The 20th annual Fantasia Film Festival continues here in Montreal until August 3, and I am planning to get to a few more flicks before I have to depart early next week. I have a couple screenings slated for a later today. One is a cool looking Korean exorsicm movie called: The Priests. The other is a promising looking Spanish crime drama: Toro. I did however manage to squeeze in a couple films since my last update on the blog.

Demon-d. Martin Wrona-(Poland 2015). As he prepares for his wedding to Zaneta (Agnieszka Zulewska) in rural Poland, Peter (Italy Tiran) accidentally stumbles upon a grave on his newly acquired farm house property.

Unable to get the image of the body from his mind, Peter slowly descends into madness. Or is it a demonic possession?

Cleverly taking from old Jewish folklore, Wrona subtly ties this in with the history of the country. Is the new found modernity,and access to the EU in Poland ,also helped along by turning a blind eye to a not too distant tragic past?

All of this takes place in the context of a perfectly planned wedding that goes awry, and as our lead character slowly disappears  into another personality, and the party disintegrates into a drunken orgy.

In the morning ,all go their separate ways ,never to speak of Peter again.The closing shot of Zaneta embarking on the river ferry to take her away ,is a brilliant match for the opening shot of Peter making the trip in the reverse direction.

Overall,  I can’t say enough good things about this film. It’s a serious drama in a way masquerading as a horror film, and is brilliantly shot,acted, written and directed. And a seemingly faithful adaptation of the stage play Adherence by Piotr Rowicki

The film premiered at the 2015 TIFf film festival, and also screened at festivals in Hong Kong, Paris, and Israel. Unfortunately the director was not able to enjoy the films success to any great extent. He died tragically and suddenly in the fall of 2015 following a screening in Poland.

A great and promising director whose life ended too early, Marcin Wrona you will be missed.

A Violent Prosecutor- d. Lee II-hunyg (South Korea)

When a seasoned prosecutor with a rough reputation gets interested in a case involving the development of a resort, he is warned to stay away. When he insists on looking into it, he is framed for murder and sentenced to 15 years in jail.

But this won’t stop him from teaming up with a slick con man, to spring them both from behind bars ,and eventually bring those responsible for crimes and corruption to justice.

The film stars Hwang Jung-min as the surly prosecutor Byun; and Kang Dong-won as his slippery,sly comedic foil. This is the directorial debut of Lee II-hyung and he handles it film with an entertaining precision.At times tense, dramatic,and funny the movie never misses a beat ,and has you cheering by the end.

An entertaining film overall, slickly done and fun to watch. A keeper.

And star Kang Don-won graces the screen here in Montreal in 2 hours in another  Korean drama: The Priests.  I will have to take my rosary beads along to the cinema I believe:)