Fantasia Festival 2024 – Ten films to check out
My favourite festival of the year is soon to be upon us and Fantasia has another insanely brilliant line-up ready for you! Here are ten films – in no particular order – that I cannot wait to check out.
Samara Weaving in a new horror film. That’s all I need to say really but I will go on. Azrael is also written by Simon Barret (The Guest, You’re Next) and directed by E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and is a post-apocalyptic survival horror. With almost no dialogue, this promises plenty of gore, action and another fantastic performance from Weaving.
In Bookworm, director Ant Timpson and Elijah Wood team-up once again (formerly in the excellent Come To Daddy), this time in a much more family-friendly movie. A camping adventure for eleven-year-old Mildred with her absent father does not impress her. But they will be searching for The Canterbury Panther in this strange and heart-warming adventure.
There’s always a Christmas movie on my list and this year is no different with Carnage for Christmas.
Coming from 19 year-old filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay it shows “When true-crime podcaster and sleuth Lola visits her hometown at Christmas for the first time since running away and transitioning, the vengeful ghost of a historical murderer and urban legend seemingly arises to kill again”. That’s the kind of crazy story I can get behind in a holiday horror influenced by past Christmas genre classics.
The Chapel comes from director Carlota Pereda, whose previous movie, the revenge horror Piggy, was expertly-crafted. This ones a Spanish supernatural horror with woman who doesn’t believe ghosts but has her beliefs challenged when her mother dies and she meets a little girl who does indeed believe in the afterlife.
A coming-of-age movie about an eleven-year-old human child being looked after by a giant ghost cat? That’s exactly what Ghost Cat Anzu is. This animated movie will have charm and weirdness in equal measures.
We could be seeing another J-horror classic this year with House of Sayari. From J-horror veteran Koji Shiraishi, this mixes dark supernatural elements and maybe surprisingly, comedy. You’ll be laughing as much as you’ll be scared.
There’s definitely not enough coming-of-age horror movies, and that’s what director Isaac Ezban is bringing to the table with Parvulos. Seven years in the making and coming from the director’s own experiences, there’s gruesome make-up effects and a hard-hitting story. One not to be missed.
Rats! has that exclamation point in the title so it’s impossible for me to ignore. Set in 2007 and infused with emo goodness, this low-budget comedy sounds like nothing you’ve seen before. A guy is hoping to spend the summer with the cool new emo girl but gets tangled up with the FBI and a whole lot more. A little bit wild and completely unpredictable comedy horror.
I’m a sucker for a coming-of-age movie and this list is proving that. Swimming In A Sand Pool is based on a play where four teenage girls sweep the bottom of a sand-covered swimming pool and talk about love, ambitions and much more. This singular-setting movie sounds a little bit The Breakfast Club too me and that makes it even more intriguing.
Finally, the filmmaking collective of Anouk Whissell, Yoann-Karl Whissell and Francois Simard (Turbo Kid, Summer of ‘84 and We Are Zombies) return with Wake Up! This is their first slasher film and follows a group of protesters planning vandalise a store overnight, only to come up against a dangerous security guy. There’ll be lots of blood but I expect, based on their previous movies, plenty of heart too. I can’t wait for this one!
This is just ten full features that will be at Fantasia festival this year and I’d happily write about another, and another ten, and… well you get the idea! Be sure to check out as many as you can!
