STIR OF ECHOES steelbook (Lionsgate)

Stir of Echoes
Directed and written by David Koepp, based on the novel by Richard Matheson
Starring Kevin Bacon, Kathryn Erbe, Illeana Douglas, Kevin Dunn
Running time 1 hour and 39 minutes
Rated R by the MPA for violence, sexuality and language
On 4K, Blu-ray, and digital Dec. 10th from Lionsgate

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, Staff Writer and Podcast Director

Synopsis:

Tom Witzky (Kevin Bacon) is a blue-collar worker, a family man, the most ordinary guy in the world...who is about to be plunged into a shattering encounter with another world. And it doesn't matter that Tom doesn't believe in the supernatural. Because something supernatural has started to believe in Tom. After he is hypnotized at a neighborhood party, Tom changes. He sees things he can't explain and hears voices he can't ignore. As the horrific visions intensify, Tom realizes they are pieces of a puzzle, echoes of a crime calling out to be solved. But when his other-worldly nightmares begin coming true, Tom wants out. He desperately tries to rid himself of his eerie, unwanted powers - only to be seized by an irresistible compulsion to dig deeper and deeper into the mystery that is consuming his life. When at last he unearths the truth, it will draw him into the long-buried secret of a ghastly crime, a vengeful spirit...and the lethal price of laying that spirit to rest.

What Features Make it Special:

• Audio Commentary with Director David Koepp
• Visions of the Past: Re-visiting Stir of Echoes (2024 NEW featurette)
• Establishing Shot with Fred Murphy (2024 NEW featurette)
• Flipping the Switch: Directing Stir of Echoes
• Maggie's Memories: Inside Stir of Echoes
• Opening the Door: Designing Stir of Echoes
• Making of Stir of Echoes
• Sight of Spirits: Channeling the Paranormal
• Behind the Echoes
• The Mind's Eye: Beneath the Trance
• Special Effects
• Production Design
• Interviews with Cast and Crew
• Behind the Scenes
• Scene Comparisons
• Screen Tests
• Deleted Scenes
• Promotional Materials
• Breathe Original Music Video
• Theatrical Trailer

Why You Need to Add it to Your Media Library:

Beyond its solid pedigree-- based on a novel by genre legend Richard Matheson, with a stacked cast of talented character actors-- Stir of Echoes is an intimate portrait of growing madness, the dark heart of even the most serene neighborhood. From an effects standpoint, it relies mostly on the practical, with camera tricks and clever edits building an ever-present tension. It's not flashy, it's just a well-built thriller with some real chills and the exact right amount of supernaturality.

Confoundingly, even up into the last few years, it was rarely streamable until around the spooky season, making physical media a must. It's for that reason that I've held on to my original DVD-- with its silly plastic slipcover with black ...ectoplasm (?) on it--- for so long; I love introducing folks to this flick! Despite being reasonably well-received when it premiered, Stir of Echoes remains somewhat of an under-seen prize. The problem with Stir of Echoes is that it's a slow-build supernatural thriller that came out in 1999, but it isn't The Sixth Sense, so nobody really noticed.

And this version is ostensibly the best-looking one yet! In the Establishing Shot special feature, cinematographer Fred Murphy and 4K colorist Kostas Theodosiou detail the processes by which the 4K was constructed and fine-tuned, and it's very interesting if you're into the nitty-gritty of how these sorts of projects are accomplished. While both Murphy and Theodosiou are adamant about maintaining the spirit of the film, they're now able to fine-tune aspects that they weren't able to in the past; brightening one area of a scene, better balancing the lighting in between a shot and its reverse; things like that. The small tweaks the filmmakers wish they had the time and money for from the start. So make space on your shelf for this one, and watch it any time you like. Ghosts don't care what time of year it is so why should you?

Stir of Echoes is available on 4K, Blu-ray, and digital Dec. 10th from Lionsgate

KRAVEN THE HUNTER (2024)

Kraven the Hunter
Directed by J.C. Chandor
Written by Richard Wenk and Art Marcum & Matt Holloway
Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Russell Crowe, Alessandro Nivola, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger
Running time 2 hours and 7 minutes
Rated R by the MPA for strong bloody violence, and language
In theaters December 13

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, Staff Writer and Podcast Director

Everyone hoping for a threepeat embarrassing failure like Morbius and Madame Web can put their knives away. Kraven has plenty of knives already.

Drawing on Richard Connell's 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game-- the ur text for all human-hunting in popular culture-- the comicbook character Kraven was introduced in the early '60s as a villain for Spider-Man. The nepo baby son of a Russian crimelord, the man known as Kraven was a big game hunter who came to New York to hunt Spidey; decidedly a greater challenge than your average man. Over the years, Kraven has died, been resurrected, passed down the mantle to his assorted kids, and occasionally united with heroes against greater threats.

The Sony/Columbia/Marvel version of the character is, much like Venom (and to a lesser extent, Morbius), playing up the character's few moments of vigilante antiheroism. Aaron Taylor-Johnson's Kraven is a man who rejects his father's evil empire, and the assumption that he would one day grow to take it over. He lives alone on some family land in Siberia, keeping his animal friends safe from poachers and occasionally hunting down evil men like his father-- but importantly, NOT his father.

In the sixteen years since he left home, he's gotten in incredible shape, and become a bit of a crime world urban legend: The Hunter. Hmm... a well-traveled rich kid with mommy/daddy damage uses his privilege and fortune to strike fear into the heart of criminals as a mononymed boogeyman... That's correct, studious reader, Sony are trying to have their cake (Spider-Man related audience recognition and draw) and eat it too (but he's Batman).

In their desire to make a more grounded Nolan-like superhero film, they have actually concocted a decent narrative with battling crime families and a good deal of satisfying violence. Dead meat goons are exsanguinated by blades, fall victim to traps and poisons, and one notably gets split in half! There is CGI bloodmist aplenty! Kraven, like a certain bat-themed gentleman, doesn't use guns. He drops a throw-away explanatory line about a true hunter "only using what you were born with", but then constantly uses knives, arrows, and other weapons he was not born with to kill his 'prey'. That self-owning tendency for screenwriters Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, and Matt Holloway to try to justify or explain everything is indicative of the big problem with Kraven as a film: it's trying SO HARD that it distracts from the fun you're having.

That's been an issue with all of Sony's non-Venom projects: the movies are so concerned with making the audience take silly stuff seriously, and promising future installments that they fail to properly embrace the silliness and make a truly engaging movie NOW, paradoxically ensuring that these promised future films never get made. Where Kraven stands apart is the movie happening now-- squished in between abundant backstory and a good deal of the aforementioned Sony Franchise Assurance Sickness©-- is actually good. It is at least not bad and it's nowhere near the disasters that Morbius (2022) and Madame Web (2024) were.

