Happy July, everyone! The weather is warm, festival season is in full swing, and Fantasia Fest kicks off in just a couple of days. Believe it or not, this year marks the 30th anniversary of this phenomenal festival, and they are pulling out all of the stops: debuts from brand-new filmmakers, the latest and greatest from genre favorites, and a few noteworthy revival screenings for good measure.
It’s hard to look at the program and really pair it down to a handful of films that we’re excited for—there’s just so much happening this year! New Casper Kelly (Buddy), new Nicolas Winding Refn (Her Private Hell), new Jenn Wexler (The Last Temptation of Becky)...the list goes on for miles. But we pulled out just a few of the titles that we particularly psyched about, and that you should keep on your radar.
Colony (Matt)
If your resume includes Train to Busan and Peninsula, you get a lifelong hype-me-up pass for any zombie movie you make. So, it’s no surprise that I’m waiting impatiently to screen Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony as part of Fantasia’s programming. A biotech conference becomes an inescapable hellscape as survivors try to escape from zombie-like mutants infected by a rogue virus. I don’t really need to hear much more beyond “Yeon Sang-ho,” “zombies,” and mindless, cannibalistic freaks,” but reading a few positive takes out of Cannes added a nice touch. Out of everything, Colony is my most anticipated watch of Fantasia.
The Glorious Dead (Emily)
All you have to say is “New Adams Family film” and I’m there. As a huge fan of their prior efforts (Hellbender remains a personal favorite), it’s always exciting to see what this filmmaking collective is going to put together and how they are going to achieve it. Known for thoughtful stories and a DIY filmmaking process, their work is always a combination of story, grit, and determination.
Their new film tells the story of a rural sheriff (Toby Poser) who has to try to keep her small town together as the world begins to fall to pieces - in very hellish ways. People start disappearing, strange creatures are spotted in the woods, and the seemingly banal life that the townspeople have come to know is flipped entirely on its head. And that’s before the dead start rising.
The Leader (Matt)
Has there been a definitive Heaven’s Gate dramatization? Michael Gallagher’s The Leader has a chance with this stacked cast. Tim Blake Nelson stars as Marshall Applewhite aka "Do", the mentally unstable co-founder of Heaven's Gate, with Vera Farmiga as his partner, Bonnie Nettles. Jim Parsons, Grace Caroline Currey, Simon Rex and more round out the followers who will eventually partake in the largest mass suicide on American soil. No spoilers, or anything. Heaven’s Gate is a tragic and traumatic stain on United States history, and The Leader has every chance to be a compelling examination of cult mindsets, given the talent involved.
The Mouths / The Village of Eight Gravestones (Emily)
J-Horror fans unite! After scaring the living crap out of audiences 20 years ago with The Grudge films, Takashi Shimizu is back with not one but TWO films to frighten Fantasia audiences.
The Mouths - When a group of college students visit a cursed tree in a haunted cemetery, they assume it will just be for some cheap scares. Nothing bad could possibly happen, and they’ll have a great story to tell. That theory is immediately proven false when they all start seeing a ghostly apparition of a female figure.
The Village of Eight Gravestones - After the death of his estranged mother, a young man visits the remote village where she lived. He is forced to delve into the shrouded past of his family to unseal a history and a truth that has long since been buried.
These sound like starkly different films, with The Mouths seeming to take on the mantle of a more modern ghost story, and The Village of Eight Gravestones modeling itself as more of a story rooted in folklore and tradition. But with both coming from the hand of Takashi Shimizu, I imagine quite a few people will be sleeping with the lights on…
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Keep your eyeballs here for all of our upcoming coverage. You never know what you’re going to get from Fantasia, but I’m guessing there will be a film or two for everyone, no matter what your particular brand of horror is.
Emily von Seele hails from Seattle, where it rains a lot, which gives her plenty of excuses to stay inside and watch movies. She has written for Bloody Disgusting, Daily Dead, the Women in Horror Annual and Grim Magazine, and is co-host of the Dead Ringers podcast. You can usually catch Emily on Twitter (@horrorellablog), where she has been known to gab excessively about movies and tweet adorable pics of her two cats - seriously, they are the cutest ever.
Emily von Seele hails from Seattle, where it rains a lot, which gives her plenty of excuses to stay inside and watch movies. She has written for Bloody Disgusting, Daily Dead, the Women in Horror Annual and Grim Magazine, and is co-host of the Dead Ringers podcast. You can usually catch Emily on Twitter (@horrorellablog), where she has been known to gab excessively about movies and tweet adorable pics of her two cats - seriously, they are the cutest ever.
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