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.

Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 - Week 2

The Fantasia International Film Festival, week 2!

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

My second week of Fantasia International Film Festival offerings has been incredible. I've been lucky enough to watch some films I've been eagerly anticipating, and been caught off-guard by films I'd underestimated - remember, kids: You Can't Trust the Trailers. below are just a few feature and short film recommendations. Check back with MovieJawn next week for a wrap-up round-up with a few more, and I'll also be doing a full write-up of Tilman Singer's Cuckoo, so if you're interested in that one, stay tuned.

Features:

Párvulos

Written by Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes, Isaac Ezban
Directed by Isaac Ezban
Running time 1 hour, 58 minutes

Párvulos ("Little ones") is the film I've been most excited to tell everyone about. Director Issac Ezban (co-writing with Ricardo Aguado-Fentanes) takes the zombie movie - a genre which at this point seems as past-its-prime as the zombies themselves - and actually manages to inject new life (no pun intended) into it. With characters that are easy to care about, interesting world building with a tone akin to Amblin at times, and a unique twist on the desaturated visuals (where you can just see the color underneath, like remembering the world that was) Párvulos is absolutely dynamite. Don't let the surprisingly lighthearted first half fool you though, this film has sharp teeth just waiting for you to let your guard down.

The Silent Planet
Written and directed by Jeffrey St. Jules
Running time 1 hour, 35 minutes

If I can be honest, I wasn't sure what to expect with The Silent Planet. I knew the underappreciated Elias Koteas was playing a man imprisoned on a penal planet alone until a ship carrying a new prisoner (Briana Middleton) lands. I was not prepared for what is essentially a classic episode of Dr. Who! Between the lived-in worldbuilding, moral and socio-political analogies, character-defining monologues, and occasionally cheesy special effects (complimentary), I was in old school sci-fi heaven. The above-listed qualities, and measured pace may not work for everyone but them most assuredly worked for me.

The Soul Eater
Written by Annelyse Batrel, Ludovic Lefebvre, based on the work of Alexis Laipsker
Directed by Alexandre Bustillo, Julien Maury
Running time 1 hour, 48 minutes

The Soul Eater stood out to me from this year's Fantasia features because it managed to be something unique and apart from anything I've watched so far, and to manage a tone that feels, similarly, just a mite different from anything else this year. A French crime procedural with potentially supernatural undercurrents and the general feeling of overturning a rock in the forest and seeing what scurries out from underneath, The Soul Eater is an unsettling watch to say the least. With some shocking violence, and other even more disturbing crimes (mercifully implied indirectly) at its fringes, the film feels like an adaptation that will appeal to fans of the Jack Reacher series, or maybe Laird Barron's Isaiah Coleridge novels.

Salute your Shorts:

Berta
Written by Lucía Forner Segarra
Directed by Lucía Forner Segarra
Running time 17 minutes

Berta is the third in a thematic trilogy of feminist horror shorts from Spanish writer/director Lucía Forner Segarra. The subject matter is relatively dark, but the tone has a populist sensibility that almost feels akin to the type of revenge thrillers that see broad theatrical release. The world build around Berta (Nerea Barros) and her victim Alex (Elías González) feels real, reasoned, and fully conceived. In just under 20 minutes Segarra delivers something that could, and does, function as a complete story, but that you wouldn't mind spending more time with. I'll be looking for somewhere to watch the two previous thematic installments - Marta and Dana - ASAP.

FACES
Written by Blake Simon
Directed by Blake Simon
Running Time 14 minutes

Like Párvulos above, I've been dying to spread the word about this short from Blake Simon. "I wanted to explore something that I had been witnessing around me that nobody was openly talking about" Simon says in the press materials "...that search for identity that lies under the surface of all of us." But before you get the wrong idea, this insight into the human experience didn't lead Simon to creating an austere drama, but a genuinely unsettling supernaturally-tinged urban legend of a horror short. Supported by solid performances (notably Ethan Daniel Corbett) and the excellent, creative cinematography of Andrew Fronczak, FACES is a really intriguing short-form chiller.

