When you work full-time outside of the film industry, traveling to cover film festivals often feels like a younger person's game. But with more film festivals embracing a hybrid approach in post-COVID America, writing reviews for a festival halfway across the globe doesn't seem like such a daunting effort. That's certainly the case with the Fantasia International Film Festival, which I will be covering for the first time right here at Certified Forgotten.
Of course, not every movie listed on their program will be available for at-home audiences, but that shouldn't deter people for keeping an eye on some of the more interesting titles coming from the festival. So in the spirit of all things horror, here are the five horror(ish) movies playing at the festival this year that I will be keeping on my radar either this week or in the months to come.
Dog of God
Directed by Raitis Abele and Lauris Abele
Monday, July 21 (9:15 PM)
As someone who went to college in Texas in the early 2000s, I absorbed my fair share of Richard Linklater films. But with all love to his live-action work, it was his exercises in rotoscope that most often captures my imagination. Movies like Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly seemed to serve as a bridge between the real and the surreal, and I've often wondered why more filmmakers aren't drawn to this unique style. Which is all to say, Dog of God had my curiosity even before I dug into the film's blasphemous (complimentary) trailer. Perhaps that's another reason why rotoscoping feels right for the film; if you're going to walk a line between the divine and the grotesque, you might as well chart your course through the boundaries of style, too.
Good Boy
Directed by Ben Leonberg
Saturday, July 19 (9:15 PM)
While the world premieres tend to get all the attention at film festivals, and for good reason, there's nothing wrong with films making their regional premieres. For many filmmakers, the festival circuit is their de facto theatrical release, allowing their film to be seen on the big screen in major cities across the world before heading to whichever streamer puts up the winning bid for the distribution rights. So, yes, Good Boy has played at festivals like SXSW and Overlook, but that should not make it any less appealing to folks who have the chance to see it at Fantasia. Of course, if Leonberg dares to hurt one hair on his dog's head in his unconventional haunting movie, I reserve the right to disavow any enthusiasm I once showed.
Hellcat
Directed by Brock Bodell
Friday, July 25 (6:45 PM), Sunday, July 27 (2:00 PM)
One of the benefits of founding a horror publication based on independent cinema is the lack of pressure to cover the big titles. There are some major movies playing at Fantasia this year, but you won't see any of them covered at Certified Forgotten. Instead, we'll keep our focus on movies like Hellcat, a delicious-looking cat-and-mouse film that feels only a hop and a skip removed from our current media landscape. Conspiracy theories are everywhere these days, but what makes them so horrible is the idea that many people truly think they're making a difference. That intersection of delusion and ambiguity is where I prefer my horror to live, so this looks delightfully unenjoyable.
Noise
Directed by
Thursday, July 17 (9:25 PM)
Listen, you had me at "non-stop anxiety." There was always going to be a South Korean film on this list; there are too many talented horror filmmakers pouring out of the country for me to go an entire film festival without clocking a standout. But this particular movie seems right up my alley. I've often said on the podcast that my ideal horror narrative is one where you wait eighty-nine minutes for the bad thing to happen, and then suffer the bad things for the last sixty seconds, and Noise seems to be singing my song. Plus, people being trapped in an apartment complex with supernatural elements doesn't not give Silent Hill or Dark Water vibes, and nothing puts a smile on my face faster than an urban hellscape. Fingers crossed that this one is the real deal.
The Wailing
Directed by Pedro Martín-Calero
Thursday, July 17 (7:00 PM)
One of the most important parts of sifting through options at a film festival is looking for the words in a blurb that speak to you personally. I've read a million programmer notes in my career, and phrases like "visceral" and "unsettling" tend to barely move the needle. But compare a filmmaker's debut to my beloved Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who keeps finding haunting ways to end the world in real-time onscreen? That I will pay attention to. The Wailing is yet-another feature that has made its way through the festival circuit in the last twelve months, but between the filmmaker comparisons and a narrative broken into chapters - a conceit that always ensures a movie is 10% better than it might otherwise be - this one still feels like it's worth your radar.
But wait! If you're the sort of person who prefers to check out the repertory screenings at a film festival, well, first, you have excellent taste, and second, there are two Certified Forgotten favorites hitting the big screen this year.
After being unavailable in the United States for many years, Koji Shiraishi's Noroi: The Curse has ridden its newfound availability to cult status with horror fans. We had the chance to talk about Noroi live with Shudder SVP of Programming Sam Zimmerman at the 2024 Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, but you can actually listen to our recent episode with Man Finds Tape directors Paul Gandersman and Peter Hall to discover what makes this movie so damn good.
Meanwhile, Funky Forest: The First Contact is... hard to describe, but utterly unmissable. We featured it on our podcast almost five years ago to the day, and journalist Katie Rife did a good job of explaining why she still remembers it fond from past iterations of Fantasia. It might not be the most obvious option on the program, but believe me when I say that you might only get one chance in a lifetime to see this on the big screen.
