SLA at Fantasia: \’Oddity\’ Review

Reviews /

Well, it looks like Fantasia saved the best for last! We closed out the festival this year with Oddity, a new horror movie from writer-director Damian Mc Carthy (Caveat) that I\’m hoping blows up as much as Longlegs did. It\’s deserving of all the hype Longlegs had and then some. I haven’t felt this much palpable tension and in-your-bones dread in a movie theatre since Skinamarink. But whereas that was an experimental Rorschach blot of a movie with little plot, Oddity is a genuine, old-school scary movie. I won’t spoil too many plot details, because I think you should try to go into this one as blind (pun intended) as possible. I\’ll just say that the story involves a house, a murder, a blind medium who can commune with objects, and a creepy human-sized wooden doll (that is used to exquisite effect). I’ll say it right off the bat: this is my favourite horror movie of the year so far and one of my favourite horror movies in recent memory. As a pretty seasoned horror viewer, I sometimes feel like a buzzkill when friends or people I know heap praise on new horror releases that often just don’t do it for me. But I can’t remember the last time I felt this enamored of a modern-day horror movie. I really just loved everything about it, from the excellent performances (especially from Carolyn Bracken) to the sound design to the narrative choices and structure to its unabashed oddness. It all just works. Admittedly, I am a sucker for a supernatural horror story, and I love ghost stories in particular. I think they can be some of the most effective vehicles through which to not only scare the daylights out of people but also tickle the parts of our psyches that are rooted in the most primal instincts and emotions we have. A ghost story isn’t just cheap thrill or senseless gore—it’s a story, after all. And we are storytelling animals first and foremost. The immediate touchstone for me here is Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. No one understands the real and figurative power of a ghost story better than Flanagan. Watching Oddity, I felt a kinship between the film and Flanagan’s work in tone, atmosphere, and subject matter. But Oddity is also very much its own thing, and it feels like a breath of fresh air in today\’s horror landscape. The movie is supernatural and spooky in a way that feels reminiscent of the heyday of 2000s horror, but it’s also darker and weirder and still modern-feeling. And it’s very funny! There were so many moments that had our whole theatre laughing, but the most brilliant part was that none of the film\’s dark humour detracted from the tension or scares. Let’s talk about the scares, because I\’m sure everyone wants to know just how scary this movie is. Obviously, this is highly subjective, but I felt genuinely on edge watching Oddity in a way that is rare for me. Part of that is that the movie makes masterful use of jump scares. While “jump scare” has become almost a dirty word among horror aficionados—connoting a cheap and easy way to scare an audience—there is nothing quite like the involuntary and visceral bodily reaction of fear that a well-executed jump scare can provide. Even being able to predict when or how they might happen here didn’t dilute their effectiveness. It all comes down to execution, really. Mc Carthy does a phenomenal job of building up tension, then releasing it, in ways both expected and unexpected. In particular, the camera work, editing, and sound design all work incredibly well together to play on audience expectations and craft a sense of dread that lingers well after the movie has played its hand. It\’s that slow build up of anticipation that really gets to me. One of the scariest parts of Oddity, I think, is how it uses a supernatural lens to play on everyday fears. The idea of feeling unsafe in my own home, for example, is one of the most terrifying things imaginable to me. It’s why haunted house and home invasion stories are so effective. And it’s the kind of thing that plays on the imagination after you get home from a good horror movie—being afraid to turn out the lights and go to bed, thinking you’ve seen a figure looming at the end of a darkened hallway at night, not being able to sleep in your own bed. These are the kinds of feelings that Oddity evokes. And it does so with just a handful of well-executed elements. A setting, a setup, props, music, camerawork—but Mc Carthy knows that the mind will finish the job and build up fear and anticipation and dread all on its own. This movie fully pulled me into its world and kept me on the edge of my seat. I think it\’s exactly what I\’ve been missing from horror for a while. Verdict Everything here is just executed to perfection. Right from the opening sequence, I knew we were in for a brilliant ride, and Oddity did not disappoint. But don\’t take my word for it. Go and see Oddity for yourself, ideally in a cinema with a crowd, if possible! If you\’re into oddities, ghost stories, and old-school supernatural horror with modern sensibilities and a dark sense of humour, you may fall in love with Oddity as much as we did. Shout out, also, to the crowd at Fantasia, because nothing gets me more jazzed about cinema than hearing a room of people laugh, start, and even scream in unison. The crowd and the energy could not have been more perfect for this one, amplifying the tension and making the release all the more effective. What a phenomenal way to close out our very first (and most certainly not last) Fantasia Festival.

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SLA at Fantasia: Azrael – Movie Review

