Scared Shitless (2024) Fright Fest 2024 Fantasia 2024

A plumber and his germaphobic son end up having to battle a monstrous beast that is loose in the plumbing of an apartment building. Traveling through the pipes, the genetically created beast is tearing apart the residents.

This is a perfect example of what happens when clever filmmakers take a story similar to one we've seen before and decide to be clever with it. Sure, the basic story of a beast loose in an apartment house has been done many times, but turning it into a wicked comedy where the tropes are turned on their head and it has practical effects with tentacled monsters is just too wonderful for words. It's everything that long-time monster movie lovers want in their lighter films.

I had such a blast with this film that I had to go back and watch it a second time with my brother, just to be able to laugh and react with someone of a like mind. This is a film that needs to be seen in a theater with a big audience, so that everyone can react to it together.

In all seriousness, this is a blast. It's scary at times, gross in others, and perfectly funny in others. This is a film that both takes itself very seriously and knows that it's also bat-shit crazy, and it manages to not just walk the edge of the razor but dance on it without falling down.

Highly recommended. This is one of the most delightful finds of 2024, and I highly recommend it..

Dark Match (2024) Fantasia 2024

Lowell Dean, who made the cult hit WOLFCOP returns with a really good film about a bunch of wrestlers fighting satanists.

Set in the 1980's the film follows a bunch of independent wrestlers who get a call for a private show. They are going to be paid a great of money and get a chunk of the gate. What they don't realize is that they are going to be made to fight to the death so that their deaths will allow the devil to return.

Throw back delight is the sort of thing that would have played the drive-in circuit back in the day. Watching the film you can almost hear Sam Sherman, Samuel Arkoff, K Gordon Murray or Roger Corman  cursing that they didn't think of the plot decades ago. Expertly mimicking the style of several decades ago DARK MATCH feels like it belongs  back in the 80's. 

I love that the cast sells it. Both in the ring and outside it everyone is note perfect. I love it when everyone is invested.

If he wasn't already on the list Lowell Dean cements himself as a filmmaker to watch. He' making great films that are great fun and that leave you wanting to see what's next.

If I must quibble  I will say that the only remotely wrong thing with the film is that the pacing is a tad slow, but it is in keeping with the films it apes, so it doesn't matter. 

This film is an absolute joy. It's one of the great finds  of 2024.

Highly recommended.

Sunburnt Unicorn (2024) Fantasia 2024

 

While traveling across the desert a father is arguing with his son, Frankie. As a result they end up in a bad car crash When Frankie wakes up, having been thrown from the car he has a large piece of glass in his head making him look like a unicorn. Frankie’s father is gone, he wandered off to get help according to a turtle that was cut in half by the crash.  Deciding to help his dad Frankie heads off to find him.

Strange animated film could only work as an animated film. There is no way anyone would believe the odd turns and semi-dead characters as a live action film. At the same time this mix of survival and philosophy is so unique that I’m not sure who this film is really for, I mean the philosophical musings are going to blow over the head of the preteen set (not to mention parents being wary about a turtle character dragging itself along slowly dying with its intestines hanging out). and the  older kids are not going to go for the measured pace. Who is this film for? I don’t know.

It's not a bad film. I like it. At the same time I’m not sure what I’m supposed to make of it because it just is doing its own thing. Its so its own thing I don’t know how to explain it, I mean it’s like a normal movie, but it isn’t.

Basically it has me tongue tied as I search for words to adequately explain it.

As a one of a kind cinematic experience I love that the film exists, as will anyone who is a long time reader of Unseen Films, but I’m going to be hard pressed to see this playing any where other than festivals like Fantasia.

Highly recommended for those who want to go off the well worn cinematic paths.

House of Sayuri (2024) Fantasia 2024

After years of living in a crowded apartment a family moves into a nice spacious  house. The trouble is the house contains the spirit of a bitter young woman who was murdered and she begins to take steps to remove the family from the world of the living.

Creepy haunted house, is for most of its running time a solid haunted house thriller. It is film that tweaks the genre in interesting ways  to give us some scary moments that aren’t just the result of sudden loud noises. This is one of the few recent haunted house films that I can really recommend.

