Summer of ’84 to open this year’s Fantasia Film Festival

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

The Fantasia International Film Festival is coming our way again this July for its 22nd entry. And to mark the occasion, today we have not only the first two films that have been officially announced for this year's fest, but an official poster for the film festival via Montreal illustrator Donald Caron, which you can check out below. But before that, let's talk about the two films that will be hitting the fest this July.

The first is a horror anthology called MONTREAL DEAD END which is directed by no fewer than 18 emerging filmmakers, including Rémi Fréchette, Eve Dufaud, Jimmy Pettigrew, and Priscillia Piccoli. The film will be hosting its North American premiere and is described as "more than a film – it is the manifesto of a rising generation of filmmakers who loudly and proudly shout their love and their desire to make cutting-edge genre cinema in Quebec."

Moving on, the second film announced was SUMMER OF '84! Yes, the new film by filmmaking trio RKSS (TURBO KID) will be hosting its Canadian Premiere as a gala Opening Weekend event.

Fantasia Co-Director Mitch Davis:

François, Anouk, and Yoann are absolute family to us here. In many ways, they’re a spearhead of a generation for Quebec fantastic filmmakers who grew up at Fantasia and are now stunning the world.  We’ve been showing their work since 2008 and we’re thrilled to be presenting SUMMER OF ’84’s Canadian Premiere. We adore everything that it represents, while showing RKSS’ striking versatility as storytellers and marking their first time directing a third party screenplay. They’ve knocked it hard out of the park. There’s nothing they can’t do.

The first wave of Fantasia 2018 programming will be announced in the coming weeks! Are you excited to check out RKSS's SUMMER OF '84 and/or will you be heading to Fantasia this year? Make sure to let us know in the comments below or on social media.

Synopsis:

Every serial killer is somebody’s neighbor. For 15-year-old Davey, the thought of having a serial killer in his suburban town is a scary yet exciting prospect at the start of a lazy summer. In hormonal overdrive, Davey and his friends dream of sexual conquests until the news reports of the Cape May killer. Davey convinces his friends that they must investigate, and they uncover that his next-door neighbor, an unassuming, single police officer, could be the prime suspect. Could Davey possibly be right, or is it his overactive imagination?

Writing and directing trio François Simar, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell (Turbo Kid, 2015 Sundance Film Festival) return to Midnight with this eerily resonant coming-of-age horror flick. The throwback synth score injects the tone with fun, thrills, and an escalating danger that ultimately tracks Davey’s loss of innocence. Indeed, the ’80s setting is less about the nostalgia hard-on than an essential parallel of that Reagan-era American fear that we are not as safe as we think.

SUMMER OF '84 is directed by François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell (RKSS) from a script by Matt Leslie and Stephen J. Smith. The film stars Graham Verchere, Rich Sommer, Tiera Skovbye, Judah Lewis, Caleb Emery, and Cory Gruter-Andrew.

The Fantasia International Film Festival returns July 12 to August 1, 2018.