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Azrael, directed by E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and written by Simon Barrett (You\’re Next, The Guest), is the most hard-hitting movie I’ve seen at Fantasia so far, and it was one of my most-anticipated, too, solely because I saw the words “post-apocalyptic” and “Samara Weaving” in its plot summary. I didn’t need to know anything else. Weaving impressed me immensely in The Babysitter and Ready or Not, and she continues to cement herself as a bona fide scream queen with Azrael. As mentioned, the movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world, and follows a young woman, played by Weaving, as she fends off a cult of mute zealots from which she escaped. And when I say “mute,” I mean that the movie contains almost no dialogue, as most of the characters can’t speak. That experimental slant makes Azrael a masterclass in “show, don’t tell,” and in trusting your audience. Without dialogue or exposition, we’re left to put together the pieces of who the characters are, what relationship they have to one another, and what world they occupy, without having it explicitly spelled out. That’s a really difficult thing to pull off. It takes guts to make a movie with no dialogue (and the little dialogue we do get is unintelligible), and that conceit could very easily have been mishandled. But it mostly works here. There’s no exposition, except for what we see and can interpret from what’s happening on screen. We don’t get any insight into what the characters are thinking and feeling, except for what they convey through their facial expressions. That’s a testament to the cast, but especially to Weaving, who has to carry the movie through its 85-minute runtime and absolutely knocks it out of the park. When introducing the film, Fantasia’s artistic director described Weaving’s performance as “utterly feral,” and there’s really no better way to describe it. She goes for broke, and gives us warmth, fear, desperation, exhaustion, rage, and more, all without uttering a word.   The rest of the cast is good too, but someone like Nathan Stewart-Jarrett (Misfits, Utopia—a show I\’m still mourning a decade later) feels underutilized here. This is partly why I said “mostly” earlier. While I found the lack of dialogue to be mostly effective, I do think it inherently limits how much information we, as an audience, can glean. That’s not necessarily a bad thing in itself, because it makes the world-building a bit more evocative and ambiguous, rather than being over-explained. But it also limits how much we can connect with the characters, and it makes a lot of the secondary and tertiary characters feel quite thin. Stewart-Jarrett, for example, plays Weaving’s love interest, and while the two do a pretty good job selling the relationship, there’s simply not enough here to really make us care. You can learn a lot about characters from how they speak, but we don’t even know our characters’ names until the end credits. You can kind of assume Weaving’s protagonist is the titular Azrael, but it’s not certain till those credits roll. It can also be hard to maintain interest and attention when there’s no dialogue to hang your attention onto, so the film has to make up for it in other ways. Some of those work really well, like giving us a compelling actor as a lead or well-crafted sequences of action or tense horror. But the dark, same-y forest setting (the film was shot in Estonia)—while often beautiful and creepy and fitting for a post-apocalyptic horror—doesn’t really add too much visual interest for someone like me, at least, to stay engaged with. I can only speak for myself, and maybe it was just my state of mind that particular night, but I did find my thoughts wandering a bit at times. The movie also felt a bit longer than I expected it to with an 85-minute runtime, and I suspect that has to do with the lack of dialogue to propel things forward. Still, Azrael doesn’t overstay its welcome, and I have to give it credit for committing to the bit. And aside from its dialogue-free conceit, it’s also very committed in other ways. The action is brutal, with some excellent, hard-hitting sequences that are expertly executed. The gore is gruesome, and the creatures are pretty terrifying, with some fantastic make-up and costuming. Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention the creatures? Human cultists aren’t the only bad guys here, as Azrael also has to contend with the crispy, humanoid, flesh-eating monsters that they apparently worship. The sound design also goes very hard. In general, the sound has to do a lot of heavy lifting here, and it’s great. It’s crunchy and impactful, adding to the visceral feel of the movie. Ultimately, despite its flaws, the movie just has a lot of things that are very much my jam: Samara Weaving getting bloody and kicking ass, post-apocalyptic settings, revenge narratives, creepy woods, pulse-pounding action, scary monsters, and religious horror (Azrael, of course, refers to the Angel of Death, which may give you a hint at some of the ideas and imagery the movie is playing with). It’s a squirmy, gory, post-apocalyptic religious cult revenge action horror, starring Samara Weaving, with no dialogue. I’d say that rates pretty damn high on the cool meter. A lot of those elements felt reminiscent of other movies, including, among others, The Descent and Rosemary’s Baby, but I don’t say that as an insult. Those are two of my favourite horror movies, and being reminded of the greats isn’t necessarily a bad thing when the product is this solid. Azrael may not be the most original movie, but originality is overrated anyway. Verdict Azrael isn\’t perfect, but it does a lot of things really well, and overall, I thought it was a very effective action-horror. It goes for broke with an experimental dialogue-free script that wouldn\’t work nearly as well as it does if not for star Samara Weaving. Weaving is the main

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SLA at Fantasia: Timestalker – Spoiler Free Review

