When I’m at South by Southwest in Austin, I always seek out movies playing at the Alamo Drafthouse, so I can enjoy their food and drink during the movie. Well, Fantastic Fest is an entire festival at the Alamo Drafthouse, where I can blow through their menu twice over in a week. In many ways it is the most communal film festival, since it takes place entirely in one location and all attendees remain at the Drafthouse to socialize all week.
I also love the kinds of films Fantastic Fest selects. Most film festivals have a midnight section for edgy horror movies or just plain weird stuff. Fantastic Fest is like a whole week of midnight movies. They get some mainstream titles like Tusk and John Wick and some prestige films like Cannes’ Critics Week winner The Tribe, but it all fits an edgy, weird aesthetic.
This year’s Fantastic Fest lineup was so strong that I singled out eight movies, and there were still so many more that were worth seeing, if not a full review. It just shows that even the Fantastic Fest movies that fall through the cracks are worthwhile themselves. Here is my final recap of Fantastic Fest movies, focusing on the movies you may likely hear about in the next year as they find distribution after their festival runs.
Slideshow: Fantastic Fest 2014 Recap
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline and the man behind Best Episode Ever and The Shelf Space Awards. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
Fantastic Fest 2014 Recap
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From the Dark
What begins as a standard “couple driving through remote village and shouldn’t have stopped” movie ultimately elevates itself with a strong style and a kick-ass heroine. Mark (Stephen Cromwell) and Sarah (Niamh Algar) get stuck in the mud (Nice going, Mark) and when they seek help, an infected farmer attacks them. From the Dark lives up to its title. It is really dark, and it’s also largely silent action as the couple elude the monster and defend themselves with no one really to talk to. From the Dark doesn’t reinvent the genre, but it does it well and we may hear a lot from Algar in the future.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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Horsehead
I still don’t know much about Giallos, but if all it means is crazy montages of weird imagery, then Horsehead is one of the best ones. Jessica (Lilly-Fleur Pointeaux) returns home for her grandmother’s funeral and has to sleep in a room next to the body. She’s a pretty good sport about it, but it gives her nightmares full of beautiful horrific imagery, sometimes erotically horrific. The nightmares ultimately reveal family secrets, and it’s well acted and told, but really the plot is just filler between the awesome images.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
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I Am Here
Bravo to Kim Basinger for taking on this harrowing drama. Basinger plays Maria, a woman who can’t have a baby. Working in Europe, she hears about a city where they sell babies into prostitution and thinks she can rescue one. The film isn’t afraid to ask big questions and beat up its heroine, and Basinger plays it trembling, traumatized but never making a big show.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
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It Follows
David Robert Mitchell’s first film, The Myth of the American Sleepover, was a gentle drama interweaving character stories like Dazed and Confused. His “follow” up It Follows focuses on one group of characters with a similar tone, and a horrific twist. Jay (Maika Monroe) finds herself cursed by a spirit that follows her wherever she goes. It’s slow, but persistent, and her friends can’t see it but they still try to help battle this invisible force. Like Myth, it’s still a story of friends hanging out but now it’s to watch each other’s backs as the following spirit spreads. The horror strikes the right balance of graphic and subtle, and captures the spirit of the original Nightmare on Elm Street as kids stick together to try to protect each other and fight an evil entity.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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Let Us Prey
Like From the Dark, Let Us Prey is a solid, if not extraordinary, horror tale featuring a badass heroine. Constable Rachel Heggie (Polyanna McIntosh) takes a hit and run driver into custody. In the holding cells, a mysterious prisoner (Liam Cunningham) plays the cops and crooks against each other. The hows and whys put a good twist on the genre, and no matter how crazy it gets, you’ll be rooting for Rachel.
