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Director Simon Harrisson, Producer/Actor Vincent Hoss-Desmarais and Actress Katharine Isabelle talk to Fest Track
about finding the right humor, hitting the right tone and seeing the reaction from the Fantasia crowd in regards to their sci-fi/fantasy film "The Galactic Ghoul" playing the Les Fantastiques Week-Ends du Cinéma Québécois section of the 2026 Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal, Quebec.

#FilmMaking #IndieFilm #FantasiaFest #The GalacticGhoul #FestTrack
Transcript
00:25And now that you guys have played and you've already played Plantasia,
00:29you had your first screening.
00:30Yeah.
00:31Could you talk about that?
00:32You know, because inherently it's interesting.
00:34You put so much time into something and then to see the response.
00:38And then you released it on the world.
00:40Well, you guys were too close to it and they weren't being objective at all.
00:42And they didn't think anyone was, they were like, you know, concerned that only,
00:46and I was like, no, you guys don't understand.
00:47Everyone's going to love it.
00:48And they did.
00:50Could you guys talk about that?
00:51Yeah.
00:52Well, it was really nice.
00:54Thanks, Katie.
00:54It was, it was really nice to see within the first few minutes, literally the first
01:00few seconds, minutes, people were laughing wholeheartedly and in different areas of the
01:07theater, people were laughing and catching on jokes and they got the humor.
01:13They got the level of humor pretty rapidly.
01:15And then different times too, right?
01:17Sometimes all the, all the crowd, but yeah.
01:20Some, some, yeah, sorry, Vincent continue, but yeah.
01:23My, one of my favorite characters in the whole movie is the little, the little gremlin,
01:28the little goblin guy that gets put in the ice.
01:30And I just loved everyone's response.
01:32Like every time he came up, they were like, yeah, they were like rooting for him.
01:35And they just, they had like an instant emotional connection to him like I did.
01:39And you could feel that every time he came on screen.
01:41Like that's really important and hard to do with the little, you know, a little guy, just
01:46a little guy out there in space and everyone like loved him.
02:01I would like to do some tourism, visit your magnificent city.
02:07If you're watching like, um, God, what was meet the feebles?
02:09I always remember that with Peter Jackson, you know, or just like a skewed version of
02:14the Muppets, which was sort of what dark crystal was.
02:17Dark crystal labyrinth, all those things were, that's what I was just like, oh, this is
02:22so my heart.
02:23Was it this always imagined in that way with you and Simon?
02:28Um, no, no, it was when I, when I initially was approached, uh, there, um, we had not even
02:37spoken about that, but Simon and I just have a humor dar, we just get together and we're
02:42just, you know, we, we, we laugh and we make jokes.
02:45So it, it, it quickly became funny.
02:49Like at the beginning, the first tone that we explored was, was not necessarily comical,
02:55but it's just in, in the way that I felt it and the way that we felt it together, we
03:00saw
03:01that there was place for tongue in cheek humor.
03:03It was tongue in cheek.
03:04We, we realized it was that kind of level.
03:06It wasn't going to be slapstick.
03:08It wasn't going to be a hundred percent satirical.
03:10Uh, it, it was going to be tongue in cheek because we really believed in the, um, the,
03:17uh, um, the references to older film, um, which we both enjoyed.
03:23And then we just compounded onto this, these, these characters that had this, this intuitively,
03:30um, tongue in cheek feel to it.
03:33And that's, I guess, just how it got and then how it developed.
03:36And then we, you know, continued working on the script and, and there was humor that came
03:40out of it.
03:41Walk in your mysterious streets, discover your, your architecture.
03:47Blend in with the anonymous crowd.
03:59I think most filmmakers are always, uh, unsatisfied, but, uh, since, uh, the movie is released and,
04:06uh, he's, he's starting to live, uh, by himself.
04:10I'm getting more, uh, serene with, uh, all of this, you know, uh, it's impossible to control
04:16everything.
04:18Uh, if you have a 10% of your vision, you're already lucky sometimes.
04:22And, uh, um, you know, uh, you need to be open to surprise to, uh, on set.
04:27I don't have a stiff vision.
04:29I like to be surprised.
04:31Uh, I like when the actors do some improve too.
04:34Uh, so, uh, it's always a surprise.
04:36So the, the film you're thinking about and the final product, it's like, uh, probably making
04:41a child.
04:42I don't know.
04:42You, you cannot, uh, control everything.
04:45They're surprised.
04:46There's the inputs of everybody.
04:48Uh, and, uh, in the end, it comes to life and it is, it is what it is, but I'm
04:54starting
04:54to, I'm starting to, uh, to, uh, appreciate it, uh, more and more, I would say.
05:00And I think Tim, that in, in, in response to your question, you know, that, uh, do filmmakers,
05:06um, make the film for, for them or what did we think the audience was, was going to, to,
05:10to, to, to get from it?
05:12I think it is, it is, is any, any piece of art, I mean, be it a painting or a
05:17sculpture or a song
05:18or poetry.
05:20I think it's, it's innately something that comes from your heart and from, you know, your
05:24insides and from, um, what you want to express.
05:28It sounds cliche, but you know, it comes from that.
05:30But I think that an artist is, is always mindful of the fact that this will be seen by other
05:36people and you, um, I think that we, we, we hope that our art will be enjoyed by other
05:43people.
05:44So when you're crafting it, be mindful of that.
05:47You will want to put it into, especially in film, you want to put out a piece out there
05:50that's entertaining and that has, you know, um, artistic value and merit for other people
05:57as well.
05:57So it's, you're also on both sides of the camera too.
06:00And that makes a big difference.
06:03Yeah.
06:03Yeah, it does.
06:05It does, but when you're in front, like I was saying, when, when, when I'm in front
06:07of the camera, it's, you know, it's about being in the other world.
06:11And then when you're behind the camera, you're in the first world in the real world.
06:16So, yeah.
06:18Do you want to add your perspective on that, Katie?
06:20And then I'll let you go.
06:21Yeah, I know.
06:22I think I was able to be more objective about it because I haven't been, you know, grinding
06:28away on the, on the boring stuff and overthinking it for, for so long.
06:32So I, my expectations were high and they were met for me for the audience reaction.
06:37I think they felt the way that I felt about it.
06:39I think they felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the
07:05way I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way that I felt the way
07:05that
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