So the 2010 Fantasia International Film Festival is set to go down between July 8th and July 28th, and we just got word on which films will screen during the 3 week event in Montreal. Check out below which genre titles we can look forward to, including the Canadian premiere of our very own John Fallon’s (The Arrow) short film THE RED HOURS starring Deke Richards and Amy Wickenheiser.
From John Fallon’s The Red Hours.
BLACK DEATH (UK) Dir: Christopher Smith – North American premiere Hosted by Director Christopher Smith – With the Black Death sweeping across England, a witch-hunting knight (Sean Bean) leads a pack of mercenaries across the country in search of a village that has somehow been spared the plague, allegedly due to the inhabitants practicing satanic rituals. BLACK DEATH is a nightmarish morality pla-y that frequently shifts concepts of right and wrong as good characters do inexcusable things, bad characters do good, acts of violence are at once justifiable and indefensible, and ideals give way to instinct, then back again. It is an incredible film, one of the strongest horror entries of 2010.
THE DEVILS (UK) Dir: Ken Russell – Special screening Hosted by Director Ken Russell – The bravest, most powerful, most ferociously confrontational film ever to lay assault on the criminal opportunism and hypocrisies of the Church, THE DEVILS remains one of the most widely banned and controversial pictures ever made. Starring Oliver Reed and Vanessa Redgrave, directed with theatricality, wit and rage by the great Ken Russell, this is an utterly terrifying, wholly unforgettable masterpiece unlike anything you’ve ever seen. It was an ironic winner of the award for Best Director-Foreign Film at the 1971 Venice Film Festival, despite being banned in the country.
HEARTLESS (UK) Dir: Phillip Ridley – North American premiere – Philip Ridley, iconoclastic director of THE REFLECTING SKIN, is back with his first film in 14 years, a satanic odyssey whose tones settle somewhere between the haunted universes of Clive Barker and David Lynch, filtered through the horrific truths that have spiked every work in his filmography. Jamie Morgan (Jim Sturgess) was born disfigured with a heart-shaped birthmark pulling across one side of his face. Taunted and alone, he agrees to do some very grisly favours for the Mephistophelian “Pappa B,” who promises to remove his birthmark in exchange for…we’ll say no more! –
THE LAST EXORCISM (USA) Dir: Daniel Stamm – Canadian premiere – A celebrity priest who also happens to be a fraud of an exorcist has a massive crisis in ideals when he comes across a genuine case of demonic possession in this eerie, subjectively shot shocker by Daniel (A NECESSARY DEATH) Stamm, co-produced by Eli Roth. This is a tight, effective indie horror film that writhes with hair-raising sights and sounds, built on the foundation of a compelling spiritual conflict. It will creep you out. It may well haunt your soul.
POSSESSED (South Korea) Dir: Lee Yong-ju – Canadian premiere – Big sister Hee-jin is trying desperately to find her missing sister. According to inhabitants of the apartment block, the girl is possessed by spirits. Meanwhile, her evangelical mother believes her to be the chosen one. When several neighbours commit suicide, it gets increasingly difficult to stay rational. Staged with precision and loaded with strong performances, POSSESSED arrives like a fresh gust of wind across the South Korean horror scene, instantly infusing hope and maturity into a genre that was believed to be at death’s door. A major hit at Tribeca and Rotterdam.
THE SHRINE (Canada) Dir: Jon Knautz – World premiere Hosted by director Jon Knautz & actor/co-producer Trevor Matthews – The cruelty of religion and the horrors of the supernatural combine to ignite a powder keg of punishment in this harrowing nail-biter from the maverick writing/acting/producing/directing team behind JACK BROOKS MONSTER SLAYER. Turning completely away from the comedy-horror sensibilities that made his previous film an international cult hit, Knautz and his pack have crafted a diabolically effective, deadly-serious shocker of pagan practices and ritual murder in a forgotten Polish village.
But that’s not all going down at Fantasia 2010. For all things regarding the fest, including a cool Lifetime Achievement Award given to Ken Russell, a special screening of Fritz Lang’s METROPOLIS and Stuart Gordon’s RE-ANIMATOR, click HERE.
Montreal born model Misa Campo, just ’cause!
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