Movies
Fantasia International Film Festival 2024: 10 Films We Can’t Wait To See
Eli and Brendan are very excited about Fantasia’s lineup this year! The independent genre film festival has been haunting Montreal’s Concordia University halls for 28 years, and this year’s program includes over 125 feature films (and over 200 shorts).
After much deliberation, we’ve highlighted ten feature films that we’re looking forward to seeing.
Eli’s Most Anticipated Films for Fantasia Fest
4PM
Opening night at Fantasia always has a unique kind of excitement, and I’m pumped to start the festival with an eerie, suspense-filled mystery. Writer Kim Hae-gon adapted Amélie Nothomb’s novel The Stranger Next Door into this South Korean thriller directed by Jay Song. The story focuses on a couple in a new home who become increasingly uncomfortable when a stranger insists on visiting their home every day from 4 to 6 pm. “The cast is incredible,” says Fantasia programmer Steven Lee, “especially the two lead actors Oh Dal-soo (OLDBOY) and Jang Young-nam (PROJECT WOLF HUNTING), who keep the audience invested in the unfortunate situation they’re dealing with.” I love going into thrillers blind, and I hope this one leaves me shaking!
Rita
Writer-director Jayro Bustamante’s follow-up film to his haunting 2019 La Llorona is a must-see on my list. Bustamante is very comfortable weaving Guatemalan history into his moody, supernatural tales, and in Rita, he focuses on a young girl in custody at an orphanage. While pulling from real life atrocities, the girls in Bustamante’s story rally together around a prophecy about a warrior angel. Bustamante himself plans to attend the festival for Rita’s world premiere on July 25th, which will make this screening extra special. I’m excited to see his dreamy, ominous aesthetic applied to this particular story about female anger, innocence, and community.
Hell Hole
Films by The Adams family (The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, Where the Devil Roams) are always a fantastic experience at Fantasia, and so their latest film, Hell Hole, is a must-see on my list. Shot in Serbia, they weave a tale about an unfortunate fracking crew who awaken a dangerous creature. Fantasia programmer Mitch Davis promises this new feature will “rattle your womb” with its themes of “biological and environmental horror, alongside a potent addressing of gender and bodily autonomy”. The Adams family consistently turns out creative, micro-budget gems that truly push the limits of filmmaking and storytelling, and are essential viewing for any horror enthusiast.
VOÏVOD: We Are Connected
Metal, punk, and rock music are staples at Fantasia screenings, and so this new documentary about the legendary Québec metal band VOÏVOD is a perfect fit for this year’s program. The film promises to explore the band’s 40+ years as a part of the international metal scene, and includes interviews with many many musicians, including Tobias Forge (Ghost), Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth), Jason Newsted (Metallica), Zach Blair (Rise Against, GWAR). Writer/Director Felipe Belalcazar promises to be in attendance at the world premiere on July 29th alongside several members of the band. Aside from the always fascinating oral history about a beloved music genre, I’m hoping that the documentary’s score melts my brain in the best possible way.
Oddity
I cannot resist a spooky movie about the occult, and so of course I will be going to see Oddity, the latest horror film from Irish writer/director Damian McCarthy (Caveat). Constructed like a puzzle, the story centers around the strange death of the protagonist’s twin sister. The protagonist, Darcy, is a blind medium who collects strange, antique items, and happenstance sets her on a path to untangle the mystery at the heart of her sister’s death. Oddity has earned a lot of praise while making the festival rounds across the US, and even picked up the Midnighter Audience Award at this year’s SXSW. Fantasia promises that the film “conjures a bona fide symphony of dread”, and honestly, who could ask for anything more!
Brendan’s Most Anticipated Films for Fantasia Fest
Shelby Oaks
A woman’s desperate search for her long-lost sister, a famous YouTuber who investigated paranormal happenings, falls into obsession upon realizing that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real. After a successful Kickstarter campaign that broke records across the platform, the highly anticipated debut feature from YouTube creator Chris Stuckmann is finally here and ready to scare the pants off the world. Shelby Oaks delivers in all departments. Starring Camille Sullivan (Hunter Hunter), Brendan Sexton III (Don’t Breathe 2), Sarah Durn (Renfield), Keith David (The Thing, Nope), and Michael Beach (Aquaman). Produced by Aaron B. Koontz, Cameron Burns, and Ashleigh Snead, and Executive Produced by Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy, among others.
I’ve been following the production of this film for quite some time. As a fan of Chris Stuckman’s YouTube channel, I was just happy to support a genre creator. Stuckman has long exalted his love for all things horror, so Shelby Oaks seemed like the next best step for his career. With Paper Street Pictures and Mike Flanagan on board and a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, Shelby Oaks looks to be a genre film for the ages.
