Cinema Styles: Fantastic Fest truly fantastic
Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the United States, specializing in horror, fantasy, sci-fi, and action movies from all around the world.
It takes place every year at the Alamo Drafthouse movie theater chain in Austin, Texas. Fans, guests, industry professionals, and members of the press flock once a year to the center of Texas for an inclusive and exciting weeklong celebration of film in all its forms through carefully curated screenings and events. In prior years, the festival has been the home to World Premieres and U.S. Premieres of high profile films such as Parasite, Jojo Rabbit, John Wick, There Will Be Blood, Apocalypto, and Zombieland. They also offer a platform for up-andcoming filmmakers, and host post-film interviews with a multitude of directors, writers, and actors in various projects.
This year marks the festival’s 18th year, and it continues to be one of the most exciting events for film enthusiasts around the world. Lisa Dreyer is the festival director and Annick Mahnert is the head of programming. Together, along with their dedicated team and throng of volunteers, they organized a festival that was filled with an eclectic array of events and a smorgasbord of unique films. Movies were selected from all over the globe, and this year’s festival also featured new sections including one known as Burnt Ends, dedicated to showcasing the “weirdest, wildest, most fringe films out there.” The overall mission of Fantastic Fest is to expand the general knowledge and appreciation of cinema. They’re committed to supporting film in its most provocative, ground-breaking and underseen forms, and giving the audience a chance to find new favorites and future genre classics.
Fantastic Fest 2022 kicked off with the World Premiere of Paramount Pictures’ new horror film Smile, with director Parker Finn and actor Sosie Bacon in attendance for a post-film Q&A. Smile went on to premiere nationwide a week later, opening at No. 1 at the box office, and grossing more than $22 million. The screening was followed by an Opening Night Party, setting the tone for Fantastic Fest as an event that emphasizes the love of cinema while also offering its attendees a chance to socialize and share that appreciation with one another.
The second day of the festival featured the U.S. Premiere of The Menu, with director Mark Mylod, actor Hong Chau, and producer Betsey Koch in attendance. This movie was absolutely incredible, and featured a darkly-comic takedown of the uber-rich, all within the format of a hilariously biting satire of income inequality and its connection to the food and service industry. Chau in particular is a scene-stealer; her poise and intensity is palpable in every moment she’s on-screen.
Day three of the festival was highlighted by a Lifetime Achievement Ceremony for one of cinema’s greatest living legends: South Korea’s Park Chan-wook. His previous masterpieces include Oldboy (2003) and The Handmaiden (2016). He was present for the festival to introduce his newest movie: Decision to Leave. This film is an impeccable technical achievement, gently and patiently told in a way only a master filmmaker could do. It’s a movie that always keeps you guessing, and delicately weaves an intricate story of a detective that falls in love with the primary suspect in a murder case. Other film premieres and Q&A highlights from the festival included Terrifier 2, The Banshees of Inisherin, Piggy, and the omnibus film Satanic Hispanics.
Other unique events from Fantastic Fest this year included Fantastic Debates, King of Movies gameplay with legendary film critic Leonard Maltin, 100 Best Kills montage screening, Family Feud-esque game show Fantastic Feud featuring several directors from the festival’s films, Fright or Wrong horror film trivia, and multiple secret screenings. The most high-profile secret screenings were the World Premieres of Marvel’s new Werewolf by Night project, and Hulu’s reboot of Hellraiser. Both films premiered on their respective streaming platforms a week after their premieres, but audiences at Fantastic Fest were treated to the first glimpse of these exciting new projects, and included Q&A’S from the creative teams. Fantastic Fest also surprised filmmaker Jack Sholder with a lifetime achievement award.
Fantastic Fest 2022’s Closing Night screening was the U.S. Premiere of Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s brilliant and unhinged new film, Triangle of Sadness. Winner of the prestigious Palme d’or award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, this movie is utterly unique in the history of cinema. It gleefully examines the relationship between power and beauty in a sendup of social hierarchies and how quickly one’s social status can change in an increasingly-chaotic world. The less one knows about the plot of this film, the more they will enjoy and be surprised by this movie and the journey it will take you on. The screening ended with a Q&A featuring one of the film’s breakout stars, Dolly De Leon, a Filipino film and theater actor who’s relatively unknown outside of her home country. Triangle of Sadness will certainly change that.
