Fantasia 2016--The Love Witch--Anna Biller (2016)

Elaine (Samantha Robinson) is addicted to love in Anna Biller's The Love Witch (2016)

It's certainly a testament to Anna Biller's incredible talent in constructing The Love Witch's rich set design and wonky period detail that until Trish (Laura Waddell) whips out a cell phone toward the end of the film, I had no real clue as to what time period in which the film is set. The opening reveals the lovely Elaine (Samantha Robinson) driving in a shiny red vintage car (with matching dress and luggage), and her voiceover only tells of her zeal to start a new life after a tale of heartbreak and emotional breakdown.  Flashes from the past show that Elaine's participation in a coven ritual has empowered her to start afresh, on a quest to experience love at its fullest.  The Love Witch is the story of that journey, and in a more significant way, the consequences that women must suffer in succumbing to the fairy tale myths about gender roles and love that are fed to them by society.

Elaine dines at the Victorian tea room with style

Period anachronisms are what give The Love Witch so much of its charm, as the film pays homage to great 70s occult films such as Girl Slaves of Morgana Le Fay (1971), Baba Yaga (1973), Hammer films such as Countess Dracula (1971) or even some Jess Franco oddity starring Soledad Miranda--although I think The Love Witch does not tap into its queer potential.  Biller's film is rather exclusively focused on hetero fantasies and nightmares (I couldn't help wishing that Trish and Elaine would end up together).  Trish takes Elaine to an incredible Victorian tea room bathed in peaches and pinks, with a golden-tressed lass strumming a harp. A seedy burlesque club hints at Blacula by way of Blue Velvet.

Elaine and Trish hang out at Elaine's witch pad

Elaine making some witch items for a local new age shop

Elaine's apartment, borrowed from her fellow witch Barbara, is filled with kitschy tarot card paintings, a cauldron, and what looks like a well-equipped laboratory spewing smoke in day-glo colors.  Here Elaine makes her love potions that she tries out on several unsuspecting men--to ill effect.  In fact, a moviegoer sitting behind me kept saying every time a man interacted with Elaine--"Uh-oh, he's dead.  He's so dead."  Poor Elaine, she isn't trying to kill anyone.  She just wants LOVE!  Another nice thing about this film--no women were physically harmed in this flick.  A rare thing, even for a horror comedy.

Elaine's bewitching gaze

Much of The Love Witch is so delightfully hyperbolic, that laughter frequently echoed through the theater.  Elaine's sensual stare, enhanced by her witch powers, is so provocative, that it stops men dead in their tracks, zapping them like deer in headlights.  There's something pleasantly off-kilter about a film emphasizing the power of a female gaze.  While the film highlights Elaine's laser interest in being the object of a presumably male gaze, she tends to frequently be oblivious to her effect on others, which speaks to some confusions that the film employs.  Is the film playing to a "male gaze" or critiquing it?

Still, many scenes just add to the overall zany tone.  One of the true standout scenes is a horseback riding date that Elaine has with Sergeant Griff Meadows, a chiseled Bruce Campbell type (without the great chin).  As they are riding through a wooded area, they hear music, and literally stumble upon a performance and feast put on by the Renaissance and Medieval Players.  They sing "Love is a Magical Thing" and it's all rainbows and unicorns (literally).  The costumes, accompanied by the music, are just too, too good!

Griff (Gian Keys) gazes into Elaine's mesmerizing eyes at their faux handfasting feast

The couple are game for a quick costume change and then a handfasting, which Elaine revels in while Griff seems to amusingly tolerate.  Biller is making fun of every fairytale cliche she can find, while also jabbing playfully at the faux witchiness of Renaissance and Medieval fairs.  The soundtrack of this film is truly, truly inspired, and Biller has her hand in every great detail.  When the harpist sings "So tra-la-la and so La-de-da" with such heartfelt sincerity, I was hard pressed not to sing along.

