What often defines me as a writer, much to the chagrin of certain members of the intellectual old guard, is that I approach bargain basement genre films with the same enthusiasm and critical eye as I would something from Godard, Bergman, or Kurosawa. There is merit to be found in almost any film, and where there is not–even when judged within distinctive criteria–is when a movie has truly failed. This passion for all things celluloid, for a wider palate of films that would have someone more traditionally academic than myself expectorating with disdain, appears to be one of the core principles upon which the Fantasia Film Fest was founded. This year, the Montreal-based festival’s sixteenth in existence, Fantasia opted to construct an event that perfectly encapsulates this love for obscure cinema and packages it in the most artistically adept fashion possible. Dave Alexander, editor-in-chief of Rue Morgue magazine, assembled a bloody handful of some of Canada’s most notable genre filmmakers and paired them with a cadre of the nation’s top illustrators/designers to bring us If They Came From Within. This gallery featured a host of incredible posters, and even a few props, that supposed an entire alternate history of Canadian genre films. It was like walking through an exhibit of awe-inspiring drive-in art from a museum, and more to the point a drive-in, that never existed. The names culled to help conceive of these bloodcurdling and beautiful works of art should be eerily familiar to readers of this site. Names

What if William Shatner had played Dare Devil in a 1970s exploitation flick? What if Alfred Hitchcock had gotten the idea for Halloween and made it with Kim Novak and Robert Mitchum? What if Mickey Rourke played Superman? These are the questions that haunt me in the moments just before I close my eyes to go to bed. Fortunately, someone else out there is even more obsessed with the possible worlds out there where Boris Karloff was Freddy Krueger (and the resulting movie posters).

No, this isn’t a reboot announcement wherein a middle-aged actor will be playing Marty McFly to spice things up. Yet. A few scenes of Eric Stoltz during his 5-week-long acting turn as McFly before being let go have made their way onto the 25th anniversary Blu-ray of the trilogy, and of course, onto the internet. Now if only they had shots of Tom Selleck as Indiana Jones.