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Fantastic Fest 2018 Announces ‘Halloween’ for Opening Night Plus 56 More Titles

The first 58 titles playing this year’s fest tease a mix of horror, action, and Fantastic Fest’s patented nuttiness.
Halloween
By  · Published on August 22nd, 2018

The first 57 titles playing this year’s fest tease a mix of horror, action, and Fantastic Fest’s patented nuttiness.

I’m still recovering from the fun and fantastic films I saw up in Montreal during Fantasia 2018, but there’s no rest for the wicked — or for us movie lovers — so we’re already looking forward to next month’s Fantastic Fest in Austin!

The fest’s first and second title waves are overflowing with genre goodness starting with opening night’s US premiere of David Gordon Green’s Halloween — with Jamie Lee Curtis in attendance!

There are multiple other highlights to be excited about, so here’s just a few. Gareth Evans takes a break from his Raid franchise to deliver the cult thriller Apostle. Jeremy Saulnier’s Hold the Dark brings Alaskan terrors to Austin for its US premiere. My love for Korean cinema looks to be satiated with Cannes sensation Burning and a pair of little-seen genre films from the 70s and 80s. The Night Comes for Us and May the Devil Take You promise dark and brutal Indonesian action from Timo Tjahjanto. Producer J.J. Abrams delivers another Cloverfield-adjacent horror film with Overlord. And more, more, more!

The fest features a few films I’ve already seen and can vouch for including Cam, Luz, The Night Shifter, The Guilty, and One Cut of the Dead. They’re all good, and those last two are flat-out terrific. Most of the titles are new to me, though, and while I know very little about them — the best way to enter a theater — I’m no less excited.

And so much more… check out the fest’s official site and keep reading for a look at the first 57 titles playing Fantastic Fest 2018!

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THE ANGEL

Argentina, Spain, 2018

US Premiere, 120 min

Director – Luis Ortega

In 1971 Argentina, Carlitos is a baby-faced youth whose good looks match his confident swagger. Carlitos’ passion is stealing; the things he covets, he takes. But when he meets Ramon at his school, he embarks on his true calling: armed robberies and violent crimes.

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APOSTLE

United Kingdom, 2018

World Premiere, 129 min

Director – Gareth Evans

The year is 1905. Thomas Richardson travels to a remote island to rescue his sister after she’s kidnapped by a mysterious religious cult demanding a ransom for her safe return. It soon becomes clear that the cult will regret the day it baited this man, as he digs deeper and deeper into the secrets and lies upon which the commune is built.

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BAN GEUM-RYEON

South Korea, 1981

Regional Premiere, 90 min

Director – Kim Ki-young

From Park Chan-wook’s idol comes a twisted tale of lecherous lords and murderous mistresses. Presented outside of Korea for only the second time, Kim Ki-young’s masterpiece BAN GEUM-RYEON is a lush smorgasbord from Korea’s most demented cinematic mind.

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THE BASTARDS’ FIG TREE

Spain, 2017

Texas Premiere, 103 min

Director – Ana Murugarren

In Attendance – Director Ana Murugarren and Producer Joaquin Trincado

In Ana Murugarren’s whimsical THE BASTARDS’ FIG TREE, a fascist soldier in the Spanish Civil War becomes a fig-tree obsessed hermit after looking into the vengeful eyes of a young boy whose father and brother he had violently executed.

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AGFA and BLEEDING SKULL PRESENT: BLOOD LAKE

USA, 1987

World Premiere of New Preservation, 82 min

Director – Tim Boggs

The finest vacation from hell ever captured on VHS, rescued from the original 1″ master tapes!

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BLOODLINE

USA, 2018

World Premiere, 95 min

Director – Henry Jacobson

In Attendance – Director Henry Jacobson, Actor Seann William Scott, Producer Adam Hendricks, and Writer Avra Fox-Lerne

Evan (Seann William Scott) values family above all else, and anyone who gets between him, his wife, and newborn son learns that the hard way. But when it comes to violent tendencies, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

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THE BOAT

Malta, United Kingdom, 2018

World Premiere, 89 min

Director – Winston Azzopardi

In Attendance – Director/Co-Writer Winston Azzopardi and Actor/Co-Writer Joe Azzopardi

A lone fisherman on his daily run finds himself lost in a thick fog which proves impossible to navigate. The worst is yet to come when his encounter with a seemingly abandoned sailboat becomes a fight for survival against an enemy unknown.

