‘INFINITE SUMMER’ (Fantasia 2024 capsule ) Sci-fi highs and lows, for better or worse

INFINITE SUMMER In filmmaker Miguel Llansó‘s Fantasia 2024 film INFINITE SUMMER, Mia wants to enjoy the last few weeks before moving into higher education. When her close friend decides she’d rather hang out with people closer to her age, Mia dabbles a newfangled mindfulness app that goes awry. Too much of a good thing is never really true. Mindfulness has Read More →

‘CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING’ (Fantasia 2024) An unhinged and instant cult classic

CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING Young lovers Tom and Maria are interrupted by a chainsaw-wielding maniac. After Maria’s kidnapping, aided by the eternally upbeat Jaan, Tom tracks her down only to discover the dark secrets surrounding the killer’s past and present. If Monty Python and Mel Brooks decided to make a slasher film, Estonian filmmaker Sander Maran’s CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING would be Read More →

‘THE MISSING (Fantasia 2024) Beautiful digital rotoscope animation unfolds a genre-defying film.

THE MISSING Eric has a well-paying job as an animator, a crush on a co-worker, and harbors a secret. Filmmaker director Carl Joseph Papa brings Fantasia 2024 audiences his third feature-length animated film, THE MISSING. Hindering Eric’s new romance are the memories triggered after discovering his estranged uncle dead. Can Eric finally find his voice?  The longer Eric waits to Read More →

‘FACES’ (Fantasia 2024 short) A feature-worthy, skin-crawling short

FACES Synopsis Following the disappearance of a local girl on a dark October evening, Judy, a college student visiting for the weekend, is invited to a fraternity party. For Judy, what could have been a night of fun and drinking spirals out of control when she encounters a mysterious, deadly entity. As the night unfolds, the entity’s uncanny quest brings Read More →

‘BANGS’ (Fantasia 2024 short) Sinfully relatable.

BANGS Montreal-based comedy duo Emelia Hellman and Nancy Webb (Hellgirl Productions) bring their paranoia-fueled short Bangs to Fantasia Festival’s Fantastiques week-ends du cinéma québécois this summer for the film’s Canadian premiere. On the eve of hosting a dinner party for her 30th birthday, a woman cuts her hair. When her friends don’t notice, it drives her mad. Nancy Webb‘s Fantasia Read More →

‘CUCKOO’ (Fantasia 2024) Forget eloquence and let’s call it what it is. Tilman Singer’s latest is a mindfuck.

CUCKOO Abandonment and unresolved trauma collide with a monster movie and mad scientist in Tilman Singer‘s (LUZ) latest film, CUCKOO. Fantasia 2024 audiences, you are not ready for the authentic dread and mind-blowing chaos coming for you. Gretchen is shipped off to live on a mountain resort in the Alps with her estranged father, his new wife, and her nonverbal Read More →

‘BERTA’ (Fantasia 2024) Female rage is the best kind

BERTA The story of a woman called Berta who seeks understanding from a man that hurt her in the past. Despite her methods might be seen as unorthodox, she’ll make her point. Nerea Barros captivates as the titular character. She walks a perfect line between anxiety and persistence. Barros becomes a feminist icon we so desperately need. Think Hard Candy meets Read More →

‘DIRTY BAD WRONG’ (Fantasia 2024 short) Erica Orofino’s short finds a mother between a promise and a boundary.

DIRTY BAD WRONG Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6-year-old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, takes extreme measures and books a last-minute client with a dark fetish. Dirty Bad Wrong is a drama/body horror that explores the darkest sides of capitalism, and just how far we’ll go for the ones we love. Life Read More →

‘THE TENANTS’ (Fantasia 2024) Simultaneously stunningly and sobering look at societal truths

THE TENANTS A commentary on environmental and economic realities, Eunkyoung Yoon‘s Fantasia 2024 feature THE TENANTS hypnotizes with Kafkaesque absurdity in stunning black and white. Shin-Dong lives an isolated life in the highly polluted near future Seoul. He grinds at a soulless desk job, generally miserable. When threatened with eviction, his only friend suggests taking on Tenants to prevent losing his Read More →

‘THE SOUL EATER’ (Fantasia 2024) A magnificent twist-filled thriller

THE SOUL EATER After a string of child disappearances, two investigators work different angles of the growing small-town chaos. Both with deep unresolved trauma, the gruesome scenes and unanswered questions take Fantasia 2024 audiences on a ride to hell.  Directors Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo craft an intricate mystery that intertwines folklore and crime. Screenwriters Annelyse Batrel and Ludovic Lefebvre Read More →

‘THE CODE’ (Fantasia 2024) Brilliant meta mindfuckery.

