "The guy from The Human Centipede 2 [Laurence R. Harvey] is in it. [Indie-horror It Girl] Tristan Risk is in it—she's like the Jamie Lee Curtis of right now. These are all people who are really big."

Jeremy Jantz (courtesy of Facebook)

A horror fan since childhood, when "an older aunt let me get exposed to a whole lot of stuff at an early age," Jantz says PDXtreme's roots date back to 2014, when he was a senior in film school at the Art Institute of Portland. For his senior project, he pushed the boundaries of taste a little too far with Heels, a blood-soaked horror short with full frontal nudity that the school refused to play at its senior screening.

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"They were all fine with it until I actually made the movie," he says. "The school banned it, but I entered it on the festival circuit, and it played quite well there."

While on the circuit in 2014, Jantz got a glimpse of what makes a small film festival work (filmmaker appearances) and what doesn't (screenings in bland hotel conference rooms). He brought these insights back to Portland for a screening of Heels at the Academy in December 2014. A year later, he launched the first PDXtreme.

This year's festival is staying the course of last year's, upping the film count from 45 to 49, with 12 features and 37 shorts. Alongside Frankenstein Created Bikers, features include Dry Blood, a mystery-horror film about an alcoholic who is tormented by a sadistic sheriff and evil spirits in a remote cabin, and Pool Party Massacre, a throwback slasher about young socialites being stalked by an unknown killer.

For aficionados of indie horror, PDXtreme brings a preponderance of filmmakers and stars that puts larger film fests to shame. Perhaps this year's biggest star is Jewel Shepard—the B-movie star of punk-zombie cult classic Return of the Living Dead and '80s dude comedies like Hollywood Hot Tubs and Hollywood Hot Tubs 2: Educating Crystal ("she's Crystal," explains Jantz)—who is attending in support of her new film, Slasher.com.

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"As a small-budget festival, I try to focus on a lot of personal touches," says Jantz.

That translated to getting a lot of filmmakers to show up.

"I got someone to fly in from Asia last year," Jantz adds. "I really wasn't expecting that, because who does that? I've never flown across an ocean for a screening before."

PDXtreme Fest should prove to be a chance for like-minded weirdos with resilient stomachs and resilient senses of humor to get together over gallons of fake blood.

"Horror has always been a reflection of the times we live in," says Jantz. "It's about what people are scared of, and people like seeing their fears dealt with in an exaggerated way." If your fears are backwoods cabins or mutating STIs, this weekend you're in luck.

SEE IT: The PDXtreme Film Festival is at the Academy Theater, 7818 SE Stark St., pdxtremefest.com. Dec 2-4. Festival passes $30, individual screenings $5.

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