Running around Toronto the past week and a bit has been a blast but my real reason, at least non-work related reason for coming out east has been Fantasia and it is rapidly approaching. Fantasia will start up this Thursday with the opening night presentation of Sorcerer’s Apprentice along with IP Man 2 and Mandrill plus an opening night party at Club 1234 . I have been lucky enough to see IP Man 2 already and I will be catching Mandrill on Saturday so I’ve got the choice between Nic Cage in a Disney Flick and a party. I think I’ll do the party. My real movie going will consist of approximately 10 movies over two days. I’ll give a fairly brief run through of my two days and then in another post coming up I’ll provide a list of what I’m going to be missing later in the festival.
My Friday will consist of seeing Phobia 2, Secret Reunion, Herschell Gordon Lewis – The Godfather of Gore and Rubber. Phobia 2 is the sequel to Phobia (4bia) which I was not lucky enough to catch but has been on my radar since I heard the good reviews from Toronto After Dark plus one of the stories in it (there are 5 different stories this time) takes place during the filming of the sequel of Alone which is really strong horror movie. I love the whole meta aspect of the fake sequel being the stage for a horror story within an actual sequel for a movie. Secret Reunion is the followup film of Jang Hun (Rough Cut) and stars Song Kang-ho as an agent tasked with tracking down a sniper in what is sure to be a stylistically strong thriller.
It is always fun to take in at least one documentary and this year I am going to check out the Herschell Gordon Lewis documentary. Lewis was responsible for many of the 1960s sexploitation horror flicks that I have enjoyed in the past and I’m hoping that the documentary will be as fun as his movies are. Finally on Friday, I am truly looking forward to Rubber. If you haven’t heard about this one it is the horror movie about a killer tire. Yup, you heard me right a tire that kills people. The fact that this is a midnight movie tells me this one should be a blast with some good kills and lots of laughs. That is it for Friday but fortunately I will be there for another day which looks like just as much fun.
On Saturday my schedule looks like this: Mandrill, First Squad, Evil: In the Time of Heroes, Down Terrace, Life and Death of a Porno Gang and either IP Man 2 or Mutant Girl Squad. Mandrill is the next movie from the director of Killtro and Mirageman. With each movie Ernesto Diaz Espinoza has been provided with a bit larger budget and more room to move in the action genre and I am curious to finally see one of his movies. I feel like I’m playing catch up with a lot of movies at this year’s Fantasia. Evil: In the Time of Heroes is the bigger budget prequel to the Romero-esque Greek Zombie flick Evil. Between this, Phobia 2 and Mandrill I have a feeling that I will be running out and tracking down the earlier works of all these directors.
There were two movies that I was particularly looking forward to prior to finding out when everything was screening. Evokative Films has not let me down so far and I couldn’t wait to see their films Down Terrace and Deliver Us From Evil. Unfortunately the latter is going to play after I leave Fantasia. Fortunately Down Terrace is screening on Saturday. My favourite quote from a review for this movie is from the blog Little White Lies, “A brilliantly bizarre blend of kitchen sink realism, broad swathes of black comedy and a body count befitting a slasher flick.” I have pretty high expectations for this one.
A new wave of films have been coming out of Serbia and while I was really interested in catching A Serbian Film, I am also intrigued by Life and Death of a Porno Gang which tells the story of a traveling porno group that performs live sex acts in small villages. Things really heat up when they are offered great rewards for expanding their act to include murder. My final movie will either consist of IP Man 2 which I have already seen and is worth a rematch or perhaps Mutant Girl Squad. I am not a big fan of the whole over the top cheap special effect movies like Mutant Girl Squad but that may just be that I have seen most of the movies of this style by myself and I am sure it would play much better with a large audience.
Even though I am only getting two full days of Fantasia I am more than sure I am going to walk away happy. One of the things that I haven’t mentioned is the social aspect of going to a film festival. I have been to TIFF and I’ve been to Toronto After Dark. I am currently setting up my own Film Festival and really half of the reason why I travel and why I want to run a festival is the good times I have just hanging and meeting fellow film fans. I’ve heard good things about past Fantasia Festivals and I cannot wait to relax and enjoy the down-time between movies.
