Fantasia International Film Festival — A–Z of films

Marmor resists the temptation to over-explain, yet every time you think you see a way out, some new confounding factor will emerge.

This is a mess. An ambitious mess...but mess nonetheless.

Dreyfuss is a force of nature. His energy is boundless, his eyes sparkle with ideas, he runs (not walks), he gushes (not speaks), he laughs like a hyena.

For those who get into the rhythm of it, this is an instant classic.

Astronaut is a charming fable given life by Dreyfuss' spirited performance.

A touching story of commonplace horror wrapped up in the trappings on Tinseltown, this is a thoroughly researched and carefully assembled piece of work that will intrigues fans of the director and newcomers alike.

Lind is compelling in the lead.

Scoggins' use of low lighting and shifting frames of reference adds a dreamlike quality to the whole affair.

This is one film that's really going to test the mettle of Wood's mainstream fanbase.

A cheery little romp with the right balance of cuteness, comedy and gore.

Full of gothic visuals and brooding melancholy, the bleak gloom is striking.

This is an unusually clever piece of genre cinema which also resonates emotionally.

Schwarzenegger handles his role with a restraint unusual in actors his age, so that even viewers with a strong sense of what's coming will warm to him or wonder how bad he can really be.

Lauryn Canny is stunning in the central role, easily adopting the same body language that Mcintosh has used continually to break away from conditioned patterns of movement and take up space.

The tight-knit production unit brings natural chemistry to the film.

At the centre of the film, Breaux is superb, not only capturing the pathos vital to the monster but carrying him through the long, slow process of cognitive development and emotional realisation without ever striking a false note.

With beautifully choreographed fight scenes intercut with gentle comedy and character-focused drama, this film takes viewers on a thrilling ride.

This is a film full of little observations about the sort of things that women learn to be wary of but men are often blind to.

It's all fun and games until somebody decides to read ancient manuscripts aloud.

Lavishly staged and shot with dazzling confidence, Dreamland segues easily between these glamorous spaces and the scummy streets and decaying hotel rooms of contemporary noir.

The film builds neatly, slowly to a serious turning point just past the half way mark. After that....you're on your own!

Stallone's energy and ambition knew no bounds in the Eighties.

On a whole different level from most films of its ilk.

The film may sometimes ramble but it's punctuated with action set pieces which combine great stunt work and a playful wit.

The noirish animation gives the girl a dramatic presence that is larger than life, small and quiet though she is

Beautifully observed and with a terrific central performance from Bolger, this is a film that takes a simple story and gives it real power.

Held together by three impressive performances, with Tyra the standout, Harpoon deftly plays with audience assumptions and sympathies, exploiting our prejudices as each character gradually reveals hitherto unseen depths.

The Hitchhiker uses elements of fantasy to force a confrontation with the greater strangeness of reality.

Flitting between the agonies of trying to be socially appropriate, real violence and frantic comedy, Homewrecker is a fast paced, character-driven film that will follow you around until you give it all of your attention.

House Of Hummingbird centres on a quiet yet never passive performance from Park, who draws us into Eun-hee's world as we watch her absorbing and processing the events going on around her.

The challenging moral and psychological undercurrent that keeps it interesting as the primary narrative begins to flounder.

The real star here is Marine Altan's cinematography, investing locations both lavish and drab with the kind of spiritual wonder seen only through the eyes of those who have always been outsiders.

Jesus Shows You The Way To The Highway reboots the genre by both using and subverting its conventions.

There's layer upon layer of clever artifice here, yet the result is something that feels fresh and sexy.

This is a world of ballgowns, sequins and lace...but none of that diminishes the ability of its heroes to think clearly or take charge of their own fates.

We don't see the much of the immediate aftermath of death here, but instead are treated to the way grief can linger, catching anger and guilt in its wake

Loosely assembled from cardboard, string and panache.

There's a lot of silliness here altogether but it works surprisingly well, Tezuka somehow managing to coordinate all the moving parts.

Smit is excellent in the central role, doing something a little different with each layer of the performance.

The Lodge hinges on a powerhouse performance from Keough, who inhabits the troubled Grace so completely that we can stay with her even as her ability to distinguish what's real and what isn't breaks down.

To the extent that it's successful, this is thanks to McClatchy, who manages to make Maggie completely believable even in the most absurd situation.

Although there are a couple of places in which it shoehorns the plot, this is for the most part a tightly written, fast-paced thriller with real bite.

Even those elements that will seem most unlikely to audiences unfamiliar with aswang mythology are carried with conviction and grace.

As heavy on symbolism as it is light on plot, Night God combines the ancient shamanic imagery of the region with the concrete rooms and endless paper-strewn desks of a more recent era.

Korean comedies are known for their quirkiness and The Odd Family combines this with a set of principal characters so wilfully obnoxious that it would be difficult not to like them.

Michelle Garza Cervera's hard-hitting film combines an elegant sense of aesthetics with emotional intelligence and insight.

Again and again there are elements that will be echoed in later works, mirrors and masks and little friends, split screens and thrills and untimely ends.

Smart, deceptively sophisticated and beautifully crafted, this is artisan cheese.

The fight scenes are kept fairly simple, the focus not on gimmicky set pieces but on doing simple things really well.

Depending on your perspective you will find this fantastically stupid or stupidly fantastic - there isn't much of a middle ground.

Ikeda is a strong lead who invests heavily in her character but her most remarkable feature is a pair of eyes which allow her to express terror with the intensity of an animé character.

Satanic Panic is one of those films that's a lot smarter underneath than it looks on the surface.

The superimposition of the Sator narrative atop material Graham had already filmed with a different story in mind gives it the depth of folklore and a disjointed aspect which contributes to its disturbing effect.

Going along with a bonkers plot and lashings of melodramatic confrontations between the characters is a hell of a lot easier to do when you have a well-done Wuxia spectacular to delight your eyes.

Longinotto has always had a knack for getting interviewees to open up in such a way that even they can seem surprised at what they end up saying.

Stefanie Abel Horowitz's carefully structured short explores a kind of horror rarely touched upon in cinema: the empty ache of anhedonia.

A host of good performances, most notably from young Marie Iitoyo, make the fear real and infectious.

It unfolds in a way that defies expectations, finding hope and humanity in unexpected places.

A slice of cannibal horror with a distinctly soapy aftertaste.

Hweiling Ow's sticky little fable begins with suburban wholesomeness and gradually gives way to grotesquerie and gore, just as pregnancies do.

Lorcan Finnegan never allows us to lose sight of the absurdity of the situation, nor of the real life absurdities that it points up.

Mary Dauterman's gutsy little short packs a lot of story into just four minutes..

Nagahisa...understands and embraces the complexity of early adolescence, when kids are finding their own way,

The characters are beautifully drawn and the performances finely balanced in a film with a lot more going on upstairs than its preoccupation with violence might suggest.

The tropes it uses are old ones but simplicity works in their favour, adding to the sense that there are uncanny powers at work and that nothing is quite what it seems.