The Soul Eater
Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, the acclaimed filmmaking team behind Inside, Livid, and The Deep House, have adopted the popular French novel by Alexis Laipsker to create a fresh turn in their distinctive filmography. A morbid procedural thriller with extreme horror flashpoints, The Soul Eater turned heads when it premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival earlier this year. As violent and gruesome deaths plague a small mountain village, an old legend about a malevolent creature resurfaces. Two cops are compelled to join forces and uncover a sinister plot involving the disappearance of local children. Starring Virginie Ledoyen (8 Femmes), Paul Hamy (Despite the Night), and Sandrine Bonnaire (Vagabond).
Hearing that the team behind Inside, one of the most impressive and grotesque entries in New French Extremity, had a new film coming out AND was having its North American premiere at Fantasia Fest was a dream come true. Maury and Bustillo have had one hell of an impressive career. If you’re not sold on the creators of Inside coming out with a new film described as one with ‘extreme horror flashpoints’ then what would sell you on anything?
From My Cold Dead Hands
It’s no surprise that you can find all kinds of bizarre things on YouTube, from conspiracy nuts to pet videos and videos of people generally acting stupid. Still, gun videos seem to hold a very special place in the internet pantheon. Everything from stunt challenges, gun tutorials, and product reviews to second-amendment rants and lots and lots of enthusiasts showing off, so if you want to watch gun videos, you’ll be set for a long time. And let’s be honest with ourselves, you may never want to touch a gun in your life, but there’s definitely a bizarre fascination with this culture, and guns themselves have been a staple of cinema since the days of The Great Train Robbery. Hell, films with massive amounts of gun violence have screened throughout the history of Fantasia, so we’re just as fascinated with this stuff as most others are.
Gun culture is a weird thing, especially in a country where toddlers shoot adults every week for two years straight. Seemingly, From My Cold Dead Hands takes a documentary angle to make Americans take a cold hard look at our bizarre obsession. I usually avoid documentaries, but something about From My Cold Dead Hands resonates with this former Central Pennsylvania resident.
Rats!
“Did somebody say world-motherfucking-peace?” The year is 2007, and after being arrested for vandalizing Fresno’s finest public telephone, teenage delinquent in the making Raphael (Luke Wilcox) is let off the hook with only 50 days of community service. However, the catch is that he must move in with his drug-dealing cousin (Darius Autry), who is accused of selling WMDs to [name redacted] by Officer Williams (Danielle Evon Ploeger, Country Gold), a delusional, unhinged, low-level police officer with a grudge. Unfortunately for Raphael, who would much rather listen to screamo and spend time with the new cool emo girl (Khali Sykes), he finds himself entangled with an FBI sting operation, a suicide, Steve Irwin, and the kitchen sink!
Simply put, Rats! Sounds like a blast and a half. I don’t think I have been more down for a good time than I have until I read the description for Rats!.
Vulcanizadora
Vulcanizadora follows Derek (Joel Potrykus, director of Relaxer and The Alchemist Cookbook), a father who would rather take a bottle rocket to the face than confront his failures, and Marty (Joshua Burge, Relaxer, Ape), an arsonist who is leading the charge on the sprint toward hellfire and away from his juvenile transgressions. These best friends embark on a seemingly innocent camping trip through the Michigan woods, but their disturbing pact becomes increasingly clear as they approach the X on the map!
Joel Potrykus is one of the most interesting genre filmmakers of our time. Potrykus’s oddball approach to filmmaking and storytelling is unparalleled. Finding a filmmaker who constantly tops their own methods of madness is rare; a needle in a haystack. I appreciate fests like Fantasia for continually giving filmmakers like Potrykus a screen and an audience to shine their unique visions all over.
Tell us what we missed! What films are you excited for us to cover?
And most importantly, if you’re in Canada, get your tickets here!
Movies
How Lucha Libre Birthed Mexico’s Wildest Horror Films
Though schlocky B-horror is often associated with American films of men in cheap rubber monster suits and small casts running around in the desert, past our southern border Mexican pop culture has a strong, storied history of B-horror surrounding luchadores, masked wrestlers. Movies where the kings of the ring beat down on anything demonic or alien that crosses their path. But those films themselves have a wild origin, stemming from a post-war hunt for identity and censorship on the basis of sex. Truly, the luchador films that became the bulk of mexploitation cinema as we know it today didn’t come from a strong desire to uplift lucha but from attempts to suppress it. To understand lucha libre and how it became popular enough to be banned from television, we have to get back to the first half of the 20th century, with the end of the Mexican Revolution.
