Five frightening film festival flicks to look out for in 2018

1) Climax

Directed by Gaspar Noe

Starring: Sofia Boutella

Release Date: 2018

For this list, we start with quite a banger, all in the form of a delusional nightmare in a claustrophobic basement in the middle of what appears to be absolutely nowhere. The victims of these delusions? A young, joyful, and energetic group of wanna-be dancers, practicing for their shot at super stardom, only to make the mistake of drinking from what is looking to be a spiked bowl of sangria. With a director like Gaspar Noe at the helm, one should expect chaos and grim consequences of that decision.

Gaspar Noe is known for his unconventional style in filmmaking and tackling of taboo topics in such films as Irreversible, I Stand Alone, and his most recent film, Love. It is unknown exactly what he will be tackling here in Climax, but based on the trailer released by A24 a month ago, we are in for a wild ride as the night descends into utter hell. The film made its debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, managing to win critics’ hearts, earning Noe the best reviews of his career, as well as an Art Cinema award and loads of hype behind the new film. With a premise like this, how could a horror buff or even the casual audience resist this? This is what you get when you mix the hip dance choreography of Step Up with the elegant madness of Suspiria.

Speaking of which…