Reviews are popping as many people return to work (?!) today, but around Screen Anarchy headquarters, we're still obsessed with the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival in Switzerland, which is at its midpoint.
Before we move on to today's highlights, allow me to tout our reviews so far. Yesterday, my colleague Shelagh Rowan-Legg wrote about Youssef Chebbi's Ashkal, which she described as "a dark and subtle supernatural thriller, a deft combination of neo-noir and the fantastic. Perhaps the only effective way to relate the socio-political tension of contemporary Tunisia, its story moves like a shadow through the flames that greet the characters, its confrontation simultaneous cold and searing, right to the skin." And I wrote about Year Of The Shark (L'année du Requin), directed by Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma, which "neatly dodges expectations that have been built up in the past 50 years."
Coming up later today: my reviews of the delightful Thai monster movie Leio and the action-packed Japanese gangster thriller Bad City. (Spoiler: both reviews are quite positive.) What else is on tap? Click through the gallery below to see for yourself and watch all the trailers.
Pussycake
Screens today at 0:30 and again on Saturday at 0:00. Visit the official festival page to learn more.
From Argentina comes a "rock 'n' roll gorefest," per the festival's description, a movie about mercenaries and ghosts. My editorial colleague Andrew Mack reviewed the film out of Fantaspoa a couple months ago. What say you, Mack?
"Horror nerds are going to love, absolutely love, that a massive amount of the effects and gore is all done in camera. This is horror crack and there is enough here to feed your addiction….
"It is absolutely frantic, manic, nonsensical and off the wall. Its happy place would be to screen in front of a wired up midnighter crowd at a festival."
Freaks Out
Screens this afternoon at 16:00 and again on Saturday morning at 10:15. Visit the official festival page to learn more.
Directed by Gabriela Mainetti, who previously helmed the wonderful They Call Me Jeeg, the film is, well, let me turn it over to my esteemed editorial colleague Ard Vijn, who reviewed the film out of the IFFR earlier this year: "A magnificent dark fantasy, a beautiful film, filled with clever gags, exquisitely detailed in its designs and bathed in warm colours. Director Gabriele Mainetti takes the intelligence, emotional maturity, social awareness and grit he showed in They Call Me Jeeg Robot, but it's as if he had Guillermo Del Toro on board as art director, and added Álex de la Iglesia to put in some extra adult content. …
"It is as if someone decided to remake Duck, You Sucker, only taking place in the Second World War, and with several lower-key Avengers as the main characters. … For me, this was the most beautiful film I've seen at the festival, grand entertainment, and I recommend it highly."
Zalava
Screens this afternoon at 14:00 and again on Saturday evening at 22:00. Visit the official festival page to learn more.
From Iran and described as a tense thriller, the action unfolds in a Kurdish village where "the death of a young woman stirs up local superstitions. Demons, exorcists and cops clash in this fantastic thriller at the dawn of the revolution."
Visit the official festival page to learn more about today's programming.