Lovers of all things weird, wonderful, and bizarre: we’re feasting right now, as this year’s Fantasia Film Festival is just around the corner. The much-awaited festival will commence on July 18 and end on August 4, bringing a wide range of international genre features and shorts to the fore. As with every year, there’s lots to love and look forward to, but here are five must-see entries that you wouldn’t want to miss out on.
1. Bookworm
Pascal Plante’s unforgettable “Red Rooms” constituted last year’s festival opener. The honor goes to Ant Timpson’s “Bookworm” this time around. Starring Elijah Wood and Nell Fisher, the film revolves around the titular young bookworm Mildred (Fisher), who finds respite in the world of fantasy and takes an interest in capturing the mythological beast, The Canterbury Panther. Reality intervenes when her absent father Strawn (Wood) meets his daughter for the first time, and the trip takes the shape of an adventure that feels both dangerous and fantastical. While The Canterbury Panther might not exist in the real world, the search for this elusive beast might become a conduit for forging bonds anew and embarking on a thrilling hero’s journey.
2. The Soul Eater
The Fantasia experience is incomplete without at least one entry in extreme horror, and “The Soul Eater” is here to fill this vacuum, courtesy of filmmaking duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo (whose previous works include “Inside” and “The Deep House,” both brilliant). This horror experience melds the beats of a procedural thriller and traditional horror taken to extremes, converging in a search for a local bogeyman known as The Soul Eater. Considering that Maury and Bustillo employ an aesthetic framing that feels singular, this entry is one to look out for. Moreover, the emphasis on suspense over flat-out scares might lend to a much more terrifying experience for those who relish the eerie silence before all hell breaks loose.
3. Cuckoo
Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo” is both strange and satisfying, and this banger is being presented alongside Carlos A.F. Lopez’s “Dream Creep,” a horror short that absolutely floored me when I reviewed it at SXSW this year. “Cuckoo” revolves around Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), who is forced to move to a remote town and leave her divorced mother behind, which adds to her discontent. But the beautiful resort in the Bavarian Alps appears to hide something stranger: a shrieking woman who terrifies Gretchen at night and pushes her towards a bonkers journey that revels in its extremes. Body horror becomes a part of this sordid reality, leading to the discovery of unsavory secrets about the hidden underbelly of a world that does not adhere to the rules we tend to take for granted.
4. Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain
The cultural pull of the 2007 TV series, “Mononoke” cannot be overstated, its cult status undisputed over the years. Director Kenji Nakamura has returned to gift us with a full-length feature, “Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain,” allowing us yet another unforgettable journey with the Medicine Seller, replete with artistic visuals weaved to stun and fascinate. Those acquainted with the anime series are familiar with the distinct stylistic tenets of this fictional world, and this singular, experimental brilliance spills over into Nakamura’s feature in spellbinding ways. For both long-time fans and new audiences (who seek stories that challenge every expectation), this entry remains un-missable.
5. Párvulos
Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban’s fifth feature is also his most poignant and personal, as “Párvulos” combines traditional coming-of-age tropes with the horrors of being a child in a cold, cruel world. Growing pains are deeply personal, but these stories also come with a universal appeal: a bleak relatability that unmoors us even after we’ve transitioned into adulthood, forcing us to be wary of the darker pockets that the world has to offer. “Párvulos” poses the pertinent question about whether feeling safe is at all possible when the horrors literally lie beneath our feet, ready to pounce on us and the ones we love. This is the kind of film that is hard to forget.
