The Fantasia International Film Festival is set to ignite Montréal with its 28th edition, running from July 18 to August 4, 2024. Returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional venues including Cinémathèque Québécoise, Cinéma du Musée, Théâtre Plaza, and BBAM! Gallery, the festival promises a thrilling array of screenings, workshops, and special events.
Filmmaker Mike Flanagan
This year, Fantasia will honor acclaimed U.S. filmmaker Mike Flanagan with the prestigious 2024 Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award. Flanagan, renowned for his masterful horror storytelling, has captivated audiences with works like “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Doctor Sleep.” The festival’s website is now live, showcasing a robust lineup of over 125 feature films and 200+ shorts. Ticket pre-sales commence on July 5 at 10:00 AM.
The festival’s closing film, André Forcier’s “ABABOUINÉ,” revisits Quebec’s 1950s through a lens of dark humor and historical critique. Meanwhile, Pedro Kos’ narrative debut, “IN OUR BLOOD,” starring Brittany O’Grady, promises a haunting found-footage experience.
Steven Kostanski returns with “FRANKIE FREAKO!,” a wild interdimensional romp filled with humor and chaos. For fans of animation, “THE UMBRELLA FAIRY” by Shen Jie offers a visually rich fantasy rooted in traditional Chinese arts.
Fantasia 2024 also features Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “THE CODE,” a dark comedy reflecting on modern life, and “GHOST CAT ANZU,” a French-Japanese co-production that blends anime tropes with heartfelt storytelling. Jeffrey St. Jules’ “THE SILENT PLANET” and Rikiya Imaizumi’s “TEASING MASTER TAKAGI-SAN” round out the lineup, promising unique cinematic experiences.
Montréal’s summer will sizzle with Fantasia’s eclectic mix of horror, fantasy, and cutting-edge cinema, solidifying its status as a premier genre festival.
Estonian filmmaker Sander Maran’s “Chainsaws Were Singing” is a wildly inventive, blood-soaked musical about lovers torn apart by a chainsaw-wielding killer. A decade-long labor of love, Maran not only directed but also wrote, scored, shot, and edited this vibrant murder-fest. Combining elements of gory horror and absurdist musical, the film features inventive camerawork, slapstick editing, and an irreverent tone. The catchy songs draw inspiration from Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s “Cannibal! The Musical” and Frank Oz’s “Little Shop of Horrors.” Screening in the Underground Section, “Chainsaws Were Singing” makes its International Premiere.
ADDITIONAL THIRD WAVE TITLES:
THE A-FRAME (USA) – dir. Calvin Reeder
Donna (Dana Namerode, WHAT JOSIAH SAW), a talented pianist, is crushed when she is diagnosed with a form of bone cancer that directly affects her hand. Across town, a quantum physicist (Johnny Whitworth of LIMITLESS and EMPIRE RECORDS), has developed a machine that creates a tunnel to a sub-atomic parallel universe. In his quest to prove the machine’s efficacy, he inadvertently discovers an unorthodox cancer treatment, and now recruits human subjects to legitimize his efforts. Calvin Reeder’s phenomenal latest is a gripping sci-fi thriller with a pitch-black sense of humor, cautioning its viewers that every miracle comes at a price. Official Selection: Tribeca Film Festival 2024. International Premiere.
ADRIANNE & THE CASTLE (Quebec / Canada) – dir. Shannon Walsh
Part fever dream and part fairy tale, ADRIANNE & THE CASTLE uses magic, music, and mystery to bring us into the world of Alan St. George after the loss of his wife, Adrianna, showcasing how, through the power of art, his love lives on. A testament to creativity as a form of adoration and devotion, Shannon Walsh’s documentary allows the viewer to explore the couple’s castle, a marvel of imagination, through joy and celebration. A testament to creativity as a form of adoration and devotion, Walsh’s documentary allows the viewer to explore the couple’s castle, a marvel of imagination, through joy and celebration. Official selection: SXSW 2024, Hot Doc 2024. Docs from the Edge Section. Quebec Premiere.
CUCKOO (USA) – dir. Tilman Singer
A seventeen-year-old girl (Hunter Schafer, HBO’s Euphoria) is forced to move with her family to a resort where things are not what they seem in this astonishing mix of mix of domestic tension, body horror, and perverse science from the gifted director of LUZ. Co-starring Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csókás, and Jan Bluthardt. Official selection: Berlin International Film Festival 2024, SXSW 2024. Winner of the Silver Raven Award at the 2024 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film. Montréal Premiere.
