The Conjuring (Dir: James Wan, USA, 2012)—For their Opening Night, Fantasia offers The Conjuring, which they describe as "one of the most frightening, intelligent, and well-executed supernatural horror films in recent memory." Before there was Amityville, there was Harrisville. Based on the true life story drawn from the case files of married demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren, The Conjuring tells the tale of how these world renowned paranormal investigators were called upon to help a family terrorized by a dark presence in a secluded farmhouse. Forced to confront a powerful demonic entity, the Warrens find themselves caught in the most horrifying case of their lives. The Conjuring stars Academy Award®-nominee Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson as the Warrens, and Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor as Roger and Carolyn Perron, the residents of the haunted house. Joey King, who plays daughter Christine Perron, will host the Opening Night festivities. The Conjuring's world premiere took place as the closing night entry at the first edition of Nocturna: Madrid International Fantastic Film Festival, followed by two screenings of the film at the Los Angeles Film Festival.
At Variety, Joe Leydon raves: "E.L. Katz deftly sprinkles dark portents amid the early scenes, so that by the time Cheap Thrills settles into a long stretch inside the claustrophobic confines of Colin and Violet's home, auds are primed to expect the unexpected. But even that won't be enough to fully prepare some viewers for the outrageous twists and reversals of fortune that occur as the pic goes to extremes, and then further, while more than making good on the promise of its sardonic title." At IndieWire, Eric Kohn concurs: "Even when it's fairly obvious where things are headed, the sick ride continues to speed forward, arriving at a gloriously absurd final shot that perfectly encapsulates both the ideas and visceral experience of the movie in their entirety. Ahead of its satiric aims, Cheap Thrills ultimately delivers its titular promise again and again." At Shockya, Perri Nemiroff adds: "It's one thing to show blood and brutality, but it's another to earn it and E.L. Katz's Cheap Thrills is a prime example of a piece that's exponentially more impactful courtesy of quality characters and a well-calculated build that justifies its gore." At Twitch, Peter Martin notes: "Class warfare comes perversely home in Cheap Thrills, a fiendish, fierce, and funny morality tale about the true value of money. It's absolutely convincing, even though it shouldn't be." At Fangoria, Samuel Zimmerman suggests: "While there's nary a viral video to be found in Cheap Thrills, the film is imbued with the culture of now (maybe always) and the fact that despite pleas for peace, we as humans enjoy seeing each other embarrassed, devalued and crushed. It's inherent in reality television and 30 second fail videos, transcends friendships and class, and extends right to the 1% who have so much that the only true entertainment left is the indignities of others." At Film Threat, Don Simpson claims Cheap Thrills "is clearly the smartest hyper-violent film I have ever seen." Interviews with Katz can be found at Diabolique and Ain't It Cool News. For an earlier interview with E.L. and his brother Peter when they produced Adam Wingard's Pop Skull, check out my conversation with them at The Evening Class.
At Screen Daily, Mark Adams describes Halley as a "disturbingly stylish and surrealistic drama", though "hard to define ... given its strangely compelling story, impressive performances and strange sense of the grotesque." At Twitch, Ard Vijn states Halley "begs sympathy for the zombie" but qualifies that "although Halley is at times revolting, it is not a horror film. The focus here is on human drama, on losing your humanity, on body illness, and loneliness." At IonCinema, Nicholas Bell characterizes Halley as an "exquisite debut" that "combines the existentialist ennui of Reygadas with Cronenbergian body horror. Hauntingly surreal, and sometimes maddeningly oblique, it never fails to be consistently compelling, and Hofmann's eerie protagonist manages to resonate long after its final frames."
I'll Follow You Down (Dir: Richie Mehta, Canada, 2012)—Haley Joel Osment and Gillian Anderson star in this captivating film that is equal parts ingenious science-fiction mystery and heart-wrenching human drama. This is the kind of smart, plausible sci-fi tale rarely told anymore in cinema, a precious gem created with absolute conviction that delivers like an existential powerhouse. From the Genie-nominated director of Amal. This film's world premiere will be hosted by writer / director Richie Mehta and Producer Lee Kim. IMDb. Facebook.
At Twitch, James Marsh finds The Final Fight a "low-key but enjoyable drama focusing on the twilight years of Ip Man's life. Less an action movie than a love letter to 1950s Hong Kong, the film nevertheless cements the man's position as a modern day folk hero." He adds that The Final Fight "is ultimately less interested with the action and more committed to recreating a particular period in Hong Kong's eclectic past. The soundtrack features a number of classic Mandarin pop tunes from the era, while the script touches on social issues of the day, including union strikes, water shortages and police corruption." At The Hollywood Reporter, Deborah Young observes: "IP Man: The Final Fight is an enjoyable if far less sophisticated tale that nostalgically taps into Hong Kong cinema of yesteryear, while still delivering considerable excitement in the fight scenes. Offshore, it may hitch a ride with dyed-in-the-wool martial arts fans on the coattails of The Grandmaster, but more likely will get lost in the shadow."
