2024 Fantasia Film Festival Program Preview

It’s time again for the Fantasia International Film Festival. I really enjoy writing about the Montreal-based festival, whose films span multiple genres and celebrate the diversity that the term “genre film” has to offer. As per usual, I want to outline a few titles of interest being featured at this year’s festival.

Fantasia will hold its 28th edition from July 18 to August 4.

Frankie Freako (dir. Steven Kostanski)

Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman was a clever play on a children’s fantasy film (not a children’s film, to be clear). The genre riffs Kostanski has been involved in have not always struck my fancy – the Troma produced exploitation send-up he co-directed called Father’s Day is a dud of a horror comedy. Still, the poster and premise of Frankie Freako looks like a stab at the 1990s era of Full Moon Entertainment B-movies (your Demonic Toys and Puppet Master and the like). And I have some fondness in my heart for that brand of horror cheese-‘n’-sleaze. Cautious optimism guides me toward Frankie Freako.

World premiere – July 24

Black Eyed Susan (dir. Scooter McCrae)

Scooter McCrae’s Black Eyed Susan delves into the long-standing connection between tech and sex, with a premise that sounds like the Turing tests of Ex Machina crossed with the psychosexual sadomasochism of Hellraiser. Hired to test a tech startup’s AI sex robot programmed to specialize in BDSM, Derek “tests the limits of her technology and his desires,” probing at the boundaries between pleasure and pain.

I have not seen either of McCrae’s previous features (my Vinegar Syndrome Blu-Ray of Sixteen Tongues is awaiting shipment), but I was intrigued by his use of familiar horror iconography as a means of challenging normative conceptions of the body in Saint Frankenstein. And his prior work with Frank Henenlotter puts him in good company in my mind. Black Eyed Susan is the director’s first feature in 25 years. It was also shot on Super 16. Everything I hear about the film makes me want to watch it more.

World premiere – August 2

House of Sayuri (dir. Koji Shiraishi)

Koji Shiraishi is responsible for the effectively eerie and slow burning Noroi: The Curse, as well as a decently fun (if not ultimately underwhelming) crossover between the longstanding Ring and Ju-on series, Sadako vs. Kayako. His latest is another ghost story, adapted from a manga by Rensuke Oshikiri. A family buys a new home only to be terrorized by the ghost of a murdered child. From the teaser, the film appears to be playing into classic haunted house tropes. While that isn’t usually my thing, the trailer boasts impressive staging.

North American premiere – August 2

The Soul Eater (dir. Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo)

Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo found acclaim with their 2007 film Inside. Potently transgressive, the film struck in the middle of a trend of similarly transgressive French genre cinema and benefited from this right-time-right-place-ness. Since, the directing duo have not made anything particularly astonishing (although, I have not seen Livid). Their Texas Chainsaw reimagining Leatherface was DOA, and I found their underwater haunted house movie The Deep House a slog.

Their latest, The Soul Eater, is a thriller about two related crimes: the murder of a couple and the disappearance of a group of children. Both crimes appear to be linked by an urban legend of the “Soul Eater.” I can appreciate that these directors freely move into different horror genre lanes with their projects, and The Soul Eater seems to be another diversion for them.

North American premiere – July 24

Witchboard (dir. Chuck Russell)

After going to India to make a film called Junglee and directing a pair of John Travolta Z-movies you’re most likely to find in a Redbox, Chuck Russell, the director of otherwise good films like A Nightmare on Elm Street 3 and The Blob (1988), returns with Witchboard. The film reimagines Kevin Tenney’s 1980s cult exploitation picture of the same name. The film promises Ouija board shenanigans, as Emily becomes obsessed (then possessed) by the supernatural relic. The original Witchboard has some fun moments, but it may benefit from a modern take. Russell being the one to take a crack at it piques my curiosity.

World premiere – July 26