That said the you really needs to know that the film foes have some tonal problems. The grandmother of the family is supposed to have dementia and for a good part of the film she’s played for laughs. It runs counter to the mood of the rest of the film.  It’s a move that results in a WTF moment in the latter part of the film as she steps up to be the one spearheading the fight against the ghost. It, like the rest of the humor, diminishes what is an otherwise tense film. While it doesn’t kill the film it takes what should have been a truly great film and makes it just a good one.

Regardless of my quibbles this film is ultimately a lot of fun.

Recommended

Black Eyed Susan (2024) Fantasia 2024

Down on his luck guy gets sucked into testing a new AI BDSM sex doll for his friend that will ultimately be used to help people who are domestic abusers. Of course things go sideways.

I went into BLACK EYED SUSAN with a lot of expectations. There were warnings that the film was going to push buttons and other things.  I came out wondering what the fuss was about.

Yes, the opening sequence is disorienting. It's a stilted meeting between Susan, the doll, and a tester, the sequence is done like really bad stereotypical rough porn,  it leaves us not certain what we are seeing or where this is going to go. However, as the interaction ends the film shifts into something more conventional. Sure, the story travels along with something occasionally "shocking", Unfortunately the shocking revelations aren't all that shocking, and after a while the film becomes a romance between man and machine

What surprised me was that outside of the opening sequence this wasn't a particularly disturbing. Yes, some of Susan's graphic sex talk is uncomfortable but it's more due to her flat machine  like delivery than anything that's said or that we see. Story-wise we have been here before, if not in science fiction films (ARTIFICE GIRL, which covers very similar ground) then in science documentaries (SOPHIA) which show us some scary things about where we are with AI and what people want to do with it. 

For me the problem with the film is that only towards  the end the film finally really takes up the question about if we build bots to give to offenders who abuse, what does that say about society if we de facto condone the bad behavior? Are we monsters too? The ultimate goal of the project, which when revealed to the testers breaks them, was obvious from the start. That it's left dangling until the end, and barely dealt with weakens the film.  The climax isn't all that powerful. 

While far from being a bad film, I'd have given it a 7 out of 10 instead of a 6 if it wasn't so familiar and handled the themes better, the film suffers in that it doesn't really end satisfyingly. I would have taken something less artificially happy over the one we get. (Though to be fair I don't know how you would have ended this so that it worked.)

Worth a look for curious adults.

HUNTING DAZE (2024) aka Jour de chasse at Fantasia 2024

Nina is traveling through the hinterlands. She and her friends run out of gas. When one of her other friends, Kevin, arrives to rescue them, tension causes a fight to break out and Nina is left stranded by her original companions. Truly in the middle of nowhere, Kevin takes Nina back to the hunting lodge with him. She manages to bond with the macho and crazy hunters, passing an initiation test she is considered one of them. All is going along swimmingly until Kevin brings in another stray, a black man he found wandering down the road. All is well until something happens and everyone is sent skidding.

Beautifully made film is for it’s first half a tightly plotted drama. It’s a wonderful look at a bunch of people being crazy in a remote cabin. The comradery is real and you have the feeling that everyone is truly friends. You also see  how Nina becomes one of them. That first half is wonderful.

The problem is that there is a moment after the stranger joins them that the film goes sideways. The film shifts from straight reality into something else. Things become dreamlike and we aren’t really certain what is real and what isn’t. The straight narrative disappears into mystical trips. It’s creepy and unnerving for a while but there came a point where I wasn’t certain it was going anywhere. Honestly the pieces are, like every other bit of the film, fantastic, but they just don’t some together.

That doesn’t make this is a bad film, it just makes what is great film for the better part of an hour an okay one in the end.

The one thing I have to talk about is the performance of Noubi Ndiaye. Giving one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen (no really) he is a force of nature. There is a moment where he stares hurt and broken and not understanding and my soul cracked.  I had to rewatch the sequence a couple of times to see if I could figure out how in the hell he was doing what he was doing. I have no idea other than he managed to call up all the pain in the universe and bleed it out of his soul and on to the screen in a few fleeting moments. It was a moment that pretty much broke me in half. This is one of the finest piece of acting I have ever seen on screen or in person. I can not wait to see what he does next. His performance singlehandedly makes the film worth seeing.

