While yesterday’s dispatch also included a host of young women seeking solace in the supernatural, it’s a journey rife for exploration here at Fantasia: Witches, curses, folkloric tapestries woven through all the hormones, pain, and uncertainty of adolescence. So here we are, with another trio of tales designed to manifest the conjoined pains of lust, loss, and belonging.

First, we take a detour to the Catskills with one of Fantasia’s favorite families, the Adamses, who’ve been making quite a career out of their particular brand of family-band DIY filmmaking over the last few years. Parents John Adams and Toby Poser, along with daughter Zelda (and occasionally other daughter Lulu), write, direct, edit, score, produce, and star in their own works; and if you’ve seen “The Deeper You Dig” or “Hellbender,” you know they feel so much more vivid, layered, and terrifying than your typical homegrown horror. Their latest, “Mother of Flies,” might well be their most assured, and also their most personal.

Drawing from the emotional wounds of the family’s recent real-life battle with cancer, “Flies” channels that energy into a three-day jaunt deep into the woods for a father, Jake (John Adams), and his teenage daughter, Mickey (Zelda Adams), the latter of whom is dying of unknown cancer. Chemo and radiation have done nothing, so in desperation, the pair journey to the woodland home of the local witch Solveig (Toby Poser), who promises to cure her illness free of charge. However, it’ll take three days of ritual, faith, and deep ruminations on the thin veil between life and death.

From its opening minutes, “Mother of Flies” is a somber, meditative chamber piece, albeit one soaked in wood and blood and philosophical musings on the nature of death (delivered capably by Poser in frequent voiceover, as if casting a spell on us). When we first see her, she’s coated in blood, naked, writhing on the woodland ground; it’s evocative imagery of a type the Adamses revisit often in their work but which finds particular purchase here. Like so many folkloric witches before her, Solveig is herself a spurned woman, one cursed by loss and seeking both repair and revenge in her particular ways. The manner in which this intersects with Mickey’s journey, and the helplessness with which Jake watches this unfold, provides much of “Flies”‘s true terror.

It helps, of course, that the Adams Family seems truly accomplished and deft on both sides of the camera. All three leads share directing credit, and their moody cinematography (the bloody mix of mud, blood, and ritual) seeps you in a distinct sense of dread. John acquits himself well enough as the straight-man contrast watching such occultism unfold in front of him, but it’s the cautious desperation of Zelda’s performance, and the wily regality of Poser’s work, that carry so much of the film’s sense of unease. They’re aided capably by practical FX (some of which are provided by FX maestro Trey Lindsey), as piles of rocks and tumored fetuses and piercing brambles connect flesh to devilish covenant. It’s truly one to behold, especially as it builds to its cursed climax.

Feeling somewhat like Lucrecia Martel’s take on “Carrie,” Laura Casabé’s “The Virgin of the Quarry Lake” is a slower, but no less piquant, tale of adolescent longing and boiled-over rage. Set in Argentina in the sweaty summer of 2001 (complete with Internet cafes where people play “Quake II” or chat on ICQ), the film turns its bloody eye onto Nati (Dolores Oliviero, piercing eyes peeking out from above her ’90s-era choker), a sixteen-year-old girl whose teenage loins burn for connection with childhood friend Diego (Agustín Sosa). Her friends, Josefina (Isabel Bracamonte) and Mariela (Candela Flores), share that crush, but no one wants him more than Nati.

The problem is, he’s started spending time with twenty-year-old Silvia (Fernanda Echeverría), who self-stylizes as world-weary and effortlessly cool, with all her tall tales of debauchery from a London gap year and eclectic taste in music. Suddenly, Dani knows she cannot compete, and her jealousy burns as hot as the summer heat, much to the consternation of her world-weary abuela (Luisa Merelas). Driven to hormonal madness, Dani’s flames begin, in ways both mysterious and bloody, to manifest themselves in ways Silvia better watch out for, even as she tries to ingratiate herself with Diego’s friends by inviting them out to a nearby quarry lake with beautiful beaches and a tragic backstory.

There’s a casualness and ease to “The Virgin of the Quarry Lake” that makes it hard to firmly slam the genre label on it. Sure, Dani’s rivet-tight animus comes out in ways that feel supernatural, even teetering on magical realism (the power shorts out when she gets too horny, or a dare by a boy to kiss her to cross a bridge leads to her biting his lower lip clean off). But it’s leavened by the traditional rhythms of the coming-of-age story, of a girl trying to make sense of her emotions and manage the rise and fall of her first crush in a drought-stricken town that seems to be falling rapidly out of order itself. Olivero handles this capably, her fiery stare making manifest the female gaze; she’s short with her words, but her disappointment and frustration speak volumes. Her loudest communication comes in the crazy, bloody things that happen around her, from hit-and-runs to killer dogs summoned out of nowhere. These are things she may well be willing into reality, whether through incantation, the curses of a local bum, or her own white-hot desire.

