Fantasia ’16: Judge Archer

His word carries authority and so does his arrows. The man called Judge Archer resolves disputes between early Twentieth Century Chinese martial arts schools. It is his job to tell the masters to play nice and eat their peas, so nobody likes him very much. The persona is a burden under the best of circumstances, but the young new Judge is also plagued by personal demons. Things will really get interesting when the martial arts arbiter is caught between two femme fatales in Xu Haofeng’s Judge Archer (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Those who saw Xu’s Sword Identity and The Final Master, might expect the wuxia novelist and martial arts scholar to rehash that same plot a third time (or rather technically the second time, since Archer was completed well before Master). However, this film is entirely its own animal. Nobody seeks to destroy the Judge’s archery techniques. The Archer himself is a different matter.

The current Judge Archer was born of peasant stock. When the landlord assaulted (as they euphemistically put it in Twins Falls, ID) his younger sister with impunity, it caused a psychotic break. According to the monks overseeing his rebirth ritual, the young man is take the first words he hears as his new name. As ironic karma dictates, those would be “Judge Archer.” Choosing to accept fate, the aging Judge Archer takes his new namesake under his wing. Unfortunately, he will not have enough time to teach the new Judge as much as he would like, but his successor is still pretty hardnosed.

Unfortunately, his relative lack of experience will allow JA to be ensnared in a complicated power struggle. Erdong, or femme fatale number one, recruits the Judge to help her avenge her father. It is a little outside his jurisdiction, but justice is justice, so he starts surveilling steely old Kuang Yimin disguised as a fruit seller. Immediately sensing a narc, Kuang has his wife Yue Yahong (femme fatale #2) seduce Judge Archer. However, she might do too good a job of her honey trap assignment. Of course, there is a wider power struggle underway, but Judge Archer really doesn’t care about the politics. For him, the situation is strictly personal.

Xu’s approach to martial arts goes beyond old school, embracing ancient nearly forgotten traditional techniques, no matter how cinematic they may or may not be. Fortunately, in this case, the seated hand-to-hand duels (sort of like Kung Fu patty-cake) look great on-screen. Still, it is definitely true Xu’s characters are more likely to brood their lights out than go skipping from rooftop to rooftop.

The fab four characters are also drawn quite distinctively. Xu regular Yang Song probably does his career-best work as the emotionally damaged Archer. Similarly, Li Chengyuan and the Chinese American Yenny Martin are not just pretty seductresses. They are also acutely sensitive and deeply tragic as Yue Yahong and Erdong, respectively. To complete the central quartet, the late, great Yu Cheng-hui exudes crusty old Sean Connery-esque badassedness as Kuang.

There are several very cool fight scenes in Judge Archer which also have the additional virtues of originality and authenticity. It is strange that it took the film (which debuted internationally in 2012) so long to get here, but it is worth the wait. Judge Archer is top-shelf but scrupulously grounded wuxia, highly recommended for martial arts fans, following its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Earth is Not Room Enough (short)

It echoes an Asimov title and the Groundhogs’ Space-rock, but the inspiration for this trippy short is much more Sun Ra and a bit of Parliament-Funkadelic. Space is the place and the way to get there is through music—glorious analog music. A hipster crate-digger will try to hitch a ride to the galactic spaceways through the grooves of some ultra-rare LPs in Joe Losurdo’s short film Earth is not Room Enough, which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

The sight of a box of vinyl records left out with the trash will always stop Sam dead in his tracks, as it would any normal person. In this case, the landlord is happy to be rid of his absconded tenant’s property and even throws in some high-end stereo equipment. It turns out the mysterious Dr. Stitch was working on some bizarre experiments in sound, using the groovy, limited press-run, hand-painted LPs Sam couldn’t wait to spin. Using the missing physicist’s notes as a guide, Sam tries to recreate his weird audio regimen. The results are truly cosmic.

If you know your Sun Ra and related artists, you will flip for EINRE. It looks great, sounds great, and offers enticing hints of a potentially rich and far-ranging original Afrofuturist mythology. It also reminds viewers of the exhilarating feeling you get when you discover a strange and scarce record for little or nothing—and who can’t relate to that.

As Sam the record collector, Sam Porter perfectly captures that indomitable enthusiasm, while Travis Travis instantly intrigues and mystifies as Dr. Stitch (seen via VHS tapes, ‘natch). Christina Tillman’s contribution as the art and production designer is also invaluable, beautifully realizing all that gatefold, analog goodness.

The nostalgia is warm and inviting, while the vibe is funky and otherworldly. Frankly, it’s just all good. Highly recommended as a twelve-minute blast, Earth is not Room Enough had its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Reversal (short)

Analog media can really take you back in time—literally. It has become a semi-frequent metaphor-Macguffin in time travel-themed short films, such as Jesse Atlas’s Record/Play and Jonathan Dillon’s Celluloid Dreams. A tweedy inventor will also bust out the old school film projector to right a past wrong in Michael Lippert’s short film Reversal (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Just as Frank was poised to secure funding for his time travel device, his eternally patient wife Emma was murdered by a home invader. To add insult to injury, the liberal courts let the killer off easy, citing his mental health issues. However, Frank had been secretly conducting his time travel experiments in their flat, so he just so happens to have the relevant photochemical film to allow him brief trips back in time. That old film stock sure could burn up fast, couldn’t it? As a result, Frank’s supply might not hold out long enough for all his time travel plans.

