After a week of watching boundary-pushing, bloody, and buzzy titles, Fantastic Fest wraps up today in Austin, Texas. Fantastic Fest is the largest genre film festival in the US. It showcases some of the best underground horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and action films. This festival is a special one. Every year, we are exposed to artistically-minded and thought-provoking cinema that celebrates new voices and new stories from filmmakers around the world. Kudos to the curators who continuously make Fantastic Fest a fantastic experience!
Below, check out the three films we saw and loved:
Apartment 7A
Coming to Paramount + on Friday, September 27th
Julia Garner leads this supernatural horror film about a promising dancer who suffers a career-ending injury. After breaking her ankle in a freak accident, Terry Gionoffrio (Garner) struggles to find a purpose. Dance was her identity and without it, she feels like a hopeless has-been. Then, she runs into a strange yet endearing older couple who quickly become surrogate parental figures. Minnie (Dianne Wiest) and Roman (Kevin McNally) Castevet are a soft-spoken, overly attentive couple who take an immediate liking to Terry. They offer her the vacant apartment next door to theirs while she heals her injury.
But strange occurrences begin once Terry moves into the apartment. She discovers mystery bruises appearing on intimate parts of her body with no recollection of what caused them and experiences terrible nightmares that blur the lines between reality and fiction. Worst of all, after unexpectedly becoming pregnant, Terry realizes that dark forces linger within the walls of this apartment. However, by the time she makes this discovery, it’s already too late.
Apartment 7A solidifies Julia Garner as the Scream Queen for the new generation. Her performance demands many physical challenges. In addition to the typical horror nuances like exaggerated screaming and crying, Garner also demonstrates impressive tap and vaudeville performances. The story starts strong as a typical psychological horror film but takes a questionable turn nearly a third of the way through when it pivots to a “Hail Satan” level of religious horror. This bait and switch feels like a forced curveball and doesn’t quite stick the landing. The ending, however, is redeeming and goes out with a bang that is sure to satisfy even the skeptics.
The Spirit of Halloweentown
Halloween is celebrated 365 days a year in the small Oregon town of St. Helens. Those familiar with the 1990s Disney Channel film Halloweentown may recognize the iconic streets that served as the backdrop to the cult classic. St. Helens residents are proud to continue serving this legacy, as seen in the documentary The Spirit of Halloweentown. Filmmakers Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb (Jasper Mall, Butterfly in the Sky) descend on this picturesque town four weeks prior to its most beloved holiday, to interview the residents who have passionately embraced the Halloween spirit. Through colorful interviews conducted as a day in the life of various St. Helens residents, The Spirit of Halloween is an awkward and charming character study of the people who bring Halloween magic to life.
Enlisting a Danny Elfman-inspired score evokes a sense of lighthearted spookiness. It serves the film well, especially as Thomason and Whitcomb interview different St. Helens locals, including a dancer, a ghost hunter, and a new restaurant owner. At times, the film feels like a Tim & Eric skit due to the subjects’ discomfort in being on camera, as well as various situations the filmmakers find themselves in. While a majority of the film is dedicated to the town’s unwavering holiday spirit, the filmmakers also witness small-town drama. Examples include a patron who leaves a negative restaurant review on Facebook and a ghost hunter who believes he can locate the spirit of a young boy.
The Spirit of Halloweentown is a fun watch for this time of year. If you’re in the Halloween spirit or want to relive it throughout the year, you won’t want to miss The Spirit of Halloweentown.
A Fermenting Woman
Imagine The Bear was a disturbing, slow-burning thriller and you’ll have a good idea of what to expect in A Fermenting Woman. Running 24 minutes long, the film follows a visionary chef and master fermenter Marielle Lau (Sook-Yin Lee) who navigates pending unemployment by the new owners of her restaurant. Desperate to save her job, Marielle develops a new dish with an unusual ingredient that she hopes will save her from the chopping block. The ingredient may be organic, but it’s bloody disgusting.
The secret? Marielle’s menstrual blood. She mixes it in the meat and fermented vegetables, and then eagerly awaits the reaction from a colleague. His comment, “funkier than expected”, sent chills down my body. A Fermenting Woman is not for the weak of stomach. Things get even more grotesque as the jar she stores her menstrual blood in gives birth to a creature that resembles a steak with a beating heart. Convinced that this is the dish that will save her career, she serves it to the restaurant’s new owners.
Directed by Priscilla Galvez, A Fermenting Woman is a bold and truly unforgettable film. It plays in the same cinematic universe as the early Yorgos Lanthimos film Dogtooth. Galvez’s use of framing, and her direction for the score and sound design, are the key elements that stand out in this wildly weird short film. If you can stomach it, definitely seek out A Fermenting Woman.