Elaine is every (straight) man's fantasy, but is clueless about her own desires

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, all this lightness is tempered by a rather dark heart.  At the film's beginning, Trish rightly calls out Elaine for some of her truly backwards beliefs, exclaiming "It's like you've been brainwashed by the patriarchy!" Both Elaine and her coven friends espouse the idea that women gain their power through their sexual wiles, but this power is limited only to a certain kind of glamorous, and largely unfulfilling seduction.  Elaine's head is so filled with notions of fairy-tale romance and an obsessive, overpowering love, that she gains little satisfaction from the elaborate steps she takes to secure the desires of the men around her.  In fact, she is so "brainwashed" that an entire scene shows her getting off to a chorus of emotional and verbal abuse spewing from the mouths of countless men, her father seemingly included.

Star (Elle Evans) and Moon (Fair Micaela Griffin) dancing very poorly at the burlesque club

The Love Witch had a few confusing missteps that muddy its message a bit.  The film does no favors for witches, suggesting (albeit hyperbolically) that these goddess worshipers are just perpetuating a rigid gender binary, and that they are only interested in fulfilling narrow narcissistic desires in a quest to bend the world to their will.  Instead of empowering the impressionable Elaine, her coven pals only seem to lead her toward her inevitable doom.  While the film seems to criticize the limited range of power that a woman's (hetero) sexuality elicits, scenes highlighting Elaine's wide variety of scrumptious lingerie are notable and numerous.  Further, the film is almost entirely narrated through Elaine's voiceover (yes, she's pretty unreliable as narrators go), but toward the end of the film, the narration suddenly switches to Griff.  Griff's thoughts emphasize that he's a complete cad, but I felt that this shift in narrative authority dis-empowers Elaine in some unfortunate ways.

Elaine rides off into the sunset with her fake prince and fake unicorn

When Elaine realizes that Griff is not her fated true love, she shatters, forever slipping into the fairytale world where she ultimately gets her prince (and her unicorn).  Alas, that world is both unreasonable and impossible for women fueled by such ridiculous fantasies, and the only recourse for Elaine is madness.  Anna Biller's The Love Witch is funny and entertaining, but ultimately supplies a sobering message to hopeless hetero romantics bent on getting their man.

Fantasia 2016--Rupture--Steven Shainberg (2016)

Renee (Noomi Rapace) is an object of study in Rupture--Steven Shainberg (2016)

What is the deal with Noomi Rapace and alien babies? Really? Oops, sorry, this post is full of spiders.  I mean, spoilers.  Well, I'll try not to give too much away at the beginning, and leave the major spoilers toward the end.  For my first screening at the 2016 Fantasia Film Festival, the crowd was raucous and excited.  It took a little while to get into the hall because Fantasia was busy giving Guillermo Del Toro a lifetime achievement award, so the wait was for a worthwhile cause.  Mitch Davis, without whom this festival could not exist, gave Steven Shainberg a rousing introduction--and Shainberg promptly fell in love with Mitch...as one is wont to do.  Each and every time Mitch introduces a film, you can just feel the cinephilia vibrating off of him.  He is a man who LOVES films.

So the film's opening is borderline boring as we are introduced to our main players.  Single mom Renee Marie Morgan (Noomi Rapace) is doing her morning routine when she encounters a spider on her bathroom sink and promptly freaks out.  Hyperventilating, hysteria, the works.  Her teenage son, Evan (Percy Hynes White) quickly takes care of the little critter, and all returns to normal in their banal suburban lives in Kansas City, MO.  Some exposition that will come in handy later: Evan has a hard time with homework, especially Math; Renee's ex-husband is kind of a dick, and Evan's spending the weekend with him; Renee is both fond of and handy with an exacto blade; Renee is going to go skydiving that day, and Evan hopes she doesn't die.  Things start to get weird when Michael Chiklis puts some kind of device on Renee's tire, and starts following her around.  When Renee's tire (not accidentally) blows, Chiklis and some other really bland thugs wrap her head in duct tape, taser her, and abduct her right off the road, wisely taking her car with them.  No fu**ing trace.