Aaron Taylor-Johnson is fun here, and carries the self-seriousness of this character pretty well. This shouldn't be a shock as ATJ has been regularly bringing it for years now, but I was pleasantly surprised by some supporting performances. Russell Crowe is, of course, doing his Russell Crowe thing-- which lately has consisted of being the only man Hollywood thinks can do an accent-- but it works just fine. Fred Hechinger as Kraven's cowering half-brother Dmitri gave me all the enjoyment of twitchy, early Joaquin Phoenix (a good thing); Alessandro Nivola makes a meal and a half out of his nascent crime lord with a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde condition; and Ariana DeBose does a fantastic job making her somewhat under-written occultist/lawyer play as really likable.

Yes, "occultist/lawyer". I told you there was silliness-- it's comicbooks, the silliness is implied!-- but even at Kraven's lowest points, it's just a bit corny. At the high points, it's really fun. ATJ doing parkour down the side of a luxury hotel, or throwing spears through a helicopter, or reading license plates from blocks away using his predator-vision-- like, in the bird of prey sense, not the Predator film series sense, even though that one does have its own famous POV-- it's the kind of cinematic junk food that appeals to me as a fan of genre silliness like Crank 2 (2009) or Face/Off (1997).

Ultimately, Kraven the Hunter is perfectly fine. Good, even. It could be better, but as we are well aware, it could have been SO MUCH worse. In a way, that's the greatest disappointment of the film as an object. Sony have apparently called it quits on their Spider-Man spin-off universe, so their delivering a half-decent offering feels like when your ex gives you a gift they bought before your split. Bittersweet. I'd sure enjoy this a lot more if I didn't know things were over.

Kraven the Hunter is in Theaters Friday, Dec. 13th, 2024

As a silly little bonus thing, here's a drawing I did of Kraven back in 2014:

SCALA!!! (Severin)

Scala!!! or, The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits
Directed by Ali Catterall, Jane Giles
Written by Ali Catterall, Jane Giles
Featuring John Waters, Mary Harron, Beeban Kidron, Ralph Brown, Peter Strickland, others
Running time 1 hour and 36 minutes
Currently unrated, but contains profanity, discussions of sex, violence, self-harm, drug & alcohol use, and numerous film clips featuring same

On Blu-ray, available Dec. 3rd from Severin Films
Purchase HERE

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, contributor, host and Podcast Czar

Synopsis:

From 1978 to 1993, the Scala Cinema was a haven for outcasts, weirdos, and members of all countercultures great and small. Scala!!! or, The Incredibly Strange Rise and Fall of the World's Wildest Cinema and How It Influenced a Mixed-up Generation of Weirdos and Misfits - the documentary in question, henceforth to be known only as Scala!!! - gives an insight into the historical, cultural, and cinematic impact that one simple picture palace can have.

From its inception, through a change of venue, at a tense and bitter time in London, and up until the (frankly ridiculous) events that lead to its final days, the Scala Cinema had an impact on the lives of uncountable folks who passed through its doors. Filmmakers Ali Catterall and Jane Giles (who is a former employee of the theater) allow dozens of these souls to share their recollections of the Scala - good, bad, and ugly.

With copious clips from the Scala back catalogue of films, and music of the era paired with interviews from employees, frequenters, and notable patrons - including John Waters (Pink Flamingos), Mary Harron (American Psycho), Beeban Kidron (To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything! Julie Newmar), Ralph Brown (Withnail and I), and Peter Strickland (In Fabric), among others - Scala!!! paints an engrossing picture of the famed London cinema across its rich history.

What Features Make it Special:

• Disc One
• Audio Commentary With Co-Directors Jane Giles And Ali Catterall
• Introduction From The UK Premiere At The 2023 BFI London Film Festival
• Introduction To SCALA By Director Michael Clifford
• SCALA (Michael Clifford, 1990)
• SCALA CINEMA (Ali Peck/Victor de Jesus, 1992)
• Director Commentary For SCALA CINEMA
• Scala Programs 1978–1993
• Cabinet Of Curiosities – Inside The Scala Archive
• Extended Interviews
• Mary Harron Outtakes
• Nick Kent Outtakes
• Thurston Moore Outtakes
• John Waters Outtakes
• Cartoons By Davey Jones
• Osbert Parker's SCALA!!! Animation Experiments And Outtakes
• Primatarium Animation
• Scala Programs Animation
• Tentacles Animation
• Trailer
• Disc Two
• Short Films
• DIVIDE AND RULE – NEVER! (Newsreel Collective, 1978)
• DEAD CAT (David Lewis, 1989)
• David Lewis Remembers DEAD CAT
• THE MARK OF LILITH (Bruna Fionda/Polly Gladwin/Zachary Nataf, 1986)
• RELAX (Chris Newby, 1991)
• BOOBS A LOT (Aggy Read, 1968)
• KAMA SUTRA RIDES AGAIN (Bob Godfrey, 1971)
• COPING WITH CUPID (Viv Albertine, 1991)
• ON GUARD (Susan Lambert, 1984)
• Disc Three
• Documentaries
• THE ART OF THE CALENDAR (Kier-La Janisse, 2024)
• SPLATTERFEST EXHUMED (Jasper Sharp, 2024)
• Short Films
• MANIAC 2: MR. ROBBIE (Buddy Giovinazzo, 1986)
• Audio Commentary For MANIAC 2: MR. ROBBIE With Buddy Giovinazzo
• HORRORSHOW (Paul Hart-Wilden, 1990)
• Audio Commentary For HORRORSHOW With Director Paul Hart-Wilden
• CLEVELAND SMITH: BOUNTY HUNTER (Josh Becker, 1982) – Original Cut
• CLEVELAND SMITH: BOUNTY HUNTER (Josh Becker, 1982) – Producer's Cut
• Audio Commentary For The Producer's Cut Of CLEVELAND SMITH: BOUNTY HUNTER With Producer Scott Spiegel
• MONGOLITOS (Stéphane Ambiel, 1988)
• Audio Commentary For MONGOLITOS With Director Stéphane Ambiel
• The Legendary H.G. Lewis Speaks – 1989 Scala Appearance By The Godfather Of Gore

[disc pics]

Why You Need to Add it to Your Library:

It might seem like a bit of a big ask, trying to explain why you should buy a 3-disc set exploring the history of a theater you may have no prior knowledge of, and I get that. But as the main documentary rolled along, I came to realize that I was familiar, in passing, with the Scala. I've read millions of words over the years on the history of punk, and the history of underground cinema, and the Scala is firmly intertwined in those legacies. Lou Reed and Iggy and The Stooges first shows in the U.K., the U.K. premier of Return of the Living Dead, among so much else - all happened in that building! 

