by "Doc" Hunter Bush, Staff Writer

This year's Fantasia International Film Festival is off to a great start, for me at least! Everyone's experiences will differ, surely - your mileage may vary, as the the saying goes - but I can say that I'm having a blast. Below are just a few of the titles screening this year for you to keep an eye on, and there are more coming (which I'm not allowed to mention quite yet, so keep your eyes out for future updates):

Features

Vulcanizadora
Written and Directed by Joel Potrykus
Running time 1 hour and 25 minutes

Two friends calmly walking into the woods, one laden with camping gear and the other in jeans and a hoodie. The over-prepared friend realizes that he left all his keys on the bus and the other man asks him "What does it matter? It's not like you're gonna need them anymore." while the soundtrack blasts (what might be) thrash metal at the audience. This is, essentially, the opening to writer/director Joel Potrykus' latest film, Vulcanizadora, a film which explores friendship, guilt, aging, responsibility, and the fear that a person can ruin their life - or someone else's - in the blink of an eye. "It has a weird tone that I've been trying to hit for a long time... which should be sad, funny, and scary—oftentimes hitting all three in the same scene," Potrykus says in the press materials, and I'm inclined to agree with him. A mounting dread, sometimes building to a crescendo, sometimes diminishing to almost nothing, was my companion as I watched these two friends (Potrykus & Joshua Burge, both excellent) trudge through the Michigan woods to make good on some obscure pact, then deal with the repercussions. The (what might be) slowcore build of the first half of the film might not be for everyone, but if you stick with Vulcanizadora, you'll be rewarded.

Adrianne & the Castle
Written by Little Scream and Shannon Walsh
Directed by Shannon Walsh
Running time 1 hour and 26 minutes

If you've previously read my Fantasia 2024 kickoff Curtain Riser article, you may remember that I was really looking forward to the experience of Adrianne & the Castle. The documentary uses artist and entrepreneur Alan St-George's house, Havencrest Castle, as a lens through which to examine his relationship with and love for his dearly departed wife Adrianne. Only tangentially familiar with Havencrest, I referred to it as "like a benevolent Winchester Mystery House", and I could not be happier to have been correct. Through re-enactments, Alan explains the circumstances both biographical and emotional, through which he met, fell in love with, married, and spent a lifetime with his beloved. Havencrest itself was born out of a desire for Adrianne to feel at home in their new home, and its fanciful evolution continues to this day. "When it's finally done, if it's ever done," Alan says "I don't know what I'll do." I truly loved this experience, watching Alan interacting with the performers playing his & Adrianne's younger selves, almost being interrogated by his memories. There's a lot of cleverness on display in Adrianne & the Castle, thanks to director Shannon Walsh and co-writer Little Scream, a lot of being made aware of the art and artifice of making the documentary itself. It almost functions in the same way as the house, a living document; a testament to a great love. Seek this out. I can't recommend it strongly enough.

Dark Match
Written and Directed by Lowell Dean
Running time 1 hour, 34 minutes

Professional wrestling and horror movies go together like... well, I dunno, but a lot of people sure do enjoy both things - including me! Why then am I having such a hard time thinking of a better wrestling horror movie than Dark Match? (*) When the small independent wrestling promotion S.A.W. get offered a sizable payday to put on a show for a religious group in the middle of nowhere, they can hardly afford to pass up the opportunity. But the group turn out to be a nefarious cult lead by former wrestler The Prophet (Chris Jericho) with a grudge against one of S.A.W.'s star performers, Mean Joe Lean (Steven Ogg)! Dark Match combines all the colorful showmanship of pro-wrestling with the sinister undercurrent of occult ritual, anchored by engaging performances, notably Ayisha Issa as Miss Behave. The central concept here is so fun that I was totally hooked, and the pace is excellent. Dare I say Dark Match might be the best wrestling horror movie? If you can think of a better one, let me know!

(*) Disclaimer: They Live is the best horror movie featuring a wrestler - Rowdy Roddy Piper as Nada - but it's not a horror movie about wrestling.

Salute your Shorts

Hell is a Teenage Girl
Written and Directed by Stephen Sawchuk
Running time 15 minutes

Screening at Fantasia 2024 with the above-mentioned Dark Match is this sharp, meta-horror short. What if you were a teenage girl and your father was the local Michael Myers / Jason Voorhees type who appears every Halloween to eradicate any teens who break The Rules: Don't Drink, Don't do Drugs, and Don't have Sex? How would you feel? More importantly, what would you do? That's exactly Parker’s (Skylar Radzion) situation. Radzion is damned good here, maintaining a decently grounded tone in a film world that is heightened but not quite farcical, all within the slim runtime allotted.

AstroNots
Written by Adam Dunn and Aaron Glenane
Directed by Andrew Seaton
Running Time 11 minutes

Like a less unhinged I Think You Should Leave sketch, AstroNots presents the unenviable position of being Commander Thomas Collins (Adam Dunn), grandson of Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins - the guy who went to the moon with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin that nobody remembers - about to make his family proud by being one of the first men on Mars. The only problem is, the other guy in the cockpit, Pilot Abraham Adams (Aaron Glenane) admits that he has no idea what he's doing and he just kind of bullshitted his way and failed upwards into being mere moments from an historic space launch. Amusing as that concept is, the performances are what make AstroNots really take flight. This incredibly tense, potentially disastrous situation is handled with delicate levity, and directed with an eye for the excellent production design. I have heard a rumor that the team is working on future installments, and I'm genuinely excited for them. Blast off!

The 28th Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 18th to August 4th in Montreal. Get tickets HERE.