Legions (2022) by Fabián Forte ***Fantasia Festival 2022***

Director: Fabián Forte

Year: 2022

Country: Argentina

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Supernatural

Plot:

Confined to a mental asylum, a spiritual medium who notices oncoming signs of demonic activity regarding a powerful deity looking to use his estranged daughter in a cursed ritual must escape with help from his friends and reconnect with her past to stop the being from carrying out its plans.

Review:

Overall, this was a highly enjoyable genre effort. Among the most likable factors here come from the rather impressive setup that brings together a strange semblance of storylines. The work involved here in tying together the life of the spirit medium who possesses old-world powers and insight into the folklore around him who's now confined to an asylum for his behavior and tries to placate those around him with plays about his life creates a fine baseline here. The need to reach his daughter and open her eyes to their legacy and history as a dealer with this kind of supernatural battle against the demonic forces has a great touch to this build-up.

This allows for a great series of brutal and enjoyable series showing the powers being explored against the demons. Starting with the initial sequel of the exorcism attempt on the possessed village girl that showcases their abilities with the contorting demon coming after him, this one manages a fine start to this one. The flashbacks to their battles fighting off the creatures in the jungle serve this one quite nicely as well with the big finale featuring the battle to stop the demon from taking over his daughter which has some fun to be had utilizing the folklore of the area into the big confrontation that takes place. These factors combine together into making for a fun time here.

There are some issues to be had with this one. Among the biggest drawbacks of this one is the somewhat overlong build-up present here which takes far too long for the action to get going. Dealing as much as it does with life in the institution and trying to win over his daughters 'trust manage to eat up way too much of the running time not dealing with the big threat towards the family lineage. There's also very little here about how the demons' actions work or how the whole sacrifice works which are due to the lack of time devoted to the demons in favor of the outside elements in play here. That also keeps the gore level down from what it could've been, keeping this one down for the most part.

Overview: ***.5/5

A generally fun mix of creature feature, folklore, and heart, there's a lot to like here to overlook the few minor flaws which do manage to bring this one down slightly. Those who are intrigued by this kind of feature or are fans of the creative crew will enjoy this one while most others out there who are turned off by these factors should heed caution.

This review was originally published as part of our coverage of the 2022 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival. Click the banner below for all of our coverage of the festival: