Returning to Fantastic Fest as remote press for the fourth time, we’re excited to share a recommendation list of films we’re either stoked to see ourselves, have already seen and reviewed, or think others should 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 Fantastic Fest takes place in Austin, Texas, from September 19th – 26th at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar cinema.
Anora
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Contributor Justin Waldman from TIFF 2024.
Baby Assassins Nice Days
Chisato and Mahiro go on vacation! Well, at least that’s the plan. As is bound to happen, our beloved baby assassins have their plans derailed by a new manager and a ticking time limit to assassinate a well-guarded target. There are enemy assassins, Gen Z work discourse, and plenty of delicious sweets to contend with along the way.
Spoiler-free available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson from Fantasia 2024.
Bookworm
When Mildred’s mom ends up in the hospital, her estranged biological father, Strawn Wise, shows up at the door to take care of her. A magician by trade, his only way of cracking his daughter’s shell and getting close to her is to follow her on her hunt for the mythological Canterbury Panther. Mildred hopes to get a picture of the panther, a proof of life, to claim the reward to settle the medical bills. Not having seen her father in a very long time, Mildred is pretty defensive and cynical (and critical of his so-called magic), which leads to hilarious exchanges between daughter and father. When Mildred and Strawn have an unexpected encounter, their adventures—and relationship—are taken to a new level.
Chainsaws Were Singing
Maria is having one of the worst days of her life. Her parents died. Her dog, too. She was fired from her job. She was beaten by thugs in the street. But all of her troubles melt away when she locks eyes with Tom in the midst of his suicide attempt. Soon, the gobsmacked young lovers are hand-in-hand, bounding across sun-dappled meadows and expressing their undying love through song. Their courtship is cut short when a spree killer with a chainsaw and his own musical backstory takes Maria captive to feed his grotesque family of cannibals, consisting of his overbearing mother, artistically inclined little brother, and incestuous cousins Pepe and Kevin.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Contributor Justin Waldman from Fantasia 2024.
Cloud
Ryosuke spends his days sleepwalking through his monotonous job at a laundry facility. Though he’s been selected for an upper management position by his admiring boss, Ryosuke refuses on the basis that he is uncommitted, instead turning to work as a wholesaler. Buying low from those in desperate need of quick cash and reselling high on the internet, he quickly sees how profitable the endeavor can be. His girlfriend, Akiko, is thrilled with the new income, already making plans to quit her job and upsize to a larger apartment.
Seeking to expand his operation, Ryosuke and Akiko move to a more spacious place outside of Tokyo, where strange things begin to happen. The lights spontaneously turn off. Strangers ring the doorbell at all hours of the night. An automotive part is thrown through the window. He hires a local man, Sano, as an assistant to ease his workload. Sano is friendly and eager, grateful that Ryosuke has hired him due to a lack of opportunity in the town. As his fortune comes and goes, Ryosuke becomes increasingly desperate to tip the scales back in his favor. Disinterested in the legitimacy of his products or from where they hail, Ryosuke’s opportunism begins to attract negative attention.
A still from CLOUD. Photo courtesy of Fantastic Fest.
Dead Talents Society
Being dead is no picnic. In fact, ghosts face a perpetual competitive struggle to become scary or risk permanent disintegration. The most successful ghosts gain celebrity status in the underworld, compete for annual ghosting awards, and are hosted on late-night talk shows. A ghost’s reputation and standing out among the undead prove just as important as the urban legend that their hauntings foster out in the real world.
This all comes as a terrifying shock to our heroine, a young woman known only as the Rookie, who discovers that she must create a spectral persona for herself in order to earn her haunting license if she wants to avoid a one-way ticket to oblivion. While her first audition is a disaster—that’s right, prospective haunters must perform their intended scares before a formidable jury—the Rookie is taken in by a sympathetic gang of spectral misfits, led by one-time pop idol Makoto (Chen Bolin) and Catherine (Sandrine Pinna), a fading diva whose title as Golden Ghost winner has been usurped by her ambitious protégé, Jessica (Yao Yi Ti). They hole up together in a dilapidated hotel room, where they strive to scare its infrequent patrons, and as a group, they vow to help our fledgling frightener hone her act before the 30-day deadline drops.
A still from DEAD TALENTS SOCIETY. Photo courtesy of Fantastic Fest.
A Different Man
into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost.
Don’t Mess with Grandma
A drunk Army ranger must fight off the vicious robbers who plan to loot the cabin belonging to his sweet, oblivious grandmother.
Get Away
Looking forward to spending a vacation on the small Swedish island of Svälta, the Smith family is unsettled by the unfriendly mainlanders who advise them to avoid the island at all costs, especially during the Karantan festival. But the 4-member family is in deep need of some time away and stubbornly decides to take the ferry anyway.
On the island, the locals are rather rude and unwelcoming, and their behavior suggests that some big event is about to happen. Is it a cult? Is there a sacrifice in the works? Seemingly unbothered by so much discourtesy and drama, the family enjoys a swim in the sea, treks in the woods, and, oh, the silent isolation… which turns out to be a pretty perfect situation for the Smiths, who have special plans of their own.
