September 21, 2025 • 18 mins
Tony Salvaggio reports live from Fantastic Fest 2025, sharing exciting insights on standout films like the atmospheric "The Ice Tower," the intense Indonesian martial arts film "Ikatan Dara," the Euro-spy pastiche "Reflections in a Dead Diamond," and more. Join Jason Henderson as Tony breaks down the festival's medieval-themed highlights and must-see genre cinema.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Castle Talk, where we talk to
writers and creators of today's genre worlds. I'm your host,
Jason Henderson, publisher at castle Bridge Media, and once again
we are joined by co host Tony Savaggio, who is
on the street at Fantastic Fest this week checking out
everything new coming in genre films. So, Tony, it's been
a couple of days, we said, we do a reasonably
(00:30):
quick check in just to see how things are going and.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What you've what you've.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Been especially impressed by. So what's going on in Austin.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, a lot of cool stuff, and you know it's
Fantastic Fest, so there's been a lot of Also, like
yesterday they did Strangers Strangers too thing where people were
dressed in masks and there's a dragon up above the
draft off. I've seen Castle Rat like I said, which
was they were amazing. That was a cool show. There's
(01:01):
an overall the it's a medieval theme this year, so
I needed to post some pictures even of the intro
that they've done where they had literal like actual miniatures
and are the mascot TINGU is like enshrined in a
castle the way like you know Knights of old you
know our Saints would be nice. It's pretty good. So yeah,
(01:23):
I've really enjoyed it. I started with some absurdity with
the piano accident as mentioned before, and it brought it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The piano accident I believe was a French film.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, Quentin Depew like if you liked Rubbert, I mean
it depends on your how what you like as far
as absurdity goes and what works for you. Sure, this
one's kind of the gag was lung. It's a little
bit more subdued than some of his other films. But
I like, you know, smoking causes cancer. I thought was
really funny and I think you had seen that to you, like, yeah,
but this one is about, uh, something has happened. A
(01:58):
an influencer goes into into hiding basically or just to
get away from it all, and things happen. I like
starting and then was really just blown away with a
martial arts film Iktan Dara from Indonesia, and you know
martial arts from that area are a lot of a
lot of elbows and knees, lots of machetes, a lot
(02:23):
of knives and machetes. In this one, well, I mean
it does not full full any punches literally and on
the screen it's it's wow. I you know, it's the
kind of stuff that you see too that you hope
it just gets distribution, but you know, you can't tell.
But martial arts, you know, is like, that's that's my jam.
(02:43):
So I was super that was a great like opening night, Okay,
I'm pumped, here's where we're going. I followed the next
morning by the completely opposite direction, Jason, this is another
one I think you're gonna dig. It's called The Ice
Tower and it's kind of a sort of a retelling
of this Now Queen, but it's a film within a
film kind of thing that uh, one of our programmers,
(03:05):
Jake like kind of alluded to maybe like the Red Shoes,
you know, and so it's kind of that and it
is amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I'm looking up, says an Icy reimagining of yeas Christian
Andersen's The Snow Queen, set in nineteen seventies France.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That sounds very cool and I personally think it pairs
well with any of the Carmela, any of the Carmela
stories you want to watch. So again, this was like
I'm seeing this, I'm gonna I'm gonna mind meld with
Jason and we're gonna you know, tell him Like that
makes me really happy. I'm glad you said that languid.
So it was a little trd like in the morning,
(03:42):
you know, you're tired. Yeah, and that's not any fault
of the like it's so beautiful, like it's so atmospheric
and just how it moves. It is very languid. So
it's not gonna be for everybody like you want, you know,
fast pace anything. But like this is when I could
totally see that, you know, the number time you said, oh,
I just put that on the background when I do think, right,
this is one of those and not that you should
(04:05):
put it on the background. You should watch it first,
but like you can call it up and just be enveloped. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, one of the things we were talking about when
we were at Colorado Festival of Horror was that some
movies are snow globe movies. You know, after you've taken
them as a story, it remains, you know, just a
capturing of a bunch of really interesting images.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, when you say snow globe, I mean this is
almost literal, right, it's all ice cream snowy, Like I mean,
if you want to call it that, this would if
you want to make that a thing, this I think
would be it. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Wow, I'm looking I'm looking at images of it, and
I see exactly Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And I followed that again, this is the kind of
flow of the fest right, follow that up with a
rod to Vendetta, which I found out how much it
was shot for. It's a Hong Kong movie, and you know,
there's a there's a scene that if you like the
kind of opening fights and like, nobody this would do it.