After the Closing Night Screening, Fantastic Fest literally kept the party going by having the Closing Night Party at the head offices of Alamo Drafthouse. Their office seems to be a former high school, with lockers lining the hallways and Drafthouse offices occupying former classrooms. It makes for a unique creative space, and an exciting place to end an exhilarating film festival. The party included food trucks, screenprinting, free swag, art installations, and live music ranging from avant garde noisepunk to a crowd-pleasing Queen cover band.
Multiple Awards were given out during Fantastic Fest 2022. There were various juries that decided on the winners for different sections of the festival. In the Main Competition category, the Best Picture award went to Eduardo Casanova’s erratic and often disturbing La Pietà, and the Best Director award went to Ali Abassi’s stunning Holy Spider. Abassi’s chilling and sober film follows the true
story of a journalist following the trail of a serial killer who’s targeting sex workers in Iran. The film doesn’t leave the killer’s identity a mystery to the audience. Instead, we’re introduced to the murderer early on, and we see he believes he’s cleaning up the streets and serving his god by ending these human lives. With the recent tragic news stories of the “morality police” in Iran, this movie was perhaps the most relevant and timely film to screen at Fantastic Fest this year.
In the Next Wave section of Fantastic Fest 2022, Best Picture was awarded to French filmmaker Léa Mysius’ surprising and inventive The Five Devils, and Best Director was awarded to Thomas Hardiman for the wildly ambitious Medusa Deluxe. The Five Devils takes a unique Science Fiction premise and ties it into a queer story of pursuing true love, and featured some of the most beautiful imagery of the entire festival. Produced by the always-reliable A24, Medusa Deluxe is a whodunnit set in the world of competitive hairdressing. It tells the story in long takes with hidden edits in the style of the groundbreaking and influential Best Picture Oscar-winner, Birdman (2014). The camera is the star of Medusa Deluxe as it fluidly moves between characters and scenes in an impeccablychoreographed mystery told in real time, and featuring a wonderfully disjointed score.
In the Horror Features section of the festival, Best Picture was awarded to Carlota Pereda’s Piggy, and Best Director was awarded to the multiple filmmakers of Satanic Hispanics. Their names are Mike Mendez, Demian Rugna, Eduardo Sanchez, Gigi Saul Guerrero and Alejandro Brugués. Piggy is a unique movie about an overweight girl being bullied in a small town in Spain, and the repercussions her bullies face when encountering a dangerous situation. Piggy is currently in theaters and will be available for streaming via various Video-on-demand platforms this Friday, October 14. Satanic Hispanics is an entertaining horror anthology film featuring some exciting new talent in front of and behind the camera.
Fantastic Fest also featured a multitude of exciting short films, and awards were given out for these as well. In the Shorts With Legs category, Best Picture was given to Kevin Ralston’s Hubbards, and Special Mention was awarded to Velasco Broca’s Alegrias Riojanas. In the Short Fuse category, Best Picture went to Will Lee’s Ringworms and Special Mention was given to Ruwan Heggelman’s Gnomes. In the Fantastic Shorts category, Best Picture was awarded to Vedran Rupic’s The Diamond and Special Mention went to Mark Chua and Lam Li Shuen’s A Man Trembles. In the Drawn and Quartered category, Best Picture was given to Boyoung Kim’s A Guitar in the Bucket and Special Mention went to Andrea Gatopoulos’ Happy New Year, Jim.
Arguably the most important award given at the festival was the Audience Award, and that went to Mark Mylod’s aforementioned The Menu, which reportedly won this award by a landslide. Voting even closed early because none of the other films even had a chance to beat the scores given by the audiences who had seen this film. I can’t emphasize how well-made this film was, and audiences will surely be in for a treat when the film releases in theaters on November 18.
