Horror Obsessive
Two of our writers have been accredited to cover Fantasia International Film Festival next month. Here’s what they’re both excited about in the program:
Alix Turner
This year’s Fantasia International Film Festival will be the 25th, but for me, it will be the first. Granted I won’t be there in person, but I’m still feeling the buzz. The reputation of this event precedes it, just as does the reputation of the other summer festival I’m covering for Horror Obsessive, FrightFest. For me, this is the first chance I’ve had to cover a large event outside of Europe. I’ve admired many Canadian horror films from Scanners to Psycho Goreman so I’m very happy that my writing can now follow my horror love to Canada.
We’re All Going To The World’s Fair (Jane Schoenbrun, USA)
Like the festival, this is one of those films whose reputation has preceded it. I’ve never been in favor of films presenting technology as dangerous (I’m no Luddite), but I can see how being sucked into it as a way of avoiding life’s traumas can take a person away from reality. I’m especially keen to watch this one because found footage is my thing, and I’ve enjoyed seeing new approaches to it as communications evolve.
World Premiere of The Righteous (Mark O’Brien, Canada)
Of course: go to a Canadian festival for a Canadian world premiere; and this one looks intense! Couldn’t be more different to World’s Fair, either: a black and white film that combines occult chills with domestic angst, which sounds quite unlike anything I’ve seen in recent years from the brief write-up on the Fantasia site. Watch this space…
Droste no hate de bokura AKA Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes (Junat Yamaguchi, Japan)
Asian films feature big in this Fantasia program, and this appears to be one of the outlandish variety. But that’s OK: I’m a lover of House and One Cut of the Dead as much as Ring. This film is sci-fi, rather than horror, and will probably belong with 25 Years Later instead of Horror Obsessive; but it involves a TV that is a window into the world two minutes from now: how could I resist?
The Sadness (Rob Jabbaz, Taiwan)
Apparently, “Fantasia rarely gives trigger warnings, but this film warrants all of them.” OK, I’ve been warned/tempted/intrigued, and I don’t know whether I should keep a sick bucket or a comfort blanket handy. This one is about some kind of zombie outbreak, and my only concern is that it might be too extreme for me to put into words when it’s time to write it up.
World Premiere of the Restored 1972 Tombs Of The Blind Dead (Amando De Ossorio, Spain)
If there’s one thing I appreciate in my film viewing, it’s variety; and including a film in my coverage that’s nearly as old as me certainly provides that, as well as some perspective on the modern approaches. I’d not heard of this one until now, but the blend of zombies and religious horror looks quite unique.
The Deep House (Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, France)
Now I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch this one remotely, but if I can, I’ll play it as soon as it arrives. Bustillo and Maury’s Kandisha may have only just landed on Shudder but this one is supernatural, underwater, and found footage. I knew they wanted to explore a range of subgenres!
JP Nunez
Fantasia 2021 is my first film festival ever, and I’m super excited for it. I’ve been wanting to attend one for a while, and this year I’m getting the chance to actually do it. Fantasia has a great selection of genre films that range from scary to funny and everything in between, so I know I picked a good one for my festival debut.
All the Moons (Igor Legarreta, Spain/France)
I first saw the trailer for All the Moons back in February, and I’ve been anxiously awaiting its release ever since. It’s about a vampire who begins to yearn for the normal human life she was never able to have, and it looks like a beautiful horror drama in the vein of Let the Right One In.
Don’t Say Its Name (Rueben Martell, Canada)
Don’t Say Its Name is about a mining company that begins some damaging drilling activities on a patch of tribal land, and both the land itself and the spirits that haunt it fight back against them. I think eco-horror and supernatural horror are two of the scariest subgenres around, so I’m really excited to see what happens when these two cinematic worlds collide.
Kratt (Rasmus Merivoo, Estonia)
Horror works really well in combination with other genres, but probably none so much as comedy. Movies that can scare you and make you laugh are cinematic gold, and Kratt promises to be just that. It’s a horror-comedy about some kids who bring a terrifying demon to life just so they can avoid their chores, and that short description alone is hilarious enough to get me interested.
Martyrs Lane (Ruth Platt, UK)
Martyrs Lane is a horror drama about a young girl who’s visited by a ghost that reveals some dark, dangerous secrets to her about herself and her mother, and it deals with heavy themes like grief and family trauma. In my opinion, horror is one of the best ways to explore those kinds of heavy themes, so I can’t wait to see what this film has to say about them.
Prisoners of the Ghostland (Sion Sono, USA)
Once I heard that Prisoners of the Ghostland stars Nicolas Cage, I was hooked. He’s one of my favorite horror actors working today, so I was sold with his involvement alone. Beyond that, the film also promises to be a riveting action thriller in the vein of Mad Max and Escape from New York, so I can’t wait to see what Cage can do in that kind of environment.
The Feast (Lee Haven Jones, UK)
The Feast is a supernatural eco-horror film about a politician who holds a lavish dinner to help win a mining deal in the local forest, but some ancient supernatural forces that live there have other plans. Like I said before, I think eco-horror and supernatural horror are two of the scariest subgenres we have, so much like Don’t Say Its Name, this one also looks set to give me nightmares for weeks to come.
The Night House (David Bruckner, USA)
You might’ve heard about The Night House. It’s coming out in theaters in late August, so the trailer has been making the rounds for a few months. It’s about a recently widowed woman who finds out that her husband hid some bizarre supernatural secrets that just about defy description, so I honestly don’t know what to expect from it. All I know is that I’m super intrigued.
