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Highlights From Fantasia Film Festival’s Opening Weekend!

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The Fantasia International Film Festival is a three-week long celebration of international genre cinema centered in the heart of Montreal. Celebrating its 22nd year, it started the festivities on Thursday, July 12 with the two opening films Just a Breath Away (Dans la brume) and horror anthology Nightmare Cinema, as well as a rousing Lifetime Achievement Award for director Joe Dante.

While the festival is three weeks long, it’s packed with an insane amount of films, special programming, master classes taught by the likes of Timur Bekmambetov, live conversations with Michael Ironside, VR experiences, and special screenings like 1911’s L’Inferno with a live score performance by Maurizio Guarini of Goblin. It’s a festival of skillfully curated content that genre film lovers will go crazy for, yet with a quirky, laid-back personality. Seriously. It’s the only festival I’ve ever attended where the audience meows as the lights go down in the theater.

The festival is just heating up, with its second weekend boasting an amazing lineup. More coverage is on the way, but here are some of the highlights from the opening weekend.


Milk

The opening film Just a Breath Away was paired with a short horror film; the Montreal premiere of Milk. Written and directed by Santiago Menghini, Milk is one creepy little short that sees a teen encounter his sleepless mother when going into the kitchen for a glass of milk one stormy night. There’s something very, very wrong with his mother.


The Night Eats the World

This French horror film directed by Dominique Rocher takes a clever approach to the zombie outbreak conceit by dialing it back to a small, intimate story. For Sam, after passing out in the back room of a party thrown by his ex-girlfriend, he wakes to find that Paris has been taken over by zombies. Akin to Jeremy Gardner’s The Battery, this is more an introspection on what it means to be human in a time of apocalyptic terror and is confined mostly to a small space (this time an apartment). It’s a well done, emotionally effective film, but its slower pace won’t be for everyone. The best part is that this is one festival film you won’t have to wait for; it’s out now in limited release.


Unfriended: Dark Web

Full confession here: I was not a fan of the first film. The teen angst melodrama that culminated in a supernatural cyber bully ghost wasn’t for me. However, writer/director Stephen Susco takes the general concept of the first and applies a much more grim, brutal story steeped in realism. A game night among friends over Skype goes awry when Matias finds horrific secrets hidden within his new laptop, secrets that the previous owner will kill to retrieve. This sequel lives up to its title and gets really, really dark. If you weren’t a fan of the first one this might be more your style. Unfriended: Dark Web is out this Friday.


Summer of ‘84

Filmmaking trio François Simard, Anouk Whissell and Yoann-Karl Whissell, also known as RKSS, follow up beloved cult hit Turbo Kid with an ‘80s set thriller centered around young conspiracy theorist Davey (Graham Verchere) who believes his neighbor might be responsible for the murders of other children in the area. A sweet, nostalgic coming of age story until RKSS pulls the rug out from under you in a twisted, brutal fashion, Stranger Things this is not. A tonally lighthearted film that spends a long time with Davey and his friends until the third act gets downright bleak, this one is likely to upset many viewers.


Cold Skin

The latest by director Xavier Gens (Frontier(s), The Divide) is an adaptation of a novel of the same name by Albert Sánchez Piñol. It follows a young man, Friend (David Oakes), that arrives to a remote island to assume meteorologist duties and quickly finds his home under siege every night by aquatic humanoids. He’s forced to flee to the island’s lighthouse and forms a tumultuous alliance with the island’s only other human, Gruner (Ray Stevenson) and Gruner’s female creature Aneris (Aura Garrido), as they fight off the nightly attacks. It becomes clear that these two men have very opposing ideologies on the creatures, and it leads to devastating consequences. With a nearly two hour run time, Cold Skin is far too long for its basic story. It’s well shot with stunning visuals, however. This one is far more philosophical than horror/sci-fi.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

Editorials

‘Leprechaun Returns’ – The Charm of the Franchise’s Legacy Sequel

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leprechaun returns

The erratic Leprechaun franchise is not known for sticking with a single concept for too long. The namesake (originally played by Warwick Davis) has gone to L.A., Las Vegas, space, and the ‘hood (not once but twice). And after an eleven-year holiday since the Davis era ended, the character received a drastic makeover in a now-unmentionable reboot. The critical failure of said film would have implied it was time to pack away the green top hat and shillelagh, and say goodbye to the nefarious imp. Instead, the Leprechaun series tried its luck again.

The general consensus for the Leprechaun films was never positive, and the darker yet blander Leprechaun: Origins certainly did not sway opinions. Just because the 2014 installment took itself seriously did not mean viewers would. After all, creator Mark Jones conceived a gruesome horror-comedy back in the early nineties, and that format is what was expected of any future ventures. So as horror legacy sequels (“legacyquels”) became more common in the 2010s, Leprechaun Returns followed suit while also going back to what made the ‘93 film work. This eighth entry echoed Halloween (2018) by ignoring all the previous sequels as well as being a direct continuation of the original. Even ardent fans can surely understand the decision to wipe the slate clean, so to speak.

