Horror Fuel
☰ Browse the Crypt
Category

Film Festivals

812 stories

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Ancestral Beasts and Home Bodies (Fantasia 2026)

Ancestral Beasts (Canada, 2026) Official Synopsis After cutting ties with her toxic sister, Elyse (Morgan Holmstrom) retreats to her rural ancestral home to rebuild her mental health. But a grotesque, centipede-like creature begins to stalk her, a physical manifestation of buried trauma. As it feeds on her emotional turmoil, Elyse must confront the past she tried to escape to save herself and those she loves. Review Morgan Holmstrom is excellent in Ancestral Beasts as Elyse, a Red River Métis woman who goes back to the family home where her mother committed suicide in an attempt to get away from her verbally abusive older sister Nikki (Darla Contois). Writer/director Tim Riedel takes Elyse on a riveting, harrowing journey in which a diabolical creature is a metaphor for mental illness, and Holmstrom nails her character in a role that certainly wouldn’t be easy to play. She portrays the different emotions through which her character goes winningly, and is reason enough to recommend

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 25, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Suzuki=Bakudan and Junk World (Japan Cuts)

Suzuki = Bakudan (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis from https://japansociety.org/events/suzukibakudan/ Based on the bestselling novel by Go Katsuhiro, SUZUKI=BAKUDAN is a big-budget blockbuster centered on Tagosaku Suzuki (Jiro Sato), a mysterious drunk who claims he can see the future. After successfully predicting a bomb will go off in Tokyo, Suzuki leads the police in a game of wits — they must solve his riddles to stop further explosions. While police fan out over the city to defuse these bombs, a young detective (Yuki Yamada) challenges Suzuki to uncover the truth behind his predictions. Is he psychic, is he lucky, is he a criminal mastermind, is he a con man? Or is he something worse? Jiro Sato delivers a tour-de-force performance and was honored with Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Japanese Academy Awards for his role in SUZUKI=BAKUDAN. Review I had just seen Suzuuki=Bakudan’s star Jirō Satō as the antagonist of the thriller Nameless at another festival just a week before

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 22, 2026

Shudder Nabs 1980s Ozploitation Slasher ‘Penny Lane Is Dead’

If you like your slasher movies drenched in ’80s nostalgia, dark comedy, and uncompromising Australian carnage, Shudder has a major treat lined up for your late-summer watchlist. The horror streaming giant has officially acquired the rights to Penny Lane Is Dead. It’s the feature directorial debut from Australian writer-director Mia-Kate Russell. Following its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival, the blood-soaked film will celebrate its North American Premiere today (July 20, 2026) at Fantasia. Then it will hit Shudder on August 28. Spiked Cupcakes and Unhinged Revenge Set on a sweltering summer night in 1986 Australia, the story centers on 17-year-old Penny Lane. She is out celebrating her college acceptance with her best friends. However, things take a sharp, sinister turn when Penny’s jealous and deeply troubled cousin decides to pull a cruel prank involving spiked cupcakes. What starts as a thoughtless prank quickly devolves into a nightmare of bloodshed, betrayal, and relentless rage. Aussie Royalty Behind (and In

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 21, 2026

Slash-Produced Documentary ‘Black Zombie’ Digs Up the Monster’s True History

Long before the zombie became Hollywood’s favorite excuse for a video game kill-streak or a multi-season television drama, it was something far more terrifying and historically grounded. This Halloween season, director Maya Annik Bedward is ready to unleash her acclaimed new documentary, Black Zombie. Kino Lorber has snagged the rights.The film will skip the typical jump scares to exhume the deeply unsettling, buried origins of pop culture’s most profitable monster. The Ultimate Monster Makeover After making its world premiere at SXSW, it hit Hot Docs and the Blackstar Film Festival. Then arrived at Fantasia to terrorize audiences. The film tracks how a complex figure born from colonial enslavement, Haitian Vodou, and spiritual resistance. IT has been systematically whitewashed, stripped of its roots, and packaged into a cinematic cash cow. Bedward re-examines horror staples like White Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, and The Serpent and the Rainbow. There’s also archival footage and raw, observational vérité scenes. A Packed Roster of