Frustratingly, Lippert’s screenplay never even attempts to explain the mechanics of its system of time travel. This is a mistake, because that sort of scientistic mumbo jumbo is one of the pleasures of the sub-genre. However, the old couple’s relationship feels realistically “lived-in” and ultimately quite poignant. Bill McGough and Donna Steele play off each other nicely and give the short film mature credibility.

Reversal is also quite a handsome production, especially by genre standards. Cinematography Austin Rink and production designer Manuel Perez Pena give it a stylish look that evokes both past nostalgia and great cosmic portents. It is a fully realized film that should satisfy fans of Somewhere in Time and Frequency. Recommended accordingly, Reversal had its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: The Exclusive, Beat the Devil’s Tattoo

If you think journalists are interested in truth, you probably also still believe lawyers are only interested in justice. Let Heo Moo-hyeok dispel any lingering misconceptions you might have for the former. When he gets a life-and-death serial killer story wrong, he just keeps digging a deeper hole for himself in Roh Deok’s The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Heo has just been pushed out from his hack journalist job at a low-rated television network and pretty much blacklisted everywhere else in town. Drunk and despondent, he plays his last card, following-up with the tipster who called in with a supposed lead as to the whereabouts of a serial killer stalking Seoul. In the dark of night, in his drunken stupor, the supposed lair looks frighteningly sinister. By break of day, he is back in his network’s good graces, working on his exclusive report. Unfortunately, when he returns to the scene, Heo realizes the supposed chamber of horrors is actually an actor’s workshop.

Obviously, his story is bogus, but it takes on a life of its own nonetheless. Every time Heo attempts some damage control, it backfires spectacularly. On the plus side, he career is on the upswing and he just might have an outside chance of patching things up with his mega-preggers estranged wife Soo-jin. However, his sudden notoriety also puts him squarely on the real serial killer’s radar.

For the most part, Exclusive is an insidiously clever one-darned-thing-after-another thriller, but it never has the massive third act crescendo we expect (like Confession of Murder or Broken). Still, it is bizarrely engrossing to watch the wildly problematic Heo make a hash of everything.

It will also leave viewers deeply disillusioned with respects to the state of journalism, thanks to some wonderfully arch supporting turns. Kim Eui-sung (the jerkheel businessman in Train to Busan) was apparently born to play sleazebag supporting characters and he chews the scenery with glee as the ethically challenged executive editor. However, the commanding Lee Mi-sook almost makes tabloid journalism look respectable as the network director. When she is on-screen, she takes the film to another level. Bae Sung-woo is also as reliable as ever playing CYA-ing Squad Chief Oh. They help a lot, given Cho Jung-seok’s clammy standoffishness as Heo.

Exclusive is a solid Korean thriller that earns extra bonus points for achievements in cynicism. It does not quite reach the over-the-top heights of some of the best in genre, but it is definitely a satisfying viewing experience. Recommended as an antidote to Spotlight and other nauseatingly self-important journalism movies, The Exclusive: Beat the Devil’s Tattoo had its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Un Plan D’Enfer (short)

It is Rififi with catnip. Two crooks think they have their caper in the bag when they enlist the unwittingly help of dozens of mewing stray cats. Yes, but French noirs usually end badly, don’t they? Such will be the case for the luckless losers in Alain Gagnol & Jean-Loup Felicioli’s animated short Un Plan D’Enfer (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Plan is really just a morsel from the filmmaking duo responsible for A Cat in Paris and Phantom Boy to tide us over in between features—but it is a tasty one. Once again, they engage with the cinematic vocabulary of film noir, directly tipping their hats to the Jules Dassin classic. Mo and Carl expect to have all night to chop through the floor boards to their anticipated loot, because the racket of dozens of stay cats they have hopped up on pure catnip extract will mask the sounds they make. That’s the plan at least, but we know what that’s worth.

Like all of Gagnol & Felicioli’s films, Plan is visually stylish and elegantly droll. It lacks the emotional pop of Cat and Boy, but it cranks up the irony in its place. It’s a shorty, but still a keeper. Recommended for fans of film noir and animation, Un Plan D’Enfer had its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Pyotr495 (short)

Welcome to Russia, semi-permanent home of the China-Putin-Zika Games, formerly known as the Olympics. Vladimir Putin hopes you enjoy your stay, unless you happen to be gay. In that case, you’d best not come, unless you want to risk life and limb. Having prohibited LGBT “propaganda” and given license to his brutish supporters to bash away, Putin has deliberately fostered a climate of fear and intimidation. However, the uncertainty of blind hook-ups cuts both ways in Blake Mawson’s short film Pyotr495 (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Pyotr is usually careful, but he still wants to live some semblance of a life. After exchanging a series of texts with the muscular Sergei, he agrees to meet the stranger in his Moscow apartment. It turns out Pyotr should have done more due diligence on Sergei—and he really should not have admitted nobody knew he was there. Unfortunately, Sergei and his gay-bashing friends have their own humiliating plans for Pyotr. However, there is more to their intended victim than they realize. After all, it wasn’t programmed at Fantasia for nothing.

Pyotr495 is an extraordinarily dark and tense short that portrays Putin’s Russia as a horror film in the style of the Hostel franchise, until it takes a satisfying EC Comics turn. Alex Ozerov was rather underwhelming in the generally problematic Natasha, but he redeems himself as Pyotr. As his tormentors, Max Rositsan and Juliana Semenova truly personify the dark side of human nature. Technically, Putin never appears in Pyotr495, but he still deserves credit for making it frighteningly believable.