But the director was there and he was talking about, Hey,
(05:03):
I've been a dancer, I've been a you know, I
wanted to direct. I love animation, I love you know,
video games. Like he was like, oh, now you're speaking
my language. Right, So I got to talk to him briefly,
and you know, there was a good Q and A.
But I can't believe it was shot for, you know,
way way less than most movies are shot, like, and
(05:24):
it looks everything's up on the screen. You know. I
know that's kind of cliche, but I really hope Rode
to Vendetta gets some look because also, and you know,
in a world where there's like they say there's gonna
make some thirty million dollar AI film, yeah, like and
then there's this it's like just like you know, a
tenth or a fifteenth of that or something like something
that just like give these give these people, give these filmmakers,
(05:48):
like parse out that thirty million into like three million
increments or for me and just give them or a
two million or one million, like let's have awesome. Like
it was amazing. I really dug it. Also the second
Jason movie, Jason Antoni movie, I would say, Reflections in
a Dead Diamond.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
That is no title, by the way. The funny thing
is it's that's like trying to create a James Bond title,
and you go, I don't know, I gotta have die
and I've got to have maybe you know.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, no, no, it's extremely purposeful. Like agree, I love it.
And it has like ties to Italian comics, you know,
and b and like you know all the benda saying
the actor they got started partially because they were like,
oh man, now he was he was in spy movies
and he was in stuff. He was in stuff, and
now he looks like a like kind of like Sean Connery,
(06:41):
So why don't we cast him as an older spy
and it took years and years and oh Jason, like seriously,
I'm watching him, like why can't you teleport here? Because
they captured the euro trash, eurospy psychedelia and just weird
taking chances. We don't have much of a budget, so
we're just gonna just do stuff, weird cinematic things, you know,
(07:02):
and like the thematic elements that are kind of almost
dream like. Also because you don't really I don't want
to reveal too much, but you don't exactly know what's
real necessarily because the way it's set up and.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Images of it, and it looks like obviously it's a
like there are pastiches of diabo leak.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Oh man, yeah, there's no doubt that the diaboleak, Like yeah,
this is real and all of this like coast kind
of stuff with you know, this guy who looks like
Marcella Maustrini.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I mean, this is amazing. Oh no, no, this is
your this is well, I said, I was talking to
the filmmakers and I was Tim League was there too,
and I was like, I came to see this for Jason.
Tim correct me, he goes, well, also, you saw it
for you too, and I'm like, yeses, yes, But then
I saw them the next day it was like, hey,
I'm still thinking about your movie. This is it's not
(07:54):
I don't think that the narrative and the way it's
done maybe not for everyone, you know, but that's a
because we watch a lot of stuff that's not for everyone,
right like your mileage Maybury. But as far as just
if you want to, this is another one of those
where like once you've seen it once and you just
kind of absorbed it, you could put it on and
have a like a it's like a reel of a
(08:16):
brand new reel of euro Spy. And the way it's handled,
they know what they're doing when they put this is
and it was years in the making, like you know,
so many stories of hey we had a thing going
and then and then you know, it started in twenty
eleven and then oh no, you know, lockdown happened. Then
you know, they didn't know if they could get the actor,
you know, all the stuff. So Legendary.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Plays a retired super spy who spends his twilight years
in a lavish hotel in the era.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, like I said, man, like when you see it
and there's there's at least two gags where I told
him I was like, oh, I was so mad that
you did that, because it's so good. Yeah, And I
was mad that I didn't think about it. Yeah, as
a writer, as a as a get, as a film
as a watcher, you know, viewer, I was like, Ah,
(09:04):
that's amazing. And as a writer, I'm going, oh, too good.