For the bits that work and for Noubi Ndiaye‘s performance HUNTING DAZE is recommended

Faces (2024) Fantasia 2024

Creepy as all hell story about a entity trying to find an identity...

I don't know how to discuss this film without ruining. Echoing films like SILENCE OF THE LAMBS  and LIFECHANGER but taking the echoes into its very own territory FACES is one messed up film. It's a brilliant film that takes things into unexpected ways framing things so that they scare the shit out of you and even breaks your heart...seconds apart.

I don't think I've run across the work of director Blake Simon before, but I now need to track down everything he's ever done. How the hell hasn't he been given a feature?

This is a magnificent film from a director who is going to do great things- FACES is a must.

Cuckoo (2024) Fantasia 2024

Stop reading this review and buy a ticket.

Better yet don’t read any reviews, just buy a ticket?

Why?

Because this a batshit crazy ass film that is wild and wooly mash up of genres that is going to put a big smile on your face as it makes you laugh and chills you to the bone.

For those wanting to know more this is the story of a 7 year old girl who moves to Europe with her father, his new wife and her younger mute half-sister. Dad is supposed to have been contracted by the town to build a new hotel for the area.  As plans are set in motion weird things begin to happen.

I won’t say more because I don’t want to clue you into anything. It’s not because what is happening is obvious, but because it is not. CUCKOO is a film that moves in its own universe, in its own way and goes to its own conclusion. It is a film that is fresh and alive with its own way of telling a story. To be certain the film kind of sort of feels like some familiar things, say some Euro-horror from the 1970’s and 80’s but the truth is it’s only kind of like that. It’s kind of like things we know and its aware of it and it uses those similarities against us.

What an absolute joy.

After I saw the film I emailed Liz Whittemore to see if she has seen the film yet because it was such a delight that I had to compare notes with someone.

Destined to become a favorite and revisited film for many, myself and Liz included, CUCKOO is a must see.

CUCKOO opens August 9

Brief thoughts on The Dead Thing (2024) Fantasia 2024

Woman is having a series of hook ups through dating apps. After hooking up with one guy she meets the man of her dreams but he leaves her without saying a word. She decides to track him down. She should have left him alone.

This film really did not work for me. It was much too dull a film for me to connect.

There are lots of scenes of people staring at their phones, there are silences and there is lots of really dull stuff. Any number of of the scenes are shot so that people are supposed to be looking at other people but they clearly are not.  So little interesting happens that your mind wanders.

The performances are low key as to be un-emotive. No one seems to have any emotion. I know so many people are disappearing into themselves these days but putting it on the screen is like putting drying paint on screen.

And it kills me because there is a good story here, the problem there is only enough material here for about 20 minutes of screen time. It would be a great 20 minutes but not when spread out over 100 minutes.

A miss

Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

 

In the 1980’s Lok,a refugee from elsewhere in Asia, arrives in Hong Kong looking to make enough money to buy an identity card. Fighting in an underground match he is propositioned for a job by Mr Big (Sammo Hung) . He declines and Big said that he will use his winning to get him a card. When Big scams him he steals a bag of drugs and flees ending up in Kowloon the walled city.  Finding a home in the dark corridors and watched ober by Cyclone (Louis Koo)  he plans on staying. However Hong Kong wants to tear Kowloon down, Lok's hidden past comes to light and bad guys want to use both to their advantage to take over the walled city.

There is way more to the story but that’s enough to get you going. The only other thing you need to know is that the film is filled with bone crushing action. From start to finish heads are being broken in some of the most amazing ways. Sure it’s all classic Hong Kong wire work, but it’s spectacular and makes you sit up and take notice.

The reason that the film works so well is that the film largely focuses on the characters. We have real people fighting to stay alive and forming  friendships based on mutual respect. As Nate Hood said to me after the film the character relationships are such that you want to see the them and life in the walled city more than the fights. (Could someone make a compelling film like this one minus the fights?)