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 20, 2026

Tubi FrightFest 2026 Unleashes Its Mind-Blowing Fear Fare Lineup

London’s Tubi FrightFest is always a top-notch film festival destination for scare fare devotees, and this year the fest presents its biggest lineup ever! The event takes place Thursday August 27–Monday 31 August. Get your drool cups ready and have a gander at the official press announcement. Be prepared for a terrifying, record-breaking selection of World, International, and UK premieres as Tubi FrightFest 2026, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, returns to the Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and the ODEON Luxe West End for its annual five-day celebration of nerve-jangling eeriness, hair-raising shock, and epic scares. This year’s line-up highlights the genre’s transforming landscape and reflects the amazing span of progressive global genre filmmaking. Running from Thursday August 27 – Monday 31 August, Tubi FrightFest will showcase a record-breaking eighty-two features across five screens, including the popular ‘First Blood’, Documentary, and Retrospective strands. This year there are twenty-four world premieres, with sixteen countries represented, spanning four continents. The

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 16, 2026

Director Nick Taylor Discusses His New Documentary, Rubberhead, ahead of Its Premiere

Before CGI turned blood and guts into sterile ones and zeros, cinema was ruled by foam latex, animatronics, and pure madness. At the center of that glorious time sat Steve Johnson. Johnson is a man whose relentless obsession with breaking new ground gave rise to some of the most iconic monsters in sci-fi and horror history. Now, Johnson’s wild ride is getting the documentary treatment in Rubberhead: The Life and Monsters of Steve Johnson, a hilarious, heartbreaking, and brutally honest look at the golden age of special effects makeup—and the genius who nearly let it destroy him. . . The Director The film is from director Nick Taylor, who co-wrote the doc with Joseph Krings. Taylor and I had the chance to talk about this new deep-diving doc. He spoke about what drove him to make it, his respect for Johnson, and so much more. Watch it below. However, this isn’t Taylor’s first dive into the industry. He served in

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 15, 2026

Sink Your Teeth into the Trailer for ‘Ferine’ Ahead of Its Fantasia Premiere

Unleash your inner beast, because the most feral psychological thriller of the summer is about to break its cage. Fresh off her chilling performances in Oddity and You Are Not My Mother, star Carolyn Bracken is back to lead Ferine. It is a dark, atmospheric dive into the eternal tug-of-war between human civility and pure animal instinct. The highly anticipated film is heading to Montreal this month to make its mark at the legendary Fantasia International Film Festival on July 23. Based on writer-director Andrea Corsini’s acclaimed 2019 short film of the same name, this English-language feature debut promises a stylish, claw-sharp descent into madness. High Society Meets Low Instincts In Ferine, Bracken stars as Irene, a wealthy, highly influential art collector who seems to have it all. But beneath her polished exterior, a terrifying, primal instinct begins to claw its way to the surface, dragging her into a spiral of destructive, animalistic transformation. Irene’s path soon collides with Dama

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 14, 2026

Our Frightening Five: A Quintet of Films We Can’t Wait to See at Fantasia 2026

The 30th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off later this week, running from July 16–August 2 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The fest is world famous for its annual droolworthy array of genre films from around the world, including horror, science fiction, dark comedies, animation, and beyond. I’ve taken an early deep dive into some of the films slated for this year, and here I present previews of five highly promising feature-length films. The following film descriptions and festival details are from Fantasia’s official website and related press information. Ancestral Beasts Director Tim Riedel’s psychological horror ANCESTRAL BEASTS was a 2025 Frontieres Platform project at Cannes, and it’s coming to Fantasia for its world premiere! Four years after the loss of her mother, Elyse (Morgan Holstrom, OUTLANDER, SHADOW OF THE ROUGAROU) can’t get her head right. She’s messing up at work, needs stress leave, and her sister, Nikki (Darla Contois, LITTLE BIRD, ABERDEEN), is on her case about everything.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 13, 2026

Italy’s Oscar Submission ‘Familia’ Hits US Digital Platforms This Week

Breaking Glass Pictures has officially announced the North American release of Familia, the highly acclaimed Italian psychological thriller from director Francesco Costabile. Selected as Italy’s Official Submission for the Academy Awards® for Best International Feature Film, Familia arrives with massive critical momentum. The film originally had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. And Francesco Gheghi won the prestigious Venice Horizons Award for Best Actor for his raw, volcanic performance. A Haunting Portrait of Inherited Violence Familiawas adapted from Luigi Celeste’s raw memoir Non Sarà Sempre Così (It Won’t Be Like This Forever). It delivers an emotionally charged look at a family perpetually haunted by domestic abuse, psychological scars, and the grueling path toward redemption. The film follows Luigi “Gigi” Celeste. He finally thinks he has found a sense of purpose and tribal belonging within a dangerous, radical extremist group. However, his new reality is violently upended by the unexpected return of his abusive father after years

