$POSITIONS
The elevator pitch for Brandon Daley’s high-stress, high-cringe crypto-comedy would be, “What if Uncut Gems were made by Freddie Got Fingered-era Tom Green.” The central character is a not-particularly-bright everyman consumed by addiction, and waging a losing battle against the world. This film wants you to feel the acute pain of his decisions. In this, it excels. - Kurt
I Live Here Now
The debut of writer/director Julie Pacino was shot on 16 and 35mm film, and has an eye for great female character actors, with both Cara Seymour (American Psycho, The Knick) and Sheryl Lee (Twin Peaks, Wild At Heart) in small parts. When a young, unexpectedly pregnant, actress hides from the world in a crumbling motel at the edge of nowhere, time fractures and reality bends as she suffers from her own anxieties and situation.
I come to Fantasia to discover new voices and this psychodrama has so much potential. - Kurt
The Girl Who Stole Time
A big animated feature of out China, the directorial debut of acclaimed screenwriters Yu Ao and Zhou Tienan, comes to Canada after its success at the box office in its native land. A girl from a fishing village gains the ability to stop time and has an adventure in a digitally rendered city inspired by early 20th century Shanghai. This one seems all about the visuals and the action, and I am here for that. - Kurt
Together
You have seen the disturbing trailer, you cannot take your eyes (sorry) off the wicked poster, and you have heard the hype out of Sundance, Michael Shanks’s relationship-taken-to-extremes body horror, Together, is coming to Fantasia and is sure to bring down the house in the Hall Theatre. - Kurt
Funky Forest: The First Contact
Make some time for this retro screening of one of the foundational films of Screen Anarchy, back in the early days of 2006. SA Founder Todd Brown, back when he used to write about movies, instead of producing them, perhaps said it best: “Setting out to review Funky Forest: The First Contact in any sort of detail is setting yourself an impossible task. How to describe the indescribable? How to summarize and categorize a film that so thoroughly rejects every rule of conventional narrative? It is not that this is a film that resists thought, it is that it is a film that transcends it utterly. It aims for something completely and totally other, and succeeds absolutely. This is film as pure experience, pure joy, childlike wonder laced with just a trace of the disturbing other that most of us are just too damn jaded to recognize in the world around us any more.” Trust me when I say that the Fantasia audience is going to be into the sheer vibe of this film, and be prepared to shout, “HOME ROOM!” - Kurt
Born of Women Shorts
I have never missed the created block of shorts where all the directors are female. At this point I go in blind, and come out full of excitement. Some of the best shorts I have seen in the festival, some of them eventually blown up to feature films, have come out of this programme. - Kurt
Le Tour de Canada (short film)
After releasing the best Canadian feature of 2024, Universal Language, Matthew Rankin narrates a short film directed by John Hollands about two Canadian cyclists, one anglophone and the other francophone, who face off in a fierce race across Canada from St John's to Vancouver. A blend of deadpan absurdity, archival footage, animation, rear projection, and decapitated fish. Le Tour de Canada is playing in the Perilous Ports block of short films. - Kurt
Cielo
Translated from Spanish, Cielo can mean either the sky, or heaven. Lensed in the Bolivian mountains and shot in saturated colour, Alberto Sciamma’s indigenous fairy tale is a mother-daughter journey of faith and resilience, with an eye for wide screen photography and occasional fits of maximalism and magical realism. - Kurt
Kazakh Scary Tales
Last year’s Steppenwolf was one of my favorite films of the year, and director Adilkhan Yerzhanov recently took on the folk horror genre with a web series that did such a good job that it was too scary for the homegrown audience. Now we have the chance to find out what scares Kazakhstanis so much that they could not watch the original series. - Mack
Straight Outta Space
An evil corporation called Weiland (as in Weyland - see, the alien jokes have already started, and we’ve not watched it yet!) is looking to tear down a block of affordable housing in place of luxury condos. At the same time, aliens are taking over the neighborhood's residents, so it is up to some of the locals to take matters into their own hands. While everyone waits for a sequel to the cult hit Attack the Block, a film with a similar premise, to clear development hell, the Dutch have stepped in and said, “Here, hold our Heinekens.” - Mack
The Undertone
This Canadian horror thriller has been on our radar, quietly, since we first heard about it from one of its executive producers back in the spring. On the surface, the film follows a similar path of audio-instigated thrills and chills. From the first look images we got the other week, this one looks darker and creepier, amping up the horror thriller vibes. - Mack
All You Need is Kill
So, you’re telling me we finally have an anime adaptation of the 2004 novel that inspired a manga in 2014, as well as the live-action adaptation from Hollywood, Edge of Tomorrow, starring Emily Blunt? It also starred another actor whose name escapes me at the moment, but yes, all we know is that animated sci-fi action, on repeat, is coming to Fantasia! - Mack
Holy Night: Demon Hunters
Sure, you can look at it as taking the easy way out to choose a Don Lee movie, but the type of movies the Korean superstar makes do seem tailor-made for the raucous Fantasia audience in the Hall. This time around, Lee will be trading fists with demonic forces? Oh, H-E-double hockey sticks, yes! This should be a good way to end our week in Montreal. - Mack
The Forbidden City
