2025's FrightFest UK tears through the noise to deliver a lineup of strange oddities and violent slashers. This unique genre festival kept me on the edge of my seat—and, in the case of some titles, anxious to turn on all the lights in my home. Don't miss my full coverage for the festival after the … Continue reading FrightFest 2025 Wrap-Up
Fantasia 2025 Wrap-Up
2025's Fantasia International Film Festival has come and gone, with a wide swath of genre films highlighting the creativity of this carefully curated lineup. Don't miss my full coverage of this year's festival after the jump, and be sure to be put some of these exciting titles on your radar! Films ALL YOU NEED IS … Continue reading Fantasia 2025 Wrap-Up
Fantasia 2025: All You Need is Kill
★★★ Japanese sci-fi novel All You Need is Kill has already been adapted into a famous manga and an arguably even more famous blockbuster action flick starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt entitled Edge of Tomorrow. This take lives in the world of anime, punctuated by gorgeous animation and mesmerizing visuals. By this point, the … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: All You Need is Kill
Fantasia 2025: Lurker
★★★★★ The line between love and obsession is a thin one, especially in the psychological thriller genre. In writer/director Alex Russel's Lurker, a lonely retail clerk encounters a mega-star musician by chance, launching an unexpected connection. This bond threatens to destroy both their lives as the two become intrinsically linked to one another. The lifestyle … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: Lurker
Fantasia 2025: Barbie Boomer
★★★★ In the wake of 2023's breakout hit Barbie, Mattel's grip on the largely female populus cannot be understated. The Barbie craze existed long before Margot Robbie's journey to Barbieland, as evidenced by the voracious obsession with the iconic figure as a pop culture phenomenon. Enter: Barbie Boomer, an intriguing documentary that dissects Sylvie Longpré … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: Barbie Boomer
Fantasia 2025: Hi-Five
★★★★★ The best movie screening at 2025's Fantasia International Film Festival is... a slapstick Korean superhero flick? Color me surprised, but Hi-Five truly delivers the goods in a way that many modern superhero origin stories simply do not. Of course, it all starts from the ground up. A ridiculous script from writer/director Kang Hyung-chul lampoons … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: Hi-Five
Fantasia 2025: ChaO
★★★★ Japanese animation is in an entirely different realm than what we see over here from the Western branches. ChaO further proves that originality and bold storytelling come first, with creative visuals following soon after. Its unconventional mermaid romance makes a perfect venue to explore themes of ecological impacts as well as relationship power dynamics. … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: ChaO
Fantasia 2025: Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo
★★★★ Atmospheric and haunting, Taiwanese import Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo tackles one of Taiwan’s most legendary ghost stories in style. For the uninitiated, the urban legend of the Mountain Gremlins—an evil spirit who dons a yellow raincoat and a bamboo hat—has been passed down since the 1970s. For debut director Tsai Chia Ying, the … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: Haunted Mountains: The Yellow Taboo
Fantasia 2025: Influencers
★★★★ 2022's Influencer was a surprising delight, nicely folding into the crazy bitch canon alongside the likes of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle or Poison Ivy, yet with a decidedly modern twist. Its serial killer used deepfakes and AI technology to quite literally become her victim, in a purely online sort of way. Now, … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: Influencers
Fantasia 2025: Hellcat
★★★ Finding a truly unique concept comes easily, especially in the horror genre, yet so often they can flounder in execution. Hellcat has no such issue. The new film from writer/director Brock Bodell takes a compelling angle for a tense game of cat and mouse. When Lena (Dakota Gorman) wakes up trapped and injured in … Continue reading Fantasia 2025: Hellcat