Ah, October. Fall is in full swing, everything is pumpkin-spiced, and the hunger for good genre films is never higher. Fortunately for those who are looking ever-forward for the next great genre flick, I spent last week knee-deep in exciting upcoming genre films in Austin, Texas thanks to FantasticFest, where I spent eight days watching the weirdest, wildest and best of upcoming sci-fi, fantasy, action, and horror. You can read my full FantasticFest recap here, but basically, Tim League and the folks at Alamo Drafthouse scour the world for the most exciting new genre on the market, roll it up in a party-and-bbq ball, and serve it up to their loyal attendees over the eight-day festival.
There are plenty of big-name features at the fest. This year saw the debut of Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, as well as screenings for Awards-contenders like Arrival and A Monster Calls, but the most exciting thing about FantasticFest is the lengthy roster of more unusual, international fare you might not have spotted elsewhere. Below you'll find nine of my favorites from the Fest, some you may have heard of, some will be new titles, but you should keep an eye out for all of them over the coming year. Some will hit theaters soon (The Greasy Strangler finally drops this week), while others may turn out to be a bit of a wait, but they're all worth seeking out when you have the chance.
Safe Neighborhood
Safe Neighborhood sets itself to be a sort of Home Alone for the horror crowd, but in reality, it's something much darker and more disturbing. It's a movie that's very difficult to talk about without ruining a major turning point in the story. The basic setup follows a boy and his babysitter when they become the targets of a home invasion, but at a certain point Safe Neighborhood becomes a different film from the one your expecting and gets real creepy with it. In the hopes of not saying too much, Safe Neighborhood may be a tough watch for women and it's hard to determine if director Chris Peckover is fully aware of that effect or if the film still thinks it's all fun and games. Horror movies have never been particularly generous to their young, beautiful women, but there's an authenticity to the specific violence inflicted upon () and the all-too real mindset behind it that makes for a very hard line to walk when your striving toward a fun holiday horror film. I'm not sure Safe Neighborhood quite lands on the line, but it gets real close and it's still an entertaining, unexpected ride from start to finish that fully embraces its holiday setting with a wicked sense of humor.
Safe Neighborhood doesn't have a release date yet.
Raw
You've probably heard of Raw as that French-language cannibal film that made two people pass out at TIFF, but you should wash that image right out of your mind because it paints Julia Ducournau's as something it's not. This isn't a gross-out gore flick, and though there are undoubtedly a few scenes that will test your stomach, they're handled with a clever simplicity and restraint. The set-up follows a young vegetarian woman who is forced to eat raw rabbit kidney as part of the brutal hazing rituals at her veterinarian school (Side Note: Are vet schools in France really this intense? What is going on?). Ducournau elevates the material with an underlying coming-of-age narrative between two sisters, adding an insightful bent to the stomach-churning proceedings. It's a hell of a feature film debut and a beautiful film about experiencing independence for the first time and finding out all the sexy, forbidden delights and horrors the world has in store. Read my full FantasticFest review here.
FousWorld has acquired Raw but has not yet set a release date.
They Call Me Jeeg Robot
When a genre becomes as prolific and widespread as the superhero movie has, a boilerplate quality tends to emerge. Don't get me wrong, I love a studio superhero movie as much as the next nerd, but there's a certain sameness that tends to emerge in the narrative and stylistic requirements of trying to make a billion dollar movie. The delight of They Call Me Jeeg Robot is watching all those safe-keeping measures fall away in favor of a more honest, higher stakes superhero tale. The film follows Enzo (Claudio Santamaria), a two-bit low-rent criminal who subsists on pudding and porn until a getaway chase drops him in barrel of toxic sludge that gives him superhuman strength and healing powers. But Enzo is a criminal, and his first impulse isn't to save the city from the wave of terrorism besieging it, but to rob ATMs and armored cars. That is until he meets Alessia (Ilenia Pastorelli), an abused young woman who spurs him on to a greater good. Alessia is also a combination of problematic tropes -- the damaged sexual victim, the hot crazy chick, the wise fool -- but the character is handled with such love affection that she becomes more than the sum of her admittedly troubling parts. But that's part of what makes Gabriele Mainetti's twisted tale of heroics so fun -- he's not afraid to get messy and break the rules, and when the criminal threats emerge, you know they carry real stakes and the threat of a real body count.
They Call Me Jeeg Robot has been released in Italy and does not yet have a US release date.
The Greasy Strangler
The Greasy Strangler is a blast, and I'm no bullshit artist. The feature film debut from Jim Hosking has incited a lot of pearl-clutching and gasps of horror since it debuted at Sundance earlier this year, and it's easy enough to see why -- it's absurd, unapologetic, and indecent by just about every conventional standard, but the beauty of The Greasy Strangler is the fact that it doesn't care about conventional standards at all. Forget about photoshopping, and narrative guidebooks, and all the little safety boxes that have to be checked off when a film tries to be a four-quadrant picture. The Greasy Strangler feels like Grindhouse incarnate, a midnight movie sprung from the very soul of midnight movies to make you cringe and guffaw and quote one-liners you'll probably never be able to get out of your head.
FilmRise will release The Greasy Strangler in theaters and on VOD on October 7, 2016.
