It is the 30th year of the Fantasia International Film Festival, a big milestone for this long-running celebration of genre cinema. Running from July 16th to August 2nd, there are a great number of fascinating films worth watching. As a preview, here are my choices for 8 films worth seeing at this year's festival.
Buddy (International Premiere)
Trapped within the world of a '90s children's television show, a young girl and her friends fight to escape a blood-thirsty dinosaur mascot named Buddy. Casper Kelly has delivered excellently surreal shorts on Adult Swim, particularly with Too Many Cooks, so it will be fascinating to see what he can do at a feature length runtime centered around a murderous Barney The Dinosaur type mascot.
Cherry & Virgin (World Premiere)
Of course I was going to include anime in here, and this one sounds like a delight. It follows two socially uneasy adults in their thirties, both of whom draw for a living and have never had sex. When they connect through a dating app, the pair have great chemistry in their own awkward way. Promising to be an understated romantic dramedy, this is one to watch out for.
Freaks Part II (World Premiere)
Now, this was a surprise. After hitting it big with their successful revival of the Final Destination series, directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein followed it up by returning to the world of their 2018 take on superpowers. This sequel sees a mother and daughter living on the road, hiding out their powers from authorities while in pursuit of an officer who caused their family such tragedy. It's worth watching alone for whatever Lipovsky and Stein do with the gore.
The Glorious Dead (World Premiere)
Another Fantasia festival means another World Premiere of the newest Adams Family feature. Set over a single hellish winter day, a sheriff and her young deputy try bringing stability to their rural U.S. town after it changes in freakish ways. The latest from this talented filmmaking family who are a force in independent filmmaking, this is highly anticipated.
Mum, I'm Alien Pregnant (Canadian Premiere)
What happens when a twentysomething living with her mother becomes drawn to her new neighbour? As the title suggests, she becomes alien pregnant! A New Zealand work which blends affection and charm with splattery prosthetic gags, for what promises to be a big-hearted slice of goopy comedy.
Our Effed Up World (Canadian Premiere)
With each passing year, underground filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay returns with another work that grows the impressively prolific career of such a young creative. Her latest feature takes inspiration from the alien-invasion genre, as a mysterious entity crashes in the woods, leaving a group of friends to defend the world from an all-consuming alien hunger. Each new release sees Mackay grow more into her style, and this alien-invasion inspired feature should enjoyably continue that promise.
Someone's Daughter (World Premiere)
Years since a lawyer successfully defended her client against rape accusations, both find themselves kidnapped by the victim's father and stranded in the Canadian wilderness. The pair only have each other for help in this situation, but as the pair wander deeper together, the more the lawyer questioned what really happened all of those years ago. Promising to be a tense tale of revenge which ponders character morality, this sounds like an interesting watch.
You Are The Film (North American Premiere)
Between excellent works such as River and Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, screenwriter Makoto Ueda has made terrific contributions to the works playing at Fantasia - particularly regarding time-travel tales. He takes a different approach for his feature directorial debut, as a screenwriter and musician find that they can watch each other's experiences in real time on the big screen. They ARE the film for one-another, able to interact with each other despite the distance. How is this possible? I look forward to finding out.
Fantasia Festival runs from July 16th to August 2nd
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