Why why did I never think about that?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What else? Salensia, which is kind of the director h
Edwardo Casanova, is just out and proud and taken, no
just taking, no guff and just his his Jason one
of the best I think since the Udo kir Q
and A. I don't think I've seen a a more
(09:34):
out and proud and just like I'm gonna say, I'm
gonna speak my truth Q and A. But it has
a lot about the plague. His his vision was women
are not they have a lot of HIV has a
lot of silence attached to it, and women who have
HIV have a lot of silence attached to that. And
but in that he created something like there's comedy in
(09:56):
it as well, So he's taking that turning because it's
a serious work. In fact, I kind of likened it
to if you had a a more serious lots of spookies,
uh huh, Like yeah, I hope, I hope. I think
the director would be okay with that. But that's but
it's it's got a lot to say, but also it's
(10:17):
very extremely entertaining. It was told in like three parts.
He was meaning to make a serious so I thought,
and that was perfect like late Night, especially with the director,
like it looks amazing. Yeah, that's really and I liked it.
There's a lot to say, but you can still be
comedic and like, you know, show something cool and like
(10:38):
it was amazing. Forbidden City was my was my other
one that I just wow, I just can't say enough.
It's like I was blown away. That was one of
my That was my my other opening. And what a
way to.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
About a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Rome hiding
an underground sex trafficking ring.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah yeah, wow. I mean and this is you know,
this is the same directory it Freaks Out, also called
whatever Freaks Right.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It says this has astounding fight choreography. That means to
me that this is a certain kind.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Of movie that's well there, I don't want to reveal
too much. Okay, there there's a sequence that happens that
leads you to Rome and I was like, okay, I'm
in like this sure, and it is the you know,
this is the g Robot director as well, and I'd
heard good things, but boy, oh boy, yeah, you know
(11:29):
his fight. The fight choreography is amazing and you know
it look two things. It's like chocolate peanut butter awesome
martial arts set in Italy come on, and then to
keep it going, alums and other demons. Super cool like
series of shorts. There's a hilarious one called chair uh
(11:51):
shot for just super like another Austin filmmaker shot for
super cheap, but it's hilarious. Uh. My friend director Maddie
Doe did a Theotian version of Sleeping Beauty, which is
like this horror version. Man, it gets what's it called.
It's called the Sleeping Beauty Oh yes, yes, okay, a
(12:13):
weird psycho sexual spanked by a ghost, which was started
as a gag name and they just turned it into
like a ghost story, a kinky ghost story called Yeah.
It was one of those like like you have those
titles that you joke like because you know the filmmaker
was there and Caitlin Douglas and like it was always
a joke between you know, her and her partner and
(12:34):
spanked by a ghost and she's like, well that is
decided to make this movie and super disturbing. Uh So
there's several that were in. Hopefully I want to plug
it a little bit and I want to keep going,
but hopefully, uh this there's an anthology series called Hails
from the Woods, I want to say, and I hope
(12:54):
it gets I hope it gets out there, because there
were several that I think there were three, if I'm
not mistaken. Jacques the Giant Slayer was a retelling of
Jack the Giant Slayer, of course, part originally they had
done it in French and this kind of other language
that I've drawn a blank on that, but like it
was meant to be a meeting of two kind of
(13:17):
uh just like misunderstanding between these two like the monstrous things.