I had a blast going along with Lok however I wish there was one thing I wish they could have done away with and that Mr Big's second in command, King (Philip Ng) is literally unkillable. King has an out of left field spiritual shield that makes him invincible. While it kind of fits with the fact that everyone gets the snot beaten out of them and still survives, the whole thing that King can’t be hurt is brought in so late into the film that it feels out of place. It feels like a cheat brought in so King could stand up to the heroes.  While I’m guessing it made more sense in the source comic, in the film it feels out of place and over the top, which is not something you want to hear in a film already over the top with it’s violence.

Quibble aside TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS is a spectacular action film and very highly recommended.

TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIORS plays Fantasia August 1 and opens August 9 in the US

Dirty Bad Wrong (2024) Fantasia 2024

A sex worker needing money for her son’s birthday books a client with a dark fetish in order to get money.

Disturbing suspense film is hard to write in because the film isn’t about the plot but mood, and the mood is as deeply disturbing as they come because you don’t where the hell this is going or how this is going to play out.

That’s a rave folks.

Its so bothersome I don’t want to write on the film because it makes me feel off.

Highly recommended.

BABY ASSASSINS: NICE DAYS (2024) NYAFF 2024 Fantasia 2024

The third in the Baby Assassins series world premiered at the New York Asian Film Festival.  For a while it didn't look like it was going to happen because the digital file had issues. After an hour they substituted a screener copy and held the event. They also managed to give the Daniel A Craft Award for Action to director Yugo Sakamoto, hold off the next screening long enough so that people who had tickets could go, and a 15 minute Q&A.

Bravo to the staff.

The plot of the film has Chisato and Mahiro sent to the city of Miyazaki on a hit. The pair are using the trip to site see and to celebrate Mahiro's birthday. The plan is to kill a nebish because he embellished a large sum of money. When they find their target they also find another hit man there about to kill him. A battle ensues... and when all is done the girls are in trouble because they didn't make the kill and because there is freelancer on the loose. Hooking up with another team, they now have to take out the freelancer and their target.

While this film isn't as good as the first film, it is light years ahead of the second. This is a film that's worth seeing, despite the fact that it is also a mess because the bits that work are great.

I'm not going to lie; the narrative is a wildly uneven. After an unfunny silly opening the film shifts into action mode when they go on the hit. This introduces the villain, a lone wolf killer who is looking for his 150th kill. He's a psychotic nutjob with near superhuman ability. He is a chilling foe... who quickly disappears for large chunks of the film. This would be fine if director Sakamoto managed to make him have a presence in the scenes he's not in, but it never happens. Even when he is spoken about, and even when the girls are going through his house, there is so sense of him hanging over the proceedings.  He is either a danger on screen when he is battling with the girls or gone from the film's memory. It's a disastrous move that leaves us with no one to fear. The film is so bad at making the villains menacing (there are other assassins) there is no sense of danger. Well, okay, in the fights there is a sense of danger because the girls get their asses kicked but when there is no action there is no suspense. Frankly there is a great villainous performance here looking for a script up to that level.

The plot also doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Plot threads jump. We often don't know how we get from one part to another. For example at the end everyone is fighting outside when suddenly the girls are in a building and battle their nemesis. How did they know he was there? More to the point how did the bad guy get from the cars to the building?  We don't know. The film looks like Sakamoto and his crew cut out all the connecting material.

You can't think about you just have to go with the action.

Speaking of action, I don't know why Sakamoto got the Daniel Craft Award for Action.  I say that in part because Sakamoto hasn't done enough careerwise to warrant it. Yea the fights in the first film are great but the rest of the films aren't that great. Here the fights are serviceable but not great. Part of the problem is that they are wickedly uneven. In some moments there is copious amounts of blood, and in other moments there is none. In some moments things have effects on the combatants there is none.  Worse a lot of the fights feel a half step slow. Yea there are some great moments, but mostly it's a lot of good. (Compare the action in this film with the action in TWILIGHTS OF THE HEROES: WALLED IN which closed the fest or WOLF HIDING which played earlier in the fest and you will be scratching your head about the award.)

