Fantastic Fest

Latest reviews

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  Bone Lake

  Review preview for Bone Lake

  Director Mercedes Bryce Morgan plies her trade with a style and verve which elevate this far above the 1980s straight-to-VHS erotic thrillers that it superficially resembles.

  When two young couples are mistakenly double-booked into the same vacation rental their romantic weekend becomes a twisted maze of sex, lies, and survival.
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  AJ Goes To The Dog Park

  Review preview for AJ Goes To The Dog Park

  It’s a decidedly quirky tale of the sort that will infuriate some viewers, who will feel they’ve been egregiously ripped off – but if you like that sort of thing, you’ll be in your element.

  A man who finds contentment in the simple pleasures - buttered toast, bicycle rides and walking his dog - discovers that his beloved dog park has been transformed into a 'blog park', a digital sanctuary where youths gather to open their laptops. He feels compelled to take action, to set things right.
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  The Black Hole

  Review preview for The Black Hole

  Powered by strong acting performances ... The Black Hole surfs through various genres smoothly.

  As aliens descend to study humans, the people caught up in their investigations face turning points in their own lives. Two women take part-time jobs being dissected by the cosmic visitors; a woman fleeing an abusive relationship takes shelter in a muscle mummy’s giant-spider-ridden apartment; and a young man begins an affair with the domineering, alluring woman across the street while his mother seeks fulfillment in an expensive vacuum cleaner.
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  U Are The Universe

  Review preview for U Are The Universe

  Given that U Are The Universe is practically a one-man-play, Volodymyr Kravchuk masterfully commands the screen combining his knack for humour with a strong sense for drama.

  In the distant future, a space trucker from Khmelnytskyi is trying to get rid of over three billion tons of waste. When he hears from a woman on a distant space station, he becomes determined to reach her.
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  Spermageddon

  Review preview for Spermageddon

  Nothing short of an instant cult.

  Two awkward teens are having sex for the first time, while Simon the Semen and his friends are on a quest to reach the golden goal, the Egg.
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  She Loved Blossoms More

  Review preview for She Loved Blossoms More

  The spectacular visual effects are less a product of slick new technology than of pure imagination, and they really are unforgettable.

  Hoping to bring their dead mother back to life, three brothers build a time machine.
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  Sister Midnight

  Review preview for Sister Midnight

  Every frame feels like the product of conscious decision-making, with nothing merely carrying us from one point to another.

  Black comedy about a woman trying to navigate a newly arranged marriage.
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  The Rule Of Jenny Pen

  Review preview for The Rule Of Jenny Pen

  Ashcroft’s interpretation steers the story away from simple tragedy as we see Mortensen making gains as well as losses.

  Confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within his stroke-ridden body, a former Judge must stop an elderly psychopath who employs a child's puppet to abuse the home's residents with deadly consequences.
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  Will & Harper

  Review preview for Will & Harper

  Greenbaum pinpoints the tension between the hate eating away at parts of US society and the tremendous potential that the country still has.

  When Will Ferrell finds out his close friend of 30 years is coming out as a trans woman, the two decide to embark on a cross-country road trip to process this new stage of their relationship in an intimate portrait of friendship, transition, and America.
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  The Wild Robot

  Review preview for The Wild Robot

  The film mines a lot of clichés but manages to do something a little different with them, blending traditional elements of children’s fiction with a distinctly 21st Century sensibility.

  A robot designed to assist humans finds herself stranded on an island populated only by animals.

A–Z of Fantastic Fest 2024 reviews →

Features

• The outlaw
  Karan Kandhari on artistic inspirations and Sister Midnight
• In dialogue with time
  Bookworm director Ant Timpson on the changing landscape of cinema
• Happy holidays
  Nick Frost and Aisling Bea on playing Brits abroad in Get Away
• Bloody good fun
  Steffen Haars, Maisie Ayres and Sebastian Croft on Get Away
• 'It is impossible to escape memory'
  Director Fabrice du Welz on the lingering trauma of the real case behind Maldoror and the questions he hopes to provoke
• Wisdom known only to the worm
  Stuart Ortiz, Peter Zizzo and Terri Apple on Strange Harvest: Occult Murder In The Inland Empire
• See what's underneath
  Jennifer Kent on creating a legend in The Babadook
• Family forever
  Isaac Ezban on exploring a troubled world through children's eyes in Parvulos
• Making the call
  Steven Kostanski on making monsters in Frankie Freako
• All the buzz
  Sander Maran and Peeter Maran on Chainsaws Were Singing
• Breaking the mould
  Memoir Of A Snail director Adam Elliot on creating textured underdogs and emotional conflict