As the film Darlin’ opens, a filthy, feral teenage girl (Lauryn Canny), identified as Darlin’ by the bracelet on her wrist, walks out of the woods accompanied by a Woman (Pollyanna McIntosh, who also directs), on her way to a hospital. Growling and frightened, she snarls at the […]
Hirotaka Adachi’s Stare opens as any good J-horror should: with an unseen evil and an explosion of blood. Stare takes the concept of a curse used to such excellent effect in Ringu and Ju-on, and transposes it to a scary story and the name of a woman “with […]
I’m going to do something I never do in a review: shout out to my friends/colleagues. Both Karen and Kristen informed me numerous times that when the Irish horror-comedy Extra Ordinary came to a festival, theater, or streaming service near me, I needed to see it. Okay, I […]
The Father’s Shadow expands director Gabriela Amaral Almeida’s concept of a short film into a fully fledged feature about an exceptional young girl coping with a distant father and deceased mother in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Dalva (Nina Medeiros) lives with her father, Jorge (Julio Machado), a construction worker, […]
There are some films that just defy categorization, or even criticism. Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway, now showing at Fantasia 2019, is one of those films. The story encompasses two CIA agents injected into a bizarre video game called Jesus Shows You the Way to […]
Fantasia Festival always features a few interesting (and bizarre) documentaries mixed in with their genre films. Last year, Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana was among my favorite views at the festival. At Fantasia 2019, it’s Blood & Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al […]
You have not experienced existential despair until you’ve lived through an upstate New York winter. This truth is at the heart of The Deeper You Dig, a Fantasia 2019 premiere of a fantastic micro-budget film set in the Catskill Mountains, where hallucination, communication with the dead, and drunk […]
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