The Further Reviewing Adventures From the Fantasia Film Festival..!

Fantasia Film Festival: The Battery by CBNAH Junior Reviewer Mrs. Z

The Battery concentrates on two characters who barely know each other. They played in a small baseball team and never really hung out, this until the Zombies hatched. Afterwards they're compelled to be together, evermore.

The main character Ben ( Jeremy Gardner ) who wrote and directed the movie is the one taking care of business, chopping zombies, thinking of basic survival needs, basically doing all the dirty work.

Mickey ( Adam Cronheim ) the second character is basically useless. He is in complete denial, obnoxious and takes for granted his fellow friend. He basically acts like a brat. Overall their friendship resembles a sexist heterosexual couple, thus bringing some humour in this tense story line  There is a part in the movie where Ben brings a zombie from outside and into the room where Mickey is sleeping and closes the door. Mickey has never killed a zombie he left it all for Ben to do. This is Ben's brutal way of "Waking up " Mickey to reality. They have been on the road alone running away never settling down for over 3 months. This type of lifestyle is bound to affect someone’s sanity.

Finally, this psychological movie is not your typical hack slash zombie flick. It revolves around the friendship and how they have changed surviving with each other rather then surviving with the undead.

It is quite an interesting and refreshing twist on zombies. A movie damn worth watching!

Fantasia Film Festival: Magic Magic by CBNAH Junior Reviewer Mrs. Z

Juno Temple stars as Alice she's on a trip to South America with her cousin Sarah (Emilie Browning) to a secluded ranch house with Sarah's boyfriend Augustine (Augustine Silva) and his friend Brink (Michael Cera).

From the very first scene you sense Alice is not at all comfortable with the people she is with. Sarah has to leave for two days to another city to complete a school exam and from that moment Augustine and Brink act and say things that are very awkward and make Alice feel very uncomfortable. She lacks sleeps feel tormented and soon enough falls into a psychological abyss. There is a scene where Augustine hypnotizes Alice and along with Brink they make her do some weird things. When Alice wakes up and realizes what has happen Augustine swears he doesn't know how to hypnotize people and Alice was faking the whole time. The whole one hour and 30 minutes you're never sure what to believe or who to believe.

Finally the overall film is dry and monotone. The plot never seems to thicken and Michael Cera adds a sprinkle of sadistic humour to the sauce, therefore without him the movie would be plain ol' boring.

Oz-Tastic Fantasia Film Festival Reviews..!

 Fantasia Film Festival: Magic Magic Review by Oz

The previews for this film kept showing Michael Cera in a dark and sinister role but after viewing, it was the same old with him. Awkward, funny, if slightly more vulgar and Spanish speaking then usual, still he's a saving grace. The movie itself follows a vacationing American girl in South America, reconnecting with her cousin Sarah (Emily Browning). Sarah welcomes Alicia (Juno Temple) to her new life and friends, but she quickly feels secluded and alone. After unfinished "school" business (in actuality a visit to the hospital attending to an abortion) keeps Sarah from joining her for the first few days in their rustic, middle of the woods holiday home, things spiral downwards mentally for Alicia. The atmospheric soundtrack's goal was to keep you uneasy, but it just gave me a headache. The shocking ending was really not what I was expecting but I still left disappointed. Magic Magic's message maintained to be pretty muddled and in the end, I personally just felt like Alicia's character was very whiny and unsinkable. Still even with the brain-pain, it does leave you with a feeling of discomfort, a feeling of being haunted and unnerved.

Fantasia Film Festival: Imaginaerum Review by Oz

It's a story about a man on his death bed. Surrounded by "loved ones" his own mind is reduced to that of his adolescent self and with the spectre of death disguised as a happy go lucky snowman, the adventure begins. Great visuals all around and the usage of power metal music as a medium to communicate deceit and betrayal in the mind's eye is a brilliant stroke for a movie, but still, it quickly leaves me wanting. It's an interesting look at the old "your entire life flashing before your eyes" but I feel like the message could have been communicated in a lot less time. Overall Imaginaerum is still an original piece of cinema but nothing I would really watch twice.

Fantasia Film Festival: Horror Stories Review by Oz

A South Korean horror anthology featuring 4 short stories with the purpose of soothing a maniac serial killer (Yoo Yeon-seok) into a much needed sleep. Ji-won (Kim Ji-won) is the kidnapped high school student narrating these tales of blood chilling malice. Survival instincts kicked up to 11, she comes up with some pretty intense and gory fables, each concluding in the most horrific manner possible. Lots of fun special effects and ghastly demises, still it maintains its share of regurgitated tropes.

Almost every installment has a dream sequence and other repetitive devices. And the formula becomes predictable. My favourite has to be DON'T ANSWER THE DOOR; it maintained a creepy vibe through out as the young brother and sister duo are terrorized in their upstart apartment. My second preferred anecdote is SECRET RECIPE because who doesn't love cannibalism? Set on a Cindarella-esque backdrop, it displays how far the power of envy and jealousy can go.

The main theme I noticed in all the stories was the power of cruelty, especially one displayed by men. It also maintains a subtle sense of humour through out. HORROR STORIES is engaging and manages to stay varied segment to segment, I look forward to more work from Jung Bum-Shik and co.