Today’s story is one of domino effects. Of how cultural moments and political decisions can send out ripples that no one can see coming, to the most unlikely of places sometimes. It’s about the unpredictable and ephemeral nature of life, on and off film. And about how cool it is to see a guy in a silver mask elbow-drop a werewolf. This is the story of how Lucha Libre birthed some of Mexico’s wildest horror films.
Though schlocky B-horror is often associated with American films of men in cheap rubber monster suits and small casts running around in the desert, past our southern border Mexican pop culture has a strong, storied history of B-horror surrounding luchadores, masked wrestlers. Movies where the kings of the ring beat down on anything demonic or alien that crosses their path. But those films themselves have a wild origin, stemming from a post-war hunt for identity and censorship on the basis of sex.
Truly, the luchador films that became the bulk of mexploitation cinema as we know it today didn’t come from a strong desire to uplift lucha but from attempts to suppress it. To understand lucha libre and how it became popular enough to be banned from television, we have to get back to the first half of the 20th century, with the end of the Mexican Revolution.
Mexicanidad and the Rise of Masked Wrestlers
To those unfamiliar with the particulars of the Mexican Revolution, it stands as one of the most violent times of political upheaval in human history. After the deposition of decades-long oligarchical dictator Porfirio Diaz and his regime, multiple parties began to fight for control of the country as its residents sought economic relief, agrarian reform, and the cession of land back to indigenous populations.
The Revolution saw a revolving door of commandants, a cadre of different political groups fighting for a variety of different reasons, and the loss of (by the most conservative estimates) over a million lives in a civil war never before seen in Mexico. Needless to say, the Mexican national identity had been wounded severely by the conflict as doubt and fear filled the populace, and political figures like Lázaro Cárdenas, who found themselves in power following the Revolution, began to try and restore that identity.
From this turning point comes the concept of Mexicanidad, a push for Mexican pride and a reaffirming of the image of the Mexican people that was driven by the tastemakers of Mexican society in politics and media. And for Mexican men, and specifically Mexican working-class men, that evolved into an emphasis on masculinity, virility, athleticism, and what would eventually evolve into our modern conceptions of machismo.
The Television Ban That Birthed Lucha Libre Horror Films
And so came the revitalization of lucha libre, for many reasons. Wrestling as a sport had and still has a fairly low barrier to entry, making it the perfect cheap entertainment for the working class. It had previously captured the hearts of Mexican citizens as far back as the late 1800s when wrestling made its way to the country. It involved masculine displays of strength and agility, which was perfect for the Mexicanidad crowd to endorse. The sport also had a rotating cast of colorful characters, usually the same guys you saw last week but fighting with different masks on, which was the perfect draw for young audiences who soon began to see their favorite luchadors at the comic stands and in wider media.
The craze of professional wrestling spread like wildfire, and more importantly, it spread to a female audience. As female athletes became a point of cultural interest, luchadoras became a very popular element of lucha libre despite being in the minority of performers. There began a melding between the rigid roles of masculine and feminine energy, undesired by many of the political and cultural elites of mid-century Mexico.
The cultural thermometer rapidly cooled due to lucha, and in 1954, federal authorities imposed a 30-year-long ban on lucha libre on Mexican television to prevent the waters from being muddied by such “dangerous” concepts. Soon, lucha had gone from a sport beloved by all people to a brutish, lowbrow event. Which, couldn’t be further from the truth, but cultural hegemony is a hell of a drug!
CDMX’s airwaves had become a no-fly zone for masked wrestlers, and a lost media massacre ensued that caused little to no recordings of those classic matches from the 40s and 50s being kept in circulation. Whole careers had evaporated from record overnight.
But…that didn’t stop luchadors from going to the movies.
Gothic Horror Revival in Mexican Cinema
The film wasn’t just a smash hit at the box office, it was a superkick to the mouth of Mexican cinema that ended up causing a true gothic horror revival. The film’s producer and star, Abel Salazar, found enough success with the film that the Mexican market was soon saturated with gothic horror of his own design, as Hammer Horror took over the British film market.
EL SANTO, BLUE DEMON, AND THE RISE OF LUCHA LIBRE IN HORROR
Despite the television ban, you couldn’t make Mexico forget its masked heroes so easily. The two most significant of which were El Santo y Demonio Azul (more commonly referred to as Blue Demon). Well, technically both of them began as rudos (heels, or bad guys) and later became tecnicos (faces, or heroes). The point is, Santo and Blue Demon’s rivalry was a legendary one, with their masks becoming a piece of indelible Mexican iconography and recollections of their matches being burned into people’s brains.
