Category Archives: Film Ink and Blood

«Falling Stars», Witches, Brooms and Death from above. (on VOD and theaters on October 11th)

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Three brothers find the hard way that no conspiracy theory could prepare them for the worst night of their lives. There is something dangerous lurking in the skies, but it does not come from outer space. 

“Falling Stars” is the new film from Gabriel Bienczycki and Richard Karpala, coming to theaters and VOD on October 11th, and it brings a tale of brooms, corpses and curses. 

Set in an alternative reality where witches are not really just a myth or something that grown ups use to scare the young so they learn to behave, we meet a trio of brothers celebrating the first night of the harvest season. In said nights, rumor has it that you can see some falling stars in the sky, but these are not in fact celestial bodies from outer space, but rather witches descending to the ground in search of victims.

This is dismissed to some degree by Adam and Sal, the younger brothers, but Mike, the oldest one, seems to know better. 

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From Fantasia 2024: «The Killers»

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I love anthologies, I love the noir genre, and I love horror. Therefore, when I saw that the anthology film “The Killers” was going to be presented in Fantasia 2024, I was excited to see it. I knew very little of the directors Kim Jong-kwan, Roh Deok, Chang Hang-jun and Lee Myung-Se, who combined their talents in this film. After seeing it, you can be sure that I will be seeking their other works too. 

I will do my best to talk about the stories without going into a lot of details nor spoilers.

In the first story “Metamorphosis”,  we see a man running for his life, barely making it alive into a very private bar. Being very confused at first, the man starts to get friendly with the bartender, a very mysterious and charismatic lady that does not seem scared at all by him, even when he has a knife coming out from his back.

I thought this was going to be the “base” story, the one that connects the rest, and that would be playing in segments between the rest of the stories. While it sets the mood just right for the rest of the film, it is isolated from the others. 

It ends where I think something bigger might be barely starting… I wonder if we will ever get a full feature of this story.

I really hope so. 

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From Fantasia 2024: «House Of Sayuri»

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What seemed to be a dream home for the Kamiki family quickly turns into a nightmare, as it turns out that the house they just acquired is haunted by the very violent spirit of Sayuri, a girl who used to live in the house about 10 years earlier. For some reason, Sayuri is filled with rage and sees this happy, loving family as something that she needs to destroy.

Right after they finish moving in, the Kamikis start to suffer accidents all through the house, while most of the members of the family accept them as just random unlucky moments, the senile grandmother who suffers from Dementia, seems to get glimpses of Sayuri. Norio, the middle son of the family and the one closest to Grandma, thinks all her ravings are due to her condition.

It’s only when things go horribly wrong that Norio starts to believe the words of Sumida, a girl from school who warned him about an evil presence in his house. This is also the time where Grandma seems to become lucid again, with a clear mind and the mission to defend her family sending Sayuri back to hell.

But as you might guess, there is more to this, and the task won’t be that easy.

This is the premise of “House of Sayuri” a film directed by Koji Shiraishi («Noroi: The Curse» , «Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman») and was recently presented in Fantasia 2024.

I really enjoyed this film, but I can see that it won’t be for everyone. The first half of the film is a very good horror film, not only for Asian Horror standards, but also for worldwide cinema. I would dare to say that it even breaks the formula that feels overused in the haunted house genre, and creates its own path.

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From Fantasia 2024: «Cuckoo»

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Recently in the Fantasia 2024 festival, we had the chance to see “Cuckoo”, the new film written and directed by Tilman Singer, and that is also one of the most awaited films of 2024. While some people are expecting a psychological thriller that seems to deal with paranoia and conspiracies, I was glad to see that it’s something bigger and way better than that. 

The story starts when Gretchen, an American teenager who has to move with her father and his second family into a new house in the secluded woods of the  Bavarian Alps. Just after arriving, Gretchen is offered a job at a resort that it’s owned by Herr König, a very charismatic and rich man who has hired Gretchen’s father (and her stepmother) to develop a new building in the area. 

The job itself is not very demanding, but Gretchen finds some of the instructions she gets regarding the resort very odd, one of them being to make sure that she closes the reception office at 10 PM and to never wander in the woods in her bike that late at night.

After a weird day at work, and being the rebellious young adult that she is, Gretchen decides to go home on her bike, riding the woods at night as she was told not to do. This results in her being chased on the road by a strange woman with apparently very violent intentions, which causes Gretchen to suffer an accident. The police doesn’t seem to not believe her statement, since nobody saw said woman, nor heard the strange screech that Gretchen claimed that woman was making. 

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From Fantasia 2024 : «Faces» (short film)

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You know, lately after a watching a horror movie in the theaters, a phrase I hear from other fellow moviegoers is “This should have been just a short”. Years ago, most of the time I disagreed, but lately… Not so much.

And that is why it was great when I saw a short called “Faces” and all I could think was: “This should be a full movie!”

Before I lose my self geeking out, I’ll give you the official synopsis:

“Following the disappearance of a local girl on a dark October evening, Judy, a college student visiting for the weekend, is invited to a fraternity party. For Judy, what could have been a night of fun and drinking spirals out of control when she encounters a mysterious, deadly entity. As the night unfolds, the entity’s uncanny quest brings violent consequences for those who cross its path.”

