With this year's edition of the Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia swifty approaching and tickets set to go on sale next week, the festival has announced some of the films they will be showing next month, and revealed that M. Night Shyamalan will be the recipient of their Grand Honorary Award this year.
Shyamalan will be visiting Sitges to present a preview of his new film GLASS (pictured above), a crossover between the characters of UNBREAKABLE and SPLIT.
Blumhouse's HALLOWEEN sequel will also be showing at Sitges in the Official Selection category but out of competition. Films in competition will include THE RAID director Gareth Evans' APOSTLE, the Bad Robot production OVERLORD, Rahi Anil Barve and Adesh Prasad's TUMBBAD, the samurai film KILLING, Leigh Whannell's UPGRADE, and the violent satire ASSASSINATION NATION.
Out of competition are Andrew Niccol's sci-fi noir ANON, Peter Strickland's IN FABRIC, Claire Denis's HIGH LIFE, the Korean blockbusters ALONG WITH THE GODS: THE LAST 49 DAYS and ALONG WITH THE GODS: THE TWO WORLDS, and Tsui Hark's DETECTIVE DEE AND THE FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS.
The Harry Martinson adaptation ANIARA and Emma Tammi's feature debut THE WIND will be screening in the festival's Discovery section.
Over in the action and thriller focused Órbita Section they have the world premiere of Dani de la Torre's train robbery film GUN CITY; BONE TOMAHAWK / BRAWL IN CELL BLOCK 99 director's S. Craig Zahler's DRAGGED ACROSS CONCRETE, which stars Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn; Timo Tjahjanto's THE NIGHT COMES FOR US (starring Iko Uwais); Ding Sheng's remake of John Woo's A BETTER TOMORROW; BELIEVER, the Korean remake of the Chinese film DRUG WAR; Bart Layton's AMERICAN ANIMALS; and Jérémie Guez's A BLUEBIRD IN MY HEART.
The Noves Visions section will be opening with Laura Alvea and José Ortuño's mind-bending trip ÁNIMAS. Also in the section will be FINT's stylized pop experiment FONOTUNE: AN ELECTRIC FAIRYTALE; Michael Pearce's BEAST, which is described as "polyhedral exploration of the aspects of an unbalanced personality"; the Steven Soderbergh sci-fi production PERFECT; and Guy Maddin's THE GREEN FOG, which is "intended to be a rereading of Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO. The filmmaker reconstructs the scenes of the legendary film through sequences and shots from other movies that take place in the same locations."
In the Anima't section they have the Iranian film THE LAST FICTION; the French film DILILI A PARIS; the goosebumps-providing Japanese film I WANT TO EAT YOUR PANCREAS; MIRAI, which "contains a 30 final minutes that explodes with fantasy"; the well-reviewed PENGUIN HIGHWAY; the hit DETECTIVE CONAN: ZERO ENFORCER; and a 30th anniversary screening of MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO.
The Serial Sitges section will be hosting an exclusive screening of the premiere episode of The Walking Dead's ninth season, with special effects artist and executive producer Greg Nicotero in attendance. Netflix will be showing the first episode of their horrific Sabrina the Teenage Witch reboot Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and the first two episodes of Mike Flanagan's The Haunting of Hill House mini-series.
That brings us to the Panorama and Midnight X-Treme sections, the "territories of horror". I'll let the Sitges press release give a preview of what those sections hold:
More than thirty movies make up the Panorama Fantàstic and Panorama Documenta Sections. Magicians, black magic, living dead, psychopaths, all of these characters and many more are an essential part of the most visceral horror that can be seen at Sitges 2018. From the Argentinean LUCIFERINA, where its director Gonzalo Calzada explores the diabolical universe, to the Japanese KASANE: BEAUTY AND FATE, one of the big surprises of the year, based on Daruma Matsuura’s manga, where a pact for beauty brings fateful consequences. Featured among the documentaries that the Panorama section will be bringing is BEYOND BLOOD, by Masato Kobayashi, that analyzes the new batch of filmmakers who, at the start of the new millennium, revolutionized genre films in France with film, which already have cult status, like HIGH TENSION, INSIDE, FRONTIERE(S) or MARTYRS.
In the increasingly popular Midnight X-Treme, there are three films that should be highlighted among the fifteen movies that make up the section: in OPEN 24 HOURS, an English production directed by Padrag Reynolds, Mary and her ex –a genuine psychopath– will wreak havoc at a gas station; with a screenplay by S. Craig Zahler, arriving in Sitges is PUPPET MASTER: THE LITTLEST REICH, the comical and gory reboot of Charles Band’s cult film, with the cameo appearances of Michael Paré, Udo Kier and Barbara Crampton, and also from the United Kingdom, Aislinn Clarke’s THE DEVIL'S DOORWAY can be seen at the Festival: shot found footage style, the film goes deep into one of the most terrifying places in Ireland, one of the homes from the chain of Magdalene Laundry asylums, where, for years and years, the church confined "fallen women".
All of these movies mentioned and we're only scratching the surface – if you'd like to see the complete Sitges 2018 lineup and times, click over to the festival's website.
The 51st edition of the Sitges – International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia is set to run from October 4th through the 14th. Ticket sales begin next Wednesday, September 19th. Anyone who has previously purchased a pass or pack will be able to access ticket sales on the 18th.