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BORDER

Sweden, Denmark, 2018

Texas Premiere, 108 min

Director – Ali Abbasi

When a border guard with a sixth sense for identifying smugglers encounters the first person she cannot prove is guilty, she is forced to confront terrifying revelations about herself and humankind.

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BURNING

South Korea, 2018

Texas Premiere, 148 min

Director – Lee Chang-dong

Lee Chang-dong’s latest triumph weighs the delicate balance between creation and destruction as a writer runs into an old classmate who gets him caught up in a mystery bigger than both of them.

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CAM

USA, 2018

US Premiere, 94 min

Director – Daniel Goldhaber

In Attendance – Writer/Producer Isa Mazzei

Alice is a camgirl with principles. She doesn’t do public shows, she doesn’t tell her fans she loves them, and she doesn’t fake her orgasms. But when a mysterious lookalike takes over her channel, the rules no longer apply.

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CHAINED FOR LIFE

USA, 2018

Regional Premiere, 91 min

Director – Aaron Schimberg

In Attendance – Director Aaron Schimberg and Producer Vanessa McDonnell

Mabel (Jess Weixler, TEETH) and Rosenthal (Adam Pearson, UNDER THE SKIN) — both hired for their looks — meet on the set of a horror movie in this surreal examination of how those with physical differences are portrayed on film.

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CLIMAX

France, 2018

US Premiere, 96 min

Director – Gaspar Noé

Consistent provocateur Gaspar Noé outdoes himself with his latest feature CLIMAX, a trippy horror-musical featuring twenty sensuous dancers partying hard and living their best lives, until a bad batch of sangria plunges them into insanity.

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DEADLY GAMES

France, 1990

North American Premiere, 90 min

Director – René Manzor

In Attendance – René Manzor

DEADLY GAMES (3615 CODE PÈRE NOËL) is the terror version of HOME ALONE. A 9-year old kid in his house, tormented by a demented Santa Claus, fights for his survival by setting traps. Christmas will never be the same again.

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DOG

France, 2017

US Premiere, 87 min

Director – Samuel Benchetrit

A dark fable about loneliness, perfectly illustrated by Jacques Blanchot’s loss of humanity and slow transformation into a dog. Director Samuel Benchetrit shares a subtle commentary on our current world, and its social, interpersonal, and political issues.

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DOGMAN

Italy, France, 2018

Texas Premiere, 102 min

Director – Matteo Garrone

Marcello is a gentle dog groomer whose tumultuous friendship with violent neighbourhood thug Simone engulfs him in a violent series of events that will leave him forever scarred.

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DONNYBROOK

USA, 2018

US Premiere, 101 min

Director – Tim Sutton

In Attendance – Tim Sutton

Frank Grillo and Jamie Bell are just two of the desperate men and women headed for “The Donnybrook” — a no-holds-barred bare-knuckle fight contest with a $100,000 prize — in this midwestern gothic journey into a heartland of darkness.

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DRUG STORIES! NARCOTIC NIGHTMARES AND HALLUCINOGENIC HELLRIDES, FEATURING THE TRIP BACK – PRESENTED BY AGFA AND SOMETHING WEIRD

USA, 2018

World Premiere, 80 min

In Attendance – Something Weird Video’s Lisa Petrucci

AGFA and Something Weird present a compilation of classroom scare films about boozers, users and losers, all in brand new 2K preservations and featuring the legendary anti-drug diatribe known as THE TRIP BACK.

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AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN

USA, 2018

Texas Premiere, 108 min

Director – Jim Hosking

Fantastic Fest alumni director Jim Hosking (THE GREASY STRANGLER; RENEGADES) is back with a second feature as absurd, crazy, and funny as his first. Follow Lulu Danger’s very own revolution in a Lynch-meets-Waters run-down version of America.

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FERAL

Mexico, 2018

World Premiere, 97 min

Director – Andrés Kaiser

In Attendance – Andrés Kaiser

The mountains of Oaxaca harbor the remains of a ravaged and burnt shelter, once home to a psychoanalyst priest who used it to look after savage children, trying to re-integrate them into society. Through videotape diaries and interviews, the truth of what happened is shockingly revealed.

