Though horror is usually my thing, one sci-fi trope I love is time travel, and, like any fan of time travel, I've asked the question, "Would you go back in time and kill Hitler?"

LITTLE DOORS, written and directed by Anthony Oberbeck, is my favorite of the Fantastic Fest films I had  a chance to watch, and it’s the one that’s hardest to write about. 

JOLLYFACE, written and directed by Justin Floyd says big things about race and white privilege in a big way. 

KYLGOR IN THE GRISLY ABYSS, directed by Mason Newton DeRushie, is a sword and sorcery horror which follows Kylgor the Conqueror and his barbarian band who successfully seek vengeance by beheading the king who ravaged their lands and murdered their people. With the king’s army on their heels during their escape, they and their enemies fall into a large abyss.

DEATH HAS NO MASTER, written and directed by Jorge Thielen Armand, is grim - a stark portrait of colonialism in Venezuela.

It has all the gorgeous grainy film, cheap practical effects, and discordant music you expect, but it’s also quietly clever and full of obvious love for the slasher genre. 

NO REST FOR THE WICKED, directed by Kasper Kalle, could almost be a romantic comedy except for all the folk horror and gothic atmosphere, including a sea, darkness, and fog that almost deserve their own character credits. 

VERTIGINOUS, directed by Quentin Dupieux, is basically an hour long animation of the conversations we all have had after watching certain Star Trek episodes or The Matrix, and there’s something about two characters whose animation makes me think of the House of the Dead video games talking about how nothing is real and we’re in a simulation that strikes my funny bone. 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from an Irish-Australian kung fu comedy, but KUNG FU DEADLY, directed by Fergal Costello, was part buddy comedy, part wuxia, and all fun.

For all the blood and viscera and violence, it is a beautifully shot film which may make it worth a watch if you can stomach it and don’t mind that it is just nihilism incarnate.