Fantastic Fest is one of the events that is pure bliss for any fan of genre cinema. If you love horror, sci-fi, foreign, action, and even adult-oriented movies from the 1970s, then Fantastic Fest is the place to let that freak flag fly high and be with like-minded individuals that truly appreciate the art of movies. All of the madness and fun will take place in Austin, TX starting on September 20th and run for 10 days at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar St. This year, which is the 14th annual festival of Fantastic-ness, captures the essence of the Korean movie scene with a ton of cool films being showcased from Korea, both new and old. This is something you won’t want to miss. The first wave of movies has been announced, including the World Premiere of the WWII horror movie called ‘OVERLORD‘ from J.J. Abrams. In addition to that film, Fantastic Fest will host Gareth Evans‘ horror movie ‘APOSTLE‘. Gareth gave us the amazing films ‘THE RAID‘ AND ‘THE RAID 2‘, so you can expect some insane fight scenes and horrific imagery. Alos, a film called ‘THE NIGHT COMES FOR US‘, which stars the badass from those ‘RAID‘ movies will be shown, meaning Iko Uwais will stun us once again with his amazing physical skills. If you were a fan of ‘THE GREASY STRANGLER‘, the director of that movie Jim Hosking has a new film called ‘AN EVENING WITH BEVERLY LUFF LINN‘, which is being described as a David Lynch meets John Waters type of movie. You had me at Greasy Strangler. Lastly, there are some vintage films coming through from AGFA (American Genre Film Archive), one of which has peaked my interest from the title alone – ‘MARY JANE’S NOT A VIRGIN ANYMORE‘. I have high hopes for this one. Below is the list of films with cast and crew info, along with a brief synopsis. Enjoy and hope to see you all there.

FIRST WAVE FILM LINEUP BELOW: 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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.