We are beyond excited about covering the Fantasia International Film Festival this year. This marks the 28th year of this beloved fest, and we are excited to see all the movies we can get our greedy little eyes on. So, you won’t see much of us from July 18 through to August 4. We will be busy living in the virtual library binging cool titles from all over the globe. However, before we stray too far from our computers, we thought we’d share 10 titles we are especially excited to see this year.
4PM
Inspired by the book The Stranger Next Door by critically acclaimed Belgian writer Amélie Nothomb, 4PM is a riveting psychological thriller from director Jay Song (The Nightmare) drenched in silent tension. Jeong-in (Oldboy’s Oh Dal-su), is taking a break from his life as a teacher in his new countryside house when a written invitation to a neighbor (Jang Yeong-nam, Project Wolf Hunting) turns into a nightmare of excruciatingly awkward visits every day at 4PM. This character joust is one to remember! Its countless twists will force any audience member to ask themselves how they would handle the same wild situation. North American Premiere.
Bookworm (Opening Film)
Fantasia’s 28th edition will open with a joyride into the wild, celebrating the World Premiere of Ant Timpson’s moving and hilarious Bookworm.
Reuniting the celebrated New Zealand filmmaker with his Come To Daddy star Elijah Wood (Showtime’s Yellowjackets) – who matches through-the-roof comic chemistry of gifted his young co-star Nell Fisher (Evil Dead Rise) – Bookworm is as entertaining as it is richly cinematic. Mildred (Fisher), a precocious eleven-year-old bookworm, escapes her humdrum existence by immersing herself in novels where literary adventures abound, with a long-dreamed quest to capture proof of a mythological beast, known as, The Canterbury Panther. When an unusual accident occurs, Mildred’s long-absent father Strawn Wise (Wood), a washed-up illusionist, flies to New Zealand to look after a daughter he’s never met. They agree to go camping despite neither being the outdoorsy type which becomes a test in family bonding. The duo finds themselves on a string of increasingly absurd and treacherous adventures. World Premiere.
The Chapel
The stunning sophomore feature from award-winning director Carlota Pereda (Piggy), The Chapel marks the fantastic return of atmospheric, character-driven supernatural Spanish horror. Emma (Maia Zaitegi) wants to learn how to communicate with the spirit of a little girl trapped inside a chapel. She tries to convince Carol (The Orphanage’s Belen Rueda), a cynical and fake medium, to help her. She hopes that contacting the spirit may help her remain close to her dying mother after she passes. What Carol doesn’t suspect is that Emma really does have “the gift”. Or that if she keeps on trying to use it without her guidance, she will be putting her young life at terrifying risk. Winner: Best Actress, Belen Rueda, Cinefantasy 2023. Official Selection: Sitges 2023. North American Premiere.
Hell Hole
A road trip through Canadian oil fields conjured up fantasies of secrets deep in the dirt for the Adams family, and it inspired them to create Hell Hole, an indie rock-n-roll monster movie set at a far-away fracking site. Known for their DIY ethos, John and Lulu Adams and Toby Poser, partnering with Shudder, have joined the team behind The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs and FX legend Todd Masters to shoot their latest in Serbia with a local cast and crew. Absurd, mutinous, and transgressively comical, Hell Hole is old-school sci-fi horror, yet in typical family fashion, they subvert the genre with textures of biological and environmental horror in tandem with questions of gender and bodily autonomy. This will be the fourth time Fantasia World Premieres work from the gifted filmmaking family, following launches of The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, and Where The Devil Roams. World Premiere.
House Of Sayuri
Legendary J-horror director Koji Shiraishi (Noroi: The Curse) brings the genre to new levels of fun with House Of Sayuri. A vengeful ghost disseminates a family. However, a counterattack from a bold grandma brings a startling new dynamic into the house. Shifting tones in surprising and destabilizing ways, this horror-comedy alternates from a galvanizing spiritual training montage to profoundly dramatic moments. Eventually coming together to create a truly unique cinematic experience. North American Premiere.