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 6, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: AnyMart and A Weapon in My Heart (Jeonju International Film Festival 2026)

AnyMart (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis Sakai, the protagonist, works as an assistant manager at a local convenience store. Outside of work, he lives a quiet, routine life — playing online games and using dating apps — having spent most of his twenties tied to the store. The store is his entire world. And yet, beyond its doors, the world itself seems to be coming to an end. Review Shõta Sometani as Sakai, a clerk at the convenience store owned by his gruff, stick-to-corporate-rules father, gives a fine performance. His character is all but dead on the inside at work, and not much motivated socially or otherwise outside of his job, although he attempts romantic connections, awkward though they may be. Sometani nails this everyman character as writer/director Yusuke Iwasaki uses the konbini and his protagonist as a representation of the frustrations of twentysomething life in modern Japan. The kills are sudden and often shocking, the gore is impressive, and the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 3, 2026

More from Film Festivals

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Ancestral Beasts and Home Bodies (Fantasia 2026)

Ancestral Beasts (Canada, 2026) Official Synopsis After cutting ties with her toxic sister, Elyse (Morgan Holmstrom) retreats to her rural ancestral home to rebuild her mental health. But a grotesque, centipede-like creature begins to stalk her, a physical manifestation of buried trauma. As it feeds on her emotional turmoil, Elyse must confront the past she tried to escape to save herself and those she loves. Review Morgan Holmstrom is excellent in Ancestral Beasts as Elyse, a Red River Métis woman who goes back to the family home where her mother committed suicide in an attempt to get away from her verbally abusive older sister Nikki (Darla Contois). Writer/director Tim Riedel takes Elyse on a riveting, harrowing journey in which a diabolical creature is a metaphor for mental illness, and Holmstrom nails her character in a role that certainly wouldn’t be easy to play. She portrays the different emotions through which her character goes winningly, and is reason enough to recommend

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 25, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: Suzuki=Bakudan and Junk World (Japan Cuts)

Suzuki = Bakudan (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis from https://japansociety.org/events/suzukibakudan/ Based on the bestselling novel by Go Katsuhiro, SUZUKI=BAKUDAN is a big-budget blockbuster centered on Tagosaku Suzuki (Jiro Sato), a mysterious drunk who claims he can see the future. After successfully predicting a bomb will go off in Tokyo, Suzuki leads the police in a game of wits — they must solve his riddles to stop further explosions. While police fan out over the city to defuse these bombs, a young detective (Yuki Yamada) challenges Suzuki to uncover the truth behind his predictions. Is he psychic, is he lucky, is he a criminal mastermind, is he a con man? Or is he something worse? Jiro Sato delivers a tour-de-force performance and was honored with Best Supporting Actor at this year’s Japanese Academy Awards for his role in SUZUKI=BAKUDAN. Review I had just seen Suzuuki=Bakudan’s star Jirō Satō as the antagonist of the thriller Nameless at another festival just a week before

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 22, 2026

Shudder Nabs 1980s Ozploitation Slasher ‘Penny Lane Is Dead’

If you like your slasher movies drenched in ’80s nostalgia, dark comedy, and uncompromising Australian carnage, Shudder has a major treat lined up for your late-summer watchlist. The horror streaming giant has officially acquired the rights to Penny Lane Is Dead. It’s the feature directorial debut from Australian writer-director Mia-Kate Russell. Following its world premiere at the Adelaide Film Festival, the blood-soaked film will celebrate its North American Premiere today (July 20, 2026) at Fantasia. Then it will hit Shudder on August 28. Spiked Cupcakes and Unhinged Revenge Set on a sweltering summer night in 1986 Australia, the story centers on 17-year-old Penny Lane. She is out celebrating her college acceptance with her best friends. However, things take a sharp, sinister turn when Penny’s jealous and deeply troubled cousin decides to pull a cruel prank involving spiked cupcakes. What starts as a thoughtless prank quickly devolves into a nightmare of bloodshed, betrayal, and relentless rage. Aussie Royalty Behind (and In

