The 27th Fantasia International Film Festival will be running from July 20 through August 9, 2023 in Montreal, and with the amount of amazing films on offer, you’re going to need every one of those days!
Filled with world premiers and special features, the festival has released 2 waves of exceptional programing. Below is just a highlight of a few of the films that have got my attention from the massive list of offerings. You can read both full press releases on the official festival site, as well as find information for tickets. The entire lineup will be released in July, but read on to whet your whistle…
WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS- Directed by The Adams Family
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.
BLACKOUT- Directed by Larry Fessenden
At last, acclaimed horror auteur Larry Fessenden has fulfilled his long-held desire to make a werewolf film, rounding out the triptych begun with his vampire drama HABIT (1997) and FRANKENSTEIN variation DEPRAVED (2019). Fessenden, as always, makes BLACKOUT a very human story as well as a gripping horror show while weaving in his traditional focus on socio-political themes, from his long-held ecological concerns to very modern issues of suspicion and paranoia. Starring Alex Hurt, Addison Timlin, Marshall Bell, James LeGros, Barbara Crampton and Joe Swanberg.
THE SACRIFICE GAME- Directed by Jenn Wexler
Jenn Wexler’s THE RANGER, a high-octane punk rock banger, exploded onto the genre landscape in 2018, and now she’s back with her sophomore feature THE SACRIFICE GAME. Filled with gore and lore, indie filmmaker Wexler penned this gripping and stylish ‘70s-set chiller involving school girls, power-mad killers and occult prophecy with partner Sean Redlitz. Shot in Quebec, this breakneck horror film stars Mena Massoud (EVOLVING VEGAN and ALADDIN), Olivia Scott Welch (LUCKY HANK, FEAR STREET Trilogy), Gus Kenworthy (AMERICAN HORROR STORY), Georgia Acken, Madison Baines and features the return of THE RANGERS’ Chloë Levine. You won’t want to miss a second of THE SACRIFICE GAME!
RED ROOMS- directed by Pascal Plante
Coming to christen Fantasia’s 27th edition days after its Karlovy-Vary competition debut, RED ROOMS (Les chambres rouges) is the haunting third feature from celebrated Quebec filmmaker Pascal Plante (FAKE TATTOOS, NADIA, BUTTERFLY). The high-profile case of serial killer Ludovic Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos, STANLEYVILLE) has just gone to trial, and Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy, BOOST) is obsessed. When reality blurs with her morbid fantasies, she goes down a dark path to seek the final piece of the case’s puzzle.
SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL- directed by Yuval Adler
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.
RIVER- directed by Junta Yamaguchi
Mikoto (Riko Fujitani) works as a waitress at the Fujiya Inn, in a wintry valley town near Kyoto. As she stares momentarily into the river nearby – a blink, a lifetime – something feels off: the inn is looping… two minutes at a time! Micro-budget time travel maestro Junta Yamaguchi (BEYOND THE INFINITE TWO MINUTES) is back, offering a savvy update to his innovative “tiny loop” concept. RIVER culminates into a multifaceted portrait of place as the various guests, employees and hosts band together to solve the mystery of the valley stuck in time.
SUITABLE FLESH- directed by Joe Lynch
A psychiatrist falls into a downward spiral of sex, possession, and death when a young patient shows up at her door with symptoms that are of another world. Heather Graham and Judah Lewis star in Joe Lynch’s loving tribute to the late Stuart Gordon that reunites actress Barbara Crampton, Screenwriter Denis Paoli, and Executive Producer Brian Yuzna to forge a macabre supernatural erotic horror film straight from the depths of the abyss. Adapted from H.P. Lovecraft’s THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP.
#MANHOLE- Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri
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.
All film synopsis’s courtesy of Fantasia Festival.