Official synopsis A lost girl unexpectedly takes part in a midnight hike to explore local urban legends and monsters, only to find herself among the mysteries of the dark trail. Review As an aficionado of high strangeness since at least first grade of elementary school — Bigfoot and Nessie were my gateway cryptids at that […]
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Night After Night (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis After his coworker vanishes, a reclusive night guard at a secluded university begins unraveling the secrets of a hidden room where an ever-changing entity reappears night after night. Review Devotees of enigmatic fear fare should have a mesmerizing time with director Josh Lobo’s chiller Night After Night. Security […]
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Armageddon Road (Canada, 2026) Official Synopsis What happens in Vegas . . . might end the world. An ex-con with big dreams, Steve is hired to chauffeur a mob boss’ girlfriend for a night. He’s unaware that his passenger is dead and possessed by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Review What an absolute blast writer/director Karen Lam’s 1970s-set Armageddon Road is! Steve McNaulty (Brian McCaig) is a down-on-his-luck Las Vegas dreamer who hopes to find the funding to turn a parking lot into a themed attraction building. Doing what he can just to try to make ends meet, he is given the job of chauffeuring mob boss’s moll Delilah (Natalie Grace) for the evening, but when — unbeknownst to him — she dies in a bathroom and a supernatural entity takes over her body, the night’s going to get progressively stranger. I don’t want to give away any more than that, because Armageddon Road is loaded with
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Winchester, Virginia’s GenreBlast Film Festival is renowned for serving up an annual selection of weird, wild, independent cinema, and this year’s 10th edition shows exactly why. Running September 3-6, 2026, the festival offers chillers, thrillers, and chucklers aplenty. Following is the official press announcement. GenreBlast Film Fest has announced its lineup for the tenth year of their international independent genre film festival. The four day in-person event will showcase fourteen feature films and seventy-five short films from around the world as well as the results of their annual screenplay competition. Emanating from the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia, GenreBlast continues to champion truly independent genre cinema and features an eclectic lineup of cross-genre films. The fest prides itself on being an eccentric mixtape of genres and filmmakers. Of the fourteen features selected this year, there are two world premieres, one U.S. premiere, two east coast premieres, six regional premieres, and three Virginia premieres. Josh Stifter’s action comedy GET THAT
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Official synopsis After a drug-fueled car crash, two entitled private-school graduates flee into Melbourne’s nightlife, where a night of excess spirals out of control and exposes the cost of their privilege. Review Often genre films that deliberately feature despicable, unlikable main characters with no one for whom to truly root offer little to no reason for viewers to get invested. Thankfully, writer/director Gideon Aroni’s Australian thriller Pure Scum bucks that trend marvelously as its pair of drug-fueled young men make one idiotic decision after another, making for a mesmerizing ride. Ayden (Will Hutchins) and Jesse (Nikita Chronis) are friends who met in private school, from which they have recently graduated. Both come from well-off families/ Jesse has a reputation as a drug user and bad boy, and Ayden falls into Jesse’s group after a seemingly more innocent upbringing. Pure Scum involves news magazine-type interviews with family and friends of the two young men taking place after the fateful night where
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Once again, our coverage of Bucheon International Film Festival (BIFAN) reviews is cowritten by Film Festival Editor Joseph Perry and Guest Contributing Writer Chris Weatherspoon. A man of the world, guest reviewer Chris Weatherspoon has lived in South Korea for “quite a bit.” A huge fan of all cinema, Chris also works locally in the entertainment industry, and knows what he is talking about . . . alright!? Focus (South Korea, 2026); review by Chris Weatherspoon Director Sim Gyu-ho’s Focus is a slowly unraveling ghost story about a man who can’t stop looking through a lens even when it’s costing him everything in front of it. The film opens on a campsite, where photographer Kim Eun-ho and his girlfriend Woo-jung are settling in for the night; a walk to borrow salt turns into something stranger, something the film wisely doesn’t explain. After the opening sequence, we learn that Eun-ho is a struggling photographer who has been with the same girlfriend,
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Unholy Night (Canada, 2026) Official Synopsis Gino’s traditional family Christmas Eve turns into a bloody battle for survival when his long-dead grandma drops by and goes on a murderous rampage. Amid the chaos, Gino reunites with his ex and the dysfunctional duo must avoid his dead Italian relatives popping up all around the neighbourhood as they search for a way to get rid of these Yuletide revenants and survive his family Christmas. Review Unholy Night is a horror comedy with heart. Squabbles between the Italian family members on Christmas Eve and the problems that arise when relatives return from the dead drive the comedy elements winningly. Director Michael Gabriele balances the humor and the horror nicely, along with relationship and family drama. The ensemble cast members all give solid performances, and the makeup for the revenants is satisfyingly creepy. These living dead can speak, cook, and move around well, and can sometimes be calmed down when they become aggressive enough
