It
is quite fitting that we wrap our Fantasia coverage with a collective anthology
tribute to the city of Montreal. Too bad its done for. Evidently, the town is
built over a Hellmouth thingy that is wafting evilness into the Quebec capitol.
Okay, but can they handle a steam pipe explosion? Like the Flatiron District,
Montreal residents will just have to do asbestos they can. At least they have a
“Guardian” who can take care of this kind of thing, if only he could find his
Lovecraftian book in—bear with us—Hugo Belhassen, Audric Cussigh, Julie De
Lafreniere, Tiphaine DeReyer, Eve Dufaud, Remi Frechette, Emilie Gauthier, Mara
Joly—hang in there—Quentin Lococq, Charles Massicotte, Mickael N’Dour, Jimmy G.
Pettigrew, Priscilla Piccoli, Gaelle Quemener, Loic Surprenant, Frederick Neegan
Trudel, Catherine Villeminot & David Emond-Ferrat’s Montreal Dead End (trailer here), which
screened during the 2018 Fantasia International Film Festival.
The
sinister green smoke manifests itself in various ways. There is body-switching,
cannibal zombies, creepy-crawlies, and ghosts. Some are pretty gross, whereas
others are rather clever. The two best stories involve a bogeyman who preys on
both the descendants and memory of prominent historical Canadians and a couple
who cluelessly navigate a mini-zombie apocalypse only affecting Celine Dion
fans. There is also a rather straight-forward but effectively creepy tale of a
night watchman in a gardening nursery stalked by a malevolent spirit. In
contrast, the body-switcheroo is a little too shticky and there are two night-club
horror stories that are way hipsterish and not sufficiently differentiated.
In
this case, the wrap-around segments are unusually clever and intriguing, thanks
to Marco Collin’s wry performance as the First Nations Guardian. He could hang
with Lin Shaye’s Elise Rainier. Alice Tran and David Noël also have some terrific
comedic timing and an admirable willingness to act in a little goofy as the
couple apparently unaffected by the Celine Dion outbreak.