The Best Retrospective Screenings At Fantastic Fest 2023
This year’s Fantastic Fest had all the expected trappings that the most prominent genre festival in the country is known for. For eight days in Austin, Texas, genre fans can bask in an extensive lineup of movies, with everything from famed secret screenings to new voices in horror, action, and sci-fi. The options can feel overwhelming but also ecstatic—the air buzzing with the possibility of seeing something life-changing or formative during the festival. It’s one of the biggest thrills of any fest: the potential of your next watch becoming a new favorite.
There was also a great share of beautiful, weird, and wonderful restorations playing the fest. Thanks in part to their collaboration with the American Genre Film Archive (abbreviated to AGFA), there were a lot of gorgeous retrospective restorations to check out during Fantastic Fest. From insect fever dreams and nightmarish classics to a new take on a controversial epic, there was something for everyone in the restoration lineup this year. It made for an impressive alternative selection for the hardcore genre fans who want something more than the contemporary choices at the fest. In this list, I’ll break down and rank Fantastic Fest’s restoration showings in all their unhinged beauty.
7. Centipede Horror (1982), dir. Keith Li
If you’re a chilopodophobe (deathly afraid of centipedes) this film might be your worst nightmare. If you don’t mind seeing swarming masses of squirming centipedes, you’ve got a fun, wild time on your hands with this whirlwind of a film. Pak’s (Michael Miu) sister, Kay (Lai Fun Chan) decides to go on a class trip to Southeast Asia, then dies under mysterious circumstances. Pak and his friend Chee (Tien-Lang Li) decide to investigate, and soon find out that she was a victim of the “centipede spell.”
Centipede Horror is a masterclass in commitment from its actors, namely Li, who has to spit up a literal mouthful of centipedes at one point in the film. It also has dreamy visuals which are enhanced in the 2K restoration from AGFA that I saw, warring sorcerers, and reanimated chicken skeletons. What more could you want from a centipede horror film?
6. The Jar (Charon) (1984), dir. Bruce Toscano
A cursory glance at the Letterboxd reviews of this movie might dismay the casual horror fan. There, it has a measly average rating of 2.7/5, but don’t let that fool you: The Jar is worth watching. Paul (Gary Wallace) has been in a car crash and found a jar at the scene. The titular jar has a demon inside that wants to possess Paul. That’s the basic premise and all you need to know going into the movie. The Jar revels in nightmarish, colorful imagery, elliptical storytelling, and bold narrative breaks.
If you want straightforward storytelling out of your movies, this might be a frustrating experience (I heard some defeated, annoyed sighs when the credits rolled in my screening). Instead, what The Jar offers is this: a headfirst dive into one man’s demonic possession, with all the hallucinogenic nightmares and cosmic sorrow that comes with it. The dialogue was clearly dubbed, which comes off a bit goofy at times, but generally adds to the uncanny atmosphere. Plus, the 4K restoration that had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest looks beautiful. The deep reds, unsettling greens, and the infernal face in the jar looked more gorgeous and grosser than ever before.
5. Door (1988), dir. Banmei Takahashi
The home invasion thriller has never been more isolated, more nerve-wracking, and more sparse than it is in Banmei Takahashi’s Door. Centered around a very bad string of days for housewife Yasuko (Keiko Takahashi), Door follows the suffering that follows an unsettling interaction between Yasuko and an overzealous salesman. When he crosses a line and tries to give her a pamphlet through her doorway, she smashes it and everything goes to hell.
The sound design, limited film locations (we never really leave the apartment, much like Yasuko), and editing all work together to ratchet up the tension. It leads up to a bloody, shocking climax that’ll leave your head spinning. The restoration, which makes all the madness look mesmerizing too, had its North American premiere at the fest and hopefully will lead to more awareness and viewings of this underseen gem of Extreme Asian cinema.
4. Nowhere (1997), dir. Gregg Araki
Adolescence is a hotbed of surreality, sexual awakenings, alienation, and yearning. Nowhere, the last entry in Gregg Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy understands this deeply, as it takes us through a day in the strange lives of college students. We follow Dark (James Duval), Mel (Rachel True), and their friends as they take drugs, binge, purge, hook up, and seemingly never make it to their classes. Among the anarchy, sex, and pop art sensibility on display, there’s a sense of doom bleeding through the film that resonates to this day.
There is simply nothing else like Nowhere. Unfortunately, for a long time, this film was hard to find and watch save for rough-looking bootleg copies that circulated among film fans. Now, with this new 4K restoration, we finally have the definitive version of Araki’s Teenage Apocalypse finale.
3. The Strangler (1970), dir. Paul Vecchiali
A killer stalks the lonely women of Paris, strangling them with a children’s scarf. In Paul Vecchiali’s French giallo, you get all the usual trappings of the subgenre: colorful sets, rain-slicked streets, and psychosexual subtext. It’s also a legitimately thrilling and beautiful film to watch, where finding out the identity of the murderer isn’t as important as examining the complicated, repressed psychology of the murderer and people swept up in the killings.
There’s homoeroticism, a haunting examination of isolation, and a stunning use of color to shape the mood and atmosphere of the film. The 2K restoration of the film from Altered Innocence highlights these choices, giving this film the release it deserves.
2. Caligula – The Ultimate Cut (2023), dirs. Tinto Brass, Thomas Negovan
When Caligula was first released in 1980, it was controversial for many reasons: rough critical reception, unsimulated sex on camera, and arguments over the theatrical cut of the film. Now, over 40 years later, using over 90 hours of unused, restored footage from the Penthouse production, there is finally a more definitive version of the movie. In the story of the rise and fall of Emperor Caligula (Malcolm McDowell), we watch as the Emperor does away with traditional rule and lets hedonism and base pleasures overtake the empire.
The result is a lush, colorful, big-budget epic with ambitious set pieces, sex galore, and a cautionary tale about the corrupting nature of power. Want to see what it looked like when the industry spent real money on big movies for adults? Look no further than Caligula – The Ultimate Cut.
1. Messiah of Evil (1973), dirs. Willard Huyck, Gloria Katz
Arletty (Marianna Hill) is looking for her father in Point Dume, California. When she arrives, however, all she finds is an abandoned house, a diary where her father recorded his descent into madness, and a group of hedonists looking into the strange happenings in Point Dume. What unfolds is a nefarious masterpiece that takes equal parts Lovecraftian sensibilities and the dread of George Romero’s zombie films and creates something wholly singular.
The colors and imagery in the film are key, and they work together to build up an intense, nightmarish atmosphere that suffuses the film with pure dread. Watching a famous sequence where a character is chased through a grocery store, and another where a young woman finds herself trapped in a theater full of the undead made my heart race. The latest restoration, which had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest, comes from AGFA and Radiance Films. It looks virtually flawless and demands to be seen on a big screen.
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