For the fifth year in a row, Elements of Madness will officially be covering the Fantasia International Film Festival! In the run-up, we offer up our recommendations of what to check out during the fest or what to keep an eye out for in wider distribution.
**These recommendations are based on a mixture of films previously covered by EoM and intriguing film summaries.**
The 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal, Quebec from July 18th to August 4th 2024.
100 Yards
In the courtyard of a respected martial arts school in 1920s Tianjin, China, the venerable master observes a formal, barehanded duel between his most prized student, Qi Quan (Andy On, True Legend, Special ID) and his own son, Shen An (Jacky Heung, The Warlords, Chasing Dream). The confrontation concludes with Qi’s victory—and the master’s last breath. Qi will thus step up to assume leadership of the academy, but Shen won’t take that sitting down. Though his father wished for him to take a respectable banking job, beyond the constraints of the wushu world, Shen is too sure of his own talent to turn his back on what he feels is rightfully his. It’s a rivalry that won’t be settled easily, especially not when family secrets, demimonde politics, and romantic entanglements (with women far wiser than they) further complicate matters for the stubborn twosome.
Spoiler-free review from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
4PM
Jeong-in has been working as a professor his whole life, but he decides to take a break from his job and move into the countryside with his wife Hyun-sook. They notice another house in their area, so they leave a note inviting the resident for a visit to their humble abode. As they’re settling into their new home, a man named Yook-nam pays them a visit on the first day. However, they notice he starts stopping by their home every day at 4pm sharp in front of their door. When it’s 6pm, that’s when he decides to leave. Each visit entails two hours of agonizing, awkward and/or unsettling moments, which drives the couple absolutely crazy. They try to get rid of him, as he becomes more and more unbearable to be around. What started out as a peaceful gathering has become a nightmare for the couple.
Top: Oh Dal-su as Jeong-in in 4PM. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
The A-Frame
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 and her ability to play the piano. Her life takes a dramatic turn when the doctor recommends amputation as the only solution to preventing the spread of the disease. This shifts her life from one filled with music, joy, and friends, to a series of hospital visits, group counseling sessions, and… quantum physics. After exhausting all other options, Donna is presented with a final chance to keep her hand. Enter Sam (Johnny Whitworth, Limitless), a mysterious black-market scientist, who holds the key to solving all of Donna’s problems. However, when ambitions get high and egos go unchecked, Sam’s intentions come into question.
L-R: Johnny Whitworth as Sam and Dana Namerode as Donna in THE A-FRAME. Photo courtesy of Tribeca film Festival.
Spoiler-free review from Tribeca Film Festival 2024 available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Azrael
It’s the post-apocalypse and after escaping captivity from a cult of mute religious fanatics, losing their ability to speak in the process, Azrael (Samara Weaving, Ready Or Not) and her partner Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Femme) are traversing the treacherous forest in an attempt to evade their captors and keep their freedom. However, after falling back into the clutches of evil, Azreal learns that she will be sacrificed to appease an ancient evil that lurks within the shadows of the trees. Not willing to become demon food for a cult that has only caused her harm, Azrael must fight tooth and nail to secure her and Kenan’s freedom in E.L. Katz’s (Cheap Thrills) vicious Azrael!
Samara Weaving in AZRAEL. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Baby Assassins Nice Days
Buckle up, folks, because director Yugo Sakamoto and action director Kensuke Sonomura, the mad geniuses behind the teen contract-killer series, are back and they’re ready to blow your mind with Nice Days. The dynamic duo practically invented the hitman-comedy genre in Japan and turned the world of stuntwomen on its head, and now they’re taking things to a whole new level of butt-kicking, fist-pummeling, knife-wielding, gun-slinging insanity. We’ve watched Chisato and Mahiro grow up and go pro, and this time, these BFFs and roomies are heading to a resort town for a little work and play. But their vacation plans go out the window when a lone-wolf assassin with a serious case of bloodlust shows up, looking to notch his 150th kill. And if that wasn’t enough, two major movie icons are joining the party, making their debuts as lean, mean fighting machines and injecting some serious star power into the mix.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
The Beast Within
After a series of strange events leads her to question her family’s isolated life on a fortified compound deep in the English wilds, 10-year-old Willow follows her parents on one of their secret late-night treks to the heart of the ancient forest. But upon witnessing her father undergo a terrible transformation, she too becomes ensnared by the dark ancestral secret they’ve tried so desperately to conceal.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Brave Citizen
Mooyoung High looks like a nice, peaceful secondary school — but it isn’t. The truth is that bullying is a major issue there, as merciless violence takes over the whole institution. So Si-min, a former professional boxer, is now a part-time high school teacher and has witnessed some brutal bullying at her workplace. The most dangerous bully of them all, Han Su-kang has, been harassing and beating up an innocent student non-stop. Taking matters into her own hands, Si-min decides to don a mask and deal with Su-kang herself, to teach him a lesson and deliver proper justice. It’s up to Si-min to put an end to his violent acts once and for all.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
The target of a sinister plot, young Edmond Dantès is arrested on his wedding day for a crime he did not commit. After fourteen years in the island prison of Château d’If, he manages a daring escape. Now rich beyond his dreams, he assumes the identity of the Count of Monte Cristo and exacts his revenge on the three men who betrayed him.