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Our coverage of the Fantasia Film Festival continues with the Canadian premiere of Timestalker, a film from the United Kingdom that stars and was written and directed by Alice Lowe! An excerpt from the synopsis on Rotten Tomatoes reads: “Timestalker follows hapless heroine Agnes through time as she repeatedly falls for the wrong guy, dies a grim death, gets reincarnated a century later, before meeting him again and starting the cycle anew.” The film stars Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones), Nick Frost (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz), Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education), and Aneurin Barnard (Dunkirk).  Timestalker is, in some ways, an anti-romantic comedy, which definitely gives it a unique feeling to accompany its unique premise.  So, does Timestalker keep us hooked through its time loops, or should it stay lost in the past? My Thoughts Right away, I need to start this review by talking about Alice Lowe, because holy smokes. Lowe not only plays the main role of Agnes in the film, but she also is given sole writing and directing credits for the movie. The movie quite literally rests on her shoulders, and I thought she did a great job.  First of all, the thing that immediately stood out to me was the visual style of the film. While it covers a range of different times, there is still a consistent visual style throughout. I don’t mean so much in terms of the shots themselves, but more the sets, costumes, and even the effects work. This movie has some beautiful colours and props that linger throughout, which helps the different eras feel more connected. While I felt this aspect of the movie really worked, I think it also would’ve been more interesting to make the different time periods feel a bit more distinct in the way they were shot.  Moving on from the direction, though, let’s talk about the script! Overall, I liked what Lowe was able to do here, but I didn’t quite love it. In terms of the positives, the movie is consistently funny throughout, whether it’s due to solid jokes and bits or some very over-the-top and stylized deaths. Where the movie lacked for me, though, was with how little it really does with its different settings. Once it was over, I felt like we barely scratched the surface of the potential the premise affords. The story could’ve been told in different eras without requiring changes to the script itself. For such a unique premise, it felt very samey and the movie overall didn’t feel as unique as its core idea.  The highlight for me, though, for all of Lowe’s work was her performance. She was fantastic here and it floored me that this was the first thing I’ve ever seen her in. Her biggest strength was during the more comedic elements of the movie for sure, but she was solid in the few more serious moments she had, too. Her character could have felt a bit too one-dimensional with a weaker script and a less capable actress, but she weaves more layers into the performance as the movie progresses.  The rest of the cast was very serviceable, but aside from Nick Frost, they really didn’t have much opportunity to really stand out. This is really all about Agnes, which works still, because of how solid Lowe is in the role.  Beyond the work Lowe did, though, I really liked the costumes, music, makeup, and sets used in the different eras. Each period looked and felt distinct, and that was solely due to these aspects. Also, the sound mixing was great, specifically as it relates to a particular character that I won’t spoil here. While this performance itself was great, the way they were able to add to it by weaving in certain sounds was spectacular and got more than a few chuckles out of the audience and me.  Verdict While I wasn’t in love with this movie, I don’t think it should be lost in time either. There was a lot here that was very positive, and Alice Lowe is an absolute force. She was able to create something with some beautiful visual style, and her lead performance alone makes this movie a breeze to get through.  While I felt like there was more potential in the premise of the movie, Lowe still created something unique and unlike anything else I’ve seen lately too. Overall, I enjoyed this movie and I think most people would too!

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SLA at Fantasia: Cuckoo – Spoiler Free Review

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I went into Cuckoo with as little knowledge about it as possible, only really knowing that it starred Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens, and what a wild ride it was! Cuckoo first premiered at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, but Shea and I were lucky enough to catch it for its Montreal premiere at Fantasia. It was a packed house, and a really responsive, engaged crowd, making this a blast to experience. The audible laughs, gasps, and cheers really reminded me how great it is to see a movie with people who love movies. This film is, as I’m sure many reviews will put it, completely cuckoo (I know, I know—I’m sorry). The story follows Gretchen (Schafer), a seventeen-year-old girl, who moves to the German Alps with her father and his new family and begins to experience unsettling things in the small resort town in which they find themselves. I won\’t spoil what happens, but the bird-related title may give you some indication, although I would bet you won\’t be able to predict exactly where it goes. There are some high-concept ideas that writer-director Tilman Singer is playing with here, and while I don’t think all of them quite cohere, I will say that I was never bored while watching Cuckoo. The movie is a bit all over the place tonally, but it has a sense of oddball style and confidence in its imagery and ideas that I found really refreshing in a horror movie. While Midsommar may have breathed new life into creepy European towns as a setting for horror, the isolated and wooded Bavarian setting here, along with vintage-style costumes and set design, make Cuckoo feel like it was ripped out of another era, in a good way. Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens were by far the biggest highlights for me, though. Stevens gives a riotous performance, complete with silly German accent, as the mysterious and creepy Herr König, stealing scenes left and right. Every time he appears on screen, he\’s a joy to watch, and, as he did in Abigail earlier this year, he provided some of the biggest laughs of the night. But, really, this is Hunter Schafer’s movie. If you’ve seen HBO\’s Euphoria, you already know she can act her face off in a dramatic role, but it\’s great to see her in something even more outside the box. Here, she gets to play a fairly wide range, from teenage angst to bloody desperation, and it’s a delight to see her in a role with plenty of physicality, digging into the genre muck to get bloodied, battered, and bruised—if you\’ve ever wanted to see Hunter Schafer as a butterfly knife-wielding final girl, you won\’t be disappointed. But she also gets to demonstrate some deadpan comedic chops and gives Gretchen plenty of heart. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but the mix of tones, along with the subject matter (think bird-related reproductive horror?), makes Cuckoo feel pretty unique. Not every idea or creative choice lands, but there are some truly laugh-out-loud moments, alongside some tense atmosphere and body horror, not to mention a beating heart running through it, with a surprisingly tender and affective payoff (there’s one scene in particular that even had me getting a bit misty-eyed). The film is very well-shot, too, with a great soundtrack and excellent use of music and sound design. The pay-off to everything the movie tries to set up and to its unsettling early moments may not be to everyone’s taste. It goes to surprising places and, at the same time, some people will probably feel that it doesn\’t really go far enough. What all that means is that the movie also feels like it’s juggling too much. It wants to be an over-the-top creature feature, a disturbing horror/thriller, but also a quirky deadpan comedy and a meditation on grief and parenthood. To its credit, though, the result is a movie that\’s dark and disturbing and gross and bloody and tender and funny and weird—in short, it feels quite singular. I can’t deny how fun a ride this was, even if it doesn\’t really come together to form a coherent and meaningful whole. But when you’re having this much fun, does that really matter? Verdict Cuckoo – ❤️ Cuckoo is an uneven but undeniably entertaining thriller. There’s gore and gross-outs and blood and scares—but also plenty of laughs and even some tender moments that are surprisingly effective. That the movie can juggle so many different threads and tones, and still (mostly) work, is really a testament to writer-director Tilman Singer and stars Hunter Schafer and Dan Stevens. Stevens is always a blast to watch, and he’s absolutely in his element here as an eccentric German resort owner with something to hide. And Schafer gets to bloody her hands as an iconic final girl, complete with a sick bomber jacket and butterfly knife. These elements of style may stand out more than any coherent thematic concerns, but who cares when the pieces are this fun?

