Fantasia 2022 reviews: Dark Nature, Orchestrator of Storms, Popran

After two years of virtual and hybrid editions, Montreal’s beloved Fantasia International Film Festival is back for its first in-person edition since the start of the pandemic.

Read on for reviews of three new titles screening at the festival; the Canadian survival thriller Dark Nature, the involving documentary Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World Of Jean Rollin, and Popran, a Japanese comedy about a rash of detachable flying penises. Fantasia never disappoints!

The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 12 – August 3. Tickets and the complete schedule are available via the festival’s official site. All of our Fantasia coverage can be found here.

Dark Nature

Working though past trauma has become the primary subtext in modern horror films, but takes center stage in Métis writer-director Berkley Brady’s Dark Nature. Joy (Hannah Emily Anderson) is trying to deal with the trauma of leaving her abusive boyfriend when her best friend Carmen (Madison Walsh) pushes her to join her in a wilderness retreat. However, this isn’t a typical hike through the woods — led by the mysterious Dr. Dunnley (Kyra Harper), the trek is an arduous journey meant to help victims confront their fears head-on.

Once they enter the Rocky Mountains, the team begins experiencing intense visions and Joy begins to suspect that she’s been followed out into the wilderness. Has her abusive ex managed to track her down, or is something more elemental at play?

Brady expertly ratchets up the tension as the journey continues, taking elements of classic survival horror like The Descent and mixing in real-world trauma and grief in this potent feature. Featuring solid performances from the ensemble cast, stunning scenery, and some surprising twists along the way, Dark Nature is worth getting lost in the woods for.

Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World Of Jean Rollin

Even among genre fans, the work of French surrealist filmmaker Jean Rollin often remains a neglected blind spot. Active since the ’50s, Rollin is best known for films including Requiem for a Vampire and The Iron Rose, fantastical and dream-like films whose imagination far exceeded their budget.

Directors Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger examine Rollin’s life, work, and wide-ranging influence in Orchestrator of Storms: The Fantastique World Of Jean Rollin, an involving new documentary that’s sure to inspire new interest in the filmmaker. Featuring extended interviews with those who knew him best, from members of his family to his biographer Kier-La Janisse, Orchestrator of Storms paints a picture of an artist who continuously pushed to bring his visions to the screen, regardless of the budget (or even of the audience).

As anyone who has ever read her work or watched any of her incredibly in-depth Blu-ray extras can attest to, Kat Ellinger always manages to bring her encyclopedic knowledge of her subjects into a digestible format for newcomers, a trend that continues with this film. Rollin’s artful and beguiling films can be tricky to find your way into at first glance, which only makes a documentary like this all the more welcome and necessary.

Popran

Popran may be one of the most deceiving movies screening at this year’s festival. Ostensibly a film about flying detachable penises, Popran is actually a meditative look at what it means to be a good person. It’s Groundhog Day with way more penis jokes.

Fresh off the smash success of One Cut of the Dead and Special Actors, writer-director Shinichiro Ueda returns with Popran, a wacky yet ultimately sincere look at the dicks we encounter every day.

Tagami Tatsuya (Yoji Minagawa) is the powerful CEO of a digital Manga company who suddenly loses his member. Now with the physique of a Ken doll, Tagami enters a mysterious underworld of fellow men who have also lost their privates. In a form of muscle memory, these men must attempt to track down and re-assemble their missing parts before it’s too late.

As the missing genitalia fly throughout the air across Tokyo (what the general public believes are something called ”Skyfish”) Tagami is forced to reflect back on the hurt he has caused people in his life in order to truly make himself whole again.

While the metaphor repeatedly hits you over the head, Popran is an enjoyable romp that deftly jumps between various genres and tones. It may not live up to its ridiculous premise, but this is surely one of the most life-affirming movies about flying penises we’re likely to see all year.