Showing posts with label fantastic fest 2024. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fantastic fest 2024. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Ghost Killer (2024) Fantastic Fest


GHOST KILLER has a young woman with a messy life  ending up having the ghost of a murdered assassin attached to her. He won’t leave until she gets revenge for him.

This good but odd mix of horror, action and humor is entertaining but at the same time isn’t as satisfying as it should be. Blame the uneasy mix of genres that doesn’t always blend as perfectly as it should.. It’s never fatal but it’s bumpy.

And as good as she is I think part of the problem is Akari Takaishi in the lead. She’s fine but the role and her performance is played much too close to her one in the Baby Assassin’s Franchise. Watching her I kept waiting for bigger laughs.

My quibble aside, GHOST KILLER is worth a look.

Life And Deaths of Christopher Lee (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024


Christopher Lee in Marionette Form discusses his life and career.

This is an excellent look at Lee’s life that digs a bit deeper than most documentary bios. Told by his friends and relatives the film is the first time, outside of reading his autobiography, that I felt like I was really knowing the man. Actually because Lee is dead and  his relatives can speak free and you get a much more human portrait.  You truly see the man.

Is it perfect?

No Lee lead a very long very productive life and as such things had to go or get just mentioned. Despite that this is an absolute must see for any film fan, not just a fan of Lee's.

Highly recommended.

EBONY AND IVORY (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024


EBONY AND IVORY is either going to double you over in laughter or it’s going to make you want to get up and go home. It all depends on your personal sense of humor.

The film is nominally the story of Michael Jackson going to visit Paul McCartney in Scotland and what might have happened had the meeting went this way.

The film is the work of director Jim Hosking  whose previous films like The Greasy Strangler, whose work is one of a kind. That is not meant to be a knock, more that Hosking is a director  who has his own view of the world and of cinema and it doesn’t play well for everyone.

I was amused by this film, as I was with STRANGLER, but I’m not a huge fan. The film is a bit too deadpan at times for my taste, and I wasn’t in love with Hosking’s use of long sequences of silence (for example the film opens with McCartney standing on a beach watching Jackson row in a boat and he whips back and forth between the two in a much too long sequence.). Yes some of the low brow humor hits and dome doesn’t, and I was a short time into the film when I realized that I didn’t know how to review it because this film is such a silly deadpan film that personal opinion going to be the determining factor if someone likes it. One simply can’t be objective regarding how this plays only subjective.

Worth a look who like bent humor

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Severed Sun (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024


In rigid religious community a woman kills her husband releasing an evil force. 

I don't know what a I feel about this film. There are somethings that I love and there are some things I don't.  I'm kind of left wondering if this would have been better in a different form.

The two things that are working against the film are first the film is very talky. There are lots of conversations and speeches. It's not so much that it's talky it's more that the conversations are just people sitting and talking, often sitting as if they were directed to sit that way and not in the way people who walked in would sit. As for the speechifying it's often just someone addressing the camera. It never feels real, it feels like a theatrical moment. (actually many of the shots feel theatrical)

The other problem is that the film feels padded. While film is 80 minutes long (74 minus end credits) it still feels padded. Some of this probably could have been trimmed.

On the other hand there is something about the film that I can't shake. There is an oppressive mood that I like. There are some creepy images, especially the dark figure that seems to causing everything to happen. Additionally the story is really good. 

Several days on I'm still pondering.

Do yourself a favor and read some other reviews and decide for yourself if you want to see the film.

Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024

 


Jane Schoenbrun and Kati Kelli’s widower Jordan Wippell assemble some of You Tuber Kati Kelli’s You Tube programs in a tribute to an artist who died much too soon.

Kelli was a youtuber who put together YouTube shows all by herself in her childhood home and later in her apartment. These were ow fi affairs where Kelli talked to the camera, dressed up performed skits and did whatever came to mind. She was a talented young woman who created because she had to.

The pieces we see are very much of a type. They are very well done bits of the sort you see all over the various social media platforms where people talk to the camera. Some bits are better than others, as is typical with any sort of collection. What I liked is that over the course of  film is you see Kelli grow as a filmmaker.

The heartbreaking bit is that this collection ends with Kelli’s short film TOTAL BODY REMOVAL a creepy but funny short that she finished days before she died of an asthma attack. It’s a film that shows her growing as an artist. It makes you wonder what she might have achieved had she  been able to do more films.

I liked this film, which considering I’m not a fan of the talk to camera sort of thing is saying a great deal. Kelli was a hell of an artist and it’s clear she had talent.

Recommended.

Monday, September 23, 2024

A pointer toward Chainsaws Were Singing (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024


I’m not even going to try and review CHAINSAWS WERE SINGING. The film is an over the top film about lovers and a chainsaw killer that isn’t remotely serious even if it has severed limbs and oceans of blood. Whether you like it or not will be determined by how you click with it’s twisted sense of humor and if you like the songs. (yes this is musical.)

For me this was mostly a lot of fun… maybe too much. The film runs an ungodly 118 minutes. For me that was about 45 minutes too long. Yea, its fun but then it got repetitive.

