Fantastic Fest has now reached its 20th anniversary and is the undisputed house of style cinema in North America. Viewers and producers alike know that if they want an first look at the best ( or at least funniest ) in fresh horror and science fiction, they have to travel to Austin. [ Fantastic Fest didn’t establish that reputation ]…
The article 20 Years of Fantastic Fest’s Best Shows and Premieres appeared first on Den of Geek.
Fantastic Fest has become the undisputed house of type film in North America as it approaches its 20th anniversary. Viewers and producers alike know that if they want an first look at the best ( or at least funniest ) in fresh horror and science fiction, they have to travel to Austin.
That popularity wasn’t created immediately at Fantastic Fest. Otherwise the event has built a lengthy track record of showing great shows, and on a number of times hosting the North American or U. S. launch of famous films. Let’s take a moment to reflect on the best movie to be premiered at each year of the event in order to observe the festival’, s 20th birthday. In most cases, these cinema had their Northern American debut, even if they showed up at Cannes or a unique global festival first. In some cases, the films made it to the Toronto International Film Festival a little earlier, but Fantastic Fest was the first to show the movie in the U.S. And in all cases, the movie is just absolutely magnificent.
Maléfique, 2005
Those looking at this list might assume that Fantastic Fest had to scrape the bottom of the barrel for its inaugural season, which is why the French horror flick Maléfique takes the top spot for 2005. Maléfique, however, deserves more than just passing praise and praise. A surreal bit of Clive Barker-esque horror, Maléfique follows white collar criminal Carrere ( Gérald Laroche ) as he joins with three other inmates to learn a secret magical ritual that will earn him his freedom. Writers Franck Magnier and Alexandre Charlot work well with the protagonists ‘ well-observed oddities to create a film that is both moving and upsetting.
2006 –, The Host
The Host‘s U.S. premiere was screened four days before the New York Film Festival ( but a few weeks after TIFF), which is shocking. Even more than his previous features, Barking Dogs Never Bite and Memories of Murder, The Host captures Korean director Bong Joon Ho‘, s singular style. A giant monster ( Go Ah-sung ) emerges from the Han River and captures a teenage girl in The Host, something you’d find in any kaiju movie. But Director Bong turns his attention to the complicated dynamics of the girl’, s family, leaving room for stand-out performances by Song Kang-ho and Bae Doona.
There Will Be Blood, from 2007 –,
As impressive as it is that Fantastic Fest had the U. S. premiere of The Host, the fest pulled a real coup when it got to debut the Paul Thomas Anderson masterpiece, There Will Be Blood. Anderson’s loose adaptation of the book Oil! by Upton Sinclair represented a giant leap in the director ’, s skill and aims. There Will Be Blood is without a doubt one of the best movies of the twenty-first century thanks to an incredible score by Radiohead’, s Jonny Greenwood. In a towering performance, Daniel Day-Lewis plays Danielle Plainview, an oil prospector who becomes a magnate after striking it rich. He disagrees with twin brothers Paul and Eli Sunday ( Paul Dano ), both of whom are passionate and duplicitous revival preachers. Through Plainview and Eli, Anderson takes an incisive look at American mythologies around capitalism, God, and so-called manifest destiny. And it ’ is brought to life by some of PTA’’s most daring filmmaking.
2008 –, Sauna
Fantastic Fest is about independent and foreign genre films at its core, so it ’ ;s appropriate that it followed a pair of big name premieres with a great film from abroad. Such is the case with Sauna, the Finnish horror film from director Antti-Jussi Annila and writer Iiro Küttner, which made its U. S. premiere at Fantastic Fest. As brothers and Knut and Eerik ( Tommi Eronen and Ville Virtanen ) search for a magical sauna to purge themselves of their sins on the battlefield, the film Sauna, which is set at the end of the Russo-Swedish War in 1595, is rich in atmosphere and dread.
2009 –, Antichrist
Someone looking at this list might conclude that, despite how cool these movies are, they don’t quite have the kind of outsider work one might expect from Fantastic Fest. For its fifth anniversary, the festival gave fans a film both prestigious and extremely aggressive. On the surface, Antichrist seems like a quiet drama set in a family drama like that found at Sundance or SXSW, where the couple ( Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, billed as “, He”, and “, She” ) deal with their child’s passing. Because it comes from Danish provocateur Lars von Trier, Antichrist is most assuredly not a standard indie drama. Antichrist is somehow very moving despite all of its nihilism, retaining an emotional truth beneath its cruel imagery.