This was the last short that I could check out from Fantasia 2024, and it turned out to be hands down my favorite.

At first I’m sure a lot of people will roll their eyes and think “Ah, it’s another copy of “It Follows”, but this short has it’s own thing going on, and it packs a punch!

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From Fantasia 2024 : “Penalty Loop”

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How much do you need to get revenge? How will you know you had enough and it is time to move on? Is that even possible? These are some of the questions the new film from director Shinji Araki “Penalty Loop” poses to us.

The film was screened last in Fantasia 2024, and I am still reflecting on what I witnessed.

“Penalty Loop” tells the story of Jun, a regular man who after taking a lot of planning and necessary measures, manages to kill the man who murdered his girlfriend. Not only by poisoning him, but also by stabbing him, and without any apparent remorse, he finishes the job by dumping the corpse in the river.

But what should have brought some sort of satisfaction and maybe closure to his grief, seemed to have never happened, as the next morning Jun finds himself waking up again at 6 o’clock on June 6th. Thinking that maybe all was a dream or an OMEN (See what I did there?) Jun executes his plan and takes his revenge, but once more, he wakes up the next morning finding himself living the same day: June 6, starting at 6 O’clock.

Jun tries to get out of this time anomaly by completing his plan again, and again, and again. But the loop keeps repeating itself. To his surprise, Jun learns that the killer he is murdering is becoming aware of what is happening, and is not very pleased.Will the roles reverse? Is more than one person being punished here? Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: “Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp”

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Recently I had the chance to see “Kizumonogatari -Koyomi Vamp” via Fantasia 2024. The name rang a bell, but I knew nothing about the franchise that it’s part of. As an experiment, being this project a prequel, I decided to jump in and see if a total newbie could get hooked on this universe.

Wow, what a trip this was…

As for how this film goes, it is the story of a student called Koyomi Aragi, who one day while going back home, finds a trail of blood on the stairs to the subway platform. Following the trail, he finds a beautiful lady vampire called Kiss-shot Acerola-orion Heart-under-blade. To his horror, he discovers that she is horribly mutilated after being attacked by 3 vampire hunters. Against all common sense, Aragi takes pity on her and lets her drink his blood so the vampire can regenerate.

The next day, he finds himself not dead, as expected, but turned into a semi-vampire, with some of the powers and weakness that comes with that according to the lore.

Things get tricky when he realizes that Kiss-shot is, at the moment, with the appearance of a young girl and not that powerful, since she needs more blood to fully regenerate. As she has made Aragi her minion, he is now bound with the mission of fighting the 3 Vampire hunters and recovering the body parts they took from Kiss-shot.

Ok, this movie has a LOT to unpack.

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The not 5, not 10, but 11 Films we really want to see from Fantasia 2024!

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Hello there!

Is that time again! One of my favorite film festivals, Fantasia International Film Festival is taking place in Montreal Quebec from July 18th to August 4th, and we have the opportunity to do some remote coverage.

As always, every time time I see the list of films that will be presented in a film festival, I feel like a kid in a candy store (you know what I mean, don’t make it weird!) but Alas, we don’t know which films we will be able to see remotely, so here is a list of the films I would definitely love to see.

For simplicity purposes I just pasted the official synopsis from the official website, and I’ll give you some of my thoughts of WHY I want to see them,

Please note that this list was NOT made in any particular order, and you can see the whole list of the films here.

Let’s dive in!!

Shelby Oaks

Director: Chris Stuckmann

“Who took Riley Brennan? That’s the question asked by millions of devoted, even obsessed fans of the popular YouTube series Paranormal Paranoids, which ceased production when Brennan and her three co-hosts disappeared near the deserted town of Shelby Oaks, Ohio in 2008. Conspiracy theories have run rampant over the years, but none are more determined to get to the truth than Riley’s sister, Mia (Camille Sullivan), who has finally agreed to telling Riley’s story to a documentary film crew (Emily Bennett and Rob Grant) in the hopes of finding closure. Closure, however, refuses to be found as a series of shocking events opens the door to a deeper mystery surrounding Riley, one that leads Mia to follow her ghost-hunting sister’s footsteps down a path to confront demons of the past and get answers that can only be found somewhere within the darkness of Shelby Oaks.”

Chris Stuckmann was one of my favorites you tubers that reviewed films and made several studies about the film industry that are to me “A must watch”. He is at the moment unfairly under fire in the community. Mostly because shortly after he announced that he would try to make his own film, he stated that he would no longer review any film that he did not enjoy, and just focus on the “positive side” of the films he liked.

This later announcement was done on a video where everybody was expecting his review of “Madame Web” (a film pretty much hated by the audience) and he decided instead to speak about how certain people in the studio system interfered with the directors and writers vision.

I can see his point, and I am actually rooting for him on his debut film as a director, I just think that his decision to not talk bad about movies was a little bit of a cop out, when before he had no problems speaking his mind and throw trash where was deserved. He was not a jerk at any time, and I don’t think he deserve the hate.

I hope he does great,

Moving on…

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