Here are 10 films we’re itching to see at Fantasia 2020
COVID-19 is literally changing everything about our daily lives. As we’re seeing with such films as Shudder’s quarantine-filmed HOST, an inventive laptop thriller, currently standing at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes as of this writing, filmmakers are forced to adapt on the fly. And what we are witnessing has never been experienced in our lifetimes. As much as this time has been riddled with anxiety, a renewed and urgent creative energy is sprouting up in its place.
Furthermore, film festivals, such as Fantasia International Film Festival, which celebrates its 24th year, are shifting their lineups of feature films, documentaries, and shorts to totally virtual platforms. It’s as exciting as it is unsettling to see; could this be the beginning of a new chapter in our culture’s history? Possibly.
This year’s Fantasia Fest lineup is truly genre-spanning, from gritty arthouse to full-blown slasher to crippling slow-burn, and every kind of horror fan is likely to uncover a new treasure. Fantasia 2020 runs August 20 through September 2. Check out the full lineup here.
Below, B-Sides & Badlands picks out 10 feature films for which we’re most itching and bloodthirsty.
The Reckoning
Fantasia’s 24th edition will open with a special screening of Neil Marshall’s recently completed cinematic powerhouse THE RECKONING. A poignant and horrific period thriller set in 1665 against the backdrop of the Great Plague and the subsequent witch hunts in England, THE RECKONING stars Charlotte Kirk (OCEAN’S 8, NO PANIC WITH A HINT OF HYSTERIA), Sean Pertwee (DOG SOLDIERS, DOOMSDAY), Joe Anderson (THE GREY, THE CRAZIES), Steven Waddington (THE IMITATION GAME, LAST OF THE MOHICANS), and Emma Campbell-Jones (DOCTOR WHO). A vivid, compelling and confrontational film whose themes are frighteningly pertinent to today’s concerns, it will knock the wind out of you. This will mark the second time that a work from the esteemed British filmmaker has opened Fantasia, THE DESCENT having been the festival’s official Opening Film in 2005. The sole other filmmaker Fantasia has done this with to date is Takashi Miike.
Come True
The sophomore feature by Canadian Writer/Director/Cinematographer/Composer Anthony Scott Burns (OUR HOUSE), COME TRUE is a distinctive and compelling work of dark science-fiction that haunts the space between wakefulness and sleep. Plagued by disturbing dreams and unable to go home, rebellious teenager Sarah (THE KILLING’s Julia Sarah Stone) is relieved to find shelter at a university sleep study. Hoping this will finally help her to get rid of her nightmares, she unwittingly becomes the channel to a horrifying new discovery. Co-starring Landon Liboiron (TRUTH OR DARE). Produced by Mark Smith (IN THE TALL GRASS) and Nicholas Bechard (HOLIDAYS) and Canadian genre film luminaries Steve Hoban (GINGER SNAPS) and Vincenzo Natali (CUBE). World Premiere
The Curse of Audrey Earnshaw
A mother and daughter are suspected of witchcraft by their devout rural community in Canadian filmmaker Thomas Robert Lee’s freakishly nightmarish THE CURSE OF AUDREY EARNSHAW. One of the most unsettling and surprising occult horror films since HEREDITARY, this haunting tale is steeped in folklore and brimming with imagery that will besiege your subconscious. It stars Catherine Walker (A DARK SONG), Jared Abrahamson (HELLO DESTROYER), Hannah Emily Anderson (WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE), Don McKellar (LAST NIGHT), and Sean McGinley (BRAVEHEART), and is co-produced by MY BLOODY VALENTINE director George Mihalka. World Premiere
Lucky
The sophomore feature from Natasha Kermani (IMITATION GIRL), LUCKY tells the tale of May (Brea Grant, who also scripted), a self-help author who suddenly finds herself stalked by a threatening but elusive masked man that mysteriously reappears every night. Struggling to get help from the people around her as she fights to stay alive, May is forced to ask if this is just paranoia, or if she’s doomed to accept her new reality? A visceral and smart exploration of gaslighting through the prism of horror storytelling, LUCKY was originally slated to launch at this year’s SXSW. International Premiere
Sleep
Tormented by vivid nightmares and the belief they are real, Marlene suffers a nervous breakdown in a remote German village. As her 19-year-old daughter heads there to join her, she encounters a well-kept family secret and an old curse that will make her life a never-ending nightmare. Michael Venus’ SLEEP (Schlaf), co-starring Gro Swantje Kohlhof (NOTHING BAD CAN HAPPEN) and Sandra Hüller (TONI ERDMANN), is a supremely confident debut – smartly examining the continuing roots of totalitarianism through the prism of a dreamy haunted hotel film and the horror of our current, waking moment. A standout at this year’s Berlinale. North American Premiere
12 Hour Shift
Writer / Director Brea Grant (who also scripted and stars in this year’s LUCKY) has delivered one of our favorite films of the year. A gripping real-time, hospital-set thriller / black comedy taking place in the late ’90s at the onset of the opioid crisis, 12 HOUR SHIFT follows a junkie nurse through an ascension of grisly criminal happenings as she funds her habit through organ harvesting side work on the job. Fronted by a career-best performance from Angela Bettis (MAY), playing a ferociously uncommon kind of anti-hero, and infused with inspired directorial details, the film co-stars Chloe Farnworth, David Arquette, and Mick Foley. Originally slated to launch at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival.International Premiere
Time of Moulting
Germany, the 1970s. Stephanie is a lively child. She leads an isolated life alongside a mentally unstable mother, an absent father, and their cat. Her days there turn into weeks, and the weeks into months, then years… bringing aging and rot, but no future in sight. And so Stephanie retreats into a dark world of barbaric fantasies… An entrancing debut from Sabrina Mertens, TIME OF MOULTING unfolds as a series of meticulous domestic tableaus, slowly morphing into a disturbing descent into a young girl’s inner turmoil. Crushing, and not for the faint of heart. North American Premiere
The Dark and the Wicked
Writer/director Bryan Bertino (THE STRANGERS) takes rural terror up another notch in this incredibly scary shocker, previously slated to launch at the Tribeca Film Festival. On a secluded farm in a nondescript rural town, a man is slowly dying. His family gathers to mourn, and soon a darkness grows, marked by waking nightmares and a growing sense that something evil is taking over the household. THE DARK AND THE WICKED stars Marin Ireland (Sneaky Pete), Michael Abbott Jr. and an uber-creepy Xander Berkeley (CANDYMAN, The Walking Dead). International Premiere.
Alone
A cold-blooded killer stalks a fleeing widow through the wilderness in ALONE, a blistering remake of the acclaimed 2012 Swedish thriller GONE. Starring Ozark’s Marc Menchaca and Bloodline’s Jules Wilcox, the thriller – from UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING director John Hyams – transports the story to the Pacific Northwest, amplifying it with riveting performances and an inspired use of locations to create an air of realistic suspense that pushes the viewer to nearly unbearable extremes. International Premiere.
Bleed with Me
Since her iconic bloody short film UNDRESS ME, screened as part of Fantasia’s Born of Woman showcase, Amelia Moses has been a Montreal talent to watch. With her visceral feature debut, BLEED WITH ME, we’re taken on an intimate cabin trip where boundaries and relationships collapse and double over. A slow-burn thriller with arresting visuals, Moses emerges as a horror filmmaker to be reckoned with! World Premiere.
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