The 2022 Fantasia Film Festival is upon us and we here at the Grindhouse are digging through the spoils to spotlight some of our most anticipated offerings. From animation to sci fi and everything in between, films and shorts spanning the globe and the genre spectrum alike are coming together for audiences to feast their hungry eyes upon. Dario Argento’s long awaited return to film DARK GLASSES makes its Canadian premiere. The world premiere of a new entry in the RINGU series, SADAKO DX, breaks into the world of horror comedy. Fan favorites from festivals the world over are strutting their stuff, and there’s even a transcendent immersive experience on offer for one of horror’s own godfathers: Edgar Allen Poe. All this and more make this year’s Fantasia Fest another unmissable one for the books. Without further ado, let’s dig into some of the most promising genre features on offer!
With over 130 features and 200 shorts to dig into, there’s sure to be something for everyone. Combing through the list, it seems horror fans in particular will find a plethora of goodies to look forward to, no matter what subgenre you call home.
ALL JACKED UP AND FULL OF WORMS (US) Dir. Alex Phillips
Inspired by the likes of Cassavetes and Hennenlotter, Alex Phillips’ world premiering micro-budgeted creature feature nightmare was shot amid the pandemic and uses its twisted tale of a man desperate for fresh air who stumbles into a drug-fueled nightmare to bring you a squirming gross-out journey through previously unseen depths of hell somewhere between TRAINSPOTTING, BRAIN DAMAGE, and VIDEODROME that remind us sometimes there are worlds out there where nothing is real and everything is permitted. Become one with the dirt! Embrace your full potential! Plumb its wormy depths!
THE BREACH (Canada) Dir. Rodrigo Gudiño
Rue Morgue president Rodrigo Gudiño is back with his second feature film, based on the audible original by Canadian horror author Nick Cutter. Dancing the intersections between a fresh take on haunted houses and a sprinkle of Lovecraftian nightmares, this tale of a small town police chief called in to an unusual case unfolds into a dark, dangerous mystery with scientific intrigue and tense relationship dynamics at its center. The town of Lone Crow has never seen anything like this before, and the resulting intense performances and skin-crawling atmosphere is sure to linger with audiences just the same.
COUPEZ! (France) Dir. Michel Hazanavicius
Perhaps the most unorthodox Cannes opener to date, Michel Hazanavicius’ remake of the Japanese sensation ONE CUT OF THE DEAD is making its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia Fest and hoping to prove that remaking modern classics is both possible and an immense amount of fun. Embodying the same spirit of a love for filmmaking as the original and mixing it with Hazanvicius’ signature brand of visual wit, COUPEZ! is out to bring the same infectious joy and bloody good time as its predecessor while standing on its own two feet.
CULT HERO (Canada) Dir. Jesse T. Cook
When control freak realtor Kallie Jones’ (Liv Collins) husband extends his stay at a men’s retreat against her wishes, she begins to suspect he’s been indoctrinated into a cult and soon calls in the aid of PI/cult buster Dale Domazar (Ry Barrett). Aiming to uncover the group’s secrets while pursuing his own redemption, Dale is soon tossed into mayhem. This world premiere blend of self-help and reality tv parody features gore, outrageous performances, and unlikely heroes in what guarantees to be an unusual flick whos energy makes it perfect for midnight consumption.
DARK GLASSES (Italy) Dir. Dario Argento
Argento’s first return to screen in a decade makes its Canadian premiere. Blinded after an accident, sex worker Diana (Ilenia Pastorelli) must balance adjusting to her new life with dodging the clutches of a maniac responsible for both her disabling accident and multiple murders of other call girls. While the overall tone might be slightly more pared down than Argento’s history would suggest, his pairing with longtime collaborators makeup effects artist Sergio Stivaletti and writer Franco Ferrini ensures the graphic red-drenched screen we all know and love with a story of survival against madness.
DARK NATURE (Canada) Dir. Berkley Brady
Writer-director Berkley Brady’s highly anticipated first horror feature making its world premiere is a tense exploration through the depths of our fears and the things that haunt us. While on a retreat through the Rocky Mountains to heal after escaping an abusive relationship, Joy (Hannah Emily Anderson, JIGSAW, X-MEN: DARK PHOENIX) begins to worry her abusive ex is following the group through the wilderness. Soon plagued with nightmares and flashbacks, the women start to sense something far more sinister afoot, and the path to heal from their traumas might be the first steps into something far darker than they imagined.
THE ELDERLY (Spain) Dir. Fernando Gonzalez Gomez and Raul Cerezo
Spain is no stranger to bringing the terror that goes right for your heart, and THE ELDERLY is making its world premiere and searing its mark on your psyche. Grounded in exploring the indignities of old age, it begins as a tale of a man who develops dementia following his wife’s death and quickly devolves into a violent, horrific spectacle rife with images that cannot be unseen and a dark journey with the paranormal, Fernando Gonzalez Gomez and Raul Cerezo have crafted an inspired and horrifying new vision of Spanish horror cinema.
EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH (Belgium) Dir. Véronique Jadin
Monsters and spirits and serial murderers aren’t the only things going bump in the night of Fantasia Fest. EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH is a darkly comedic dive into workplace sexism through the lens of one woman’s journey to be compensated for her dedication in the face of an abysmal gender pay gap discovery. The Canadian premiere of Jadin’s feature directorial debut is at turns nail-bitingly tense and riotously funny, heartbreaking and hilariously gory. You might squirm, you might gasp, but you’ll definitely cheer for the women of this workplace as they demand their space and compensation through whatever means necessary.