But they actually had to add subtitles to kind of
back in, but minimal French subtitles. But Vincent and Moore
had like acted in it and just designed this disturbing
tale twenty two minutes. It's like you're in and out,
but it was super effective. I really liked it. And
then I'm gonna move on to uh, you know again
(13:39):
chocolate and peanut butter. When I saw the name Haunted Heist,
I was like, oh, ghosts and heist. But is this
really hilarious comedy? Little Howardy just made something awesome talk
you talk briefly to him and as the writer, and
you know, it's got Tiffany Hattish, all these comedians, all
these like, you know, stand up comedians as well who've
(14:02):
also acted some and x Con basically gets his friends
to come and search for this, like there's a gag
about the name of the dagger that they're searching for,
and it's them against like these really racist ghosts. That
is that is really funny like it you know, it's
it's got all the bits that I like, So I
(14:23):
hope it does well. It was. It was really funny.
I loved it, uh and everybody was really genuine on
like because also the writer does mister Crockett, so really
cool people involved. And then I wrapped it up and
I'll wrap this up with black phone two yea for
a long time. Yeah, we've known Cargil for a long time,
(14:45):
so I had to kind of go like, you know,
I mean, I like, you know, Scott Derrickson's awesome too, right, Yeah,
I enjoyed it. It's interesting to see, like, what do
you do after the end of Black Phone, Like it
seems like there's a lot of fallout, but what can
you do? And what you do evidently, as as I've
seen Black one two is pull all of your horror
(15:06):
movies that you dig and take what you like from
a buffet and higher, you know, high back to really
good actors and put them back through some stuff in
the snow in Colorado with you know, I don't know
if I would say, like, I don't want to reveal
too much because when you see like everything that they're
drawing from, you're like, oh, well, all this stuff is
(15:28):
stuff I did, so yeah, and then I had to
jet to Ripplefest, so I didn't That's what I closed
out with. But I'm still looking forward to Obsession. Today
is death Gasm too, So my love of horror and
uh and metal leads me. And then is our first
secret screening, so who knows. When we catch back up,
I'll let you know what that is. But I've heard,
you know, I've heard really good things about Mother of
(15:49):
Flies from the Atoms. I haven't seen it yet, but
I like those directors, and uh, you know, I'm I'm
super stoked. I'm trying to figure out if I can
catch a pee. I think we should interview them, you know, eventually,
and it comes out because they're really great filmmakers and
hell Bender was one of my favorites. But yeah, there's
a lot more to come. But that's what I've seen
so far, and I've been super happy with with every
(16:10):
all those things. And you know, we got like again,
we got at least to Tony Jason movies. I wish
you were I wish you were here.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh that's really kind. Well I'm really glad that you're
getting to report report back from the edge.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And yeah, you know, well this sets again, this sets
the pace for the rest of our year, right, like,
these things come out, we go hey, Tony raises his
hand and goes, okay, I saw that these are the
ones we need to see, right and and just you know,
talking even even stuff I missed I'm catching the second
you know, the second screen, or just talking to filmmakers
in general and people putting their all into their you know,
(16:45):
there's even the shorts, like the show before some of
the movies. There was a guy I did one called
Benny's Birthday, which is awesome and disturbing, and I got
to tell him. I was like, oh man, because he
became a parrot after the things, like I don't know
what I was doing because I was, you know, I
made this horror with this kid and now I'm a parent,
Like what does that say? You know? And I told
(17:06):
him my when a birthday story that I had. He's like, oh, wow, yeah, thanks,
you know. But but the fact that the fantastic best
brings in, you know, even the people doing the shorts
if you want to come, I think that's just super cool.