Colossal
Nacho Vigalondo, the director behind the modern time travel delight Timecrimes takes on much more emotional and even more insane material with Colossal, the story of an alcoholic woman (Anne Hathaway) who discovers she shares a telepathic connection with the Kaiju tormenting Seoul, Korea after she reconnects with a childhood friend (Jason Sudeikis). As Gloria, Hathaway delivers equal parts of the kind of formidable performance that made her an Oscar winner and the down-to-earth charm that launched her early career as a romantic comedy leading lady. And while Colossal winks at some romantic comedy tropes, it's ultimately a much deeper, twisted, and one-of-a-kind narrative. Vigalondo is fearlessly playful with his Kaiju/addiction metaphor and strikes a wonderful balance between the comedy and the gravity of the situation Gloria finds herself in by offering up plenty of hearty laughs without ever losing sight of the darker elements. It's hard to discuss without giving away the wonderfully unexpected twists and turns but suffice it to say, Colossal is a one of a kind fantasy-drama that backs up the originality of its premise with lot of heart. Read Adam's full TIFF review here.
Colossal will next play at the Sitges International Film Festival in Spain and does not yet have a release date.
The Eyes of My Mother
The Eyes of My Mother is a striking and haunting feature debut from director Nicolas Pesce and cinematographer Zach Kupperstein that feels something like a nightmare unfolded on the screen. Essentially a story of grief and loneliness by way of murder, The Eyes of My Mother centers on Kika Magalhaes's Francisca when she discovers a darkness in herself after her mother's violent death. The Eyes of My Mother was stylistically born out of a love for the history of horror, and it feels that way. There are hints of Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the restrained, character-driven focus of Hitchcock and his ilk, and there's a technical respect for the capabilities of contemporary technology. Some may find The Eyes of My Mother to bleak or despairing, but there's a panache and a humanity that carry it through, even in the moments that it can feel like a bad dream brought to life on screen.
Magnolia Films will release The Eyes of My Mother on December 2nd.
Down Under
Part comedy, part real-life horror, Down Under takes on the Australian Cronulla race riot with an unapologetic full-throttle insanity and a sense of humor so pitch black it occasionally threatens to tamp out the joke. But this may well be the comedy we deserve in 2016 after a year so fraught with perilous race relations and divisive response. The kind of comedy that makes you balk at the ludicrousness of these total morons charging off to a battle that can obviously have no winner before setting a pit in your stomach when you realize they're probably only turned up a click or two from the real life idiocy of racism and the danger of groupthink. Director Abe Forsythe, handles that razor sharp tone with precision and assembled a fantastic cast of actors who are never afraid to swing for the fences as the two groups of men determined to defend "their turf" who set out on a deeply stupid and obviously dangerous collision course. If you like your political commentary with a heavy dose of the absurd and your comedy dark as night, Down Under is a completely unhinged, pointed, laugh through the cringes piece of satire.
Down Under is now playing in Australia, will next screen at the London Film Festival and does not currently have a US release date.
Elle
Paul Verhoeven is best known in America for his schlocky, bombastic actioners like RoboCop and Total Recall and his sleazy erotic thrillers like Showgirls and Basic Instinct, but over the last few years, he's turned out a series of sophisticated (albeit kinky) foreign dramas. Elle marks Verhoeven's first French film, and quite possibly his greatest. The Isabelle Huppert-led drama has been crassly and inaccurately described as a rape-revenge thriller. In reality, Elle is a much richer and complex film, following Huppert through an extraordinary performance as the titular woman at the heart of all the films twisted drama. It's true Elle is raped, and it's true there is a cat-and-mouse of sorts between her and her attacker, but that is simply the narrative skeleton around which an all-time great character study is formed. Elle is a character unlike any I've ever seen, a continual victim who never even considers the possibility of being victimized -- she is calculating, unruly, seductive and always, always in command. And Huppert is nothing short of exquisite in the role, with a gorgeous subtlety and restraint that glimpses the unpredictable, steely nature beneath. Elle is poised to become an awards contender and there's no doubt it will get a think piece or a hundred going, so look for this one to become a topic of conversation in the coming months. Read Phil's full TIFF review here.
France has selected Elle as their Foreign Language Oscar submission. It will continue touring the festival circuit and hit US theaters on November 11, 2016.
A Dark Song
The occult narrative has been explored so many times, it's not often you get a film that completely your expectations by honoring the inherent strengths of the genre. Like It Follows before it, A Dark Song has a concept so pure and simple and obviously excellent, it's a shock it hasn't been done before.The film follows Catherine Walker as Sophia, a grieving woman who enlist the help of occultist expert Joseph Solomon (Steve Oram) to enact a demanding and dangerous six-month conjuring spell that will grant them each any single wish. The basic concept of A Dark Song is to take two questionably stable, untrustworthy strangers, put them up against the supernatural, and lock them in a house from which they absolutely cannot leave for half a year. It's simple, it's elegant, and it sets up a scenario in which the audience uncertain at every turn, never knowing who to trust. But eventually you have to learn who the characters are, the riddles must be answered, and the truth may ultimately be less satisfying than the questions. The ending will be divisive. A Dark Song is a brilliant puzzlebox movie, but the end feels like the solution to the wrong puzzle. All the same, it's well worth the journey getting there and the tension conjured up at first-time director Liam Gavin's command.
A Dark Song will next play at the London Film Festival and does not currently have a US release date.