2024 Fantastic Fest Preview- 5 Must-See Movies in Austin, Texas

After my long break from covering movies, it still feels good to be back and covering a great film festival in any way. This year for Fantastic Fest I am covering the best genre film festival from the comfort of my home. Remote coverage has more cons than pros, but just getting a chance to cover a festival that always delivers makes it easy to say yes to covering whatever I can discover at this year’s festival. The spirit of the spooky season is certainly there, with a big collection of World Premieres such as Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go, the prequel to Rosemary’s Baby in Apartment 7A, and of course…Terrifier 3. Audiences will have plenty of time to catch those movies in theaters or streaming at home, but what I like to do, is highlight 5-Must-See Movies that may be off your radar. That’s typically what great film festivals are about- discovering great new artists and talents of cinema, and that’s what makes it so Fantastic. Take a look at my 5 Movies right here:

THE DRAFT– Friday, September 20th 11:45 am
DIRECTED BY: YUSRON FUADI

A meta-horror film has certainly been done before. What comes to mind is Cabin in the Woods but Yusron Fuadi’s The Draft is a blend of Cabin Fever with Stranger Than Fiction. A group of friends are spending the weekend at a villa in Indonesia, each person fitting the standard tropes of horror characters- the attractive jock, the popular one, the nerd with a camera, the pretty one, and the rich one- and when it becomes obvious to them that they are in the draft for a horror movie, these characters try to be one step ahead of the writer. With a smart concept and with the hopes for plenty of bloodshed, The Draft just sounds like a movie for me and a lot of other horror fans.

DANIELA FOREVER– Friday, September 20th 8:30 PM
DIRECTED BY: NACHO VIGALONDO

When I saw Nacho Vigalondo’s name pop up for the Fantastic Fest schedule release I instantly added it to my Letterboxed watchlist. His previous film Colossal was a hit that came out of nowhere for me. That sets the bar a bit higher with Daniela Forever but there’s not much reason to trust that Vigalondo won’t be engaging with the audience. There is a bit more science fiction in Daniela Forever, where Henry Golding plays a man who goes into a sleep trial, where he’s able to recreate life in his dreams and reconnect with a lost love. Sounds like a bit of Total Recall mixed with more romance and that’s enough to have me signed up.

HOUSE OF SPOILS– Saturday, September 21st 8:10 PM
DIRECTED BY: BRIDGET SAVAGE COLE & DANIELLE KRUDY

The programmers at Fantastic Fest hit the mark last year with the delightfully dark film The Menu. This year they have MGM Studios’ House of Spoils, which stars Oscar winner Ariana DeBose as a chef preparing a fancy dinner at a wealthy estate, which just might be haunted. What with the success of TV shows dealing with the high-stress atmosphere of cooking (The Bear) and adding in the threat of a dark ghost story, that sounds like a meal that the entire Fantastic Fest audience will gobble up.

BONE LAKE– Saturday, September 21st, 8:30 PM
DIRECTED BY: MERCEDES BRYCE MORGAN

If Barbarian taught us anything, a double-booked AirBnB is a recipe for terror. Bone Lake has a similar premise: a couple rents a lakeside cabin to revitalize their marriage, only to discover that another couple is also there. What starts as two couples making the best of it and becoming friends, quickly turns into a dark spiral of lies and psychosexual games. If that description doesn’t reel you in then you might not find much to enjoy at Fantastic Fest.

LITTLE BITES– Sunday, September 22nd 1:55 PM
DIRECTED BY: SPIDER ONE

I’m always on the lookout for the movies already picked up by Shudder and the first one that sticks out for me is Little Bites. It’s about a mother (played by Krsy Fox) who would do anything and everything to protect her daughter. This leads to her making an unusual agreement with a monster, sacrificing her flesh and blood, but for how long can she keep that up? Directed by Spider One- the younger brother of Rob Zombie- there is a certain gooey and gnarly look to the poster alone, not to mention a supporting role from the great Barbara Crampton, but as history has shown, movies brought to Fantastic Fest from Shudder always deliver a good time.