Fantastic Fest 2024: Clowns Rule at Texas’ No-Joke Genre Event Set to Debut ‘Terrifier 3,’ ‘V/H/S Beyond,’ and More

Alison Foreman and Christian Zilko

September 20, 2024 at 5:00 AM·6 min read

Fantastic Fest 2024 kicks off in weather so hot it could make a killer clown melt.

That won’t scare away the right movie lovers from this buzzy genre film event — held every year at Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. It also won’t keep the most game among them from embracing the creepy circus theme tied to the event’s extra freaky 19th edition. However, the residual face paint and sweat could prove its own messy point at opening night’s Mac Sabbath concert. (Yes, that is “the world’s only McDonald’s themed Black Sabbath cover band.” Thank you for asking!)

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An eight-day film festival exploring horror, sci-fi, fantasy, cult films, and more, this year’s Fantastic Fest runs from Thursday, September 19 to Thursday, September 26. Founded in 2005 by Tim League, the offbeat festival includes dozens of feature films, several shorts programs, two episodic premieres for TV, a notorious “debate” night (featuring a… boxing element?!), various live performances, and more. Fantastic Games also makes its inaugural outing at the fest this year, presenting new titles from studios, like Blumhouse Games, alongside established favorites, like “Five Nights at Freddy’s.“

Day 1 begins with the world premiere of director James Ashcroft’s “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” a psychological thriller recently acquired by Shudder and starring John Lithgow with Geoffrey Rush. Fantastic closes out that night with the splatter-ific antics of Art the Clown in Damien Leone’s “Terrifier 3.” The next sequel in extreme horror’s favorite little-indie-that-could unleashes a vicious horror lineup for the rest of the fest. That includes world premieres for the sequel anthology “V/H/S Beyond,” Alexandre Aja’s “Never Let Go,” Natalie Erika James’ “Apartment 7A,” Benjamin Barfoot’s “Daddy’s Head,” and more.

Various screenings and premieres for non-horror titles, such as Netflix’s “Will & Harper,” Ant Timpson’s family adventure “Bookworm,” IFC Films’ animated “Memoir of a Snail,” and the reproductive musical “Spermageddon” promise a well-rounded — albeit distinctly For the Weirdo — program and schedule. Director Nacho Vigalondo will also screen his latest sci-fi feature, “Daniela Forever,” and accept a special award honoring unique contributions to cinema through films like “Timecrimes” and “Colossal.” Fantastic will close out Day 8 with the world premiere of Brandon Espby’s feature debut, “Mr. Crocket,” for Hulu.

Featuring selections from six continents and 28 countries, the shorts competition will be split into four blocks — Fantastic Shorts, Short Fuse, Shorts with Legs, and Drawn and Quartered — as well as a special side-bar presentation, titled Arab Genre Rises. There will also be five secret screenings. (Guess them correctly for the festival’s online competition and you’ll win a fan badge for next year.)

Read on for a selection of IndieWire’s six most anticipated films making their world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024.

“Apartment 7A” (dir. Natalie Erika James)

Natalie Erika James’ “Apartment 7A” takes fans back to 1965 for a prequel to one of the greatest horror movies of all time, “Rosemary’s Baby.” Julia Garner stars as Terry Gionoffrio, the suicidal drug addict from the original film who lives with Rosemary’s elderly neighbors Minnie and Roman Castevet (now played by Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally). The Paramount+ film promises to expand the backstory of a small but memorable character, and could prove to be a rich addition to the “Rosemary’s Baby” mythology. New updates to half-century-old horror properties have yielded mixed results in recent years, so it remains to be seen whether “Apartment 7A” will end up closer to the acclaimed “Halloween” sequels or the maligned “The Exorcist: Believer.” But there’s only one way to find out, and “Apartment 7A” will be appointment viewing for horror junkies when it premieres in Austin this week.

“Ebony and Ivory” (dir. Jim Hosking)

Sometimes, you hear an elevator pitch so delightfully strange that all you can do is thank the Universe that the movie exists while simultaneously making immediate plans to see it. Such is the case with Jim Hosking’s “Ebony and Ivory,” a dark comedy that offers a revisionist take on Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder’s collaboration on their 1982 hit of the same name. Given that Hosking also directed the cult hit “The Greasy Strangler,” viewers have every reason to expect a wild romp that shares absolutely no DNA with the real events that inspired it — but is likely much, much more entertaining.

“House of Spoils” (dir. Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy)

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the decade’s funniest TV show, “The Bear,” it’s that restaurant owners face enormous amounts of pressure on a daily basis. But even the most stressful kitchen environments are usually, at the very least, free of interference from supernatural entities. But not everyone can be so lucky. “House of Spoils” stars Ariana DeBose as a restauranteur who finds her efforts constantly thwarted by the ghost of the building’s previous owner, who is determined to see her enterprise fail. Genre films often find mainstream success by combining current cultural trends with good old fashioned horror, so it’s no surprise that “House of Spoils” is entering Fantastic Fest as one of the most talked-about films on the lineup.

“Mr. Crocket” (dir. Brandon Espy)

Fantastic Fest is set to close with “Mr. Crocket,” Brandon Espy’s feature directorial debut that he adapted from his 2022 segment on Hulu’s “Bite Sized Halloween.” The film centers around a fictional children’s TV show that quickly turns deadly when characters encounter a collection of old VHS tapes that emit a demonic presence. Drawing early comparisons to both “A Nightmare on Elm Street” and “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” the film could end the festival on a crowd pleasing note before streaming on Hulu in time for the Halloween season.

“The Rule of Jenny Pen” (dir. James Ashcroft)

All you really need to know to be excited about “The Rule of Jenny Pen” is that it stars John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush in a two-handed game of sadistic psychological torture. Rush plays a retired judge who has become bedridden after suffering a stroke and finds himself terrorized by an abusive neighbor in his nursing home (Lithgow). When his cries for help fall on deaf ears, he’s forced to take matters into his own hands. “The Rule of Jenny Pen” has been designated as Fantastic Fest’s opening film (although “Terrifier 3” will also play on opening night), and the combination of star power and perversity should make it one of the festival’s definitive entries.

“Terrifier 3” (dir. Damien Leone)

Damien Leone’s “Terrifier” films have quickly established themselves as the bloodiest original slasher franchise to emerge from the 21st century. “Terrifier 2,” which made waves for its stomach-turning practical effects, was always destined to be a hard act to follow. But Leone and company appear to have embraced the challenge with gusto, bringing back Art the Clown for a yuletide saga that has all the makings of a Christmas horror classic.

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