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FP2: BEATS OF RAGE

USA, 2018

World Premiere, 89 min

Director – Jason Trost

In Attendance – Jason Trost

JTRO gave Frazier Park everything he had, but his challenges aren’t over. Now he must journey into the destruction of The Waste to rekindle the passion he needs to win the ultimate Beat-Beat Revelation tournament and fulfill his destiny.

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GIRLS WITH BALLS

France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, 2018

World Premiere, 77 min

Director – Olivier Afonso

After winning a competition, a women’s volleyball team heads home aboard their minibus. Forced to take a shortcut, they end up at a tavern where they upset the local degenerate rednecks… and then the hunt begins.

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THE GUILTY

Denmark, 2018

Austin Premiere, 85 min

Director – Gustav Möller

A horrific crime; an emergency responder struggling to stay off the edge; a kidnapping victim calling in for help. This is all we’re going to tell you about first-time feature filmmaker Gustav Möller’s unmissable and gripping debut thriller.

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HALLOWEEN

USA, 2018

US Premiere, 105 min

Director – David Gordon Green

In Attendance – Jamie Lee Curtis and Producers Malek Akkad, Jason Blum and Bill Block

Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

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HOLD THE DARK

USA, 2018

US Premiere, 125 min

Director – Jeremy Saulnier

In- Attendance – Director Jeremy Saulnier and Co-Writer/Actor Macon Blair

A gripping psychological thriller unfolds in the treacherous Alaskan wilderness when a retired wolf expert is summoned to investigate a child’s disappearance.

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HOLIDAY

Denmark, The Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, 2018

Texas Premiere, 93 min

Director – Isabella Eklöf

The sun-drenched dream of the eponymous summer vacation has its dark side revealed in Isabella Eklöf’s powerful debut feature HOLIDAY, an unforgettable exploration of the fraught, brutal experience of young womanhood.

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HOUSE OF SWEAT AND TEARS

Spain, 2018

World Premiere, 104 min

Director – Sonia Escolano

In Attendance – Director Sonia Escolano

“She,” the leader of a violent cult, rules her flock with an iron fist to ensure they never stray from the path. But a series of events and a mysterious outsider threaten the pattern of their reality in this electrifying exploration of faith and belief.

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AGFA PRESENTS: I WAS A TEENAGE SERIAL KILLER

USA, 1993

World Premiere of New Restoration, 27 min

Director – Sarah Jacobson

Sarah Jacobson’s punk-spirited DIY films combine B-movie aesthetics and riot grrrl feminism in brand new 2K preservations.

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IN FABRIC

United Kingdom, 2018

US Premiere, 118 min

Director – Peter Strickland

Peter Strickland (THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY; BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO) returns to Fantastic Fest in full, flourishing style with IN FABRIC, a film that’s part surreal thriller, part giallo love letter, part fashion collage, and all hypnotic originality.

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THE INNOCENT

Switzerland, Germany, 2018

US Premiere, 113 min

Director – Simon Jaquemet

In this dark and fantastical tale about religion versus science and good versus evil, a woman’s faith is being tested as her ex-lover reappears in her life after twenty years in jail.

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KEEP AN EYE OUT

France, 2018

North American Premiere, 73 min

Director – Quentin Dupieux

An absurd all-night interrogation set in a camp ’70s police station, Quentin Dupieux’s latest opus, KEEP AN EYE OUT, is a celebration of his own brand of quirky, offbeat humor, performed by France’s most refreshing comedic talents.

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KNIFE + HEART

France, 2018

North American Premiere, 102 min

Director – Yann Gonzalez

In Attendance – Director Yann Gonzalez

In Yann Gonzalez’s second feature, a masked serial killer stalks a producer and her film company in this love letter to European giallo, American grindhouse cinema, and ‘70s gay porn.

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LADYWORLD

USA, 2018

US Premiere, 93 min

Director – Amanda Kramer

In Attendance – Director Amanda Kramer and Actor/Co-Editor/Production Designer Noel David Taylor

In Amanda Kramer’s daring low-budget debut LADYWORLD, a birthday party quickly devolves into chaos when a mysterious earthquake traps eight teenage girls alone in a house, challenging their friendships, identities, and eventually their grip on reality.