Beyond that, the Scala was a place of great emotional and personal importance to the people who worked there or frequented it. I have been lucky enough to have had a few of those locations in my life, so seeing people attempt to explain why it felt like such a magical time and place rang as very familiar to me. A lot of us are outsiders, and found family is such an important, special and powerful thing to an outsider. My impression is that the Scala family were those people for each other, and that's just beautiful.

Scala!!! is a document of an important location, but more than that - a moment, in cinema for a whole bevy of budding filmmakers, artists and other creatives. It's important to document that these places existed so that we know it's possible - they can exist again, we just might have to make them. Without overtly meaning to, Scala!!! puts the impetus on us to be the change we want to see in the world. It doesn't always have to mean boots-in-the-street activism, it can mean carving out a space where folks can have their minds expanded, and a space where they can feel safe being themselves.

The disc set also comes with a replica Scala Cinema screening calendar and membership card. Plus the 13 hours (!!!) of bonus features include enough short films to set up your own mini-Scala Cinema screenings in your living room, which is a good start.

Scala!!! is available on Blu-ray Dec. 3rd from Severin Films
Purchase HERE

HIRUKO THE GOBLIN (1991)

Hiruko the Goblin
Dig up this hidden gem about digging up a monster!

by "Doc" Hunter Bush - contributor, host, and podcast czar

Hiruko the Goblin is a SpookyJawn-friendly ghost story combining monster-hunting elements, a dash of teenage melodrama, a hint of ominous prophecy, and some really fantastic and varied practical effects. Based on a manga by Daijirô Morohoshi, and directed by Shin'ya Tsukamoto (director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)), the movie was originally released in 1991. It was remastered in 2021 for its 30th anniversary for a brief return to theaters and a blu-ray release from Mondo Macabro, which was where I was lucky enough to finally lay eyes on it.

I had heard of it in some circles, almost always being positively compared to (one of my favorite films) The Evil Dead (1981), alongside a film with the incredibly memorable title Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (1995). These films - their titles at least - were some of my first in-roads to Japanese horror. Over the years they, as well as Nobuhiko Ôbayashi's House (a.k.a. Hausu) (1977) were the titles that I kept hearing about but never seemed to catch on in popular culture. Oldboy, Ichi the Killer, and etc. would become popular, or something like The Ring (a.k.a. Ringu) or Ju-On: The Grudge would get U.S. remakes, and eventually the originals could be found on the shelf of the video store, but it took for-ev-er to finally track down Hiruko, House (thanks, Criterion!), and Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (thanks, Visual Vengeance!). Just a casual reminder to support physical media!

If, like me, you watched The Last Drive-In Nightmareathon on Shudder at the end of August, you might have also seen BMBBiH. While I think that film totally earns its sobriquet as "the Japanese Evil Dead", it does so by lovingly copying the original. Hiruko the Goblin on the other hand, more accurately captures the feeling, energy, and humor of Evil Dead while being playing in a totally different space for the most part.

I mean, it's a haunted location movie. I should get that out of the way. The title Hiruko the Goblin can be a little misleading. There are monsters, but for the first big chunk of the film they act largely more like ghosts than something like the Gremlins or Critters from their respective franchises. Hiruko is a yōkai, a catch-all term for Japanese spirit that, in practical usage, is highly contextual. There are legions of yōkai, some being mean-spirited, some benevolent, and some almost neutral. The translation to "goblin" seems to designate Hiruko as either small or more animalistic (one character consciously corrects himself from calling it a "demon") but still troublesome and dangerous. I bring this up so that we're all on the same page: Hiruko is not what you might think of as a "traditional" goblin.

But, oh man, this is a fun movie.

After a cold open involving an archaeologist and one of his students being beset by some unseen force, we're introduced to Masao (Masaki Kudou) and his friends, sneaking onto school grounds in the off-season to retrieve a hidden stash of beers and looking to spend the day by the lake. They're driven off by the scythe-wielding groundskeeper / janitor Watanabe (Hideo Murota) and split up. Just as Masao is about to be pounced upon by the unseen evil (the camera seeing through its eyes, à la Evil Dead), he is rescued by his uncle Hieda Reijirou (Kenji Sawada), a paranormal investigator.

Turns out, the archaeologist from the cold open is one of the school's teachers, AND is Masao's father, AND is missing, which is what brought Hieda to town. He had been corresponding with Masao's father and they both believed the dig site was potentially supernatural. Now they're smack dab in the middle of things.

The first chunk of the movie is all dramatic irony. We the audience know the movie is called Hiruko the Goblin, but Masao, his friends, and uncle Hieda all seem to think the occasional decapitated bodies they've been coming across are the work of Watanabe and his scythe. Even when things begin to really push the envelope with regards to believability, the film never becomes frustrating or tiresome. Everything moves at such a brisk pace that it's almost impossible to be mad at anything. There's also Hieda.

Hieda is a bit scattered. He gives off an Egon Spengler type of energy what with his DIY spirit detector gear. Added to that, he and Masao spend a lot of time fleeing danger through the halls and across the grounds of the school precariously balanced on a single bicycle. It's really charming and he would be easy to see as purely a comic relief character, but he has a tragic backstory that also means Masao is hesitant to trust him completely. The character is written well, with information fed to us piecemeal enough to remain interesting, but actor Kenji Sawada makes it all land just perfectly.

Eventually, Masao and Hieda witness enough that they can no longer pretend this is a slasher flick. It is officially goblin time!

The supernatural elements are initially depicted as the severed heads of Masao's classmates, moving via unnatural means, occasionally with long gnarly tentacle tongues. That's all well and good, and plenty scary, until the creature Pokévolves six huge, gross crab-like legs and starts scuttling up walls and across ceilings (sometimes realized via puppetry, sometimes via stop motion; always perfectly janky)! It's so unsettling! The sound effects develop clicky-clacky noise as the legs move that's just skin-crawling!

Something about the variety of the effects really feels like the Evil Dead films to me. Just that by-any-means, kitchen sink approach to getting an idea in front of an audience. In addition to the creature effects I mentioned, the effects team use some chromakey, great prosthetics, and even (maybe) some animatronics for sequences where the crab legs have to be moving while an actor has to deliver dialogue (although, it's likely that was achieved via more puppetry). It's just so impressive to me as a staunch proponent for practical effects. It warms my haunted heart.

