Festivals: Fantasia
Fantasia 2026 Review: CHERRY AND VIRGIN, A Nervous and Experimental Work of Genius
I was 18 years old when an adult friend I met at a summer factory job recommended that I see Federico Fellini's 8 1/2. I could not make heads or tails of the movie, in Italian, in black and white,...
Fantasia 2026 Review: VILLAGE OF EIGHT GRAVESTONES, Takashi Shimizu Proves Traditional Murder Mysteries Are Better With Ghosts
When Tatsuya’s estranged mom suddenly passes away, he is forced to head out to her old, isolated village and meet the family he has never known, the Tajimi Family. On the way there, he bumps into private detective Kosuke Kindaichi,...
Fantasia 2026 Review: THE LAST HORROR, Myanmar's First Found-Footage Film is Too Safe With The Scares
The Last Footage starts with a collection of videos from life loggers, users recording daily experiences using wearable tech. We see the Burmese peoples out jogging along lakefronts, playing concerts with their bands, riding the backseat of a motorcycle which...
Fantasia 2026 Review: TRISTES TROPIQUES, Lots of Blood, Little Reward
Roo (Tears in Chinese) was abandoned by his mother at an early age and taken into the care of a man he has only ever known as Master. Raised in the jungle with other discarded children, Roo was taught to...
Fantasia 2026 Review: CORPUS, Languid Queer Thriller Delivers a Killer Horror Payoff
Sayo photographs New York’s nightlife, dealing drugs to partygoers at clubs and generally stays out of trouble with the owners of those clubs with free samples. Life takes a spin when he learns that Vince, an old friend whose star...
Fantasia 2026 Review: OUR EFFED UP WORLD, Alice Maio Mackay's Hang Out Movie... With Aliens!
Australian wunderkind Alice Maio Mackay returns to the director’s chair for her eighth feature film, Our Effed Up World, celebrating its Canadian premiere at this year’s Fantasia. A science-fiction story about a group of young adults fighting off an alien...
Fantasia 2026 Review: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY, It's Nazi Killin' Time Again
One of genre cinema’s most unexpected franchises expands beyond its humble roots in Jenn Wexler’s The Last Temptation of Becky. The titular teen with a serious attitude problem is off to Poland this time, when a Nazi scion with dreams...
Fantasia 2026 Review: BEASTS CLUTCHING AT STRAWS, A Sack Of Cash Causes Problems In This Black Comedy Thriller
A desperately unpopular streamer with a dementia-stricken mother, a crooked cop, a duplicitous femme fatale, and a sack full of money collide in director Jojo Hideo's Beasts Clutching at Straws, an adaptation of the Sone Keisuke novel previously filmed by...
Fantasia 2026 Review: INSECTASY, Are You Into Bugs?
Sadie is horny. Really horny. She has let real life, either working at the walk-in-clinic as a receptionist, or hanging out with her friends, fade into the background like radio-static, only half awares and mostly filtered out. She only thinks...
Fantasia 2026 Review: FERINE, A Stunning Feature Debut From Andrea Corsini
Motherhood is a beast in first time feature filmmaker Andrea Corsini’s lush Italian psychological horror stunner, Ferine, celebrating its international premiere at this year’s Fantasia. Bolstered by a captivating lead performance from Oddity’s Carolyn Bracken and an unforgettable score from...
Fantasia 2026 Exclusive: CHAAR DIWAARI Trailer Examines The Creeping Feeling That The Walls Are Closing In
Celebrating its upcoming North American premiere on July 30th at the Fantasia International Film Festival is Syed Shadan's claustrophobic short film chiller, Chaar Diwaari (Four Walls). Premiering as part of the Fragments of Asia short film program at the festival,...
Fantasia 2026 Review: NIGHTBORN, A Mother's Dream Turned Folk Horror Nightmare
Saga’s (Seidi Haarla) blissful fantasies of motherhood are upended when her and her husband Jon’s (Rupert Grint) son turns out to be a bit more difficult than they were expecting in Hanna Bergholm’s sophomore feature, Nightborn. Following up on her...
Fantasia 2026 Review: NIKO, All Night Pretentious Delight
Cyber-punk adjacent, arthouse romance, pop-philosophical musing Niko debuts K-pop Girls' Generation member, Tiffany Young in the titular role as a woman who runs a business hiring herself out to comfort and talk to people who have locked themselves out of...
Fantasia 2026 Review: YOU ARE THE FILM, A Meta-Cinema Romance That Tears a Hole in the Universe
As someone who typically goes to the movies on a Sunday night for the 10:30pm show, and typically to go watch the stranger side of cinema, I am often given a ‘private screening’ from the local Cineplex chain. Because,...
Fantasia 2026 Review: PERMANENT DAMAGE, A Loosey-Goosey, Drug-Addled, Hanging-Out Thriller On Housing Insecurity
Reborn in the opening scene by tearing his way out of a black garbage bag after being tossed in the trash from a prison van, Tommy irrevocably changes his life through a chance encounter in a Dollarama, the house of...
Fantasia 2026 Review: ANCESTRAL BEASTS, An Indigenous Creature Feature About Generational Trauma
Generational trauma manifests as a deadly creepy crawler in Tim Riedel’s debut feature, Ancestral Beasts, which just celebrated its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia. Set among the indigenous Métis community, the film is a glowing reminder of the festival’s...
Fantasia 2026 Review: TIGHT LETTUCE, Addiction Both Binds and Tears Families Apart
There are many kinds of addiction stories on film, from the invigorating buddy shenanigans of Transpotting to the stylish personal infernos of Requiem For A Dream to the gritty autobiographical redemption arc of The Basketball Diaries. Harrison Houde’s Tight Lettuce discovers...
Fantasia 2026 Review: PENNY LANE IS DEAD Is Not For The Weak Of Heart
A celebratory girls’ night at the family beach house devolves into a night of unrelenting, brutal terror in Penny Lane is Dead, the debut feature from Australian filmmaker Mia’Kate Russell. A blood-soaked throwback to the wild days of ‘80s Ozploitation,...
Fantasia 2026 Review: ATTACK ON PARADISE, A Belgian Single Setting Siege Story With Heart
In a dystopic corner of urban Antwerp stands Paradise, a ten-story apartment block that houses some of the baddest dudes and dudettes in all of Belgium. Packed to the gills with drug hustlers, arms dealers, illicit brothels, and every other...
PENNY LANE IS DEAD: Shudder Acquires Homage to 80s Ozploitation Horror Flicks
Set on a hot summer's night in 1986 Australia, 17-year old Penny Lane is celebrating getting into college with her longtime girlfriends. After Penny's jealous and troubled cousin decides a cruel prank is in order, what begins as a thoughtless spiked cupcake game spirals into a night of bloodshed and revenge.
