Editorials
[Fantastic Fest] 10 Horror Films to Keep on Your Radar!
The last week of September is a busy one for horror fans in Austin, Texas because of Fantastic Fest, a film festival that focuses on screening horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, Asian and cult films. The 8-day festival takes place at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar and sees over 70 feature films screened for attendees. Each day has five time slots, with five or six films playing during each time slot. It’s an exhausting but incredibly fun week.
I managed to see 26 films this year, 23 of which belonged to the horror or thriller genres.* There were a few amazing films, a lot of decent (or as I like to call them, “meh”) ones and only one total dud (seriously though, that one is bad).
The 10 horror films listed below were among the strongest present at Fantastic Fest this year and should absolutely be on your radar. You won’t want to miss these when they eventually get released. Of course, it’s possible you may have to wait a while for some of these to get distribution. Some of my “Best Of” list from last year are either just now getting released (Better Watch Out) or have yet to see a release (Another WolfCop).
*Despite my best efforts, I was not able to catch every single horror or thriller film this year. The ones I missed were: Cold Hell, Let the Corpses Tan, Radius, Super Dark Times, The Originals and Les Affamés.
1. The Killing of a Sacred Deer
My favorite film of the Fantastic Fest was actually one that our own Benedict Seal gave a negative review (1 out of 5 skulls, to be exact) to just four months ago when it screened at Cannes. What can I say? I’m a glutton for misery. As I said in my own review, Yorgos Lanthimos’ (The Lobster, Dogtooth) latest film is most certainly not a film for everyone (there were quite a few walkouts at my screening), but I loved all 120 of its excruciatingly unsettling minutes. It will receive a limited theatrical release from A24 on October 20, 2017.
2. Good Manners
As I state in my 4.5-skull review for Good Manners: don’t read anything about it and don’t watch a trailer for it. Go in as blind a possible and you will most likely fall in love with it the same way I did. The Brazilian-French production is a heartwarming fairy tale that has plenty of surprises in store for patient viewers (at 135 minutes, it is a little too long). Good Manners is still seeking distribution but with any luck it will get snatched up soon because it’s a real gem.
3. Gerald’s Game
Mike Flanagan does the seemingly impossible and adapts Stephen King’s “unfilmable” novel Gerald’s Game into one helluva film. Carla Gugino gives a bravura performance in a film which sees a woman talking to herself while handcuffed to a bed for the majority of its runtime. The best part? It’s already streaming on Netflix so you can watch it now!
4. Anna and the Apocalypse
Who doesn’t love a good Christmas-themed zombie movie musical? Made with love by the friends of the creator (who sadly died from osteosarcoma before filming could begin), Anna and the Apocalypse is a joyous time at the movies, filled with buckets of blood, exciting dance numbers and a killer soundtrack. It is currently seeking a distributor, but I’m betting it won’t take long for someone to snatch this up. It’s simply that good.
5. My Friend Dahmer
Anyone expecting Marc Meyers’ adaptation of John Backderf’s graphic novel My Friend Dahmer to be a serial killer slasher film may find it to be a bit of a tease. The film is a quietly chilling slice-of-life film chronicling Jeffrey Dahmer’s senior year of high school. It’s a slow burn that doesn’t necessarily build up to anything, but it features a phenomenal performance from Disney Channel alum Ross Lynch as Dahmer as well as a strong supporting turn from Anne Heche as his mother Joyce. My Friend Dahmer will get a limited theatrical release on November 3, 2017.
6. Thoroughbreds
This film will garner a lot of attention for being Anton Yelchin’s (R.I.P.) final film role, and while he is a hoot in newcomer Cory Finley’s viciously dark comedy (think Heathers), Olivia Cooke (Bates Motel) and Anya Taylor-Joy (The Witch, Split) are the standouts as former childhood friends who hatch a plan to murder the latter’s stepfather. It drags a bit in the middle, but there are enough dark little treats for viewers to merit a watch. Thoroughbreds is was picked up for distribution by Focus Features and is set for a limited theatrical release on March 9, 2018.
Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin and Olivia Cooke appear in Thoroughbred by Cory Finley, an official selection of the NEXT program at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.
7. Tigers are Not Afraid
Issa López brings us another horror fairy tale in the form of Tigers Are Not Afraid, a lovely and tragic story about a young girl who, after losing her mother, joins a gang of children who find themselves up against dangerous members of a drug cartel. Reminiscent of Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, Tigers Are Not Afraid is a confident and soul-crushing third feature from López. It wasn’t really on my radar, but after hearing about all of the festival-goers walking out sobbing I had to give it a shot. I’m so glad I did. Tigers are Not Afraid is still seeking distribution.
8. Rift
The second feature from Child Eater director Erlingur Thoroddsen is a slow burn if there ever was one, which may turn off more impatient viewers, but it certainly pays off in the third act. The film manages to be a horror film about a gay couple without it being about their sexuality, a refreshing quality in this age of cinema. It wasn’t my absolute favorite of the festival, but our own Ari Drew writes in his review that Rift is “a cohesive, subversive, and effectively emotional narrative experience. That it also features two exceptionally multi-dimensional gay protagonists while tackling themes of love, loss, guilt, and fear in the context of same-sex relationships is absolutely refreshing, in the name of both Icelandic horror and queer horror cinema alike.” Rift was acquired by Breaking Glass Pictures back in June for North American distribution. It will be getting a concurrent VOD and DVD release with a mini theatrical run in November.
9. The Endless
If there’s one thing you should do before seeing The Endless, the third feature from writing/directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (who also star in the film), it’s seek out their debut feature Resolution (our review) and watch it immediately. As Brad mentioned in his review out of Tribeca, The Endless will fuck your mind (his words, not mine). The film sees two brothers (Benson and Moorhead) return to the cult that they escaped years ago, and that’s really all you need to know about this slow burn chiller. It was acquired for distribution by Well Go USA and should see a release sometime in early 2018 so be on the lookout!
10. Rabbit
Rabbit is the debut feature from Australian-born Luke Shanahan, but you wouldn’t know it just from watching it. Rabbit, which tells the story of a young woman (Adelaide Clemens, ) searching for her presumed-dead twin sister, is an impressive debut from the filmmaker. Like so many other films on this list, it is a slow burn that will likely test the patience of many a viewer (there were a lot of those at Fantastic Fest this year…..), but as I said in my review its gorgeous cinematography and compelling lead performance from Clemens make it worth the watch alone.
Honorable Mention: Bodied
I couldn’t include Joseph Kahn’s (Detention, Torque) Bodied on the list since it is far from horror, but it was my second favorite film of the festival (after Sacred Deer) and won the Audience Award at Fantastic Fest. It is an incendiary film about such hot-button issues as racism and stereotyping that will undoubtedly spark plenty of heated debates. Set in the underground world of rap battling, the film follows Adam (Calum Worthy) on his journey to becoming a competitive rapper while writing his graduate thesis on the subject. It is refreshing to see Kahn tone down his music video rapid-editing style after the all-over-the-place (in the best way) Detention, but the film belongs to Worthy, who turns in a star-making performance (The Flash‘s Grant Gustin, who backed out of filming a month prior to shooting, is probably kicking himself right now). Bodied is currently shopping to distributors, and whichever company gets it has a surefire hit on their hands.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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