Fantasia Film Festival - 2024

The Fantasia International Film Festival celebrates its 28th edition with an amazing lineup packed with juiced-up genre goodness. With 125 features and 200+ shorts in its arsenal, this top-tier festival looks ready to cement its reputation as one of the world’s finest showcases of movie madness.

The festival runs July 18 through August 4 in Montréal, Quebec , and ticket pre-sales will open at 10:00AM on July 5.

Below, we pick five exciting genre features from the program that should slay the festival crowd and jump the queue in your watch list.

All synopses are courtesy of Fantasia.

1. STEPPENWOLF

North American Premiere

DIRECTOR
Adilkhan Yerzhanov

A startling vision of hell from celebrated Kazakh maverick Adilkhan Yerzhanov (THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD, THE OWNERS, Fantasia 2019 selection NIGHT GOD) and Oscar-nominated producer Alexander Rodnyansky (LEVIATHAN), STEPPENWOLF explodes off the screen with sustained tension that will singe the flesh off your bones. Set in a dystopian world without moral boundaries, the film is nonetheless a moral vision, an anguished response to escalating horrors both next door and across the world in the guise of a neo-Western vengeance thriller. All set to a pulsing electronic score by Galymzhan Moldanazar that’s reminiscent of Tangerine Dream by way of Carpenter and Martinez. This is spectacular filmmaking. And one of the most bleakly disturbing action thrillers we’ve seen in years. It couldn’t be more timely.

2. SHELBY OAKS

World Premiere

DIRECTOR
Chris Stuckmann

This is it! After a successful Kickstarter campaign (which raised over five times the original goal, breaking all records on the platform) and two years of waiting, the debut feature from esteemed YouTube creator Chris Stuckmann is finally here and ready to scare the pants off Fantasia audiences. SHELBY OAKS delivers in all departments, as a creepy supernatural shocker, as a character-oriented horror film with strong performances, and as a well-crafted debut feature. Helped along by veteran producers Aaron B. Koontz (THE ARTIFICE GIRL), Ashleigh Snead (THE RANGER), along with the great Mike Flanagan coming on board as an executive producer, Stuckmann proves that he’s been paying close attention to all those movies he’s reviewed over the years, as the results are impressively moody and deftly scripted throughout. Anchored by a strong performance from Sullivan with solid from Michael Beach (AQUAMAN) and genre vet Keith David (THEY LIVE), SHELBY OAKS has finally been found and it’s going to put Chris Stuckmann on the map in a very big way.

3. PÁRVULOS

World Premiere

DIRECTOR
Isaac Ezban

A poignant nightmare with shades of inspiration from GOODNIGHT MOMMY, A QUIET PLACE, LORD OF THE FLIES, Stephen King and the dark-fable horror universes of Guillermo del Toro (an outspoken irer of Ezban’s work), PÁRVULOS is the filmmaker’s most enthralling film to date. Born out of his own familial experiences as one of three brothers in childhood, and a wealth of fatherhood fears in adulthood, it’s a grisly and moving genrefied meditation on family and caregiving, parenting and survival, told with deep comion and devastating cruelty. And some of the most gruesome practical make-up effects the screen has seen in years. This is a film that will stay with you, electrified by astonishing performances from Felix Farid, Leonardo Cervantes, Mateo Ortega Cassilas (ALLÁ), Norma Flores, Horacio Lazo (EMBOSCADA), Carla Adell (VIRAL), Juan Carlos Remolina (NO MAN’S LAND), and the great Noe? Herna?ndez (WE ARE THE FLESH). PÁRVULOS is a horrific vision of childhood’s end—at the end of the world. From the producers of HUESERA: THE BONE WOMAN

4. Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In

Canadian Premiere

DIRECTOR
Soi Cheang

An enormous hit on its home turf, with a constellation of Hong Kong silver-screen stars in its cast, award-winning director Soi Cheang’s grand gangster opera recalls not just the gritty history of its famous setting but also the glory days of the great Hong Kong triad flicks. Recreating Kowloon’s ramshackle, claustrophobic majesty most convincingly, Cheang makes it his canvas for a searing portrait of a way of life—and death—now long gone.

5. ODDITY

Quebec Premiere

DIRECTOR
Damian McCarthy

Scary as hell and bursting at the seams with imaginative concepts and nerve-shredding jolts, ODDITY is the astonishing sophomore feature from Irish maestro Gwilym Lee (BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY), Tadhg Murphy (THE NORTHMAN), Steve Wall (DUNE: PART 2) and newcomer Caroline Menton. Packed with ideas and armed with jet-black wit, ODDITY will have you firmly on the edge of your seat. It will revisit you at the edge of your nightmares.