The 14th annual Fantasia International Film Festival is just weeks away from igniting Montreal and Bloody Disgusting has got the first batch of films to wet your palette. While Disney’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice opens the festivities on July 8, three weeks later Eli Craig’s Sundance horror comedy Tucker & Dale vs Evil will close (July 28). But that’s just the beginning as inside you’ll find a massive kick-start to this three week long genre film fest.

SPOTLIGHT: BETWEEN DEATH AND THE DEVIL

Recent times and crimes have seen extraordinary levels of disillusionment with organized religion, particularly with the Catholic Church, and genre cinema has mirrored this anger with startling impact. In the face of this, we’ve put together this troubling spotlight focused on the abuse of faith, the horrors of ideology and the corruption of Godliness. Several of these films will absolutely stagger you.

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 play 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.

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SPOTLIGHT: SUBVERSIVE SERBIA

Montreal, June 29, 2010. Serbia’s terrifying recent history has birthed a confrontational new generation of filmmakers who are using the medium to express their wounded psyches in ways the Western World can barely get its head around. Our spotlight, which we are calling SUBVERSIVE SERBIA showcases the key entries in this intelligently transgressive and politically-charged filmmaking scene. We’re also going to showcase a string of retro Serbian genre films never before screened here, programmed in association with Dejan Ognjanovic and the Belgrade Cinematheque.

Beyond the screenings, Mr. Ognjanovic will be presenting a multimedia presentation and panel discussion – AN INTRODUCTION TO SERBIAN HORROR CINEMA – where he will be joined by the makers of many of the films showcased in our spotlight.

Your eyes are about to be opened. Wide.

“The voices emerging from the new wave of independent Serbian cinema are some of the rawest and most daring of any we’ve ever encountered,” said Fantasia co-director Mitch Davis. “This is smart, confrontational filmmaking with astounding elements of shock, armed with the intelligence and the urgency to back it up. In particular, A SERBIAN FILM and THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A PORNO GANG are, to my mind, the CLOCKWORK ORANGEs of our generation. They push boundaries in ways that cinema rarely has the courage to do.”

A SERBIAN FILM producer Nikola Pantelic issued the following statement: “To us, Canada is a very special place because it is the homeland of one of our favourite filmmakers, whose work greatly inspired us – David Cronenberg. We’re honoured to participate in the Fantasia Film Festival – a place where a majority of our favourite recent films