Disaster and dread dominate Sitges selection

'Melancholia''Contagion''Hell''Kill List''CTIN!'It's official: The finish around the globe happens in Sitges, The country. Also it does not happen only once, but repeats itself in Steven Soderbergh's germophobe fantasy "Contagion," Lars von Trier's annihilation meller "Melancholia" and Tim Fehlbaum's debut "Hell," created by Roland Emmerich."The Apocalypse is popular, but confused with regular zombies, aliens stuff," states Alberto Marini, author and professional producer of Jaume Balaguero's "Sleep Tight," surveying the road-up for 44th Sitges Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, running March. 6-16.That's only some of the trend at Europe's greatest fanboy fest. Classic disaster is matched up by contempo dread: fears of "radical conservatism, being kidnapped in your house, or kidnapped with a fundamentalist sect," states fest director Angel Sala.The flipside, is the fact that, "possibly because of a weariness using the crisis, or contempo semi-apocalyptic situations, people relish humor, sometimes black humor. Audiences will laugh a great deal this season at Sitges," he states, stating Andre Ovredal's "Trollhunter," Juan Martinez Moreno's "Lobos p arga" (Bet on Werewolves), Alejandro Brugues' "Juan from the Dead" and Joe Cornish's "Attack the Block.""Dead," a Cuban zombie comedy -- there weren't a lot of individuals -- tallied up bullish sales off its Toronto world preem."Visitors want genre that mixes classic elements with ground-breaking tales and plot twists," states Vicente Canales, founding father of Film Factory Entertainment.Marini concurs: "Innovative tales or artistic risk would be the only response possible to large studios' productions. It's our unique feature."Some trends hold over from the past few years. Emilio Martinez, director of The spanish language genre website aullidos.com, sees a rising wave of subjective terror photos within the wake of "Paranormal Activity" -- "Really low-cost items that taken the planet,Inch he states.Game titles fitting the subjective terror billing include Carles Torrens' "Emergo," Colin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz's "Grave Encounters," Gonzalo Lopez Gallego's "Apollo 18" and Ovredal's "Trollhunter," distribbed by Universal in primary European areas.Deputy Sitges fest director Mike Hostench notices a "drive to interrupt rules inside a far-reaching, intellectual way."Possible good examples this time around round at Sitges are Kim Ki-duk's Cannes' Not Certain Regard prize co-champion "Arirang," Panos Cosmatos' "Past the Black Rainbow" and Ricard Gras' "Vlogger."Meanwhile, A.I. is creating a comeback. Fest remember the tenth anniversary of Steven Spielberg's "A.I. Artificial Intelligence" as Spielberg preps "Robopocalypse" and, on The spanish language home turf, Gabe Ibanez readies "Automata."Sitges opens with Kike Maillo's robot meller "Avoi," well-received at Venice, consumes S. Shankar's Indian blockbuster "Endhiran" and Pat Tremblay's low-finish amnesia nightmare "Hellacious Acres: The Situation of John Glass."sitges fantastic film festivalHIGHLIGHTSHORROR HOUSEHong-jim Na's crime actioner "The Killer," respected at Cannes "Livid," from Gallic horror specialists Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo Ben Wheatley's twisting thriller "Kill List" Alejandro Brugues' Cuban zombie comedy "Juan from the Dead" debuts from Evan Glodell ("Bellflower"), Spaniard Antonio Trashorras ("Blind Alley") and Colombia's Jaime Osorio ("El Paramo").SINGING PRAISESBryan Singer accumulates a Sitges Gran Premio.KUDOS KEEP COMINGTime Machine honors visit actor Michael Biehn ("Terminator"), who presents grindhouse pic "The Victim," that they helmed horror muse and actress Barbara Steele ("8 1/2," "Piranha") Hong Kong fight stunt maven Tony Ching Siu-tung ("Hero").PREVIEWSCatalan chill maestro Jaume Balaguero ("Rec," Sleep Tight"), will show sneak-look excerpts from his approaching "Rec 3" cast and crew from "XP3D," a brand new production from Spain's Rodar y Rodar ("Julia's Eyes") will offer you a three dimensional masterclass Juan Carlos Fresnadillo ("Burglars") and Eduardo Chapero-Jackson ("Verbo") will deliver prior-screening classes.GIVING INTELIntelligent Robotics Laboratory director Hiroshi Ishiguro discusses the A.I. future.SHORT AND SWEETBuzzed-up shorts: Kelly Weaver's "Leyenda," Kimani Ray Smith's "Suffer" Robert Morgan's hallucinogenic stop-motion "Bobby Yeah," Cyrille Drevon's murky mystery "CTIN!" and Andrew Wesley Green's zombie romancer "The Unliving."RELATED LINKS: Regional Report: Catalonia Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com