Festival Archives -

FINAL FANTASTIC FIVESOME FORUM I know we have been pretty exhaustive this year (and most years) with our coverage of our favorite movie festival Fantastic Fest. Promise, this is the last thing we’re putting up for it this year. But it’s a big one. We get five of our attending critics, Chris, Wright, Martin, Mike, […]

ADULT SUPERVISION MOVIE REVIEW In this Swedish entry this year for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, we get to explore trauma in a different way then we’re used to seeing it of late (in horror movie after horror movie, natch). In Adult Supervision, three dads are roped into being chaperones for their daughters […]

GHOST IN THE CELL MOVIE REVIEW Let’s just get out of the way from the get-go that this is in no way beholden to the film that you almost certainly thought of when you saw the title was Ghost in the Cell. There’s no anime referencing here. Instead you get the modern master of Indonesian […]

5 MORE MINUTES MOVIE REVIEW The time-loop time travel conceit in film and tv has been well explored, certainly since 1993’s Groundhog’s Day (although explorations of the idea in fiction go back to the early 20th century). The Spanish film 5 More Minutes which played at this year’s Fantastic Fest sets very specific boundaries to […]

DONKEY PRINCESS MOVIE REVIEW From the directors of the politically charged, surreal, animated fairytale film The Wolf House comes the politically charged, surreal, partially animated fairytale film Donkey Princess which was featured at Fantastic Fest this year. The story follows Princess Diana who lives in a magical kingdom with her father the king. When the […]

PHREAKER MOVIE REVIEW If you’ve ever listened to us talk about Fantastic Fest, you’ve heard us say that often it’s the films that weren’t on your radar at all that end up on your ‘best of the fest’ lists. It’s rare for one of those films to be one of the minority of entries in […]

THE SPIRAL MOVIE REVIEW Coming off a run at some other major festivals and the announcement that it will be the Italian entry for Best International Feature Film at the upcoming Academy Awards, The Spiral is getting a lot of discussion right now. From a young Italian director Paolo Strippoli who has already gotten lots […]

KICK ON MOVIE REVIEW After being kicked out of a club for fighting, a group of young party folks make a decision to go up the drug food chain and head to the 9th floor apartment of the son of a Russian gangster to acquire more ‘party favors’. Eden is in a relationship with Drew […]

FUTURE TENSE MOVIE REVIEW The past is filled with many key points that if one small thing changed, history would be completely different. This comes as a bit of a complication to a corporation in the Fantastic Fest film Future Tense. They offer time travel to places in the past far enough away from these […]

THE HERETIKS MOVIE REVIEW Horror website Dread Central has gotten into the filmmaking game with their first ever production, The Heretiks, which premiered at this year’s Fantastic Fest. The story follows a coven of witches who have aims to awaken their goddess who dreams the world which will bring about the end of all things. […]

JANUR IRENG – SEWU DINO THE PREQUEL MOVIE REVIEW If you have yet to dive into the world of Indonesian horror films, the time is now. With their industry regularly releasing some of the most original and graphic films out there, it’s no surprise that any given genre festival, like Fantastic Fest, is going to […]

RIVER MOVIE REVIEW Nothing like a lazy day floating down a river on your boat, hanging out with your family, drinking beer, scattering your father’s ashes, and being set upon by masked serial killers. Man, these summer days really are the memories we cherish. In the horror film River, three estranged siblings (Jane Levy, Jessica […]

PRIMETIME MOVIE REVIEW Perhaps you remember the NBC early 2000s show To Catch a Predator. Host Chris Hansen had a team of folks catfishing child predators online and eventually getting them to show up to a meet where a younger looking actor would pretend to be the child until Hansen himself and his cameras walked […]

THE CYCLE MOVIE REVIEW Meg (Deborah Ann Woll) is a forensic examiner who specializes in the decay of human bodies. When the police show up to ask her to consult on a mysterious case of a body found outside of a murder house that seems out of place, she’s interested…until they tell her it’s the […]

GODMOTHER MOVIE REVIEW Theo and Colby are going to the desert to a cute little air b&b run by a delightful old couple (horror stalwarts Dee Wallace and Bruce Davidson). Unfortunately, Theo’s party girl sister Katie got invited along kinda making Theo’s plans for a romantic weekend get quashed. Much more unfortunately, the delightful old […]

VICTORIAN PSYCHO MOVIE REVIEW The director of Sanctuary is back with another seriously weird little horror film, Victorian Psycho. Maika Monroe (It Follows) plays Winifred Notty, a new governess at the remote and huge Ensor house for the wealthy Lamb family. The mom (Ruth Wilson) doesn’t like her because she thinks she’s screwing her husband. […]

WILD HORSE NINE MOVIE REVIEW Director/Writer Martin McDonagh has become one of our ‘never misses’ creatives. Since moving from stage to screen in 2008 masterfully with In Bruges, he’s made one delightfully dialogued film after another. This year at Fantastic Fest we got to see his latest work of hysterical somberness, Wild Horse Nine, and […]

BEWARE BOIÚNA MOVIE REVIEW I am not sure anyone was clamoring for another film about folks traipsing around the Amazon who are set upon by a giant killer snake, but here’s Beware Boiúna to take up that space anyway. The second film we saw at this year’s Fantastic Fest is directed by Mike P. Nelson, […]

RESIDENT EVIL MOVIE REVIEW There have been seven Resident Evil live action film adaptations. SEVEN. That’s not even counting a whole slew of animated film ones to boot. So why can’t anyone translate the terrifying and legendary game series into a film that works on a level past ‘campy’ or ‘the director just wants to […]

SAMURAI BALLERINA MOVIE REVIEW Ah, Paris! The City of Light. Where everyone starts the day with seven-foot-tall baguettes consumed with wine, and if you don’t work as a painter, professional lover, or mime, you seriously must rethink your life, you traitor to the Republic! Set in 1912, Fujiko, a young woman from a wealthy Japanese […]

LUCY LOST MOVIE REVIEW She doesn’t speak. She doesn’t remember her past. Yet somehow, she can see more than anyone else. Lucy is a mysterious girl living on a remote island in the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall. Raised by a humble fishing family, she is the town’s outcast, accused of witchcraft […]

THE VIOLINIST MOVIE REVIEW The only greater thing then creating music, is creating it with a dear friend… and then World War II shows up to ruin everything. Set in 1930s Singapore, The Violinist follows Fei and Kai, two childhood friends who share a love for music and dream of becoming world-class violinists. But when […]

GATTO WORK IN PROGRESS REVIEW What the–? The new Pixar movie is already out?! Not quite! One of the great things about the Annecy Film Festival is getting to see Work in Progress presentations for upcoming features, with directors and artists sharing their secrets, progress, and the development behind their projects. Set in Venice, Gatto […]

BATMAN: KNIGHTFALL PT.1 REVIEW Batman is having a very, very bad week. Can’t catch a break! If rehabilitating the murderous vigilante Azrael wasn’t enough, some jerk named Bane sets all the inmates of Arkham free. Well, not all of them… there are some confusingly notable exceptions. Raised in prison and deluded by his late mother, […]

VIVA CARMEN! MOVIE REVIEW Everyone knows the music from Bizet’s Carmen—one of the world’s most famous operas! Bits of it have riffed their way into everything from trailers to soundtracks and parodies. And of course, everyone knows the classic story of Carmen…Anyone? The story of a beautiful Romani dancer, wanted by the law, who falls […]