What’s better than celebrating an underground film festival’s inaugural debut? Why, it’s proudly celebrating that fest’s return for a second year! After a highly successful first year in 2008, the 2nd annual Arizona Underground Film Festival is all set to once again thrill and terrify Tucson in 2009 on Nov. 2-7.

The festival is not only back, but it’s much, much bigger. Last year, it was just a three-day weekend fest, but festival director David Pike has blown up the good times to a full six days. Occupying four different venues around Tucson — the Screening Room, the Loft Cinema, Crossroads Cinema and the Red Room — there are a dizzying array of feature films and shorts to be amazed by.

Especially exciting to the Underground Film Journal are two of our favorite underground films we’ve seen this year. The opening night feature is the crazy funny and sexy Modern Love Is Automatic by Zach Clark. And screening on the last night of the fest is Matthew Garrett‘s triptych of suburban nightmares, Morris County. These are two absolutely “can’t miss” features.

But there are lots of other terrific films that, in other times, I would have moved to Tucson just to check ’em out because they’ve been tearing it up all over the underground scene, like Evil Angel, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, Doctor “S” Battles the Sex Crazed Reefer Zombies and more.

You can check out the official Arizona Underground Film Festival site for more info, but here’s the full lineup:

Nov. 2
8:00 p.m.: Modern Love Is Automatic, dir. Zach Clark. A nurse whose heart isn’t in her job anymore moonlights as a dominatrix. (Watch Streaming Online)
Screening with:
Tigers, dir. Ryan Glenn & Rory O’Rear
Dinner With Isabella, dir. Dana Turken

Nov. 3
8:30 p.m.: “Shorts 1”
Seven Corners, dir. Todd Hemker
Sour Krauts, dir. Jake Hames
Safe, dir. Jamie DeWolf
Storm’n the Castle, dir. Chris Timmons
Geranium, dir. Tal Michael Haring
Emotion Malfunction, dir. Mareesa Stertz
Charogne, dir. Michael Marco
Girls, Girls, Girls, dir. James Gerrity
Everything Burns, dir. Aram Kouyoumdjian
Utsav Mela, dir. Karl Mendonca
Sunday, dir. Kris Daw
The Date, dir. Jennifer Gigantino, Natasia Schibinger
I’m Gonna Do It Til The Day I Die!, dir. Dale Peterson, Coleman Weinberg

Nov. 4
7:00 p.m.: Triple Dog, dir. Pascal Franchot. Teenage girls play an extreme version of the classic game of “Truth or Dare” and they’re not sure which part of the game is more deadly.
Screening with:
Fade In, dir. Nickolas Duarte
Skylight, dir. David Baas

9:30 p.m.: Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, dir. Naoyuki Tomomatsu, Yoshihiro Nishimura. A teenage vampire tries to steal the boyfriend of another girl with freaky supernatural powers. When the vampire easily rips the competition limb from limb, the dead chick is sewn back together for a re-match.
Screening with:
Death in Charge, dir. Devi Snively
The Random Axe, dir. Obie Scott Wade

Nov. 5
7:00 p.m.: La Funcionaria Asesina a.k.a. The Slayer Bureaucrat, dir. Sergio Kardenas. Three sadistic stories about killers and other bad people.
Screening with:
Nature Breaks: Roommates, dir. Mike Hollingsworth
My Cousin’s Keeper, dir. Tom Woodruff Jr.

9:30 p.m.: Run! Bitch Run!, dir. Joseph Guzman. A young God-fearing woman is raped, brutalized and left for dead by a gang of psychopaths. But, since they didn’t actually kill her, she hunts them down one by one to get her revenge.
Screening with:
Her Special Day, dir. Casey Moore

Nov. 6
7:30 p.m.: Someone’s Knocking at the Door, dir. Chad Ferrin. A pair of serial murderers hunt a pack of sexually deviant, drug-addled medical students.
Screening with:
Blood Shed, dir. Jason Shipley
The Random Axe, dir. Obie Scott Wade

9:30 p.m.: Evil Angel, dir. Richard Dutcher. A modern-day detective tracks down an ancient, female killing spirit.
Screening with:
Le Chat Noir, dir. Tristan Convert
Let Them Eat, dir. Sarah MacDonald

Nov. 7
12:00 p.m.: Oh My God! Its Harrod Blank!, dir. David Silberberg. A documentary about the eccentric artist Harrod Blank, inventor of such contraptions as the Camera Van and the Flash Suit.
Screening with:
When I Stretch Forth Mine Hand, dir. Omar Robert Hamilton
Crescendo, dir. Didier Woldemard, Pierre Terrade
Severing the Soul, dir. Barbara Klutinis

2:00 p.m.: “Shorts 2”
Searching, dir. Tatsuma Kyono
Ramly at War Begins, dir. Juliane Block
Ballad of Angel Face, dir. Brian Thomas Barnhart
Bisbee Cuisine, dir. Bill Robertson

4:00 p.m.: Morris County, dir. Matthew Garrett. Three tales of suburban disquiet: A teenage girl harbors a dark secret, a nuclear family disintegrates and an elderly couple discovers that love carries on even after death. (Read the review)
Screening with:
Scenes From a Rooftop, dir. Paul Johannessen
Lets Do It, dir. Christopher Jarvis

6:00 p.m.: Doctor “S” Battles the Sex-Crazed Reefer Zombies: The Movie, dir. Bryan Ortiz. A fan of the marijuana takes a puff of some tainted stuff and turned into a sex-crazed reefer zombie.
Screening with:
Super Undead Doctor Roach, dir. Chad Freeman
The Ugly File, dir. Mark Steensland

8:00 p.m.: The Devil’s Rejects, dir. Rob Zombie.

8:00 p.m.: Cigarette Girl, dir. Mike McCarthy. In the year 2035, all smokers are forced to live in a special neighborhood called the Smoking Section. In this world, a cigarette salesgirl tries to quit cold turkey, but the mob won’t let her.
Screening with:
Kagamiko, dir. Mathieu Arsenault
The Soil’s Soft Horizon, dir. Adam Petke

10:00 p.m.: 9to5: Days in Porn, dir. Jens Hoffmann. This documentary chronicles the lives of several people who make a living in the adult movie business, including an agent, a couple that owns a film company and a teenager who dreams of breaking into the business.

For more info, please visit the official Arizona Underground Film Festival.