2010 –, Let Me In
Before he remade the Swedish smash hit Let the Right One In for American audiences, Matt Reeves had the unenviable task of bringing emo-noir to Gotham City in The Batman and before he got biblical in the Planet of the Apes franchise. Reeves more than succeeded with Let Me In, a movie that translated the original’, s themes so well for English speakers that it stands on its own next to the Swedish film. In the 1980s Los Alamos, Reeves is portrayed as a lonely 12-year-old who eventually makes friends with a child/immortal vampire ( Chloe Grace Moretz ). Between the remake’, s keen sense of time and place, and outstanding performances from the leads and character actor greats such as Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas, Let Me In has charms all its own.
2011 –, You ’, re Next
On one hand, one might argue that a straightforward slasher movie does n’, t deserve to stand next to titanic films like There Will Be Blood and The Host. On the other hand, You ’re Next is a remarkably well-made slasher that embodies everything the genre has to offer. Working with a cast that includes Mumblecore mainstays such as Ti West and Joe Swanberg, writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard play with genre tropes to build up and subvert audience expectations. By the time all the secrets are revealed, actress Sharni Vinson has one of the greatest final females in history, making You ’, re Next a incredibly satisfying genre exercise.
2012 –, Holy Motors
Few films at Fantastic Fest reach the utter utter absurdity of Holy Motors, a film from French director Leos Carax, but many of them are strange. Star Denis Lavant gives a virtuosic performance as several characters who might in fact be the same person, all created in response to encounters that a rich man has throughout the course of his day. Although it’s impossible to explain the plot of Holy Motors, the film’s pure cinematic playfulness satisfies even non-artistically-fascinated viewers.
2013 –, Ninja: Shadow of a Tear
In a better world, Scott Adkins would become a household name. Between his genuine charisma and mastery of onscreen action, Adkins follows in the footsteps of Bruce Lee and Arnold Schwarzenegger as action stars who are also proper movie stars. No movie demonstrates Adkins ’ star power more than Ninja: Shadow of a Tear, which was directed by Isaac Florentine. The sequel to 2009 ’, s Ninja, Shadow of a Tear is filled with both melodrama and incredible fight sequences. Adkins portrays Casey Bowman, an expat who seeks retribution after his wife’s murder, with ease.
2014 –, John Wick
It’s easy to forget the details of the original John Wick, which was directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, given the scheming world of assassins and bravado filmmaking that led to the franchise’s calling card. Yes, the first movie does have multiple assassins—played by ringers such as Willem Dafoe and Adrianne Palicki. And yes, we do make our first appearance at the Continental, a notorious assassins and underworld figures that are a part of the, ahem, Continental Winston ( Ian McShane ) and Charon ( Lance Reddick ). But there’, s a purity of plot to the original film, in which Keanu Reeves ‘, infamous killer shoots and punches his way to a Russian mobster and his son to get revenge for the latter killing his dog. John Wick laid the emotional foundation for the rest of the sprawling world and its droll operatic style, though it may be in the purest form.
2015 –, Green Room
As these past few entries indicate, Fantastic Fest was a good time for action fans in the middle of 2010. But rarely have the action entries been as grim and immediate as Jeremy Saulnier’, s Green Room. In an act of financial desperation, Anton Yelchin and Alia Shawkat, who are actors in the movie, agree to play a Nazi club in the woods of Oregon ( they didn’t realize it was full-on skinheads until they get to the actual green room ), do so. After witnessing a murder, the band must battle their way through an army of white supremacists, led by Patrick Stewart at his most menacing. The film’s domestic relevance has only increased since its U.S. premiere, and its domestic relevance has only increased.
2016 –, Split
One of Fantastic Fest’s main draws is its Secret Screenings, which don’t let viewers know until the movie is over until they finish watching the film. Rarely has a film captured the ethos of the screenings better than Split, which made its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, complete with M. Night Shyamalan in attendance. Fans came in with little knowledge of Split, a performance by James McAvoy that was heartbreakingly good. His multiple personalities forced him to give up a trio of girls ( including Anya Taylor-Joy ) for his powerful new persona. They especially didn’, t know about the shocking twist that Bruce Willis would show up at the end as David Dunn, making Split a surprise sequel to Unbreakable! Unfortunately, that somehow didn’t leak all over social media before the movie’s theatrical debut three months later.
2017 –, Tigers Are Not Afraid
Tigers Are Not Afraid is one of the best films ever to debut at Fantastic Fest, despite not being the biggest one. Written and directed by Issa López, who went onto make True Detective: Night Country, Tigers Are Not Afraid is one of the more effective instances of using horror to comment on social traumas. The movie centers on a group of orphans orphans who are victims of violence between warring drug cartels in an unnamed Mexican city. After her mother goes missing and she joins the group, Estrella ( Paola Lara ) begins seeing apparitions in the form of her lost parent, which drives the children further into the gangs ’, orbit. Tigers Are Not Afraid illustrates how monsters can provide a respite from a reality that is more frightful than anyone could imagine, just like the early works of Fantastic Fest favorite Guillermo del Toro.