Like seeing seeing your film with an audience. Oh absolutely,
uh you know, doing a Q and A along with
(17:29):
the you know, often the director of the feature. That's
that's super cool. I like that. And I'm not even
that's not even like the you know, there's all the
parties and debates and all of that. So this is
definitely something I needed, and definitely I love sharing all
these films. I hope people seek them out. I need
to do some more posts of just random cool stuff
from the from the fest. Pretty soon. Yesterday they did
(17:51):
like a Stranger's activation, Like I said, like where the
strangers mask people were menacing quote unquote menacing the Fantastic
Fest guest. But I think everybody by this time was like,
oh look masks right, and I'm like, oh my god,
I'm so scared. And it's more like, hey, look, hey
guy with the bag mask. Cool, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Thank you so much. I'm so I'm so glad this
is going well. We will we will talk soon.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Cool. Take care
Hello, and welcome to Castle Talk, where we talk to
writers and creators of today's genre worlds. I'm your host,
Jason Henderson, publisher at castle Bridge Media, and once again
we are joined by co host Tony Savaggio, who is
on the street at Fantastic Fest this week checking out
everything new coming in genre films. So, Tony, it's been
a couple of days, we said, we do a reasonably
(00:30):
quick check in just to see how things are going and.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
What you've what you've.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Been especially impressed by. So what's going on in Austin.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
Yeah, a lot of cool stuff, and you know it's
Fantastic Fest, so there's been a lot of Also, like
yesterday they did Strangers Strangers too thing where people were
dressed in masks and there's a dragon up above the
draft off. I've seen Castle Rat like I said, which
was they were amazing. That was a cool show. There's
(01:01):
an overall the it's a medieval theme this year, so
I needed to post some pictures even of the intro
that they've done where they had literal like actual miniatures
and are the mascot TINGU is like enshrined in a
castle the way like you know Knights of old you
know our Saints would be nice. It's pretty good. So yeah,
(01:23):
I've really enjoyed it. I started with some absurdity with
the piano accident as mentioned before, and it brought it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
The piano accident I believe was a French film.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, Quentin Depew like if you liked Rubbert, I mean
it depends on your how what you like as far
as absurdity goes and what works for you. Sure, this
one's kind of the gag was lung. It's a little
bit more subdued than some of his other films. But
I like, you know, smoking causes cancer. I thought was
really funny and I think you had seen that to you, like, yeah,
but this one is about, uh, something has happened. A
(01:58):
an influencer goes into into hiding basically or just to
get away from it all, and things happen. I like
starting and then was really just blown away with a
martial arts film Iktan Dara from Indonesia, and you know
martial arts from that area are a lot of a
lot of elbows and knees, lots of machetes, a lot
(02:23):
of knives and machetes. In this one, well, I mean
it does not full full any punches literally and on
the screen it's it's wow. I you know, it's the
kind of stuff that you see too that you hope
it just gets distribution, but you know, you can't tell.
But martial arts, you know, is like, that's that's my jam.
(02:43):
So I was super that was a great like opening night, Okay,
I'm pumped, here's where we're going. I followed the next
morning by the completely opposite direction, Jason, this is another
one I think you're gonna dig. It's called The Ice
Tower and it's kind of a sort of a retelling
of this Now Queen, but it's a film within a
film kind of thing that uh, one of our programmers,
(03:05):
Jake like kind of alluded to maybe like the Red Shoes,
you know, and so it's kind of that and it
is amazing.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
I'm looking up, says an Icy reimagining of yeas Christian
Andersen's The Snow Queen, set in nineteen seventies France.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
That sounds very cool and I personally think it pairs
well with any of the Carmela, any of the Carmela
stories you want to watch. So again, this was like
I'm seeing this, I'm gonna I'm gonna mind meld with
Jason and we're gonna you know, tell him Like that
makes me really happy. I'm glad you said that languid.
So it was a little trd like in the morning,
(03:42):
you know, you're tired. Yeah, and that's not any fault
of the like it's so beautiful, like it's so atmospheric
and just how it moves. It is very languid. So
it's not gonna be for everybody like you want, you know,
fast pace anything. But like this is when I could
totally see that, you know, the number time you said, oh,
I just put that on the background when I do think, right,
this is one of those and not that you should
(04:05):
put it on the background. You should watch it first,
but like you can call it up and just be enveloped. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Well, one of the things we were talking about when
we were at Colorado Festival of Horror was that some
movies are snow globe movies. You know, after you've taken
them as a story, it remains, you know, just a
capturing of a bunch of really interesting images.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Well, when you say snow globe, I mean this is
almost literal, right, it's all ice cream snowy, Like I mean,
if you want to call it that, this would if
you want to make that a thing, this I think
would be it. Right.