Intrepid Renee is a bad-ass action hero

The majority of the film follows Renee as she attempts to discover who these people are and why they've brought her to this strangely low-tech medical facility.  She has smuggled her handy exacto blade into her boot, and thankfully they let her keep them on so that she can execute her escape.  She crawls through the tunnels like a voyeur's Disneyland, peeking into the rooms housing other subjects.  She eavesdrops on quite a few conversations and torture demonstrations as the film unfolds, so while the pacing of the film is a little slow to start, things pick up quickly.  Renee, as played by Rapace, is a fierce mama bear who will do anything to survive, if only to return to her beloved teenage son--and that's my problem (surprise, surprise).  Why can't she be strong, industrious, and resourceful in her own right rather than her abilities having to be channeled through her maternal drive.  Jennifer Aniston just wrote an op-ed in the Huffington Post about how she's NOT pregnant, and she doesn't need to be a mother (or married) to be complete.  Well, that's not the way cinema sees femininity, and this film unfortunately buys into many of those tired tropes.  At least there's no sex in it (no Yummy Mummy) if you don't count all the face rubbing going on.

Renee sits with Blake (Jonathan Potts) as he undergoes his final test

Back to the positives. Rupture is both gorgeous and quite unsettling--both of those qualities are actually intrinsic to the way that the narrative plays out.  Karim Hussain's marvelous cinematography bathes the film in a sea of red, yellow, pink, and orange, and these colors add a level of surreal intensity to an otherwise rather grimy facility.  The denizens of this facility also have enhanced sensory perception;  sight, smell, and touch are hyperbolized within this film's dynamic mise-en-scene.  And speaking of significant props, Rupture is at its best when it plays upon some of the most common moviegoer fears--especially of spiders and snakes.  If you are at all afraid of these creepy crawlies, then this film may be very hard to take.  Granted, both creatures are manipulated with CGI to full effect, but the way that these fears are presented onscreen is truly masterful.  The cringe factor for this film is cranked to eleven.  Likewise, if you do not like visiting practitioners of various pointy medical instruments, there's quite a bit of jabbing, probing, and injecting too.

The poster makes Rupture look misleadingly like a sex movie

While Rupture nods to several well known sci-fi/dystopia films (1984, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, even a dash of The Shining), it has enough originality to keep you guessing--even though at times it comes across as a lost episode of the TV show Fringe with a little Orphan Black thrown in there.  When the big reveal finally occurs, the film actually encourages a rewatch, as earlier plot points and cryptic lines of dialogue become much more fraught with meaning.  Noomi Rapace plays more or less how you would expect her to--strong, capable, curious and perceptive--yet at the same time, a little hollow.  This level of emotional vacancy actually works within the confines of the film's narrative, and her supporting actors (played by some well-knowns such as Michael Chiklis, Peter Stormare, and Ari Millen) also carry their deliberate blankness well.  Kerry Bishee totally steals the film, though, as Dianne.  Her cool, alien demeanor occasionally allows for little bursts of empathy, yet she, like the others, is duly dedicated to their noble cause.

What might their noble cause be? ***Here I'm spoiling just a little.  These noble scientists are interested in the next step in human evolution, it has something to do with "rupturing" human DNA, and...alien babies.  Or maybe genetically mutated babies might be more accurate, and Renee is going to be Mommy!  Sheesh, she just escaped Ridley Scott's Prometheus, and here's another band of outsiders eager for her to breed a new race.  While I'm not going to spoil the ending, suffice to say that the choices that Shainberg makes will probably not surprise you and maintain the feminine status quo.  Rupture is definitely worth a look, especially for its sumptuous visuals and unsettling narrative.  I just wish it was more ideologically subversive.

