Fantastic Fest

The most fun genre film festival in the world is hitting the road this fall, with special weekends planned at three Alamo Drafthouses around the country.

It’s (almost) the most wonderful time of the year…Fantastic Fest 2017 is right around in the corner, and if the first wave of film programming is any indication, this year’s lineup is going to be pretty stellar. The initial roster boasts the usual assortment of intriguing genre fare (like Takashi Miike’s 100th film, if you can believe it) alongside festival favorites and potential awards contenders, including new films from Yorgos Lanthimos, Ruben Ostlund, Martin McDonagh and more — so much more!

Alfred Hitchcock had a saying: “Logic is dull.” On the basis of Crimson Peak, it’s pretty clear Guillermo del Toro feels the same way.

Just a quick 10-minute cab ride from the Alamo Drafthouse off Route 183 in Austin, Texas sits Pinballz, a massive arcade that specializes in — make sure you’re sitting down for this one — pinball. They’ve got old machines dating back decades, and new ones from just the last few years...

Fantastic Fest’s annual programming offers some of the most exciting genre films from around the world, and every year there are a few horror films which stand out among the rest, inevitably landing on year-end top 10 horror lists when they eventually hit theaters. Fantastic Fest 2014 brought us The Babadook and It Follows, two of the greatest horror films of the past year, and this year’s festival is no exception with intensely great offerings like The Witch, The Devil’s Candy, Crimson Peak, February, The Invitation and more.

Fantastic Fest is easily one of the best, most fun, most insane, and most booze-soaked film festivals in the world. Held every year at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas, the festival created by Drafthouse owner Tim League is filled with genre film selections from all over the world, offering a unique experience and atmosphere. This year's fest includes highly-anticipated films like Green Room, High-Rise, The Martian, and The Witch, as well as smaller and equally exciting titles like The Devil's Candy, Demon, and Son of Saul.

Director Ben Wheatley and his screenwriting partner Amy Jump are known for their specific, darkly humorous sensibilities, from the horror thriller Kill List to the black and white psychedelic intensity of A Field in England, and the bleak hilarity of Sightseers. The duo return this year with High-Rise, based on J.G. Ballard’s sophisticated dystopian tale of class warfare in an elegant apartment block. It may be his most inaccessible and tonally ambitious film to date, but it also might be his best.

Everyone wants to believe they’re special. When I was in second grade, I was a multiplication table genius. A gift for rote memorization and an intense competitive streak turned me into the Michael Jordan of Math Class Around the World. Almost 30 years later, I still remember playing and winning, probably because that was the last time in my life I really felt truly superior to everyone around me.

As a film critic, I’m used to the pressure of constant deadlines. But right now I’m living under a very different sort of ticking clock; a biological one.

Seven days before Demon made its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest 2015, its director, Marcin Wrona, died in a hotel room in Poland. He was 42 years old. The preliminary autopsy indicates Wrona committed suicide. If Wrona was alive and well, Demon would still be a brilliant film, an impressive and inventive blend of psychological horror and sardonic comedy. But his suicide casts the entire film in a whole new light, and adds even more poignance to the already heart-rending story of a seemingly happy man who succumbs to an inexplicable breakdown at his wedding.