From spaghetti westerns to giallo films, it's arguably been some time since Italy was a reliable source of genre gems. Director Gabriele Mainetti is trying to singlehandedly change that one film at a time, and after his terrifically entertaining 2021 release, Freaks Out, he's absolutely earned our attention and support. His latest film sees an Italian man and a young Chinese woman crossing paths in pursuit of the truth found only in Rome's underworld, and the result promises to be an entertaining mix of action, romance, and more. - Rob Hunter
Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo
Taiwan is home to folklore built on supernatural antics, ghostly presences, and terrifying encounters, and one of those legends hit the screen in 2015 with the wonderfully creepy The Tag-Along. That film's production team returns with a film about another piece of local folklore involving an evil spirit in yellow who leads unsuspecting people into the darkness where they're never seen again. Color us ready and willing for another scary as hell walk in the forest. - Rob Hunter
New Group
One of the standout horror scenes from last year occurs in Smile 2 as a group of backup dancers appear to stalk and terrorize a young woman via choreographed, synchronized movements -- it's both frightening and genuinely unforgettable. Filmmaker Yuta Shimotsu's new feature seems to build on that idea as two teens find themselves quickly outnumbered by classmates assimilating into a group that thinks and moves in formation in an attempt to extinguish individuality. So yes, it sounds like a fantastic double feature with The Chocolate War. - Rob Hunter
Stuntman
Hong Kong continues to deliver fun, thrilling action films, but few would argue that the region's heyday was back in the 80s and 90s with action sequences guaranteed to take your breath away -- and leave you worrying for the safety of the stunt performers. Directors Albert & Herbert Leung know that to be true, and their feature debut looks to be a celebration of how those wild, wonderfully chaotic times gave way to more controlled and refined stunt techniques. Can a blending of the two still capture that ol' Hong Kong magic? We're looking forward to finding out. - Rob Hunter
Terrestrial
Past features aren't always a guarantee of future ones -- as anyone who's seen John Carpenter's post-In the Mouth of Madness filmography can attest (yeah, I said it) -- but they're still typically a good guide all the same. Steve Pink co-wrote two bangers with Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity before moving on to direct slightly less brilliant fare like Accepted and Hot Tub Time Machine. He's back with a sci-fi comedy exploring our need for acceptance and fear of missing out, and it promises to be a fun, thought-provoking ride. - Rob Hunter
Find Your Friends
Partying is everything to a group of twenty-somethings heading out to Joshua Tree for an all-out banger of a girls trip in Izabel Pakzad’s feature directing debut. Unfortunately for them, fate - and a whole bunch of psychotic men - has other ideas and their plans of living it up in the desert go violently tits up when they find themselves in a fight for their lives. This one is INTENSE. - J Hurtado
Blazing Fists, Sham, Nyaight Of The Living Cat
If there’s one thing we know about Fantasia, it is that they are patrons of the legendary Miike Takashi. This year’s festival boasts not one, not two, but three projects by the prolific cult icon, and we’ll be seated for all of them. Blazing Fists is the tale of young convicts fighting their way out of jail, Sham is a nail-biting legal thriller, and Nyaight of the Living Cat is a multi-part anime series. Let no one say the man is lazy. - J Hurtado
The Book of Sijjin and Illiyyin
We’ve long been fans of Indonesian horror. From the very beginnings of the site over twenty years ago, we’ve particularly championed the works of The Mo Brothers (Timo Tjahjanto, Kimo Stamboel) both together and separately, and Joko Anwar, so when a new Indonesian horror appears on the radar, we are all ears. Director Hadrah Daeng Ratu’s The Book of Sijjin and Illiyyin is described as one of the goriest in recent memory, and that’s enough to pique my interest. - J Hurtado
Good Boy
A haunted house movie from the dog’s point-of-view? Sign us up! One of my favorite movies of this year’s SXSW, Good Boy is a one of a kind experience centered around a very good little puppers who happens to be a fantastic actor. I’ve seen it once, but I’m planning on seeing it again with an audience. It’s that great. - J Hurtado
It Ends
Passing through young adulthood can feel like an endless road, and in debut director Alexander Ullom’s It Ends, a group of Gen Z seekers find themselves trapped in eternity with each other, trying to find a way out. It’s absolutely outstanding filmmaking, and the kind of film that will leave each viewer with something slightly different to chew on once the credits roll. - J Hurtado
Mother of Flies
Ever since The Adams Family (Zelda Adams, John Adams, and Toby Poser) burst onto the scene with 2018’s The Deeper You Dig, they’ve been among the most exciting filmmaking teams in the genre world. Over the years they’ve tackled ghosts, witches, creature features, sideshow freaks, and now with Mother of Flies, witches AND necromancy! Sign me up! - J Hurtado
Redux Redux
One of last year’s Fantasia standouts was the Japanese film Penalty Loop, in which a man hunts his girlfriend’s killer over and over again in a computer generated time loop. This year sees an alternate view of a similar situation in Redux Redux where a mom hunts her daughter’s killer across dimensions with the help of a homemade multiverse-hopping coffin. When she stumbles onto a young girl who is an almost-victim of the same madman who decides to tag along, things get complicated. Redux Redux was a SXSW standout and I expect it’ll draw lots of solid praise in Montreal as well. - J Hurtado
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