I love the films that come out of the blue.

It starts with a tip or a hint that I get from reading one of the film trades like Screen Daily or from a film sales agent, talent scout, producer or fellow film fiends around the world who are either in the biz or on the friinges. And that's how Deadgirl came about.

In between screenings at the European Film Market that takes place during the Berlinale in February, I was catching up with Nate Bolotin, a sales rep who I had come to know over the years who shares my tastes in oddball cinema. He told me the plot of this new film he had seen that was off of everyone's radar and this one sounded... different, to say the least. The plot seemed so lurid and extreme, it was clear that in the wrong hands, this film could go off the rails and get mired in sleaze and exploitation. Yes, Nate had my attention. And that film was Deadgirl.

Later in June when I was in LA, I met with the directors of the film, Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel who had set up a screening of the film, which was in a rough, but almost completed edit. There is always a pressure for a festival film programmer when in this situation, as opposed to directors simply sending a DVD to our offices. Following the screening, one has to be very diplomatic when talking to the director (let alone two directors, as in this case), despite whether what was shown was a masterpiece or a stinker. If it's a rough cut, most directors and producers are eager to hear constructive criticism, but sometimes there are films were even friendly advice is hard to give. If the first thing that gets praised is the remarkable use of extras or the lush score, rather than the captivating plot or intense performances, that film might not exactly be a fit for the programmer. Luckily, with Deadgirl, I didn't have to be polite and I just gave them a piece of my mind - I loved it!

A thriller with a rather odd supernatural angle, Deadgirl is about two teenagers who make a shocking discovery that not only threatens their friendship but also their lives. In a forgotten room of an abandoned asylum, they find what they think is the corpse of a beautiful woman tied to a bed, and soon come to realize she is anything but dead. Sarmiento and Harel describe Deadgirl as a coming-of-age horror hybrid, but I'd take it further, calling the film the bastard child of John Hughes and David Cronenberg.

I should have known that the film would be creepy, unsettling, funny and kinky, because Sarmiento and Harel were incredibly nice, polite young men ? exactly the unassuming types who would be described by their neigbours as, quiet and never causing any trouble, when interviewed after some tragedy involving a body count. In fact, in April they were selected as "Beautiful People" by Paper Magazine along with a variety of LA fashion, music and movie stars incluing Brandon Routh (Superman Returns), British comedian Russell Brand (Forgetting Sarah Marshall).

Subsequently, after inviting the film, there has been buzz around the Festival offices when staff heard the quick plot taglaine ? "a tale of two boys who find a dead girl who turns out to be not so dead and the actions that follow." Whispers of "Scandalous!", "Controversial!", "Horrific!", or just simply, "I ain't seenin' that one! It's not for me!", drifted down the halls of the office. This is the plus of getting a film from out of the blue - nobody knows what to expect.

On this blog over the next few weeks, we will leak some more info about Deadgirl and its directors, but for now we are going to keep this corpse in the "blue".