Fantasia Film Festival 2016--Too Many Films!!

Yes!  It's that time of year again when I finally get to put aside my numerous work responsibilities and get down to watching some serious genre films (technically, this task could also be considered "work," but the very best kind).  This year the Fantasia opening day ticket line was touched by some really crummy weather and lots of rain, but the inclement weather might have shaved some time off--it only took 3 1/2 hours to get tickets this year, thanks to me getting to jump ahead a bit by sidling up to some friends.  I went a little nuts this year, and I'm seeing 25 films, AND I seriously had to make some cuts.  Too many great films at the Festival this year, and it's 20th Anniversary too!!  So, onto the films...

Rupture--Steven Shainberg (2016)

This film has so many things going for it.  A stylist like Shainberg, known for films like Secretary (2002) and Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus (2006), will create a simultaneously horrifying and stunning visual feast with Rupture (2016).  The film is shot by one of my favorite cinematographers, Karim Hussein (We Are Still Here, The Theater Bizarre, Hannibal), and as I divulged last year, I crush on cinematographers...I'll see anything that he shoots.  I'm looking forward to seeing Noomi Rapace carry a film again, too.  Shainberg has a wonderful way with the women actors with which he works.  And he'll be there for the screening for its WORLD PREMIERE!  I so love Fantasia.  Check out a clip from the film here.

The Love Witch--Anna Biller (2016)

I'm pretty enamored by the recent turn toward quoting and adding a new spin to the Euro Horror/Giallo genre.  Some recent films that fit into this category would be Xan Cassavetes Kiss of the Damned (2012), Helene Cattet and Bruno Forzani's Amer (2009) and The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears (2013), and Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio (2012) and The Duke of Burgundy (2014).  Anna Biller is a visionary, and her ode to classy sexploitation a la Radley Metzger, Viva (2007), is just so damn cool, that I would see anything that she makes.  The Love Witch is only her second feature, but it's gorgeous, and she writes, directs, edits, scores, and does the costumes herself!  Her eye for detail, especially for late 60's/early 70's genre films, is so sharp and on point, and her use of color is rich and dazzling.  I'm not usually a fan of horror comedies, but this film looks simply pitch perfect, and formidably skewers the gender roles so endemic to the genre.  I'm also a fierce champion of women directors, and Biller's one to watch.  Here's the trailer.

Demon--Marcin Wrona (2015)

Weddings are scary.  I know I'm in the minority when I make a claim like that, but sorry, they just seem like a carefully orchestrated horror shows that drive normally sane people totally nuts.  So it's no surprise that while things may start out at this Polish wedding joyful and jubilant, Marcin Wrona's 2015 thriller Demon will take that exuberance to a dread-filled place filled with darkness and chaos.  I've been excited to see Demon since I first heard about it traveling the festival circuit last year.  It's sad to think so much talent was cut short far too soon (Wrona died this past September, before his film won best feature at Fantastic Fest). Check out the film's harrowing trailer.

Beware the Slenderman--Irene Taylor Brodsky (2016)

I fully realize that I could patiently wait for this full-on creepy documentary Beware the Slenderman (2016) to come to HBO, but where's the fun in being patient?  I'm eager to know the backstory for an internet legend that drove 2 twelve year old girls to viciously stab a friend of theirs 19 times (she survived), and the imagery attached to the Slenderman hearkens also to Phantasm's "The Tall Man" and even Jennifer Kent's recent The Babadook (2014).  True crime film and television is certainly having a moment in the U.S.--perhaps because our culture is riddled with unjust gun violence and we're desperately trying to grapple with the "real life" horrors that surround us.

The Eyes of My Mother--Nicolas Pesce (2016)

In an Indiewire review of the film's Sundance screening, Eric Kohn described The Eyes of My Mother as: "Equal parts Ingmar Bergman, Tim Burton and Tobe Hooper, "The Eyes of My Mother" suggests "Eraserhead" meets "Repulsion" by way of "The Addams Family."  With a description like that, focusing on a haunted female heroine, and shot in black and white, how in the world could I stay away?

The Wailing (Goksung)--Hong-jin Na (2016)

Korean filmmakers really know how to do dread--with a dash of weirdness.  The Wailing (2016) took Cannes by storm, and that notoriously fickle group of moviegoers are most certainly onto something. The trailer offers a film that is equal parts bumbling cop film, police procedural, supernatural mystery, and demonic possession yarn--I'm eager to see how all these elements shake out into a film that David Ehrlich at Indiewire calls "too crazy for its own good."  That description sounds like just the right amount of crazy to me, and despite the films mixed reviews, it's probably a film that deserves a very big screen in order for its madness to properly unfold.

