Category Archives: Movie Reviews

From Fantasia 2024: «Dirty Bad Wrong»

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This year at Fantasia 2024, I had the chance to see some short films, and although I could not check as much as I wanted to, I was lucky that the ones I saw were very good.

And the short “Dirty Bad Wrong” directed by Erica Orofino, was not only good, but a great example of “Less is more”.

From the official synopsis:

Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6 year old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, takes extreme measures and books a last-minute client with a dark fetish.

We don’t get nothing too graphic or extreme.. On the screen. However I’m sure in our minds, we are filling the gaps, and we know that whatever happened to be that client’s fetish was very gruesome. (there are hints, and they are not that hidden)

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From Fantasia 2024: «A Samurai In Time»

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In the final times of the Edo period, Shinzaemon Kosaka, a Samurai member of the Azu clan, starts a duel to the death with rival clan member Kyochiro Kazami. Before either of them can land the final blow on his opponent, an immensely powerful thunder is heard above them. Shinzaemon then suddenly wakes up in a remote village, in plain daylight, with his enemy nowhere to be found.

After seeing some ruffians trying to attack a defenseless woman, Shinzaemon tries to assist a samurai who appears to defend her, and here is where Shizaemon receives the first of many surprises of the day: He is now in modern time Kyoto. He is in the middle of a filming set, and what he just witnessed is a Jidaigeki (A period drama) being filmed. After being mistaken for an extra in the film production, our protagonist is kicked out of the set, thrown into a world he cannot recognize, and this is where the real fun (for us) begins.

This is the plot of “A Samurai in Time”, a film written and directed by Junichi Yasuda, which was presented in Fantasia 2024 yesterday. This film is not a regular “fish out the water” comedy involving time travel, but is an excellent homage to the Jidaigeki genre, and also has a deep emotional punch that I was not expecting. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: «Heavens : The Boy And His Robot»

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Set in a world where humanity managed to explore the universe for more resources and later got into an interplanetary war with Mars, Kai, a boy that lost his father to the war, grows up and joins the Mecha Corps Academy. His desire of defending his planet, and finding his mother that has been lost in space for many years, is what keeps him moving forward despite having a very weak constitution and having to work way more than the rest of his teammates. When he is assigned his own Mecha, the two start to form a bond that makes them strong enough not only to survive the training, but also the many challenges they will need to overcome in order to survive this war.

That is the premise of “Heavens: The Boy And His Robot”, the new film by writer/director Rich Ho, who spent more than a decade working on this project, and was presented in Fantasia 2024 last night.

This movie left me with mixed feelings, and I will try my best to explain why:

The movie looks amazing, the special effects are great and the fights (both in the sky and on the ground) are breathtaking, not to mention that they are all in plain daylight and you can see everything that is going on with a lot of details.

This is in part the cause of my mixed feelings. The creator of this project, Rich Ho (Who writes, directs, composes the music, and also takes part in the special effects) spent years trying to push the technology to create the special effects for this film, and you can see the result is nothing short of amazing. And, just for that, the guy has all my respect.

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From Fantasia 2024 : «This Man»

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A menace from beyond the realm of the living seems to be behind the grizzly murders that are increasingly taking place in several places in Japan. A couple of detectives trying to stop this apparent epidemic started to note a pattern: most of the victims were under psychological care, and before their demise, they were claiming to have recurring nightmares where a very particular-looking man was trying to kill them.

A happy couple that feels blessed with their daughter and a life free of worries, have their world shaken when close friends of the mother share that they also have recently seen in their dreams “This Man” (as has been described in the media), and fear that their death is approaching. Is this a case of mass hysteria, or is this an omen that humanity itself has its days numbered?

I was very interested in the plot of “This Man”, the new film from Tomojiro Amano that was screened in Fantasia 2024. I was glad that I was not disappointed. While I felt that this production did not have a big budget behind it, the story was very well developed and made very good use of the special effects with the resources available.

The characters were very likable and therefore you worry a lot when you see the misfortune starts to fall on them. (Although at the beginning of the film, I felt I was about to have a diabetic coma due to so much sweetness in the marriage mentioned before). Even when the film is not gory or very graphic, some moments might make you feel uneasy and the film surprises you by showing you that anybody can die in this story. Films like these, are the ones I enjoy the most. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024 : «Hell Is a Teenage Girl»

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I rarely review shorts (I just mostly recommend them). However, this Fantasia 2024, I saw several synopses that got my interest and made me think: “Why the hell not??” The first one to draw blood is “Hell is a Teenage Girl”, written and directed by Stephen Sawchuk.

I want to cut to the chase, so let me copy/paste the official synopsis and jump to the best stuff!

‘HELL IS A TEENAGE GIRL’ OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS:
 Every Halloween, the small town of Springboro is terrorized by its resident SLASHER – a masked serial killer who targets sinful teenagers that break ‘The Rules of Horror’ – don’t drink, don’t do drugs, and don’t have sex! At the center of it all is Parker Campbell, the Slasher’s estranged biological daughter. In an attempt to clear her name and make things right with the town, Parker sets out on a life-or-death mission in hopes of ending his reign of terror once and for all…

Ok,  

Let’s dig in!

I really liked this short. And I was surprised that it went for a serious route, when I am sure that other directors would take a comedic route, if not plain parody.  This is a straight-up Slasher, and a good one at that!