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SLA at Fantasia: Baby Assassins Nice Days – Spoiler Free Review

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Movies, movies, and more movies! Our coverage of the Fantasia Film Festival is still in full swing and Tuesday night was a particularly busy one for us at Screen Love Affair! In the early evening, Adriana went to a screening of a new 4k remaster of Cube (1997), while I went to see Baby Assassins Nice Days. Afterwards, we met up and went to watch the highly anticipated Cuckoo together, so be sure to read Adriana’s review of that one! Despite our busy schedules, I had the time and opportunity to see Baby Assassins Nice Days, and boy was I glad I did!  This is the third entry in about as many years in the Baby Assassins franchise out of Japan. I admit, I was completely unfamiliar with these movies, so if you’re in the same position I was, I’ll bring you up to speed! The three films star Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa and are written and directed by Yugo Sakamoto. Takaishi and Izawa play Chisato and Mahiro respectively, two teenage girls who happen to be very talented assassins based out of Tokyo.  The third movie has a beautifully simple synopsis that reads: “Teenage assassins Chisato and Mahiro go on vacation to Miyazaki, Japan, and face their biggest opponent yet.” All I knew beyond what I’ve already shared with you is that the fight choreography is supposedly incredible and that the previous two movies were a lot of fun.  So, did these Baby Assassins hit or miss the mark? My Thoughts I already gave away my feelings about this one earlier in the review, but I am so glad I went to see this movie! I almost missed this one entirely due to our original schedule for Fantasia, but now I can’t imagine my first Fantasia Film Festival without it! First things first, you absolutely do not need to see the first two Baby Assassins movies to enjoy this one. I didn’t have enough time to watch the movies before the screening, but the setup was all I needed to sit back and enjoy this movie. What becomes apparent immediately is just how great both Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa are as the leads. From the beginning of the movie, we see just how much chemistry they have. Their friendship is one of the most organic and believable ones I’ve ever seen in a movie. Not only are they a ton of fun, but they also deliver some incredibly heartfelt moments as well.  That’s the thing too about this movie; it has absolutely everything. It’s funny and heartfelt, but it also has some pretty dark moments. Credit has to go to writer/director Yugo Sakamoto, because these tones mesh perfectly together somehow, and the movie doesn’t suffer from any kind of tonal whiplash. It goes from incredibly light and funny in one moment, as our adorable leads are acting silly on vacation, to gritty and brutal, as those same adorable leads mow through waves of goons leaving nothing but blood and bodies behind them. Don’t worry, though, they’ve also got a cleaning crew to tidy up once they’ve finished their mission. This movie is more proof that you don’t need incredibly elaborate plots to make a good action movie. I know I talk a lot about John Wick when I talk about action movies, but hey, I can’t help that those movies are the modern standard to which all other action movies are compared. Anyway, what the best movies in the John Wick franchise understand is that simple is enough. As an audience, we don’t need overly complex plots to feel progression in the story, we can get that from spending time with the characters and the world. Something as simple as having a beer with a friend can be a standout character moment that makes a movie with a simple narrative pack a ton of punch. The plot of Nice Days is very straightforward, but what allows it to shine is the time spent with our main characters and the action.  And, oh boy, the action here is stupendous. I can’t find any details about the budgets for these movies, but these genuinely put most Hollywood action movies to shame with what is clearly a humble budget. While the visual and sound effects of the guns weren\’t the best, it’s the hand-to-hand and knife sequences that shine here. They even tap in a bit to the ‘Gun-Fu’ style of the John Wick movies, but the sequences are extensively choreographed with minimal cuts and some fantastic oners. What’s even more impressive is that the main cast also perform these sequences themselves. I can’t talk about the action in this movie without also mentioning how spectacular Sôsuke Ikematsu is as Kaede Fuyumura, another assassin in the movie. He, along with our two leads, puts some great work into the action scenes, and that alone makes this movie worth the price of admission. The fact that they can draw so many different feelings and emotions out of me, too, is just wild.  Verdict Not only did they hit the mark with this one, they obliterated the target. I absolutely loved this movie and I can’t believe there’s a potential timeline out there where I went one more day without having experienced a Baby Assassins movie.  With a straightforward setup, two powerhouse leads, a stellar supporting cast, and fight scenes that outclass $100 million blockbusters, Baby Assassins Nice Days isn\’t just a great movie—it\’s a must watch for anyone that considers themselves an action movie fan.  Sometimes you just want to have an absolute blast watching a movie, but that doesn’t mean you have to settle for low-effort mediocre slop. Movies like this show what’s possible when people with immense talent are able to create something purely to please and impress an audience. The range of emotions this movie pulled out of me stands as a reminder that you don’t need millions of dollars to create an unforgettable theatrical experience, you just

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‘Witchboard’ Spoiler Free Review – Chuck Russell Summons Fun, Fear, and a Touch of Camp