Speaker 1 (04:36):
Wow, I'm looking I'm looking at images of it, and
I see exactly Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
And I followed that again, this is the kind of
flow of the fest right, follow that up with a
rod to Vendetta, which I found out how much it
was shot for. It's a Hong Kong movie, and you know,
there's a there's a scene that if you like the
kind of opening fights and like, nobody this would do it.
But the director was there and he was talking about, Hey,
(05:03):
I've been a dancer, I've been a you know, I
wanted to direct. I love animation, I love you know,
video games. Like he was like, oh, now you're speaking
my language. Right, So I got to talk to him briefly,
and you know, there was a good Q and A.
But I can't believe it was shot for, you know,
way way less than most movies are shot, like, and
(05:24):
it looks everything's up on the screen. You know. I
know that's kind of cliche, but I really hope Rode
to Vendetta gets some look because also, and you know,
in a world where there's like they say there's gonna
make some thirty million dollar AI film, yeah, like and
then there's this it's like just like you know, a
tenth or a fifteenth of that or something like something
that just like give these give these people, give these filmmakers,
(05:48):
like parse out that thirty million into like three million
increments or for me and just give them or a
two million or one million, like let's have awesome. Like
it was amazing. I really dug it. Also the second
Jason movie, Jason Antoni movie, I would say, Reflections in
a Dead Diamond.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
That is no title, by the way. The funny thing
is it's that's like trying to create a James Bond title,
and you go, I don't know, I gotta have die
and I've got to have maybe you know.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, no, no, it's extremely purposeful. Like agree, I love it.
And it has like ties to Italian comics, you know,
and b and like you know all the benda saying
the actor they got started partially because they were like,
oh man, now he was he was in spy movies
and he was in stuff. He was in stuff, and
now he looks like a like kind of like Sean Connery,
(06:41):
So why don't we cast him as an older spy
and it took years and years and oh Jason, like seriously,
I'm watching him, like why can't you teleport here? Because
they captured the euro trash, eurospy psychedelia and just weird
taking chances. We don't have much of a budget, so
we're just gonna just do stuff, weird cinematic things, you know,
(07:02):
and like the thematic elements that are kind of almost
dream like. Also because you don't really I don't want
to reveal too much, but you don't exactly know what's
real necessarily because the way it's set up and.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Images of it, and it looks like obviously it's a
like there are pastiches of diabo leak.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Oh man, yeah, there's no doubt that the diaboleak, Like yeah,
this is real and all of this like coast kind
of stuff with you know, this guy who looks like
Marcella Maustrini.
Speaker 2 (07:33):
I mean, this is amazing. Oh no, no, this is
your this is well, I said, I was talking to
the filmmakers and I was Tim League was there too,
and I was like, I came to see this for Jason.
Tim correct me, he goes, well, also, you saw it
for you too, and I'm like, yeses, yes, But then
I saw them the next day it was like, hey,
I'm still thinking about your movie. This is it's not
(07:54):
I don't think that the narrative and the way it's
done maybe not for everyone, you know, but that's a
because we watch a lot of stuff that's not for everyone,
right like your mileage Maybury. But as far as just
if you want to, this is another one of those
where like once you've seen it once and you just
kind of absorbed it, you could put it on and
have a like a it's like a reel of a
(08:16):
brand new reel of euro Spy. And the way it's handled,
they know what they're doing when they put this is
and it was years in the making, like you know,
so many stories of hey we had a thing going
and then and then you know, it started in twenty
eleven and then oh no, you know, lockdown happened. Then
you know, they didn't know if they could get the actor,
you know, all the stuff. So Legendary.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
Plays a retired super spy who spends his twilight years
in a lavish hotel in the era.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, like I said, man, like when you see it
and there's there's at least two gags where I told
him I was like, oh, I was so mad that
you did that, because it's so good. Yeah, And I
was mad that I didn't think about it. Yeah, as
a writer, as a as a get, as a film
as a watcher, you know, viewer, I was like, Ah,
(09:04):
that's amazing. And as a writer, I'm going, oh, too good.