L'Autre Monde / The Otherworld (Dir: Richard Stanley, France, 2012)—The director of Hardware and Dust Devil returns with an astonishing documentary journey into life on the other side of the mirror. Dive with him into a place hidden deep in the South of France, untouched by the modern age, known as "the Zone", where magic is currency and the supernatural is a part of everyday life. The Otherworld's world premiere will be hosted by director / co-writer Richard Stanley, co-writer Scarlett Amaris, composer Simon Boswell, editor Patrick Tremblay and cinematographer Karim Hussain. Official site [French]. IMDb.
At Screen Daily, Mark Adams writes: "The fight for freedom of information and expression reaches action-packed heights in Shinsuke Sato's adaptation of Hiro Arikawa's best-selling novel The Library War—which has sold more than 2.8 million copies since its publication in 2006—which delivers engagingly over-the-top militarized mayhem, all in the good name of saving books. ...The book has been adapted before—the Japanese animated series Library War in 2008 and the 2012 animated television film Library War: Wings Of Revolution—but this big screen version is a sci-fi film that makes the most of the most incongruous of action concepts. Casting of cult star Chiaki Kuriyama (from Kill Bill) as Kasahara [Nana Eikura]'s best friend could help international profile, plus the action sequences are expertly staged, especially as the film hits its stride in the thrilling last third."
Magic Magic (Dir: Sebastián Silva, 2013)—Juno Temple and Michael Cera star in this Polanski-esque, paranoia-tinged psychological thriller that haunted all manner of psyches at Sundance and Cannes. In remote Chile, a vacationing young woman begins to mentally unravel; meanwhile, her friends ignore her claim until it's too late. An interview with Silva and Cera can be found at Independent Film Quarterly. Canadian premiere. Official site. IMDb. Wikipedia.
At Screen Daily, Tim Grierson writes: "This psychological horror offering from writer-director Sebastián Silva (The Maid) aspires to do little more than unnerve you as strenuously as possible, and in this regard it succeeds. ...Silva manages to build a mood of general unease with an irreverent tone, suggesting that the filmmaker is enjoying the vague anxiety he's creating in his audience. That playful spirit can also be felt in the lack of explanation concerning Alicia's mysterious condition, which is why Temple's portrayal gives the movie the anchor it desperately needs. ... As a result, Magic Magic turns out to be little more than a one-woman show. Thankfully, Temple is up to the task: She's crazy good." At IonCinema, Nicholas Bell characterizes Magic Magic as an "excellently crafted descent" that recalls "a genre of women and madness features that populated plenty of classic titles from the late 60s and 70s." He concludes, "Its spell will stay with you, creepy crawling down your spine." At Sound on Sight, Josh Slater-Williams adds: "For all its strange turns and moods, Silva grounds his horror of mental unravelling in the real world, or at least a hallucinatory, ethereal version of it. Christopher Doyle and Glenn Kaplan's cinematography makes particularly effective use of stark yellows and blues, and the sound design is impressively oppressive."
At The Guardian, Damon Wise describes Metro Manila as "unpredictable with a poetic and searingly realistic migrant drama that gradually becomes a crime story." Wise dispatches as well to Empire, where he states that Metro Manila provides an "expert combination of genre and naturalism" that convinced him it was "one of the best films of the festival, poetic, authentic and damn near perfect."At IonCinema, Nicholas Bell writes: "At its core, the film features a dynamite lead performance from [Jake] Macapagal, and it's worth noting that the screenplay was written in English, with the actors translating their dialogue to Tagalog. If anything, this third feature from Sean Ellis should definitely cement the filmmaker as one of the most chameleonic and intriguing British filmmakers currently working."
Return to Nuke 'Em High, Vol. One (Dir: Lloyd Kaufman, USA, 2013)—The brilliant, maniacal mind behind Troma Entertainment triumphantly returns to Fantasia with the hotly-anticipated first chapter of his epic new masterwork—and you'd better be ready for Lloyd Kaufman like you've never seen! When evil once more roams the halls of exploitation cinema's most infamous high school, the demented residents of Tromaville must band together one more time to take down bad taste … and replace it with something even more foul! The film's world premiere will be hosted by director Lloyd Kaufman. IMDb. Facebook.
The Weight had its world premiere in the Venice Days sidebar of the 69th Venice International Film Festival, where it won the 2012 Queer Lion, an award for the "best film with a homosexual and queer culture theme." It is the first Korean film to have won the prize. It also won a Special Award at the 2013 Fantasporto Orient Express Awards. Jeon Kyu-hwan also won the Silver Peacock award for best director at the International Film Festival of India and was awarded Best Director at the 16th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival where the jurors stated, "Never wavering from his singular poetic style, Jeon Kyu-hwan deftly pulls the audience through a barrage of painful and extreme imagery into what in the end is a very touching film about love and acceptance."
At EFilmCritic, Jay Seaver writes: "Ever since The Blair Witch Project kickstarted the boom in found-footage horror a decade and a half ago, there's been a tendency to make the form ever more elaborate, until the likes of Cloverfield and Trollhunter are basically special effects blockbusters in disguise. Every once in a while, though, someone strips the form back down to its roots, and Bobcat Goldthwait does a damn good job of it with Willow Creek." At GoSeeTalk, Andrew Crump claims, "Willow Creek accords only a small portion of its 77 minutes (thereabouts) to actual scares, but invests so much in its characters and gives them such a bounty of material to play with that the terror becomes that much more organic and intense. [It's] slow-burning in the best way possible."