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

Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 - Week 1

The Fantasia International Film festival kicks off its 28th year this week!

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

This year's Fantasia International Film Festival is off to a great start, for me at least! Everyone's experiences will differ, surely - your mileage may vary, as the the saying goes - but I can say that I'm having a blast. Below are just a few of the titles screening this year for you to keep an eye on, and there are more coming (which I'm not allowed to mention quite yet, so keep your eyes out for future updates):

Features:

Vulcanizadora
Directed & Written by Joel Potrykus
Starring Joshua Burge & Joel Potrykus
Running time 1 hour, 25 minutes

Two friends calmly walking into the woods, one laden with camping gear and the other in jeans and a hoodie. The over-prepared friend realizes that he left all his keys on the bus and the other man asks him "What does it matter? It's not like you're gonna need them anymore." while the soundtrack blasts (what might be) thrash metal at the audience. This is, essentially, the opening to writer/director Joel Potrykus' latest film, Vulcanizadora, a film which explores friendship, guilt, aging, responsibility, and the fear that a person can ruin their life - or someone else's - in the blink of an eye. "It has a weird tone that I've been trying to hit for a long time... which should be sad, funny, and scary—oftentimes hitting all three in the same scene" Potrykus says in the press materials, and I'm inclined to agree with him. A mounting dread, sometimes building to a crescendo, sometimes diminishing to almost nothing, was my companion as I watched these two friends (Potrykus & Joshua Burge, both excellent) trudge through the Michigan woods to make good on some obscure pact, then deal with the repercussions. The (what might be) slowcore build of the first half of the film might not be for everyone, but if you stick with Vulcanizadora, you'll be rewarded.

Adrianne & the Castle
Directed by Shannon Walsh
Written by Little Scream & Shannon Walsh
Starring Alan St-George, Nathan McDonald, SLee
Running time 1 hour, 26 minutes

If you've previously read my kickoff Curtain Riser article, you may remember that I was really looking forward to the experience of Adrianne & the Castle. The documentary uses artist and entrepreneur Alan St-George's house, Havencrest Castle, as a lens through which to examine his relationship with and love for his dearly departed wife Adrianne. Only tangentially familiar with Havencrest, I referred to it as "like a benevolent Winchester Mystery House", and I could not be happier to have been correct. Through re-enactments, Alan explains the circumstances both biographical and emotional, through which he met, fell in love with, married, and spent a lifetime with his beloved. Havencrest itself was born out of a desire for Adrianne to feel at home in their new home, and its fanciful evolution continues to this day. "When it's finally done, if it's ever done," Alan says "I don't know what I'll do." I truly loved this experience, watching Alan interacting with the performers playing his & Adrianne's younger selves, almost being interrogated by his memories. There's a lot of cleverness on display in Adrianne & the Castle, thanks to director Shannon Walsh and co-writer Little Scream, a lot of being made aware of the art and artifice of making the documentary itself. It almost functions in the same way as the house, a living document; a testament to a great love. Seek this out. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Dark Match
Directed & Written by Lowell Dean
Starring Ayisha Issa, Steven Ogg, Chris Jericho
Running time 1 hour, 34 minutes

Professional wrestling and horror movies go together like ...well, I dunno, but a lot of people sure do enjoy both things - including me! Why then am I having such a hard time thinking of a better wrestling horror movie than Dark Match? (*) When the small independent wrestling promotion S.A.W. get offered a sizable payday to put on a show for a religious group in the middle of nowhere, they can hardly afford to pass up the opportunity. But the group turn out to be a nefarious cult lead by former wrestler The Prophet (Chris Jericho) with a grudge against one of S.A.W.'s star performers, Mean Joe Lean (Steven Ogg)! Dark Match combines all the colorful showmanship of pro-wrestling with the sinister undercurrent of occult ritual, anchored by engaging performances, notably Ayisha Issa as Miss Behave. The central concept here is so fun that I was totally hooked, and the pace is excellent. Dare I say Dark Match might be the best wrestling horror movie? If you can think of a better one, let me know!