Confession
Jiyong gets seriously injured in a blizzard during a mountain trek with Asai, an old friend from college. Facing death, Jiyong confesses that he killed Asai’s ex-girlfriend Sayuri who went missing 16 years ago. The wind suddenly weakens, however, and the two find an empty hut nearby. Having escaped the freeze, Jiyong now demands Asai to confess his own sins. Altitude-sickened Asai is driven into a corner when he vaguely sees Jiyong approaching him with a knife in hand…
Cuckoo
Reluctantly, 17-year-old Gretchen leaves her American home to live with her father, who has just moved into a resort in the German Alps with his new family. Arriving at their future residence, they are greeted by Mr. König, her father’s boss, who takes an inexplicable interest in Gretchen’s mute half-sister Alma. Something doesn’t seem right in this tranquil vacation paradise. Gretchen is plagued by strange noises and bloody visions until she discovers a shocking secret that also concerns her own family.
Spoiler-free review from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Darkest Miriam
Miriam Gordon (Britt Lower, Severance) works in a library. Set in the middle of Toronto’s Allan Gardens, it’s a lively place filled with an array of patrons ranging from the “fainting man” and “suitcase man” to the talented young “piano girl.” Miriam and her co-workers take the unusual patrons in stride, and Miriam’s day is documented by incident reports about semen-filled books, lost dentures, and exchanges with the forgotten, marginalized populations who take refuge in the library stacks. Solitary and patient, her head is filled with memories of her eccentric late father, who loved the Verdi opera Rigoletto. Her measured existence is disrupted by threatening letters found in books, but she also meets a handsome taxi driver and artist named Janko (Tom Mercier, The Animal Kingdom). Their romance is sweet and shrouded in mystery that unravels as they become closer, but Miriam must decide what road to follow when the unexpected upends her sheltered life.
L-R: Tom Mercier as Janko and Britt Lower as Miriam in DARKEST MIRIAM. Photo courtesy of Tribeca Film Festival.
Spoiler-free review from Tribeca Film Festival 2024 from EoM Contributor Justin Waldman.
Dead Dead Full Dead
Equally inept and scatterbrained, junior police officers Balraam and Zubeida make a cute couple, but not the most diligent detectives. Called to a posh apartment tower to investigate a reported murder, the seemingly straightforward case confronting the pair quickly becomes a conundrum that would confuse even Sherlock Holmes. The victim is kitschy astrology influencer Era, and the prime suspect is her businessman husband Rahul. But suspicion also falls on the bourgeois couple’s nosy neighbour, Mrs. Basanti, and their sinister household servant, Chhotu. When Era herself returns from the afterlife and starts meddling, matters become even more muddled, and soon enough the question isn’t who killed her… but who didn’t?!
FAQ
It’s no secret that kids don’t like school. Tests and homework are truly the worst nightmare for young students, especially the ones in private education. Dong-chun has it worse. Despite only being in elementary school, her mother also makes her attend various after-school programs, which constantly adds nothing but pressure and stress to her life. She’s not even allowed to have wi-fi and games on her cellphone! During a school trip, she comes across a bottle of the Korean rice wine called makgeolli, and decides to take it home. However, it’s somehow able to communicate with her through bubbling sounds that strangely resemble the Morse Code. She eventually forms a bond with the makgeolli, while keeping it a secret from her family and friends. Filled with lots of curiosity, she goes on a journey of self-discovery to figure out what she wants to do with her life.