It’s a dazzling if imperfect debut, finding some delightful notes among the queasy pacing as you get your feet under you about what genres Casabé’s playing in. But like “Flies” before it, it reaches a crimson crescendo that feels fitting for its aims.

As much as teen girls desire to love, they also wish to belong, which is where Ava Maria Safai’s fleet-footed horror comedy “Foreigner” comes in, spinning a “Mean Girls”/”Heathers”-esque tale of teen ingroup politics and throwing in a hefty dose of supernatural horror and assimilation dramedy. Yasi (Rose Deghan) is an Iranian immigrant who recently moved to Vancouver with her father (Ashkan Nejati) and grandmother (Maryan Sadeghi); like so many first-gen immigrants, she’s torn between the traditions of her home and the desire to fit in with the girls at school. Especially since this school’s designated Plastics, led by mean girl Rachel (Chloë MacLeod), keep making seemingly well-meaning but ignorant remarks to her (“You just look kinda Spanish”) that keep her feeling like an outsider.

She so badly wants to fit in, right down to studying episodes of “Friends” to learn English (the film, notably, gives us uncanny scenes of a “Friends”-like sitcom, which was probably a rights thing but instead furthers the disconnect she feels between what she’s watching and absorbing). But her grandest effort to belong at school comes with the decision to dye her hair blonde so that she can be more like Rachel and her gaggle of friends. But with every new step towards erasing her Iranian identity, a new demon awakens within her, one which her family will have to stop before it swallows Yasi entirely.

Safai’s first feature is charming in its scrappiness and relatability, even as a few wooden performances and some less-than-stellar effects by the end slightly dampen the results. As comedies go, it’s no great shakes; what jokes work are helped by Deghan’s wonderfully brittle and vulnerable performance, and, of course, Sadeghi’s broadness and wisdom as Yasi’s grandmother. But there’s a sweetness to its aims that makes it hard to dislike, especially in the we-put-on-a-show conceit of its closing credits (with director’s notes in the margins, thanking each crew member for how hard they worked). A film that feels less than the sum of its parts, but which has some deep-seated intentions and visibility at the roots.

The world’s largest genre film festival, Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival is one of the most exciting, not to mention lengthy (it typically runs two, sometimes nearly three weeks), fests in the calendar year. It’s one of my favorites, despite (or perhaps because) of the relative obscurity of its catalog: Here is where you get to delve into some truly weird shit, from sci-fi anime to borderline adult films to action-comedies, thrillers, horror of all stripes from around the world.

Most interestingly, the fest will have one of its most high-profile opening night entries in its history: Ari Aster’s divisive pandemic-era polemic “Eddington,” starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as a small-town sheriff and mayoral candidate feuding over a small Texas town in the summer of 2020. (Curiously, the other opening night film? Chris Miller’s animated “Smurfs” musical, set to a new crop of songs from Rihanna. Fantasia is nothing without its counterprogramming.)

The fest will also be honoring a few Canadian luminaries this year: The Canadian Trailblazer awards will go to filmmaker George Mihalka (“My Bloody Valentine,” “Hostile Takeover”) and”I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing” director Sheila McCarthy. The Cheval Noir Career Achievement Awards are going to animation pioneer Genndy Tartakovsky (whose new film, “Fixed,” will close out the fest) and composer Danny Elfman (who will be in attendance at a screening of Henry Selick’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas“). Troma pioneer Lloyd Kaufman will snag an Indie Maverick Award, just in time for the World Premiere of the new Troma documentary “Occupy Cannes.”

In addition to the many premieres amid the festivals’ hundred-plus titles, some of the most exciting retro screenings include John Woo’s 1990 masterwork “Bullet in the Head,” the 1974 Lithuanian folkloric rock opera “The Devil’s Bride!”, ’70s giallo “House with the Laughing Windows,” James Brolin-starring ’80s crime flick “Night of the Juggler,” and more.

This year’s 29th edition runs July 17th through August 3rd, and we’ll be boots on the ground for much of it, giving you dispatches both in-person and remotely on some of our top picks from the fest’s robust roster of titles. But in anticipation of that journey, here’s a snapshot of some of the films we’re most excited about.

All You Need Is Kill

Those of us who champion Tom Cruise and Doug Liman’s criminally underrated 2014 sci-fi thriller “Edge of Tomorrow” know that its source material, the Hiroshi Sakurazaka manga “All You Need Is Kill,” has the far superior title. Luckily, director Kenichiro Akimoto and animation studio STUDIO4°C have re-adapted the manga as an anime, this time with a twist—charting the time-looped alien invasion story through the perspective of the manga’s secondary protagonist, Rita. It’s got an eye-popping visual style all its own from the glimpses we’ve seen, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like in motion.

