Everything you need to know about Fantastic Fest, Austin's film fever dream

Could we interest you in a murder mystery at a hair show? What about a cannibal love story? Behold: Fantastic Fest is back for 2022.

The Alamo Drafthouse-affiliated film festival celebrating all things genre – horror, sci-fi, crime, general oddity – runs Sept. 22-29 at the Austin-based cinema’s South Lamar Boulevard location.

Here’s what you need to know about the 17th edition, and what you need to see, according to us.

What movies are on the Fantastic Fest 2022 lineup?

This year, the spotlight’s on Park Chan-wook, the mind behind Korean cinema classics like “Oldboy” and “The Handmaiden.” He’ll come to Austin to accept a lifetime achievement award. The fest also will screen the U.S. premiere of his new movie, “Decision To Leave,” and his 2000 film “Joint Security Area.”

Fantastic Fest always presents big premieres (hello, “Parasite” and “Titane”) and this year is no different, with programmers scoring notable projects like “Smile,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Bones and All” and “Triangle of Sadness.”

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Longtime attendees know, too, that the fest’s secret screenings are big doings and often reveal highly anticipated films. This year’s hush-hush shows happen at 8:30 p.m. Sept. 25 and 8 p.m. Sept. 28.

Fantastic Fest this year also will dedicate an entire programming track to those carnivorous cartilage creatures, those dorsal divas, those great white frights: sharks.

Need help wading through? Here are our picks from the schedule:

“Smile”: Fantastic Fest’s opening film plunges Sosie Bacon into an “It Follows”/“The Ring”-style horror conundrum, with a malevolent presence stalking her to her death in the form of people with rictus grins. World premiere. (8 p.m. Sept. 22)

“The Five Devils”: Shot on 35mm, this French fantasy sounds like a magical realism romp through time via the literally transportive power of smell. North American premiere. (8:15 p.m. Sept. 22; 2 p.m. Sept. 28)

“Give Me Pity!” Sophie von Haselberg plays Sissy St. Claire, the star of a yesteryear-style variety show, in an aesthetically accurate comedy-thriller that sounds hallucinatory, stylish and a little scary. U.S. premiere. (11:45 a.m. Sept. 23; 2:40 p.m. Sept. 27)

“Shin Ultraman”: If you love kaiju or kyodai hero stuff from Japan, or if you just grew up on “Power Rangers” and need a fix, here’s a giant robot for you. A reimagining of the classic TV show with a retro-futuristic sheen, “Shin Ultraman” also stars Hidetoshi Nishijima from “Drive My Car.” How’s that for a filmography? Texas premiere. (2:20 p.m. Sept. 23; 2 p.m. Sept. 26)

“Blood Relatives”: The classic father-daughter road trip film, except they’re vampires. This moon is less paper and more blood. World premiere. (5:35 p.m. Sept. 23; 2 p.m. Sept. 29)

“Huesera”: The pregnancy horror flick is not new ground, but this Mexican/Peruvian production sounds particularly chilling. Natalia Solián plays an expectant mother haunted by the sound of breaking bones, and the fest’s description promises punk rock, disturbing images and squirming in seats. That’s fantastic, baby. Texas premiere. (5:25 p.m. Sept. 23; 11:35 p.m. Sept. 26)

“The Menu”: Perhaps you’ve seen the trailer? Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes (and Judith Light, hell yes) star in a dark comedy about a high-brow dinner gone scary. U.S. premiere. (8:30 p.m. Sept. 23; 11 a.m. Sept. 27)

“Swallowed”: Jena Malone alert! One of our favorite character actresses appears in this queer body horror/crime thriller about two friends who ingest bags of drugs to cross the Maine/Canada border, except, um, those drugs are not as inanimate as most drugs. The fest’s description promises complex themes around queer sexuality, and the real draw is casting Mark Patton as the villain. Patton, the once-closeted star of the infamously homoerotic “A Nightmare on Elm Street 2,” was the subject of the doc “Scream, Queen! My Nightmare on Elm Street.” Texas premiere. (8:40 p.m. Sept. 23; 11:45 p.m. Sept. 28)

