Fantasia 2023 reviews: Satan Wants You, Raging Grace, A Disturbance in the Force

Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival is always the highlight of the summer for fans of the latest action/horror/sci-fi/underground films out there, and this year is no exception.

In our first dispatch from the festival this year we look at the documentaries A Disturbance in the Force and Satan Wants You, as well as the horror/drama hybrid Raging Grace.

Stay tuned for more reviews and exclusive interviews from the festival in the coming days.

The Fantasia International Film Festival runs through August 9. The complete schedule and ticket details are available here.

A Disturbance in the Force

The Star Wars Holiday Special is the stuff of legend among Star Wars diehards. Released in 1978 following the massive success of the original film, the special aired just once before being mothballed into Lucasfilm’s basement, never to be (officially) seen again. Starring the original cast, the incomprehensible special features a journey to the Wookie planet to celebrate “Life Day,” and also throws in virtual porn, extended scenes of Wookie family chit-chat, an animated sequence (that introduces Boba Fett), and much more.

A Disturbance in the Force, a new documentary from directors Jeremy Coon and Steve Kozak, dives into the insanity of the special with interviews from the likes of Kevin Smith (obviously), Seth Greene, Paul Scheer, Weird Al Yankovic, the late and great Gilbert Gottfried, and more. The film not only delves into how the wild special came to light but highlights the wild west era in Hollywood when filmmakers like Lucas were still throwing ideas at the wall, never knowing how long the success of their previous films would last.

Satan Wants You

The widespread (and dangerous) satanic panic of the 1980s gets the documentary treatment courtesy of directors Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor with Satan Wants Me. Fuelled in large part by the publication of Michelle Remembers in 1980, a purported non-fiction book recounting unearthed traumatic memories of satanic abuse suffered by Michelle Smith, the book ignited a firestorm of controversy upon release.

Penned by Michelle’s psychiatrist Larry Pazder, the book’s lurid tales of Michelle’s abuse by a baby-killing satanic cult shocked the world, inspiring countless tales of other forms of satanic abuse being committed against children around the globe. While Michelle Remembers was eventually discredited, the panic it inspired ruined the lives and careers of many people who found themselves caught in the contagious web of allegations that served as a modern-day witch hunt.

Directors Steve J. Adams and Sean Horlor explore the mania at the heart of Michelle’s story including interviews with her family members and strangers who found themselves somehow embroiled in insane satanic abuse allegations. While it’s easy to look back smugly at how out of control the allegations were at the time, Adams and Horlor tie the satanic panic into current political conspiracy theories like QAnon and the Pizzagate fiasco, which sadly shows how little things have changed over time.

Raging Grace

The feature debut from writer-director Paris Zarcilla, Raging Grace is a thrilling horror-drama focusing on an undocumented Filipina care worker who finds herself and her young daughter at risk when she accepts a job caring for an elderly man.

Joy (Max Eigenmann) is a single Filipina mom working hard as a housecleaner for a number of wealthy clients in London. She takes on as many jobs as she can in order to earn enough to purchase a black-market visa which will save her and her rebellious teenage daughter Grace (Jaeden Paige Boadilla) from being deported.

Forced to hide her daughter in the cavernous homes she’s employed to live and work in, Joy jumps at the chance to work for Katherine (Leanne Best), who needs help to care for her sick uncle Master Garrett (David Hayman) in his mansion. It immediately becomes clear to the audience that something is very wrong with this entire situation, but Joy’s unshakable desire for a better life for herself and her daughter keeps her in the house, even as she begins to be plagued by mysterious visions.

A searing portrait of class and race in modern Britain, Raging Grace is both an effective supernatural thriller and an indictment of a system that profits from the physical work of immigrants while offering them no real protection or sanctuary. This is an incredibly assured feature debut from Paris Zarcilla and marks the arrival of a thrilling and vital new voice in the genre space.

The Fantasia International Film Festival runs through August 9. The complete schedule and ticket details are available here.