The highlight of Fantasia 2025 for me was Brandon Daley’s anxiety-inducing, pitch-black gambling addiction comedy $POSITIONS. Mike (Michael Kunicki) is trying to get rich quick trading crypto. There is a joyful opening credits sequence that takes place right after he hits it big and quits his job. What follows after that is a slow descent […]
Queens of the Dead – Fantasia 2025
Tina Romero picks up the baton from her father and delivers QUEENS OF THE DEAD, a vibrant and campy queer zombie horror set in Brooklyn. She assembles a fantastic ensemble cast led by Katy O’Brian and lets them have some gory fun for an hour and forty minutes. The synth score and house-heavy soundtrack is […]
Touch Me – Fantasia 2025
Addison Heimann’s campy sci-fi horror comedy TOUCH ME is unlike anything I have seen, which is always a plus. Despite some of its shortcomings, the fact that it is never boring also works to its advantage. Joey and Craig cannot stop having sex with Brian, an alien with tentacles in human form, even after they […]
Sham – Fantasia 2025
I was not expecting Takashi Miike’s latest to be a courtroom drama, but the bone-chilling details of the case in SHAM keeps him in familiar territory. We spend the first 20 minutes of the film witnessing a racist and sadistic teacher tormenting one of his students. Just when we can’t hate this monster more, Miike […]
OBEX – Fantasia 2025
Albert Birney’s latest, OBEX, is another surreal journey into the land of dreams after 2021’s Strawberry Mansion, which he co-directed. There are parallels between the films, and both are wonderfully imaginative and strange, but this one leaves you more satisfied. When his beloved dog Sandy disappears, the reclusive Conor, played by Birney, enters the mysterious […]
The Well – Fantasia 2025
The Well, documentarian Hubert Davis’ first foray into fiction, is a post-apocalyptic thriller that feels very familiar. Sarah and her family live a secluded life in the woods and have their own well at a time when clean water is hard to come by. The arrival of a stranger threatens to expose their whereabouts to […]
Together – Fantasia 2025
Michael Shanks’ TOGETHER is an absolutely insane body horror movie that puts Alison Brie and Dave Franco’s natural chemistry to excellent use. It makes you laugh, jump out of your seat, and reassess your perspective on intimate relationships while grossing you out every step of the way. The effects look fantastic, and the film was […]
Hellcat – Fantasia 2025
Brock Bodell’s Hellcat is a claustrophobic horror tale that takes place in a moving RV for most of its running time. Lena wakes up in a trailer with an infection that is visibly spreading while being towed by a truck. The driver communicates via an intercom and claims to be taking her to see a […]
Every Heavy Thing – Fantasia 2025
If it wasn’t for the modern setting and the familiar actors, you could possibly be convinced that certain scenes in Mickey Reece’s Every Heavy Thing were from a super-low budget, never released serial killer film De Palma made right around the same time as Blow Out. In it, a newspaper ad salesman witnesses a murder […]
The Virgin of the Quarry Lake – Fantasia 2025
Move over When Evil Lurks, there’s a new Argentinian horror movie in town. Set in the time of Internet cafés, Laura Casabé‘s THE VIRGIN OF THE QUARRY LAKE, based on two short stories by a Mariana Enríquez, looks at teenage desire and obsession and turns it into female rage. It starts out with a bang, […]