With Fantasia International Film Festival kicking off a few days ago, our first batch of film reviews are in. Stephen Sawchuk pays tribute to a Wes Craven classic. South Korea drops one of the most bizarre films we've seen in a long time. Chris Jericho turns to the darkside in Lowell Dean's latest.
Hell is a Teenage Girl (dir. Stephen Sawchuk) - Fantasia Canadian Premiere (Short Film)
Synopsis: A small town is terrorized by a masked serial killer targeting higher schoolers who break "the rules of horror" but one teenage girl refuses to play by his rules.
'Hell is a Teenage Girl' isn't quite a parody but it does poke fun at slasher tropes and pays homage to some of the more famous slasher horrors that, I assume writer/director Stephen Sawchuk is a fan of. Namely 'Scream' (the town is called Springboro). Skyler Radzion plays Parker and does a fantastic job at carrying the short through it's narrative. She is helped dramatically by Faly Mevemanana, who plays her best friend Riley sort of in the same vein as how Rose McGowan plays Tatum. Radzion and Mevemanana have great onscreen chemistry.
The stand out of the film is how Sawchuk is able to maintain the correct balance of dread, tension and dark comedy. Parker's male admirer Brody (Kevin Osea) acts as the comedic repsite and even her Mother gets a chance to add some humour during a short expositionary scene in their kitchen. Despite the short script being full of humour the characters are played mostly straight edged which allows us to become as invested as we can. The film was shot over 3 days and works as the perfect proof of concept for a feature length. I'd definitely be interested in seeing what Sawchuk would come up with if (and when) this gets an expanded script with a few sub-plots and other interesting characters added in. It feels like it would stack up nicely against other original modern day slashers like 'Happy Death Day', 'Totally Killer' and 'It's A Wonderful Knife'.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
'Hell Is A Teenage Girl' received it's Canadian Premiere at Fantasia '24 on July 21st
Mash Ville (dir. Hwang Wook) - Fantasia World Premiere
Synopsis: The lives of of pseudo-religious believers and eight strangers in a remote location converge, forcing them into a battle for survival.
It's so difficult to sum up Hwang Wook's absurd third film without giving away any spoilers. Two "costumed" religious zealots obsessed with a secret ritual terrorize a small rural town of weird and wonderful misfits, including a group of dodgy wine brewers, an insanely giddy but hard as nails policeman and a film crew duo, all of them forced to team up to survive the cult leaders killing spree. It's insane. Vivid cinematogrpahy helps the sunburst filters pop out of the screen as we're treated to these bizarre characters acting...bizarrely. It's sort of set up like a western and we're introduced to the characters seperatley in the beginning but eventually their stories are entwined. It feels very influenced by Tarantino and don't be surprised if he talks about this film for the next few years.
I loved how this was shot, with some gorgoeus low angles which really put the focus on the character in frame. There's a chaos to Wook's filmmaking that feels kind of dreamlike. It's a real trip. There's some heavy shit going on here but it's all overlayed with a whimsical yet eclectic score, sometimes pan pipes, sometimes flamenco guitar, sometimes jazz, all of which keeps the tone mostly comical. It takes a little while to get going properly but it's manically entertaining when it does.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½
'Mash Ville' received its World Premiere at Fantasia '24 on July 21st
Dark Match (dir. Lowell Dean) - Fantasia World Premiere
Synopsis: A small-time wrestling company accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town only to learn that the community is run by a mysterious cult leader.
It feels like by combining two of my favourite things in the world, 80s professional wrestling and horror, Lowell Dean's 'Dark Match' was made just for me and me only. So it was always going to be high on the list of "must watch" films at this year's festival. This feels like a real passion project for Dean and while it's certainly not flawless, it was clearly made with so much love that it's difficult not to have a good time while watching it. Steven Ogg and his wild hair are fascinating and Ayisha Issa is a breath of fresh air. She just commands your attention and she really grows into her role and by the mid point I was fully rooting for her.
Weirdly, the film is let down a bit by the actual in-ring work and I was more engrossed with the characters when they were doing their thing outside the squared circle. But there's plenty of blood and gore on show particularly in the last Act and Jericho is having a wild time. The supernatural cult element is interesting but I'm not sure the budget or direction does it justice. Still, the final scene is mental.
Verdict: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
'Dark Match' received its World Premiere at Fantasia '24 on July 21st
-Gavin Logan
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