The Killers
(South Korea) – dirs. Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Chang Hang-jun, and Lee Myung-Se.Four directors portray hitmen in their respective stories by depicting our own turbulent times. A visual, auditory, and narrative feast. This anthology of exhilarating tales offers everything fans of genre cinema could hope for and more. A must-see! Canadian Premiere.
Párvulos
Award-winning Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban (The Incident, Parallel) returns with his fifth – and most personal – feature, a disturbing tale that he’s spent the last seven years bringing into light.
Párvulos is a dystopian coming-of-age horror story that begins with three young brothers living alone in a remote cabin, hiding a terrifying secret in their basement. Where it goes from there will pull the breath from your lungs, as the children’s sealed world is forcefully expanded by monstrous elements beyond their control. A poignant nightmare inspired by Goodnight Mommy, Lord Of The Flies, A Quiet Place, and the universes of Guillermo del Toro (an outspoken admirer of Ezban’s work), Párvulos features some of the most gruesome practical make-up effects the screen has seen in years and is electrified by astonishing performances from actors Felix Farid, Leonardo Cervantes, Mateo Ortega, Norma Flores, Horacio Lazo, Carla Adell, Juan Carlos Remolina, and the great Noé Hernández (We Are The Flesh). From the producers of Huesera: The Bone Woman. World Premiere.
This Man
An inexplicable wave of tragic deaths plunges two investigators into the heart of a fateful whirlwind, where logic and facts have no value as a far-fetched urban legend seems to come true. A mother is plagued by terrifying dreams seeing her friends and colleagues disappear, as her family witness the horror unfold. Director and screenwriter Tomojiro Amano (Trapped in Makyo) skillfully fuses the styles of Eastern and Western classics, referencing Ringu, It Follows, and A Nightmare On Elm Street among others, to create an intimate, oppressive work that constantly keeps viewers on the edge of their seats as it slowly and subtly unveils the pandemic-like slaughter outside. At the crest of the international horror film harvest of 2024, already a banner year, This Man is sure to lodge itself in viewers’ memories. With such potential, a Hollywood remake wouldn’t be surprising. International Premiere.
Rita
Following up on the international success of his brilliant La Llorona (2019), director Jayro Bustamante’s Rita fuses mythical fantasy and whimsical imagery with themes of childhood innocence and the potent emotional register of a story based on a harrowing real-life event, wherein 41 young women needlessly burned to death inside a Guatemalan orphanage amid a protest about inhumane conditions. At its core is the powerful performance of Guiliana Santa Cruz, who speaks for all the young women who suffered. As a result, the story speaks much to the power of female anger, and yet, not once does the director lose sense of the fact that at its heart, Rita’s tale is one of girlhood, of dreams, of innocence lost, and regained within the bosom of female solidarity. World Premiere.
Witchboard
From A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and the beloved 1988 remake of The Blob to The Mask, Eraser, and The Scorpion King, director Chuck Russell has no shortage of imaginative fantasy/horror classics under his belt. Now he returns to the genre he’s marked so brilliantly with a radical reinvention of Kevin S. Tenney’s 1986 Canadian cult favorite Witchboard.
Emily (Madison Iseman, Annabelle Comes Home) and her fiancé Christian (Aaron Dominguez, Hulu’s Only Murderers in the Building) discover an ancient Wiccan artifact, a pendulum board, as they prepare to open a bistro in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Emily becomes obsessed with the board’s powers, exposing her to the ancient spirit of the Queen of Witches. Desperate to help his fiancé, Christian seeks the advice of occult expert Alexander Babtiste (Jamie Campbell Bower, Netflix’s Stranger Things, the Twilight saga). However, Babtiste has dark secrets of his own. Shot in Montreal by cinematographer Yaron Levy (Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning). It also stars David La Haye (True North), Charlie Tahan (Netflix’s Ozark), Antonia Desplat (Shantaram), and Mel Jarnson (Mortal Kombat). World Premiere.
You can learn more about this Fantasia Fest, see the full lineup, and buy tickets here. Let us know what titles you are the most excited to catch at @horrormovieblog. In the meantime, you can check out some of previous fest coverage here.