The Neon Demon--Nicolas Winding Refn (2016)

Elle Fanning as aspiring model Jesse "playing dead" in Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon 2016

Ah, The Neon Demon.  I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to hate this film, or maybe I should be turning in my feminist credentials, but I oscillate back and forth between loving/hating it.  I think this review is going to come across in much the same way--sigh.  The things I hate about it though, tip the scale a bit.  I just can't write the film off as a misogynist's view of the hateful world of modeling, and the hunger for youth and beauty that is so endemic to Los Angeles and its ugly/pretty world.  I may have to see it again to make a final determination--but then I'm worried that I'll be mad at myself for succumbing to the film's temptations and seeing the thing again.  The BAD things about it are really BAD.  But it's so-o-o-o pretty!  Ugh.

Several things really appeal about Nicolas Winding Refn's latest style fest.  First off, the film is utterly gorgeous--a real visual feast.  Have a taste by watching the trailer.

Pretty/Ugly Los Angeles

Jesse walks the finale of the longest fashion show EVER

Second, I have to get a hold of this film's soundtrack, because it is truly amazing.  Cliff Martinez is an absolute genius.  Seems he's been scoring all of Winding Refn's goofy films, and most of Steven Soderbergh's as well, but he dazzles on this one.  The tracks during sleazy fashion designer Alessandro Nivola's show are truly mesmerizing, even if this super-cool visual scene (as well as all the other ones) goes on way, way, way, way too long.  Somehow I don't think Winding Refn was trying to bore his audience, but films can have some unexpected effects! Ooooh, Ahhhh, Wow, ZZZZZZZZZZZ.  That's pretty much how it went.  And repeat.  Until the last 15 minutes or so.

Channeling Helmut Newton with some Guy Bourdin thrown in for fun

Third, the sets and costumes are phenomenal.  The spaces they use for the fashion shoots, the nightclub in which they prowl, and Ruby's house-sitting manse, are truly gorgeous and embody the way I imagine really rich people in L.A. might live--if they were trapped in a Helmut Newton shoot or a remake of The Hunger.  Mind you, I like all the oodles and oodles of style that this film has on display, and I am not complaining about that.  But the story...well...

Sixteen-year old Jesse at her first (bloody) photo shoot

The film follows the young Jesse (Elle Fanning) as she heads to Los Angeles to break into the world of modeling.  Frankly, if you are going to break into modeling, you do not go to L.A. but whatever, this way is how Danish people imagine how modeling (and gender relations--see Lars Von Trier for more) must be. Jesse is a semi-self conscious gorgeous young empty vessel onto which people project their fantasies and fears.  She also seems to magically attract everyone, winning over photographers, fashion designers, and one seemingly savvy makeup artist played by Jenna Malone.

Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) hanging out at "the club"

Sarah (Abbey Lee) glares at Jesse (Elle Fanning) at a casting call

She also attracts the attention of two supernaturally gorgeous blondes, Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote), who are none too pleased to have Jesse worm her way into the scene and steals their jobs.  Viciously beautiful women out to get each other.  Check.  Some might read this film as a caustic critique of the modeling world.  I mean, everyone in the film except for poor worshipful photographer Dean (Karl Glusman) seems to want a piece of Jesse's lush innocence.  Oh right, he posed her as a corpse.  So everyone's sleazy in Los Angeles, right?  No.  I'm sorry, but this film does not effectively offer a critique of anything.  It revels in all the BAD Stuff of L.A. in all its neon-lit glory.  It cultivates a voyeuristic gaze rather than subverting it.  This film cannot have it both ways (critique/celebration), and here's where things get dicey, and I start to get disgusted.  Now I'm going to list some of the egregious stuff--***SPOILERS ahead.

