Sarah and I are still grinding deep within the 30th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. We’re not getting to as many screenings as we’d like (broken leg will do that), but we’re still hitting a solid mix of the classic Fantasia checkboxes.
Fresh episode of 9to5.cc Goes to Fantasia is up, and this one covers two strong ones.
First is The Mouths, the North American premiere from Takashi Shimizu. Classic Japanese horror setup: a cursed tree outside a cemetery, a group of teens daring each other to touch it for a courage test, and then the usual (and very well-executed) fallout. Hollow eyes, streaky hair, excellent practical makeup and effects. The film is framed as a series of first-person accounts given to an investigating officer, which lets it play with both the supernatural side and the interpersonal drama between the characters. It leans into that familiar “you kind of brought this on yourself” Japanese horror energy. If you like the original Ju-On or Ringu, this is an easy recommendation. Short, breezy, and does the genre proud.
Then we get to the one that might be my favorite film of the festival so far (and one of my favorites of the year): I Love Paris. World premiere. It’s an underground music-scene mockumentary that happens to have vampires in it. Think What We Do in the Shadows energy, but less cartoonish and more grounded in the actual Parisian music world. Paris (played by Aminata Thiboult, who is fantastic) is an up-and-coming French artist who becomes a vampire mostly by accident and then has to figure out how to still chase a festival slot when she can only work at night. The vampire lore is kept deliberately light — no super strength, no fancy courts, just the inconvenience of living forever and needing blood. The music-scene side is so strong it could almost stand alone as a comedy about trying to make it. Bilingual, full of very French humor, and the main performance is a delight.
Two very different vibes, both worth your time if you're hunting down movies off the beaten path.
We’ll keep watching. You keep listening. Go see some Fantasia films.
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