The back half of the film is full of twists and reveals that you couldn't even anticipate: there's Indiana Jones-style tomb raiding, magic, prophecy, the janitor gets actual character development, tons of cool set pieces and effects, and *checks notes* a ghost that looks like the aliens from The Abyss but made out of... let's say "spunk". Hiruko the Goblin never quite gets to the acid-trip gonzo levels of visuals that something like House achieves (but really, what does?) and it's not quite the Evil Dead palette swap that Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell is, but what it is has enough familiar qualities to appeal to a large swath of mainstream horror viewers while also having enough uniqueness to stand out.

I hope you seek this movie out (and honestly any of the ones I've mentioned here) and I hope you like them! Remember to support physical media and champion practical effects wherever you can. Have a safe and happy Spookyjawn, and Long Live the Movies!

CALIGULA: THE ULTIMATE CUT (Unobstructed View)

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
Directed by Tinto Brass 
Written by Gore Vidal
Starring Malcolm McDowell, Helen Mirren, Teresa Ann Savoy, Peter O'Toole
Running time 2 hours and 58 minutes
Currently unrated but contains adult language, drinking, some violence, copious nudity, and other sexual situations.

On DVD & Blu-ray now, coming to digital on Oct. 18th, and as a 4K Box Set on Oct. 22nd, from Unobstructed View

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, contributor, host and Podcast Czar

Synopsis:

Stop me if you've heard this one before: In 1976, Bob Guccione the founder of Penthouse Magazine, renowned novelist and essayist Gore Vidal, and Italian arthouse director Tinto Brass all joined forces to create one of the most hotly-contested and divisive films, arguably of all time. With a classically-trained cast of British stage actors, decadent costumes, and elaborate sets and props - including a full-scale Roman boat that was one of the largest props ever constructed at that time - Caligula was destined to be talked about.

Telling the story of the rise and fall of the infamous emperor (Caesar) of Rome whose four-year reign began with good faith and increasingly slid into corruption, indulgence and perversion. Director Tinto Brass was hired under the auspices of making a film satirizing man's lust for power, and allegedly Gore Vidal's original screenplay was more historically accurate with regards to Caligula's sexuality - early promotional ads for the film even included a quote from the screenplay of Caligula saying "What better proof that I am God. I have a husband. And a wife. I am all that is and shall ever be". However, Bob Guccione had other ideas.

With more dicks than a private eye convention, more boobs than a three stooges marathon, Caligula wouldn't appeal to more puritanical audiences already, but apparently Guccione wanted his production to fully blur the lines between art-house film and hardcore pornography. He shot his own fully pornographic b-roll on the side and at one point decided that Tinto Brass had done enough work on the film's final edit, locking the director out of the editing suite so Guccione could cut in all the full penetration his lens could hold. Still he excised all mentions of Caligula's bisexuality so as to not alienate potential audiences.

The original Caligula is still one of the most notorious disasters in film history. Almost no one is happy with their association with it, some even having their names removed from the credits, and few accounts of what movie anyone thought they were making align. Ironically, Caligula's tagline and purportedly its ultimate lesson is "Absolute Power Corrupts" and about the one thing anyone can agree on is that Bob Guccione didn't take that lesson to heart.

What Features Make it Special:

On the 4-disc Collection (*) includes:

• Disc 1: The Ultimate Cut
• Caligula: The Ultimate Cut
• Cannes 2023 Teaser
• English Closed Captions
• French Canadian Subtitles
• Audio Commentary with editor Aaron Shaps and producer and reconstructionist Thomas Negovan
• Audio Commentary with author Grant Morrison and producer and reconstructionist Thomas Negovan
  
  
• Disc 2: 1980 Theatrical Version
• Caligula: Restored Original 1980 Theatrical Version
• Restored Original Theatrical Trailer
• English Closed Captions
  
  
• Disc 3: Caligula: The Bonus Materials
• "The Orgy of Power" interview with Tinto Brass
• The Making of Caligula
• The Guccione Scandal
  
  
• Disc 4: Audio Soundtrack [CD]
• Caligula: The Ultimate Cut Soundtrack

(*) The 2-Disc Blu-Ray and DVD releases have the same features as Discs 1 and 2, with the addition of "The Guccione Scandal" from Disc 3

 

Why You Need to Add it to Your Media Library:

Malcolm McDowell's Caligula performance is electric, full of energy, and sadistic tomfoolery. Ultimately, he is the whole damn show here, but that's not to undermine the contributions of everyone else in the cast. Comparatively brief appearances from legendary actors Peter O'Toole and John Guilgud, and larger supporting performances from Teresa Ann Savoy and (one of the most beautiful women to ever exist) Helen Mirren all light up the screen and match (or counter) McDowell's mania to tremendous effect.

The four-disc collection also includes an all-new score for The Ultimate Cut by Troy Sterling Nies. It's an interesting score, with lots of droning tones and slight distortion that slightly reminded me of Neil Young's (much more heavily-distorted) guitar tones from his score to Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. The minimalism of it contrasted well with the decadence onscreen.

On a lot of levels, this is a fascinating artifact, if nothing else. Not only is it a version of Caligula that was thought to no longer exist, BUT it allegedly contains NO FOOTAGE used in the previously released, 1979 theatrical version! Supposedly, The Ultimate Cut is built entirely from alternate takes and non-explicit b-roll and that's ...just an incredible thing. Huge if true, as they say.

On top of that, all available versions also include the original theatrical release, so you can go through and double check that previous assertion, if you're so inclined. And even if not, you'll be able to watch the original, which is hard to track down on its own. So you're getting two films: one whose content and controversy makes it nearly impossible to find on streaming, and the second which, up until a few years ago, was thought to be as likely to exist as your average bigfoot! 

Caligula: The Ultimate Cut is available on DVD & Blu-ray now, coming to digital on Oct. 18th, and as a 4K Box Set on Oct. 22nd from Unobstructed View.

THE RADLEYS (2024)

 The Radleys

Directed by Euros Lyn
Written by Talitha Stevenson, Jo Brand, based on a novel by Matt Haig
Starring Harry Baxendale, Damian Lewis, Kelly Macdonald, Bo Bragason
Running time 1 hour and 55 minutes
Rated R by the MPA

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor, host and podcast czar

Based on the 2011 novel by Matt Haig, The Radleys is about a normal-seeming family - doctor dad Peter (Damian Lewis), active housewife mom Helen (Kelly Macdonald), gay photographer son Rowan (Harry Baxendale), and vegan, sorta bitchy (*) sister Clara (Bo Bragason) - with a big secret. When Clara accidentally kills an attempted rapist in the woods, the parents find themselves forced into at least three tough spots. Not only do they have to come clean to their kids about the "family disease", but they have to dispose of the body to keep Clara out of jail and keep their vampirism a secret. To accomplish this, they have to call Peter's twin brother Will (also Damian Lewis) who rolls up in an RV full of absolute chaos.

