Fantastic Fest 2024: 15 Awesome New Genre Movies To Put on Your Radar

Fantastic Fest is genuinely movie heaven. It’s a week-long movie festival that each takes spot successful a azygous theatre (an Alamo Drafthouse successful Austin, Texas), and for the terms of 1 pass, you tin spot up to 5 movies a day, each day. Sometimes those movies are large titles you’ve heard of, sometimes they’re weird movies no 1 volition ever spot again, and sometimes you don’t cognize what you’re seeing until you instrumentality your spot successful the audience. Along the way, that azygous mounting and non-stop scheduling make community and conversation that can’t beryllium topped anyplace else.

I’ve been going to Fantastic Fest for astir 15 years and though it tin beryllium physically and mentally exhausting, it’s ever a blast. This twelvemonth was nary different, arsenic I was capable to compression successful 20 movies implicit the people of astir 5 days. And, of those 20 movies, determination was lone 1 I actively disliked. That’s a beauteous fantastic ratio.

Below, I’ll tally down my 15 favourite films that I saw—which conscionable astir covers everything I saw that you request to cognize astir and adhd to your radar for the coming months.

The Wild Robot is astonishing – Universal/DreamWorks

The Wild Robot

Opening successful theaters this week, I genuinely can’t urge this 1 enough. It’s got the accidental to go a formative, generational film. It’s that good. Read my afloat reappraisal here.

Bookworm

I didn’t reappraisal this 1 due to the fact that technically it’s not a genre film, but it’s truthful fantastic and truthful successful that tone I’m going to notation it here. Nell Fisher (Evil Dead Rise) stars arsenic a super-smart 11-year-old who convinces her absentee father, who happens to beryllium a magician (Elijah Wood), to instrumentality her camping truthful they tin find a precise peculiar animal. It’s heartwarming, it’s hilarious, it’s dark, it’s a fantastic film.

Escape from the 21st Century

Three friends get the quality to clip question into their aboriginal selves 20 years into the aboriginal and indispensable foil a crippled that could extremity the world. The movie is ace flashy and video game-influenced, but with a batch of bosom too. Read my afloat reappraisal here. 

A Different Man is present successful theaters – A24

A Different Man

Now successful prime theaters, Sebastian Stan stars arsenic an histrion with facial disfigurement who is capable to heal himself, lone to recognize his biggest disablement wasn’t his looks, it was himself. A Different Man is simply a precise unique, unpredictable movie that volition support you reasoning agelong aft the credits roll. Read our afloat reappraisal here.

Daniela Forever

Henry Golding (Snake Eyes) stars arsenic a DJ who deals with the decease of his woman by abusing drugs that let him to lucid dream. A unsocial and visually stunning rumination connected emotion and nonaccomplishment from the caput of madman Nacho Vigalando. Read my afloat reappraisal here.

Heretic

Hugh Grant stars arsenic a creepy antheral who traps 2 Mormon missionaries successful his location to trial their faiths. The movie doesn’t extremity arsenic beardown arsenic it starts but it’s a surprising, engaging, and scary movie nonetheless. It opens successful November but read our reappraisal here.

Never Let Go is present successful theaters – Lionsgate

Never Let Go

In this movie present successful theaters everywhere, Halle Berry stars arsenic a parent who indispensable support her kids from an evil that volition onslaught them if they situation to suffer interaction of their house. Great worldbuilding and mysteries abound. Read our interrogation with the film’s manager here.

Terrifier 3

Art the Clown is backmost and he’s adjacent much depraved than ever. Truly, I don’t deliberation I’ve ever seen specified a disgusting, gory, vile movie arsenic this. Which is simply a compliment. It opens October 11 and you tin read our reappraisal here.

Ick

Brandon Routh plays a erstwhile precocious schoolhouse prima backmost who gets stuck successful his location municipality and, decades later, ends up trying to prevention it from an evil substance increasing from the earth. Director Joseph Kahn (Detention, Bodied) gives the movie vigor and nostalgia with a 20+ opus soundtrack of 2000s popular punk. Read our afloat reappraisal here.

Mads comes to Shudder successful October – Shudder

Mads

We travel Patient Zero of an apocalyptic outbreak done what appears to beryllium a adjacent 90-minute agelong instrumentality crossed a suburban French neighborhood. Lots of energy, tons of gore, tons of awesome. It’ll beryllium connected Shudder successful October and you tin work our reappraisal here.

Planet B

When a totalitarian authorities captures members of a Resistance, it puts them successful a concealed virtual situation wherever prisoners tin beryllium tortured without dying. One of the captives past teams up with a writer who sneaks her mode successful to effort and halt it. Great ideas, a small predictable, but a ace coagulated movie nonetheless.

Dead Talents Society

The victor of the prestigious Audience Award astatine this year’s festival centers connected a satellite wherever ghosts beryllium but they tin lone enactment ghosts if they summation societal media notoriety arsenic world-class scarers. Think Beetlejuice for the TikTok generation. I liked it a spot little than everyone other but it’s decidedly a weird, amusive movie.

John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush successful The Rule of Jenny Pen. – Shudder

The Rule of Jenny Pen

Oscar victor Geoffrey Rush is forced to participate an elder attraction installation wherever he’s terrorized by a antheral (John Lithgow) who wears a fake babe doll connected his hand. A genuinely upsetting movie with fantabulous performances.

House of Spoils

Oscar victor Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) is simply a world-class cook who gives up a occupation successful New York to unfastened her ain edifice upstate—a edifice she soon realizes is haunted. DeBose is fantabulous and the settings are wonderful, but the cooking portions are much aggravated than the supernatural stuff. Still though, it’s a coagulated premise that takes immoderate unexpected turns.

Chainsaws Are Singing

This Estonian fearfulness philharmonic follows a radical of strangers terrorized by an evil household led by a slayer with a chainsaw. The songs are awesome, the unit is fun, and the code is hilarious. We conscionable privation it was astir 20 minutes shorter.

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