Why why did I never think about that?
Speaker 1 (09:10):
Yes?
Speaker 2 (09:11):
What else? Salensia, which is kind of the director h
Edwardo Casanova, is just out and proud and taken, no
just taking, no guff and just his his Jason one
of the best I think since the Udo kir Q
and A. I don't think I've seen a a more
(09:34):
out and proud and just like I'm gonna say, I'm
gonna speak my truth Q and A. But it has
a lot about the plague. His his vision was women
are not they have a lot of HIV has a
lot of silence attached to it, and women who have
HIV have a lot of silence attached to that. And
but in that he created something like there's comedy in
(09:56):
it as well, So he's taking that turning because it's
a serious work. In fact, I kind of likened it
to if you had a a more serious lots of spookies,
uh huh, Like yeah, I hope, I hope. I think
the director would be okay with that. But that's but
it's it's got a lot to say, but also it's
(10:17):
very extremely entertaining. It was told in like three parts.
He was meaning to make a serious so I thought,
and that was perfect like late Night, especially with the director,
like it looks amazing. Yeah, that's really and I liked it.
There's a lot to say, but you can still be
comedic and like, you know, show something cool and like
(10:38):
it was amazing. Forbidden City was my was my other
one that I just wow, I just can't say enough.
It's like I was blown away. That was one of
my That was my my other opening. And what a
way to.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
About a Chinese restaurant in the heart of Rome hiding
an underground sex trafficking ring.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah yeah, wow. I mean and this is you know,
this is the same directory it Freaks Out, also called
whatever Freaks Right.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
It says this has astounding fight choreography. That means to
me that this is a certain kind.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Of movie that's well there, I don't want to reveal
too much. Okay, there there's a sequence that happens that
leads you to Rome and I was like, okay, I'm
in like this sure, and it is the you know,
this is the g Robot director as well, and I'd
heard good things, but boy, oh boy, yeah, you know
(11:29):
his fight. The fight choreography is amazing and you know
it look two things. It's like chocolate peanut butter awesome
martial arts set in Italy come on, and then to
keep it going, alums and other demons. Super cool like
series of shorts. There's a hilarious one called chair uh
(11:51):
shot for just super like another Austin filmmaker shot for
super cheap, but it's hilarious. Uh. My friend director Maddie
Doe did a Theotian version of Sleeping Beauty, which is
like this horror version. Man, it gets what's it called.
It's called the Sleeping Beauty Oh yes, yes, okay, a
(12:13):
weird psycho sexual spanked by a ghost, which was started
as a gag name and they just turned it into
like a ghost story, a kinky ghost story called Yeah.
It was one of those like like you have those
titles that you joke like because you know the filmmaker
was there and Caitlin Douglas and like it was always
a joke between you know, her and her partner and
(12:34):
spanked by a ghost and she's like, well that is
decided to make this movie and super disturbing. Uh So
there's several that were in. Hopefully I want to plug
it a little bit and I want to keep going,
but hopefully, uh this there's an anthology series called Hails
from the Woods, I want to say, and I hope
(12:54):
it gets I hope it gets out there, because there
were several that I think there were three, if I'm
not mistaken. Jacques the Giant Slayer was a retelling of
Jack the Giant Slayer, of course, part originally they had
done it in French and this kind of other language
that I've drawn a blank on that, but like it
was meant to be a meeting of two kind of
(13:17):
uh just like misunderstanding between these two like the monstrous things.
But they actually had to add subtitles to kind of
back in, but minimal French subtitles. But Vincent and Moore
had like acted in it and just designed this disturbing
tale twenty two minutes. It's like you're in and out,
but it was super effective. I really liked it. And
then I'm gonna move on to uh, you know again
(13:39):
chocolate and peanut butter. When I saw the name Haunted Heist,
I was like, oh, ghosts and heist. But is this
really hilarious comedy? Little Howardy just made something awesome talk
you talk briefly to him and as the writer, and
you know, it's got Tiffany Hattish, all these comedians, all
these like, you know, stand up comedians as well who've
(14:02):
also acted some and x Con basically gets his friends
to come and search for this, like there's a gag
about the name of the dagger that they're searching for,
and it's them against like these really racist ghosts. That
is that is really funny like it you know, it's
it's got all the bits that I like, So I
(14:23):
hope it does well. It was. It was really funny.