Hank (Keanu Reeves) pulls out all the stops as the sleaziest motel owner EVER

I hate it when truly terrible roles happen to really good actors.  I understand that actors get these gigs and they are psyched, but then do not really know how things are going to turn out in the end.  I felt really bad for several of them.  Exhibit one: Keanu Reeves.  As actors go, I really like him, and I realize that I may be in the minority.  Whatever.  He's great in younger roles (River's Edge, My Own Private Idaho) and in more recent ones (The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, John Wick).  He makes Something's Gotta Give watchable.  So to see him play the cold-hearted rapist of a 13-year old girl (thankfully we don't see that happen, but we hear it).  Well, I understand why he might be "sad."

Ruby (Jenna Malone) tries to comfort Jesse (Elle Fanning)

Exhibit two: Jenna Malone.  She's terrifically talented and I've loved her since films such as Donnie Darko and Saved!.  She definitely stole some scenes in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  So AT FIRST I was delighted to see Ruby take young Jesse under her wing, introduce her around, and provide a safe haven for Jesse after she flees that sleazy hotel (where Hank was raping that girl in the room right next door).  Ruby is a predatory lesbian though who puts the moves on Jesse, and when rejected, gets really, really murderously pissed and retaliates.

Ruby screws a look-alike corpse

But not before a memorable scene where Ruby screws a corpse that looks a bit like Jesse.  Yep.  (Ruby works part time at a funeral home putting her make-up skills to work).  Poor Jenna Malone.  She's a predatory lesbian who is also into necrophilia, murder and cannibalism.  Nice.

Jesse waxes on about how pretty she is--way better than everyone else

Exhibit three: Elle Fanning.  I guess all these young, cutie actresses performing in indies like Somewhere or Ginger and Rosa, or even in big films like Maleficent, yearn to grow up quickly and star in something truly sleazy and exploitative.  I guess she could have been in something like Spring Breakers...but is that film so much different? I think not.  For much of the film, spectators are implicated in the voyeuristic consumption of young, beautiful Jesse, and she seems a little like a pawn who will be devoured by this crass fashion industry.  Yet, as the film wears on, it suggests that Jesse's pretty aware of her effect on others, and she will use her youth and beauty to the fullest extent.  She has sleazy encounter after sleazy encounter, and after each one, the viewer catches her secret little satisfied smile.  At least that might explain her fantasy of being mouth-raped by Hank using a huge phallic knife.  Yes, you read that correctly, and the film shows you THAT.

When Jesse thinks about how lovely she is, she cannot help but touch herself

Poor Elle Fanning.  The film tries to suggest that she's more knowing than innocent, and the speech she gives about her own beauty and appeal does make her definitely annoying and despicable,  But does she really deserve to be killed and eaten by the predatory lesbian and her killer blondes (don't worry, cannibalism, like rape, is implied rather than shown).

Pretty or Pretty Awful?

Here's the thing--I actually like the cannibal part of the film, even though you don't see anything really.  To me, the fact that women are devouring the young and beautiful in order to absorb their essence makes perfect sense.  The film already demonizes women, especially queer women, so horribly--yet their murderous cannibalism is the only time in the whole film where they seem to have some agency.  Yes, you know a film's sexual politics are pretty bad when you are championing cannibalism, but honestly, when the killer ladies dispatch Jesse and eat her, something finally HAPPENS that sends the film into horror/giallo territory.  Up until that point, the film is equal parts tedium and dread. As per usual, this film could have lost 30 minutes easily with just some thoughtful editing.  That cutting doesn't necessarily make the film worth seeing, but would make it less painful (especially if I torture myself by watching it again).

The Neon Demon is not a feminist fable about the horrors of the fashion and modeling industries and the perpetual corruption of youth in the City of Angels.  Nope.  Under the Skin and Sucker Punch have similar issues.  These white male filmmakers think that if they show women being exploited and used that they are producing a "commentary" on these societal issues, when they are actually just putting more of that stuff into circulation and rationalizing it in the dumbest way imaginable.  Winding Refn's film is unfortunately just a lot of dazzlingly shiny surfaces with a truly rotten inner core.

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!