El Santo was convinced by fellow wrestler, Fernando Osés, to join him on the set of a film he was shooting, as the recent TV ban opened up opportunities in film for wrestlers. Santo was initially signed to star in one of the first lucha films called El Enmascarado De Plata (The Man in the Silver Mask), but backed out last minute because of fears the film would fail and damage his reputation.
Santo’s actual debut pulled him into the world of monster movies that had begun to thrive in Mexico, with his first film being Santo Contra El Cerebro Del Mal (Santo vs. The Brain of Evil) in 1961. From there he went on to do Santo Contra Los Zombies (Santo vs. The Zombies), and by the time he had shot Santo vs. The Men from Hell and Santo in The Hotel of the Dead, he had been locked in as a b-horror icon.
He was of course reunited with Blue Demon throughout his career, and the two often teamed up like superheroes to fight a wide variety of fiends. Ranging from alien spiders to vampire women to Mesoamerican mummies on a rampage, there was nothing they weren’t willing to powerbomb into oblivion. Blue Demon starred in 25 films over his lifetime– Santo starred in more than 50. The two were prolific actors and artists, and despite the often irreverent nature of the films they made and the questionable quality of many of them, the two were horror icons that most of the world is simply unaware of.
Many of their films were not distributed widely, let alone localized to English-speaking territories; only a total of 4 Santo films ever got English language versions. But even if those dubs never came, we can stand and salute the wild history of b-horror that these luchador legends have given us.
Top Lucha Libre Horror Films to Watch Today
Arañas Infernales (Hellish Spiders) is a really fun piece of schlocky, monochrome, nuclear bug horror from the late 60s; the little evil alien spider puppets in this film are so doofy looking, I want ten of them. It’s pure ham and cheese as far as content goes, but it’s impossible to say it isn’t fun.
Santo y Blue Demon Contra Los Monstruos (Santo & Blue Demon vs. The Monster Men) is some oh-so-glorious technicolor nonsense that brings us a six-man grudge match between the heroes, a mummy, a werewolf, a vampire, and a Frankenstein. I don’t even have to say anything else, you know it’s too hype of a concept to turn down.
Santo Contra Las Mujeres Vampiro (Santo vs. The Vampire Women) has some genuinely unparalleled ambiance and set design, with this black and white gothic horror mixing a modernized Mexican aesthetic with the pseudo-Victorian mansion where the finale takes place. Santo dives into a nest of female vampires in white dresses to rescue a damsel in distress, and hilarity ensues. It is probably the most technically competent of all of these when it comes to its directing.
The Mummies of Guanajuato was ultimately one of if not the biggest moneymakers, as it brought the three most famous luchadores together: Santo, Blue Demon y Mil Máscaras united to put the squeeze on some mummies killing Mexican citizens. Those monsters by the way, actually look great thanks to their makeup! All the ring exhibition stuff of them wrestling in the film is impressive as well. This one is my true favorite. If I could only watch one, it would be this.
And that’s all! Well, I’m off to go watch Santo vs The Zombies again, stay chill Horror Press rea–
What’s this?
ITS EDITOR JAMES-MICHAEL WITH THE STEEL CHAIR?
HES COMING IN BECAUSE OF MY HELLBOY ARTICLE BEING TOO LONG?!
LORD HAVE MERCY!
***
Major thanks to Marjolein Van Bavel, a professor of Modern Cultural History at Radboud University, whose writing formed most of the research on the historical part of this article. She discusses luchadoras in much more detail in her article “Morbo, lucha libre, and Television: The Ban of Women Wrestlers from Mexico City in the 1950s”, which I highly recommend you check out. Her writing was one of the major resources used for this article, and as such, deserves a shoutout.
And another shoutout to Brian Schuck of Films From Beyond, who pointed me towards Doyle Green and his book Mexploitation Cinema, which is a huge resource on lucha libre in horror. Both of them are incredible, please show them some love!
And as always, good luck, and happy watching horror fans!
Movies
Menstruation Meets Mayhem: 5 Horror Films That Bleed Terror
While periods are not quite trending in horror, there are more movies than one would suspect in this niche subgenre. Obviously, Carrie’s shower scene is historical for a reason. However, using a soaked tampon as zombie bait in It Stains the Sands Red is fantastic. Even finding a gruesome murder while using a truck stop bathroom to change a tampon in Candy Land felt like relatable cinema for me as a Midwesterner. So, I thought I would pull five bloody horror movies about “Aunt Flo” going to the “Red Wedding”. These titles know that being “on the rag” is great for the genre. This is why I am cordially inviting you to step into the restroom with me so I can show you some pretty wild shit. Here are five movies that will make you hesitate the next time someone asks you what your favorite period film is.
