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There’s an amazing bit of trivia about how there are so many possible shuffles of a deck of cards that it’s almost certain that every single one ever shuffled has been as distinct as a snowflake. I thought of this when considering the panoply of meet-cutes in cinema history: There’s always a new one for some writer to devise. The meet-cute in writer/director duo Evan Buxbaum & Drew Mylrea’s “Into the Sky” is certainly not one I’ve seen before: A man meets the woman living in his house after being returned from his abduction by aliens. Sci-fi-rom-com “Into the Sky” is a quirky, funny movie, one that’s buoyed greatly by a likable cast. Fantastic Fest was full of doom and gloom this year that reflected the general anxiety of the world in 2026; this was a wonderful reprieve from all the terror.
The naked man covered in blue goop who falls back into his life after being away long enough that his divorcing wife rented out their house? It’s poor Bobby (Sam Richardson), a guy who apparently has become the favorite target of some experimenting interstellar visitors. We slowly learn that his alleged abductions actually led to hospitalization, and there’s an interesting mystery for a bit as to whether or not Bobby should be taken seriously at all. Is he really being taken into the sky or is he mentally falling apart under the weight of a broken relationship?
Helping him answer these questions are his tenant Nico (Sofia Black-D’Elia) and another alien abductee named Jaden (David Cross). Nico agrees to help Bobby find his ex-wife if he helps her through helping plan and execute her brother’s wedding. One of the reasons that “Into the Sky” works is that Buxbaum & Mylrea also worked from a traditional rom-com formula: New guy helps woman find her confidence by being the decent dude by her side. It just happens to possibly be about the end of the world.
The whimsy of “Into the Sky” can sometimes feel a little forced and the set-ups a tad sitcomish, but Buxbaum & Mylrea are assisted greatly by their excellent cast. Richardson makes for a great everyman, Black-D’Elia is effortlessly charming, and Cross is having a blast as the obvious comic relief. In the end, it’s not a perfect comedy, but a nice reminder that a fest like Fantastic doesn’t always have to be about body horror and the end of the world.
The very existence of Nicolas Curcio’s “Play House” is one of the coolest things about Fantastic Fest 2026. The film is the result of a new annual project called “Fantastic Pitches,” wherein ambitious creators use an event on the fest weekend to pitch their films, and a winner is chosen for production, with the requirement that it’s done and ready to premiere the next year. 2025’s winner was this clever ghost story that centers lost media, and the contest was so successful that two of the runner-ups are also currently in production. The idea that a fest that’s built its reputation on the work of indie filmmakers could be the launchpad to create indie movies itself? Very cool.
And it helps that Curcio’s debut is quite good, even great for about an hour. Curcio understands the pull of found footage as message boards have been flooded with people looking for some curiosity they remember from their childhood or stumbling upon some old recording that looks downright haunted. That’s what happens to Elliot (Will Harrison), who finds a bag of VHS tapes in the basement of a house that’s he just bought for renovation, kinda hoping that the “grown-up” decision will bring his ex Cath (Jessica Sula) back to their relationship. When he pops in a tape with his buddy Alden (Jordan Gonzalez), he sees grainy footage of an old children’s TV show hosted by Mr. Morton (James Urbaniak). The only person on screen, Morton interacts with puppets that look like monsters who are being voiced by what sounds like terrified, possibly crying children. It’s a chilling creation, the kind of stuff that actually gets under your skin while watching it.
Elliot and Alden scour the internet for information about Mr. Morton, but no one remembers the show, which leads them to the terrifying, inevitable conclusion: These were home movies. While Alden suggests they go to the authorities, Elliot insists that they don’t actually have any footage of a crime yet, and there’s an interesting subtext in how he ignores what actually might literally be buried in his new basement as the situation with Cath improves. He’s willing to repress to “play house” with his girlfriend.
The first hour of “Play House” is so strong that the ways in which it kinda falls apart in the third act are all the more disappointing. It’s one of those classic projects wherein the questions or the mysteries are always more interesting than the resolutions, but there’s still so much to admire here, especially given the film’s unique origins. Strong production design, incredibly believable lo-fi VHS cinematography, and even a few impressive ghost story beats work alongside uniformly solid performances. That none of this existed without a pitch contest in an Austin bar is remarkable, and indicative of the heights to which this new pipeline could rise.
VHS tapes are also centered in Josh Tanner’s “Posthumous,” a movie that feels deeply inspired by the “Insidious” franchise and how it details how ordinary households can become portals to supernatural worlds. This Aussie flick ultimately feels too reliant on manufactured emotion and flat dialogue to strike the emotional chords it intends to hit, leaving viewers more curious about how it’s going to end than truly engaged in its storytelling. It’s too slow and too devoid of cinematic personality (other than a fantastic bit of haunted creature design) to stand out in a crowded Fantastic Fest lineup.
Sophie Lowe plays Zoe, who has come home for her 30th birthday, which happens to be the same age her mother was when she died in childbirth. Zoe’s mom was dying while she was pregnant, and so she made VHS tapes for her unborn child to watch on every birthday. This will be the last, and it will open doors to what really happened to mom and how the evil that took her might still be around today.
So much of “Posthumous” works on Zoe finding the right tape or having the right conversation with her distant dad or spooky neighbor at just the right time that it drains its protagonist of too much agency. Lowe is fine at the big emotional beats, but they feel shoehorned into a cluttered bit of supernatural mystery-solving as to the Lovecraftian threat in this corner of Australia. There’s also just not enough effective atmosphere here to bring us into Zoe’s story. We always feel like we’re watching and not feeling or dreading.
Worst of all, “Posthumous” runs close to two hours, which leads to a film that drags instead of building to its action-packed, almost sci-fi conclusion. There are interesting themes, ideas, and bits of filmmaking here, but they’re buried in so much that doesn’t connect that it feels like work to unpack them.
from Roger Ebert https://ift.tt/JZDKuUg
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