Fantastic Fest is an eight-day celebration of the best genre movies on the planet, including the new Resident Evil adaptation, while this year’s event also features a terrifying TV series that’s coming very soon.All that fun is housed at the Alamo Drafthouse cinema in Austin, Texas, where the spotlight is on horror, sci-fi, comedy, action, and fantasy, with a focus on the wonderful and weird.Award contenders are present, including Martin McDonaugh’s Wild Horse Nine, (receiving early buzz for John Malkovich’s performance), and controversial thriller Primetime (where Robert Pattinson plays To Catch a Predator host Chris Hanson). While the festival opens and closes with a pair of scary movies in the shape of creature feature Beware Boiúna, and survival horror The Swallow.Fantastic Fest is also screening the first two episodes of an eagerly anticipated Prime Video series from the twisted minds of Stephen King and Mike Flanagan, which we preview at the bottom of this page.But before that, you can scroll down for our most eagerly anticipated movies playing at the event, including some witch action, a festive vampire flick, and that eagerly anticipated video game movie…
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Resident Evil
Resident Evil has had a chequered past on the big-screen. There’s been seven live-action movies to date, most have received negative reviews, some have done well at the box office, but nothing has come close to being a definitive adaptation of the hugely popular game.
Zach Cregger – of Barbarian and Weapons fame – is hoping to change that with his forthcoming take on the material, which doesn’t adapt a specific game, but plays out in parallel to the events of Resident Evil 2, and endeavors to capture the essence of what makes the property so popular.
Plot sees Austin Abrams’ medical courier fighting for his life while making a delivery in Raccoon City, while early word suggests the movie leans into action as much as horror.
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The Heretiks
Set over one chaotic Halloween night, The Heretiks follows teenager Ada as she joins forces with a renegade witch to save her younger sister from a fanatical coven planning an apocalyptic sacrifice.
Written by Luke Piotrowski and Ben Collins (Super Dark Times, 2022’s Hellraiser), and directed by Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead, Siren), The Heretiks promises dark humor paired with an unhealthy dose of supernatural mayhem.
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Into The Sky
Into the Sky is a genre-bending feature that combines sci-fi, horror, and mystery, with buddy comedy, romance, and pretty much anything else writer-directors Evan Wolf Buxbourn and Drew Mylrea could fit into the film’s 97-minute runtime.
Veep star Sam Richardson plays the unfortunate protagonist who finds himself repeatedly abducted by aliens, and the story sees him falling for a troubled wedding planner, and teaming up with another abductee, played by comedy legend David Cross.
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Pathetic Fallacy
Pathetic Fallacy is another genre hybrid, blending romance, tragedy, grief, horror, and humor, through the story of an alternate universe filled with homicidal maniacs, talking creatures, and the possibility of bringing a loved one back from the dead.
The brainchild of director and co-writer Adam Egypt Mortimer – whose Some Kind of Hate, Archenemey, and Daniel Isn’t Real make him one of the most interesting genre filmmakers at work today –Pathetic Fallacy stars Scott ‘Kid Cudi’ Mescudi, Jessica Rothe, Travis Fimmel, and Natasha Lyone.
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Red Snow
Rebellious teenager Johanna dreams of becoming a vampire in Red Snow, but gets more than she bargained for when a bloodsucking Santa crashes her family Christmas.
That situation shifts from bad to worse when a vampire hunter and his psychotic apprentice arrive, in writer-director Ilja Rautsi’s feature debut, which promises bloody horror, and pitch-black Finnish laughs.
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Carrie Episodes 1 & 2
Much like the aforementioned Resident Evil, Stephen King’s iconic debut novel Carrie has had ups and downs when it comes to adaptation, from Brian De Palma’s 1976 masterpiece, to a misjudged 1999 sequel, a 2002 TV movie that’s probably most faithful to the source material, and a 2013 movie that proved to be instantly forgettable.
Now the troubled teen is heading to the small screen courtesy of Mike Flanagan, whose previous TV credits include The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bligh Manner, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of The House of Usher. Suggesting Carrie is in safe hands.
The series is very much a re-imagining that’s updated to the present-day, meaning technology and social media play a central role, and with Flanagan adapting King’s words, there’s sure to be no lack of scares. So we really can’t wait for contemporary Carrie, which then hits Prime Video on October 7.
Fantastic Fest runs from September 17 to 24, and you can find out more about the lineup at FF’s official site.