This is the sort of short that can transcend resistance to its format and generate some far-ranging discussions. Of course, it is not just LGBT Russians who are at risk from the Putin regime. The film duly notes in its opening titles, the Russia military has invaded the sovereign territory of Ukraine. Tightly executed and all too timely, Pyotr495 was easily one of the best shorts at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Another Evil

It has been a tough summer for spectral exorcists. First, the Ghostbusters reboot tried to win over skeptical fans by tarring them as braying misogynists. Now, a rather unprofessional freelancer will give the spook-dispelling profession a very bad name. An artist with a haunted cabin makes the wrong call in Carson D. Mell’s Another Evil (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Dan Papdakis is understandably alarmed when he sees a ghost shimmying through his well-appointed vacation home, but the first medium he consults insists it is no big deal. The spirits are ambivalent, even kind of “cool,” so he should just come to terms with their presence. It is hard to fault him for his skepticism, but he called the wrong gung-ho, emotionally insecure hardliner for a second opinion. Os Bijourn is convinced the ghosts are not merely evil, but also probably in league with the bad cat downstairs.

No joke, Bijourn invokes Satan more often than the Church Lady, but when he apparently bags the first the spirit, Papadakis starts to buy into the exorcist’s big talk. Unfortunately, he will lose confidence in Bijourn just as quickly when the ghost-busting takes a sinister turn.

Another Evil is a terribly frustrating film, because its first half is fresh and witty, yet also flavored with creepy overtones, only to face-plant the back nine. Essentially, the film turns into a ghost-hunting analog of The Cable Guy, with a teaspoon of anti-Catholic sentiment thrown in for extra added alienation. How can such an assured beginning run so far off the rails?

Mark Proksch’s Bijourn is outrageously funny when it is time for bluff and bluster, but the meltdowns and angst-fests are just kind of awkward. On the other hand, as Papadakis, Steve Zissis makes a consistently credible straight man. Dan Bakkedahl also scores respectable-sized laughs as the unusually laidback spiritualist, Joey Lee. For the most part, Jennifer Irwin and Dax Flame are stuck on the sidelines, as Papadakis’s wife and son, but they handle their horror movie business well enough when finally called upon.

It is always disappointing to watch a film sabotage itself. In this case, the heavy-handed portrayal of religious conviction and the black-and-white world view it supposedly implies does the film no favors. More to the point, it just stops being fun midway through. It is hard to half-recommend a film, especially since the good half necessarily lacks resolution. Still half is better than nothing. Horror fans can trust their instincts when Another Evil next screens at FrightFest, following its international premiere during this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Battledream Chronicle

Depending on how it is used, the internet can either liberate or enslave. Ask the Chinese how that works. Circumstances will be even more extreme in the year 2100. In this animated future, all nations are connected through the digital universe of Farandjun, where most day-to-day life is conducted, rather than in the toxic real world. Unfortunately, when the rogue AI virus Isfet assumes control over Farandjun, she demands the connected nations conduct a Battle Royale, with the losers submitting to the victors, in both the virtual and physical realms. Princess Syanna Meridian was the first to fall, but she will have a chance at redemption in Alain Bidard’s Battledream Chronicle (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Meridian was once the Crown Princess of the first formerly sovereign state pitted against the fierce Mortemonde. As a result, she was the first to learn Mortemondian dictator Isaac Ravengorn has special armor that renders him invulnerable and therefore invincible within Isfet’s Battledream arena. As they will do with successive losers, the Mortemonde victors will wipe the memories of Meridian and her people, integrating them into the lower rungs of their society.

As Meridan and her partner Alytha Mercuri plug away as workaday gladiators in the Battledream, Ravengorn cuts through his competition. The tiny city of Sablereve is the final holdout. A recent defector from Mortemonde has brought news of a relic within the game that can pierce Ravengorn’s armor. However, Meridian chances across the Easter Egg weapon during one of her matches, but is wholly unaware of its significance.

Let’s not mince words. Battledream’s underwhelming CG animation is barely a cut above straight to DVD B-movies like Gene-Fusion. However, its speculative world-building and heady themes are more ambitious than its flat style suggests. Frankly, is looks just adequate enough for viewers to get pulled into the cyberpunky story of oppression and revolt. Bidard has created some surprisingly engaging supporting characters, including Nyssa, the escaped Mortemonde slave, Oramame Alwami, a sadist Mortmonde inquisitor who was once Nyssa’s gladiatorial partner, and Klaus Balrog, the high-ranking Templar and defender of Sablereve.

This is definitely a film about good versus evil. In fact, the internal laws and traditions of Mortemonde are unusually nefarious and cruel. Bidard certainly primes us for some payback. Yet, he avoids most of the clichés you would expect in the final showdown.

Considering it was produced for about twelve cents, Battledream is definitely worth checking out. Animation fans will might find its visuals appealingly retro—or perhaps not. Still, there just aren’t that many animated features coming from Martinique, so this also holds a claim to novelty and national pride. As a bonus, it also features the Sonny Troupé Quartet’s tune “Voyages & Rêves” (see video here) over the closing credits, earning extra points for good taste. Recommended more for fans of dystopian science fiction than animation connoisseurs, Battledream Chronicle screened during this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: The Show of Shows

There was a time when lion-trainer Gunther Gebel-Williams was a regular on the Tonight Show and received flattering portraits in Sports Illustrated. Today, media appraisal of circus people falls somewhere on the spectrum between Benito Mussolini and Jack the Ripper. You can sort of see the shift of attitude in Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson’s circus-focused feature length clip package culled from the National Fairground Archives in the freshly liberated Great Britain. Get your sad clown face on for Erlingsson’s The Show of Shows (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

It will be Sigur Rós fans who will most enjoy Show, thanks to the trance-ish electro score co-composed by band-members Georg Holm and Orri Páll Dýarson along with Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson and Kjartan Dagur Holm, rather than circus folk. Just about everyone else will quickly start to drift as the thematically divided mastercut of vintage circus and carny footage starts to wash over them.

