Fantastic Fest 2024 is fast approaching, and Loud and Clear are attending this year! Here’s a list of 15 movies to watch at the festival.
The US’ biggest genre festival, Fantastic Fest, returns once again to its home in Austin, Texas, and we can’t wait to see what treasures await us. Whether you’re a fan of thrillers, horror, or comedy, Fantastic Fest offers a wide selection of movies, and this year’s lineup looks to be one of the best yet. The festival will take place from September 19th – 26th, 2024, we will be covering the festival in hopes of discovering some unseen masterpieces. Here are 15 movies to watch at Fantastic Fest 2024!
1. A DIFFERENT MAN
Director & Writer: Aaron Schimberg
Country: USA
After making its way around the festival circuit, A Different Man garnered high praise for its committed performances and compelling storytelling, making it a must-see at Fantastic Fest this year. The film centers around a man (Sebastian Stan) with neurofibromatosis who has a medical operation to change his appearance. However, after the procedure, he starts to miss the life he once knew and tries desperately to regain it.
2. ANORA
Director & Writer: Sean Baker
Country: USA
Ever since Anora premiered at Cannes, it’s been considered by many to be one of the best features of the 2024 thus far. Sean Baker’s latest project also currently holds an impressive 97 percent on the Tomatometer, which attests to the film’s high quality. Anora tells the story of a young sex worker (Mikey Madison) who falls in love with and weds a 21-year-old Russian man named Ivan (Mark Eydelshteyn). However, her new beau is the son of an oligarch, and his parents are highly disapproving of their marriage and attempt to dissolve it.
3. APARTMENT 7A
Director: Natalie Erika James
Writers: Natalie Erika James, Christian White, Skylar James and based on the novel by Ira Levin
Country: USA
It’s no surprise that Apartment 7A is my most anticipated film of Fantastic Fest and that it has sparked curiosity for many, considering that it’s a prequel to one of the best horror films ever made, Rosemary’s Baby. Plus, the ever-talented Julia Garner stars in the leading role. Need we say more? Directed by Natalie Erika James and set in 1965, the film follows a dancer named Terry who moves into a lavish New York apartment only to be haunted by an evil spirit who inhabits the residence.
4. CLOUD
Director & Writer: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Country: Japan
Kiyoshi Kurosawa has a true gift for storytelling. The filmmaker’s ability to build such an unsettling atmosphere subtly through his impeccable use of tension and dread continues to draw people to his masterful work. Any new release from the Japanese director understandably pulls in a crowd, and the premise of his latest horror thriller Cloud sounds exceptionally enthralling. Factory worker Ryōsuke Yoshii (Masaki Suda) makes a good living reselling items he buys on the cheap for a much higher price online. After he and his girlfriend move to a more luxurious house outside of the city, strange occurrences start to take place, and Ryōsuke becomes an enemy target.
5. GAZER
Director: Ryan J. Sloan
Writers: Ariella Mastroianni, Ryan J. Sloan
Country: USA
I’m a sucker for mystery-driven stories, so as soon as I read the premise for Ryan J. Sloan’s feature, Gazer, I was all in. Frankie (Ariella Mastroianni) suffers from a condition known as dyschronometria. This medical condition impacts her ability to assess the duration of time that has passed, and is affecting her livelihood. After accepting an ambiguous job that requires her to transport an unidentified parcel, her life is turned upside down when the details behind the package are revealed, and she is exposed to a world even darker than the one she knew before.
6. NEVER LET GO
Director: Alexandre Aja
Writers: Kevin Coughlin, Ryan Grassby
Country: USA
Seasoned genre director Alexandre Aja returns to horror again with his latest feature, Never Let Go. The film follows a mother (Halle Berry) and her two sons, haunted by a sinister entity throughout many years of their lives. When one of the boys starts questioning the authenticity of the evil presence, things take a sinister turn and the trio must fight to stay alive.
