The Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) is proud to unveil this year’s retrospective: TAKE CARE!, a watchful examination of care through the lens of the fantasy genre. As part of the 24th edition (4-12 July), this special program will take you on a journey through space and time over the span of a century with about twenty feature films – some cult, some underseen.
THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS
“Take care!” We’ve all heard it before: a well-meaning idiom that often rings like a gentle call to do the impossible. At first glance a sign of concern, it actually shrouds a much more complex and ruthless system. This expression all too often neglects to take the reality of the person we are speaking to into consideration, therefore reminding them of what they cannot (or can no longer) do.
Echoing themes of SCREAM QUEER (2022), FEMALE TROUBLE (2023), and EAT THE RICH (2024), the NIFFF 2025 retrospective puts the spotlight on care, which does not always end up being a straightforward endeavor, especially as portrayed in genre cinema. The 20 TAKE CARE! films will implicitly paint the portrait of anxiety and suspicious societies in which people must contend with healthcare systems deeply rooted in inequalities (whether they relate to the intimacy of the bodies or the public institutions themselves). This downward spiral affects those who try to take care of themselves as well as people taking care of others. The NIFFF invites you to explore films from various time periods and countries, all haunted by mad doctors, body mutations, shady nurses, and terrifying hospitals.
In Michael Crichton’s COMA (1978), the hospital becomes the setting for sinister acts of trafficking, a reflection of the fears and fantasies surrounding the supposed omnipotence and impunity of the medical profession. With THE CURED (2017), David Freyne offers his own take on the zombie genre with a story centered around the difficult rehabilitation of “infected” people that have since been cured — a striking metaphor which socio-political themes resonate louder than ever today. Mental health is at the forefront of A PAGE OF MADNESS (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926), a film which explores the gradual emergence of horror that comes with the slow decline of a loved one. Intermittent fasting is taken way too far in Jessica Hausner’s CLUB ZERO (2023), while Yorgos Lanthimos questions the boundaries between the parental desire to protect and child abuse with DOGTOOTH (2009), in which parents isolate their three children from the outside world. The concept of care is riddled with paradoxes and excesses, but it can also inspire a more playful approach to genre cinema, where sadism flirts with black humor. Such is the case in Rob Reiner’s MISERY (1990), in which the care of a dutiful nurse toward an injured writer slowly turns into a grotesque nightmare – a brilliant satire where kindness eventually turns into control.
TAKE CARE! will include a roundtable discussion, and the festival’s cultural mediation program will also offer related screenings and interventions in compulsory and post-compulsory education establishments.
FIRST PART OF THE ‘TAKE CARE!’ LINE-UP
A PAGE OF MADNESS
Teinosuke Kinugasa, JP, 1926
Hoping to get closer to his wife, who is a mental health patient, a former sailor becomes the custodian of an asylum. A gem of black & white Japanese silent cinema, this one-of-a-kind film offers a tender reflection on women’s mental health.
Trailer
COMA
Michael Crichton, US, 1978
A seemingly fit patient falls into a coma after undergoing surgery. An edge-of-your-seat thriller that questions the medical profession, directed by the man who wrote JURASSIC PARK, and starring Michael Douglas and Geneviève Bujold.
Trailer
MISERY
Rob Reiner, US, 1990
Rob Reiner, US, 1990
After a road accident, a famous writer is taken care of by a nurse in a remote cabin. This brutal psychological thriller is a cult adaptation of Stephen King’s novel, which earned Kathy Bates a well-deserved Oscar for her performance as a frightening, creepy, star-struck nurse.
Trailer
DOGTOOTH
Yorgos Lanthimos, GR, 2009
The house is surrounded by a high fence. For these three teenagers, the outside world does not exist. All they have is the life their parents have made for them. When the desire to protect becomes abuse…
Trailer
THE CURED
David Freyne, IE/FR, 2017
After a pandemic turns many people into flesh-eating zombies, a cure is found. Side effects? Anxiety: the rehabilitation of those formerly infected is met with so much suspicion, the world is soon on the brink of chaos once again.
Trailer
CLUB ZERO
Jessica Hausner,
AT/GB/DE/FR/DK/TR/US/QA/BA, 2023
Ever heard of “conscious eating”? They teach it at this private school, but the novel concept eventually turns out to be a little dangerous. Come for the morbid influence and twisted chain of events, stay for the biting satire.
Trailer
SAVE THE DATE – NIFFF 2025
Festival Pass – Early Bird price: Thursday, May 8
Full line-up and ticket bookings: Thursday, June 19