Now that it’s July, we’re gearing up to cover the Fantasia International Film Festival. Held each year in Montreal, the fest includes dozens of short films and plenty of electrifying features, making it one of the best yearly genre festivals. This year’s event runs from July 18-August 4. Here are five films we can’t wait to see.
Shelby Oaks
Directed by Chris Stuckmann, Shelby Oaks has quite a stellar cast, including horror legend Keith David, who stars as a character named Morton Jacobson. This film also has other serious horror star power behind it, including Mike Flanagan in an executive producer role. The film’s plot entails a woman’s desperate search to find her long-long sister. The search soon turns into an obsession, as the woman realizes an imaginary demon from childhood just may be real. It should also be noted that this film originated from a Kickstarter campaign, which raised well beyond the initial goal. Meanwhile, Stuckman may sound like a familiar name to some horror fans because he’s a YouTube film critic/influencer. This is his first feature.
Witchboard
Director Chuck Russell is a familiar name to horror fans. He directed A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, the 1988 remake of The Blob, as well as The Mask, Eraser, and The Scorpion King. He has a long and impressive fantasy and horror resume. His latest is a reinvention of Kevin S. Tenney’s Canadian cult film Witchboard. In Russell’s film, Emily (Madison Iseman) and her finance Christian (Aaron Dominguez) discover an ancient Wiccan artifact, a pendulum board, all while they’re set to open a bistro in New Orleans’ famed French Quarter, a location rife with plenty of voodoo and witchy history. After Emily becomes obsessed with the board’s uncanny powers, she’s exposed to an ancient spirit known as the Queen of Witches. Meanwhile, Christian seeks the advice of an occult expert, Alexander Baptiste (Jamie Campbell Bower), but this expert harbors his own dark secrets.
Rita
La Llorna (2019) is one of the strongest international horror films of the last several years, so director Jayro Bustamante is of course on our radar. His latest, Rita, combines mythical fantasy with themes of childhood innocence and a story based upon a real-life event in which 41 young women burned to death inside a Guatemalan orphanage during protests about inhumane conditions. Indeed, this one sounds like a powerful and gripping film, centered around the performance of Guiliana Santa Cruz, who speaks for the young women who suffered.
Hell Hole
The Adams Family continue to create some of the most interesting genre films today, which include Hellbender and The Devil Roams, just to name a few. Their latest, Hell Hole, was inspired by a trip through Canadian oil fields, which conjured fantasies of secrets buried deep in that dirt. For this feature, they’ve partnered with Shudder and FX guru Todd Masters to shoot this film in Siberia with a local cast and crew. Hell Hole is described as old-school, sci-fi horror, a creature feature that’s absurd and transgressively comical, while underscoring the horrors of environmental devastation. We’re totally here for that. This will be the family’s fourth time at the Fantasia World Premiere.
Frankie Freako!
Who didn’t love FX artist and director Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman? Well, he’s back with the over-the-top and zany Frankie Freako! His latest stars Conor Sweeney and Adam Brooks and follows a nerdy man. While attempting to impress his wife and boss, he’s lured by a TV ad to a party. It’s there that he meets a weird little creature named Frankie Freako. Yep, this one sounds like a heck of a lot of fun that’ll likely contain gnarly special effects, plenty of laughs, and awesome puppetry.
For more information about the fest and to purchase tickets, visit fantasiafestival.com.