I loved it, uh and everybody was really genuine on
like because also the writer does mister Crockett, so really
cool people involved. And then I wrapped it up and
I'll wrap this up with black phone two yea for
a long time. Yeah, we've known Cargil for a long time,
(14:45):
so I had to kind of go like, you know,
I mean, I like, you know, Scott Derrickson's awesome too, right, Yeah,
I enjoyed it. It's interesting to see, like, what do
you do after the end of Black Phone, Like it
seems like there's a lot of fallout, but what can
you do? And what you do evidently, as as I've
seen Black one two is pull all of your horror
(15:06):
movies that you dig and take what you like from
a buffet and higher, you know, high back to really
good actors and put them back through some stuff in
the snow in Colorado with you know, I don't know
if I would say, like, I don't want to reveal
too much because when you see like everything that they're
drawing from, you're like, oh, well, all this stuff is
(15:28):
stuff I did, so yeah, and then I had to
jet to Ripplefest, so I didn't That's what I closed
out with. But I'm still looking forward to Obsession. Today
is death Gasm too, So my love of horror and
uh and metal leads me. And then is our first
secret screening, so who knows. When we catch back up,
I'll let you know what that is. But I've heard,
you know, I've heard really good things about Mother of
(15:49):
Flies from the Atoms. I haven't seen it yet, but
I like those directors, and uh, you know, I'm I'm
super stoked. I'm trying to figure out if I can
catch a pee. I think we should interview them, you know, eventually,
and it comes out because they're really great filmmakers and
hell Bender was one of my favorites. But yeah, there's
a lot more to come. But that's what I've seen
so far, and I've been super happy with with every
(16:10):
all those things. And you know, we got like again,
we got at least to Tony Jason movies. I wish
you were I wish you were here.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Oh that's really kind. Well I'm really glad that you're
getting to report report back from the edge.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
And yeah, you know, well this sets again, this sets
the pace for the rest of our year, right, like,
these things come out, we go hey, Tony raises his
hand and goes, okay, I saw that these are the
ones we need to see, right and and just you know,
talking even even stuff I missed I'm catching the second
you know, the second screen, or just talking to filmmakers
in general and people putting their all into their you know,
(16:45):
there's even the shorts, like the show before some of
the movies. There was a guy I did one called
Benny's Birthday, which is awesome and disturbing, and I got
to tell him. I was like, oh man, because he
became a parrot after the things, like I don't know
what I was doing because I was, you know, I
made this horror with this kid and now I'm a parent,
Like what does that say? You know? And I told
(17:06):
him my when a birthday story that I had. He's like, oh, wow, yeah, thanks,
you know. But but the fact that the fantastic best
brings in, you know, even the people doing the shorts
if you want to come, I think that's just super cool.
Like seeing seeing your film with an audience. Oh absolutely,
uh you know, doing a Q and A along with
(17:29):
the you know, often the director of the feature. That's
that's super cool. I like that. And I'm not even
that's not even like the you know, there's all the
parties and debates and all of that. So this is
definitely something I needed, and definitely I love sharing all
these films. I hope people seek them out. I need
to do some more posts of just random cool stuff
from the from the fest. Pretty soon. Yesterday they did
(17:51):
like a Stranger's activation, Like I said, like where the
strangers mask people were menacing quote unquote menacing the Fantastic
Fest guest. But I think everybody by this time was like,
oh look masks right, and I'm like, oh my god,
I'm so scared. And it's more like, hey, look, hey
guy with the bag mask. Cool, how are you doing?
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Thank you so much. I'm so I'm so glad this
is going well. We will we will talk soon.
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Cool. Take care
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