Preparing for Film February 2025

The German word "Vorfreude" which describes the happiness you feel before something, a "joyful anticipation" according to internet dictionaries, should be a word in every single language on this world for me to express the joy I yearly feel between New Year's Eve and the month of February when all my favorite film festivals and showings takes place. The constellation of those festivals is somewhat different in 2025, with the Fantasy Filmfest White Nights taking place as late as the first weekend of February and the Final Girls Berlin Film Festival even in March! Even with this shift, it's all fine by me, I have been blissfully busy in my joyful anticipation and putting bookmarks on films I want to see and buying tickets where I can.

Let's start with Fantasy Filmfest White Nights, this year on the first weekend of February, Saturday 1st and Sunday 2nd. As you know, buying the festival pass is always a leap of faith at the FFF, since the passes are usually sold out before the full program is declared, and I only do it in exceptional cases, like last year in April, when I had previously missed the big part of the Berlinale film festival due to illness, and was in desperate need to breathe film festival atmosphere, so I just thought, what the hell, I'll just get a pass no matter how the movies are. And to my luck, it was a hoot, which isn't always the case.

I already purchased my ticket for following films, I'm open to spontaneously watch more movies if there's any ticket left by the time of the showing. Let's see.

Fantasy Filmfest White Nights

Above The Knee (Norway 2024)

I'm opening the FFF with this one since I have seen a movie from the same director, Viljar Bøe, last year at the Creepy Crypt, and though it wasn't all that, it was interesting enough for me to see more films by this guy. The film I watched last year was Good Boy, in which the story of a guy who expects his best friend to act like a dog is told. Like in a dog costume, eating from the ground and cuddling for pets and treats kind of acting like a dog.

Apparently, uncomfortable, disturbing movies are his specialties, since in Above the Knee, we follow Amir whose left leg starts rotting and turning black. Before it spreads to his hole body he feels like he needs to get rid of his leg, and becomes obsessed with the idea. Unfortunately you can't just legally amputate a seemingly healthy organ, so what is he going to do?

There are supposed to be people who want their perfectly good organs being amputated and there's a psychological explanation behind that, like a flaw in your bodily integrity and how you perceive yourself. Hopefully we'll know more after watching this.

Presence (USA 2024)

Usually I try to skip US-made movies in festivals, especially if they're made by iconic names like Soderbergh, since they will have a theatrical release in a couple of months anyway.

But in the Presence trailer, I'm really digging the camera work, and the atmosphere and the promise of a blurb this is one of the scariest movies of the year, so I will grab the chance to see it.

A family, moving into a new house, a strange presence, a haunted house becoming increasingly aggressive – all this sounds great, I love the trope of haunted places and I can't complain about anything I've seen from Steven Soderbergh, so it looks like a shoo-in.

MadS (France 2024)

I'm really not sure what to make of this trailer, but it looks like a Zombie drug?

The French pictures on FFF have so far blown hot and cold for me, ranging from awesome (for usually the humorous ones), to meh (which were usually the thriller kind of movies meant as serious).

I've noticed something in the marketing of MadS which made me chuckle: it is a movie shot in a continuous shot. Now, my former roommate was absolutely obsessed with movies in a single shot, and although I can think of the challenges posed by the technique, I really don't get the thrill of it, except of maybe being a neat experiment.

So I've not got really high hopes for this one, but that's usually a good thing, isn't it?

Street Trash (South Africa, USA 2024)

So far, I'm aware that Elon Musk comes from South Africa, and so does Neill Blomkamp. So in my eyes, that's a 1-1 and it's up to this movie to break the tie, redeem the country's image in my eyes, and make it 2-1 for my sympathies. I'm cheating a little, I'm also kind of a fan of Die Antwoord and the late Leon Botha, so I'm partial already, just wanted to make a point of discomfort about current events.

The fact that this is a cult classic reboot, a plot about a futuristic scheme to eradicate homeless people and the subsequent upheaval promising to "melt the rich", the obviously manually prepared SFX, and this movie poster you're seeing on the upper left side, are enough to impress me, and make this the only movie I ever wanted to see.

Creepy Crypt

Strictly seen, this is not a festival but in case you miss any movies in festivals you can always catch up with them at the Creepy Crypt, brought to you by Yorck Kinos, which provides a movie showing every Saturday night 10.30 pm at the Rollberg Kino in Neukölln for horror fans. And this January and February they're on fire🔥.

Werewolves

A kind of Werewolf Apocalypse which is triggered by supermoon light, transforming humans into bloodthirsty werewolves.

Let me frankly explain to you what I'm expecting of this: There's little on the surface of this earth that gives me the thrill and excitement that a great transformation scene does. My insides scream with unbound happiness, I'm all swept away by a well-made transformation, it's one the few joys I find in this life, and considering this is about a sort of a werewolf epidemic going on, I want to see transformations left and right, I want persistent, subsequent transformations by the minute, and they need to look good, or I will walk out.

Is it too much to ask? Because I don't think we'll get much offered plotwise.

Hundreds of Beavers

A movie which is two years old and I somehow missed. I remember this being shown on FFF, but me being probably too tired to stay late night, assuming it would be released in theaters, but it never did.

A modern black and white silent movie about a lumberjack against hundreds of beavers.

Surely the visuals are very unique and interesting, which can backfire if used to cover up the lack of interesting content, which, to be completely honest, this one seems to be doing. You can rely on your visuals in the fewest of cases. I'm not sure, I will give it a try, but a very suspicious try.

When Evil Lurks

This looks more like my cup of tea. An Argentine flick set in a remote village, a tale of two brothers finding "a demon-infected man just about to give birth to evil itself". Due to an error, they end up spreading more evil than they were trying to prevent.

Alone the idea of a man "giving birth to evil", and even the use of creepy horned goats in a movie sounds like it has the potential to send shivers down my spine, and I think from the trailer I can say this looks like a very solid horror story I'm really excited to see.

Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum

Honest confession; I have never seen Gonjiam. Even as a horror fanatic who enjoys Korean movies and isn't completely sick of the found footage subgenre. I'm really really hoping to find a footage that can offer something fresh and original.

Berlinale

Aaaand the big event I have been waiting for, the light of my tunnels, my heartbreak of last year, Berlinale, which will go from February 13th to the 23rd, and although the final program will be announced on February 3rd, there are already some titles you can browse and note for later. I did, and the ones that caught my eye were:

Den stygge stesøsteren,

and

It's good to have a perspective, so that I won't go empty handed (unless I get sick again) and have at least these eight titles I want to watch.

I have been kind of disappointed by Eggers' Boresferatu lately, so I'm actually ready for some really good paced horror and fantastic films. And it looks like February 2025 bears that potential.

protean depravity

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