Fantasia International Film Festival is returning to Montreal, Quebec from 30 July to 9 August 2023. The 27th annual Fantasia is set to dazzle attendees with a fantastic array of genre movies for audiences to enjoy. Actor Nicolas Cage (last seen acting up a storm in Renfield) is set to receive the Cheval Noir honorary career award for his distinguished and eclectic career.
We’re honoured to be covering the festival for the third year running and here are the top films we cannot wait to see:
Aporia – World Premiere
The life of Sophie (Judy Greer) turns tragic when her husband, Mal (Edi Gathegi ), is killed by a drunk driver. Faced with raising her grieving teenage daughter (Faithe Herman) on her own Sophie struggles until one day, her husband’s best friend (Payman Maadi), a brilliant former physicist, comes to see her with an experimental machine – a device that can be used to manipulate time. Will Sophie use it?
Anything with the incredible Judy Greer in is completely essential viewing so Judy Greer in a sci-fi movie? Sign me up!
Empire V – World Premiere
In contemporary Moscow, former journalism student Roman (Pavel Tabakov) is invited to join the “elite” and is forcibly transformed into a vampire, a condition transmitted by a parasite. Roman (now Rama) is now part of the vampire ruling class, an anonymous dictatorship that dominates humans not out of bloodlust, but out of greed. As various mentors teach him how to use his new supernatural abilities, he befriends another new vampire, Hera (Taya Radchenko). Curious to know more about this new universe for him, he enters into a potentially fatal conflict with Mithra (Miron Fedorov), an ally who becomes his rival…
An intriguing Russian vampire movie written and directed by Victor Ginzburg has been banned by Russia’s Ministry of Culture!
It Lives Inside – Quebec Premiere
An Indian- American teenager Samidha (Megan Suri) struggling with her cultural identity has a falling out with her former best friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan), and in the process unwittingly releases a demonic entity that grows stronger by feeding on her loneliness. It Lives Inside is the impressive feature debut of director and co-screenwriter Bishal Dutta and won the Midnighter Section People’s Choice Award at SXSW.
Late Night with the Devil – Canadian Premiere
Halloween, 1977. Late-night talk show host Jack Delroy (David Dastmalchian) prepares to tape a live show that will be unlike anything his audience has seen before. Jack’s guests include parapsychologist and author Dr June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon), who is promoting her new book, Conversations with the Devil. She is accompanied by her teenage daughter Lilly (Ingrid Torelli), the sole survivor of a mass suicide of members of a Satanic church who claims to be possessed by a demon. It’s sure to be the broadcast event of the century! From Australian filmmakers Colin and Cameron Cairnes. We’re huge fans of David Dastmalchian at The Geek Goddesses so we can’t wait to see his foray into horror.
Lovely Dark and Deep – World Premiere
Lennon (Georgina Campbell) a new back-country ranger, travels alone through the dangerous wilderness, hoping to uncover the origins of a tragedy that has haunted her since she was a child.
Lovely, Dark and Deep is the feature debut of Teresa Sutherland who wrote The Wind – one of the most terrifying and underrated horror movies of recent years. Georgina Campbell made a blazing debut with Barbarian last year and her follow-up is eagerly awaited.
Sympathy for the Devil – World Premiere
After being forced to drive a mysterious passenger (Nicolas Cage) at gunpoint, a man (Joel Kinnaman) finds himself in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse where nothing is what it seems.
You can’t go wrong with a Nic Cage film – the man gives 1000% every time (I mean just look how insane this still looks!) and we’re looking forward to seeing him face off with Joel Kinnaman (fantastic in The Suicide Squad and Altered Carbon).
Talk to Me – Canadian Premiere
When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces.
Talk to Me is the feature debut of Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou and is being talked about as the scariest film of the year!
You can buy tickets to Fantasia International Film Festival now.
