North America’s largest genre film festival, Fantasia, is back this year with its 29th iteration, running from Wednesday, July 16th, through Sunday, August 3rd. The Montreal-based cinematic celebration of all things cool returns with their usual selection of can’t-miss premieres, classics, panels, and workshops that are sure to please any discerning cinephile.
Dan Tabor’s Most Anticipated
This year, the fest will open with Ari Aster’s latest – Eddington. The film is a COVID piece, taking place in 2020 and exploring the story of a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) in Eddington, New Mexico during the pandemic. I am more than a little intrigued to see where Aster takes the premise, given both his horror and non-horror catalog thus far. Closing the fest is Fixed, the raunchy adult animated canine film by Genndy Tartakovsky – the creator of Dexter’s Laboratory about a dog that plans one last big hurrah, the night before he’s neutered in the morning. The film was a victim of Warner Discovery’s cost-cutting, which was going to take a write-off on the flick until Sony rescued it.
Also of note is a triple threat from genre icon and perennial of Fantasia’s programming – Takashi Miike who has THREE titles in the program – Nyaight Of The Living Cat, Blazing Fists, and Sham a. Nyaight is an anime series that’s been on my radar for some time now. It’s a riff on the Romero classic, telling the story of a world where, instead of zombies, a virus causes anyone who comes into contact with a cat to turn into a cat! The other two live action Canadian premieres – one promises a coming of age story about two teenage hoodlums trying to better themselves through martial arts (Blazing Fists), also starring Gackt and the other, oddly enough, is a legal thriller (!?!?!) tackling a true story of a teacher accused of violence against a student (Sham). A Takashi Miike legal thriller is a combination of words I thought I would never type.
A few other titles I am looking forward to, in no particular order are:
Kazakh Scary Tales – KAZAKHSTAN
Directed by Adilkhan Yerzhanov
The director of one of my absolute favorite films of last year’s fest Steppenwolf is back and this time is presenting his latest a Kazakh fairytale horror anthology series. Originally produced for a big streamer that got cold feet due to squeamish preview audiences, the three-episode arc that will be presented follows a skeptic detective sent to a remote rural town to investigate a grisly series of events plaguing a maternity hospital. Yep, that sounds like it could be a bit rough.
It’s an intriguing premise that has the director now tackling folk horror stories through his gorgeously nihilistic lens, and I couldn’t be more excited.
New Group – JAPAN
Directed by Yuta Shimotsu
New Group is a horror film that begins like the best Japanese anime and manga stories do with the arrival of a transfer student. The series of events triggered however is a group of students decide to form a human pyramid in the middle of the school’s soccer field, motionless and silent in the odd formation. That is, until someone tries to break them apart and an all-out bloody battle breaks loose. The second film, directed/co-written by Yuta Shimotsu (Best Wishes To All) produced by the legendary Takashi Shimitsu (JU-ON), promises grotesque vision recalling mangaka Junji Ito.
Sugar Rot – CANADA
Directed by Becca Kozak
Sugar Rot promises a transgressive, candy-coloured, sensory onslaught, as a young punk girl is brutally assaulted by an ice-cream man. In a Cronenbergian twist, she then becomes the host of a mutant fetus as her ‘body begins to transform into ice cream’.
God bless the Canadians!
Needless to say, that description and the guide’s warning below will have me front and center for this one:
“Not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach, few films this year push boundaries quite like SUGAR ROT. It brushes up against every taboo and then boldly crosses the line.”
A Grand Mockery – AUSTRALIA
Directed by Adam C. Briggs, Sam Dixon
Shot on grainy 8mm, the film follows a troubled man who’s driven by mental illness into a life of compulsive routines. The premise had me instantly curious, while the film’s visual aspect has wondering what surreal nightmarish visions will be conjured from the celluloid darkness.
The Last Woman on Earth – SOUTH KOREA
Directed by Yeum Moon-kyoung, Lee Jong-min
When Gu pitches her film to her film class about a future where “Due to a critical virus in 2099, all women on Earth are extinct, except for one…” which she envisioned as a satirical revenge story against men. It’s not met with the greatest of reception by her peers, with one of them, Cheol, remarking that it’s full of misandry. But he’s got his own issues; his film can’t get the funding it needs due to his lack of a female perspective. So the two pair up in this cinematic comedy, delivering some laughs while using the premise to bring up some very relevant points regarding gender equality in cinematic storytelling.