That said- if you’re a gore hound give it a try.

AJ Goes to the Dog Park (2024) Fantastic Fest


AJ, mild mannered man who doesn't want much from life except to work his entry level job in the family business, have dinner with his dad and take his dogs to the dog park. However when the dog park becomes a blog park AJ has to right a terrible wrong.

This is a silly comedy with a weird cartoon logic. This isn't surprising since writer/director Toby Junes worked for Cartoon Network. Its a largely a sweet and gentle film with lots of laughs.

I'm going to be honest and say try not to read too much about what happens. I say that because what starts off as a straight forward is slightly off kilter comedy goes completely banana shaped  with magic and weird turns. The less you know the better it is because quite frankly you won't see where this is going. It all strangely makes sense which is an even bigger surprise.

This is a delightful little film that is going to have a long life as a cult film.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

What Happened to Dorothy Bell? (2024) Fantastic Fest

Ozzy Gray tries to find out what happened to his recently deceased grandmother and ends up having to deal with an evil force.

This is a mix of found footage and traditional narrative. It’s a film that feels like it’s documenting real life and if director Danny Villanueva Jr had wanted to push it he could have made a hell of a pseudo documentary.

WHAT HAPPENED TO DOROTHY GRAY is a wicked slow burn  horror film.  One of the few found footage film that isn’t full of filler, this is a film that sets things up and pulls us in. It takes it’s time but it moves along  at a steady pace that builds the sort of suspense that gets under your skin.  I found myself leaning into the events on screen.  I wanted to see what the hell was going on.

Make no mistake this is a chilling film that by the end will have you mumbling to no one in particular.

Heavier Trip (2024) Fantastic Festival 2024


Sequel to the 2018 film HEAVY TRIP has the group Impaled Rektum in prison. They get word that one of their boyhood homes has been seized. At the same time they get an invitation to play the heavy metal festival in Wacken Germany. They manage to escape, but the cops are on their trail, the promoter doesn't seem to be on the up and  up, and the friends are being less friendly. 

This is a funny comedy that is a solid continuation of the previous film. Its filled with funny jokes, great music and a the right amount of charm.

Recommended

Saturday, September 21, 2024

Else (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024 Toronto 2024


This is an utterly haunting horror science fiction film that will have you awestruck at its grim beauty while it makes you talk to the screen.

The film follows a couple who meet just before a new disease begins to spread. The disease makes people bond to inanimate objects. When the girl leaves her home to be with her new love everything is okay for a while...and then it isn't.

This film shouldn't work. There are plot lapses, things are left hanging, but in the best sort of dream logic it all comes together. Somehow, someway director Thibault Emin pulls it together in someway and the result is one of the most haunting films of 2024. 

Emin doesn't ape previous body horror films and instead essentially reinvents it as a think of lyric beauty. The images, of everything are so amazingly beautiful that you can't look away. Indeed they are such that you kind of want to press into the screen so that you can walk around and see the wonders he has created.

I am not going to say much more because the power of the film is not knowing so that it clubs you from behind.

One of the most amazing cinematic experiences of the year, it is a must see.

THE SPIRIT OF HALLOWEENTOWN (2024) Fantastic Fest 2024


This is a look at the town of St. Helens Oregon where the Disney film HALLOWEENTOWN.

This is a look at a small town and how over time a film that has become a holiday staple for many has also transformed the town. We watch as the town talk about how the film has changed their lives and how they handle the new influx of visitors who want to see the real Halloweentown.

This is a very good look at how one film changed the life of a town and it's residents. It's a story that we don't ever see really covered except in a quick clip on the odd TV news program. We get a look at the changing face of Halloween and how what was once a big holiday for kids now is a big holiday for a lot of people.

I had a really good time with this film. In a weird way I can see it becoming just as big a hit as the film that transformed St. Helens.  If I have any quibble with the film is that not having seen Halloweentown in decades, and never being a big fan I wasn't as invested in the film. That isn't the fault of the filmmakers, but it is simply an indication of my own failing as a human being. 

Recommended.

Sunday, September 15, 2024

Fantastic Fest 2024 runs 9/19-26


The ever wonderful Fantastic Fest starts this week.

The festival shows some of the best genre films from across the globe and it acts as the launching point of many of the biggest horror and science Fiction films of the year. For years it was a fest I always wanted to cover but never could because it bumped up to the New York Film Fest.  Now however there is an ability to cover remotely so I’m all over it.

As it stands now we’ve previously covered 10 films and I’m waiting for some films to come in. I’m planning on seeing as much as a can- more so since the fest is the week before the NYFF.

If you want to know my thoughts on what we’ve covered below.

BABADOOK
BABY ASSASSINS NICE DAYS
THE FALL
PARVULOS
RESPATI
SHE LOVED BLOSSOMS MORE
SPERMAGEDDON
STEPPENWOLF
UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
FACES
U ARE THE UNIVERSE
PLANET B
MALDOROR
RAZE

For me more information on the fest go here.

And for our thoughts on the films we see- keep reading