Anything That Moves

“All Jacked Up and Full of Worms” was a sexy, gruesome delight in Fantasia 2022; now, director Alex Phillips is back with a steamy, funny spin on the erotic thriller, “Anything That Moves.” Shot in gorgeously grimy 16mm, the film follows sex worker and bike courier Liam as he goes about his day, delivering DoorDash and a quick lay on the side. But his randy routine gets disrupted by the presence of a serial killer whose dangers loom over the city of Chicago. We’ll also see roles from porn legends Ginger Lynn Allen and Nina Hartley, to add a tinge of authenticity to the horny antics on display.

Blazing Fists

It wouldn’t be a Fantasia without some output from the notoriously prolific Takashi Miike, who has a whopping three entries playing at the festival this year. But while legal thriller “Sham” and trippy J-horror anime series “Nyaight of the Living Cat” also pique our interest, my eye is on coming-of-age drama “Blazing Fists,” which follows two young hoodlums who befriend each other in prison and (after an inspiring speech by real MMA superstar Mikuru Asakura), decide to better their lot by fighting in a martial arts tournament. Big live-action anime vibes abound in this thing, according to some reports, and I’m always a sucker for that.

Every Heavy Thing

Oklahoma-based auteur Mickey Reece has long been a figure of fascination for me; his Lynchian ode to pop-country, “Country Gold,” was one of my most underappreciated favorites of that year. Now he’s back at Fantasia with “Every Heavy Thing,” which follows an office worker (Joe Fadem) who witnesses a murder and becomes embroiled in a strange conspiracy involving a number of disappearances. But knowing Reece, that simple plot synopsis belies a heaping helping of trippy lo-fi aesthetics, meditations on the fragmented nature of the American psyche, and a darkly witty script. Co-stars “The People’s Joker“‘s Vera Drew, Barbara Crampton, and John Ennis.

Fixed

Channelling Tex Avery by way of “Big Mouth,” animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Fixed” will close out the fest with the tale of a soon-to-be-neutered pitbull named Bull (Adam Devine) who, upon learning his impending fate, runs away from home before he’s set to get snipped. Thus begins what promises to be a literal balls-out adventure as Bull does his level best to keep his family jewels – at least long enough to make it with the sexy poodle next door (Kathryn Hahn). We don’t get enough raunchy animated comedies (that aren’t, like, “Foodtopia”), much less 2D animated films of any stripe; I’m eager to see what Genndy’s got in store for us.

I Am Frankelda

Guillermo del Toro proteges Rodolfo and Arturo Ruiz come to the fest with Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature, “I Am Frankelda,” an extension of the Cartoon Network/HBO Max miniseries about phantom author Frankelda and her enchanted book Herneval. The character designs look phenomenal (shades of del Toro’s own “Pinocchio”), and the festival description promises a “world of weirdness and wonder.” Either way, stop-motion animation is a treasure to behold on the big screen, and I can’t wait to see how this craftsmanship plays out. (The puppets themselves will be on display at an exhibition early in the fest, as well.)

I Live Here Now

Julie Pacino channels David Lynch, Dario Argento, and the Coens in her first feature, “I Live Here Now,” a pulsing psychodrama (shot in 16mm) about a young woman (Lucy Fry) trapped in a motel room and left to face her demons. Past and present, reality and dreams all converge in what looks to be a nightmarish gumbo of generational trauma and the steady pressure of capitalism. Madeline Brewer co-stars, and it looks to be the feel-bad movie of the summer (if Pacino pulls off her brief).

Lucid

Speaking of young women going on trippy tales, Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall’s 2022 Fantasia short gets expanded into the darkly psychedelic “Lucid.” The film follows Mia Sunshine Jones (Caitlin Acken Taylor), an art student with a mean streak who’s feeling the pressure of her demanding art professor on her next big project. Her solution? Like many an artist before her, she’ll take drugs for inspiration. However, the drug of choice, an elixir named Lucid, may tap into something darker than she’s expecting. Full of punk-art aesthetics and ’90s grunge vibes, as well as live on-set music, “Lucid” feels like it’ll be quite the crazy experiment.

Terrestrial

From the director (curiously enough) of “Hot Tub Time Machine” comes Steve Pink’s “Terrestrial,” a dark sci-fi comedy about a young writer (“Sorry to Bother You”‘s Jermaine Fowler) who experiences a sudden windfall and invites his three best college friends to his new mansion to help him write his first book. As he mines his life for inspiration, the cracks in his self-mythology begin to form, and the friends soon discover they’re in for more than they initially bargained for.

The Undertone

Podcasting meets folk horror in sci-fi author Ian Tuason’s debut feature, which follows Evy (“The Handmaid’s Tale”‘s Nina Kiri) as she investigates a series of disturbing audio files featuring a mysterious man and his wife, linking the story to Evy’s dying mother. I’m a big fan of the way smart horror can use audio media to sell scares (“Archive 81“), so I’m curious how Tuason’s blend of modern technology and psychological religious torment has in store for us.