What works and what makes the film worth seeing is the development of Chisato and Mahiro. The girls are arcing, as are the characters around them, with the result that this film sings despite its flaws and the Baby Assassin series is something you want to see. We are watching how the girls grow up. their relationship deepens. The characters around them are growing too. Even the assassins the girls work with in this film arc. It's fantastic- I mean truly fantastic to the point that you want them to lose the stupid humor and some of the action nonsense and instead give us more time with the characters caring for each other and being real people. It's this growth that makes this third film worth seeing not the okay action. 

While not as bad as the last film, and not the equal to the first, it's still worthy follow up to the first film.

Recommended for the fans of the series.

DEAD DEAD FULL DEAD (2024) Fantasia 2024

 

World premiering at Fantasia DEAD DEAD FULL DEAD is crazy film. It's an incredibly broad comedy that sends up murder mysteries, romance and supernatural thrillers.

The film focuses on pair of police detectives who are also a couple. Sent to investigate the murder of an astrologer things go side ways as the suspects pile up and things go in unexpected directions.

A love it or loath it film, you are either going to click with it's deadpan silliness or you won't. At times this is a very great film and at other times it's painful. It's incredibly clever but the jokes don't always land, with the result it's a tough film to truly love.

I liked it, but at the same time I wish I was in a sillier mood when I saw it so more of the jokes landed.

PÁRVULOS (2024) Fantasia 2024

I want to just say "Don't read any reviews-Just buy a ticket and go see PARVULOS". I say that because the film changes and changes and changes and while you will know where a bit of this is going- you won't know it all and it will punch you in your face like a boxing glove filled with cement.

The plot, or as much as I am going to say, concerns three brothers after a plague has ravaged the world. Lots of people are dead and the brothers are living in the wilderness trying very hard not to have any contact with anyone.

That's all I will say about the plot....

...about everything else I will say that director Isaac Ezban's film is a wicked little gem. It's a film that is very much about family. It is a family drama disguised as a horror film. The horror stuff is merely the window dressing for a film about the love of three brothers. It's a film that soars because Ezban stays focused on the characters and lets us watch how they are forced to fight for each other as things happen. 

I know, I know many of you want to know how it is as a horror film. It's really good, but it's more a thriller than a straight on horror film. Yes, there are horror elements but as I said the film is more interested in other things.

Shot with a deliberate use of lens and muted color palate that beautifully put us in a time and place. It's a film where the images set the mood almost as much as the story. I wasn't sure about some of the way Izban used certain lens, but it grew on me, more so when I realized how off the images were making me feel- they were dragging me down the rabbit hole.

I'm sorry if this a bit rambling and disjointed but this is a film you need to see and not read about. The power of this film comes from taking the journey from first fframe to the last. It's a film where how the revelations are made affect how you feel. It's a film where you have to go with where it wants to take you because the film is not what you think it is. Nothing is as you suspect, and I don't want to give you any clues about what happens beyond what Ezban has allowed us to know.

Trust me on this, PARVULOS is a stunner... more to the point it's destined to be consider a classic.

Berta (2024) Fantasia 2024

 

A woman gets revenge on the man who raped her.

This is an excellent little horror short. Perfectly done it works from start to finish and makes a perfect landing. I loved this from start to finish

I don't want to say any more lest I spoil it.

See this film

THE UMBRELLA FAIRY (2024) Fantasia 2024

Qingdai a spirit of  an umbrella made from the same black stone as an infamous sword wants to reunite with Wanggui, her sister and the spirit of the black sword. Wanggui has gone off to get get revenge for the death of the sword's owner.

A mix of Japanese style imagery and Chinese ideas THE UMBRELLA FAIRY is film of visual overload. So few films are this jam packed with images that watching the film I wanted to stop the film every couple of minutes just to explore what was hiding in the backgrounds.  So much of what we are seeing is in motion that I can’t imagine what it was like to animate this. As a piece of art this film is a staggering achievement. I was blown away as my eyes melted in delight.