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LAIKA

Czech Republic, 2017

Regional Premiere, 88 min

Director – Aurel Klimt

In Attendance – Director Aurel Klimt

This is the story of Laïka the space dog who, unlike in real life, did not die aboard Sputnik 2 in 1957. In this bizarre and charming stop-motion musical, Laïka crashes on a peculiar planet where she meets new friends.

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LUZ

Germany, 2018

US Premiere, 70 min

Director – Tilman Singer

In Attendance – Director Tilman Singer

Luz enters a police station at night to report an assault. As the interrogation progresses, it becomes clear a demonic entity wants to possess her in this audacious, psychotropic horror film shot on 16mm.

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MADAM YANKELOVA’S FINE LITERATURE CLUB

Israel, 2018

International Premiere, 90 min

Director – Guilhad Emilio Schenker

Desperate, aging, Sophie only needs to seduce one more handsome victim – excuse me, date – to become a worry-free Lordess in MADAM YANKELOVA’S FINE LITERATURE CLUB, Israeli director Guilhad Emilio Schenker’s delightfully twisted debut feature.

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MANIAC

USA, 1980

World Premiere of New 4K Restoration, 88 min

Director – William Lustig

In Attendance – Director William Lustig

The 4K restoration of grindhouse auteur Bill Lustig’s 1980 slasher landmark features splatter SFX artist Tom Savini’s gnarliest work, as well as one of horror’s finest, sweatiest performances from legendary character actor/co-writer Joe Spinell.

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AGFA PRESENTS: MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE

USA, 1997

World Premiere of New Restoration, 98 min

Director – Sarah Jacobson

Sarah Jacobson’s punk-spirited DIY films combine B-movie aesthetics and riot grrrl feminism in brand new 2K preservations.

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MAY THE DEVIL TAKE YOU

Indonesia, 2018

North American Premiere, 110 min

Director – Timo Tjahjanto

At her father’s deathbed, Alfie learns that she and her family must give the Devil his due when he comes to collect on the pact made years before in this electrifying horror film from Indonesian master storyteller Timo Tjahjanto.

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MURDER ME, MONSTER

Argentina, France, Chile, 2018

North American Premiere, 109 min

Director – Alejandro Fadel

Visual horror masterpiece MURDER ME, MONSTER lures you into the fascinating and opaque underworld of serial murder, supernatural obsession, metaphysical hallucinations, forbidden love – and one nightmarishly gross monster.

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THE NIGHT COMES FOR US

Indonesia, 2018

World Premiere, 121 min

Director – Timo Tjahjanto

A former triad enforcer must protect a young girl while trying to escape his former gang, setting off a violent battle on the streets of Jakarta.

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THE NIGHT SHIFTER

Brazil, 2018

US Premiere, 110 min

Director – Dennison Ramalho

An attendant at a busy morgue who can also converse with the dead puts his loved ones in peril using his forbidden knowledge for vengeance in Dennison Ramalho’s (NINJAS; ABCS OF DEATH 2) twisted and gleefully icky feature debut.

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ONE CUT OF THE DEAD

Japan, 2018

Texas Premiere, 96 min

Director – Shinichiro Ueda

A filmmaker sets out to shoot a zombie film in an abandoned factory, but something is lurking on the outside. Is it a zombie apocalypse or just another shoot gone wrong?

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OPEN 24 HOURS

USA, Serbia, 2018

North American Premiere, 100 min

Director – Padraig Reynolds

In Attendance – Director Padraig Reynolds

A young woman who had previously set her serial killer boyfriend on fire is now seeking normalcy by getting a job working the overnight shift at a 24-hour convenience store, where things are most definitely not going to be normal.

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OVERLORD

USA, 2018

World Premiere, TBD min

Director – Julius Avery

In Attendance – Director Julius Avery and cast including Jovan Adepo, Wyatt Russell, Pilou Asbaek, John Magaro, and Mathilde Ollivier

In the upcoming WWII horror-thriller OVERLORD, a group of American paratroopers drop into Nazi-occupied France on the eve of D-Day. As they struggle to carry out their seemingly impossible mission, they discover a secret Nazi lab carrying out terrifying and bizarre supernatural experiments.

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PIERCING

USA, 2018

Texas Premiere, 81 min

Director – Nicolas Pesce

From the twisted mind of Nicolas Pesce (THE EYES OF MY MOTHER) comes a provocative two-hander chamberpiece – a tense battle of wits and desire between prostitute and trick, predator and prey.

