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| The Festival is just a few weeks away! |
As the 2018 Fantasia Film Festival draws that much closer, my anticipation is ratcheting up exponentially. The tough part will be what to see and when, because one needs to eat, sleep, and be discriminating regarding what to see--and it's not possible to see everything on offer (sadly). Here are some more titles about which to be excited!!
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| The original Tales from the Hood was groundbreaking, but that was 23 years ago!! |
You might have heard of a recent horror film that brought race front and center--Jordan Peele's
Get Out (2017). Yet, Rusty Cundieff's
Tales from the Hood (1995) broke that ground years ago--twenty-three to be exact. He's finally premiering his latest Spike Lee produced joint,
Tales from the Hood 2, at this year's Fantasia. The time gap between the two films is a clear indicator of the dearth of horror films directed by, and focusing on, people of color. I'm pretty sure this screening will be an EVENT.
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| A toxic fog blankets Paris in Just A Breath Away/Dans Le Brume (2018) |
Opening night at Fantasia is going to be fierce, with the world premiere of Daniel Roby's France/Canada co-production
Just A Breath Away/Dans Le Brume about a family in Paris trying to survive a toxic fog apocalypse. So many great images from this film--here's another one.
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| Looking down from Parisian rooftops in Dans Le Brume |
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| The title alone is a draw |
Sam Elliot tends to steal any film or television show that he is in, and he has just the right amount of charm combined with gravitas to headline a film with this ludicrous, and brilliant, title--
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot (as if there's just one Bigfoot??). This feature film debut
writer/director Robert D. Krzykowski seems plenty strange, AND it features visual effects by
celebrated two-time Academy Award Winner Douglas Trumbull (2001: A SPACE
ODYSSEY, BLADE RUNNER), who also co-produced alongside John
Sayles and Lucky McKee. The names behind this film makes Krzykowski's debut impossible to resist, and its world premiering at Fantasia!
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| A morgue attendant talks to cadavers in Brazilian Writer/Director Dennison Ramlho's Among the Living |
When Fantasia staff send out a press release that tells press and fans to "Brace Yourself," I usually just immediately want to see that film. Dennison Ramlho's
Among the Living has that cachet, and it's described as " a film brimming with grotesque imagination and otherworldly magick in
which a morgue attendant working the night shift in a very large, very
violent city possesses an occult ability to communicate with cadavers.
He commits the sin of acting on information obtained from the dead and
horrifically curses himself and those that he loves." Another world premiere for Fantasia, this Brazilian film has so little info on it, I'm delighted that I'll be one of the first to see it.
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| Sonny Mallhi's newest film, Hurt, will premiere at Fantasia this year |
I was really impressed by Sonny Mallhi's film
Anguish (still available on Netflix) when I saw it at Fantasia several years ago, so I'm delighted that Mallhi will be premiering his latest film,
Hurt, this year. His second film,
Family Blood, is also available on Netflix, and with this strong track record, hooking up with Blumhouse productions looks like a lucrative move. The Fantasia press release is quite vague about the film's plot, but suggests that it alludes to mask wearing fiends from horror films of the past. Wouldn't it be awesome if this masked killer is a woman??
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| Does this The Vanished focus on ghosts, murder, or a slick combination of the two? |
Turns out that Chang-hee Lee's Korean thriller
The Vanished is a remake of a Spanish thriller from 2012 titled
The Body (Oriol Paulo, 2012) and the
trailer for that film looks pretty cool. Sure, Spanish and Korean filmmaking are worlds apart (literally), but when Fantasia describes a film as "modern suspense in gothic drag, full of old school brio, dolly zooms, a ticking clock, entitled murderers, and vengeful ghosts," I'm excited to see it.
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| Aaron Schimberg's Chained for Life supposedly looks at disabilities and difference with a critical eye |
After premiering at BAM's Cinefest, Aaron Schimberg's
Chained for Life received some rave
reviews, and I am drawn to a film that critically explores representations of disability with humor and sensitivity. Also, Jess Wexler rocks.
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| Stemming from a successful Kickstarter campaign comes Saku Sakamoto’s Aragne: Sign of Vermillion |
I am very uninformed about horror anime, but I understand that Saku Sakamoto's artistry is well established, and the trailer
https://vimeo.com/275813524 for
Aragne: Sign of Vermillion looks gorgeous and unsettling.
Fantasia has just posted their schedule for the festival, which means that now the tough decisions need to be made. Stay tuned for more coverage of Fantasia 2018!!
