This year marks the 15th anniversary of Fantastic Fest, the largest genre film festival in the United States. Founded in 2005 by Tim League, Paul Alvarado-Dykstra, Tim McCanlies and Harry Knowles (the latter of whom is no longer associated with the festival), Fantastic Fest focuses on genre films such as horror, science fiction, fantasy, action, Asian, and cult, making it somewhat of a safe haven for genre aficionados. Over the course of eight days more than 80 feature films and 75 short films screen for the festival-goers hungry for some of the weirdest (and Fantastic) films cinema has to offer.
In celebration of this momentous occasion, we dug through the archives of Fantastic Fest’s previous screenings to reminisce about the best horror films to screen there each year. First up, 2005!
Wolf Creek | Pulse | Marebito
Winner: Wolf Creek
A film festival’s first year is more of a dry run for future years. This is evidenced by the small amount of films that screened at Fantastic Fest’s debut. The most notable horror films to screen that year were a dismal J-horror remake, an early Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On) film and Greg McLean’s (The Belko Experiment, Rogue) feature directorial debut. It should come as no surprise that Wolf Creek wins this round. It’s a brutal, terrifying Australian horror film that pulls no punches.
Winner: Bug
Many will cry foul that Bong Joon-ho’s brilliant The Host doesn’t win out here, but William Friedkin’s (The Exorcist) adaptation of Tracy Letts’ play of the same name is a masterful examination of paranoid schizophrenia that is as compelling as it is disturbing (Ashley Judd’s climactic “queen mother bug” monologue is one for the books). It’s just too bad the marketing for the film sold it as an actual killer bug movie. Audiences rewarded the deception with an all-too-rare F CinemaScore.
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End | Spiral | Inside
Winner: Inside
Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s contribution to the New French Extremity movement is considered one of the best horror films ever made, and for good reason. This home invasion film about a woman (Béatrice Dalle) who will stop at nothing to get the baby inside her target (Alysson Paradis) is a blood-soaked extravaganza that should satisfy even the hungriest of gorehounds. Stay far away from that American remake, though.
Deadgirl | Let the Right One In | Martyrs
Winner: Martyrs
Two years in a row of French films! Though Tomas Alfredson’s swedish vampire tale is wonderful, it doesn’t have the lasting impact that Pascal Laugier’s polarizing Martyrs, which is why it gets the slight edge. Can you imagine seeing this film in a packed theater?
Antichrist | Daybreakers | The Human Centipede (First Sequence) | [REC] 2 | Trick ‘r Treat | Zombieland
Winner: [REC] 2
Sure, [REC] is a masterpiece of Spanish horror (and found footage) cinema, but the sequel is arguably the superior film as it expands upon the mythology of the original and adds in a nice third-act twist. Plus, it’s scary.
Hatchet II | Let Me In | Mother’s Day | Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Winner: Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale
Jalmari Helnader’s debut feature manages to do the impossible: make a good horror film about a murderous Santa Claus. Sure, we all get a good laugh out of Santa’s Slay, but Rare Exports takes a less cheesy approach to the material, injecting some dark comedy into the Christmas horror of it all.
The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) | The Innkeepers | You’re Next
Winner: You’re Next
Festival-goers fortunate enough to see Adam Wingard’s You’re Next during its 2011 festival run were lucky souls indeed, seeing as how the film didn’t see a theatrical release until August of 2013. This clever little subversion of the home invasion sub-genre was a crowd-pleaser of the highest order, giving audiences a heroine (Sharni Vinson) they could really root for.
American Mary | The Collection | Frankenweenie | Paranormal Activity 4 | Sinister
Winner: American Mary
The Soska Sisters’ sophomore feature (following their 2009 film Dead Hooker in a Trunk) boasts a career-defining performance from Katherine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) as Mary, a medical student who begins performing underground body modification surgeries in order to pay her way through school. It’s not an easy watch (especially as it dabbles into rape revenge territory), but it’s not a film you’ll soon forget.
All the Boys Love Mandy Lane | Cheap Thrills | Escape From Tomorrow | The Sacrament | We Are What We Are
Winner: All the Boys Love Mandy Lane
Poor Jonathan Levine (Long Shot, 50/50). His All the Boys Love Mandy Lane made waves at TIFF in 2006 and earned positive word-of-mouth. Unfortunately, it was quickly secured for distribution by Senator Entertainment, which went bankrupt shortly thereafter and left the film in limbo for seven years. It finally saw a limited theatrical release in October of 2013, but not before one final festival screening at Fantastic Fest in September of that same year. Seven years of hype hurt the film’s reception, but this doesn’t mean that Mandy Lane isn’t capable of standing on its own. It’s one of the more stylish slashers to be get released in the past 15 years.
The Babadook | Dead Snow 2: Red Vs. Dead | It Follows | Horns | Housebound | Spring | The Town That Dreaded Sundown | Tusk | V/H/S Viral
Winner: It Follows
2014 was a pretty phenomenal year for Fantastic Fest, as evidenced by all of the films listed above. This is the year that Fantastic Fest clearly established itself as a prestigious genre film festival. While Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook is a standout of that year, it’s David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows that emerges victorious. This insanely terrifying film is not only the best film of the festival that year, but it’s also one of the best films, horror or otherwise, of the decade.
Baskin | Bone Tomahawk | The Devil’s Candy | The Blackcoat’s Daughter | The Invitation | Southbound | The Witch
Winner: The Invitation
You need only look at my review for Karyn Kusama’s superb The Invitation to know that, even amidst Oz Perkins’ chilling The Blackcoat’s Daughter (then still called February) and Robert Eggers’ The Witch, I consider it one of the very best films of the 21st century. This tense tale of a dinner party gone wrong plays with viewer expectations masterfully before a third-act reveal that blows everything up in the viewer’s face. After the poor critical and commercial reception of Aeon Flux and Jennifer’s Body (the latter of which has received a reappraisal in the past year or so), Kusama needed a hit. The Invitation was that hit.
The Autopsy of Jane Doe | The Girl With All the Gifts | The Lure | Phantasm: Ravager | Raw | Better Watch Out | The Void
Winner: Better Watch Out
If anyone else was writing this article, Raw would win this round. But it’s me, and that means Better Watch Out (my review), Chris Peckover’s twisted take on Home Alone, wins out. This ultra-dark comedy manages to subvert viewer expectations multiple times throughout its 89-minute runtime (if they haven’t watched the spoiler-filled trailer, that is), inspiring gasps and guffaws in the process.
Anna and the Apocalypse | The Endless | Gerald’s Game | Good Manners | Revenge | Thelma | Thoroughbreds | Tigers Are Not Afraid
Winner: Tigers Are Not Afraid
It’s a shame that it took so long for Issa López’s dark fable this long to get released (it premiered on Shudder just last week), because it’s one of the more touching horror(ish) films to emerge from Fantastic Fest since its inception. Tigers Are Not Afraid tells the story of five children trying to survive the drug wars taking place in Mexico, expertly blending horror, fantasy and reality into a near-perfect film.
Apostle | Cam | Climax | Halloween | In Fabric | Knife + Heart | Lords of Chaos | One Cut of the Dead | Overlord | The Perfection | Terrified
Winner: The Perfection
The word is still out on what will be the best horror film at Fantastic Fest’s fifteenth year, but there is no shortage of horror films to choose from. Keep an eye out for reviews from Meagan Navarro and myself over the next week to see which films earn our recommendations!