Ghost Killer
Fumika (Akari Takaishi) is a young woman with the problems of many young millennials: a crappy job market, unaffordable housing, friends with bad boyfriends, and an occasional possession by a professional assassin. OK, so maybe that last one is a little unique. As Fumika struggles to handle her own problems, she gets to know Hideo (Masanori Mimoto), the ghost of the assassin following her around. The young woman decides to take revenge on the gangsters who killed her spectral friend and deal out some justice of her own along the way.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Founder Douglas Davidson.
I, The Executioner
Though Hwang Jung-min’s Seo Do-cheol has grown no less ornery since we last met him, his loyal team and exasperated captain have stuck by his side, knowing to trust his hunches. Naturally, the brass still doesn’t trust him, even as he quickly connects a series of violent deaths of violent criminals—there’s a serial killer of killers on the loose. Jung Hae-in’s young MMA practitioner patrolman and his killer chokehold soon join Do-cheol’s side as his team do what they do best—exact justice one knuckle-bruising dust-up at a time.
A still from I, EXECUTIONER. Photo courtesy of Fantastic Fest.
The Life and Deaths of Christopher Lee
Well educated and raised in a loving home and community, Christopher Lee proudly served his country during WWII. But when he returned to post-war England, he needed to follow his passion and become an actor. Often denied roles for simply being too tall, his journey to becoming the legend we know had a rocky start until he found his true calling.
Beautifully combining archival and behind-the-scenes imagery, puppetry, multiple styles of animation, and interviews with his friends and family, this documentary explores the incredible life and innumerable on-screen deaths of Christopher Lee’s decades- and continent-spanning career across stages and screens of all sizes. Not to mention his run as a heavy metal artist.
From classic movie monsters to an unforgettable cult leader to villains in two of the biggest movie franchises of the new century, his voice and performances have haunted audiences since the 1950s. But the man behind these legendary roles maintained an incredible joy for life and surrounded himself with people who did the same.
Though he often joked about being mistaken for his close friends Peter Cushing and Vincent Price, Christopher Lee stands as a singular and unforgettable human being. Celebrating his life and remembering his nearly 300 roles with those who knew him best in this unique documentary is good medicine for our souls.
MadS
A french club kid wakes up from a night of partying looking to score, whether that’s with the latest drug or romantic conquest. On his way back home, he encounters an escaped patient who alters the course of his life. MADS is one-shot, one crazy night horror blast that rages like an after-hours party, rich with lived-in performances that rival any of the visual inventiveness on display.
A still from MADS. Photo courtesy of Fantastic Fest.
Memoir of a Snail
Grace Pudel is a lonely misfit with an affinity for collecting ornamental snails and an intense love for books. At a young age, when Grace is separated from her twin brother Gilbert, she falls into a spiral of anxiety and angst. Despite a continued series of hardships, inspiration and hope emerge when she strikes up an enduring friendship with an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky, who is full of grit and lust for life. From Academy Award-winning animation writer and director Adam Elliot, “Memoir of a Snail” is a poignant, heartfelt, hilarious chronicle of the life of an outsider finding her confidence and silver linings amongst the clutter of everyday life.
She Loved Blossoms More
Three brothers build an unusual time-machine in order to bring their long-dead mother back to life. When their delusional father comes into the picture, the experiments go awry, and they descend into a psychedelic hellscape where the past and present fuse in a comedic yet deeply disturbing exploration of grief.
Spoiler-free review available from EoM Contributor Justin Waldman from Tribeca 2024.
Spermageddon
One of our favorite Norwegians, Tommy Wirkola—last seen dazzling us at Fantastic Fest with THE TRIP in 2021 and with his delightfully dark and painfully funny series HELLFJORD in 2013—makes a spectacular comeback. This time, he’s teamed up with Rasmus A. Sivertsen, an award-winning children’s filmmaker, in a collaboration as perfect as bagels and lox. Together, these two creative titans have conjured up the road movie we never knew we needed, set on the rather unconventional highway of the vas deferens.
A still from SPERMAGEDDON. Photo courtesy of Fantastic Fest.
Terrifier 3
In the third installment of Damien Leone’s breakout horror film, Art the Clown is set to unleash chaos on the unsuspecting residents of Miles County as they peacefully drift off to sleep on Christmas Eve.
The Wild Robot
From DreamWorks Animation comes a new adaptation of a literary sensation, Peter Brown’s beloved, award-winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, The Wild Robot.
The epic adventure follows the journey of a robot—ROZZUM unit 7134, “Roz” for short — that is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling.
The Workout
An unexpected invasion of Wyatt Park’s (Peter Jae) private gym results in the death of his pregnant wife and a traumatic brain injury that’s left him with just a few months to live. Knowing his newborn daughter will never have the opportunity to get to know him or hear his voice, Wyatt starts recording every moment of his life for posterity. With his brother-in-law, Levi (Josh Kelly), Wyatt sets out to kill the mobsters who murdered his wife and leave a record so that his daughter can understand his final actions in life.
A still from THE WORKOUT. Photo courtesy of Fantastic Fest.
About Fantastic Fest
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the US, championing challenging and thought-provoking cinema while celebrating new voices and new stories from filmmakers around the world. We collaborate with other festivals, archives, cinematheques, and individuals to spotlight lesser-known film regions and luminaries in an ongoing effort to expand the general knowledge and appreciation of cinema. Supporting film in its most provocative, ground-breaking, and under seen forms is our all-consuming passion, giving audiences a chance to find new favorites and future genre classics in the process.
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Categories: Coming Soon, Recommendation
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