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QUIT YOUR LIFE

South Korea, 1971

North American Premiere, 82 min

Director – Park Nou-sik

Presented in English for the first time, actor-director Park Nou-sik balances the scales of justice as he stalks around Korea with his noose of judgment in the relentless revenge drama QUIT YOUR LIFE.

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SAVAGE

France, 2018

World Premiere, 83 min

Director – Vincent Mariette

In Attendance – Director Mincent Mariette

Summer is in full swing and men are going missing. People are talking about a leopard on the loose in the area. A mysterious horror writer is in the bungalow next door. And Laura’s most disturbing summer has only just begun.

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SCHOOL’S OUT

France, 2018

North American Premiere, 103 min

Director – Sébastien Marnier

In this dread-soaked cerebral thriller, a handsome young substitute teacher gets in over his head when taking on a class of gifted students after their former teacher’s dramatic in-class suicide.

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THE STANDOFF AT SPARROW CREEK

USA, 2018

US Premiere, 88 min

Director – Henry Dunham

Over the course of one grueling night, a militia tears itself apart as it searches for the perpetrator of a mass shooting among its own.

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STARFISH

United Kingdom, USA, 2018

World Premiere, 99 min

Director – A.T. White

A girl. A mixtape. And Armageddon. A uniquely honest portrayal of loss as a young woman struggles with the death of her best friend while dealing with the horrific Lovecraftian end of the world, driven by a beautiful indie music soundtrack.

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SUDDEN FURY

Canada, 1975

World Premiere of New Restoration, 91 min

Director – Brian Damude

When a well-intentioned bystander rushes to the scene of a violent car wreck, he finds himself embroiled in a hot mess of desperate homicide in this wickedly taut and unpredictable thriller, recently rescued from Canadian obscurity and restored by exploitation video label Vinegar Syndrome.Red Dots

TERRIFIED

Argentina, 2017

US Premiere, 87 min

Director – Demián Rugna

In Attendance – Director Demián Rugna

Strange things are going on in a Buenos Aires neighborhood. Demián Rugna’s constantly surprising and truly spine-chilling horror film has one goal: to scare the shit out of everyone.

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TUMBBAD

India, 2018

US Premiere, 108 min

Directors – Rahi Anil Barve & Adesh Prasad

In Attendance – Co-Director/Writer Adesh Prasad

In the rural village of Tumbbad, a decaying castle hides an immeasurable ancestral fortune guarded by something ancient, sinister, and monstrous. Vinayak thinks he can control it, but how long will it be until his own greed destroys everything he’s built?

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THE UNTHINKABLE

Sweden, 2018

World Premiere, 129 min

Director – Crazy Pictures

Something unthinkable is happening in Sweden. It starts with a few isolated incidents but suddenly, it’s all over the country. There are some who were prepared and others who weren’t. Ready or not, things will go out with a bang!

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VIOLENCE VOYAGER

Japan, 2018

Regional Premiere, 83 min

Director – Ujicha

En route to visit a friend in another village, two kids go looking for a fabled shortcut through the mountain. Instead, they stumble upon an amusement park called Violence Voyager, and that’s when everything goes to shit.

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WHEN THE TREES FALL

Ukraine, Poland, Macedonia, 2018

North American Premiere, 88 min

Director – Marysia Nikitiuk

In Attendance – Director Marysia Nikitiuk

Scar and Larysa are desperately in love and suffocating under the tradition and archaic demands of their Ukrainian village. When the frustrations of each finally detonate, their world and the lives of those surrounding them are tragically shattered.

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THE WOLF HOUSE

Chile, 2018

North American Premiere, 73 min

Directors – Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña

In Attendance – Director Cristóbal León

An animated tale, supposedly restored from the archives of a German colony by the Chilean government, THE WOLF HOUSE is the unsettling story of Maria, punished with a hundred nights alone in a cabin in the woods.

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Fantastic Fest 2018

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Rob Hunter has been writing for Film School Rejects since before you were born, which is weird seeing as he's so damn young. He's our Chief Film Critic and Associate Editor and lists 'Broadcast News' as his favorite film of all time. Feel free to say hi if you see him on Twitter @FakeRobHunter.