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We’re entering the second week of our Fantasia Festival coverage and if you haven’t been following us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter), you’re missing out! Not only can you follow what movies we’re seeing, but you can also see additional coverage, including from the red carpet! Last night, I got to see the world premiere of Witchboard, the latest from writer/director Chuck Russell. If you’re around my age or even a little older, chances are you’ve seen a few of Russell\’s movies before. His credits include Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Blob (1988), The Mask with Jim Carrey, The Scorpion King with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Eraser with Arnold Schwarzenegger. That’s one hell of a diverse range of movies and is one of the coolest filmographies I’ve seen for any director.  This was Russell’s return to the horror genre, but he didn’t come alone! The cast includes Madison Iseman who you may recognize from the Jumaniji movies or Annabelle Comes Home, Jamie Campbell Bower, who is probably best known for playing Grindelwald in the Harry Potter series or his more recent turn as Vecna in Stranger Things, Charlie Tahan, who you may know from Ozark, and Aaron Dominguez, whose biggest credit is a 10 episode stint on Only Murders in the Building.  According to the director in our red carpet interview, Witchboard is more of a re-imagining than a remake of the original movie from 1986. To keep spoilers light, we will only give you an excerpt from the IMDB synopsis:  “​​Emily (Madison Iseman) and her fiancé Christian (Aaron Dominguez) 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 power of divination and spirit summoning, exposing her to the ancient spirit of the Queen of Witches.” So, did Witchboard have me spellbound or did it just conjure up disappointment?  My Thoughts There is a lot to like about Witchboard, but right off the top I want to stress an important thing this movie does. Witchboard is another great example of a movie with a really specific vision for itself. The movie knows exactly what it wants to be and doesn’t take any detours to try and be more than that. This is one of the most refreshing things about my experience so far at Fantasia. Much of the movies I’ve seen have been free from studio interference, and it REALLY shows. If you’ve watched basically any studio movie you probably know what I’m talking about. Maybe it’s a comedy full of laughs, but suddenly the movie screeches to a halt so we can get a very serious scene to make the main character feel more relatable. Or maybe you’re vibing with a fun slasher movie and someone is running for their life from a killer but somehow finds fifteen minutes to give us some tragic backstory so they feel more complex. None of these kinds of moments occur in Witchboard but that’s not to say it lacks in relatability or complexity for its characters, it just finds a way to weave those aspects into the story.  Much of the credit for that has to go to Chuck Russell, who hasn’t lost his love for the genre. I asked Russell what it is about horror that brought him back to the genre and he said that, “[Horror] is one of the genres where you can be the most imaginative and the most fearless,” and this imagination and fearlessness is evident in the movie. Witchboard very much feels like a movie made with passion and a genuine desire to make something unique. While it has some more traditional horror elements and jump scares, the movie also has some pretty gory action sequences, some pretty solid restaurant cooking scenes, and even covers some different time periods. It’s hard to describe exactly, but something about how this movie was shot and what happens in it just oozed creative passion and an earnestness that I haven’t felt too often in movies these days.  Beyond that, though, there were some standout performances here too. I’ll start by talking about the biggest scene-stealer in the movie for me: Jamie Campbell Bower. I absolutely loved his performance in this movie. To be clear, this movie definitely has some camp to it, but it wasn’t always clear to me how much of it was intentional or not. However, I never had any of those doubts with Bower. I’m a sucker for a performance where you can just tell that the actor is having a great time, and there is no question that Bower enjoyed playing the eccentric occult expert Alexander Babtiste. It floors me that people aren’t jumping over each other to cast him in their movies, but I hope that will soon change! Madison Iseman and Aaron Dominguez were solid as our leads, particularly earlier in the movie, but I also felt like their relationship suffers a bit from the ambiguously campy tone. Certain moments got some laughs in our screening, but the music and performances felt like they wanted me to be taking them a bit more seriously. This wasn’t a significant issue or anything, as these moments are rare. Speaking of laughs, though, the movie is very aware of the comedy that can be found in the horror genre and there are plenty of intentional laughs to be had here. Iseman, in particular, is given a lot to do in this movie and she manages to excel no matter what situation her character is faced with. I also loved Charlie Tahan here. He has an energy about him that makes him incredibly likeable. He was really great in the movie and had a hand in some unforgettable moments!  I might be a little biased, but I loved the locations used in this movie too. The movie takes place predominantly in New Orleans, but they also filmed here in Montreal for some scenes and they managed to

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SLA at Fantasia: \’The Soul Eater\’ – Spoiler Free Movie Review