(*) I am willing to attribute Clara's turn to being just The Worst hormonal and attitudinal teenage stereotype to her beginning to drink blood.

I've been watching a LOT of vampire films this year, gearing up for Vamp-tober on the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast, and one thing that's dawned on me is that playing with "the rules" of vampires is as much of a staple of vampire fiction as anything else. The TV Tropes page for Our Vampires Are Different is chock-a-block with examples great and small. In The Radleys, vampires find sunlight irritating but not deadly, and are able to choose to abstain from drinking blood at the cost of most of the usual vampire abilities.

Blood is treated somewhat like alcohol and/or drugs within the world of The Radleys. Clara's attitude after starting to imbibe - which is so shitty and petulant that she can't even keep her cool long enough to avoid tipping the cops off that she was involved in the murder - supports this read, as does Rowan's sneaking little airplane-size bottles of blood from Uncle Will's fridge to work up the courage to talk to the boy he likes. Obviously, Helen & Peter's abstaining and keeping the vampirism from the kids parallels hard partiers giving up the life to raise a family.

All of this is called into very high contrast by the presence of Uncle Will. His hair is longer than Peter's, he wears lots of open shirts, and generally "doesn't see what the big deal is" about everything. But there's a sinister edge to him. He encourages the kids' more negative instincts and almost immediately brings up some past relationship between he and Helen, which doesn't totally make Helen uneasy. Pretty shortly, Peter starts on his journey, straight out of American Beauty: sneaking blood in the garage, seeking (or at least being open to) extramarital relationships, all while being kind of oblivious to all the tumult in his family unit.

The Radleys is an odd duck, but not a bad time. Four of the five family members are pretty well-developed. The exception, weirdly, is Clara who is mostly a walking inciting incident and has less development than some supporting characters, like the boy Rowan likes (Jay Lycurgo) and his ex-cop dad (Shaun Parkes) who fully believes The Radleys are vampires and blames then for his wife's disappearance years ago! They're not exactly well-rounded, but they are given enough screen time to develop their characters via performance, and as a result you're pulling for Rowan's relationship to work out, and the ex-cop dad feels like a real threat.

Tonally, The Radleys touches on a lot of vampire films. The teen romance of Twilight (2008) mixed with The Lost Boys' (1987) male bonding; the grounded suburban setting of Fright Night (1985) and the metaphorical lens of The Addition (1995). It's darkly funny at times, and steamy in parts, but since each family member has their own Vampire Movie going on, it can't quite commit to being any one thing. Nevertheless, the cheap and nasty thrills have an almost Lifetime Movie vibe at times, which is nothing if not crowd-pleasing.

The variety of tones and plot lines gives The Radleys a good chance to appeal to a wide segment of audiences, but also means most of those characters don't get a ton of time in the spotlight. When the closing credits rolled, I'd had a good time, but felt ever so slightly unsatisfied.

The Radleys will be in Theaters, On Digital and On Demand October 4, 2024.

LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL steelbook (IFC Films & Shudder)

Late Night with the Devil
Directed and written by Colin Cairnes and Cameron Cairnes
Starring David Dastmalchian, Laura Gordon, Ian Bliss, Fayssal Bazzi, Ingrid Torelli
Running time 1 hour and 33 minutes
Rated R by the MPA for violent content, some gore, and language including a sexual reference.

On Limited Edition Steelbook Blu-Ray and DVD, available now from IFC Films and Shudder

by “Doc” Hunter Bush, contributor, host and Podcast Czar

Synopsis:

Late Night with the Devil is presented as a recording of a live broadcast of the talk show Night Owls from Halloween of 1977 that goes off the rails, exposing viewers across the country to the unobscured supernatural. (...or does it?) In some preamble presented in a documentary style, we learn that Night Owls host Jack Dorsey (David Dastmalchian) has recently dealt with the death of his wife and is dedicating his Halloween broadcast to exploring his supernatural interests.

Jack's guests on this historic, doomed (...or is it?) broadcast include a dubious psychic named Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), magician-turned-professional debunker Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), author and parapsychologist June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), and 13 year-old Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), who may or may not be possessed by some kind of entity and is the subject of June's latest book Conversations with the Devil.

As the film goes on, things on the show come to a boiling point, drawing on Jack's personal tumult as much as the guests' until everything crescendos in a truly shocking manner. (...or does it?)

What Features Make it Special:

• Commentary with David Dastmalchian & Good Fiend Films' Leah Kilpatrick
  
  
• Q&A with Directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes
  
  
• Behind the Scenes of Late Night with the Devil
  
  
• Monster Shock Theater live with David Dastmalchian

Why You Need to Add it to Your Library:

If you're anything like me, this hits right in the sweet spot. Maybe several sweet spots. Classic talk shows, "lost" media, Halloween, the supernatural, the occult, James Randi (on whom Carmichael Haig is clearly based); each of these things on their own would catch my interest, but when combined into a finished product that's this enjoyable? I'm there. To put it in the parlance of the film: I'm tuning in.

On top of that, David Dastmalchian is an actor that I'm just drawn to. The guy is clearly a horror fan, and I've enjoyed his work as a character and supporting actor, so finally getting to see him as the lead in something is a treat. He's great here also. That certainly doesn't hurt. I dig creativity and Late Night with the Devil has it in spades.

The special features on the discs are good. The BTS segment is only a few minutes long, mostly consisting of the effects crews trying out various gags, and then watching unfinished footage of the gag in action. That's great and all, but I'm always hoping for a taste of what it was actually like to be on the set. The feature length commentary and the Q&A are decently informative and very enjoyable.

The stand out feature, though, is the episode of Monster Shock Theater (presumably the show which aired immediately before the ill-fated episode of Night Owls, and also features Jack Dorsey as a guest. My only complaint is that it has commercial breaks but no commercials! I'm a sucker for classic commercials, so I'd have loved it if they'd included either legitimate era-appropriate ones or made some of their own! How fun would that be? From the sense I got, of everyone involved, I imagine they probably at least considered doing so.

The steelbook also comes with the Night Owls Audience Welcome Pack from October 31st 1977 which includes:

• Night Owls air freshener

• Signed Jack Dorsey headshot

• Christou performance flyer

• Conversations with the Devil by Dr. June Ross-Mitchell bookmark

Late Night with the Devil is on limited edition steelbook Blu-ray and DVD, available now from IFC Films and Shudder.

Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival 2024 - Preview

PUFF 9
Sept. 24th - Sept 29th
The Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival returns!