7. PÁRVULOS
Director & Writer: Isaac Ezban
Country: Mexico
Mexican filmmaker Isaac Ezban is back to Fantastic Fest with a movie that was seven years in the making. Párvulos manages to be, at the same time, a pandemic thriller, a coming of age story, a zombie flick, and a dystopian gem about two brothers. The film takes place in a near future, and in his review of the movie above, our writer Maxance Vincent calls it ” a new vision on the Romerian Zombie that’s both unflinchingly violent and deeply human.” If you attend the screening knowing nothing else about it, you’re going to have a blast. (Serena Seghedoni)
8. PLANET B
Director & Writer: Aude Léa Rapin
Countries: France, Belgium
Fresh from the Venice Film Festival, where it opened Critics’ Week this year, Planete B (Planète B) brings its intriguing premise to Fantastic Fest. The movie takes place in France, 2039 and starts from a simple premise. A group of activists are on the run; one night, they simply disappear. One of them is Julia Bombarth, who awakens to find herself trapped in the unfamiliar, titular world. And if that premise wasn’t enough, Planet B’s protagonist is played by the one and only Adèle Exarchopoulos (The Animal Kingdom, Passages). This one should definitely be on your watchlists! (Serena Seghedoni)
9. SISTER MIDNIGHT
Director: Karan Kandhari
Countries: UK, Northern Ireland, India, Sweden
Think Ana Lily Amirpour‘s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, but set in Mumbai and with a quirkier sense of humor. Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight, which premiered in Cannes earlier this year, revolves around a young woman named Uma (a superb Radhika Apte) who quite simply refuses to conform to the role that society gives her. Having just gotten married to Gopal (Ashok Pathak), our 30-something protagonist moves into her new house only to realize that married life isn’t at all what she thought it would be, and that her stranger of a husband doesn’t even seem interested in her. As the film unfolds, we watch her take a wild journey that feels absolutely her own, and that will take you to truly unexpected and even supernatural places. Not to be missed! (Serena Seghedoni)
10. SPERMAGEDDON
Directors: Tommy Wirkola and Rasmus A. Sivertsen
Writers: Tommy Wirkola, Jesper Sundnes, Geir Vegar Hoel
Country: Norway
If the title Spermageddon isn’t enough to pique your interest in this film, then the creativity and distinctiveness behind co-directors Tommy Wirkola (Violent Night) and Rasmus A. Sivertsen’s animated comedy musical will undoubtedly grab your attention. The feature has two storylines, one of which showcases a couple partaking in sex for the first time, while the other demonstrates the egg fertilization process in a comedic, satirical way. Our Loud and Clear EIC Serena reviewed the movie, and stated that “Sivertsen and Wirkola deliver a film that’s as full of witty puns and pop culture references as you’d expect it to be, but that’s also – surprisingly, given the subject matter – grounded enough to make you care about its characters.” This makes us even more eager to add this unique feature to our must-see watchlist!
11. STRANGE HARVEST: OCCULT MURDER IN THE INLAND EMPIRE
Director & Writer: Stuart Ortiz
Country: USA
Among all the films premiering at Fantastic Fest, Stuart Ortiz’s feature debut Strange Harvest: Occult Murder in the Inland Empire is by far one of the most alluring. The story details a horrific 2010 ritual murder committed in California that is potentially connected to another crime that took place many years prior. This is bound to get the attention of true crime enthusiasts, and the still image on Fantastic Fest’s website revealing the presumed masked killer is truly terrifying.
12. TERRIFIER 3
Director & Writer: Damien Leone
Country: USA
Just when we thought Terrifier couldn’t get any bloodier or sadistic, director Damien Leone deemed Terrifier 3 the goriest film of the franchise yet. In the third installment, which is set during Christmas time, kick-ass final girl Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and her younger brother Jonathan (Elliott Fullam) will be in for a not-so-festive surprise when the mischievous, cunning Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton) returns once again to rain hell on Miles County. If the teaser trailer is anything to go by, Terrifier 3 is sure to turn the stomachs of even the biggest horror fiends.
13. UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
Director & Writer: Matthew Rankin
Country: Canada
In the Cannes-premiering Universal Language, director Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century) imagines a scenario where Teheran, Iran and Winnipeg, Canada have been merged into this one place, where its ensemble of characters go about their daily lives, which become more absurd by the minute. Think gradeschoolers on a mission to retrieve money that’s frozen in ice, an improvised tour guide taking turists around, a man headed to see his mother after leaving his meaningless job as a Québecois government officer, and more. It’s a surreal, unapologetically original film that you’ll remember for a long time. (Serena Seghedoni)
14. THE WILD ROBOT
Director & Writer: Chris Sanders and original writer Peter Brown
Country: USA
Did you really think we would miss the chance to include a DreamWorks animation feature in our most anticipated Fantastic Fest festival list? I think not! Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot tells the story of a robot named Roz who finds himself stuck on a remote island and is faced with the challenge of adjusting to his new surroundings while making friends along the way. Not only is the animation in the film’s trailer truly stunning, but its impressive cast, consisting of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, and Bill Nighy, amplifies its appeal.
15. V/H/S BEYOND
Directors: Jordan Downey, Christian Long & Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kate Siegel, and Jay Chee
Writers: Evan Dickson, Jordan Downey, Mike Flanagan, Christian Long, Justin Long, Justin Martinez, Virat Pal, Kevin Stewart, Benjamin A. Turner
Countries: USA/India
Over the years, the anthology franchise V/H/S has gained recognition for featuring a diverse group of writers and directors who have a knack for bringing original horror stories to life. V/H/S Beyond is no exception to that rule, as the seventh installment features a segment directed and written by horror aficionado Justin Long. Genre fans can also rejoice as there’s a story directed by Kate Siegel that was written by her horror connoisseur husband, Mike Flanagan. Halloween has come early this year, and we cannot wait to see what all the talent involved has in store for us!
Fantastic Fest 2024 will take place at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar cinema in Austin, TX on September 19 – 26, 2024.