Other highlights from Fantastic Fest 2022 include Luca Guadagnino’s bizarre and invigorating cannibal love story Bones and All, and James Nguyen’s long-awaited new film, Birdemic 3: Sea Eagle. Bones and All is both beautiful and disturbing, and wears its strangeness on its sleeve. It’s often jarring as it frequently juxtaposes moments of tenderness with instances of graphic and gruesome violence. It sees the always-inventive Guadagnino exploring the American landscape and channeling his inner David Lynch to craft something gentle and deranged. The cast is incredible, especially newcomer Taylor Russell, and it features Oscar-winner Mark Rylance in what is easily his most disturbing performance. Bones and All releases in theaters on November 23.
Birdemic 3 may have been the most enjoyable in-theater experience at Fantastic Fest 2022. The film offers fans of the Birdemic series more of what they love: stilted acting, awkward moments, and beautifully cheap Computer-generated Imagery. Nguyen’s trilogy is so over the top, and this film delivers just as much as the other two entries. If you look closely at Birdemic 2, one might also see this particular film critic in the background. A decade ago, Nguyen brough Birdemic to Los Angeles’ Cinefamily theater and surprised the audience by filming them and including them as extras in Birdemic 2.
Fantastic Fest also featured an At Home section of the festival this year. Many of these films screened in-person, but the convenience of being able to view these from home made them more accessible to a wider audience. Narrative highlights of this virtual selection include Sadrac González-perellón’s Amazing Elisa, Gavin Fields’ Brutal Season, David Hebrero’s Everyone Will Burn, and Juan Felipe Zuleta’s Unidentified Objects. Amazing Elisa is a beautifullyshot movie about a girl who thinks she’s a superhero and lives with her father after her mother’s death. It’s about trauma, grief, and delusion. Brutal Season is an unsettling 1940’s-set tensionfilled story of a long-lost son returning home and the trauma his presence unearths. Everyone Will Burn is a startling and memorable story about a strange little girl connected with a local legend, told with absolutely amazing imagery. Unidentified Objects is a heartfelt and mysterious queer Science Fiction film about a dwarf and his free-spirited, alienobsessed neighbor. The movie is tender, expressive, and mysterious throughout.
Documentary Highlights from the At Home selection include Oscar Harding’s A Life on the Farm, Berndt Mader and Ben Steinbauer’s Chop & Steele, Alexandre O. Philippe’s Lynch/ Oz, and the American Genre Film Archive’s The Stairway to Stardom Mixtape. A Life on the Farm is a hilarious and strange movie about an elderly, amateur filmmaker from Somerset, England and the inspiring legacy of his longlost home movie collection. Chop & Steele follows the Found Footage Festival founders Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett on their never-ending journey to finding the perfect public prank to play, and legal repercussions they have faced in this juvenile but strangely admirable pursuit. Lynch/oz is an utterly unique ode to cinema, with various filmmakers and film critics narrating essays about David Lynch and his connection to The Wizard of Oz. What begins hyperspecifically gradually branches out to an appreciation of film in general and the influence art has on other works of art, as well as reality and life all around us. The Stairway to Stardom Mixtape compiles hours of footage from a public access television series from New York in the 1980’s, and it serves as a tribute to the passion and talent of common, every day people.
Fantastic Fest is one of the most unique filmgoing experiences available to modern audiences. The team behind the fest work tirelessly to offer a tribute to all aspects of movies, and their variety of programming has something for everyone. The Alamo Drafthouse, with its delicious fullmenu of entrees, appetizers, and desserts, is the perfect location for this remarkable 8-day event. We’re lucky to exist at a time when exciting filmmakers are making groundbreaking art and festivals like Fantastic Fest exist to offer us a place to experience these beautiful films in all their glory.
Bobby Styles studied Film at UCLA, and worked as an editor and producer on several film, commercial, and music video projects in Los Angeles. He currently teaches the intermediate and advanced Video Production courses in the Multimedia & Technology Academy at Monache High School. His column appears in The Recorder every Tuesday.