THE CODE When Celine begins filming a documentary about her failing relationship, her boyfriend, Jay, becomes suspicious that she may have an ulterior motive: to cancel him. In a paranoid attempt to seize authorship over the film, Jay sets up hidden cameras and tries to entrap Celine into problematic behavior he can record as insurance. As their secret surveillance escalates, Read More →

‘THE BEAST WITHIN’ (Fantasia 2024) A stunning allegory

THE BEAST WITHIN Filmmaker Alexander J. Farrell surprises Fantasia 2024 audiences with a monster movie from a child’s perspective. THE BEAST WITHIN sinks its teeth into audiences in ways you won’t see coming. The attention to detail in world-building is delicious. The jewel-toned costumes and set dressings draw you in. Natural light, candles, and soft-bulbed corner lamps create an atmosphere Read More →

‘ESCAPE ATTEMPT’ (Fantasia 2024 short) Chilling and visually stunning

ESCAPE ATTEMPT A desperate man tries to make his way to an uninhabited planet with the help of a young and idealistic couple. In their Fantasia 2024 short ESCAPE ATTEMPT, directors Daniel Shapiro and Alex Topaller take audiences on a journey across time, space, and humanity. Based on a novella of the same name by the Strugatsky Brothers, this dazzling Read More →

‘DARK MATCH’ (Fantasia 2024 capsule) A raucous and twisty crowd-pleaser from Lowell Dean keeps you on the ropes.

DARK MATCH It’s 1988, and the members of a semi-pro wrestling league get an offer for a private event. Lowell Dean‘s Fantasia 2024 film DARK MATCH delivers a great soundtrack, flashy editing reminiscent of music videos of the era, a super creative twist on wrestling’s history, and the parallels to modern mob mentality. Performances kick ass. Ayisha Issa and Steven Read More →

‘HELL IS A TEENAGE GIRL’ (Fantasia 2024) Flipping the script on the Final Girl trope.

HELL IS A TEENAGE GIRL Every Halloween, the small town of Springboro is terrorized by its resident SLASHER – a masked serial killer who targets sinful teenagers that break ‘The Rules of Horror’ – don’t drink, don’t do drugs, and don’t have sex! At the center of it all is Parker Campbell, the Slasher’s estranged biological daughter. In an attempt to clear Read More →

‘CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS’ (Fantasia 2024) A murder podcaster’s unresolved trauma turns holiday horror in Alice Maio Mackay latest

CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS Alice Maio Mackay‘s fifth film makes its Montreal premiere at Fantasia 2024. CARNAGE FOR CHRISTMAS finds a murder podcast host answering a listener’s question, “How did you get into true crime?” Lola recounts a childhood hometown legend, then returns to said location for the Christmas holidays. When the town’s queer population starts getting murdered, and with a Read More →

Fantasia 2024: It’s Heeerrreee (almost). Genre’s best of the best is about to begin.

FANTASIA 2024 It’s no secret that Fantasia is the festival I gush about the most. If you want to call yourself a genre film fan you have to know about the buzziest films coming out of the fest each year. Once again, Quebec will host a plethora of premieres, a gaggle of talks with the industry’s best, and scare the Read More →

‘BLACK EYED SUSAN’ first-look trailer drops prior to its Fantasia 2024 World Premiere

TRAILER PREMIERE BLACK EYED SUSAN Legendary underground filmmaker Scooter McCrae (SHATTER DEAD, SIXTEEN TONGUES) returns after a 21-year absence from feature filmmaking with the bold, vulgar, and deeply thought-provoking BLACK EYED SUSAN. Simultaneously brutally challenging and deeply vulnerable, the latest from the New York-based provocateur appropriates bleeding-edge science fiction concepts to address the seemingly-endless lengths that men will go to Read More →

‘THE SHADE’ (2024) A slow burn of manifested grief and reclamation of power.

THE SHADE Filmmaker Tyler Chipman brings us the tale of a young man reeling in the aftermath of unresolved childhood trauma. THE SHADE is a slow spiral into darkness.  Ryan is the middle child and the man of the house since his father’s death. He is someone who tries and fails to hide all the pain. Upon the unscheduled return Read More →

‘RED ROOMS’ (2024) Hideously twisted obsessions.

RED ROOMS Pascal Plante takes true crime obsession to the next level in RED ROOMS. The film follows Kelly-Anne, a woman who becomes obsessed with a serial killer’s trial and the elusive online video of a victim that bares her likeness. Her deep dive down the rabbit hole of the dark web is just the beginning. Juliette Gariépy initially gives Read More →