However, Erlingsson’s sort of cheats right from the start with a section devoted to dancers. Snake dancers maybe, but ballroom dancers? Maybe it’s a Scandinavian thing. He avoids the exploitative side shows (but Tod Browning’s cult classic Freaks also screened at this year’s Fantasia, so we’re covered), while casting a somewhat politically correct idea on the animal training acts.

Granted, there are some crazy (and sometimes acceptably amusing) visuals in Show. To some extent, it summons hazy memories of a simpler era, when lions were expected to earn their keep by letting chipper young woman stick their empty heads in the beasts’ mouths, rather than just unproductively laze about their natural habitat. However, the film’s tone of hipster detachment will likely satisfy neither the nostalgic or the morally apoplectic.

During this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, Show of Shows screened one day as a looped installation, which is probably a better way of presenting it. You can definitely pop in for twenty minutes and get most of what there is to engage with in the film. Still, the dark aural palette scored by Holm et al gives the film the feeling of a deep bottom. Editor David Alexander Corno also stiches it together in a manner that flows smoothly and logically.

Those who were won over by Erlingsson’s droll and vermouth-dry Of Horses and Men will be thrown by this departure. Frankly, it is hard to recommend to a target audience, since it is murkily unclear just who it was intended for. Still, it is likely to pop up again somewhere following its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Therapy

When a child goes missing, it means all hands on deck for a provincial French police force. That just leaves two junior detectives to work a quickly developing serial killer case. Potentially, they could prevent dozens, maybe hundreds of future missing persons. It all seems like a dangerous misallocation of manpower, but this is France. Remember, they never did catch the Pink Panther. Whether they can stop the shadowy killer seen in tape after tape of found footage is a more pressing question in Nathan Ambrosioni’s Therapy (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

A box of tapes is found in an abandoned building near popular a camping site. Normally that would not be so remarkable, but the blood splatterings give them a sense of urgency. As the crime lab converts the various formats (VHS, Go-Pro, 16mm) onto flash-drives, two detectives watch the horror develop. Stephanie, her slightly domineering boyfriend Steven, and three teen relations planned a relaxing weekend getaway, but as Seb, the poorly socialized film student documents, the frequent sound of distant screams quickly casts a pall on the evening. They really should have left when someone breaks into Steven’s car, but instead he waits until the a.m. hours to investigate the sinister squat nearby. That would be the one that was once an insane asylum.

It is tempting to get pedantic over the found footage (why is CSI splicing it together in chronological order and how would they even know it in the first place), but watching it from the helpless perspective of coppers Jane and Simon is pretty creepy. As in his breakout debut Hostile, Ambrosioni, the French horror prodigy, still displays a commanding mastery of mood and tension, but Therapy is a much more conventional and slashery follow-up.

Even though he plays it fast and loose with the found footage conceit, it is still a tough film for thesps to register in. Nevertheless, Nathalie Couturier is quite compelling as the driven Jane. Likewise, Shelly Ward keeps us thoroughly off balance as Abigail Parker, “the witness with a secret.” As part of Ambrosioni’s repertory company, she is becoming quite the cult horror star. Fittingly, Ambrosioni plays Seb—mostly heard rather than seen.

There is no questioning Ambrosioni’s horror mechanics. His use of sound and light to keep veiwers on edge is decidedly impressive. Nevertheless, Therapy just doesn’t hit you on as deep a level as Hostile—and its big twist is not nearly as bracing. Okay, but still something of a sophomore slump in comparison, Therapy had its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Sori, Voice from the Heart

This freshly sentient AI surveillance satellite should monitor a screening of Gavin Hood’s Eye in the Sky or perhaps Johnnie To’s film of the same name. Both would give her a greater appreciation of her purpose. Instead, the satellite of love crashes to earth and teams up with a Korean father desperately looking for his long missing daughter. Short Circuit style hijinks gets a massive dose of fatalism in Lee Ho-jae’s Sori: Voice from the Heart (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Naturally, Kim Hae-gwan had a terrible row with his college-aged daughter Yu-joo the last time he saw her. Shortly thereafter, she presumably perished in a terrible transit fire. Yet, without a body, Kim refuses to give up hope. Following up a false lead on the Incheon Islands, Kim literally stumbles across the NSA satellite he will later dub Sori. It too is on a mission. After intercepting a cell phone call from a girl caught in the crossfire of an attack on the Taliban, Sori is determined to find her and protect. She too is wracked with guilt for facilitating the strike. However, as Alan Rickman’s Gen. Frank Benson would point out, the drone strike might very well have prevented far worse horrors in the form of a suicide bombing. (By the way, it is not too early to start talking posthumous best supporting actor for Rickman.)

Thanks to Sori’s skill set, Kim is finally able to track various cell phones associated with his daughter. Of course, a narrative of this nature faces two potential perils, a ridiculously phony happy ending or a massive downer. Instead, Lee and co-screenwriter Lee So-young try to fake some symbolic redemption, but the film just works better when it embraces the tragedy.