Park Na-eun as Dong-chun in FAQ. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Frankie Freakos
Conor (Conor Sweeney, Manborg, The Editor) is a square. He doesn’t swear, thinks holding hands with his gorgeous wife Kristina (Kristy Wordsworth, Blaze) is a wild night, and goes to bed well before 9pm. When his slimy boss, Mr. Buechler (Adam Brooks, The Editor, Psycho Goreman) and Kristina call him out on his squareness, Conor is deeply offended. Determined to prove them wrong, he’s lured by a 1-900 ad promising the party of a lifetime with a creature named Frankie Freako. Calling the hotline opens a world of chaos, and Frankie, joined by two other “Freako” friends, trash his house. Who are these little monsters, and why have they decided to torment him endlessly? Conor must get rid of them before his wife returns from a weekend trip, plus appease the creepy Buechler. These interdimensional beings are more than pesky, bringing their troubles and interplanetary terrors right to Conor’s door!
A scene from FRANKIE FREAKO. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
The G
A mysterious older woman seeks revenge on the corrupt legal guardian who destroyed her life.
Ghost Cat Anzu
What is there to do in Iketeru? The idyllic beachfront village is where 11-year-old Karin has been unceremoniously dumped by her father Tetsuya, a shifty widower with a big debt to loan sharks. Karin has been left in the care of her grandfather, now the keeper of Sousei-Ji Temple, who in turn assigns her to his adopted son, 37-year-old Anzu Nakamura. This Anzu is an affable fellow, if rather uncouth and feckless. Oh, and he’s also an immortal ghost cat. That’s certainly strange, but no more so than the other assorted entities hanging around the town—loveable losers, a lot of them, humans and yokai alike. In any case, Karin, already exasperated by her father’s absence and pining for her departed mother, isn’t all that impressed with the furry ginger lout. The girl and the oafish, oversized cat make a day trip to Tokyo, to visit her mother’s grave, but things get entirely out of control when a detour to hell, by way of an out-of-service toilet, invokes the wrath of a legion of infernal demons…
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Infinite Summer
Three young women’s week at the beach turns into a transhumanist mystery romp in one Estonian summer.
Kidnapping Inc.
With Benjamin Perralt Jr. (Patrick Joseph) in their trunk, kidnappers Doc (Jasmuel Andri) and Zoe (Rolaphton Mercure) have just one job. They must hold him for ransom since his father, Senator Benjamin Perralt Sr. (Ashley Laraque), is a candidate for Haiti’s presidential election. When an offhand mistake leaves Ben Jr. for dead, a series of events finds them scrambling to cover up the crime, adding another kidnapping to their list, witnessing a birth, and gripped by a need to escape it all. This wild ride doesn’t just stay on the streets—it carries into backroom deals with Senator Perralt, his son’s wife Audrey (Anabel Lopez), her lover Eddy (Marcus Boereau), and the police. What starts as an easy gig for small-time criminals explodes into slapstick mayhem and a political drama with a plot that twists and turns like the streets of Port-au-Prince.
Spoiler-free review from EoM Contributor Justin Waldman.
The Killers
A fatigued man wakes up at a bar with a bartender who will forever change his life, as he gets to know more about her. Three criminals have somewhat accomplished their task of kidnapping their target, but their overall mission seems to go nowhere in the end. In the late 1970s, a mysterious woman runs a bar where a deadly situation will affect the lives of everyone. Two killers are looking for their faceless victim, who shows up at a diner every day at 6 o’clock sharp. Four incredibly talented Korean filmmakers, four intriguing cinematic visions, four astounding stories revolving around murderers for hire, with elements of horror, suspense, dark comedy, neo-noir, and more. Fantasia is thrilled to present The Killers, an astonishing anthology film that revitalizes the hitman narrative with loads of style and passion.
Spoiler-free review from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp-
Teenage loner Koyomi Araragi has a memorable encounter one afternoon with a fellow student, the lovely and ebullient Tsubasa Hanekawa, during which she mentions rumours of a beautiful blonde vampire stalking the city. The very same evening, while running an errand, Koyomi follows a trail of blood into an empty train station. It leads him to an even stranger meeting—the vampire in question, splayed helplessly on the platform with her limbs severed and missing. Fierce and haughty despite her incapacitation, the platinum-tressed, golden-eyed, bounteously bosomed monster is Kiss-Shot Acerola-Orion Heart-Under-Blade, who has lived for half a millennium, and she tells Koyomi that she will graciously allow him to save her life. To do so will cost Koyomi his own life—or at least, any normal human notion of living.