I hate having a period. I know that is a cold take for many people who menstruate. No one enjoys the cramps, migraines, or a three to seven-day disruption from certain fun activities. Who among us is giddy when Aunt Flo arrives unless we are having a pregnancy scare? However, the thing that salts my tines the most about this painful and bloody part of life is the stigma surrounding it. Many places still charge the tampon tax. Tons of Republicans take office without understanding basic anatomy but want to regulate AFAB bodies anyway. This pisses me off, and that is why I love horror films that shove periods right in the audience’s faces. After all, menstruation is a goldmine for body horror and the perfect excuse to add buckets of blood to any movie.
While periods are not quite trending in horror, there are more movies than one would suspect in this niche subgenre. Obviously, Carrie‘s shower scene is historical for a reason. However, using a soaked tampon as zombie bait in It Stains the Sands Red is fantastic. Even finding a gruesome murder while using a truck stop bathroom to change a tampon in Candy Land felt like relatable cinema for me as a Midwesterner. So, I thought I would pull five bloody period horror movies with a visit from “Aunt Flo” or going to the “Red Wedding”. These titles know that being “on the rag” is great for the genre. This is why I am cordially inviting you to step into the restroom with me so I can show you some pretty wild shit. Here are five movies that will make you hesitate the next time someone asks you what your favorite period film is.
5 Must-Watch Horror Films That Turn Periods Into Terrifying Tales
Blue My Mind (2018)
Where You Can Watch: Prime Video and Tubi
A teen gets her period and begins to experience radical body transformations. Director and co-writer Lisa Brühlmann crafted a moody world, uninterested in playing by the rulebook. While Mia (Luna Wedler) has much bigger fish to fry than her period, I do not think we should overlook that moment in the film. It is easy to forget it in the grand scheme of things. However, nothing ushers in frightening bodily changes quite like menstruating. That moment also firmly plants this body horror movie as a unique coming-of-age tale.
Excision (2012)
Where You Can Watch: Fandango at Home, Plex, and Tubi
A high-school outcast with medical career aspirations concocts a wild plan to save her ailing sister. So much happens in this movie! There are plenty of cameos in front of this bloody backdrop, which is Pauline’s (AnnaLynne McCord) canvas. While she spends a lot of time fantasizing about blood and worrying about her sister, she does not let that stop her from cashing in her V-card. She is very upfront about her plan to lose her virginity while on her period, and she gets her bloody way. If you are looking for a movie with a period sex scene, Excision is your girl.
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Where You Can Watch: AMC+, Peacock, and Shudder
Two sisters who are loners in their suburban neighborhood find their relationship changing when one gets bitten by a werewolf. No list of period films is complete without Ginger Snaps. Both Brigitte (Emily Perkins) and Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) are teens who are so late to get their period it has become a household concern. So, it is pretty awful timing for Ginger to get hers right when her life is about to be changed forever. We love when periods are the beginning of the horror story because that is all too relatable.
Read our review of Ginger Snaps here.
Tiger Stripes (2023)
Where You Can Watch: AMC+ and Shudder
An 11-year-old girl’s world is changed when she gets her first period and begins to change into something ferocious. Writer-director Amanda Nell Eu definitely has the cutest movie on this list. I enjoyed watching Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) learn that it is okay to be different. More importantly, she learns that sometimes you need to rip a guy’s head off to get peace. This coming-of-age body horror movie has a lot of heart, and I am so glad it is finally streaming. Please insert this into your watch list to break up your steady diet of nightmare fuel.
Read our review of Tiger Strips here.
Verónica (2017)
Where You Can Watch: Netflix and Pluto TV
An evil entity attaches itself to a teen girl who made contact with a Ouija board. This Spanish film is inspired by true events and is possibly the most sinister period film on the list. Poor Verónica gets her first period while battling the demonic spirits invading her body. That is a lot for anyone to deal with at any age, and I am not surprised this movie lives rent-free in so many of our minds. If you enjoy this movie, you might want to watch the prequel Sister Death, also available on Netflix. However, in my opinion, Verónica is the better film.
Hopefully, some of these period films will leave you wanting more. If so, I suggest checking out what Alter has to add to the conversation. I also encourage you to boost filmmakers who know the real meaning of period horror.
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