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Our coverage of the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival keeps on rolling, rain or shine! Not even an extreme weather warning could keep me and my fellow movie lovers from seeing the French film Mangeur d\’Âmes (The Soul Eater)! Also, make sure you\’re following us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) to keep up with our coverage of the Fantasia Film Festival! When Adriana and I were sorting through the Fantasia program to select movies we wanted to review, I was immediately drawn to Mangeur d\’Âmes. Not only did the promotional still (shown at the top of this review) have such a creepy vibe, I was drawn in by the synopsis.  “When violent and gruesome deaths start plaguing a small mountain village, an old legend about a malevolent creature resurfaces.” Say no more, I’m in! The movie was also screened with the short film Reel which I will review as part of a roundup of all the shorts I see during Fantasia, so stay tuned for that article coming soon! Anyway, if you\’re not as easily convinced as I am, I will go beyond the synopsis a bit to paint a clearer (but still spoiler-free) picture. This is very much along the lines of a police procedural but with some pretty graphic violence and scenes of gore. This also is a bit heavier and darker narratively than I was really expecting so if you’re sensitive to very real and uncomfortable crimes, this might not be an easy watch for you. With that said, these crimes in particular aren’t shown, just mentioned, if that makes it a bit easier for you.   So with some of the details out of the way, was The Soul Eater a feast of a movie or did it leave me hungry for more? My Thoughts This movie really surprised me! It was definitely a bit of an unknown for me as I wasn’t familiar with either of the directors (Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo) or their previous works. This was the movies’ North American premiere, so it had some buzz already coming out of earlier screenings so I figured I would give it a try. After digesting the movie a bit more, there was a lot that I liked a lot about it, and a few things that didn\’t quite work for me. The movie pairs us up almost instantly with our two main leads, Elisabeth Guardiano played by Virginie Ledoyen, and Captain of the Gendarmerie (a branch of the French military that has law enforcement duties within France) Franck De Rolan played by Paul Hamy. While they fit some cliches from other police procedurals, I found both of the leads to be incredibly strong here. Both have more to them that you learn as the film progresses, but each actor portrays their characters so well, particularly Paul Hamy. This unorthodox pairing is only enhanced by the chemistry between the two actors as they settle into the investigation together. The supporting cast are all very serviceable, but none really stuck out to me except for some of the child performances which were very solid! I also really enjoyed some of the more technical aspects of this movie as well. There were some beautiful shots, especially of the mountainside and of the community where the movie takes place. Apparently the directing pair of Maury and Bustillo have worked mostly in horror and that definitely shows when it came to the gore effects and some more suspenseful scenes in the movie. The gore ranged from comical to downright wince-worthy but in every case the effects were done incredibly well and almost entirely practical which brings things to the next level and helped make the movie feel more grounded.  Sticking with the gore for a moment, there was a scene that stood out in particular to me that was shown later in the movie that was downright unsettling to watch. I can’t elaborate too much without risking spoilers, but it was one of the most unique killing scenes I’ve ever seen in a movie. As someone that watches a ton of movies, I get very excited when I get to see something new and different, and that was definitely the case here. It even had me wincing and that doesn’t happen often to me in movies anymore!  Also, if you’ve ever watched a police procedural before, there’s always at least one scene where our leads head to a bar somewhere and throw back some whiskey and beers after a particularly hard time. We get the same thing in this movie a couple of times, but what stood out to me was that these cops are wine drinkers! Now, this had absolutely no bearing on my impression of the movie, but I did laugh when I realized this after the second such scene where our cops are drinking together. I guess French cops, no matter how traumatized by work, still have a bit of class when it comes to their drinking habits.  Unfortunately, I had a few minor gripes with the narrative, but it was nothing that derailed the movie for me. The movie plays with the local horror story aspect well and doesn’t abuse it as a way to misdirect the audience. Also, as the mystery unfolds and becomes more clear, I feel a little bit unsatisfied with some of the answers it gives. There’s one particular mystery character that we only see glimpses of until they are eventually revealed to be little more than a clumsy way to add a piece to the mystery, and an unsatisfying one at that.  The movie also doesn’t do much new in terms of the structure of the police procedural, but there are some reveals that I really enjoyed. The movie also has a few moments where there are things you see or hear that you know mean something, even if you’re not sure what they mean at the time. However, even if I found some twists and reveals to be really telegraphed, the movie doesn’t

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SLA at Fantasia: Dark Match – Spoiler Free Review

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When I first confirmed that I would be covering the Fantasia Film Festival this year, there were two movies I knew for sure that I wanted to see. The first was Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks (you can read my spoiler free review of that right here) and the other was the focus of this review: Lowell Dean’s Dark Match.  If movies are my first love, wrestling is a close second. Luckily for me, Dark Match brings these two things together! As if that wasn’t enough, this also is a Canadian production loaded with Canadian talent. That includes writer/director Lowell Dean (Wolfcop), current All Elite Wrestling (AEW) star Chris Jericho, Ayisha Issa, and Steven Ogg (Grand Theft Auto V, Better Call Saul, The Walking Dead). Dark Match is a horror action-thriller that takes place in the 1980s. The plot synopsis reads: \”A small-time wrestling company accepts a well-paying gig in a backwoods town only to learn, too late, that the community is run by a mysterious cult leader with devious plans for their match.\” For those of you less versed in the wrestling world than myself, the term “dark match” is used to describe a match that isn’t filmed or televised. Cleverly, it serves an extra purpose given the culty nature of the movie, but I will say at the top here that I was thrilled by the level of detail about wrestling in this movie. During the conversation with the cast and crew after our screening, Chris Jericho even remarked to Lowell Dean that after he read the script, he was so impressed with the details, he thought he wrote it himself!  But rest assured, this isn’t a movie that relies on you having any real knowledge about wrestling to enjoy. Much of the cast and even Dean himself noted that they weren’t immersed in wrestling before they started making the movie. The idea came to Dean after a friend brought him to a wrestling show in Canada, and he found himself fully immersed in what he was watching and seeing just how passionate the rest of the audience was. They had so much passion, in fact, Dean noted it felt “cult like,” and thus, Dark Match was born!  The theatre was packed, the crowd was energized, and a ton of the cast and crew were here for the world premiere at Fantasia. If you want to follow all of our coverage of the festival, be sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter)! So was Dark Match main event material or was watching it like taking an elbow from the top rope? My Thoughts Not only is this main event material, it\’s championship worthy because this movie was an absolute blast from start to finish! I can’t imagine anything I see during the rest of Fantasia will be as fun as this movie was. Let’s start off with the cast, because just wow. Everyone was fantastic here and not one person felt out of place. The pleasant surprise for me was getting to see Canadian actress Ayisha Issa for the first time. She plays Miss Behave (I will be using kayfabe names only in this review 😎), and she was absolutely stupendous. When you have stars like Chris Jericho and Steven Ogg in your movie, it can be to the detriment of your movie if the rest of the cast can’t match what they can bring to it. That definitely wasn’t a problem for Issa, who was so great and so likable that I missed her whenever she wasn’t on screen. She was a captivating lead and played a variety of different sides of Miss Behave, and I hope to see her in more things after this.  Steven Ogg was another beaming high point of this movie. Like most of you, I became familiar with Ogg for his portrayal of Trevor in Grand Theft Auto V. He was easily the best performance in a game full of them and I was ecstatic to see him pop up a few times in Better Call Saul as well. He’s just so captivating on screen, and while his characters in those works aren’t exactly pillars of their community, this was my first time seeing a more human side of Ogg. Ironically, he plays “Mean” Joe Lean in Dark Match, but this really is a case of kayfabe as outside the ring, Joe Lean is a very sweet and nice guy. Also, one small note, every single time I heard his name in the movie, I kept thinking of the song “Jolene” by Dolly Parton. After the screening, Lowell Dean confirmed that was absolutely intentional because when he was a kid he thought the song was about a man named Joe Lean.  I also want to acknowledge the rest of the supporting cast as well, because they all did a fantastic job too. Leo Fafard, Jonathan Cherry, Michael Eklund, Sara Canning, and Mo Adan, who got some of the loudest pops in the entire movie.  Last, but certainly not least, let’s talk about Chris Jericho! Jericho is known for having one of the longest and most consistent runs in wrestling history, and I was intrigued by his casting for this movie. Despite having acted in a few different things, Jericho has avoided acting in movies about wrestling. He confirmed as much tonight, but said he signed onto Dark Match, because he believed there was more here than a simple wrestling movie (and boy, is he right about that). Jericho plays The Prophet, the leader of the mysterious cult that brings our wrestlers out to the middle of nowhere for a show. Jericho is used very well here, as his presence becomes more prominent as the movie progresses. While he clearly enjoys hamming it up, he also gets some moments to be a bit more serious as well. Jericho later pointed out something I noticed and appreciated while watching the movie: he deliberately avoided performing the moves that the real Jericho typically does in