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor, host, and podcast czar

Chockablock with original films of all stripes from gonzo comedy to head-trip horror (and beyoooond!) the spooky season doesn't start for me until the Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival is near. For a ninth year (!!!!!!!!!) the fine folks at PUFF have gathered together a truly, madly, deeply eclectic selection of features, shorts, and music videos into one place, for you. They return this year to Theater Exile for an impressive six-day lineup of screenings and events from Tues. Sept. 24th - Sun. Sept 29th, with the film screenings beginning on Thurs. Sept 26th! The old joke goes: Why was six afraid of seven? Because seven ate (eight) nine. Things would have gone very differently if seven tried to eat PUFF 9, I'm sure.

Join me as I check out PUFF for a ninth glorious, gory-ous, weird and way-out year. Below I've highlighted just a few flicks you may want to make time for. And don't forget to take a gander at everything they've got planned here: PUFF 9.

THURS. Sept. 26th:

Lampir: The Immortal Witch
Directed by Kenny Gulardi
Showtime: 6:45 pm
Buy tickets HERE

I've been in a real vampire headspace this year gearing up for Vamp-tober on the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast, so the title Lampir leapt out at me like a ghoul from a tomb. Apparently, if the subtitle is to be believed, the antagonist is an Immortal Witch and not a vampire, but by the time I clocked that fact, it was too late; I was hooked. This Indonesian film follows a group of friends to a pre-wedding photo shoot at an enigmatic villa and the trailer features some really fantastic cinematography! There's a windshield wiper scene transition that legit blew me away! I cannot wait for this one.

FRI. Dept. 27th:

Chainsaws Were Singing
Directed by Sander Maran
Showtime: 10:30 pm
Buy tickets HERE

The trailer for Chainsaws Were Singing states that it has been "in the making" for a decade and, honestly, this seems like a decade's worth of crazy crap (complimentary). This Estonian gonzo, splattery, silly, chainsaw-centric musical looks like nothing else on the PUFF lineup and I have the feeling this will be a real crowd-pleaser to kick your weekend off right!

SAT. Sept. 28th:

Voidcaller
Directed by Nils Alatalo
Showtime: Noon
Buy tickets HERE

I'm a sucker for drug-trip films, because they allow filmmakers to cut loose a little more; arresting visuals, intuitive storytelling, creative edits. In other words: cinema! I'm also drawn to creative black and white photography and stories described as "Lovecraftian" because I'm a sucker for indescribable cosmic horror, kind of especially when done on a smaller budget - again, it forces the filmmakers to be creative! Swedish  flick Voidcaller has a bare-bones description about people suffering from amnesia beginning to suspect they are connected via something cosmic and sinister, but combined with those interest points above means I'll be starting my day the Voidcaller way.

Screening before Voidcaller is an animated short called The One about a man competing against a 30-foot-long monster worm on a dating show. Many of the features have a short film paired with them btw.

Párvulos
Directed by Isaac Ezban
Showtime: 7:00 pm
Buy tickets HERE

I caught this earlier this year as part of my Fantasia International Film Festival coverage and I'm really psyched to see it again! The post-apocalyptic zombie sub-genre might seem as far past its expiration date as the zombies themselves, but Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban manages to introduce enough novelty and creativity into the film's clichés and conventions that it feels not just fresh but genuinely exciting! Combining survival horror with an Amblin Entertainment-style approach to family drama, Párvulos ("little ones") is pure genre dynamite!

SUN. Sept. 29th:

Local Block
Showtime: 1:00 pm
Buy tickets HERE

Each day of film screenings at PUFF includes at least one collection of short films - Thursday's Bizarre Block; Friday's Sci-Fi Shorts; and Saturday's Global Grab Bag and Horror Shorts - but the Local Block is always near and dear to my heart. This collection features all shorts made by local filmmakers! How could I NOT love it? This year's assortment features a lucky 13 entries with subjects ranging from misophonia to a four year-old detective. I love the variety and imagination on display in short films, and the PUFF crew always curate a really broad assortment. I hope you'll join me at this year's festival to appreciate all the hard work of the filmmakers and organizers alike!

The 9th Philadelphia Unnamed Film Festival runs from Sept. 24th - Sept 29th. Get tickets HERE.

WATCHLIST - October 2024

October Watchlist 2024
A no-pressure walk through of an artisanal viewing experience

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor, podcast czar, HWGW cohost

I love Halloween. Always have. I know, I'm not special. Most chain stores and companies start rolling out their Halloween offerings months in advance. But it feels false. It feels more like Hollow-een, if you catch my drift. It lacks the personal, home-spun touch of decorating that I remember from when I was a kid. Despite everyone living in the same neighborhood, every house had different decorations; a different aesthetic. It felt special.

In an effort to bring a little of the specialness back to the season, a few years ago I started composing watchlists. I'd pull out my trusty cauldron (smartphone), add a few eyes of newt (fair use photos and fonts), say "Double, double, toil and trouble" (spend a week brainstorming) and the result is a collection of film prompts - one for each day of October.

And I'm sharing this year's with YOU! Alakazam! (*)

(*) If you're a MovieJawn subscriber, a physical copy of the prompts list will be included in your Fall Zine, which you should be receiving shortly if you haven't already.

These watchlists began as a way to unite my house at the time (myself, my partner, and two roommates) with a sort of Family Movie Night, by giving everyone the chance to pick some titles for the month. As it turns out, some people I've shared these with over the years felt overwhelmed by being presented with so many open-ended choices, so in an effort to take some of the pressure off, allow me to walk you through exactly how low-pressure it is to choose titles for your very own, month-long film series!

First of all, if anything seems TOO open-ended for the moment, just come back to it later; start with the ones that are easiest for you to fill in. Remember, this is YOUR watchlist we're making, I've just given you the framework.

Secondly, there are NO wrong answers. There are no rules here. You can choose all films you've seen, or all first-time watches. If you choose a movie to fit a prompt - let's just use Oct. 1st: ROMANCE - and you've never seen it, or you remembered it differently, and it turns out you were wrong and there's no romance in it at all: Who cares? No harm, no foul.

Third: the search bar is your friend. Need some suggestions for FOOD? Typing "spooky food movies" brought up at least a dozen good suggestions from all across the horror spectrum. Need to know movies from a specific country or era? May I suggest signing up for a free Letterboxd account? You can sort films really easily there (also you can follow me @DrHBus and like every single one of my reviews).

Let's walk through the prompts, shall we? First off we have the wide-open ones: the decades ('50S - 2010S), B+W (black and white), REMAKE, and the international selections. These should be the easiest to cross off your list because you have so many options. Just pick a couple. And remember: no wrong answers! For '70S, you could choose a movie made in the 1970s like Halloween (1978) or you could pick Fear Street: 1978 (2021) which is set in that decade. Same goes for the international titles, they could be films that come from those countries, or they could take place there. Also, if you happen to live in Europe, Asia, or any Spanish-speaking country, feel free to sub in a different country. May I suggest Canada? Lot of good flicks originate up there.

