A devilish omnibus of eight creepy folktales from around the world, featuring spine-tingling new films from the directors of NZIFF faves such as Goodnight Mommy, The Duke of Burgundy, The Lure and more.
A fun and fascinating exploration of the universal nature of fear.
The Field Guide to Evil 2018
From the sick and twisted minds that brought us the cult horror anthology, The ABCs of Death (including Incredibly Strange’s own devious maestro Ant Timpson), comes this new omnibus collection of short, but terrifying tales from around the globe. Ant and his cohorts have corralled nine of the most talented genre filmmakers working today and tasked them with reinventing a classic folktale from their homeland.
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala channel the softcore delights of 1970s eurotrash auteur Walerian Borowcyzk, with their tale of forbidden love and horrifying guilt set in medieval Austria, while Agnieszka Smoczyńska presents a grotesque tale of bloody-minded ambition from Poland. Calvin Reeder delivers a dose of campy fun with his outrageous American ‘folktale’ about a mob of cannibalistic Melonheads and, if Guy Maddin were a closet gorehound, he might have made a film like Peter Strickland’s stylish Hungarian pantomime about two brothers vying for the heart of a beautiful princess.
Also featured is Lovecraftian terror in the swamps of India, baby snatching spirits from Turkey, a tormented goblin from the pits of hell (via Greece) and a spooky mouse demon from Germany. — MM
“When the producers of The Field Guide to Evil went searching for directors to adapt scary folk tales specific to their own countries, they struck pure gold. Ranging in tone from Franz and Fiala’s exquisite Austrian mood piece to Evrenol’s Turkish evil spirit shocker and Strickland’s hilarious Hungarian pantomime, The Field Guide to Evil truly has something spooky and stylish for everyone.” — Sydney Film Festival