A Sunday at Fantasia

July 28, 2026563 words

K August

Hello and welcome…

The second week of the Fantasia Film Festival is done and I have enjoyed all of the fans, films and events on the Concordia campus in Montréal. And just as a reminder, I am a volunteer, meaning that I do get free tickets after a shift, and can sit in on a screening if it is not sold out, or too boring for someone with my particular tastes.

No chance of that happening here.

On Sunday, I saw ‘RUBBERHEAD: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson’ and ‘I Love Paris’ at the J.A. DeSeve theatre, realizing that these might be two of the best films of the festival (it is going to be very hard to choose my favourite on the Audience Award site after seeing these two and ‘You Are the Film’). The films are both playing with the documentary form, but differ in intent and impact.

Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson (2026) - IMDb

Mr. Johnson, how much we owe you. You were a young kid who became obsessed with markup art in film, creating your own portfolio after seeing the work of Dick Smith ('The Exorcist', ‘Little Big Man’), travelled to meet Rick Baker and ended on contributing to the canonical film, ‘An American Werewolf in London’ and ‘The Howling’ with Rob Bottin. Then came ‘Ghostbusters’ (his Slimer is based on John Belushi, and it was a key part of the film), ‘Fright Night’ (those scenes with the director, Tom Holland - not the one you are thinking of - many years after your collaboration, were touching), ‘The Abyss’, ‘Species’, money, drugs, parties (even Clive Barker thought that you went too far; very impressive, sir!), debts to pay, diagnoses to worry over, at least one collapsed marriage (Linnea Quigley, a wonderful scream queen), and the rise of CGI when you lived in a world of practical effects… We thank you, sir, and we applaud the very interesting conclusion of the film (you may not really see it coming…did I?) I will look for the book, sir, and call you with my next project.

And speaking of endings I did not see coming:

Another film with a documentary form, but all in the cause of mocking the earnestness of the style. A rapper by the name of Paris (the wonderful Aminata Thiboult), is on the edge of performing at a music festival, is desperate to gain more traction in her career. She resorts to performing in a tunnel for a TikTok video…and receives some very unwanted attention (or is it?). I really do not want to spoil anything about this particular story. I do want to tell you that this world premiere (just like ‘RUBBERHEAD’) was a big event (we sold out the space and had to turn away badge holders - never saw that before). I want to tell you that you will not see where this is going until it seems obvious that you needed to have this conclusion. And that I got an autographed poster with signatures from the producers, director, and the three leads (they dressed in character, and made my libido proud). There will be a second showing this week, and you can find this online. Please enjoy.

And I'm off to see what else I can do for the festival. I have another free ticket, more hours to cover, and I expect to be startled, amused and impressed once again…