The Fantasia International Film Festival will kicking off its 27th edition later this week with events and screenings running from July 20 through August 9, 2023. Described by Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino as “the most important and prestigious genre film festival on this continent,” Fantasia is home to some of the wildest movies on the festival circuit including foreign titles and fresh genre movies that are still seeking homes. As we have previously, ComicBook.com is attending this year’s event and will be bringing you reviews and reactions to a lot of the wild new films from the festival, some of them having their world premiere. Below we’ve put together a list of just 10 of the many movies on our radar for Fantasia and they seem like some bananas flavors.
In addition to countless films and shorts screening at this year’s festival, a Career Achievement Award will be given to none other Nicolas Cage. With over four decades of mesmerizing work on the big screen, ranging from a wide variety of movies like Leaving Las Vegas to Raising Arizona to Con Air to Pig to Mandy, Fantasia will present this year’s Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award to this remarkable performer responsible for bringing life to some of the most fascinating people to grace the big screen in some of the most extraordinary films ever made.
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Here’s out most anticipated titles!
#MANHOLE
“Successful salesman Shunsuke falls into a concrete manhole with no way out in this clever, gory nailbiter. A tale with more twists than a corkscrew factory, and an elegant balance of black humour, social satire, and nerve-wracking tension.”
Dir. Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
Home Invasion
“In this nightmarish essay film, Graeme Arnfield weaves the history of the doorbell together with that of home-invasion cinema and labour struggles in the 19th century.”
Dir: Graeme Arnfield
Late Night With the Devil
“A career-best performance by David Dastmalchian headlines this innovative and nightmarish horror treat in which a live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms. Accurately hailed by Stephen King as ‘absolutely brilliant.’”
DIR: Colin and Cameron Cairnes
Lovely, Dark, and Deep
“LOVELY, DARK AND DEEP is the hotly anticipated directorial debut of Teresa Sutherland, screenwriter of THE WIND and a writer on MIDNIGHT MASS. Laced with stunning visuals, this ominously beautiful, deeply frightening nightmare is anchored by a captivating lead performance from BARBARIAN’s Georgina Campbell. Campbell plays a park ranger in an isolated forest outpost, the site of multiple mysterious disappearances, and she is plagued by visions blending the past and present with something even more sinister. This transfixing film oozes an immersive, fever dream atmosphere. Also starring Nick Blood, Wai Ching Ho and Edgar Morais.”
Mother Land
“When the health of Krisha’s mother takes a turn for the worse, the village shaman offers her wisdom: follow the North Star to the Ancient Forest and find its guardian and master, the great red bear of legend. The first South Korean stop-motion feature film in almost half a century, director Park Jae-beom’s animated adventure MOTHER LAND is an exquisitely crafted snowbound fantasy with a potent emotional warmth at its core. It explores the lives and lore of the nomadic, indigenous reindeer herders of the sparse and unforgiving Siberian tundra.”
Sometimes I Think About Dying
“Fran (Daisy Ridley), an isolated office drone, strikes an uneasy friendship with a new co-wroker. A darkm moving drama about stepping out of one’s shell.”
Dir: Rachel Lambert
Stay Online
“An urgent Ukrainian screenlife film that will have your heart in your throat, shot against the actual Russian invasion, STAY ONLINE is the gripping feature debut from Eva Strelnikova. Katya (Liza Zaitseva), a volunteer from Kyiv fighting against the invasion of Ukraine, uses a laptop donated to the resistance and comes into contact with the young son of the computer’s original owner, who is desperately in search of his missing parents. Her attempts to help the child will see her risk all she holds dear. Being the festival where screenlife storytelling was first introduced to audiences with Unfriended in 2014, Fantasia is especially proud to be World Premiering this landmark film, an intimately human thriller about war, made in war.”
Sympathy for the Devil
“Award-winning director Yuval Adler (BETHLEHEM) reunites with Joel Kinnaman following 2020’s THE SECRETS WE KEEP and brings Nicolas Cage on board to deliver one of the most intense performances of his career in SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL. After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger at gunpoint, a man finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where nothing is as it seems. This riveting crime thriller will leave you breathless.”
T Blockers
“Though just eighteen years old, Alice Maio Mackay (SO VAM) is a fearless heir to the Queer Horror Canon. T BLOCKERS, her third feature, is an unapologetically trans homage to INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS brimming with youthful energy and a punk attitude. Equal parts gross-out comic horror and heartwarming coming of age, T BLOCKERS is about a young trans filmmaker obsessed with a thought-to-be long-lost film and the spread of a violent infectious parasite. Mackay channels Gregg Araki and John Waters in this playful and defiant sci-fi horror.”
Where the Devil Roams
“Darkest prayers will be answered, in sawdust and sacrilege, when Fantasia goes WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS. This astonishing new feature from cult favourites The Adams Family (Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams), follows a family of travelling sideshow performers as they traverse Depression-era America on a bloody search for eternal life. As in THE DEEPER YOU DIG and HELLBENDER, both Fantasia World Premieres, the gifted filmmaking family’s latest creation continues their inspired explorations of familial power dynamics through the prism of horror. Haunting, poetic, sometimes funny, frequently freakish and told with conviction through a deeply personal lens.”
