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Fantasia International Film Festival 2023 Wrap-Up

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Fantasia, the infamous three-week genre festival, has just wrapped up another year of impressive programming, and I’m exhausted. I covered as much as I could, but I felt like I just scratched the surface. Fantasia’s extensive programming has something for everyone, and I could have spent just as much time at the festival and seen a completely different slate of films. On top of screening what will surely end up being the year’s most beloved horror movies, there was an extensive spotlight on Korean cinema, a retrospective on underground film legend Larry Kent, and a collection of boundary-pushing animated features available for public viewing.

I feel very lucky that I got to cover so many wild, unique films for HORROR PRESS, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the coverage! Over the last few weeks, I wrote about the horror hit of the summer Talk to Me (a sequel is already in the works), the DIY underground rock opus Where the Devil Roams (from the family who brought you Hellbender), and Satan Wants You, the mind-blowing documentary about the scandalous memoir Michelle Remembers. Here are a few additional highlights from 2023’s Fantasia Film Festival.

FEMME

After a vicious attack, drag performer Jules (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett) sets out to get revenge on the person responsible (George MacKay). Co-directors Sam Freeman and Ng Choon Ping set out to make a queer version of the “late-night, neo-noir genre movie” and this is the incredibly tense and engaging result. This film had the whole audience sweating, thanks to the excellent acting and the intimate camera work. The story ran circles around me and left me gasping for air.

BIRTH / REBIRTH

Writer-director Laura Moss brought her expertise as a trained EMT to her re-interpreted Frankenstein story about pregnancy and motherhood. Actresses Marin Ireland and Judy Reyes play off one another perfectly as their characters struggle to control an uncontrollable situation. I felt uncomfortable and conflicted about these characters, and their choices made me cringe and squirm. I loved it.

SUITABLE FLESH

This is director Joe Lynch’s tribute to the late great Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond), who passed away in 2020. Re-Animator writer Dennis Paoli adapted the Lovecraft story (The Thing on the Doorstep), while horror icon Barbara Crampton produced. The film is filled with Stuart Gordon references, thanks to the involvement both on and off camera of genuine fans (including actors Jonah Ray and Chris McKenna). Once Lynch swapped the main characters’ genders, Heather Graham and Crampton stepped up to play the leads, and the friendship between these women grounds the movie amid all the sex and violence. While horror nerds are sure to cherish all the easter eggs, the film stands on its own as a masterclass in balancing camp and pathos. Come for the exploitation, stay for the nightmare.

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HIPPO

Kimball Farley plays the titular Hippo in this Dogtooth-esque black & white story about the sexual miseducation of two very sheltered siblings. Director Mark H. Rapaport (who co-wrote the film with Farley) pulled from his experiences growing up in a conservative religion to create this unsettling satire about the American nuclear family. The siblings do some wild stuff with goo, and I laughed uncomfortably many times!

WITH LOVE AND A MAJOR ORGAN

This is not a horror movie, but it was absolutely delightful, and you should check it out if you can! Julia Lederer’s script comes to life in the hands of director Kim Albright, who tells a story about people who can whimsically pull their glowing blue hearts out of their chests. It’s about big feelings in a scary world that I’m sure will resonate with many (especially if you’re a Pisces like me). I hope this film gets a wide release.

HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS

Every Fantasia Fest has one movie that leaves me going, ‘WTF did I just experience’, and this year, that movie is Hundreds of Beavers. Trying to describe it is impossible – it’s about a man trying to catch some beavers, HUNDREDS of beavers, in fact. Writer-director Mike Cheslik has crafted a brilliant mixed media film, using everything from animation, green screens, and puppetry, to create what I guess is an “elevated” slapstick comedy? The score is incredible. You won’t be bored, I promise.

PERPETRATOR

Jennifer Reeder’s latest film is a gory, screwball coming-of-age story about Jonny, a misfit teen (Kiah McKirnan) struggling to understand her superpowers in a community where a predator is on the loose. Alicia Silverstone plays a scary auntie who encourages Jonny to be her true self. I especially loved Reeder’s efficient use of minimalist special effects to create the film’s unique mythology. The final act was an absolute blast.

Oldboy

This year, Fantasia closed with a screening of the recent 4K restoration of Park Chan-wook’s masterpiece Oldboy, a perfect, fucked-up ending to one of the most comprehensive genre festivals in existence.

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I’m already excited for next year’s lineup.

Eli is based in Montreal and writes about indie and horror movies under the name Bad Critic. She is a Pisces.

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The Best Horror You Can Stream on Shudder in February 2025

The Shudder February lineup is after my heart. Obviously, the app is adding more 2024 titles like The Dead Thing and Little Bites. However, they are also adding so many cool movies I have been dying to make my friends watch these last few years. There are some films guaranteed to make some heads roll alongside some cute vampire rom-coms hitting the horror streamer this month, and I cannot wait to revisit each title. Check out the five movies I’m highlighting this year, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! So here are the best movies to stream on Shudder this February!