Some people get in their head about what "should" or "can" go on their watchlist. Anything you want! Like SPACE for example. If, like me, you find 2013's Gravity to be an absolutely terrifying viewing experience (no joke; I had a full-on panic attack in that theater, hahaha), then that can be your SPACE movie. Or you can go with Aliens (1986), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), or Leprechaun 4 (1996). Your opinion of a movie is kind of all that matters. To that end GREAT TITLE, and SEXY should be no problem. Whether you think The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) is the be-all end-all of movie titles, or you think Bloodsucking Pharaohs in Pittsburgh (1991) is: You Are Right! If you pick Species (1995) for SEXY because it's all about sex and breeding, or you pick the Fright Night remake from 2011 because Colin Farrell really revs your motor, both are equally valid choices.

The genre-centric ones are a piece of cake: ROMANCE, HISTORICAL, MUSICAL - those are easy enough. Just keep in mind, these things are defined however you decide they are. You can watch Shaun of the Dead (2004) as a musical because there are so many music-related moments in it. DAYLIGHT HORROR is any movie that has scary scenes during the day, FOLK HORROR is anything with that pastoral, cut-off from the modern world vibe, and NOT HORROR is anything that's still spooky season appropriate, but not a horror movie: It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (1966) comes to mind.

It's all free association. FOOD could be The Silence of the Lambs (1991) because we're all food to Hannibal the Cannibal; SONS + DAUGHTERS can be any movie where the family unit is threatened or upended, maybe The Faculty (1998) or Children of the Corn (1984). Don't stress about it. No one is going to come to your house and revoke your Movie Enjoyer card.

If the FRANCHISE ones seem intimidating, keep in mind that they don't have to be from the same series. You could only watch IT: Chapter One (2017) because it's technically a 2-part franchise but the 2nd one is garbage (don't @ me). Most franchises have at least three entries, so SEQUEL and THIRD shouldn't be too hard to assign titles for, I honestly don't even see 4TH being a huge roadblock, and FINAL can just be the final film in a franchise, or one of many films with "Final" in the title.

Now, there are a few prompts that I can imagine might throw a couple of people. What constitutes a LOW BUDGET? Well, if nothing jumps readily to mind, use the MST3k rule: if Mystery Science Theater 3000 has ever done an episode on it, that's probably right in the sweet spot. PICK A NUMBER can be any film with a numerical title. Heck, you could get a little meta, actually make a list of titles, and roll some dice to pick on that night. I just came up with that right now! See how easy this is?

ALL HALLOW'S EVE is my "free space". This is any damn thing you just LOVE watching on Halloween!

This October on my podcast Hate Watch/Great Watch, we're doing ALL vampire movies, so to show you an example of a completed watchlist, here's a hypothetical Vamp-tober watchlist:

The only ones I got tricksy with here were maybe The Apple for MUSICAL (it's definitely a musical, but really only briefly features a vampire. Though we are assured it's an "actual, actual, actual, vampiiiiiire!") and Twilight: Breaking Dawn Parts 1+2 for FINAL. In my mind, since they're one movie split into two parts, they count as one. Lost Boys might confuse some folks as my pick for FRANCHISE, but it may surprise you to know there were a few direct-to-dvd style sequels called The Tribe (2008) and The Thirst (2010). Fun Fact.

HWGW drop new episodes every other Wednesday, which means three episodes in October this year! Jugular Wine: A Vampire Odyssey (1994) for the prompt LOW BUDGET, Werner Herzog's Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979) for REMAKE, and a little film called Love Bites (1988) for SEXY. I imagine Herzog's Nosferatu might be streaming, but the other two I doubt will be. Fear not! You can just listen to our discussions of those films and decide if they're worth the time/money/effort to track down and watch for yourself.

And speaking of time and effort: I'm including a blank watchlist below for you to download, so you can fill in the titles on your own! If you end up making your own watchlist using this year's prompts, let us know! Share my prompts list and your selection of titles on social media with #spookyjawn and remember to tag @DrHBus, @MovieJawn & @HWGWpodcast anywhere applicable.

I hope this October finds you well, and that this watchlist makes your spooky season even more enjoyable. Long Live the Movies!

CUCKOO (2024)

Cuckoo
Written and directed by Tilman Singer
Stars Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jan Bluthardt
Running Time 1 hour, 42 minutes
MPAA rated R for violence, bloody images, language and brief teen drug use

by "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor and podcast czar

In my day-to-day life, I am somewhat unplugged from knowing which films people may or may not be excited for, aside from the folks crowing loudest about the next big franchise thing. I know a few people personally who are looking forward to checking out Cuckoo, the sophomore feature film from German director Tilman Singer, but are you, in the wider world, psyched for this one?

Well, you better get psyched!

With Cuckoo, Singer's follow up to 2018's Luz, he has crafted a monster movie in the tradition of the Universal Monsters classics and in doing so, has firmly established himself as a unique and compelling creative voice within the horror genre. This ain't hyperbole, turkey! Cuckoo has all the Universal Monsters earmarks right out of the gate: a family moving to an insular area because step-mom and dad have taken a new career in a new town, there's some fringe science, and a monstrous presence that makes itself known with eerie calls and tones coming from the woods.

Disclaimer: in an effort to avoid spoilers, I will only be referring to the monstrous presence at the center of Cuckoo as "the woman-thing", a term I coined in my Fantasia Fest preview based entirely on its appearance in the trailer.

Hunter Schafer gives a great performance as Gretchen, who would much rather be with her mother in the U.S. than with her dad, her step-mom, and her mute step-sister in the Alps. She's not subtle about it either, always hovering somewhere around a 6 (out of 10) on the Simmering Hormonal Teenage Rage scale, on the verge of behaving like a total loon. All she really needs is some money to get a ticket to fly away home. Luckily, Herr König (Dan Stevens) offers her a job running the welcome desk at the local spa and resort, which he owns. Sure, her supervisor Beth (Jessica Henwick) will duck out early for a date, or the occasional guest will suddenly vomit in the lobby, but it's mostly your average, boring customer service job.

The feather in Tilman Singer's cap is how well he captures the teenage angst of Gretchen. We feel her frustrations constantly humming beneath the surface, her soul-crushing boredom, her general aimlessness. But before long, she has her first encounter with the woman-thing, at which point you can add feelings of persecution to Gretchen's potent emotional cocktail, because of course almost no one believes her.

Enter Henry (Jan Bluthardt), a sketchy, disheveled cop who seems to be the only person who lends her story any credence, but also definitely seems to have ulterior motives as well. Henry is sniffing around the resort, and around Herr König, but we don't know why exactly. He keeps things pretty mercenary, even while trying to recruit Gretchen into his flock of one.