Lee Sung-min (awesome as the cop in Broken and the crooked prosecutor in A Violent Prosecutor) is simply devastating as Kim. Chae Soo-bin is maybe even more heartrending as Yu-joo. Their backstory will pretty much do you in. However, Sori herself rather conspicuously looks like something kit-bashed together with parts leftover from R2D2 and Number Nine. Granted, it is nice to see Lee Ha-nui play a smart, forceful character like KARI (Korea’s space agency) scientist Ji-yeon, but her dialogue is conspicuously loaded with exposition. Lee Hee-joon fares even worse as the blandly arrogant NIS working with and against the Yanks to recover Sori.

Frankly, Lee Ho-jae and So-young’s didactic criticism of the NSA gets awfully old, lightning fast. There is genuine grit and integrity to Lee Sung-min’s performance, but the film still leaves viewers feeling manipulated. Not a priority to catch up with, the greatly mixed Sori: Voice from the Heart had it Quebec premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: We Go On

Hamlet told Horatio “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” but that’s not good enough for Miles Grissom. He wants proof of something after death, so he is offering thirty thousand American Dollars to anyone who can conclusively demonstrate the existence of ghosts, angels or what-have-you. You can forget about angels right off the bat, but ghosts are a different story. After all, there are good reasons why Jesse Holland & Andy Mitton’s We Go On (trailer here) is screening during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Ever since his father died in a car crash, Grissom has been petrified by cars, plagued by medium level agoraphobia, and paralyzed by the very idea of death. That was about three decades ago. In a desperate attempt to reassert control over his life, Grissom pledges his inheritance to anyone who can prove there is something after. Naturally, he is inundated with responses, but his no-nonsense mother Charlotte helps him whittle them down to three main contenders (and maybe a few dark horses).

The first session with Dr. Ellison, an academic paranormal researcher starts promisingly, but ends disappointingly. The pattern will repeat with the other main contenders, but one of the dark horses just might be the real deal. In which case, Grissom could be in for a hard careful-what-you-wish-for lesson.

Indeed, Holland & Mitton’s narrative radically changes course midway through, but it always makes sense given the context. It is definitely creepy, but it is also its own film. We are certainly not watching the same basic chiller re-purposed for yet another cast. However, it is safe to say Annette O’Toole is their ace in the hole, because she is terrific as the tart-tounged Charlotte.  In contrast, Clark Freeman’s turn as Grissom truly inspires mixed reactions. At times, he seems appropriately nebbish, but he is also rather dull. The same could never be said of John Glover, who is flamboyantly sleazy as ever playing Dr. Ellison. Although her work as Josephina the medium is considerably less showy, Giovanna Zacarias is still effectively squirrely, in a quiet, tightly wound sort of way.

WGO springs a few sly surprises along the way, but the clever details are what really make the film. Holland & Mitton do not reinvent the genre wheel, but they nicely balance grounded humor with supernatural horror. Recommended for horror fans who appreciate character and concepts, We Go On screens again tomorrow (7/28), as part of this year’s Fantasia in Montreal.

Fantasia ’16: Man Underground

Geologists ought to be pretty down to earth (so to speak), but Willem Koda is flaky as shale. Even his friends (both of them) will admit he is ragingly paranoid. However, that doesn’t mean “they” aren’t ought to get him in Michael Borowiec & Sam Marine’s Man Underground (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Koda used to be a Federal contractor, but those days are long gone. Now he makes a poor living as a speaker on the nutter circuit. Todd Buckle sort of inherited Koda’s friendship from his late UFO-watcher uncle, maintaining it out of loyalty and loneliness. Koda might have his faults, but he is polite, which impresses Flossie Ferguson, an aspiring actress stuck waiting tables in her sleepy hometown. Oddly enough, she inspires Koda to follow-up on Buckle’s innocent suggestion. The trio will expose the truth by making a microbudget film of Koda’s life.

For a while, this seems almost remotely doable. However, as Buckle steadily falls for Ferguson (despite her jerkheel yuppie boyfriend), Koda finds the personal revelations increasingly painful. Of course, he might not be the only one feeling alarmed by the film’s content, if you know what we mean.

Ostensibly, Underground is an X-Files style sf-conspiracy thriller, but it is actually a wise and sad portrait of a true believer. George Basil has the appropriate hound dog presence for the world weary Koda. He nicely turns some surprisingly poignant moments, as when he realizes how he froze out his long-suffering ex-wife after playing a scene from their ill-fated marriage with Ferguson. As Buckle, Andy Rocco is also amusingly droll in a laidback, unassuming way. Somehow, Pamela Fila just doesn’t feel like she fits in as Ferguson, but its not for a lack of trying.