Spoiler-free review from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
A Legend
The professor’s (Jackie Chan) past life as soldier in ancient China is haunting him. Leading an expedition team, he investigates a glacial destination, looking for a connection to his past. It was time of big turmoil and chaos back then, when he fought alongside a young woman battling against dangerous armies. Sacrificing many in the process, they escape to a mysterious sacred place. As he leads his team in the present, his journey across the ice is filled with life-threatening obstacles and surprises. Will the past collide with the present in this undiscovered country?
Jackie Chan as Professor Fang in A LEGEND. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Mash Ville
In a small rural town, Joo Se-jong sells bootleg alcohol with his two younger brothers. Thing is, someone has died after drinking their liquor, so they must take back the hooch they’ve brewed and sent to the town of Hwaseong, before another person perishes from it. While on a mission to retrieve their deadly booze, they come across two dangerous and homicidal cultists who are terrorizing the villagers. Now, they must also fight for their survival and go up against the murderous duo.
A scene from MASH VILLE. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Spoiler-free from EoM Contributor Justin Waldman.
Penalty Loop
When his girlfriend was murdered, part of Jun’s soul died with her. Since then, his only thought has been to take justice into his own hands. Having tracked down the murderer, Mizoguchi, and prepared a meticulous plan to achieve his aims discreetly, the time has come to take action. Jun slips in among his target’s colleagues, spices his coffee with poison and finishes him off out of sight. The perfect crime. The problem is that the next morning, he’s plagued by a feeling of déjà-vu. Worse still, Mizoguchi is back at work as if nothing had happened. Jun resumes his Machiavellian plan, but something goes wrong as his target seems far more suspicious than the day before. He succeeds, but in a much more muddled and imprecise fashion. When the routine is repeated yet again, Jun has to face up to the fact that he is trapped in a hellish time loop in which every day, he will have to kill Mizoguchi, who is also well aware of the situation he finds himself in, and is becoming increasingly difficult to kill.
The Old Man and the Demon Sword
From the haunted forests of a lost Portuguese village, an evil energy is born. Without fearing God or Man, it roams the valleys harvesting the souls of those who are distracted by the fleeting pleasures of the immediate… The only thing that separates these entities from the final apocalypse that will enslave humanity in the seventh circle of hell is a retired construction worker, a bottle of wine, a Zündapp 50cc motorcycle and a sword possessed by a strange demon.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Rats!
“Did somebody say world-motherfucking-peace?” The year is 2007 and after being arrested for vandalizing Fresno’s finest public telephone, teenaged delinquent in the making Raphael (Luke Wilcox) is let off the hook with only 50 days of community service. However, the catch is that he must move in with his drug-dealing cousin (Darius Autry), who is accused of selling WMDs to [name redacted] by Officer Williams (Danielle Evon Ploeger, Country Gold), a delusional, unhinged, low-level police officer with a grudge. Unfortunately for Raphael, who would much rather listen to screamo and spend time with the new cool emo girl (Khali Sykes), he finds himself entangled with an FBI sting operation, a suicide, Steve Irwin, and the kitchen sink!
Danielle Evon Ploeger as Officer Williams in RATS!. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Rita
Thirteen-year-old Rita (Giuliana Santa Cruz) finds herself incarcerated in an all-girls protective custody facility, after fleeing a horrendously abusive home life to seek freedom in the city. The girls in her overcrowded section tell of a prophecy, that a warrior angel will arrive to free them all from a life of destitution, incarceration, and enforced prostitution. When she’s handed a pair of wings of her own, which all the girls in her quarters wear too, it’s up to Rita to work out whether she will fulfil the prophecy, and if so, how far she’s prepared to go to let the outside world know what’s really going on at the facility.
Giuliana Santa Cruz as Rita in RITA. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
A Samurai in Time
In a quiet lane in Kyoto, as the Edo period draws to its dramatic close, two pro-shogunate swordsmen ambush a political foe. The ringing of clashing steel is interrupted by a flash of lightning, heralding a bizarre paranormal event. Aizu clansman Kosaka Shinzaemon awakes to find himself… in a quiet lane in Kyoto. His mild confusion becomes outright alarm, however, when among the busy locals clad in the robes of old Japan, he sees some wearing blue jeans, running shoes, and headphones. Even the folks who seem ordinary to him are behaving in odd ways. Shinzaemon has been flung a century and half into the future, landing right in the middle of a jidaigeki (period drama) television production. Fleeing the set, he finds himself adrift in a modern city where nothing makes sense. As the truth of his circumstances dawn on him, Shinzaemon is devastated. What place is there, here and now, for an honourable, old-fashioned samurai? Well, for starters, authenticity and skill with a sword are highly prized by the jidaigeki production team…
Spoiler-free from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Shelby Oaks
Who took Riley Brennan? That’s the question asked by millions of devoted, even obsessed fans of the popular YouTube series Paranormal Paranoids, which ceased production when Brennan and her three co-hosts disappeared near the deserted town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio in 2008. Conspiracy theories have run rampant over the years, but none are more determined to get to the truth than Riley’s sister, Mia (Camille Sullivan), who has finally agreed to telling Riley’s story to a documentary film crew (Emily Bennett and Rob Grant) in the hopes of finding closure. Closure, however, refuses to be found as a series of shocking events opens the door to a deeper mystery surrounding Riley, one that leads Mia to follow her ghost-hunting sister’s footsteps down a path to confront demons of the past and get answers that can only be found somewhere within the darkness of Shelby Oaks.