The Lure--Agnieszka Smoczynska (2015)

While I tend to shy away from anything that might fit into the category "musical," the fact that Fantasia's site slots the film as a "Sci-fi/Fantasy/Romance/Musical/Horror/Erotic/Comedy" means that The Lure will not be your standard "people singing rather than talking" fare.  The film is also directed by a woman, is set in the 80s, and is about mermaids (or sirens, to be precise)! Check out Agnieszka Smoczynska's charming introduction, and you'll see why I was duly persuaded, despite my "musical" misgivings.

Lights Out--David F. Sandberg (2016)

David F. Sandberg's Lights Out, based on his 2013 three minute short film of the same name, gets to the very heart of what terrifies many of us--what lurks in the dark that is near enough to touch but we are not quite able to see .  Like many film people, I suffer from ridiculously terrible eyesight, and when the contact lenses come out, I tend to "see things."  The lights from the air conditioner across the room can create their own terrifying narrative; a sweater draped over a chair, in the dark, can become arms reaching out toward me.  In horror films, cinematography and mise-en-scene, especially framing and lighting, are used strategically to not only suggest what is there, but what might be just outside our vision.  Sandberg's movie, produced by James Wan (The Conjuring, Insidious), will be available in the U.S. just a couple of days after I see it at Fantasia, but who cares if it's a wholly commercial enterprise.  Just watch the trailer, and you'll see why it will scare the crap out of anyone.  Love the horrifying mannequins too--they give the film that marvelous Dead Silence (2007) touch (Wan's wildly underrated film).  Sandberg has been slated to make Annabelle 2, a film we probably do not need whatsoever.

Aloys--Tobias Nolle (2016)

At Fantasia, the wide variety of diverse programming inevitably allows me to see some unique dramas that are not what anyone would call "horror," but may dance around the edges of sci-fi or fantasy.  The Swiss film Aloys is heralded as a "Charlie Kaufman-style mind bender," and there's nothing better than a film that swirls me in stylish ambiguity and confusion (last year's Predestination comes to mind).  I'm also teaching a Puzzle Films course this fall, and I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to show (too many choices).  The Fantasia site claims the film is a melancholic Amelie.  The film just has this feel to it that I really like--this off-kilter sense of dry humor that reminds me of O'Horten (2007) or A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (2014).  Quietly weird.

She's Allergic to Cats--Michael Reich (2016)

In the more "aggressively weird" category, one might find Michael Reich's She's Allergic to Cats (2016), a film having its premiere at Fantasia after a successful Kickstarter campaign, and the director will be in attendance to explain a film that Indiewire says "dives deep into psychological insanity via experimental video art techniques and romantic comedy tropes."  The films teaser trailer is super strange, which appeals.  No, ducks don't have boobs...Where can I get this awesome poster?!

Embers--Claire Carre (2015)

Speaking of mind-bending Sci-fi, Claire Carre's Embers (2016) has been on my radar since it screened at Slamdance, This moody tale of post apocalyptic memory loss looks to be an incredibly assured first feature by a female director worth following.  The trailer haunts me, and the film reminds me a little bit of Low-fi, Indie Perfect Sense (2011)--David Mackenzie's remarkable film starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green.

Psychonauts, The Forgotten Children--Alberto Vazquez and Pedro Rivero (2016)

Fantasia is a festival that caters to lovers of Comics, Manga, Anime, and Cutting edge animation, but I usually put those films on the back burner--even though I teach an Animation class and I'm always looking for new films.  I know virtually nothing about Alberto Vazquez's work, or the comics and short film (Birdboy) on which this feature is based, but I just thought that it looked too gorgeous to not go and see in eye-bursting, big screen color.  The images seem hand-painted and so vividly arresting--the trailer convinced me to see this film after only the briefest minute.  Wow!  Pedro Rivero will be at Fantasia for a Q & A too.

Abattoir--Darren Lynn Bousman (2016)

I'm embarrassed to say, I've never seen a Darren Lynn Bousman feature (his Tales of Halloween segment is too short to really count)--and he regularly employs Kevin (OhGr) Ogilvie of Skinny Puppy fame (of whom I'm immensely fond).  Still, Repo, The Genetic Opera and The Devil's Carnival never really captured my fancy, and I never made it past Saw I, so I'm not sure what to expect from his latest feature, Abattoir.  Further investigation suggests that an investigative reporter is on the trail of Jebediah Crone, who "builds haunted houses."  Based on a graphic novel, the available clip is just enigmatic enough to tempt me--what the hell happened to that house??