Rating: 6 out of 10
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Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s The Island of Dr. Moreau
Documentaries about movies that never happened have become a genre, and I like it. After Lost in La Mancha and Jodorowsky’s Dune, Lost Soul gives us not only a look at the Island of Dr. Moreau movie Richard Stanley wanted to make, but an inside look at everything that went wrong through the final film that John Frankenheimer took over. The stories are outrageous and amusing, and well structured so you have a Brando section, a Val Kilmer section, etc. I want this genre to continue. Now I want to see films about Aronofsky’s Roobocop, Favreau’s John Carter of Mars and Stallone’s Death Wish!
Rating: 7 out of 10
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My Life Directed By Nicolas Winding Refn
This documentary by Refn’s wife Liv Corfixen offers a revealing, intimate look at the filmmaker’s insecurities and vulnerabilities while shooting Only God Forgives in Bangkok. For a filmmaker I always assumed was so confident he didn’t care what anybody thinks (in a good way), it’s very humanizing. Though only an hour long, it gets in and gets out while making its point. Ryan Gosling makes himself completely accessible too, so really it’s a brand new Ryan Gosling/Nicolas Winding Refn movie for fans!
Rating: 7 out of 10
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Norway
Norway is a Greek Only Lovers Left Alive but instead of brooding, the vampire dances. Zano (Vangelis Mourikis) is a vampire who has to keep dancing. He explains why, but still seems like one of those A-holes who just can’t sit still, except Zano is actually compelling when he moves. In Greece in 1984, Zano follows a couple out of a dance club on a journey that climaxes in a crazily satisfying third act.
Rating: 7.5 out of 10
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Redeemer
Chilean martial artist Marko Zaror has been impressive in films like Undisputed III and Machete Kills, and his own Spanish language movies with director Ernesto Diaz Espinosa. Their latest Chilean vehicle features Zaror’s strongest choreography yet, showing a lot of moves within a single shot, and some speed combos that rival The Raid’s Silat. The penultimate one on one in a warehouse is awesome, and the final showdown ain’t bad either. Zaror plays an avenger for hire (or for free, rather, as long as it’s a good cause) and the way he asks God to condone his vengeance is pretty badass. CG gunshots and other technical imperfections are distracting but we should focus on the vehicle for the real deal Zaror.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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Wastelander Panda: Exile
Of the two Australian post-apocalyptic action movies at Fantastic Fest, I actually liked the one starring pandas a little more! Although why wouldn’t I? Pandas are awesome. These six episodes of the Australian web series “Wastelander Panda” create a Jim Henson-like world where humanoid pandas are simply other characters in the film. The action is unfortunately shakycam but that makes it comparable to the usual modern American action. The pandas are captivating and sympathetic, which is all you want from any main characters.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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The World of Kanako
Chilean martial artist Marko Zaror has been impressive in films like Undisputed III and Machete Kills, and his own Spanish language movies with director Ernesto Diaz Espinosa. Their latest Chilean vehicle features Zaror’s strongest choreography yet, showing a lot of moves within a single shot, and some speed combos that rival The Raid’s Silat. The penultimate one on one in a warehouse is awesome, and the final showdown ain’t bad either. Zaror plays an avenger for hire (or for free, rather, as long as it’s a good cause) and the way he asks God to condone his vengeance is pretty badass. CG gunshots and other technical imperfections are distracting but we should focus on the vehicle for the real deal Zaror.
Rating: 7 out of 10
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Wyrmwood
It is a miracle that the Australian zombie action movie shot over four years is coherent, let alone energetic and thrilling. Kiah and Tristan Roache-Turner have a few inventive twists on the zombie genre, notably using zombies as fuel and also having one character able to control zombies, like a zombie Aquaman. There’s a great scene where the main characters all learn the new rules of the zombie world. The Walking Dead quality makeup also elevates Wyrmwood above the slew of cheap zombie knockoffs, although it is unfortunate the heroine spends most of the movie tied up in a lab and the Sam Raimi camera angles are paying a little more than homage. Still, you can’t help but be happy for the Roache-Turner brothers that they pulled it off.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