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SLA at Fantasia: Shelby Oaks – Spoiler Free Movie Review

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If you’ve ever talked to me about movies, chances are I have brought up a person whose videos I’ve watched on YouTube religiously for around fourteen years. That person is Chris Stuckmann. On a basic level, Chris and I shared the same taste in movies, but it was more his approach to talking about movies that really pulled me in. More than anything, Chris was a fan of movies first and foremost, and it was the passion above all else that has made me a long-time subscriber to his YouTube channel.  In fact, it was Chris’s approach that inspired the very website you’re reading now. I started Screen Love Affair because I love movies and I wanted to share that feeling with the world. Like Chris, I wanted to put that passion out there with the hope that someone will discover a new movie that inspires them, because they read about it here.  For Chris, though, talking about movies wasn’t enough. He has been a filmmaker since he was a kid and, as executive producer Mike Flanagan said tonight at the world premiere of Shelby Oaks, it was obvious that Chris would be here someday.  I was able to attend the world premiere of Shelby Oaks as part of the coverage we\’ve been doing of the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. We got to hear from Mike Flanagan, who was also there to introduce Chris before the movie. The cast and crew in attendance stuck around for a Q&A afterwards as well. If you\’d like to see that and our coverage of the rest of the Fantasia Film Festival, be sure to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter)! Shelby Oaks is a mystery-horror movie written, directed, and produced by Chris Stuckmann. The film stars Camille Sullivan as Mia, Brendan Sexton III as Mia’s husband Robert, Michael Beach as Detective Burch, Robin Bartlett as Norma, Keith David as Morton Jacobson, and Sarah Durn as Mia’s sister Riley.  As for the plot, I\’ll only provide you with a fraction of the synopsis because I think it gives you more than enough detail to know what kind of movie to expect: \”Mia frantically searches for her sister Riley, after Riley ominously disappeared in the last taping of a show by a group of paranormal investigators called the Paranormal Paranoids.\” Before we get into the review itself, rest assured that like all of my reviews, this will be SPOILER FREE. Also, for full disclosure, I was a backer on the Shelby Oaks Kickstarter campaign. I have no financial stake in the movie or anything, but when Chris announced the Kickstarter, it was important for me to give something back to the person that had given me so much for so many years. So, without further ado, let’s get Stuckmannized!  My Thoughts To state it right at the top, I’m thrilled to report that this was a strong feature film debut for Chris Stuckmann! There was plenty of buzz and excitement around this one, especially amongst the sold out theatre in Montreal that came to watch the premiere.  The performances were great all around, but the real standout here is the lead performance by Camille Sullivan. The whole movie rests on her shoulders and she does a fantastic job conveying the grief and the hope that her character carries throughout the movie. Another standout for me was Robin Bartlett as Norma. She had the entire theatre in the palm of her hand for every second she was on screen and was a genuine delight to watch. Sticking with what I liked, Stuckmann’s direction was probably the biggest highlight of the whole thing for me. There was a confidence I could feel throughout the movie with almost every shot. Stuckmann isn’t just a fan of horror movies, he’s a student of the game, and he knows how to use the frame and audio to create specific feelings of dread in the audience. Even I, as a seasoned horror veteran, found myself getting drawn into these moments and experiencing some genuine scares. When I anticipated a jump scare approaching, Stuckmann would linger a beat or two longer than most horror movies. This restraint causes just an extra notch of suspense that really goes a long way when it comes to building and then releasing tension.  To contrast the horror, though, this movie is also really funny. There were plenty of laughs to be had, not in the form of annoying quips or forced jokes, but in recognizing the humour that can only be found in the horror genre. Oftentimes in horror movies, there are certain moments that are so absurd that you can’t help but laugh. Shelby Oaks succeeds where most horror movies fail in this regard, because it recognizes the humour in those moments, while lesser movies insist on trying to make the absurd scary, which causes a disconnect with the audience.  Another highlight was just the perspective of the movie itself. I won’t give anything away, but this was one of the best and most unique aspects of the movie. In a genre as populated as horror, it’s always impressive to me when you can do something new, and that\’s what Stuckmann was able to do here.  When it came to the sound, I was a little more mixed. One of the things that really takes me out of a tense scene in a horror movie is when I notice the audio drop out completely. It’s not just a subconscious thing that makes it easier for me to pay attention to every little sound, it makes me acutely aware of the fact that something loud is going to appear on the screen suddenly. I lose all sense of tension as I sit there simply waiting for that thing to happen. When it comes to the sound mixing and design, I find a more subtle approach, with a very limited score throughout, keeps me a little less aware and prepared for