Underground is definitely a film composed in a minor key, but it has its rustic indie charms. Basil proves you can fully commit to character, without indulging in shtick or histrionics. It is a nice film, but not a revolutionary revelation. Recommended for conspiracy cinema fans, Man Underground screens again next Wednesday (8/3), as part of this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Chihayafuru Parts 1 & 2

Karuta is sort like baseball and boxing. It offers a competitive advantage to southpaws—and there the similarities end. Using waka poetry cards derived from the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu, players try to snatch away the verses that follow the stanza chanted by the reader. Or something like that. Chihaya Ayase is a natural. Arata Wataya is even better. Taichi Mashima is just okay, but together they were an unbeatable team in grade school. Unfortunately, family circumstances split them apart, but a passion for the game might just bring them back together in Norihiro Koizumi’s adaptation of the manga and anime franchise, Chihayafuru Parts 1 & 2 (trailers here and here), which screened on successive nights during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Ayase’s passion for karuta can be a little overwhelming at times, but that is what it will take to start a new club in her high school. Naturally, she is overjoyed when Mashima transfers to her class, but he will need a bit of convincing. Their former rival Yusei Nishida (a.k.a. “Meat Bun Guy”) soon joins up. It will take some arm-twisting, but eventually they recruit Kanade Ooe and Tsutomu Komano (a.k.a.”Mr. Desk”), capitalizing on her love for traditional Japanese culture and his elitist pretensions. It will take a while for them to gel as a team, but they will have the wise council of their former teacher, Hideo Harada, who knows Mashima and Wataya as “Eye-lashes Boy” and “Glasses Boy,” respectively.

When they start competing, Ayase is their only A-level player, but Meat Bun will soon join her. Of course, all the top high school karuta gunslingers will be looking for her. Unfortunately, she will let herself get sidetracked by her perhaps unrequited (or perhaps not) love for Wataya and her obsession with left-handed Shinobu Wakamiya, “The Queen,” or the top-rating woman karuta player in Japan (and hence the world), despite still being in high school herself. Meanwhile, poor luckless Mashima continues to carry a torch for Ayase.

What a lovely, lovely film, or rather duology. If they screened it in high schools, it could inspire a karuta craze among American teenagers. The five Mizusawa High players are all ridiculously cute kids, but they also have realistically complex personalities. Two back-to-back films totalling nearly four hours might sound excessive, but viewers will miss spending time with them when it ends. Of course, it starts with Suzu Hirose, whose career is just exploding with Chihayafuru and Kore-eda’s Our Little Sister. As Ayase, she is both forceful and vulnerable—and altogether winning.

The entire ensemble is engaging, most definitely including Shuhei Nomura, who compellingly humanizes the somewhat moody Mashima. Mone Kamishiraishi and Yuki Morinaga give Ooe and Mr. Desk nuance and dimension beyond their character quirks, while the crafty veteran Jun Kunimura dispenses wisdom as Harada with seemingly effortless élan. Viewers will have to wait for the second film to see Mayu Matsuoka in action as the Queen, but she will definitely make her regal presence felt.

Koizumi helms with a light touch, letting his young cast keep it real. Masaru Yokoyama’s medium up-tempo score also subtly reinforces the bittersweet vibe. Amazingly, even though the films leave so much unresolved (exactly like real life), the audience will feel like they are skipping on air when the final credits roll. These films will just totally recharge your batteries. Recommended with tremendous affection, Chihayafuru Parts 1 & 2 next screen internationally at Bucheon on Thursday (7/28), following their North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: In Search of Ultra-Sex

Canal+ has long offered full service programming to a wide spectrum of customers, including special scrambled overnight broadcasts. Those were exactly what you think they are. As a result, the venerable media company had quite an extensive archive of soft-core and not-so-soft-core naughty movies for filmmakers Nicolas Charlet and Bruno Lavaine to plunder. The resulting hacked-together and over-dubbed Frankenstein’s monster of a supercut takes the narrative shape of a psychedelic science fiction film. The Earth is in trouble, but nobody is complaining in Charlet & Lavaine’s In Search of Ultra-Sex (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Part of the fun of watching Carl Reiner’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid with friends comes from showing off your recognition of the incorporated film clips. Here, you’re on your own. Fortunately, there were more than enough bargain basement Star Trek and Power Ranger knock-offs to supply the skeleton of Charlet & Lavaine’s narrative. Some nefarious force has stolen the Ultra-Sex, the mystical mojo holding Earth’s collective libido in check. Now that its gone, there is actually a halfway credible cause for all the hanky-panky breaking out in public places.

Naturally, various teams of naughty starship crews, private detectives, and superheroes take up the case of the missing celestial inhibitor. Yet, perhaps not so ironically, the cheapest, goofiest looking footage comes not from the Skinimax spoofs, but from the notoriously cheesy but “legit” Samurai Cop.

If you are not prudish or a color correction professional, Ultra is an amusing exercise in cult movie eccentricity. Mercifully, Charlet & Lavaine wrap things up in exactly one hour, because this concept could easily become a case of “too much of a good thing.” Although they arguably have a greater narrative through-line than the films they are sampling (mostly from set-up and foreplay scenes rather than consummations), it is still pretty loose. Of course, any meaningful attempt at characterization is necessarily impossible. It is literally a gag reel.

Be that as it may, it is pretty bizarre to see what some blue movie makers thought viewers would find titillating and even more mind-blowing that Canal+ apparently aired them at one point (granted, in the early a.m., but still). We’re definitely talking about the sexually explicit puppets here.

Yeah so, Ultra. There are plenty of opportunities to chuckle and shake your head at the wacky barrage of images, but there is no danger of anyone busting gut from laughter. Frankly, Charlet & Lavaine probably cobbled together the funniest film they could, but their source material might just be inherently limiting. Nevertheless, it is never dull. Recommended for cult fans who like to be able to say they have seen films of notoriety, In Search of Ultra-Sex is out there someplace, following its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: The Inerasable

Notorious history disclosure is a big deal in real estate law, but here in the city, we don’t care. If we hear of a murder-suicide in a good building, we ask if that means there’s a vacancy. Tokyo is sort of like that, but this particular flat renting well below the neighborhood market rate still maintains an ominously high turnover rate. The newest tenant finds out why in Yoshihiro Nakamura’s The Inerasables (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

“I, the mystery novelist” does not talk about herself much, but she has a good relationship with her fans. Currently, she has a regular magazine gig writing ghost stories based on real experiences submitted by her readers. The latest comes from a university architecture student, who will simply be known as “Kubo.” Soon after moving into her suspicious affordable apartment, she started hearing noises from the bedroom nook. She eventually realizes in is the sound of a kimono sash sweeping the floor as the spirit wearing it swings on her spectral noose.

