Fantasia International Film Festival 2022 – Phil’s Picks of the Fest!

We’ve been fortunate to cover Fantasia multiple times over the years and it, along with Frightfest and Grimmfest, are staples of Nerdly’s genre festival coverage. What’s so great about Fantasia is the eclectic nature of the films they screen – new films, old films, international films, weird films, documentaries… Fantasia films run the gamut of genres, tastes and subject matter. And it’s now in its 25th(!) year of doing so!

With that in mind here are a few films that stood out to me from the announced schedule and, hopefully, a few we’ll get to bring you reviews of in the near future! You can also check out Alain’s preview of Fantasia right here.

FINAL CUT (COUPEZ!)

• After opening this year’s Cannes, FINAL CUT (Coupez!), Michel Hazanavicius’s riotous remake of Shinichirou Ueda’s ONE CUT OF THE DEAD, is coming to North America. Starring Romain Duris, Bérénice Bejo, Grégory Gadebois, Finnegan Oldfield, Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz, and Yoshiko Takehara reprising her beloved role from the original film as a producer, this hilarious ode to the do-or-die spirit of filmmaking is a joy to behold. It is especially noteworthy for the film’s North American journey to be starting at Fantasia, as the festival was among the first to popularize the original Audience Award-winning ONE CUT OF THE DEAD in the West.

RELAX, I’M FROM THE FUTURE

• It’s all fun and games until the world is in jeopardy and goofy time traveller Casper (Rhys Darby, WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH) is the only one who can do something about it. When he stumbles into Holly’s (Gabrielle Graham, POSSESSOR) life, a nutty plan unfolds involving a cartoonist and a nasty time travel agent. Director Luke Higginson’s first feature film is a charming and quirky take on unlikely friendships and unwavering optimism. Comedic chemistry bubbles between Darby and Graham, and no unhinged plan would be complete without a juicy villain played with merciless fervour by Janine Theriault. Fans will also get Canadian genre vet Julian Richings who adds his gravitas to this zany caper.

FREAKS OUT

• Rome, 1943. A pack of sideshow performers with supernatural powers face off against occupying Nazis in the most unusual superhero film you will ever see. This fantastical and gutsy celebration of the different that walks an electrifying tightrope between blockbuster filmmaking and edgier, more subversive genre work. From the director of THEY CALL ME JEEG. Winner of the Leoncino d’Oro at last fall’s Venice Film Festival.

LEGENDARY IN ACTION!

• Shaw Brothers legend and real-life kung-fu champion Chen Kuan-Tai shines in a rare role that celebrates action stars of the golden era of the ’70s and ’80s. This is a true love letter to the genre, but also to the crazy behind-the-scenes drama that comes with mounting a film.

DR. LAMB (World Premiere of Unearthed Films’ new 2K restoration)

• An abnormal taxi driver (Simon Yam) lusts for blood every rainy night. The notorious Category III shocker that started Hong Kong’s based-on-a-true-story serial-killer craze of the ’90s, DR. LAMB returns to Fantasia where it dumbfounded unsuspecting audiences in 1999. This new restoration includes footage cut from the original Hong Kong release prints.

BABY ASSASSINS

• As startling and ferocious as it is hilarious and endearing, the second feature film from writer/director Hugo Sakamoto is a hybrid he calls “comic-action”, and BABY ASSASSINS delivers on both fronts. Working the cash register at a convenience store? Cooking food at a nondescript diner? Serving up sweets and smiles at a maid café? For cheerful Chisato and mopey Mahiro, two teenage girls with opposing personalities, the options for the part-time work they seek aren’t all that appealing. After all, they’re already making good money as a pair of ruthlessly efficient killers for hire. The policy of their shadowy employer, however, requires that upon graduation from high school, they each develop a cover story. That means sharing an apartment and finding menial jobs. At the same time, they’ve run afoul of a psychopathic yakuza boss and his bratty son and daughter. As the conflict escalates and the blood starts to flow, will Chisato and Mahiro get the job done?

PIGGY

• PIGGY is writer/director Carlota Pereda’s feature film debut, wrought with great camera work that conveys a unique style. This Spanish-French thriller world-premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival in its Midnight section and is based on Pereda’s 2018 short film of the same title, with Laura Galán (UNKNOWN ORIGINS, THE DEVIL’S TAIL) delivering a fantastic performance in both. A horror drama with a hint of comedy, PIGGY centres on themes of loneliness and uses the protagonist/antagonist juxtaposition to demonstrate how it can cause long-term trauma when affecting all areas of life at a young age. This film will certainly anger, shock, and offer emotional catharsis—especially to viewers who have experienced such sheltered and suffocating conditions during their teenage years.

SISSY

• Smart as hell and bold to the extreme, SISSY is a stunning debut for Australian co-writers/directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes. While hugely engaging and fun, the film skewers influencer culture from a place of palpable pain and without condescension. Its concerns lay deeper, in the intricacies of social bonds and self-identity, in the anguish of friendships betrayed and the life-shaping cruelties of bullying. Built on a foundation of unresolved childhood trauma, SISSY cuts deep and yet it’s a total crowd-pleaser, delivering outrageously gruesome shocks and a ton of uncomfortable character-derived humour that lands brilliantly, as much a dark comedy of traumas as it is a full-blooded horror work.

And the film I’m most excited for…

SHIN ULTRAMAN

• Following its enormously successful release in Japan, Fantasia unleashes the highly anticipated SHIN ULTRAMAN, directed by Shinji Higuchi, famed for the special-effects work on 1990s GAMERA revival, and directing the live-action ATTACK ON TITAN films. Scripted by Hideaki Anno, the genius behind the hit anime NEON GENESIS EVANGELION. SHIN ULTRAMAN reunites the pair who co-directed 2016’s astounding SHIN GODZILLA, to reimagine another essential icon of tokusatsu, Japan’s effects-centered science-fiction TV and cinema. Debuted in 1966, Tsuburaya Productions’ giant, shiny superhero from space—and the wild array of alien monsters he confronts—have embedded themselves in the nation’s pop culture for generations. With auteur flair, unprecedented visual impact, and genuine affection for the Ultra franchise, Anno and Higuchi now renew, as only they can, the action-packed cosmic saga of Ultraman.