[Fantasia 2024 Review] KRYPTIC is a Surreal and Gooey Look at the Monstrous

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, camping was pretty much mandatory, and cryptids were common fodder for late-night campfire conversations. While this love for the mountains and all things spooky may have initially drawn me to director Kourtney Roy and writer Paul Bromley’s feature debut film KRYPTIC, it was ultimately something much different that won me over. More than just a run-of-the-mill creature feature, KRYPTIC is a hauntingly surreal visual encounter that offers a nuanced look at what it means to be monstrous. 

KRYPTIC, making its Quebec Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival, centers around Kay, who joins a women’s walking club to connect with other women and make new friends. While hiking a trail up the aptly named Kypto Peak, Kay becomes fascinated by the story of Barb Valentine, a cryptozoologist who disappeared from the area while searching for the enigmatic cryptid known as a “sooka.” Before long, Kay experiences a cryptid encounter all her own, loses her memory, and begins doggedly searching for Barb and answers to the many questions surrounding her disappearance.

Roy effectively lays the narrative groundwork in the opening scenes, drawing viewers in with stunning mountain landscapes, an enticing mystery, and an ambiguous cryptid encounter. As Kay, Chloe Pirrie (CARNIVAL ROW, THE QUEEN’S BANDIT) captivates with her controlled physical presence, calm demeanor, and perfect awkwardness. However, after Kay meets the sooka, the film veers off into slightly more unfamiliar and adventurous terrain.

As the story is told exclusively from Kay’s perspective, she becomes the all-encompassing lens through which we see the world. Cayne McKenzie’s perfectly reflexive and unsettling score helps sell the interiority of KRYPTIC and beautifully personifies Kay’s foggy headspace. Before long, we realize Kay’s past and life are far more entwined with Barb’s than even she realized. With her memory gone, Kay begins to look, hear, and experience everything with fresh eyes and perspective. This traumatic loss of identity sends Kay into a spiral that is both confusing and empowering.  

It is here in this swirling character confusion that KRYPTIC will either gain new fans or lose them. There’s an ambiguity that saturates everything Kay does and says. More than just an unreliable narrator, her encounter with the sooka has changed her emotionally as well as very physical and goopy ways. This ambiguity becomes further amplified through trippy hallucinations, sexual encounters infused with body horror, blackouts, dreamy cinematography,  and conflicting narrative threads, all delivered with zero explanation. Soon, it becomes clear that KRYPTIC is about things far more real and pervasive than cryptids.       

As Kay seeks answers, she encounters various people, many of which are women, who share similar sooka encounter stories and help guide the way for her. Not a single woman encounters the sooka and comes back the same. Many are written off as crazy. Worse yet, some don’t even come back at all. Standing in as a brilliantly effective metaphor for sexual assault and PTSD, or even just the general monstrous power of the patriarchy, suddenly, Kay’s odd story and fascination with the sooka begin to make sense. 

Perhaps Roy's most refreshing and bold creative decision is offering as little exposition as possible and not screaming "IT'S TRAUMA!" from the mountaintops like so many other modern films. By trusting the audience to connect the dots and read between the lines, KRYPTIC becomes far more compelling. Similar to the existence of cryptids themselves, if one seeks and demands answers from KRYPTIC, one will not receive them. For some, this choice will come off as infuriating. Others, like myself, will find it beautiful and impactful. Sometimes, it’s simply enough just to believe. 

Along with Pirrie’s fantastic performance, KRYPTIC has a strong cast of supporting characters and actors. As Sasha, Ali Rusu-Tahir truly exudes a beautiful “secret energy” that Sasha openly shares with Kay. Jeff Gladstone (THE TWILIGHT ZONE) portrays a chilling portrait of masculinity as Morgan, Barb’s husband. And as The Amazing Gigi, Jennifer Copping dextrously navigates and conveys the complexities of being damaged but not broken. Every character in KRYPTIC plays an essential role in Kay’s journey toward acceptance, and no performance falls short. 

Like Kay herself, KRYTIC feels wholly, but intentionally, unmoored for most of its 96-minute runtime. However, the unconventional way the narrative unfolds not only supports the film's important message and emotional undercurrent but actually strengthens it. Despite offering little resolve or a traditionally satisfying conclusion, KRYPTIC lingers long past the credits and proves that Kourtney Roy is undoubtedly a filmmaker worth watching.  

The 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival runs July 18 to August 4 in Montreal, Quebec, principally at the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screenings at the Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée. For more information, please visit the Fantasia website here.