Being only 15 minutes, it is understandable that a lot of background information could not be explained, but I think Stephen Sawchuk gave us all the information that we needed to understand Parker and her struggles. She is very likable, and it was cool to see that even when her life is a social living hell, she is not bitter at the whole world and nor wants to see it burn. 

If anything, she wants to see only her father burn. 

I think this could be expanded into a full feature, but it would need a lot of caution to not pad the plot with useless fillers or exposition. It would be tricky, but I am sure that we could see some moments of the original massacre that started the whole thing, without stealing the spotlight from Parker’s story.  Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: «The Beast Within»

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After living with her family for some time in the English wilderness in a fortified house, a young girl called Willow starts noticing that her parents start to take frequent trips into an ancient forest, just before sundown.

Since she notices that these trips are done when the nights will have a full moon, Willow starts to wonder what kind of secret her parents might be hiding. She is more curious even when she sees that only her mother comes back, and is only on the day after, when her father is brought back from the forest, and always looking bruised and in pain.

One of those nights, Willow disobeys the rules and follows her parents into the forest, witnessing something in a dungeon that shocks her. From that night on, the girl is victim of horrible nightmares, now fearing for her life and her mother’s.

This is the premise of “The Beast Within”, the tale of a family coping with a curse that has been passed from one generation to another, constantly threatening to turn a loving, dedicated father into a monster focused only into destroy them.

This film directed by Alexander J. Farrell was presented last night in Fantasia 2024, and will also be released on theaters on Friday July 26th. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: «Dark Match»

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Playing at Fantasia 2024, we got to see “Dark Match”, the new film from Lowell Dean, the director and writer of “WolfCop” and its sequel “Another WolfCop”. This time, Dean drops the fur and the fangs to tell the story of a small-time wrestling company that accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town.

It is not until the first match has started when the wrestlers realize a little too late that the crowd gathered around the ring are not there just for the show, but for something more sinister. Something that will require 5 fights in very specific scenarios, all of them requiring something more than just sweat and tears.

All this is happening under the watch of a very charismatic leader, who seems to have a past with this particular wrestling company, and a debt to collect.

I am not a big fan of wrestling, but Dark Match was a winner in my book. Although some people might say it is too violent, I’d say it was never too much. There is some blood and some gore (and breasts!) but it never goes for shock value, nor tries to offend. It just does what it needs to tell the story, and does a great job at it. It’s very entertaining and even better, It has great performances, both inside and outside the ring.

I loved the characters and their wrestling personas. While this could be the story of Miss Behave, a lady who has played “the heel” for several years and still waiting for a shot at the championship title, I felt that the plot makes several characters have their moments and thus makes the whole story work a lot better than if it was only focused on one character. Continue reading →

From Fantasia 2024: “Brave Citizen”

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The problem with bullying in schools is something that students in several countries can relate to, so it is no wonder that it has been a theme for a lot of films, series, and books, and is great to see the stories where the victims of the abuse manage to get justice or even revenge from the tormentors.

What makes “Brave Citizen” stand out from other works is that it manages to present the bullying problem in schools (and in the streets, even) in its raw, horrible form while balancing the story with some comedy, but it never takes away the seriousness of the issue. The film also never falls into extreme graphic violence when the tables are turned just to give us some moments of unhealthy satisfaction (which is something more common in horror movies), and thanks to Fantasia 2024, we got a chance to see it!

In the new film from director Park Jin-pyo, “Brave Citizen” based on the Webtoon created by Kim Junghyun, we meet So Su-Min, a temporary teacher who hopes to get a full position in a very prestigious college. Sadly, the safe and respectful environment that the college loves to boast about in the media is nothing but a concealed lie, and the young teacher will soon have to choose between turning a blind eye to the very violent acts committed by Han Su-Kan toward some of the students, or report him to the authorities and put in risk not only her teaching career but also her life.

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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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«Lumina» : Embracing the darkness in theaters on July 12th!

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Are we alone in the universe? Are our nightmares a product of our imagination? What if they are suppressed memories of something sinister and maybe, even out of this world? These and more are the questions that poses “Lumina”, a new sci-fi/horror film coming to theaters on Friday July 12th, directed by Gino McKoy.

Before I put on my tinfoil hat and star ranting, let me go through the numbers and tell you the main plot.

“Lumina” in a nutshell tells the story of Alex, a young millionaire that throws a lavish party, where much to the dismay of his new girlfriend Tatiana, among the guests will be Delilah, an old friend of Alex that also happens to be a previous girlfriend. Tatiana (and pretty much everyone besides Alex) can tell that the “Good ol’ Ex” still wants a shot of getting back with him, but Alex insists that Tatiana is insecure and imagining things. (yeah, good luck with that, buddy!). For some reason Tatiana has no problem with Patricia, another girl that is living with Alex as a roommate… because.. Is lonely being in that mansion, I guess?

Anyway…

The party goes well, and nobody ends up trowing her drink at another in a lover’s quarrel (which cost me a bet of $5), but when Tatiana decides to go for a night swim at the pool, some strange lights appear in the sky. Patricia and Delilah (who was at that moment badmouthing Alex’s new girlfriend) were in the living room, and both horrified see how Tatiana disappears in the middle of flashes and explosions.

(I’m not gonna lie, that scene was very cool)

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