“CRITTERS,” “PHANTOM,” zombies and more in the first wave of Fantasia 2019 titles!

By MICHAEL GINGOLD

The Fantasia International Film Festival is coming back to Montreal for its 23rd year, offering more than 130 frightening and fantastical features. The initial selection has just been announced; read on to find out more!

Fantasia 2019 takes place July 11-August 1 in the Canadian city, with the Frontières International Production Market being held July 18-21. This year’s festivities include a Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony for veteran genre producer Edward R. Pressman, including a 45th-anniversary screening of Brian De Palma’s classic PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE with star/songwriter Paul Williams also in attendance, and a 25th-anniversary 35mm showing of THE CROW. There will also be an orchestral concert of Joe Hisaishi music from the animated cinema of Hayao Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli.

Other features in the lineup are:

• The world premiere of CRITTERS ATTACK! (pictured), the latest in the toothy-alien franchise, directed by THE CLEANSE’s Bobby Miller
• The world premiere of Malik Bader’s crime thriller KILLERMAN, starring Liam Hemsworth
• The North American premiere of Shelagh McLeod’s drama ASTRONAUT, starring Richard Dreyfuss
• The North American premiere of the psychological thriller IDOL, from Fantasia Audience Award winner Lee Su-jin
• The world premiere of Malcolm Ingram and Sean Stanley’s PHANTOM OF WINNIPEG, a documentary about the fan community surrounding PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE

• Lee Won-tae’s action thriller THE GANGSTER, THE COP, THE DEVIL
• The world premiere of 8, a folkloric horror film from South African director Harold Holscher
• The North American premiere of Lee Kwon’s DOOR LOCK, a South Korean remake of Jaume Balagueró’s SLEEP TIGHT
• The world premiere of Brett and Drew Pierce’s witchcraft chiller WRETCHED
• The North American premiere of Ken Ninomiya’s youth-oriented mystery CHIWAWA
• The North American premiere of Jovanka Vuckovic’s postapocalyptic thriller RIOT GIRLS
• The Canadian premiere of Kim Bora’s award-winning coming-of-age drama HOUSE OF HUMMINGBIRD
• The North American premiere of Jon Mikel Caballero’s altered-time saga THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING WKND
• The Canadian premiere of Makoto Nagahisa’s offbeat youth movie WE ARE LITTLE ZOMBIES!
• The North American premiere of BRUCE McDONALD’S DREAMLAND, a vampire/crime film reuniting the director with his PONTYPOOL star Stephen McHattie
• The North American premiere of Miguel Llanso’s genre-blending JESUS SHOWS YOU THE WAY TO THE HIGHWAY
• The North American premiere of Dwein Baltazar’s ghost drama ODE TO NOTHING
• The Canadian premiere of Yi Okseop’s oddball film MAGGIE
• The Quebec premiere of Jennifer Reeder’s stylized teen thriller KNIVES AND SKIN
• The North American premiere of Lim Kyoung-tack’s revenge thriller NO MERCY
• The Quebec premiere of Kan Eguchi’s THE FABLE, a live-action adaptation of Katsuhisa Minami’s Yakuza manga
• The Canadian premiere of Jimmy Henderson’s human-hunting opus THE PREY
• The North American premiere of Gints Zilbalodis’ animated fantasy-adventure AWAY
• The Canadian premiere of Zhou Shengwei’s stop-motion fairy tale SHE
• The world premiere of a restoration of Marcell Jankovics’ animated folk fantasy SON OF THE WHITE MARE
• The North American premiere of 21st CENTURY GIRL, an anthology of shorts by Japanese women filmmakers
• The Canadian premiere of Ant Timpson’s black-comic shocker COME TO DADDY (reviewed here)
• The Canadian premiere of Abdelhamid Bouchnak’s DACHRA, Tunisia’s first horror film
• The Canadian premiere of DARLIN’, in which Pollyanna McIntosh reprises her role from THE WOMAN and directs as well
• The Canadian premiere of DEPRAVED, Larry Fessenden’s variation on the Frankenstein story
• The Canadian premiere of Mike Ahern and Enda Loughman’s Frontières-spawned genre comedy EXTRA ORDINARY
• The Quebec premiere of Hideki Takeuchi’s anachronistic fantasy/comedy FLY ME TO THE SAITAMA
• The Canadian premiere of Lee Cheuk-Pan’s stylized thriller G AFFAIRS
• The Quebec premiere of Mitsuaki Iwago’s slice-of-life dramedy THE ISLAND OF CATS
• The Quebec premiere of Abe Forsythe’s zombie comedy LITTLE MONSTERS
• The Quebec premiere of Takahiro Umehara’s multi-influenced fantasy THE MOON IN THE HIDDEN WOODS
• The international premiere of Chelsea Stardust’s devil-cult shocker SATANIC PANIC
• The Canadian premiere of Ulaa Salim’s provocative and timely thriller SONS OF DENMARK
• Special screening of Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s over-the-top SUPER DELUXE
• International premiere of TONE-DEAF, the latest blend of horror and black comedy from Richard Bates Jr.
• The Canadian premiere of Amp Wong and Zhao Ji’s fantasy-adventure WHITE SNAKE

The complete list of films will be announced in early July, after which tickets will become available. Keep your eyes here for updates, and head over to Fantasia’s official website for more information.