Fantastic Fest 2023 Diaries: Day Seven
I woke up around 7:15 feeling good and rested. I noticed I had a new email, so I opened up my account to check it out. I thought maybe it’d be about my interview with David Velduque, but it turns out to be a notification from Reddit; some sodium-rich keyboard troll claiming the two full paragraphs I wrote for The Last Stop In Yuma County were grifted… Yeah, no. I guess if the programmer mentions 70s cinema, westerns, and the Coen brothers, you’re not allowed to make the same observation — even though they’re very apparent and will be in many reviews of the film.
Normally, I piss vinegar, spew venom, and pump vitriol through my veins, but it was extra spicy this morning. It could not be quieted or quelled, not after the walk with the dog, not after I fed the rumbling guts of my tum-tum, so I worked out for a half hour, and then ran five miles. It felt good to exorcise my aggression with some exercise, which helped. I was cured, all right.
I was all welly-welly-well just in time to snag Day 8 tickies, so I logged on to see if I could get all my preferred choices, which were ambitious. Eileen and Suitable Flesh sold out quick, so they’d be the two films that got away this year. I got my ticket for Michel Gondry’s The Book Of Solutions, which was easy-peasy because everyone was trying to go to the festival closer, Totally Killer, which didn’t exactly call to me and would be on Prime pretty lickety-split. Since Eileen was not an option, I secured a spot for Nowhere, a 4k restoration of a late-90s Gregg Araki film.
With tickets taken care of, I moved into a productive state. I finished up the Toxic Avenger & Where The Devil Roams Q&As and got them uploaded. Then I wrote up the Day 6 diary and took the dog for a long walk. When we got back, I took a shower and ate a light lunch.
Later, I got an email from David about our interview. We locked it in for tomorrow morning, after my press & industry screening of Jackdaw and before our afternoon screenings at 11:20. He seems like a lovely fellow, and I’m stoked to talk body horror with him mañana.
I take the dog out for a quick walk before I boogie down to the cinemaplex, give her some dinner, crack a can of caffeine, and become one with the traffic. As soon as I park and walk up to the front of the theater, they’re already calling seating for my group, so I really couldn’t have timed things any better. I pat myself on the back and glide on into the theater for my first of two RKSS films.
We Are Zombies is a silly slapstick horror comedy based on the comic book series “The Zombies That Ate The World” by Jerry Frissen and Guy Davis. The film is a brisk and fun 80-min piece about zombies — err, excuse me, “living impaired” — that have risen, without flesh-eating behaviors or the hunger for brains, and are integrated into society where they have jobs and even rights. It’s novel and inventive premise that won’t necessarily bring the genre back from the dead but does pump some new blood into its otherwise cold and thoroughly beaten corpse. It’s got some cool practical effects, features a rad Resident Evil-esque creature design near the end, and delivers a lot of kills and thrills that you’d want out of a zombie flick, with a few surprises, a good amount of laughs, and some decent setup & payoffs. Its abrupt ending, which is maybe rooted in the comic for which it’s based, doesn’t give it a strong finish and is a bit of a buzz kill though.
After We Are Zombies lets out, I head over to the Highball where I run into Alec and Justin. I catch up with them about their festival experience, and we chat about some of our favorite films. They’ve been able to get into all the secret screenings, including the fourth and final one, which they believe (with an almost 100% certainty) will be Saw X and aren’t excited by that prospect. If their predictions are true, that’d make it the weakest of the secret screenings (the others being Saltburn, Dream Scenario, and Dogman). They call their group to seat, so they make their way to their theater, and I hang out at a table to work on more stuff until it’s time for the next RKSS flick to pop off.
Wake Up had its world premiere on Sunday, and I was really glad I was able to see it during its second screening with a crowd — because, man, does it get a reaction! It’s a lean and mean, down and dirty single-location slasher that pits a survivalist security guard (part Rambo, part Jigsaw) against a group of Gen Z activists. It’s an entertainingly nasty and gnarly little film — the nastiest movie RKSS has made, and they’re very very good at it. It doesn’t pull any punches or show any mercy, the kind of bleak and brutal film where no one is safe, which is my cup of pitch-black tea. But it’s more than just a gory good-time with kills you feel in your core; it’s got something to say about capitalism and environmentalism as well.
It’s basically about people of different backgrounds and ages that are driven to extremes by a broken system, a bad industry and the people who need it for security and those who rebel against it. It all takes place in a fictional IKEA, and you will not be able to look at that store the same again. After seeing this, you’ll walk through IKEA imagining all the murderous potential that lies within. Its script is a big proponent of its success, but RKSS’ execution is as precise and ingenious as the murderer’s killing methods. It has a great sense of style (its blacklight sequence near the end is a standout), and really excellent pulsing synth score. If you are a fan of films with a serious mean-streak, you will definitely want to check this out.
After Wake Up, I head over to the parking garage and make my way back up north to the apartment. Tomorrow is the last day of the fest, and I planned on making the most of it; I was gonna catch an 8am press screening, sync up with David for our interview, and squeeze in two other formal screenings before the festivities come to a close. Rest would be key.
Fiending for more Fantastic Fest?! Check out the links below:
Fantastic Fest reviews
Fantastic Fest podcasts
Fantastic Fest articles
Fantastic Fest lists
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!