For his part, Dan Stevens is masterfully cast here. I'll cop to being biased and in the pocket for Stevens anyway (I just enjoy the man's work), but his performance as the serene, flute playing philanthropist is such an understated gem. He's obviously up to no good, but he goes about it more like a Willy Wonka - who doesn't see why anything he's doing might be unusual - than a scenery chewing cock of the walk, Lex Luthor type.

Lastly, but definitely not leastly, is the woman-thing her/itself. Truly an unsettling creation to add to the latest pantheon of movie monsters - I would offer she/it be placed alongside the wooden man from Damian Mc Carthy's Oddity (another film I strongly recommend) - and one that I can imagine hatching many nightmares. The look, a hybrid of familiar and uncanny, the jumpy movements, the weaponized sound design; it all works excellently.

Famously, cuckoos are known for leaving their eggs in the nests of other birds to be raised by them, and to exhaust the greater portion of its nestlings' provisions. Not as an act of malice, but just as a function of their biology. Cuckoo, above all, is a film about men who think that they know best. The kind of men who say - and importantly, believe - that they're doing what's best for others. Dangerous allies. The true cuckoos of the film.

Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 - Closer

It's Fantasia International Film Festival's final week!

by: "Doc" Hunter Bush, contributor & podcast czar

This is it, folks! My time at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival is winding to a close. I saw some films I genuinely loved, a lot that I liked, and above all I saw films I might never have been exposed to at all! In a landscape where films are so often judged on profitability over content, and profitability relies more on audience familiarity than any promise of quality, the movies we love so dearly are becoming reduced to something like fast food commodities in the popular view. While there's nothing wrong with the occasional Big Buford burger or Frosty milkshake, you should make sure to keep your palate diverse, and I view my time at Fantasia like wandering through an international buffet: flavors and textures that might otherwise go overlooked.

To give my Fantasia coverage a proper send-off, I'm adding an additional feature and short below.

Features:

A Samurai in Time

Written & directed by Jun'ichi Yasuda
Running time 2 hours, 11 minutes

A very simple premise, given a few clever tweaks, and performances that are honestly much better than they needed to be has made A Samurai in Time one of my hands-down favorite films from Fantasia 2024. When he is struck by lightning during a sword fight in Edo period Japan, samurai Shinzaemon Kosaka (Makiya Yamaguchi) awakens in the modern day, but on the set of a jidaigeki ("period drama") TV series set in the exact time he came from! Yamaguchi's performance is powerfully funny sometimes in very subtle ways, and at others truly charming. Watching a samurai 400 years out of his time slowly become a well-loved TV star is the surprisingly enchanting, heartwarming story I didn't know I needed. Plus: sword fights!

Sunburnt Unicorn

Written & directed by Nick Johnson
Running time 1 hour, 21 minutes

Between the narrative of a young man wandering into the desert on a journey of self-discovery, the unique visual aesthetic, and the silly yet evocative title, Sunburnt Unicorn may sound like something cooked up in a tent at Burning Man (and Hell, what do I know, maybe it was) but it's much more satisfying than you might expect. I frequently kickflip up onto my soapbox to preach that I think children's entertainment should be ever so slightly challenging, because kids deserve it, and with its ominous tonal undercurrent, I think this scratches that itch. I can only imagine how long it took to create something of this scale and this level of creativity, but I hope it isn't too long until we see more from Nick Johnson.

Mash Ville

Written by Lim Dong-min, Wook Hwang
Directed by Wook Hwang
Running time 2 hour, 6 minutes

Described as "an eastern comedy with western action", Mash Ville follows a handful of interconnected chararters' storylines, all revolving around a tainted batch of moonshine and a small village under assault from a religious cult. The characters are at times cartoonish, but the performances do a great job of grounding them as well as could be expected. The tonal whiplash can be a bit difficult to parse from moment to moment, but the direction and the pure look of this film put it high on my recommendation list.

The Umbrella Fairy

Written by Youcong Li, Min Liu
Directed by Jie Shen
Running time 1 hour, 30 minutes

From the opening moments of The Umbrella Fairy, I knew this would end up being a somewhat melancholy tale, centered around the fairies that inhabit two royal items now consigned to the Hall of Relics, never to be used again. Qingdai, the titular fairy spirit of the imperial umbrella, is sad but willing to accept this new fate, while her partner Wanggui, the spirit of the Black Jade sword, is defiantly not. When Wanggui somehow escapes, Qingdai and the human apprentice keeper of the Hall set off to investigate how and why. This beautifully animated literal fairy tale is sweet, emotionally gripping, and full of creative magical worldbuilding, inventive sequences, and delightfully designed characters. Melancholy but ultimately hopeful, and truly beautiful; add this one to your watchlists.

Salute your Shorts:

Escape Attempt

Written by Christina Lazaridi, Daniel Shapiro, Alex Topaller (based on the novel by Arkady & Boris Strugatsky)
Directed by Daniel Shapiro, Alex Topaller
Running time 29 minutes

So often, a film will remind me of the old adage "Less is more". Usually they do this by overstaying their welcome, or explaining something that makes less sense when they're finished, but this adaptation of the Strugatsky Bros. novel, Escape Attempt left me genuinely wanting more. More time in its worlds, more discussion about what's happening. Not because it lacks logic, but because all of it was so fascinating to me. With shockingly high production values, this half hour short stacks up against the best short-form sci-fi we've gotten in recent years.

Dirty Bad Wrong

Written and directed by Erica Orofino
Running time 14 minutes

A single mother sex worker finds herself in a situation where the only way to deliver a promised birthday party to her your son is for her to agree to do something unsavory with a repeat customer. This set-up is sure to set some people on edge right from the get-go, and while it all plays out in just under 15 minutes, the emotional weight and the expansive feel from subtle worldbuilding make this horror-adjacent character piece feel much deeper. Lead actress Michaela Kurimsky conveys a lot through very small actions, and really sells the core concept of how far we'll go for those we love.

HI! YOU ARE CURRENTLY BEING RECORDED

Written and directed by Kyle Garrett Greenberg, Anna Maguire
Running Time 8 minutes

Light on narrative and dialogue, this one-woman show (co-writer/co-director Anna Maguire stars) isn't telling a story so much as asking a question: What is the line where being constantly monitored goes from unnerving to comforting? While checking out her new neighborhood Anna quickly realizes the neighborhood is checking her out too. The mix of footage styles, changing between digital, videotape, and film with increasing frenzy, really conveys an indifference and an alienness that makes Anna's mounting paranoia feel justified. Also shout out to her very cool jacket.

The 28th Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 18th to August 4th in Montreal. Get tickets HERE.