THE FIFTH THORACIC VERTEBRA (South Korea) Dir. Park Syeyoung
As unconventional in its approach as it is poignant, Park Syeyoung’s feature debut FIFTH THORACIC VERTEBRA is a monster movie of a different breed. Told from the perspective of and following the life of a mold growing on the mattress of a recently broken up couple, it builds toward an unusual birth while exploring the depths of loneliness and consuming the spines of all who rest upon the mattress. At once an exploration of soft romanticism and the confines of human abilities, VERTEBRA is a creature feature with a new kind of heart beating at its core, and the most central kind of all.
GLORIOUS (US) Dir. Rebekah McKendry
Rest stop bathrooms are almost universally guaranteed to be the grimiest of places. Certainly not somewhere you want to spend too much time, even in an emergency. Yet, following a night of heartbreak and drunken revelry, that’s just where Wes (Ryan Kwanten) finds himself in his desperate search for a place to literally spill his guts. The mysterious voice from the next stall over has questions before Wes can leave, however. And what they unveil spans one of the most memorable, offbeat single setting experience. Genre journalist and podcaster McKendry and her team have created a grimy, funny, twisted, lightly Lovecraftian piece of work certain to linger in your mind long after you’ve left the stall.
MISSING (Japan, South Korea) Dir. Shinzo Katayama
A depressed man in desperate financial straits goes missing while in pursuit of a serial killer. His daughter, confused about his ideas but concerned for her father’s safety, soon goes looking for him. This North American premiere Japanese/South Korean coproduction from former assistant director to Bong Joon-ho unfolds in immediately subversive ways, constantly shifting perspectives and motivations until the only thing we’re sure of is the tension, the moral stakes, and the evil of man.
MOLOCH (Netherlands) Dir. Nico Van den Brink
There’s nothing quite like a good ghost story to plummet you into just the right spooky mood, and with the international premiere of his feature debut MOLOCH, Nico Van den Brink is out to prove horror has depths yet unexplored. When an archeological dig of a bog brings up more than just old bones, the people of a remote town begin to fall sway to occult forces in this powerful exploration of Dutch folk horror designed to “break open the genre in the Netherlands”. A grotesque, atmospheric nightmare wrapped in an electronic score, MOLOCH is certain to continue the filmmaker’s journey as a new name to be revered in a genre constantly ripe for new digging.
LA PIETA (Spain) Dir. Eduardo Casanova
A toxic and unusual relationship between mother and son is taken to new and grotesque heights in this North American premiere from Eduardo Casanova. Often considered the Spanish John Waters, Casanova would rather lean into the land of camp and gore, sex, and bodily fluids than try to keep them separate. This nightmarish fairy tale of power and control drives the mad mother trope to its most extreme limits, blurring fantasy and reality until they become both outlandish and indistinguishable.
PIGGY (Spain) Dir. Carlota Pereda
Carlota Pereda’s feature debut about a young overweight teen facing the equally crushing forces of incessant bullying and overbearing families made its world premiere at Sundance to wide acclaim, and is coming to Fantasia for its Quebec premiere. Interrogating themes of loneliness and the long term effects of trauma, PIGGY‘s unique style and approach ensures it will be a talking point of anger and emotional catharsis for all audiences, especially those who have had to face against suffocating forces in their formative years.
SADAKO DX (Japan) Dir. Hisashi Kimura
The ever-evolving RINGU series continues in the world premiere of this latest installment, in which Sadako’s curse has taken on a new pace and a new tone. With just 24 hours between viewing the video and death, the stakes couldn’t be higher, but the SADAKO DX aims to approach it within the heretofore unexplored land of comedic self-mockery. At once an exploration of the mutating curse’s ever increasing stakes and Sadako’s ever-innovative approaches and unafraid to make light of its predecessors, Kimura’s film still manages to bring the chills along with the humor.
SKINAMARINK (Canada) Dir. Kyle Ball
Remember those childhood nightmares of being alone in a house but not really alone? Director Kyle Edward Ball’s experimental feature debut plumbs the depths of nightmarish visions and uncanny landscapes as its child protagonists struggle to understand the otherworldly nature of their new, windowless, doorless surroundings. The constantly shifting lingering feel of the mundane builds to create an unconventional but no less affecting sense of dread most familiar to the hearts of our childhoods.
SPEAK NO EVIL (Denmark) Dir. Christian Tafdrup
Making its Canadian premiere at Fantasia, SPEAK NO EVIL is a tense, venomous look at how far we can allow our sensibilities of politeness to be pushed before lines are irrevocably crossed. Partly inspired by an encounter the director and his girlfriend had with a forcefully friendly couple while on vacation, this engrossingly terrifying exploration begins as comedy of manners in Tuscany and devolves into unparalleled psychological flaying against the ever-isolating backdrop of a remote cabin. Official selection of Sundance 2022.
Tags: Alex Phillips, All Jacked Up and Full of Worms, Berkley Brady, Brain Damage, Carlota Pereda, Christian Tafdrup, Coupez, Cult Hero, dario argento, Dark Glasses, Dark Nature, Eduardo Casanova, Employee of the Month, Fantasia Film Festival, Fernando Gonzalez Gomex, Film Festivals, Franco Ferrini, Glorious, Hisashi Kimura, Ilenia Pastorelli, Jesse T Cook, Kyle Ball, La Pieta, Liv Collins, Michel Hazanavicius, Missing, Moloch, Nico Van den Brink, One Cut of the Dead, Park Syeyoung, Piggy, Raul Cerezo, Rebekah McKendry, Ringu, Rodrigo Gudino, Rue Morgue, Ry Barrett, Sadako DX, Sergio Stivaletti, Shinzo Katayama, Skinamarink, Speak No Evil, The Breach, The Elderly, The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, Trainspotting, Veronique Jadin, Videodrome
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