The dramatically I’m not certain the film works, or works according to Western sensibilities. There are lots of plot threads and little bits drifting through the film and I’m not certain it all comes together.  Yes there is an emotional pay off, but there are still some threads I would have like resolved. (One note my feelings may change on a second viewing may change. I say this because  while the film was subtitled nothing that was written was translated so things like the final image were not translated)

Slight reservations aside this is a stunning piece of animation that demands to be seen.

Infinite Summer (2024) Fantasia 2024

Miguel Llansó returns with another way out philosophical science fiction film.

This time out the story concerns a young woman named Mia who goes off to meet her friends. They end up using a virtual reality/meditative head set that has un planned for side effects.

If you know Llansó‘s film then you know you are not going to get anything approaching a typical science fiction film. Llansó is a singular voice in cinema (all cinema not just genre) and he freely mixed low tech and high tech with every genre under the sun and any idea that comes into his mind for films that don’t look like, or behave like anything you’ve ever seen. They are films that end up haunting your soul forever because they attach themselves to your very being.

I am a huge fan of Llasnso's films and his skill.

That said I’m still pondering INFINITE SUMMER. The film is completely different than his previous work. It seems to be trying to be “normal” even though it really isn’t.  I think the problem for me is the English dialog doesn’t ring true. It feels like it was written by someone who doesn’t speak the language for people who don’t speak the language. While the dialog in Llansó‘s films can be odd, this seems a bit too odd. I am going to have to see the film again.

My problem with the dialog aside this film is still very good  As with all of Llansó's films it’s a heady mix of ideas and images. It’s a mix that gets under your skin and the final galactic images wow and the broken look of one character as he stands behind police tape is absolutely crushing.

This film is often a stunner and worth a look, especially since you are reading Unseen Films and a lover of films that are great and off the beaten path.

Steppenwolf (2024) Fantasia 2024

This is one of the absolute best films I've seen in 2024. Sure the ending isn't perfect, but my god the affect it has on anyone who watches it will buckle your knees.

In a country in total chaos, a woman devastated by the kidnapping of her son, goes to the police to see if they will help her find him. She is catatonic much like Barbara in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Hooking up with a psycho investigator who has his own agenda, and who isn't afraid to physically abuse the woman, the pair make a trek across the barren landscape leaving bodies as they go.

This film will leave you sitting in stunned silence. Any laughs will catch in your throat. It is a trip into the dark side of humanity, and it will leave you broken.

It is brutal and ugly in ways that actually shock you. It's so good a destroying you mind that it never shows you any of the truly terrible things that happen. (The typical terrible stuff is shown) It doesn't have to show us because we are capable of filling in the blanks because we are capable of doing these bad things.

I was left mumbling "what the f----" repeatedly.

You think you know what a chaotic hellscape is-guess again.  This vision of humanity's darkness is troubling because it's just two steps from here and right now.

This is a road movie to hell.

While normally the minor misstep at the end, more unclear reasoning, might have lessened my feeling for the film, this film is simply so affecting that pretty much nothing could change my opinion, largely because this film kicked my butt so badly. I love it but I'm not sure I ever want to revisit (that's a rave.)

One of the best films of 2024- you absolutely must see this, just be ready to go into a dark sad place.

KIZUMONOGATARI -KOYOMI VAMP-(2024) Fantasia 2024

KIZUMONOGATARI -KOYOMI VAMP is a prequel to the series MONOGATARI containing three early stories for the characters that were cut together from three unavailable in North America feature films.

This is more a pointer than a review. The problem is that while very often prequel stories are good starting places for a film or series, this one doesn’t function all that well. There is an assumption that you know the characters and their world and if you don’t you are going to feel lost. I did.

While I liked the visuals, not connecting to the characters and the world made this a very long two and half hours.

Recommended for fans only.

Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded (2024) Fantasia 2024

A young woman goes for a walk and realizes that she is being recorded.

This is a paranoid little film that reveals how you are being recorded everywhere you go. If you think that this isn’t the case consider that the police now will piece together what happened during a crime by getting the recordings from various closed circuit, security and doorbell cameras. Almost ever place you go is now now being recorded.

It’s a disturbing gut punch of a film

Recommended.