The 22nd edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival returns to Montreal July 12th through August 1st, 2018. Diversity and quality have always been key components of the festival's incredible features lineup, and that reputation looks to grow even stronger with this year's selections. Featured below are four Fantasia movies that have already earned Culture Crypt's seal of approval as standouts certain to have genre film fans buzzing.
COLD SKIN
Xavier Gens' crafts a compelling chiller about two men (Ray Stevenson of "Rome" and "The Punisher: War Zone" along with David Oakes) caught in an isolated lighthouse regularly besieged by creatures from the sea. Evoking a distinctly Lovecraftian vibe throughout its entirety, "Cold Skin" captures coldness, creepiness, and cerebral tension in ample amounts that add up to enticing entertainment tailor made for "Shadow Over Innsmouth" fans.
SATAN'S SLAVES
Remaking a 1980s Indonesian thriller that isn't as much of a "Phantasm" riff as rumors would have you believe, "Ritual" director Joko Anwar blends all the right tones of "The Conjuring," "Insidious," even "Rosemary's Baby" for this diabolically demonic tale of a fractured family in mourning. Think "Hereditary" but with foreign film flavor and James Wan flair. After checking this one out, track down the original, "Pengabdi setan," for even more fantastically frightful retro weirdness.
TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID
Not since Jennifer Kent's "The Babadook" has a filmmaker so creatively captured both the magic and the misery of childhood fear and fantasy. With her fearful fable about orphans struggling to survive against a deadly drug cartel as well as a supernatural threat in a Mexican ghost town, writer/director Issa Lopez earns herself a top spot on the list of emerging filmmakers whose names will be hailed again and again in years to come. "Tigers Are Not Afraid" features child performances virtually guaranteed to soften even the hardest heart with their heartbreaking honesty.
WHAT KEEPS YOU ALIVE
After putting his unique stamp on "haunted asylum found footage" with "Grave Encounters," and post-apocalyptic zombies with "It Stains the Sands Red," Colin Minihan tries his hand at the "human predator versus human prey" subgenre with "What Keeps You Alive." It follows a formula, but does so with svelte style. Brittany Allen and Hannah Emily Anderson keep eerie energy charged for the full duration, making this one of the more memorable woodland survival thrillers in some time.
How someone who sees this in a theater or without a notepad can keep everyone and their relationships straight, I have no idea.