Fantasia to close with Guillermo Del Toro-scripted 'Don't Be Afraid of the Dark'

TORONTO – Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival is to close its 15th edition with the Canadian premiere of Troy Nixey’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, which was written and produced by Guillermo del Toro.

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The Canadian genre festival last month announced it will open on July 14 with the Canadian Premiere of Kevin Smith's Sundance hit Red State.

The 130 film-lineup will include the North American premiere of 100 Years of Evil, from Swedish directors Erik Eger and Magnus Oliv, where Adolf Hitler survives the second world war and flees to the U.S., and the world premiere of British filmmaker Michael Axelgaard’s Hollow.

Fantasia also booked Canadian premieres for Miguel Gómez’s El Sanatorio, a horror/comedy from Costa Rica, and the Norwegian film Troll Hunter, directed by André Øvredal and coming from Sundance and Seattle.

U.S. indie titles bound for Fantasia include Jed Stahm’s Knifepoint, to receive a world premiere, Trent Haaga’s Chop, Joseph Kahn’s slasher comedy Detention, Scott Leberecht’s Midnight Son, and Lucky McKee’s The Woman, which bowed in Sundance.

Other Montreal fest titles include three Argentinian titles: Nicolás Goldbart’s Phase 7, Ayar Blasco’s animated feature El Sol, and Adrián García Bogliano’s Cold Sweat, a horror comedy about senior citizen former political revolutionaries wreaking havoc against hapless teens.

Australia will be represented at Fantasia by Andrew Traucki’s The Reef, a shark thriller, and Ben C. Lucas’s Wasted on the Young, while Belgium will bring to Montreal the Dominic Cooper-starrer The Devil’s Double, by director Lee Tamahori, Michaël R. Roskam’s Bullhead, and Olias Barco’s Kill Me Please, a black comedy about euthanasia.

And Canadian films to screen at the Montreal fest include Xavier Gens’s The Divide, which stars Michael Biehn, Laura German and Rosanna Arguette, and Dominic Laurence James’s Die, which stars Emily Hampshire, Elias Koteas and Stephen McHattie.

The Fantasia festival is set to run from July 14 to August 7.