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By Mark Saldana  Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) This year, Fantastic Fest screened a few movies headed for Netflix, but none were like this blood diamond from Indonesia.  Even though the festival didn’t receive another insane Raid film from Gareth Evans, Timo Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes For Us proved to be the next best thing. … Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: THE NIGHT COMES FOR US

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) From Mexico comes this dark, slow-burning mystery that gets presented as a faux documentary with a mix of found footage.  Though the approach might sound a little cliche, its messages could not be any more timely.  Feral offers audiences an intimate portrait of an excommunicated priest… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: FERAL

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Based on the dark and gritty novel of the same name by Frank Bill, writer/director Tim Sutton’s adaptation is a darkly meditative piece that slowly burns until its explosively brutal climax.  Jamie Bell and Frank Grillo star as foes with a similar goal–to escape the helplessness… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: DONNYBROOK

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3 (Out of 4 Stars) From Gareth Evans, the acclaimed director behind The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2, comes a film which shows a different side of Evans’s talents.  Apostle may not be the insane action fests that his Raid films are, but it certainly displays his gifts for striking… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: APOSTLE

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) This dark erotic thriller reveals some of the more mundane realities of being a camgirl as well as the nasty, creepier ones.  Written by Isa Massei, a former cam girl and sex worker, Cam offers some true-to-life insight on the world of online sex workers while… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: CAM

By Mark Saldana Rating: 4 (Out of 4 Stars) Israeli director Guilhad Emilio Schenker makes his feature film debut with this sweet and lovable tale with a bit of a dark side. Considering that this film was included in the Fantastic Fest programming, I expected it to be much more gruesome and disturbing.  However, this… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: MADAM YANKELOVA’S FINE LITERATURE CLUB

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) On the surface, one might think that the protagonist Sascha (Victoria Carmen Sonne) is perhaps a rather fortunate young lady.  In the prime of her life, she gets to experience a luxurious vacation along the Turquoise Coast in Turkey with a lively and fun group of… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: HOLIDAY

By Mark Saldana Rating: 3.5 (Out of 4 Stars) Jean-Claude Van Damme may be 57 years-old, but he can still kick ass on screen like any action star, thirty years his junior.  After a bit of a lull following his stardom during the 1980s and ’90s, the actor made quite the comeback with his appearances… Continue reading Fantastic Fest 2018 Review: THE BOUNCER