2018 –, Suspiria
Some object to the idea of making the eccentric Italian film Suspiria a remake. How could anyone improve on Dario Argento‘, s colorful and nonsensical tale about witches operating a dance school? By moving so far in the opposite direction of Argento, Luca Guadagnino found a way, making his Suspiria an echo of the 1977 original. In place of the original’, s frustratingly threadbare plot, Guadagnino and screenwriter David Kajganich overburden their take with incident, making a movie just as confusing as Argento’, s. In place of the technicolors of the original, Guadagnino uses brutalist grays to give the film its own distinctive look. This Suspiria stands on its own when you add in Dakota Johnson who is well-adjusted in the lead and Tilda Swinton playing three different characters.
2019 –, Tammy and the T-Rex ( Full Restoration )
The restorations that the festival premieres are just as significant as the new movies that make their debut at Fantastic Fest. Such is the case with the inexplicable Tammy and the T-Rex, which director Stewart Raffill originally shot as an R-rated horror comedy but had to change into a family film to cash in on Jurassic Park-mania when it hit theaters in 1994. Fantastic Fest released the fully restored version of Tammy and the T-Rex in 2019, finally allowing viewers to fully appreciate the romance between Paul Walker and his girlfriend Denise Richards after his brain was implanted into the Tyrannosaurus Rex’s body. *
* ( It was also nice to highlight this oddity given that Parasite, the best film of this year, had already performed at several international festivals before FF. )
2020 –, The Stylist
COVID-19 altered the way that Fantastic Fest operated, just like everything else in the world. Instead of an in-person event, Fantastic Fest 2020 happened virtually and, as a result, far fewer films participated. However, that left room for some undiscovered indie gems, such as the enchanting horror film The Stylist. Directed by Jill Gevargizian, who co-wrote the script with Eric Havens and Eric Stolze, The Stylist stars Najarra Townsend as Claire as a stylist who kills and scalps her victims. The Stylist is exactly the kind of movie that a festival should be known for being both moving and upsetting.
2021 –, The Black Phone
Things hadn’t yet reached their full potential in 2021, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by looking at Fantastic Fest’s 2021 lineup. Even under a restructured format, Fantastic Fest hosted the world premiere of several great movies, none more so than Scott Derrickson’, s adaptation of the Joe Hill story, The Black Phone. By introducing ’, 70s nostalgia and genuinely compelling characters, none more so than Ethan Hawke as the mysterious killer known as the Grabber, Robertson and co-writer C. Robert Cargill expand Hill’, s story.
2022 –, Werewolf By Night
On the one hand, choosing a Disney film ( or TV special ) as Fantastic Fest’s best premiere is absurd. On the other, Werewolf By Night is very good, and very much of interest to attendees. Michael Giacchino’s adaptation of ’, a 1970s Marvel Comics film, is his directorial debut, done in the style of a classic Universal and Hammer horror. Gael García Bernal and Laura Donnelly shine as good hearted wolfman Jack Terrier and monster hunter Elsa Bloodstone, respectively. Harriet Sansom Harris, the real star of the show, steals and desecrates every scene as a wicked mistress of ceremonies, is the real star.
2023 –, Saw X
In more ways than one way, saw X was a true surprise. Firstly it was the last of four Secret Screenings at the 2023 festival, marking the movie’, s North American premiere. One of the best entries in the franchise, Saw X is shockingly good, not just a step up from the subpar Jigsaw and Spiral: From the Book of Saw. Director Kevin Greutert pulls off the feat by embracing Saw’, s best qualities: a twisty timeline, Tobin Bell’, s performance as compelling central character John Kramer, and plenty of gross out traps. Saw X recovers Kramer’s moral rage, making for a nasty but satisfying movie. It is set sometime between the events of Saw and Saw II.
2024 –, V/H/S/ Beyond
It’s fitting that the best entry in the anthology series will make its debut in Austin since the V/H/S/ series has always been a fixture at Fantastic Fest. Beyond sticks to the same formula as other movies in the franchise, filled with short films by various directors, all presented as a series of video tapes discovered by some unlucky soul. Beyondd is a standout in both the V/H/S/ series and Fantastic Fest history, despite having a more sci-fi bent than its predecessors.
Fantastic Fest 2025 runs from September 18th-25 in Austin, Texas
The first post 20 Years of Fantastic Fest’, s Best Movies and Premieres appeared on Den of Geek.
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