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The Shudder February lineup is after my heart. Obviously, the app is adding more 2024 titles like The Dead Thing and Little Bites. However, they are also adding so many cool movies I have been dying to make my friends watch these last few years. There are some films guaranteed to make some heads roll alongside some cute vampire rom-coms hitting the horror streamer this month, and I cannot wait to revisit each title. Check out the five movies I’m highlighting this year, and I hope you enjoy them as much as I do! 

The Best Movies to Stream on Shudder This Month

The Coffee Table (2022)

A couple of new parents experiencing a rough patch decide to buy a coffee table, not knowing that the decision will alter their lives forever. The Coffee Table was one of my favorite movies of last year, and it is one of those titles you want to know as little as possible when you hit play. It is the bleakest and most stressful comedy I have seen in years, and I love it. This one goes out to my fellow sickos (complimentary). Please watch it the day it hits Shudder before the internet can ruin it for you.

You can watch The Coffee Table on February 24th.

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Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2024)

A young vampire who is too sensitive to kill for her supper meets a young loner with suicidal tendencies. What starts as a transactional relationship soon blossoms into an unexpected friendship. This movie is much cuter than I like my vampire movies. However, it is still a nice time for those looking to fill the void left by What We Do in the Shadows ending. It’s also not the worst romantic horror movie we have ever seen. I had very few notes for it in my review, and I know it made it onto quite a few top 10 lists of last year. 

You can watch Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person on February 10th.

My Animal (2023)

An outcast falls for a new girl in her small town, which makes it difficult to keep her darkest secret hidden. My Animal is a severely overlooked lesbian werewolf tale. It has been stuck in streamer purgatory for years, so finally finding a streaming home is a big deal. This moody story stars Bobbi Salvör Menuez and Amandla Stenberg and deserves your attention. It belongs somewhere between Ginger Snaps and Good Manners in the women werewolves we must celebrate. Make this feral love story a date night this winter, preferably during a full moon. 

You can watch My Animal on February 1st.

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Nightsiren (2022)

A woman returns to her birthplace, searching for answers to questions about her childhood. However, she is met with ancient superstitions and a community accusing her of witchcraft and murder. Nightsiren has been on my radar for a couple of years and is the only movie I have not seen. I love that Shudder is letting me find out if it’s as good as it looks this February. Worst-case scenario, I can say that I watched a Slovak-Czech feminist psychological horror this month, and that feels like a win.

You can watch Nightsiren on February 10th.

Tiger Stripes (2024)

An 11-year-old discovers the body horror of puberty as her body begins to change. Gothic horror is out, and menstruation is in because Tiger Stripes is the kind of period horror we need more of in the world. I fell for this cute little movie during a festival a couple of years ago and am so glad it has finally made its way to Shudder. It’s funny and very relatable. It is also a new genre entry destigmatizing the menses, and we need more movies in this subgenre. So, while you should watch it with as many people as possible, it’s also a delightful brunch body horror moment. 

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You can watch Tiger Stripes on February 24th.

It seems like Shudder has read my diary and added titles that I need the rest of you to see. I hope you check out these tales of lesbian werewolves, fun period horror, and everything between this February. You truly deserve cool new stories by cool new filmmakers, and that is exactly what the streamer is giving us almost weekly this month. What a time to be a subscriber! 

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Revisiting The Stepfather Films (And The Insane Real Crime Spree That Inspired Them)

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We all have one person in our lives who carries everything on their backs. It could be a family member whose work ethic shocks everyone around them or a friend juggling dozens of projects at once and still managing to get everything done just right. Thankless individuals who go unrecognized, but sometimes, that person ends up getting the spotlight they deserve.

To me, the Stepfather series is the perfect example of that in cinematic terms.  

The Stepfather, directed by Joseph Ruben in 1987, is the first in a small franchise of horror films that feels pretty forgotten in the grand scheme of 80s slashers and thrillers. But the film is a really interesting study of how one actor can take a role and make it their own, in a way that’s so compelling it makes you want to see more of that character even when the movies he’s in are kind of mediocre.

ODDLY MEMORABLE FOR A FORGOTTEN FRANCHISE

As the cultural conversation of the era has turned into a lot of circular discourse about how much better effects were back then and how unproven concepts made it to the screen more often, it should be easy to forget a psychological horror film with such a simple premise: what if your stepfather you hated was actually a freaky serial killer who was going to take your family out? From that premise sprung an unexpectedly great film, carried entirely by its lead actor.

I have a weird connection to The Stepfather because it was written by Richard Stark, who wrote one of my favorite crime stories of all time: The Hunter. I didn’t even know Richard Stark was only a pseudonym until I watched The Stepfatherand discovered it was writer Donald E. Westlake’s pen name. And Westlake’s proficiency with crime fiction translates here smoothly, because he took a horrifying real-life story of absolute evil (straight out of Westfield, New Jersey) and brought it to the screen with a true-to-life character.