KIDNAPPING INC. (Quebec / Canada / Haiti / France) – dir. Bruno Mourral
Two bumbling kidnappers take on more than they can handle when plans for their political hostage go straight to hell in the streets of Haiti. Grit and day-glo colors of the Caribbean propel director Bruno Mourral’s pastiche of your favorite crime capers and real-life events (his crew was kidnapped while making the film), creating something unique to represent this troubled nation’s societal trials, with classism, colorism, and corruption touching every segment of society. In KIDNAPPING INC., Mourral presents these issues in a snappy, brutally comedic debut feature, centering around the most prominent crime in Haiti. Official Selection: Sundance 2024. Canadian Premiere.
THE KILLERS (South Korea) – dirs. Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Chang Hang-jun, and Lee Myung-Se
Four directors portray hitmen in their respective stories by depicting our own turbulent times. A visual, auditory, and narrative feast, this anthology of exhilarating tales offers everything fans of genre cinema could hope for and more. A must-see! Canadian Premiere.
OUT OF THE SHADOW (Hong Kong) – dir. Ricky Ko
A rejuvenated ode to both THE KARATE KID and the action heroines of Hong Kong’s Golden Age, the latest from director Ricky Ko after his award-winning TIME (Fantasia 2021) once again beautifully combines nostalgia and modernity with a potent mix of martial arts, humor, sweetness, and compelling characters. Official Selection: Osaka Asian Film Festival 2024. North American Premiere.
RATS! (USA) – dirs. Maxwell Nalevansky and Carl Fry
Simply put, this is one of the craziest, funniest films audiences will see anywhere this year. There is a wild energy to RATS! that can only be described as evil SpongeBob flash animation bad tripping off Xanax… just the sort of madness you used to watch on NewGrounds while your parents weren’t paying attention! Channeling the filth of films like STREET TRASH and THE GREASY STRANGLER, co-directors Nalevansky and Fry prove they have the chops to stand tall amongst the legends of absurdist comedy. Official Selection: Cucalorus Film Festival 2024, Calgary Underground Film Festival 2024. Quebec Premiere.
THE ROUNDUP: PUNISHMENT (South Korea) – dir. Heo Myung-haeng
Badass detective Ma Seok-do (the inimitable Don Lee) is back! The fourth installment of one of the most adored Korean action franchises of all time explodes with fight sequences executed to perfection and high-energy mise-en-scène from director Heo Myeong-haeng, the series’ longstanding fight choreographer. Official selection: Berlin International Film Festival 2024. Quebec Premiere.
THE TENANTS (South Korea) – dir. Yoon Eun-kyoung
In a dystopian Seoul, office worker Shin-dong, threatened with eviction, rents out his bathroom to an eccentric couple whose strange behavior quickly escalates into a waking nightmare. A rising talent in the indie horror scene, writer-director Yoon Eun-kyoung creates a unique blend of soft science fiction, Kafkaesque absurdism, and dark comedy to highlight Korea’s very real social inequality problems. Winner of the Best Director Award and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 34th Singapore International Film Festival. Official Selection: Hong Kong international Film Festival 2024, Fantaspoa 2024. Canadian Premiere.
TIMESTALKER (UK) – dir. Alice Lowe
Alice Lowe (PREVENGE) returns with an ingenious, Python-esque time-jumping/reincarnation anti-rom-com unlike anything audiences have ever seen, wherein a woman continuously seeks out the presumed love of her life across time. Co-starring Jacob Anderson (HBO’s Game of Thrones), Nick Frost (SHAUN OF THE DEAD, THE WORLD’S END), and Aneurin Barnard (DUNKIRK), this bloody brilliant – and brilliantly bloody – film impales the heart of the romantic comedy on the sharpest sword imaginable, proving some lessons are just too hard to learn in one lifetime. Official Selection: SXSW 2024. Canadian Premiere.
TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS: WALLED IN (Hong Kong) – dir. Soi Cheang
The Hong Kong box office sensation that caused a wild reaction at the Cannes Film Festival arrives in its first Canadian stop over before going wide across North America. Award winning director Soi Cheang (MAD FATE) directs this period neo noir actioner set in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Walled City, a dangerous, densely populated monolith, demolished in 1995, where fists and blades would settle scores and no law enforcement dared to enter. WALLED IN features some of cinema’s most jaw-breaking and audacious fight scenes, recalling the glory 1980s and 90s kung fu cinema. Starring Louis Koo, Sammo Hung, and Richie Jen. Canadian Premiere.
VULCANIZADORA (USA) – dir. Joel Potrykus
Two friends trudge through a Michigan forest with the intention of following through on a disturbing pact. Functioning as a darkly humorous spiritual sequel to writer/director/actor Joel Potrykus’ 2014 offbeat slacker portrait BUZZARD,