Julian Singleton’s Most Anticipated
It’s my second year covering Fantasia for Cinapse, and this year’s programming looks to be another roster full of treasures for genre fans to discover. Of what I’ve seen, there’s quite a few I highly recommend: Ben Chapman’s Good Boy is a wonderfully inventive horror film whose ambitious bark is far bigger than its bite-sized runtime, and Michael Shanks’ Together is one of the year’s funniest and gnarliest romantic comedies, featuring performances by Alison Brie and Dave Franco that are sweet and vulnerable even amid some seriously stomach-churning antics. Naturally, I wouldn’t be the world’s biggest Noroi fanboy without shouting out a super-rare rep screening of this found footage classic on 35mm, presented by Koji Shiraishi in person!
Along with Dan’s selections above, here’s a taste of what I can’t wait to see at Fantasia this year:
Queens of the Dead – USA
Directed by Tina Romero
The moment I heard George A. Romero’s daughter was making her debut—a drag queens vs. zombies showdown, no less—I was, as the kids say, already seated. That excitement only grew when Tina Romero assembled a killer cast: Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding), Jack Haven (I Saw the TV Glow), Riki Lindhome, Jaquel Spivey, Tomas Matos, Nina West, and Margaret Cho. Tina Romero’s debut appears to feature a similar wry, cynical social commentary to her father’s legendary films — but I’m excited to see how this film defiantly makes its own mark, championing an LGBTQ+ audience already fighting for survival without the added threat of zombie terror. Queens promises to be a bloody blast with the right amount of campy, primal Queer energy the Horror genre desperately needs nowadays.
Mother of Flies – USA
Directed by John Adams, Zelda Adams, and Toby Poser
Fall festival season wouldn’t be complete without another fright fest from the Adams family, making their fifth Fantasia bow with Mother of Flies. The story follows young Mickey (Zelda Adams), who turns to necromancy to cure her cancer, aided by her skeptical but loving father (John Adams) and a reclusive witch (Toby Poser) offering help at a steep price. I’m a sucker for process-driven, emotionally raw horror like A Dark Song and this year’s The Surrender, making me an easy mark for this one. Drawn from the family’s own experience with cancer, Mother of Flies promises to be their most personal (and perhaps most powerful) handcrafted horror yet.
The Undertone – CANADA
Directed by Ian Tuason
In a similar vein, I’m eagerly looking forward to Ian Tuason’s The Undertone, which marries the anguish and emotional dread of hospice care with an unexpected exploration into the supernatural. The film follows paranormal podcaster Evy’s descent into terror as she and her host receive ten mysterious audio files, which kick off seriously creepy incidents while Evy’s mother lies on her deathbed. Fantasia has compared it to favorites like Skinamarink and the criminally underrated I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House—high praise, and promising signs of another unforgettable slow-burn horror to savor.
Reflet Dans un Diamant Mort – BELGIUM, FRANCE, ITALY, LUXEMBOURG
Directed by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani
One of my favorite blind discoveries was stumbling into Cattet and Forzani’s Let the Corpses Tan, a dazzlingly subversive throwback to glitzy, sun-baked European crime capers. The duo continues their retro-radical streak with Reflet Dans un Diamant Mort (Reflection of a Dead Diamond), following a retired spy dragged back into the fray when old enemies resurface. From what I’ve heard from early viewings, Diamant is a stunning, brutal spectacle that can’t be missed–and I can’t wait to get lost in another unpredictable odyssey from these singular stylists.
Noise – SOUTH KOREA
Directed by Kim Soo-Jin
I love the agonizing restraint of Japanese horror, but there’s a special place in my heart for the go-for-broke, confrontational glee of Korean horror and suspense. A recent standout was Midnight, a taut cat-and-mouse between a Deaf woman and a serial killer that chillingly exposed disability marginalization in South Korea. Noise looks like another strong entry in this growing subgenre of Deaf/HOH Horror, centering on a hard-of-hearing woman investigating her sister’s disappearance soon after they move into a creepy new apartment. As Fantasia champions, I can’t wait to get swept up in Noise’s “non-stop anxiety” and “brilliant sound design,” and to see how actress-turned-director Kim Soo-Jin toys with our senses to find fresh dramatic and representational possibilities in popcorn horror.
