By: Nolan McBride, Ben McBride, and Paul Farrell
Fantastic Fest 2023 is almost here! The largest genre festival in North America begins this week and Dead Ringers will be there to see the sights. Nolan, Ben, and Emily will be there in person — with Paul joining us virtually — and we’ll be sharing our thoughts on all the cool, weird, and completely fantastic movies we see on a special series of podcast episodes releasing throughout the festival. Plus, you can keep up with written reviews from Paul on this site. Without further ado, here are some of the films we’re most excited to see at this year’s Fantastic Fest!
And keep your eyes peeled for updates on our Twitter and Instagram accounts throughout the festival.
Nolan McBride
Even though many people are happy to assert that it’s Tony Gilroy’s movie (they’re wrong, by the way), the director of Rogue One is finally back with a new sci-fi blockbuster after seven years. Gareth Edwards is a filmmaker who I wish we had at least a couple more movies from by now, but I was ecstatic to find out he’d escaped director jail when The Creator’s trailer dropped earlier this year. Edwards has a knack for blending special effects with the real world and conveying scale on screen in a way few contemporaries can match (as seen in Monsters and Godzilla), so I can’t wait to see him (and John David Washington) take on artificial intelligence.
Fantastic Fest’s programming guide compares Indian actioner Kill to one of my favorite movies from last year’s festival, Project Wolf Hunting, and one of my favorite action movies period, The Raid. Touted as one of the first Indian action films to feature brutal and bone-crunching violence of this kind, Kill follows an army commando and his buddy, who must take on a train full of bandits to protect innocents from harm and keep the love of his life from marrying the wrong man. Though there’s plenty of movies that hype themselves up as successors to Gareth Evans’ masterpiece, Fantastic Fest is where you’re likely to find movies that can actually deliver on those expectations (see: another FF classic, The Night Comes For Us). I’m putting my faith in Kill to thrill.
Tak Sakaguchi (Versus, Prisoners Of The Ghostland) is taking up the sword again, this time as action hero Takuma Toshio, who’s career is on the decline when he decides to test his skills against warring yakuza gangs he encounters while scouting locations for a gritty new movie. I’ll refrain from a catalogue of comparisons, but suffice it to say that Takuma Toshio exudes strong Johnny Cage energy and the whole setup of feels like something straight out of Mortal Kombat. This looks more grounded and brutal than the cartoonish violence of that series I never shut up about, but I’m always a mark for a pitch like “fading movie star runs headfirst into serious danger to prove they’ve still got it.” Whether it lands on the serious or silly side of hyperviolence, I am one-hundred percent excited to see One-Percenter.
Between One-Percenter, Sri Asih: The Warrior (which Ben and Paul both cover below), and The Invisible Fight, Fantastic Fest has every type of action fan covered (with festival programmer Austin King really looking out for those who like the absurd heights of fighting games like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter). Rafael is the lone survivor of an attack on an outpost on the Soviet-Chinese border who, taking inspiration from the martial artists that overcame his fellow guards, enlists to train as a monk at a local Eastern Orthodox monastery. The Invisible Fight sounds like a lotta things — an oddball coming-of-age story, a hilarious martial arts sendup, and an Estonian take on a Shaw Brothers wuxia flick — but mostly it sounds like it was made just for me.
Ben McBride
Directed by Macon Blair and starring Peter Dinklage as the titular hero — with a supporting cast that includes Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood — The Toxic Avenger is one of the headlining films at Fantastic Fest and will be its opening night movie. The talent behind the camera is enough to peak my interest, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Toxie himself (I love his design from the old Toxic Crusaders animated show) and he’s always been an important figure in my genre movie-loving head. All that we’ve seen from the movie thus far is a single shadowy still, so I don’t know what direction they’re going with the property, but I’m super excited to see this with a Fantastic Fest crowd and discover what a modern take on the character will be. I hope he glows toxic green!
This Indonesian superhero origin story follows a boxer, Alana, as she tries to make a name for herself in the local boxing circuit and discovers she is the reincarnation of an ancient Goddess, gaining superhuman powers in the process. What interests me with this one is the reported focus on martial arts, complete with thrilling single-take sequences. Beyond the intense action choreography, Sri Asih looks like it will tackle themes of gendered violence and class issues. Plus there’s an evil supernatural deity in the mix.
Sometimes when you’re struggling to decide what’s worth checking out, Letterboxd comes through in the clutch. I happened to read Rob Hunter‘s (from Film School Rejects) Letterboxd review of this movie a while ago and he threw around phrases like “a Fulci-esque descent into nightmare” and “increasingly ominous and wild,” even stating he liked the movie so much he rewatched it the very next day. But what cemented my need to see When Evil Lurks was this description from Rob: “think Prince Of Darkness made by the same Carpenter who killed off the little ice cream girl in Assault On Precinct 13. Fucking magical.” I added it to my Letterboxd watchlist instantly, secretly hoping it might show up at Fantastic Fest…AND IT IS! So yeah, I’m going to have my ass in the theater for this one. (And thanks to Rob Hunter for the recommendation!)
Secret Screenings!
Last year there were two secret screenings, and this year there are four?!? Be still, my little surprise-movie-loving heart! I have a feeling The Exorcist: Believer could make an appearance given that its release is imminent and it could be a good way to build up some word-of-mouth momentum. Other than my wildcard idea about one of them being Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving, I honestly don’t know what else to expect and that just excites me more as one of my favorite things about last year’s Fantastic Fest was getting together between screenings with festival buddies and sharing some watercooler gossip about what they could be. Either way, it’s fun to have a little mystery.
Paul Farrell
I am a sucker for time loop movies. If characters are stuck repeating themselves in pretty much any situation, you can count me in. So imagine my excitement when I found out about a film where a small village is experiencing the same 2 minutes over and over again, forcing them to have to work together to discover a way to save themselves and potentially the world?? Can’t wait to check this one out — plus, it’s from the folks who brought you Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes!
Collecting mushrooms may not seem all that exciting, but the fact that festival programmers decided not to write an in depth blurb about the plot of this one tells me that this 70-minute mystery that “may or may not have happened” in real life is one more than worth being excited for!
Believe it or not, there was a time when the internet was new and movies didn’t have a great grasp on what it was or how to characterize it, and that time was called THE 90s. This documentary mines the ways genre entertainment utilized the internet as the new monster it was, from huge budget tentpoles to the smallest of cult excursions, all the while exploring what the advent of the world wide web meant for the cultural zeitgeist and cinema at large. Very excited to dig into this!
A man wakes up tied to a tree and that’s about all the premise I need. Sometimes the simplest setup yields the most interesting results, pitting the viewer in the headspace of the character and unraveling the mystery with the one fully entrenched in it. Add in the fact that this one is rumored to involve a dog achieving justice and I am SOLD.
I, like many others, suffer from the all too common “superhero fatigue” that has seemed to settle into many of our shared subconsciouses. However, it’s that same sense of tiredness regarding western superhero films that so attracts me to cultural variations on the topic. Enter Sri Asih. The second film in a burgeoning Indonesian superhero franchise, this flick looks like a breath of fresh air in a genre that often suffers at the hands of sameness.
Christmas horror is near and dear to my heart, as are — as I said up front — time loop movies. Well, here we have both: an absurdist horror flick about one Christmas that never seems to end. While programmers assure us this is no Groundhog Day, I’m excited to see what this Croatian genre film cooks up for Christmas dinner with all of the ingredients at its disposal.
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