The Yes or X Films of Beyond Fest

These last few days, I found myself leapfrogging across three districts in LA to see what totaled to 8 of the little under 50 movies playing at Beyond Fest. What is Beyond Fest? It’s less of a film festival and more of a series of screenings that I would best classify as “2021’s Festival Darlings” and a fistful of other things that are Fantastic Fest selections in years past. Through a little bit of teamwork with my movie night friends, press accreditation under Mad Monster, and the standby line, I’ll break down what I am calling the ‘Yes or X’ films of Beyond Fest.

Mad God: Big Yes

Over 30 years in the making by stop motion legend Phil Tippett, Mad God is an hour and a half experimental film that drove Phil to a mental breakdown, and is probably one of the more personal works I have seen in a long time. This is my favorite film of Beyond Fest because it did two things that I desperately want to see more of in TV/Film:

1: There are (almost) no people in the movie

2: There is no dialog

I would honestly assume 95% of the people who see this are going to hate it because of how against the mold of traditional narrative it is. I saw a friend post after seeing the movie “I think that I will spend my entire life trying to solve the puzzle of the film’s full meaning and I will never come close.” We need to be more comfortable with not having the answers to everything which is the power in stripping humanity and language away from your story.

Think of Mad God as less of a film and more as a painting that changes how it looks and sounds over the course of an hour and a half.

Titane: Big Yes

For decades if you hear the term “body horror” there’s one filmmaker that you’re likely to think of. After seeing Titane, I like to believe that easy recognition of a certain filmmaker will be positively muddied with writer and director Julia Ducournau. Titane does things with body horror that genuinely have me think we’re going to finally get next level stories that display how gross we as humans are.

I probably love this genre the most in horror because the monster is all that shit that’s attached to our heads. Also if you love cars and or the integration of the human body to metal then this movie is probably the one to check out. If any of you are familiar with Judas Priest or Heavy Metal album/magazine covers I wanna know what you think of that final reveal…

Chucky: Big Yes

Toys that are sentient will always be scarier to me than 6ft dudes in masks. Taking off right after Cult of Chucky, Don Mancini showed off the first episode (of the first season!) to his long awaited Chucky series. He takes the queer storytelling he more openly displayed from Bride of Chucky forward, and let’s that fuel every scene of this 45 minute pilot which tells me that is the expectation for us all going forward in watching it. If you were ever a fan of any of these Chucky movies, you’re gonna likely be a regular USA/Sci-Fi watcher for a while!

Bennedetta: Big Yes

A Cannes Film Festival selected nunsploitation film from Robocop director Paul Verhoeven. Yup! Bennedetta was the “secret screening” at Beyond Fest and it’s a tie between this and Titane for the movie that knocked me back the hardest. When I saw Saint Maud last year I thought that was going to be the movie that showcases the horrors of Catholicism the best in my lifetime, and Benedetta went ahead and said “we’re going to do the same thing only with a real budget”. If this movie’s depiction of a crucified Jesus Christ isn’t on the front cover of Fangoria soon, somebody needs to be fired :p

VHS 94: Yes

Fans of anthologies are likely to recommend VHS after first recommending Creepshow. This addition to the VHS franchise gives us a 90s perspective that shines through on 3 of the 4 shorts throughout. VHS 94 puts it’s two best shorts first and that alone is worth checking out. In a traditional movie watching setting, the movie kinda falls apart when you get to the third short, but I will say this much.

VHS 94 is the best bar movie of 2021. That movie you put on the tv while you’re already having a good time with your friends, occasionally drifting your eyes to the screen, and drunkenly thinking “woah… That’s fucked up” as you ask the bartender “What movie is this??”

Lamb: Yes

I initially saw the picture of a sheep with a flower crown on it and immediately thought, “are they already making a sequel to Midsommar?” and am happy that the tone of the trailer fucked with my expectations the way it did. There aren’t many movies that I would accuse as being Vegan Horror, but this movie does things that scream that to me as someone that believes Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Aliens, and Troll are vegan horror. Lamb is the weaker of the films I would reccomend that you watch because it felt like the movie exists for two particular visuals, but those visuals are really fucking good and delightful. Cutest horror movie of the year.

Antlers: X

Guillermo Del Toro for the longest time had a squeaky clean track record of fostering beautiful and thought provoking monster movies. Then he produced Antlers. Going into this not reading the short story, I found most of my problems with this movie stemming from it’s desire to tell a story that’s redneck in nature but not being truthful to that tone. For example when the local sheriff talks to a hunter about a mysterious rack of antlers he comes across, he opens up a book with a drawing of a windigo in it rather than just talking about the rack like a hunter would.

Turns out the monster in the short story is an original satanically summoned demon. So not only did they turn their back on an original monster design, they dove right into appropriating culture along the way. Too many problems with this movie I really wanted to see for a while. Just not worth the time.

Halloween Kills: X

If you thought Halloween 2018 was bad, you’re going to see this and think that 2018 wasn’t all that bad. Another story that is redneck in nature and Hollywood royally fucked. How is this redneck in nature? Because the driving force isn’t JLC (in fact the movie dresses her down) or cops. The only thing that really stands in Michael’s way this time is the people of Haddonfield and their guns. It has every right to be cool, but it came out of the oven so fucking lame. After 40 years of this same goofy ass killer doing the same goofy ass shit, Haddonfield still only has two cops. Please just pay 8 more extras to be in cop uniforms…

You’d think with the title that the kills would be cool but VHS 94 cleans house by comparison. The only positive thing I have to say about Halloween Kills is that they got a really rad Ghost song for the movie in the closing credits. We need to bring back proper soundtracks for films and this is the only thing that Halloween Kills tried and (kinda) succeeded in.

Thanks Beyond Fest! Leave a comment and let us know what your favorite film was.