(*) Disclaimer: They Live is the best horror movie featuring a wrestler - Rowdy Roddy Piper as Nada - but it's not a horror movie about wrestling.

Salute your Shorts:

Hell is a Teenage Girl
Directed and Written by Stephen Sawchuk
Starring Skylar Radzion, Faly Mevamanana, Kevin Osea
Running time 15 minutes

Screening at Fantasia 2024 with the above-mentioned Dark Match is this sharp, meta-horror short. What if you were a teenage girl and your father was the local Michael Myers / Jason Voorhees type who appears every Halloween to eradicate any teens who break The Rules: Don't Drink, Don't do Drugs, and Don't have Sex? How would you feel? More importantly, what would you do? That's exactly Parker (Skylar Radzion)'s situation. Radzion is damned good here, maintaining a decently grounded tone in a film world that is heightened but not quite farcical, all within the slim runtime allotted. 

AstroNots
Directed by Andrew Seaton
Written by Adam Dunn, Aaron Glenane
Starring Adam Dunn, Aaron Glenane
Running Time 11 minutes

Like a less unhinged I Think You Should Leave sketch, AstroNots presents the unenviable position of being Commander Thomas Collins (Adam Dunn), grandson of Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins - the guy who went to the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin that nobody remembers - about to make his family proud by being one of the first men on Mars. The only problem is, the other guy in the cockpit, Pilot Abraham Adams (Aaron Glenane) admits that he has no idea what he's doing and he just kind of bullshitted his way and failed upwards into being mere moments from an historic space launch. Amusing as that concept is, the performances are what make AstroNots really take flight. This incredibly tense, potentially disastrous situation is handled with delicate levity, and directed with an eye for the excellent production design. I have heard a rumor that the team is working on future installments, and I'm genuinely excited for them. Blast off!

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

Fantasia International Film Festival 2024 - Preview

The Fantasia International Film festival returns for its thrilling 28th year!

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

Let me take you back. It's 1996: Looney Tunes t-shirts are all the rage. Professional wrestler MJF is born, presumably to a chorus of boos. Chess champion Garry Kasparov defeats his computer opponent Deep Blue, beginning a war with artificial intelligence that rages to this day. But most importantly (as far as this article is concerned) the first ever Fantasia International Film Festival launches in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The program is entirely Asian cinema, with a focus on the films of Chow Yun-fat and Jet Li.

From these impressive, but comparatively humble beginnings has grown a destination for both filmmakers and film lovers that has hosted the premieres of movies from filmmakers like Satoshi Kon, Stuart Gordon, Dario Argento, and Tobe Hooper, among an actual legion of others. Today, nearly 30 years later, the festival is still going strong, having recently signed a 10 year partnership with Concordia University, which has hosted the festival since 2003.

This year's festival has a lineup of over 120 feature films and 25 themed collections of shorts including ones dedicated to various genres (animation, sci-fi, horror), to showcasing certain creators (women, outsider art), or geared towards specific audiences (children). Below, I've highlighted a handful of the films that jumped out at me and made me particularly excited to cover this year's Fantasia.

Kizumonogatari: Koyomi Vamp
Directed by Tatsuya Oishi

I've been on a bit of a vampire kick recently and, well, I'm always a sucker for animation. Koyomi Vamp is the prequel to the Kizumonogatari trilogy of animated films (themselves based on the second in a series of "light novels" in Japan), following lone wolf teenager Koyomi as he is inducted into a twilight realm of vampires. The animation showcases stunning motion and light effects, and some eye-popping visuals. I'm unfamiliar with the Monogatari stories, so hopefully this is as good a jumping on point as I've heard.

