As one of the biggest and most important genre festivals in the world, the Fantasia Festival has become one of the prime landing places for cutting-edge Action/Martial Arts, Horror and other genre fare from around the world. We'll use this opportunity now to provide a brief look at some of the more impressive and intriguing titles coming to play at this year's edition hopefully to get covered by the site.
After winning an Audience Award at Fantasia 2014 and earning praise on the festival circuit with his debut feature HAN GONG-JU, writer-director Lee Su-jin returns with a complex and fascinating psychological thriller recalling the very best Korean revenge movies. He teams up with the sublime Chun Woo-hee (THE WAILING), masterfully portraying a Chinese immigrant sought by a popular politician and a humble worker after a tragic accident, of which she is the only witness. An official selection at this year’s Berlinale, IDOL (North American Premiere) is a bold, bloody and engaging work that captivates with both narrative and visual prowess.
The first feature-length CRITTERS film in 27 years will be landing in Montreal for its inaugural appearance on Earth, unleashing waves of adorably grotesque monsters and mayhem. Directed by Fantasia favorite Bobby Miller (THE CLEANSE), written by Scott Lobdell (HAPPY DEATH DAY) and featuring a cast that includes Tashiana Washington (SKATE KITCHEN), Ava Preston (RUSTY RIVERS), Jack Fulton, and Jaeden Noel (ODD SQUAD), along with the adored Dee Wallace (E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL) making a welcome return to the franchise, the world premiere of CRITTERS ATTACK! shoots to thrill with old school prosthetic creatures and a whole lot of rambunctious chaos.
Inspired growing up amid the production of the original THE EVIL DEAD, filmmaking brothers Brett and Drew Pierce (DEADHEADS) have taken things to the proverbial next level with the grisly occult thrill ride THE WRETCHED (World Premiere), the story of a teenager who realizes that he’s living next door to an ageless, undying horror that threatens all he holds dear. The film is a dead serious new spin on witchcraft cinema, with a fresh set of rules, likable and developed teen characters, a ton of surprising scares, and a cauldron of imaginatively gruesome special makeup effects. THE WRETCHED stars John-Paul Howard (Hell or High Water), Piper Curda (I DIDN’T DO IT), Azie Tesfai (Supergirl), Kevin Bigley (Netflix's Upload), Jamison Jones (HBO's True Detective), and Zarah Mahler (NIGHTMARE CINEMA).
In NO MERCY (North American Premiere), former martial arts champion Inae to take things into her own hands when her little sister goes missing. By way of rough, tough interrogation, she discovers that the group of schoolgirls who bullied her sister have forced her into an awful situation involving petty criminals, pawnbrokers, pimps, and more. South Korean cinema has certainly cornered the market in visceral revenge thrillers loaded with action - and filmmaker’s Lim Kyoung-tack’s (KILLER TOONS) latest is firmly set in this tradition, led by a world-class action-movie heroine in the vein of 2017’s THE VILLAINESS.
In THE PREY (Canadian Premiere), prisoners become human prey for rich hunters looking for thrills in the Cambodian jungle. Thrown in with a mix of crooks and killers out to survive in any way possible, Chinese cop Xin (newcomer Gu Shangwei) must outrun his hunters before he becomes a human trophy. Tough, trained, he's ready to fight, and he just needs to find his way out of this before they find him. Inspired by Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game, Jimmy Henderson and the team behind the 2017 Fantasia hit JAILBREAK continue their winning streak of rock-solid, high-quality action on a modest budget.
On top of all that, the most anticipated feature has yet to come. Twenty years ago, Fantasia celebrated the North American Premiere of Hideo Nakata’s RINGU and its sequel, which led to Dreamworks acquiring the franchise and is largely seen as having been the birth of J-Horror in the West. This Summer, the festival is proud to open its 23rd edition with the series’ latest sequel, SADAKO (North American Premiere), which also marks the return of director Nakata to his beloved franchise. One of cinema’s scariest characters is back on the big screen, and you’d better prepare yourself in case she and her young acolyte decide to crawl out of it. SADAKO cleverly respects all of the elements that made Koji Suzuki’s novels so successful, but brings in a host of new elements that will revive J-horror for an all-new generation of terrified moviegoers.
With this just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the films to be shown at this festival edition, the 2019 version of Fantasia promises to be one of the best in the long-running history.
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