The unwanted supernatural disturbances are entirely confined to the one room of Kubo’s flat, but they appear to be rampant throughout the neighboring unit. With “I’s” help, Kubo starts investigating the history of the land itself, uncovering a chronicle of violent tragedy dating back over a century.

Inerasable is a wickedly smart and atmospheric film that turns j-horror conventions on their head. It is no accident “I” narrates the film, because Inerasable is very much about the telling of the tale. There is really no gore at all to be found within, but it is massively eerie to watch as the layers of the onion are peeled back. This is a horror film mystery readers will flip for, because it is driven by the investigative process.  Frankly, Inerasable will scare viewers directly in proportion to their level of concentration.

As a further relative rarity, Inerasable also features several complex characters played by a first class cast with understated discipline (masterfully helmed by Nakamura). As the cool, calm, and cerebral “I,” Yuko Taakeuchi makes Jessica Fletcher look like a bumbling idiot. Ai Hashimoto’s Kudo is also smart and acutely sensitive. Kuranosuke Sasaki adds some wit and panache as I’s mystery writer colleague, Yoshiaki Hiraoka, while Kenichi Takito keeps it real as Naoto, I’s down to earth husband.

Screenwriter Ken’ichi Suzuki’s adaptation of Fuyumi Ono’s novel has the immersive intricacy of considerably longer but similarly engrossing films, like Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Reason and the Solomon’s’ Perjury duology, which we consider high praise indeed. Yet, Inerasable also strangely brings to mind Scooby-Doo, simply because it is so pleasant to spend time with the informal paranormal-investigating team I assembles. They deserve future sequels, but this is what we have for now and its terrific. Very highly recommended for intelligent horror and mystery fans, The Inerasables had its Quebec premiere at this year’s Fantasia in Montreal.

Fantasia ’16: Aloys

Aloys Adorn is a private eye, but he follows more in the tradition of Alain Robbe-Grillet’s The Erasers than Hammett or Chandler. Nondescript and unassuming to a fault, Adorn is perfect for divorce surveillance. Following the death of his father (who was also his partner and roommate), Adorn withdraws from life in a manner worthy of Bartleby the Scrivener, but a strange neighbor will try to pull him back, sort of, in Tobias Nölle’s Aloys (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

It is not like a lot of people are yearning to engage with Adorn, but he will freeze out any who try. That includes his rather odd neighbor Vera. Apparently, she was so frustrated with him, she stole his video camera and digital tapes. That would be before her accident-slash-suicide attempt. He used to watch his old surveillance footage each night, in lieu of having a life, but she will force him outside his comfort zone instead.

She calls it “telephone walking,” but it is essentially a mutual visualization exercise. In this case, it might actually work. Soon Adorn is projecting himself to a mossy forest, where he meets the hospitalized Vera. Or maybe it is an idealized version of her. Regardless, he soon starts to feel some kind of something for her, especially when she joins him in his apartment for groovy, retro-1970s console-organ party.

Aloys is a very strange film, but also an understated one, as you would perhaps expect from the German-speaking Swiss. Nölle’s mastery of mise-en-scène is conspicuously evident in each and every carefully composed shot. He and cinematographer Simon Guy Fässler make Euro drabness look dramatically stark. Yet, he might be too thorough when it comes to problematizing ostensive reality. Once the telephone walking starts, he never lets viewers get their feet back under them, though not all cult cinema fans will object to that.

Without question, Nölle elevates style over narrative, so be prepared to deal (or not). However, the hypnotic control he exerts is almost eerie. There is substance to the surreal flights, but do not look for easy, programmatic symbolism. Just call it an existential trip. Recommended for the adventurous, Aloys screens again this Wednesday (7/27) as part of Fantasia ’16.

Fantasia ’16: Karaoke Crazies

In some countries, karaoke is looked down on, largely due to the red light districts they are mostly found in (and the activities that therefore often happen therein). On the other hand, it is a perfectly respectable pastime for families and co-workers in Korea. However, one struggling parlor will profitably re-establish karaoke’s naughtiness. Unfortunately, this will attract the attention of a serial killer in Kim Sang-chan’s Karaoke Crazies, which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Sung-wook’s provincial karaoke palace was built specifically to service a large factory. When it closed, business plummeted, but the suicidal Sung-wook hardly cares. He is too busy torturing himself and listening to (but not watching) hardcore dirty movies. In a half-hearted attempt to fend off creditors, he posts a sign for a singing helper. The obviously damaged Ha-suck applies. Frankly, she can’t sing a note, but she knows how to keep customers from complaining. Sung-wook pretends not to notice, until it just reaches a ridiculous level.

Such unprofessional behavior scandalizes Na-ju. She is a real deal singer’s assistant, who arrives like the wind to turn Sung-wook’s parlor around. Soon she is holding court in the “loud room” with respectable clients, while Ha-suck services the pervs in the “quiet room.” Of course, there is considerable crossover between their clientele. Sung-wook even hires the deaf homeless man apparently suffering from acute PSTD whom he found secretly living in the store room. The Karaoke parlor starts to function as going concern, with a bizarre sense of family. Yet, those ominous reports of the serial killer stalking the region will clearly amount to something in the third act.

