Fantastic Fest 2022: Our Most Anticipated Movies

Best known for becoming the home of “challenging and thought-provoking cinema” and celebrating new voices and international movies from every corner, Fantastic Fest is official back this year and kicks off today! ComicBook.com is attending this year’s event and covering many of its titles virtually, bringing reviews and reactions to a lot of the wild new films from the festival, some of them having their world premiere. We’ve assembled a list of some of the titles we’re most looking forward to, and why, which you can find below.

Blood Relatives

A nomadic recluse living on the fringes of society reconsiders his bloodthirsty legacy when a teenage girl shows up claiming to be his daughter.

USA, 2022
World Premiere, 88 min
Director – Noah Segan

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: Though best known for his collaborations with Rian Johnson, Noah Segan’s directorial debut being a new vampire flick seems like a recipe for can’t miss.

Country Gold

Rising star Troyal Brux spends an evening with his idol George Jones, unaware that the country music legend has a rather cold deadline the following morning.  

USA, 2022
US Premiere, 84 min
Director – Mickey Reece

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: Cult indie director Mickey Reece returns with his latest and he’s got another musical icon in his sights for what seems like another movie no one else would think of.

Final Cut

Oscar-winning French director Michel Hazanavicius’ meta-remake of the Japanese cult movie ONE CUT OF THE DEAD manages a little tour de force.

France, 2022
US Premiere, 111 min
Director – Michel Hazanavicius  

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: A remake of One Cut of the Dead sounds like a bad idea but early buzz reveals this one as something that we can’t miss.

H4Z4RD

When Noah Hazard volunteers to drive his beloved gold Lexus to help his jailbird cousin pick up a friend from prison, he doesn’t expect to be drawn into a murderous drug war.

Belgium, 2022
North American Premiere, 86 min
Director – Jonas Govaerts  

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: Fantastic Fest’s film guide describes the contents of H4Z4RD as containing “grenade-toting teenage hoodlums, determined mall cops, an urban werewolf, and a security guard with sexual hang-ups straight out of TITANE,” which is enough for us.

Lynch/OZ

Documentary filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe dissects director David Lynch’s lifelong obsession with THE WIZARD OF OZ.

USA, 2022
Texas Premiere, 108 min
Director – Alexandre O. Philippe  

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: Alexandre O. Philippe’s previous films about movies and movie fans, Leap of Faith, Memory: The Origins of Alien, and 78/52, are all grand examinations of larger movie-centric lines of thinking and this one seems to be his most unique.

Shin Ultraman

Ultraman descends from space after Japan suffers a devastating series of kaiju attacks in this homage to the classic, genre-defining TV series.

Japan, 2022
Texas Premiere, 113 min
Director – Shinji Higuchi  

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: Ever since Shinji Higuchi stunned kaiju fans around the world with 2016’s Shin Godzilla, his follow-up movie has been on everyone’s most anticipated list. His latest reinvention of a classic Japanese property seems to be right in line with his previous work: epic and unexpected.

Something in the Dirt

A pair of Los Angeles misfits’ investigation into the city’s occult history sends them down a rabbit hole that threatens their friendship and sanity.

Texas Premiere, 115 min
Directors – Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead
In attendance – Directors Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead  

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: Two of the directors behind Moon Knight get back to their roots, harkening back to their debut feature Resolution, giving the world a new cult movie to obsess over.

V/H/S/99

The found footage anthology’s latest scare package rewinds the tape back to 1999 with bloody tales set against the end of the millennium.

USA, 2022
US Premiere, 99 min
Directors – Johannes Roberts, Maggie Levin, Flying Lotus, Tyler MacIntyre, Vanessa Winter & Joseph Winter  

WHY WE’RE EXCITED: The found footage franchise was able to recapture the magic with last year’s V/H/S/94 by getting back to its roots and digging deeper into the aesthetic of its title. The latest seems to be taking that to heart once again.