The 28th Fantasia Festival (Fantasia 2024) is on the way, and the first wave of premieres has been revealed ahead of the full lineup reveal on July 3, 2024.
Fantasia 2024 will run from July 18 through August 4, 2024, returning yet again at the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screens and events at Montreal’s Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée.
Here’s the first wave of Fantasia 2024 premieres.
Fantasia 2024 Premieres
Witchboard
The Mask and The Blob director Chuck Russell reimagines the cult 1986 movie Witchboard.
Emily (Madison Iseman, Annabelle Comes Home) and her fiancé Christian (Aaron Dominguez, Only Murderers in the Building) discover an ancient Wiccan artifact, a pendulum board, as they prepare to open a bistro in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Emily becomes obsessed with the board’s powers, exposing her to the ancient spirit of the Queen of Witches. Desperate to help his fiancé, Christian seeks the advice of occult expert Alexander Babtiste (Jamie Campbell Bower, Stranger Things), but Babtiste has dark secrets of his own.
Shelby Oaks
YouTuber Chris Stuckmann directs a paranormal horror where a woman’s desperate search for her long-lost sister, a famous YouTuber who investigated paranormal happenings, falls into obsession upon realizing that the imaginary demon from their childhood may have been real.
Infinite Summer
Miguel Llansó’s trippy Infinite Summer sees Mia and her friends, on a summer break, try a meditation app that that’s somehow related to the operating system of the Tallinn Zoo, changing in the body chemistry of its users into something between pollen and cosmic dust. Mia will need to choose between saving her friends or joining them.
Confession
Nobuhiro Yamashita directs this single location thiller. Every Winter since Sayuri’s tragic disappearance sixteen years ago, Asai and Jiyong climb the mountain where it happened to honor her memory. However, an intense blizzard and a catastrophic injury convince Jiyong he’s done for and, before forcing Asai to leave him to die, he shares a devastating revelation. Asai returns, however, after finding a nearby cabin and now, isolated for the night, the two have to deal with Jiyong’s not-so-last words… the hard way.
Rita
Rita is the follow-up to Jayro Bustamante’s great horror La Llorona and is based on a harrowing real-life event wherein 41 young women needlessly burned to death inside a Guatemalan orphanage in the midst of a protest about inhumane conditions.
This Man
A blend of East and West where an inexplicable wave of tragic deaths plunges two investigators into the heart of a fateful whirlwind, where logic and facts have no value as a far-fetched urban legend seems to come true. A mother plagued by terrifying dreams, seeing her friends and colleagues disappear one after the other, and her family witness the horror unfold.
Dark Match
Wrestling legend dips into the horror genre once more in this grappling movie infused with cult horror. When small-time wrestlers get a big payday for a private gig, they jump at the chance for fame and fortune, but the event, run by a mysterious leader who calls himself “The Prophet,” demands plenty of blood on the mats and involves a sinister, demonic deal.
VOIVOID
From the moment they exploded out of Jonquière in the early ‘80s, Voivod have been widely hailed as one of the most original and influential metal bands in the world. Years in the making and produced with full access to the band’s archives, Felipe Belalcazar’s illuminating VOIVOD: WE ARE CONNECTEDbrings the story of a groundbreaking 40+ year career to the screen with energy, insight, and a palpable sense of love.
Fly Me to the Saitama: From Biwa Lake With Love
A sequel to Fantasia fave Fly Me to the Saitama, this movie is a completely original story independent from the ’80s manga from which it takes its name.
Hunting Daze
Annick Blanc’s highly anticipated debut feature finally makes its way home. HUNTING DAZE takes us on a wild trip, following Nina’s (Nahéma Ricci, ANTIGONE) journey as she takes refuge with a rowdy group of men after being stranded in a northern forest. The film plays like a drunken fever dream, exposing a microcosm of masculinity in which one’s desire to belong threatens to upend the group.
Dead Dead Full Dead
Junior police officers Balraam and Zubeida make a cute couple, but not the most diligent detectives. Called to a posh apartment tower to investigate a reported murder, the seemingly straightforward case quickly becomes a conundrum that would confuse even Sherlock Holmes. When the victim herself returns from the afterlife, matters become even more muddled, and soon enough the question isn’t who killed her… but who didn’t?!
Hell Hole
A road trip through Canadian oil fields conjured up fantasies of secrets deep in the dirt for the Adams family (Hellbender), and inspired them to create HELL HOLE, an indie rock-n-roll monster movie set at a far-away fracking site.
Mash Ville
In this Korean comedy, someone has died after drinking the bootleg liquor brewed by Se-jong and his two younger brothers. While on a mission to retrieve their deadly booze before another person perishes from it, they come across two homicidal cultists who are terrorizing the villagers.
Penalty Loop
Left bereft by the wanton and inexplicable murder of his girlfriend, Jun chooses his own justice, carefully planning the perfect murder of the man who led him to become what he wants to eliminate. Once the vengeance is consummated, he wakes up with a confirmed sense of déjà-vu and his target alive and well, repeating the same routine as the day before.
The Dead Thing
A young woman, lost in a series of meaningless connections through dating apps, falls in love with a charismatic man who is hiding a dark secret that turns her affair into a dangerous obsession.
Electrophilia
A woman wakes up from a coma six weeks after being struck by lightning and finds herself compulsively drawn to electric currents as her body’s workings begin to change. She soon joins an underground support group of strike survivors led by a dangerously charismatic doctor, opening a doorway into unexpected new explorations.
A Samurai in Time
An Edo-period swordsman is flung into the future, arriving in modern Kyoto to confront utter confusion—and an acting career. The medieval warrior transported to modern times is a variant of the time-travel subgenre.