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SLA at Fantasia: \’The Count of Monte Cristo\’ (2024) – Movie Review

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If you haven’t already seen the memo (or read Adriana’s great review to kick off our coverage), we’re going to be covering the Fantasia Film Festival this year! We will have tons of reviews for you in the coming weeks, but we encourage you to follow us on Instagram and X (formerly Twitter) for more regular updates about what we’re up to during the festival. With that out of the way, I started my Fantasia adventure off with Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (The Count of Monte Cristo). This is a 2024 French period action-thriller film based on the 1844 novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas. This adaptation was written and directed by the duo of Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière. For anyone unfamiliar with the source material (like I was), the movie starts in France in the year 1815. Edmond Dantès, played spectacularly by Pierre Niney, is ever so briefly on top of the world before he comes tumbling down through treachery and betrayal. Revenge, though, is one hell of a motivator and another twist of fate may just make that revenge possible. One interesting note too is that the budget for this film was reportedly €42.9 million (about $46.7 million USD), which makes it the most expensive French film of the year! So, with that out of the way, did I start my Fantasia 2024 experience off with a bang or a whimper? My Thoughts This was a definite BANG and one hell of a way to start off the Fantasia Film Festival! First of all, this movie played like a superhero movie at the screening I was at. To see the same level of reactions to a French language period piece as I did when I saw Avengers: Infinity War or Avengers: Endgame was an unexpected but hilarious treat. I’m pretty sure the crowd popped harder when Dantès called himself “Le Comte de Monte-Cristo” for the first time than when Captain America yelled for the Avengers to assemble. To bring you even more into my experience at my first Fantasia screening, if you\’ve never been to one before, it\’s common for people in the crowd to meow like cats before the movie starts and cheer loudly for the Nongshim Noodle commercial. Check out this Reddit thread to learn more about the origins of those traditions. Anyway, let’s dig into the actual movie itself, because there was a lot to really like here! First of all, that big budget was used well, because the movie looked fantastic. Locations and sets were amazing, the costumes were fantastic, and the makeup (which is key to the plot) was also superb. In conversations I’ve had with people about films made outside of the US or Hollywood system, there is often a concern that they’re cheaper or of lesser quality as a result, and that absolutely isn’t the case. There was nothing I saw that made this movie feel amateurish and, as a matter of fact, it puts a lot of modern Hollywood movies to shame. The entire cast here was phenomenal too. Aside from Pierre Niney, who I’ve already mentioned, the movie also stars Bastien Bouillon, Anaïs Demoustier, Laurent Lafitte, Vassili Schneider, and Anamaria Vartolomei. While everyone was great, of particular note to me was Vassili Schneider, who had a charm and look that reminded me a lot of Timothee Chalamet (sorry, Abby). We’re not given any reason to dislike his character other than his association with the targets of Dantès’ vengeance, but the story needs us to like this character for it to work. Thankfully Schneider was so charming and likable as Albert that he really becomes the sole embodiment of pure love, while being surrounded by people motivated by greed or hate. There was one scene in particular towards the middle of the film where the rest of the main cast gets to shine, and it was one of the best scenes I’ve seen all year! Without giving details away, the Count is regaling his dinner guests with a supposed ghost story that hits a little close to home for some of his guests while others are fully engaged with giddy excitement. Every single actor in the scene has to do something unique and specific, and you can’t help but laugh at the reactions of each character. It was truly a standout scene in a movie filled with a ton of great moments. Another thing I want to cover is the score. The score fit the movie well, and when it became more prominent in certain moments, it definitely worked, but I didn’t feel too strongly about this aspect of the movie. For what it’s worth though, I’m not the most musically inclined person in the world, so scores really only tend to stand out to me when they’re more noticeable in movies like Oppenheimer or Past Lives, to give you a couple examples from last year. Sticking with audio, the sound design was another big highlight, specifically during the action sequences. The movie isn’t full of constant action by any means, but every action scene feels impactful. This isn’t something most people are aware of when they watch a movie, but the power of sound design in action is massive, even if you don’t notice it. For example, imagine you’re watching a movie where someone falls off the roof of a three story building and when they land on the ground, you don’t hear any sound. The result is that despite your eyes seeing a great fall, you don’t really feel like it was a great fall. I didn’t even realize how bad most movies are in this regard until I saw this one, because absolutely every gunshot, punch, or fall is something you hear and feel. The movie doesn’t come close to the flash of what you’ll find in the John Wick movies (nor does it want to), but you absolutely feel every single hit and that is incredibly important for selling an

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