Continue reading →
Official Fantasia synopsis from program notes written by Vincenzo Nappi After learning of an evil rock ’n’ roll music promoter’s plan to use heavy metal as a means of enforcing society’s cyclical self-destructive nature and to keep individuals from true self-realization, a metallic-skinned and incredibly well-dressed alien beams down to earth to try to save humanity. However, as his presence attracts the attention of private investigators and corrupt police forces, the stranger must fight to keep society from reaching its hedonistic end. Review Devotees of genre-film musicals that combine horror and science fiction elements with rock and roll are bound to get a kick out of Canadian International Pictures’ terrific new 4K restoration of director Tibor Takács’ 1978 Canadian feature Metal Messiah. Written by Stephen Zoller and based on his play, the film is a gritty journey from the mind of noirish detective Philip Chandler (Richard Ward Allen) to the streets and rock clubs of late seventies Toronto, to places
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Official Synopsis It’s the summer of 1998 in New York City; Sayo (Jeff Wahlberg, EUPHORIA), a soulful nightlife photographer and small-time drug dealer, is invited to a party upstate by his long-time friend and unrequited love, a movie star on the rise: Vince Marlowe (Brodie Townsend, HEARTBREAK HIGH). Together with their rowdy friend Ross (Michael Vlamis, POOLS), they drive to a remote, bucolic manor in hopes of some summer debauchery. But when they arrive, they discover that the promise of a party is actually three mysterious women – Billie (Lily Cowles, ANTEBELLUM), Wren (Nuha Jes Izman, YELLOWJACKETS) and Cata (Ching Valdes-Aran, THE EQUALIZER) – whose disturbing agenda draws the boys into a dark web of seduction and terror. Review Director Corrin Evans crafts an intriguing fear-fare feature rooted in 1990s club and art culture with Corpus. Evans and cowriter Lily Cowles — who also stars as a renowned photographer — set the discomfiting tone of the film from the opening
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Official Fantasia synopsis from program notes written by Rupert Bottenberg: There’s a rumour going round about a cursed tree standing in the middle of a supposedly haunted cemetery, deep in the forest. For Shota and his university friends, it’s a chance to tempt fate and give themselves a proper scare by visiting this legendary spot in the dead of night. Once there, their courage immediately falters at the gloomy sight of the place. There is also the abnormally deafening sound of cicadas, which adds to the eerie aspect of the site. Things quickly spiral out of control for the four of them, as one of them, Ann, starts babbling strange words and behaving completely irrationally. Review Famed J-horror filmmaker Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge franchise, Ox-Head Village, Sana) helms The Mouths (Japan, 2026), an intriguing approach to the genre that feels somewhat uneven in its pacing and approach but that also delivers some solid chills. The ensemble cast members are all
Continue reading →
Official synopsis A lost girl unexpectedly takes part in a midnight hike to explore local urban legends and monsters, only to find herself among the mysteries of the dark trail. Review As an aficionado of high strangeness since at least first grade of elementary school — Bigfoot and Nessie were my gateway cryptids at that […]
Continue reading →
Night After Night (U.S., 2026) Official Synopsis After his coworker vanishes, a reclusive night guard at a secluded university begins unraveling the secrets of a hidden room where an ever-changing entity reappears night after night. Review Devotees of enigmatic fear fare should have a mesmerizing time with director Josh Lobo’s chiller Night After Night. Security […]
Continue reading →
Armageddon Road (Canada, 2026) Official Synopsis What happens in Vegas . . . might end the world. An ex-con with big dreams, Steve is hired to chauffeur a mob boss’ girlfriend for a night. He’s unaware that his passenger is dead and possessed by one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Review What an absolute blast writer/director Karen Lam’s 1970s-set Armageddon Road is! Steve McNaulty (Brian McCaig) is a down-on-his-luck Las Vegas dreamer who hopes to find the funding to turn a parking lot into a themed attraction building. Doing what he can just to try to make ends meet, he is given the job of chauffeuring mob boss’s moll Delilah (Natalie Grace) for the evening, but when — unbeknownst to him — she dies in a bathroom and a supernatural entity takes over her body, the night’s going to get progressively stranger. I don’t want to give away any more than that, because Armageddon Road is loaded with
Continue reading →
Winchester, Virginia’s GenreBlast Film Festival is renowned for serving up an annual selection of weird, wild, independent cinema, and this year’s 10th edition shows exactly why. Running September 3-6, 2026, the festival offers chillers, thrillers, and chucklers aplenty. Following is the official press announcement. GenreBlast Film Fest has announced its lineup for the tenth year of their international independent genre film festival. The four day in-person event will showcase fourteen feature films and seventy-five short films from around the world as well as the results of their annual screenplay competition. Emanating from the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Winchester, Virginia, GenreBlast continues to champion truly independent genre cinema and features an eclectic lineup of cross-genre films. The fest prides itself on being an eccentric mixtape of genres and filmmakers. Of the fourteen features selected this year, there are two world premieres, one U.S. premiere, two east coast premieres, six regional premieres, and three Virginia premieres. Josh Stifter’s action comedy GET THAT
Continue reading →