The Chapel (original title La ermita)
Directed by Carlota Pereda 

Young girl Emma (Maia Zaitegi) wants to learn to speak to the ghost of a girl confined to the local chapel for centuries because she believes that learning to speak with spirits will help her stay in contact with her dying mother. She recruits sham medium Carol (Belen Rueda) to teach her, but it seems to Carol that Emma has true power and may need her help. This comes from Carlota Pereda, writer/director of 2022's fantastic Piggy, which I very much enjoyed and I'm always down for a well-told ghost yarn.

Adrianne & the Castle
Directed by Shannon Walsh

This documentary about sculptor and artist Alan St. George and the castle he built as a celebration of love for his wife seems absolutely magical. Like a benevolent version of the Winchester Mystery House, Alan and Adrianne St. George's unarguably eccentric Havencrest Castle was designed with purpose by Alan as an ongoing declaration of his love. The documentary seems to blend interview segments and reenactments in a very unique way, almost having projections from his past interrogate Alan about key moments in his life. I love artists, oddballs, and lovers, and this hooked me right from the get-go. Adrianne sadly passed in 2006, so while I'm sure viewing this will demand I have a hanky nearby, I get the impression that this will leave me feeling more inspired than depressed.

Electrophilia (original title Los Impactados)
Directed by Lucía Puenzo

Veterinarian Ada (Mariana Di Girólamo) wakes up from a six week coma after being struck by lightning to realize that her life is inexplicably different. The trailer for Electrophilia features absolutely gorgeous cinematography (by Nicolás Puenzo), enigmatic imagery, lots of steamy stuff both textual and subtextual, and a reclusive society of people who have been struck by lightning! Though what information I can find about the film is relatively light on plot, literally every other aspect of this film leaves it very, very high on my To Watch list.

Cuckoo
Directed by Tilman Singer

The first of the trailers I watched for this curtain riser that genuinely made me say "Hell yes" out loud. Gretchen (Hunter Schafer) moves in with her dad in the German Alps and gets a job at the local spa, working with Herr König (Dan Stevens) only to find herself increasingly drawn into the orbit of a maniacal woman-thing that's been terrorizing the area. Whatever this creature ends up being, natural or otherwise, it is extremely unsettling; moving in that jangly j-horror style, eyes and mouth horribly wide, creeping at a steady pace yet suddenly right over your shoulder. I am positively foaming at the mouth for this one.

There are literally dozens of films that I was tempted to spotlight here, and whittling them down for brevity's sake was an arduous task. Other points of interest include a new Jackie Chan film called A Legend which reunites him with director Stanley Tong, director of Rumble in the Bronx - a sentimental fave of mine -, new films from the respective directors of films like Caveat (Damian Mc Carthy), Psycho Goreman (Steven Kostanski), and Mad Fate (Soi Cheang); a new adaptation of The Count of Monte-Cristo (a favorite story of mine); and a film called Steppenwolf that's being described as John Ford by way of George Miller (and vice versa) and it's all just so ...exciting!

This year's Fantasia Fest also includes a number of film and culture-related events for in-person festival-goers. Filmmaker Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep, recently Fall of the House of Usher), duo Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou (Every Frame a Painting), artist Gary Pullin, and film historian and critic Heidi Honeycutt all have individual presentations on various days, as well as a separate event to celebrate the release of Honeycutt's new book "I Spit on Your Celluloid: The History of Women Directing Horror Movies". A live recording of the Colors of the Dark Podcast with guest Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm St. 4: Dream Warriors) coincides with the Fantasia world premier of Russell's remake of 1986's cult hit Witchboard, and there are several events focused on introducing Korean culture to a wider audience, from fashion to food, including a rice wine called Makgeolli.

I hope you'll follow along over the next few weeks while I post updates of my Fantasia Fest viewing adventures here on MovieJawn about the films I've seen.

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

Don't Make Me Tap the Sign...

I'm making this post for the same reason I made this meme: a lot of films/television could be solved if people just agreed to be polyamorous. And, if your characters don't explicitly have a discussion about why they aren't open (no pun intended) to that lifestyle, I will continue to believe it is a viable solution to their difficulties.

I made this meme using screencaps from Frinkiac, the screencap search engine for The Simpsons. It's great, by the way!