The horror, the horror — a Coppola who scares

By John McMurtrie CHRONICLE STAFF WRITER

"The Godfather," "Lost in Translation" and now ... "The Curse of Bloodhead."

That last title may draw blank stares, but it's the latest film directed by a member of the Coppola clan -- Christopher Coppola, a nephew of Francis Ford and brother of Nicolas Cage. That it's a Coppola movie, however, doesn't mean it will bring home any more Oscars for the family. No, "The Curse of Bloodhead" is in a class of its own, one of the select few movies chosen for Another Hole in the Head, a horror film festival opening Friday in San Francisco.

Presented by the SF IndieFest, Another Hole (evocatively subtitled "7 Nights of Unrelenting Terror") is the perfect venue for Coppola, 42, who says he makes movies not because he wants to be a "big-name director" but because "I want to have fun."

"I love them. I respect them greatly," he says of his big-name relatives. "But they've always considered me to be kind of the maverick, kind of the oddball of the family."

Strictly speaking, Coppola's modest, low-budget film is not a straight horror picture. As he defines it, "it really is more of an anti-racist, campy monster movie with a message."

The fablelike story, written by Coppola's wife, Adrienne, concerns two muscle-bound brothers (one white, one black) who meet for the first time and must put aside their prejudices to fight -- what else? -- a monster.

The movie was filmed near Joshua Tree National Park, a very warm place, it turns out, to wear a rubber monster suit on a summer day. "It was intense," Coppola says. "We had a lot of people dropping -- dehydration. It was like my mini little 'Apocalypse Now.' "

Coppola traces his interest in the movies he makes to his "prankster's sense of humor and love of B movies." He's directed a few other independent features and has two projects he needs funding for: a rock opera of "Macbeth" (on motorcycles, no less), and a story about Professor Moriarty, of Sherlock Holmes fame, reincarnated as a talking matzo ball. (Chances are a similar screenplay is not making the rounds at any Hollywood studio.) That story is set in Fairfax, the largely Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles, where Coppola lives as, he quips, "the lone Catholic."

Coppola got early experience as a director growing up in Long Beach, making Super 8mm films starring his younger brother, Nicolas. "He was my first actor. He was always the actor," he says, drawing out his words in a sleepy elocution resembling Cage's. Coppola recalls one time when Cage, for a second- grade show, "sang 'Yellow Submarine' a cappella with cowboy boots and did this Jerry Lewis high-pitched voice for the chorus."

Blood, guts and laughs at festival

Professionally, the brothers have gone their separate ways, but Coppola would like to team up with his sibling again one day: "I'm hoping that in the near future we'll kind of pull our resources together and do a line of films that nobody else would take a shot at."

Coppola's film is not the only movie at the Another Hole in the Head festival that mixes humor with gore. "Dead & Breakfast," directed by San Francisco native Matthew Leutwyler, is the closing-night gala film, on March 25. In it, six friends (including the wonderfully sardonic Jeremy Sisto of "Six Feet Under") check into a bed and breakfast and -- get this -- can't check out.

For out-and-out scary fare, the festival is presenting the U.S. premiere of "A Living Hell," a Japanese film that redefines family dysfunction. "Inner Senses," meanwhile, is an eerie, artfully made Hong Kong version of "The Sixth Sense." (The film features the last appearance of Leslie Cheung, the popular actor who committed suicide.)

In an inspired choice, the festival also includes a matinee feature for all ages, a classic that mixes charm and chills with a lot of chocolate: "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."

Another Hole in the Head runs Friday through March 25 at the AMC Kabuki 8 in San Francisco. Tickets are $9, and $7 for matinees. For more information, call (415) 820-3907 or visit www.sfhorror.com.

E-mail John McMurtrie at jmcmurtrie@sfchronicle.com.