K Crazies is the sort of film that you might call quirky if quirkiness didn’t have such a bad reputation. Perhaps the closest comparison would be some of the Coen Brothers films—think of a blending of Barton Fink and Fargo, with maybe a dab of Lebowski dolloped on top. It covers pretty much the entire emotional spectrum from laughs to tears to fears, yet you can never feel Kim Sang-chan switching gears.

As Na-ju. Kim Na-mi doesn’t just crank up the sex appeal. She also really knocks the wind out of viewers with a shockingly human and humane turn. Likewise, Bae So-eun is deeply compelling as the recovering Ha-suck. Lee Moon-sik ably holds it all together and directs traffic as Sung-wook, the world-weary everyman. It is not often that viewers engage with a genre film on such a personal level, but the ensemble truly pulls us in.

By the time K Crazies wraps up, you will feel like you went through a lot with the four primary characters and that you know every inch of the karaoke parlor by heart. Darkly stylish but also mature and forgiving, it really packs a punch. Very highly recommended, Karaoke Crazies should have a long festival life (including London’s FrightFest), after screening at this year’s Fantasia.

Fantasia ’16: Fury of the Demon

It is a film so powerful, it causes disorientation, short-term psychosis, and violent rioting, but it is still more entertaining to watch than A Serbian Film. It is the oldest of old school horror films, helmed by the pioneer himself, Georges Méliès, or perhaps one of his sinister colleagues. Technically, the notorious lost film never really existed, but that does not stop the French genre cinema establishment from analyzing the heck out of it in Fabien Delage’s droll mockumentary, Fury of the Demon (trailer here), which screened during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Every decade or so, someone stumbles upon a print of Fury of the Demon and screens it, unwittingly unleashing chaos. Eccentric American film collector Edgar A. Wallace (note middle initial) sort of knew what he had, but his private screening for French film scholars and journalists yielded similar results. Various French critics play it admirably straight for Delage as they describe the terrors of the experience. Frankly, they aren’t bad actors at all. For added genre appeal, Alexandre Aja and Christophe Gans also get in on the joke as talking head commentators.

Fury bizarrely taps into something that is hard to define. With over two hundred of Méliès’ five hundred film oeuvre missing, who is to say what we haven’t seen? After all, his Robinson Crusoe just turned up four years ago. Ironically, the universally ignored B-movie Playback, sort of used a similar Macguffin, but it that case it was Louis Le Prince (a.k.a. Lucifer, the Prince of Darkness). Although Playback’s riff on Le Prince lacked Delage’s erudite sophistication, it was still the best part of the film.

However, Fury really does it right. Delage cleverly assembles evocative Méliès clips and constructs an eerily believable alternate mythology in a mere sixty minutes. Did Méliès really have an occult-obsessed junior partner named Victor Sicarius, who secretly made early splatter-gore films on the side? It is doubtful, but if so, maybe its all real. In that case, could someone point out where Manhattan’s “historic Virginia Theater” stands?

When you watch Fury, you sort of want it to be true, even though it is basically horrifying and sometimes tragic. For genre fans with a sense of movie history, it is just a gas. Highly recommended for smart viewers, Fury of the Demon had its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia and will screen later in August during FrightFest in London.

Fantasia ’16 The Unseen

Typically, movie invisibility comes in two flavors: would be world-dominating mad scientists and girls’ locker room hijinks. However, for Bob Langmore, it is a brutal curse. Consider the difficulties of day-to-day hygiene when parts of your body are turning invisible. Langmore left his wife and daughter to spare them the partial sight of him, but he will return fully bundled when the latter goes missing in Geoff Redknap’s The Unseen (trailer here), which screens during the 2016 Fantasia International Film Festival.

Once a promising NHL rookie, Langmore now punches the clock in a dilapidated Canadian mill, where protective clothing and head gear is required at all times. He is very sick, but he hides it with his abrasive personality. He is contemplating disappearing for good and final, but first he wants to see his daughter Eva one more time. Crisby, the local coke dealer will finance his road trip if he does a bit of courier work while he is in the big city. The whole thing smells like a set-up, but what does he care?

Inconveniently, suicide or death-by-drug dealer will have to wait for Langmore when Eva disappears under strange circumstances. She happened to be trespassing in the old sanitarium where her grandfather was once a patient. The increasingly transparent Langmore can barely stand upright, but he still has a hockey player’s fighting instincts, so he duly springs into action.

Unseen has a gritty, blue-collar sensibility that you rarely find so completely free of condescension in genre films. It is also very much a film about forgiveness and understanding. The Langmore family is definitely a mess, but the relationships that emerge are surprisingly poignant. Aden Young has a Viggo Mortensen sort of thing going on, except you can see the inside of his head. Julia Sarah Stone convincingly portrays Eva’s development from resentful punk to mature adult. Camille Sullivan also adds further humanist dimensions as Darlene, possibly the most sympathetic ex-wife in the history of cinema.

Unseen is very low key and small in scope, but it is refreshing to see genre films take this less traveled road. However, former special effects specialist Redknap still shows off his craft with through the progression of Langmore’s condition. It is a worthy film cult fans should consider when it screens again this Friday (7/22), as part of Fantasia up north.