I’m very excited for DOWN TERRACE! And very happy that it fell within my limited window at Fantasia. So much good stuff at this festival this year.
Missing the METROPOLIS and SCOTT PILGRIM films is going to hurt.
I’d like to see the restored METROPOLIS but I did just see the previous version with an orchestra this past winter. I’m never a real big fan of seeing the bigger blockbuster type movies which come out very quickly after the festival. I get the most out of festival going from a) hanging with and meeting new friends (I wouldn’t have half my friends in Toronto without the festivals) and b) seeing the small hidden gems that I never would have heard about.
I can’t remember if I said this in the post and I’m too lazy right now to go look but I initially missed what DOWN TERRACE was. I’m quite glad I heard you mention it in an email. Gotta hate it when good movies slip under the radar.
Awesome, I just got emailed asking if I want a review disc of Down Terrace. Expect a write up in the next couple of weeks if you guys don’t get there first!
A quote from Little White Lies, I like it. It’s actually a UK magazine too, not just a blog. It’s really impressive, they devote pretty much a whole issue each month to one film with a catchup on other releases towards the end. It’s really stylishly designed too – you can check out digital versions of the previous issues here: http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/the-magazine/
Of all the films at Fantasia during my brief window, DOWN TERRACE is either my #1 or #2 most-anticipated choice, currently vying with Life and Death of A Porno Gang. I hope it is good. Looking forward to it.
As usual with this festival, I’m mostly interested in the screenings of older films – I will see THE HOUSEMAID, BATTLE IN OUTER SPACE, KURONEKO, PARLEZ-NOUS D’AMOUR and METROPOLIS no matter what and I’m also very interested in A HOLY PLACE, MANETTE and VARIOLA VERA.
Being not very well versed in International genre cinema, I find it very hard to sort through the enormous amount of films I know absolutely nothing about, directed by people I’ve never heard of. The fanboy-ish, gushing write-ups inserted in the official programme don’t help much. If only there were new Kiyoshi Kurosawa or Johnnie To films, I’d have something reliable to look forward to. Joe Weerasethakul’s UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES would’ve been a great and fitting inclusion, too.
Also, something I don’t like about this particular festival is the high level of audience participation during the films. I’m a grumpy old man trapped in a 25 years old body – talking/shouting/joking during the theatrical presentation of a film irritates me to no end. Curmudgeon attitude, I know.
I’m with you on that, I can’t stand people talking and generally overreacting to what’s happening on screen – do people realise that the filmmakers can’t hear you?
No offense to you guys over the pond, but it is far worse in the US than in Europe. All the cheering at the screen and stuff like that gets on my nerves.
Has anybody else attended the screening of A HOLY PLACE? Oh boy, this reminded me why I should never trust the Fantasia crew when it comes to recommendations – it was absolutely dreadful. After about ten shots I knew I was in the hands of a director who had no idea of what he was doing. The programme write-up states absurdities like “reminiscent of Mario Bava’s gothic films”, “elaborate visuals” and “This Serbian gothic is psychologically motivated”, which makes me wonder if they even bothered watching the film. It is in fact incredibly sloppy and barely thought-out, the director has a hard time building a visually coherent sequence and shows no interest in anything other than the most simplistic and banal aspects of the story. The characters are barely sketched-out (when they’re not downright incoherent), so the “psychologically motivated” comment comes off as a surprise. And I guess the Mario Bava reference was thrown in because some scenes were shot using an orange filter?
Yie. I was already out of Montreal by the time that one came up on the programme!
Killed me to have missed the extended directors cut of TEARS FOR SALE though. On the whole, I’m loving their Subversive Serbia Sidebar this year.
Dang, it sucks that there are two working definitions for “Kitchen Sink” films. I usually think of it as a movie thats scope has crept way beyond the subject matter, (as in this film has everything but the Kitchen Sink!) but now I’m finding out there was a British “Angry Young Men” subgenre a la LOOK BACK IN ANGER during the 1950s and 1960s called by the local critics as kitchen sink films. Oi! Confusion!