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THE CRIMINAL BEHIND THE STEPFATHER SERIES

The real-life killer behind The Stepfather films was John List. To most people, he was a family man, living the dream with his wife and three children. He was a banker, hard-working and clean living, on the outside at least. He had a close relationship with many of the people in the Lutheran church he attended every Sunday, and was well-liked. But in reality, List was about to become one of the most infamous mass murderers in American history.

Behind the scenes, List was struck with financial trouble after financial trouble that exacerbated his already worsening mental health problems. A number of layoffs and setbacks left him and his family teetering on the brink of poverty despite the fact they lived in a 19-room mansion (I couldn’t even begin to explain how that works, don’t ask). List’s relationship with his wife was damaged by her spending habits, alcoholism, and deteriorating mental state due to untreated syphilis.  

He was left to “raise” three children, whom he was verbally and physically abusive to; his daughter Patricia even warned her drama coach that she was certain her father was going to kill her. Then her father actually sat all the kids down and told them they should prepare to die. And eventually, Patricia, her mother and grandmother, and both of her brothers became List’s victims in 1971.

List left his car in long-term parking at JFK International and disappeared with almost nothing in his name. Leaving a confession for his pastor behind in the form of a letter, it took weeks for neighbors to report the family’s disappearance, thanks to List’s meticulous planning. He had already slipped through the hands of the police by running from state to state, before eventually settling down into a new persona: Robert Clark. He eventually “fell in love” with a woman named Delores Miller, and the two moved to Virginia together soon after that.

Their relationship ended abruptly after an episode of America’s Most Wanted aired, in which famous forensic artist Frank Bender made an incredibly accurate sculpt of what List looked like at the time. After years of close calls and narrow captures, List was discovered. It took 17 and a half years for List to be caught. He was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences and died in jail in 2008.

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THE ACTOR WHO GAVE LIFE TO THE STEPFATHER SERIES

Now, I mention all of this above to punctuate one thing: The Stepfather isn’t the only fictionalized retelling of List’s story, but it is the most effective. Its opening scene is a gruesome recounting of List’s disaffected disappearance, how he slipped off to freedom, to an alternate life of his own design for nearly two decades, with little emotion at all. It opens on a mystery—what kind of man is he, if he is human at all? How does one simply walk away from a crime scene so calm and collected?

Because at the heart of the List case is the intensely intriguing and horrifying persona that is John List. To adapt that kind of personality, that deeply unhinged and deceptive person, is the kind of acting challenge many actors would pounce on immediately. And for horror fans, an unlikely hero stepped up to the plate: Terry O’Quinn. He’s best known for playing John Locke on the show Lost, but he’s also a quintessential “that one guy” character actor; he’s been in so many films and television shows you can probably throw a dart in any direction and hit his filmography.

I don’t know if I’d go so far as to call the first two Stepfather movies iconic (entertaining, definitely). Still, our main man Terry O’Quinn is incredibly iconic in his performance of Jerry Blake. O’Quinn really does enthrall you, and he’s an actor to beat when it comes to depicting someone slowly unraveling and releasing bursts of madness along the way like solar flares on a star’s surface. And I don’t just say that because he bears a bizarre resemblance to an older Anthony Starr.

He even almost tricks you into thinking Jerry’s moments of manufactured sweetness and maudlin family-man aesthetic are genuine, but then you remember what you’re watching and go right back to hating him with a passion. He is a quintessential horror movie villain because you despise him, but you’re transfixed by him.

He’s an emotionally disturbed con man, a parasite who can worm his way into a new skin with sociopathic ease. And when it all comes crashing down, to the point where even he isn’t sure what role he’s supposed to play for his fake family, its fantastic. With a line as simple as, “Wait a minute, who am I here?”, O’Quinn cemented himself as the definitive depiction of the character.

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WHY EACH OF THE STEPFATHER FILMS IS WORTH WATCHING

As I said, these films are far from perfect, but each one brings something a little new and different to the table. It’s fun to see O’Quinn return to the role in Stepfather 2, playing opposite of the legendary Caroline Williams and Meg Foster; a psycho-slasher finale at a wedding is just hard to beat. Stepfather 3 brings a surprisingly good changing of hands to the title role, though, since despite O’Quinn being replaced by Robert Wightman, Wightman brings just the right kind of energy to the role; he’s the perfect fit for the much campier and goofier tone of the 3rd film, and I was honestly very impressed with how he brought the role to life. But be warned: don’t bother with the remake. It is borderline bloodless, and incredibly boring. You can put a million Penn Badgley’s in that film, I’m not watching it again.

The Stepfather films aren’t anyone’s favorite of the many horror fans I’ve met and spoken with. But they are a capsule of how one artist can have enough staying power to keep them in your mind. So, for all my people out there who are going to check the trilogy out now thanks to this article: happy watching horror fans, and have fun!

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