The highly respected FilmQuest film festival is renowned not only for featuring droolworthy lineups of horror, science fiction, thriller, dark comedy, and related fare. It is also a popular destination for filmmakers and film fanatics alike to meet. The festival’s 11th annual edition takes place October 24–November 2, 2024 at Velour in Provo, Utah.
In this article, I will discuss some of the fest’s selections that I can strongly recommend, along with a peek at two of the features in the screenplay competition. This is only a fraction of what’s in store, so for full details and ticket information, visit https://www.filmquestfest.com/.
Italian director Fabio D’Orta’s debut featureThe Complex Forms has received six nominations for FilmQuest, and for good reason, which I will discuss after giving you the film’s official logline: “There is an ancient villa where desperate people have the opportunity to solve their fate by selling their body to a mysterious entity in exchange for money. When enormous, centuries-old creatures emerge from the deep woods surrounding the villa, a series of strange and sinister events push three unlikely guests to band together to attempt a desperate escape.”
I reviewed The Complex Forms for a previous festival, proclaiming that it will have a place in my top 10 list of horror films for 2024, and writing “With his film, which he himself lensed in luscious black-and-white, D’Orta uses for inspiration classic cinema both Italian and international, investing these inspirations with a modern sensibility and a maverick vision . . . After watching the film for the first time, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. that morning and it was the first thing that came to mind — and was again when I woke up for good for the day a few hours later. Days later, I still roll the experience through my mind. That’s the power of The Complex Forms.” FilmQuest has nominated D’Orta’s work for Best Feature Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Visual FX, Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Sound.
Besides fantastic features such as The Complex Forms, FilmQuest also offers an outstanding variety of short films from around the world. I would like to strongly recommend the following three.
Writer, Director, and Executive Producer Brenna Goodwin-McCabe’s surreal Canadian short I Can’t Go On. Logline: “An alienated young woman discovers a body in her apartment elevator, left to fester under the heels of her unconcerned neighbours.” The short “was created by a largely women-identifying producing crew in partnership with the Crazy 8s competition, a Vancouver, B.C. filmmaking challenge where all filming and post-production must be completed in only 8 days,” said Goodwin-McCabe.
Anyone who has ever felt like they were being watched, or those who have concerns about privacy, should find U.S./U.K./Canada coproduction Hi! You Are Currently Being Recorded an intriguing watch. From codirectors Kyle Garrett Greenberg and Anna Maguire, the short has the logline “On a trip to Los Angeles to visit a new flame, Anna (Maguire) finds herself lost, stoned and alone — or is she?” You can check out the teaser trailer at https://vimeo.com/969858200
Writer/director J.P. Bouix describes his haunting French short Ronces as “a drama thriller about the trauma of domestic violence, illustrated by a haunting invasion of thorns.” The official logline is “After a traumatic marital incident, Maud is upon to leave town to escape her past. But on the eve of departure, Jacob, her violent ex-partner is back home.”
Along with a cornucopia of film fare, FilmQuest also offers screenplay competitions for both feature-length and short films. One such official selection for the festival is Erika Stone’s script “An Axe to Grind.” It is a female-driven suspense/thriller with moments of dark comedy. The logline is, “A men’s rights extremist takes an acclaimed screenwriter prisoner in her home, demanding she rewrite her feminist horror scripts into a misogynist ‘masterpiece,’ or suffer the fate of the victims in her films.”
“This is actually an unconventional sequel to a script I previously wrote, ‘To Bits and Pieces,’ which was a quarterfinalist for FilmQuest two years ago,” said Stone. “‘Bits’ was a smart, gory, horror with a female antihero protagonist, Tess Damies. Think a female Jason or Freddy (ish).” Stone’s script was optioned by a production company in Los Angeles, and she imagined what might happen if it took off: “I realized I would likely receive threats, or at the very least, harassment for flipping the standard horror narrative on its head. And so the ‘sequel’ is about what happens to the screenwriter.”
James Steele Haney also has a feature screenplay that is an official selection for the festival, ReddeR. The logline is, “In 1986, a troubled fanatic kidnaps her pop idol and goes to extreme lengths to keep her to herself, even resorting to murder.” Haney kindly provided me with a copy of the pitch deck for his screenplay. I won’t give anything away, but I will say that ReddeR promises to be an absolute shocker!