Leprechaun Returns “continued the [franchise’s] trend of not being consistent by deciding to be consistent.” The retconning of Steven Kostanski and Suzanne Keilly’s film was met with little to no pushback from the fandom, who had already become accustomed to seeing something new and different with every chapter. Only now the “new and different” was familiar. With the severe route of Origins a mere speck in the rearview mirror, director Kotanski implemented a “back to basics” approach that garnered better reception than Zach Lipovsky’s own undertaking. The one-two punch of preposterous humor and grisly horror was in full force again.

LEPRECHAUN

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

With Warwick Davis sitting this film out — his own choice — there was the foremost challenge of finding his replacement. Returns found Davis’ successor in Linden Porco, who admirably filled those blood-stained, buckled shoes. And what would a legacy sequel be without a returning character? Jennifer Aniston obviously did not reprise her final girl role of Tory Redding. So, the film did the next best thing and fetched another of Lubdan’s past victims: Ozzie, the likable oaf played by Mark Holton. Returns also created an extension of Tory’s character by giving her a teenage daughter, Lila (Taylor Spreitler).

It has been twenty-five years since the events of the ‘93 film. The incident is unknown to all but its survivors. Interested in her late mother’s history there in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, Lila transferred to the local university and pledged a sorority — really the only one on campus — whose few members now reside in Tory Redding’s old home. The farmhouse-turned-sorority-house is still a work in progress; Lila’s fellow Alpha Epsilon sisters were in the midst of renovating the place when a ghost of the past found its way into the present.

The Psycho Goreman and The Void director’s penchant for visceral special effects is noted early on as the Leprechaun tears not only into the modern age, but also through poor Ozzie’s abdomen. The portal from 1993 to 2018 is soaked with blood and guts as the Leprechaun forces his way into the story. Davis’ iconic depiction of the wee antagonist is missed, however, Linden Porco is not simply keeping the seat warm in case his predecessor ever resumes the part. His enthusiastic performance is accentuated by a rotten-looking mug that adds to his innate menace.

LEPRECHAUN RETURNS sequel

Pictured: Taylor Spreitler, Pepi Sonuga, and Sai Bennett as Lila, Katie and Rose in Leprechaun Returns.

The obligatory fodder is mostly young this time around. Apart from one luckless postman and Ozzie — the premature passing of the latter character removed the chance of caring about anyone in the film — the Leprechaun’s potential prey are all college aged. Lila is this story’s token trauma kid with caregiver baggage; her mother thought “monsters were always trying to get her.” Lila’s habit of mentioning Tory’s mental health problem does not make a good first impression with the resident mean girl and apparent alcoholic of the sorority, Meredith (Emily Reid). Then there are the nicer but no less cursorily written of the Alpha Epsilon gals: eco-conscious and ex-obsessive Katie (Pepi Sonuga), and uptight overachiever Rose (Sai Bennett). Rounding out the main cast are a pair of destined-to-die bros (Oliver Llewellyn Jenkins, Ben McGregor). Lila and her peers range from disposable to plain irritating, so rooting for any one of them is next to impossible. Even so, their overstated personalities make their inevitable fates more satisfying.

Where Returns excels is its death sequences. Unlike Jones’ film, this one is not afraid of killing off members of the main cast. Lila, admittedly, wears too much plot armor, yet with her mother’s spirit looming over her and the whole story — comedian Heather McDonald put her bang-on Aniston impersonation to good use as well as provided a surprisingly emotional moment in the film — her immunity can be overlooked. Still, the other characters’ brutal demises make up for Lila’s imperviousness. The Leprechaun’s killer set-pieces also happen to demonstrate the time period, seeing as he uses solar panels and a drone in several supporting characters’ executions. A premortem selfie and the antagonist’s snarky mention of global warming additionally add to this film’s particular timestamp.

Critics were quick to say Leprechaun Returns did not break new ground. Sure, there is no one jetting off to space, or the wacky notion of Lubdan becoming a record producer. This reset, however, is still quite charming and entertaining despite its lack of risk-taking. And with yet another reboot in the works, who knows where the most wicked Leprechaun ever to exist will end up next.


Horror contemplates in great detail how young people handle inordinate situations and all of life’s unexpected challenges. While the genre forces characters of every age to face their fears, it is especially interested in how youths might fare in life-or-death scenarios.

The column Young Blood is dedicated to horror stories for and about teenagers, as well as other young folks on the brink of terror.

Leprechaun Returns movie

Pictured: Linden Porco as The Leprechaun in Leprechaun Returns.

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