We Go On--Jesse Holland and Andrew Mitton (2016)

Do you ever have one of those films that just sits on your Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime queue for an eternity, and you have every intention of watching that film, but somehow you never quite get to it.  One of those films for me, is Holland and Mitton's earlier effort Yellowbrickroad (2010).  It looks wicked cool.  I cannot explain why I haven't watched it yet.  So, I've jumping aboard their latest feature, We Go On (2016)--a film about a guy willing to pay some major bucks for someone to provide him definitive proof that there is some form of life after death.  If I had money to spare, that path seems like a perfectly reasonable one to take, although I'm not so sure I'd want to know the answer.  Judging from the trailer,  our questioning hero is not going to like what he discovers either.  Co-director Andy Mitton will be at Fantasia to take us through the process!

Therapy--Nathan Ambrosioni (2016)

Found footage films are so DONE, I know, but there's something about the image of this masked figure approached by a slow zoom and the baby doll covered with gunge in an abandoned building that made me think--yeah, I want to see that.  Yet there's one thing that's giving me pause about the director of Therapy (2016)--he's freakin' 16 years old.  Yep.  Call me ageist, but I'm thinking he may be a little less assured than some of the other directors at the festival.  His first film, that played at Fantasia last year, Hostile (2014), he made when he was fourteen years old.  Indeed, the trailer for that film is a little amateurish in places, and the one for his latest is a little better, but STILL--he's a bloody teenager.  As someone who teaches slightly older teenagers, my curiosity is piqued.

Women Who Kill--Ingrid Jungermann (2016)

A bone dry horror-comedy about female lesbian serial killers directed by a woman?!  Sign me up.  Jungermann's Women Who Kill (2016), which premiered at the Tribeca film festival, is Jungermann's first feature film following her two popular web series' F to the 7th (with Desiree Akhavan) and The Slope (Jungermann also was in Stewart Thorndike's queer horror film, Lyle (2014)).  The clip from Women Who Kill features the incomparable Annette O'Toole (who also happens to star in We Go On), and she's just too damn awesome.  Jungermann will be at the Fantasia screening that I'm attending, and I'm really thrilled to support her work!!

Lace Crater--Harrison Atkins (2016)

I have really developed a fine appreciation for Lindsay Burdge, a truly talented actor who I first saw two years ago at Fantasia in Sarah Adina Smith's amazing The Midnight Swim (2014).  She followed that truly unhinged performance with the creepy wacko Sadie in Karyn Kusama's absolutely awesome The Invitation (2015)--which played at Fantasia last year, but I missed and had to catch later.  Loved it.  This year, she stars as a woman sleeping with a ghost in the goofy-cool Lace Crater, a role that seems kind of perfect for her.  Burdge is the very definition of edgy, and Harrison Atkins first feature looks pretty fun from the trailer--both unsettling and drily humorous.

Little Sister--Zach Clark (2016)

Zach Clark's White Reindeer (2013) is the perfect antidote to all those schmaltzy Christmas movies that play during the holidays, so when I saw that he was showing his film, Little Sister (2016), about a Goth nun and her messed up family at Fantasia--well I'm there.  When I also saw that he'll be introducing the film, and answering questions with Barbara Crampton, who plays "The Reverend Mother" in the film, I thought, this screening just keeps getting better!  Yeah, it's not a horror film, and I'm missing Under the Shadow (which I REALLY want to see), but logistics make it so that I just couldn't swing it, and one has to make the tough decisions.

The Arbalist--Adam Pinney (2016)

Adam Pinney's The Arbalist won the Grand Jury Prize at the SXSW festival this year, which isn't necessarily a ringing endorsement--these are the folks that gave mumblecore liftoff.  Yet, I clearly like my cinema damn quirky, and often a little impenetrable, so the trailer for this divisive little gem captured me (some reviewers are already screaming OVERRATED).  I'll just have to see for myself what all the fuss is about.  I also have a penchant for that late 60s/70s time period playfulness, so The Arbalist might fill the hole that Mad Men left behind in me.

