Fantasia Film Festival 2020 Film Reviews Portal

All of my Fantasia Festival 2020 Coverage in One Place

This year, I have the privilege of being invited as accredited press to Fantasia Festival 2020, North America’s largest genre film festival. This is my very first experience at a film festival as press, and even though it’s mostly digital due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I’m extremely excited to be among the first to see some of the best genre films from all around the world. This page will be your portal to my coverage, a full list of all of my Fantasia Festival 2020 film reviews. I’ll be working my way through plenty of titles, some that won’t see full release until next year. All reviews in viewing order…

Fried Barry

With Fried Barry, director Ryan Kruger expands his hit short film of the same name into a feature length fever dream of violent and near-pornographic absurdity. Not everyone will vibe with the film’s provocative vision, but Fried Barry is anchored by a mesmerizing performance from Gary Green and a rollicking improvisational momentum. Read my full review here.

The Columnist

The tale of a writer driven to murder by Internet trolls, The Columnist is a timely modern-day parable about the power of words and one woman’s swath of bloody vengeance when she pierces the veil of online anonymity. In the titular role, Katja Herbers puts forth a wicked performance that is pure fun and catharsis, but The Columnist leaves a fair amount on the table, rarely venturing past the surface to get its kicks. Read my full review here.

The Mortuary Collection

The Mortuary Collection is a haunting love letter to vintage horror and the pulp comics that inspire it. With Clancy Brown chewing up the scenery just like the horror hosts of yore, the film delightfully reaches back to recall the frightful morality plays of Tales from the Crypt and Creepshow. Expertly crafted and gorgeous to boot, The Mortuary Collection is the most fun I’ve had at Fantasia so far, and a film that will likely be a Halloween mainstay for years to come. Read my full review here.

Feels Good Man

Feels Good Man chronicles the evolution (or devolution) of an innocuous cartoon character into an uncontrollable symbol of racism, misogyny, and the alt-right. As told by documentarian Arthur Jones, the film paints a tragic portrait of meme culture and of artist Matt Furie as he grapples with his corrupted creation. Despite some odd pacing and a tonally inconsistent focus on Furie himself, Feels Good Man is a timely and gripping examination of the dark side of the web. Read my full review here.

Detention

Deeper and more pensive than your average video game adaptation, John Hsu’s Detention aims to shine a revealing light on a violent and oft-ignored time period in Taiwanese history. A love story, a horror movie, and a political thriller all wrapped up in a single package, the film delivers a stirring history lesson and an incisive commentary on the evils of authoritarianism, but its fractured and ride-the-rails ghost story does it no favors. Read my full review here.

The Block Island Sound

A cleverly affecting mix of environmental and cosmic horror, The McManus brothers’ The Block Island Sound is one of the best surprises of Fantasia Festival this year. With its standout performances and adroit pacing, the film ratchets up a creeping atmosphere of dread and paranoia, all in service of a powerful allegory for mental illness, inherited ailments, and the deteriorating state of our world. Read my full review here.

The Dark and the Wicked

Bryan Bertino’s new possession horror film, The Dark and the Wicked, is a merciless gauntlet of grief, trauma, and violence. Centered around a nerve-fraying performance by Marin Ireland, the film is rife with effective scares and blistering violence that become increasingly heavy. The Dark and the Wicked is birds of a feather with the director’s cult debut, The Strangers, and while the film takes the home invasion concept to a new place, it struggles to rekindle its predecessor’s razor-sharp tautness. Read my full review here.