Official synopsis After a drug-fueled car crash, two entitled private-school graduates flee into Melbourne’s nightlife, where a night of excess spirals out of control and exposes the cost of their privilege. Review Often genre films that deliberately feature despicable, unlikable main characters with no one for whom to truly root offer little to no reason for viewers to get invested. Thankfully, writer/director Gideon Aroni’s Australian thriller Pure Scum bucks that trend marvelously as its pair of drug-fueled young men make one idiotic decision after another, making for a mesmerizing ride. Ayden (Will Hutchins) and Jesse (Nikita Chronis) are friends who met in private school, from which they have recently graduated. Both come from well-off families/ Jesse has a reputation as a drug user and bad boy, and Ayden falls into Jesse’s group after a seemingly more innocent upbringing. Pure Scum involves news magazine-type interviews with family and friends of the two young men taking place after the fateful night where
Continue reading →
Once again, our coverage of Bucheon International Film Festival (BIFAN) reviews is cowritten by Film Festival Editor Joseph Perry and Guest Contributing Writer Chris Weatherspoon. A man of the world, guest reviewer Chris Weatherspoon has lived in South Korea for “quite a bit.” A huge fan of all cinema, Chris also works locally in the entertainment industry, and knows what he is talking about . . . alright!? Focus (South Korea, 2026); review by Chris Weatherspoon Director Sim Gyu-ho’s Focus is a slowly unraveling ghost story about a man who can’t stop looking through a lens even when it’s costing him everything in front of it. The film opens on a campsite, where photographer Kim Eun-ho and his girlfriend Woo-jung are settling in for the night; a walk to borrow salt turns into something stranger, something the film wisely doesn’t explain. After the opening sequence, we learn that Eun-ho is a struggling photographer who has been with the same girlfriend,
Continue reading →
Unholy Night (Canada, 2026) Official Synopsis Gino’s traditional family Christmas Eve turns into a bloody battle for survival when his long-dead grandma drops by and goes on a murderous rampage. Amid the chaos, Gino reunites with his ex and the dysfunctional duo must avoid his dead Italian relatives popping up all around the neighbourhood as they search for a way to get rid of these Yuletide revenants and survive his family Christmas. Review Unholy Night is a horror comedy with heart. Squabbles between the Italian family members on Christmas Eve and the problems that arise when relatives return from the dead drive the comedy elements winningly. Director Michael Gabriele balances the humor and the horror nicely, along with relationship and family drama. The ensemble cast members all give solid performances, and the makeup for the revenants is satisfyingly creepy. These living dead can speak, cook, and move around well, and can sometimes be calmed down when they become aggressive enough
Continue reading →
Official Fantasia synopsis from program notes written by Vincenzo Nappi After learning of an evil rock ’n’ roll music promoter’s plan to use heavy metal as a means of enforcing society’s cyclical self-destructive nature and to keep individuals from true self-realization, a metallic-skinned and incredibly well-dressed alien beams down to earth to try to save humanity. However, as his presence attracts the attention of private investigators and corrupt police forces, the stranger must fight to keep society from reaching its hedonistic end. Review Devotees of genre-film musicals that combine horror and science fiction elements with rock and roll are bound to get a kick out of Canadian International Pictures’ terrific new 4K restoration of director Tibor Takács’ 1978 Canadian feature Metal Messiah. Written by Stephen Zoller and based on his play, the film is a gritty journey from the mind of noirish detective Philip Chandler (Richard Ward Allen) to the streets and rock clubs of late seventies Toronto, to places
Continue reading →
Official Synopsis It’s the summer of 1998 in New York City; Sayo (Jeff Wahlberg, EUPHORIA), a soulful nightlife photographer and small-time drug dealer, is invited to a party upstate by his long-time friend and unrequited love, a movie star on the rise: Vince Marlowe (Brodie Townsend, HEARTBREAK HIGH). Together with their rowdy friend Ross (Michael Vlamis, POOLS), they drive to a remote, bucolic manor in hopes of some summer debauchery. But when they arrive, they discover that the promise of a party is actually three mysterious women – Billie (Lily Cowles, ANTEBELLUM), Wren (Nuha Jes Izman, YELLOWJACKETS) and Cata (Ching Valdes-Aran, THE EQUALIZER) – whose disturbing agenda draws the boys into a dark web of seduction and terror. Review Director Corrin Evans crafts an intriguing fear-fare feature rooted in 1990s club and art culture with Corpus. Evans and cowriter Lily Cowles — who also stars as a renowned photographer — set the discomfiting tone of the film from the opening
Continue reading →
Official Fantasia synopsis from program notes written by Rupert Bottenberg: There’s a rumour going round about a cursed tree standing in the middle of a supposedly haunted cemetery, deep in the forest. For Shota and his university friends, it’s a chance to tempt fate and give themselves a proper scare by visiting this legendary spot in the dead of night. Once there, their courage immediately falters at the gloomy sight of the place. There is also the abnormally deafening sound of cicadas, which adds to the eerie aspect of the site. Things quickly spiral out of control for the four of them, as one of them, Ann, starts babbling strange words and behaving completely irrationally. Review Famed J-horror filmmaker Takashi Shimizu (The Grudge franchise, Ox-Head Village, Sana) helms The Mouths (Japan, 2026), an intriguing approach to the genre that feels somewhat uneven in its pacing and approach but that also delivers some solid chills. The ensemble cast members are all
Continue reading →