“Leonor Will Never Die”: A screenwriter in a coma finds herself living out one of her scripts. A Filipino movie that promises both action star moves for its older leading lady and metatextual love for big-screen stunt work. (1:50 p.m. Sept. 24; 11:30 a.m. Sept. 28)

“Spoonful of Sugar”: Sometimes you’re the increasingly violent child who’s allergic to the world around you, and sometimes you’re the child’s caretaker tripping out on LSD. Described by the fest as a “Freudian fever dream in the form of a deranged Lifetime movie.” World premiere. (2:25 p.m. Sept. 24; 11:30 p.m. Sept. 27)

“Decision to Leave”: South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, the guest of honor for this year’s Fantastic Fest, presents the U.S. premiere of his new thriller about a detective, a dead hiker and a widow. If you liked “The Handmaiden” or “Oldboy,” you gotta. (8 p.m. Sept. 24; 5:15 p.m. Sept. 27)

“Deep Fear”: Ye olde young-people-descend-into-tight-dark-spaces thriller, but it’s in the Paris catacombs, and the tight, dark space is an abandoned Nazi bunker that might not be abandoned. North American premiere. (11:40 p.m. Sept. 24; 2:40 p.m. Sept. 28)

“Lynch/Oz”: Documentary filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe’s latest deep dive on a director turns over a few yellow bricks to look at the seedy underbelly beneath them. That’s right: This is about weirdsville auteur David Lynch’s obsession with “The Wizard of Oz.” Narrators include Karyn Kusama and John Waters, so, click those heels into the theater. Texas premiere. (11:20 a.m. Sept. 25; 2:35 p.m. Sept. 26)

“Medusa Deluxe”: Murder comes to the world of competitive hairstyling. The fest description promises “disco noir” from the U.K., and it’s already set for the A24 stable, if you’re a completist about that sort of thing. North American premiere. (5:15 p.m. Sept. 25 and Sept. 28)

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“Bones and All”: There are so many angles into this one; we’ll let you pick. Angle No. 1: Young cannibals in love on a road trip in 1980s America. Angle No. 2: Luca Guadagnino, contemporary film’s foremost purveyor of rapturous romantic imagery, reunites with “Call Me By Your Name” stars Timothee Chalamet and Michael Stuhlbarg; “We Are Who We Are” stars Chloë Sevigny and Francesca Scorsese; and Jessica Harper of “Suspiria.” Angle No. 3: Gawking at Guadagnino and Chalamet’s coincidental proximity to Armie Hammer’s real-life cannibal scandal. (5:05 p.m. Sept. 25; 8:20 p.m. Sept. 26)

“V/H/S/99”: The anthology is a staple of the horror genre, and this installment of the “V/H/S” series promises found footage fright with a Clinton-era bent. U.S. premiere. (8:40 p.m. Sept. 25; 11:45 p.m. Sept. 28)

“Triangle of Sadness”: Wicked satire about the wicked wealthy – it's not just for English class. Ruben Östlund (of “Force Majeure”) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival for this butt-number (just about 2 and a half hours!) about luxury liner captain Woody Harrelson steering his passengers straight into a brutal “Gilligan’s Island” scenario. U.S. premiere. (8:05 p.m. Sept. 29)

Are there parties and other weird stuff?

Fantastic Fest promises that Roboexotica, a Vienna, Austria-based festival and conference, will bring its robot mixologists to the opening night party (10 p.m. Sept. 22 at the Highball bar).

The fest also has some signature events that fans love, including the Fantastic Debates (11:59 p.m. Sept. 24 at South Austin Gym, 5700 Menchaca Road, Suite 365), 100 Best Kills (11:30 p.m. Sept. 26) and Fantastic Feud (11:55 p.m. Sept. 27).

Check out the Fantastic Fest website for the complete lineup.

How to get a badge for Fantastic Fest 2022

Badges, $275-$1,495, are now on sale at fantasticfest.com, though at least one tier is already sold out. There’s also a virtual version of the fest, FF@Home, that’s $175. Go to 2022.fantasticfest.com for more.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Guide to Fantastic Fest 2022 lineup, plus how to go to Austin, TX fest