Fantastic Fest Documentary Reviews - "So Unreal" and "Spooktacular!"
Documentaries play an important role at Fantastic Fest. Here are capsule reviews of two noteworthy non-fiction films that screened at the 2023 edition.
So Unreal - Director Amanda Kramer’s feature-length video essay takes a close look at cyber-cinema from the 1980s through the early 2000s. Comprised solely of archival clips from Tron, Virtuosity, Strange Days, The Matrix, and more than a dozen other movies, it offers an enlightening perspective on how motion pictures have reflected people’s changing attitudes and fears about digital technology. Stunning, descriptive narration is provided by Debbie Harry, who made her own excursion into cyber-cinema with David Cronenberg’s brilliant 1983 thriller Videodrome.
Among the topics covered are how movies suggested the internet came with sinister, if occasionally unrealistic, dangers (The Net); forecast an online world with romantic components (Electric Dreams) as well as sexual ones (Weird Science); offered early visions of virtual reality (The Lawnmower Man); and glamorized computer hacking (Hackers). So Unreal takes viewers though this step-by-step, eloquently pointing out that, while elements of these films may have dated poorly, they were largely spot-on with their overall predictions. Kramer assembles her material with precision, and the in-depth writing of the narration offers a smart analysis of each movie that’s examined in detail. Cinephiles and tech fans will savor every second of this entertaining documentary.
Spooktacular! - In the early 1990s, a savvy businessman named David Bertolino opened a Halloween-themed attraction called Spooky World on the outskirts of Boston. It succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, becoming nationally known and going on to inspire the many similar attractions that exist today. This documentary features Bertolino and his friends/employees reflecting on the rapid upward trajectory of the place, along with its swift demise at the start of the 2000s. Spooky World, we are told, perfectly balanced the desires of the hardcore horror crowd with the demands of the family audience. Costumed performers took patrons on a haunted hayride, then scared them inside the buildings, each of which had a unique theme.
Aside from the obviously compelling narrative about how he put it together, Spooktacular! delves into the promotional gimmicks that kept the visitors coming. Horror icons like Linda Blair and Robert Englund came to sign autographs, effects genius Tom Savini created an entire section of the park, and Tiny Tim unhappily got married there in a live telecast for The Tonight Show. Also fun is hearing about the sex-capades that went on between the workers. Bertolino’s downfall eerily began when he purchased a series of wax figures from a satanic store in Hollywood to include in a more mature section. That, in turn, inspired dirty politics from local government that signaled the beginning of the end. Spooktacular! is a little haphazard in its organization, but the magic of Spooky World is palpably conveyed. Watching this movie makes you want to hop in a time machine and go there.
