Fantastic Fest 2018: Our Most Anticipated Films!

The Cinapse team attending this year share their thoughts on what might impress

Earlier this week we shared the full lineup of Fantastic Fest 2018, which even by their standards, was pretty darn impressive. Having perused what lays before us, those members of the Cinapse team attending took it upon themselves to mention a few features sure to standout. Check out our thoughts below and be sure to keep up with us during the festival, on Twitter for instant reactions and for full coverage as things unfold during the week.

You can check out every article we post for Fantastic Fest 2018 here.

Dan tabor @danthefan

DONNYBROOK: Simply put After The Purge: Anarchy, I will watch anything with Frank Grillo in it. Over the last few years Frank Grillo has made a name for himself as one of the best tough guys currently busting skulls in the action genre. If you see Frank in a film, you know what to expect and that’s a rare commodity in this day and age. This time he is traveling through the Midwest to participate in “The Donnybrook” a no-holds-barred bare-knuckle fight contest with a $100,000 prize. We all kind of know Frank will probably win, because he’s Frank Grillo, but we also know it will be fun as hell to watch mop the floor with everyone that’s unlucky enough to cross his path.

CLIMAX: Few Directors have the same track record as Gaspar Noé, who never seems to fail in making complex and hyper stylized deep dives into the darkest parts of the human psyche. Climax which blew away the critics at Cannes fits that M.O. perfectly, this time focusing on a group of dancers that plunged into madness thanks to a bad batch of sangria. With I’m Noé’s latest I’m expecting a transgressive masterpiece that will probably make Black Swan look like Center Stage.

THE MAN WHO KILLED DON QUIXOTE: It’s a film that I thought I would never see after watching Lost in La Mancha, the 2002 doc that chronicled Gilliam’s first failed attempt to bring his supposedly cursed project to screen. But here we are now almost 20 years later about to see that very script realized on screen. This time starring Jonathan Pryce and Adam Driver as Toby, an advertising executive, who becomes who a Spanish cobbler believes to be Sancho Panza.

YOU MIGHT BE THE KILLER: You had me at Fran Kranz and Alyson Hannigan. This film pairs the Whedon alumni in a film that sounds like a hyper-aware bastard offshoot of Cabin in the Woods. This time counselors are being killed off at summer camp, and Sam (Fran Kranz) calls his friend and slasher-film expert (Alyson Hannigan) to help him navigate his options in this particular genre. Do you need anything else?

FP2: BEATS OF RAGE: I must have seen the first FP over a dozen times. It’s a film that feels like the quintessential Fantastic Fest film in how it blends politically incorrect comedy and genre with script that somehow successfully mixed Mad Max with DDR. Well it’s 7 years later and Jason Trost is finally returning to Frazier Park showing us what’s next for JTRO in the world of Beat-Beat Revelation. Luckily, I get to experience with the crowd this film is meant for.

David Delgado @daviddelgadoh

My most anticipated for the fest are almost always boring — I generally avoid knowing too much about the films playing, because one of my favorite things about festivals is being surprised. Many of my fest favorites were unknowns when I walked into the theater based purely on the recommendations of other festival attendees. The first few years of Fantastic Fest (this is, I believe, my 11th or 12th straight time attending) I obsessively curated my schedule and learned as much as possible, but I’ve found that I’ll have more fun just going with the flow — not to mention avoiding potential disappointment if a movie didn’t live up to what I had crafted in my mind. So all that said, there’s a few things that I’m pretty sure I know I’ll love sight-unseen.

Hold the Dark is from a filmmaker whose Blue Ruin and Green Room ranked among my favorites of the year, so Saulnier has my trust and I would be shocked if it’s not right up my alley. I’m also excited about Halloween, and am intrigued to learn more about this new direction they’ve taken the franchise (and even if it’s disappointing, the score won’t be). It may surprise you to know that’s really about it. I know Gareth Evans has a new movie here that I’ll be sure to catch because The Raid 1 and 2 are among the greatest action films of the last 20 years. I’m sure I’ll be excited to catch Drew Goddard’s new flick, as the trailer looked fun. And while there’s nothing else I’m hyped on sight-unseen, I’m well and truly excited for that feeling of post-screening hype for all the gems I’ve yet to learn of.

Ed Travis @Ed_Travis

As an unquenchable action movie junkie, my most anticipated titles at any festival are always going to be in that genre. It’s the beat I cover most often for Cinapse, and my genre of choice when just exploring deep cuts and revisiting favorites. Therefore, my most anticipated include the following:

The Bouncer: Grim, aging, self-aware Jean-Claude Van Damme might be my favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme. And this looks like the grimmest of the grim, with a tinge of redemption… just the way I like it. JCVD ranks among my very favorite action stars, and it’ll be a blast watching one of his films at my favorite film fest.

The Night Comes For Us: The stars of The Raid from the director of Headshot. This will almost certainly be the slickest action film of the festival.

Apostle: It isn’t action… but it’s from the director of The Raid 1 & 2, and therefore has my attention.

Hold The Dark: Also not an action film (?), but Green Room was not only my favorite film of a previous Fantastic Fest, but ultimately my favorite film of that entire year. While Green Room has horror and thriller elements, I thought of it as an action film and Jeremy Saulnier’s got me for life.

Shadow: All I know is it’s a new Wuxia epic from Zhang Yimou and I must see it on the big screen with a Fantastic Fest audience. It’ll almost certainly be a visual feast.

My runner up most anticipated is Donnybrook. I’m instantly interested in any Frank Grillo project, especially one described as a relentlessly bleak underground fight tournament film.

It isn’t always the case that my most anticipated films turn out to be my favorite films in the end, so I can’t wait to see what Fantastic Fest has in store this year.

Jon Partridge @Texas_Jon

As David mentions above, often the best experience at Fantastic Fest comes from those unexpected films, the serendipity of the film allocator throwing me my third choice in a round and it ending up being my favorite of the fest. That being said, there are a few films I am giddy with expectation at seeing.

A few years ago I caught the Duke of Burgandy at Fantastic Fest and fell in love with it’s sumptuous visuals, brilliant exploration of power in relationships, and devilish sense of humor. Well Peter Strickland is back with In Fabric, a film described as “part surreal thriller, part giallo love letter, part fashion collage, and all hypnotic originality”. Yes please. Anyone who knows me understands my reverence for The Wicker Man, so unsurprisingly if a film looks to have been shaped by it’s legacy, I’m interested. Gareth Evans (The Raid) does not look like he is fucking around with Apostle.

On to more obscure fare, Werewolf sounds like The Grey meets I Declare War, Between Worlds features Nic Cage as a man dealing with how deceased wife possessing the daughter of his new girlfriend, while Starfish is a British Lovecraftian venture, driven by music, and pulling from several genres including horror, thriller, and post-apocalyptic love story. All sound perfect fare, for both myself and Fantastic Fest.