Camille Sullivan as Mia in SHELBY OAKS. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Timestalker
We first meet Agnes (writer/director Alice Lowe, PREVENGE) in 1688 Scotland, attending a village-square execution. In a soul-altering instant, she locks eyes with the condemned (Aneurin Barnard, Dunkirk). Agnes can sense that she’s encountered the man she’s destined to be with, rushes towards him and dies quite spectacularly in the process. In her last breaths, she vows to find him in her next life. Over a century later, Agnes has been reincarnated and is now a 1793 English noblewoman, soon to come across the reincarnation of her past life’s love. Things… could go better. And again, she dies. Next, 1847, third verse, no different from the first. The cycle continues. Can Agnes ever move on from the presumed love of her lives?
L-R: Nick Frost as George and Alice Lowe as Agnes in TIMESTALKER. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Twilight of the Warrior: Walled In
Many years after the bloody turf war that ushered in an uneasy era of peace in Hong Kong’s underworld, the notorious Kowloon Walled City serves as a fortified, lawless safe haven for gangs and refugees alike. But when a skilled underground fighter runs afoul of the most feared Triad boss in Hong Kong, a bounty is placed on his head despite his connections to the leader of the infamous enclave. As his pursuers violate the tenuous territorial truce to exact their vengeance, the fallout reignites old grudges, bringing decades of building tension to a brutal, bloody boiling point.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
Witchboard
A robbery at the New Orleans Museum of Natural History goes awry, and the object of the theft—a circular “pendulum board” that predates the Ouija by centuries—is discovered by Emily (Madison Iseman, Annabelle Comes Home). She and her fiancé Christian (Aaron Dominguez, Only Murders in the Building) are getting ready to open a restaurant, and at first Emily thinks the board is simply a mysterious and possibly valuable antique. Then it helps her find a missing engagement ring, and Emily becomes fascinated by the board’s spiritual powers. As she falls under the board’s sway, Christian calls on occult expert Alexander Baptiste (Jamie Campbell Bower, Stranger Things)—who has his own connection to the board’s history, and his own dark secrets.
A scene from WITCHBOARD. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
The Yin Yang Master Zero
A millennium in the past, Heian-era Japan is a place where curses beget calamity, malevolent spirits roam unbridled, and Imperial policy flows from the divinations of sorcerous scholars called onmyoji, or yin yang masters. In the capital city, apprentices at the Yin Yang Bureau are schooled in the esoteric secrets of their sect. The students all aspire to climb the rungs of the Bureau’s hierarchy, at zenith of which is the post (presently vacant) of the Emperor’s chamberlain. All of them, that is, except the wily, enigmatic prodigy Abe Seimei, whose brilliance and skill are equaled by his disdainful irreverence. He’s drawn into affairs of the court, however, when the dim but good-hearted young nobleman Minamoto Hiromasa pleads for his help investigating a mysterious occurrence in the royal household.
About Fantasia International Film Festival
In August 2023, the Fantasia International Film Festival will celebrate its 27th edition. Located in the heart of beautiful Montreal, Fantasia is a cultural and professional destination point, and since its first edition, the festival’s ever-growing popularity has attracted the attention of the international film industry alongside a legion of attendees from across the world. Every facet of the filmmaking chain is increasingly represented with in-person delegates at the festival: directors, actors, producers, studio representatives, distributors and festival programmers, who get to experience the legendarily enthusiastic, taste-making audience of Fantasia.
This summer, Fantasia will host the 15th edition of the Frontiers International Co-Production Market, welcoming over 400 industry members. For more information about Borders, please visit our website.
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