The Horrors of Fantasia: Day Four

default-featured-image

“>

After the late night/early morning that technically ended Day Three (read about it here), the wife and I were fairly sure we weren’t going to be up on Sunday to make it out to see My Scary Girl, a Korean comedy that we were hoping was a bit more horror-centric than it was. Obviously that means we did make it and even had Evil Andy along with us for the ride. While it was a fun movie about a 30-year-old virgin who has never even kissed a girl and ends up falling in love with a women who’s killed many times, it had all the makings for something very dark, but in the end it was just a lot of jokes and a very flippant attitude towards murder.

Afterwards, Andy decided he was going to ignore what pretty much everyone else has said about it (save for our man Paul, whose review is more positive than negative) and sat still to watch Brett Leonard’s Feed. When we caught up with him a few hours later, he was far less than pleased with his decision… and proceeded to remind us just how unpleased he was for the next hour or so. It’s okay, though; he’s an intelligent guy and can critique with the best of ’em.

After some dinner we hit the main theater for what was promised to be a truly fucked up experience: a Japanese film called Funky Forest. What we had expected to be a pretty weird film turned out to contain some of the most bizarre imagery I’ve ever seen under the title of “movie”. A series of sometimes funny, sometimes disturbing vignettes with interconnecting characters, Funky Forest is the kind of movie that simply cannot be synopsized. Not that that is a bad thing, it was sure as hell entertaining to see with a crowd, but it was overlong and a bit too reliant on trance music for some of its overly long scenes. When it was over, we were more than happy for a slice of normalcy.

Mitch Davis watches as Lucky McKee and cast/crew answer questions about The WoodsThat relative normalcy came in the form of the North American premiere of Lucky McKee’s The Woods, with most of the cast and crew on-hand for a Q&A following the film. Since it was shot in Montreal, it was only fitting that the troubled production would see its big debut in the same city, and I’m happy to say the crowd really dug it. It’s got some issues with pacing, and the end isn’t nearly as satisfying as I would have hoped, but all in all The Woods is a very solid movie with stand-out performances by all of its leads and some beautiful cinematography. I’m not sure why Sony’s having such a tough time figuring out how to market it, as it’s a straight-up horror film through and through, but then who ever really understands studios anyway? Michelle reviewed it for us right here, so be sure to check it out.

Afterwards it was time to celebrate, so we all headed out to Brewtopia, the official pub of Fantasia. They have a section outside reserved especially for guests and friends of the festival, and it’s always a great time when we settle there. That was where our very long night the previous evening had begun, but we all knew that tonight wasn’t going to be nearly as long since most people were either wiped out, had jobs to get to (Andy), or were heading out the next day (the wife and I). Still, we had a great crowd as you can see at the bottom of this article including (to name just a few) Scott Glosserman, director of Behind the Mask (he’s the one sitting down in blue), myself, Evil Andy, Fangoria’s Mike Gingold, “Sick Girl” star Erin Brown, The Lost director Chris Sivertson, and a slew of others.

Behind the Mask director Scott Glosserman is regailed by Film Threat reporter Jeremy NoxI got the chance to chat with both Scott (who is still reeling from his movie being so well-received and loving every minute of it) and Lucky, who seemed much more relaxed once the actual screening of The Woods was over. Despite the fact that he was seeing cast and crew from The Woods he hadn’t seen in years, he still took a few minutes to get the pic you see below with me and Chris Severson. Overall Lucky comes off as a really mellow, funny guy with an amazing vision and a great support system around him who all seem to have no idea whatsoever what the definition of the word ego is, let alone posses one. They all like to drink, smoke, and talk about movies, so we got along smashingly.

Lucky McKee, Johnny Butane, Chris Sivertson...Lucky was not nearly as annoyed/terrified as he looksThe night ended too early, and today came and went too fast, but suffice it to say we had an absolutely fantastic time at Fantasia once again this year. A huge thanks to Mitch and his crew for making the entire event problem-free and being more than willing to address any issue brought to them…not that we had any to speak of!

If you’ve not made it out for the festival yet, make a plan now to do so next year, even it it’s only for a long weekend. The variety of films they show every year is breathtaking, and it just keeps getting better, as you can see by the list on their official site.

Stay tuned; we’ll continue to have near daily coverage from our embedded reporters, Evil Andy and Paul McCannibal (not their real identities), as well as reviews for almost every single horror piece showing this year!

Johnny Butane

“>

Got news? Click here to submit it!
Discuss the fun that is Fantasia in our forums!

Share: 

Categorized:

Sign up for The Harbinger a Dread Central Newsletter