Operation Avalanche--Matt Johnson (2016)

Ah, conspiracy theories.  I'm not really one to buy into them because I tend to think that 1) people, especially governmental organizations, are just not all that well organized, and 2) are created by some people as a way of avoiding the realities of the world in which they live (9/11, Donald Trump's candidacy for President, etc).  Part of me would like to think that there's a giant alien coverup a la The X-Files, but unfortunately, I don't think that the world is that interesting and see above.  The  "faked moon landing" still has some legs (Google it), so I'm looking forward to a goofy faux-doc that plays with that whole idea--and it's set in that time period that I like so much.  I haven't seen Johnson's The Dirties (2013), but people I respect have raved about it, and he'll be at Fantasia to give us all the scoop on his latest film.

Train to Busan (Busanhaeng)--Yeon Sang-ho

Frankly, one cannot properly experience the Fantasia Film Festival unless one sees at least ONE zombie film.  Last year it was Miguel Angel Vivas's Extinction (2015), and this year it's Train to Busan (2016).  Zombies can really run amok in tight, moving spaces, like on a train.  They just don't seem to have a proper sense of space, either, clambering all on top of each other in the pursuit of flesh.  I didn't think much of Marc Forster's World War Z (2013), but I really do fondly recall images of crazed zombies climbing on top of each other to create an inhuman wall (that would easily breach a human-made one).  Yeon Sang-ho's film looks to be a non-stop adrenaline rush from the trailer, despite the tired tropes of the little kid and pregnant lady in peril.  And lots of climbing, scrambling zombies.

Tower--Keith Maitland (2016)

In recent years, there have been several simply outstanding animated documentaries--Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir (2008) and Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (2007) immediately come to mind.  I'm eager to add Keith Maitland's Tower to that distinguished list.  Striking in its timeliness, this film explores one of the USA's most famous and tragic "school shootings"--the shooter firing from the clocktower at the University of Texas at Austin in 1966.  Maitland combines live action and animated footage from both the past and present (with what looks like an advanced version of the Linklater rotoscoping technique used in Waking Life (2001)) to illustrate the horrors of this terrible tragedy.  Fantasia, very thoughtfully, has arranged a panel discussion after the film's August 1st screening to discuss the 2006 Dawson College shooting that occurred in Montreal.

I Am Not a Serial Killer--Billy O'Brien

One of my favorite films of last year's Fantasia Film Festival was Daniel Wolfe's Catch Me Daddy (2014)--a brilliant slow-burn thriller with a heartbreaking ending.  I went into the screening fairly cold, and was blown away by this gorgeous and heartbreaking drama (if you are in the U.S. and have Amazon Prime, it was available for free for a while--may still be).  One of the reasons why the film was so visually sumptuous was that Robbie Ryan was the cinematographer--the man who has singularly lensed all of Andrea Arnold's films (Fish Tank, American Honey) to stunning effect.  He also shot I Am Not a Serial Killer, so as soon as I saw his name, I had to see this film.  The trailer takes my breath away, and if you compare it to Catch Me Daddy's trailer, you'll see why Ryan's vision is so compelling.  I want to see films through his eyes.

The Devil's Candy--Sean Byrne (2016)

I was a big fan of Sean Byrne's first feature The Loved Ones (2009).  That film was damn original and seriously demented, so when I saw that Fantasia was screening his second feature, a satanic haunted house film, I needed to catch it....screening back to back with I Am Not a Serial Killer, it's going to be one hell of a night!  Also, Shiri Appleby and Pruitt Taylor Vince give consistently great performances, so I'm excited to see what Fantasia's Mitch Davis's describes as a "seriously scary" film.  Ready to be seriously scared.

Man Underground--Michael Borowiec and Sam Marine (2016)

While I'm missing the premiere of Man Underground with the filmmakers in attendance, this film about a conspiracy theorist obsessed with aliens who decides to make a feature to disseminate his "message" seems like a weirdo must see.  It reminds me a little bit of Ed Wood (1994) (but perhaps without the heart) and Chris Smith's American Movie (1999) (although that film was a documentary).Fantasia's description and the film's trailer are pretty convincing too: the film "initially playing quirky before going into significantly more skin-crawling places with a heartbreaking sense of whimsicality and possible magic that makes for a truly haunting experience."  Sounds good!

My PLAN is that I'm going to review all these films for this site.  Ha!  We'll see if I do not succumb to some sick form of Fantasia festival burnout, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  Sometimes the festival also adds some extra screenings toward the tail end, so here's hoping I might get to see some films that I'll unfortunately miss (Under the Shadow, Shelley, Before I Wake).  Stay tuned for more to come!