Set against the backdrop of the Palisades wildfires, Scott (Justin Long), his wife Liv (Kate Bosworth), and their daughter Chloe (Mila Harris) become stranded in their Hollywood Hills home when a windstorm knocks out their power and destroys their SUV. Driven towards the neighbourhoods by the fires, a pack of savage coyotes has been picking…
Festivals
Fantasia 2025 Review: Sugar Rot
Exploitation film Sugar Rot, which had its Quebec premiere at Fantasia Festival, follows punk girl Candy (Chloë Macleod, Foreigner) who works at an ice cream shop. When she is brutally assaulted by an ice cream man, she becomes the host of a mutant foetus and begins to transform into ice cream. Around her, store owner…
Fantasia 2025 Review: Foreigner
Set in 2004, Iranian teenager Yasamin AKA Yasi (Rose Dehgan) has just moved to Canada with her dad, Ali (Ashkan Nejati), and grandma, Zoreh (Maryam Sadeghi), following her mother’s dealing some years prior. Nervous about starting a new school, Yasi sits watching her favourite sitcom, repeating the English dialogue, often at the same time as…
Fantasia 2025: The Wailing (2024)
Pedro Martín-Calero’s The Wailing, which had its Canadian premiere at Fantasia Festival, tells the story of three interconnected women who are all haunted by the same supernatural entity and an eerie wailing. In 2022 Madrid, young student Andrea (Ester Expósito, Venus) spends most of her time at university texting and video calling her boyfriend, Pau…
Fantasia 2025 Review: Hold the Fort
As a Brit, I’ve heard enough about Homeowners Associations to know that Americans generally hate them. It makes you wonder why they don’t show up as the antagonist in American media more often. Perhaps it would be boring, but William Bagley’s new film, Hold the Fort, which had its world premiere at Fantasia Festival, makes…
Fantasia 2025 Review: I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn
Japanese writer/director Kenichi Ugana has made a name for himself among cult and genre fans, with chaotic hits such as Love Will Tear Us Apart, We Are Aliens, and The Gesuidouz. Usually delivered in a collision of genres, like comedy, horror, and fantasy, Ugana’s films often explore the human condition while showcasing his passion for…
Fantasia 2025 Review: Every Heavy Thing
Writer and director Mickey Reece (Agnes, Climate of the Hunter) returns to Fantasia Festival with the world premiere of his latest film, Every Heavy Thing. The comedy-thriller opens to the bare breasts of a woman called Birdie (Bethany Jester) who is talking on the phone to her friend about how she’s sick of Hightown City…
Fantasia 2025 Review: Lucid
Set in the 1990s, Lucid, which had its world premiere at Fantasia Festival, follows Mia (Caitlin Acken Taylor, Pistol), a messy and frustrated art student who is struggling to pass a crucial point in the term. Her professor is hard to please and requires her to create “something with heart” in just one week. Feeling…
Fantasia 2025 Review: Sweetness
Sweetness, which had its Canadian premiere at Fantasia Festival last night, opens on 16-year-old Rylee (Kate Hallett, Woman Talking), who is sitting on her bed underneath the warm glow of fairy lights. She’s watching a video on how to seduce men and practicing the lines herself. Above her, the walls and ceiling are plastered with…
Fantasia 2025: My Most Anticipated Films
Fantasia International Film Festival, held in the heart of Montreal, is back for its 29th edition next week, running from 16 July to 3 August, and I’m delighted to be back providing remote coverage for my fourth year. Described as a juxtaposition between pop culture and alternative cinema, the festival showcases a broad range of…