The Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off its 28th edition tomorrow! From July 18th through August 4th, film fans from around the world will come together in Montreal for an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and launch events. This year’s installment boasts a lineup of over 125 features and 200+ shorts. Geek Vibes Nation will be extensively covering the festival, so you can expect reviews, interviews, and more from our team of trusted nerds. As festivities are kicking off, here is a snapshot of the team’s personal recommendations based on what they are most excited to see. As one of the leading festivals for genre films, you can’t go wrong with any of these exciting films.
Azrael
Director E.L. Katz and screenwriter Simon Barrett craft a thrilling and inventive post-apocalyptic survival story with the Samara Weaving-led film. Weaving stars as the titular character who has recently escaped the clutches of a nefarious cult of religious mutes. When her lover Kenan (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) falls back into the cult’s grasp, Azrael fights tooth and nail to prevent him from becoming an unwilling sacrifice to an ancient evil.
The winner of Best Feature at Panic Fest 2024, Azrael has been praised as riveting, thrilling, and a film that cements Weaving as a horror icon. The duo behind the feature invoke the spirit of silent film to craft a twisty thriller. –Tristian Evans
Witchboard
The director of The Mask and A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors returns to the world of horror filmmaking with a remake of the 1986 film by Kevin S. Tenney. In this new adaptation, Witchboard follows a spirit board (similar to Ouija… although with even more history) and how it spiritually impacts a couple opening a brand new restaurant together.
Madison Iseman and Aaron Dominguez star in this occult horror flick that has its World Premiere at Fantasia. –Matt Minton
The Dead Thing
Alex (Blu Hunt, The New Mutants) is stuck in a world of meaningless hookups and one-night stands, looking for something with more substance. When she meets charming young Kyle (stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen) through her dating app, they share a night of passion only for her to find no trace of him once the sun rises. A bright spot in a dry sea of meaninglessness, Alex searches despondently for Kyle once again but in the process uncovers a grim secret.
In a world of horror films ostensibly “about” dating, Elric Kane (co-host of Fangoria’s All the Colors of the Dark & the excellent Pure Cinema Podcast) knows what it looks like to circumvent conventions and truly explore what it means to be obsessed (Possession is after all, his favorite film). Although the latter part of the synopsis feels a lot like Benson & Moorhead’s Spring, Kane has a head on his shoulders that knows what should remain said only once in the language of film. In his feature film debut, The Dead Thing looks to be something that will demand your full attention. –Fritz Couture
Carnage For Christmas
True-crime podcaster, Lola, is in for anything but a pleasant Christmas holiday when she returns to her hometown in Alice Maio Mackay’s sixth film, Carnage For Christmas. Lola has not returned since transitioning and soon finds herself desperately trying to protect a community wary of her when the vengeful spirit of a deadly murderer rises to paint the town red for the holidays.
The official selection of the 2024 Salem Horror Fest Carnage For Christmas has already been making waves, and 19-year-old Mackay is part of a growing number of young, trans filmmakers adding fresh and inventive spins to genre cinema. –Tristian Evans
Shelby Oaks
For movie fans like me who grew up watching Chris Stuckmann’s YouTube channel, it is impossible to overstate how exciting it is to see his feature directorial debut Shelby Oaks finally hit the festival circuit. The film follows the world of paranormal investigators with inspiration taken from the Paranormal Paranoids internet craze. The cast includes big names like Camille Sullivan, who portrays Mia in a frantic search for her sister.
And what better stamp of approval than having Mike Flanagan (The Haunting of Hill House, Hush) as your Executive Producer? After many years of fans donating to the film and supporting Stuckmann’s journey to film production, it’s safe to say that Shelby Oaks is a must-watch at Fantasia this summer. –Matt Minton
Kryptic
Kay (Chloe Pirrie, The Queen’s Gambit, Hanna) joins a group of other women on a hike to Krypto Peak: a summit notorious for its cryptid activity and the last known location of famed cryptozoologist Barbara Valentine. When Kay strays from the group, hopelessly lost, she hyper-fixates on finding Valentine after a disturbing and gooey encounter with an unknown creature. Losing focus of her own memories of identity, she ventures further into the surrounding woods. Sifting through cryptic messages from strangers in the forest and floating between grossly goopy sexual interludes, Kay’s search for the truth becomes more intense.
Debut features surrounding cryptids are always worth looking into. But in focusing on an unreliable narrator struggling with the nature of reality and a story turning towards the psychosexual, this goopy mystery sounds much more than enticing — it’s absolutely beguiling. After ooze-crusted filmic odysseys like After Blue (Dirty Paradise) heralded cinematic explorations of identity through dubious, horny lenses (see also: She is Conann), Kourtney Roy’s Kryptic seems to want to continue wandering this path of analogous filmmaking. We’re all for it. –Fritz Couture
Cuckoo
After years of hearing no updates on Cuckoo, NEON and Elevation Pictures have brought the highly anticipated thriller to Montréal. Hunter Schafer stars as a teenager forced to work alongside her father in the German Alps. As a woman attacks her things escalate from there, as the film explores themes of trauma.
Director Tilman Singer’s previous film Luz played at Fantasia back in 2018, establishing him as a major voice to look out for. Cuckoo has already played festivals like the Berlin International Film Festival and the Overlook Film Festival and currently holds an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. After the film’s Fantasia run, horror fans can check it out in theaters on August 9th. –Matt Minton
Hell Hole
A U.S.-led fracking crew unearths a long-dead French soldier from centuries past, awakening a sleeping creature within the desolate Serbian wilderness. Now it’s desperate to complete its gestation cycle. As the crew is grossly unprepared to deal with the dangerous creature, they must survive its attempt to find a new host to breed above ground.
Directed by John Adams and Toby Poser, Hell Hole is the latest from the Catskills’s coolest horror filmmaking family. If this already feels like an homage to The Thing/Thing From Another World, it’s probably on purpose. All we know is that we need more snowbound horror, and this being the first feature the Adams shot outside their biome (in Serbia no less) means they’re getting the attention they deserve. With Todd Masters leading special effects (The Perfection, 2019’s Child’s Play, American Mary) and the Adams family’s signature rock soundtrack sound, this body horror flick aims for a slime-ridden examination into corporeal autonomy, gender, and environmental fears. Who among us hasn’t wondered at what horrible things may forever be dormant underneath rapidly melting ice and snow? Whether you have a womb or not, this film may make you feel like you could. –Fritz Couture
The 2024 Fantasia Fest runs from July 18th to August 4th. You can purchase your tickets here.
Anya is an avid film watcher, blogger and podcaster. You can read her words on film at letterboxd and medium, and hear their voice on movies, monsters, and other weird things on Humanoids From the Deep Dive every other Monday. In their “off” time they volunteer as a film projectionist, reads fiction & nonfiction, comics, and plays video games until it’s way too late.