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 21, 2026

Slash-Produced Documentary ‘Black Zombie’ Digs Up the Monster’s True History

Long before the zombie became Hollywood’s favorite excuse for a video game kill-streak or a multi-season television drama, it was something far more terrifying and historically grounded. This Halloween season, director Maya Annik Bedward is ready to unleash her acclaimed new documentary, Black Zombie. Kino Lorber has snagged the rights.The film will skip the typical jump scares to exhume the deeply unsettling, buried origins of pop culture’s most profitable monster. The Ultimate Monster Makeover After making its world premiere at SXSW, it hit Hot Docs and the Blackstar Film Festival. Then arrived at Fantasia to terrorize audiences. The film tracks how a complex figure born from colonial enslavement, Haitian Vodou, and spiritual resistance. IT has been systematically whitewashed, stripped of its roots, and packaged into a cinematic cash cow. Bedward re-examines horror staples like White Zombie, Night of the Living Dead, and The Serpent and the Rainbow. There’s also archival footage and raw, observational vérité scenes. A Packed Roster of

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 20, 2026

Tubi FrightFest 2026 Unleashes Its Mind-Blowing Fear Fare Lineup

London’s Tubi FrightFest is always a top-notch film festival destination for scare fare devotees, and this year the fest presents its biggest lineup ever! The event takes place Thursday August 27–Monday 31 August. Get your drool cups ready and have a gander at the official press announcement. Be prepared for a terrifying, record-breaking selection of World, International, and UK premieres as Tubi FrightFest 2026, the UK’s No.1 horror & fantasy film festival, returns to the Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and the ODEON Luxe West End for its annual five-day celebration of nerve-jangling eeriness, hair-raising shock, and epic scares. This year’s line-up highlights the genre’s transforming landscape and reflects the amazing span of progressive global genre filmmaking. Running from Thursday August 27 – Monday 31 August, Tubi FrightFest will showcase a record-breaking eighty-two features across five screens, including the popular ‘First Blood’, Documentary, and Retrospective strands. This year there are twenty-four world premieres, with sixteen countries represented, spanning four continents. The

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 16, 2026

Director Nick Taylor Discusses His New Documentary, Rubberhead, ahead of Its Premiere

Before CGI turned blood and guts into sterile ones and zeros, cinema was ruled by foam latex, animatronics, and pure madness. At the center of that glorious time sat Steve Johnson. Johnson is a man whose relentless obsession with breaking new ground gave rise to some of the most iconic monsters in sci-fi and horror history. Now, Johnson’s wild ride is getting the documentary treatment in Rubberhead: The Life and Monsters of Steve Johnson, a hilarious, heartbreaking, and brutally honest look at the golden age of special effects makeup—and the genius who nearly let it destroy him. . . The Director The film is from director Nick Taylor, who co-wrote the doc with Joseph Krings. Taylor and I had the chance to talk about this new deep-diving doc. He spoke about what drove him to make it, his respect for Johnson, and so much more. Watch it below. However, this isn’t Taylor’s first dive into the industry. He served in

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 15, 2026

Sink Your Teeth into the Trailer for ‘Ferine’ Ahead of Its Fantasia Premiere

Unleash your inner beast, because the most feral psychological thriller of the summer is about to break its cage. Fresh off her chilling performances in Oddity and You Are Not My Mother, star Carolyn Bracken is back to lead Ferine. It is a dark, atmospheric dive into the eternal tug-of-war between human civility and pure animal instinct. The highly anticipated film is heading to Montreal this month to make its mark at the legendary Fantasia International Film Festival on July 23. Based on writer-director Andrea Corsini’s acclaimed 2019 short film of the same name, this English-language feature debut promises a stylish, claw-sharp descent into madness. High Society Meets Low Instincts In Ferine, Bracken stars as Irene, a wealthy, highly influential art collector who seems to have it all. But beneath her polished exterior, a terrifying, primal instinct begins to claw its way to the surface, dragging her into a spiral of destructive, animalistic transformation. Irene’s path soon collides with Dama

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 14, 2026

Our Frightening Five: A Quintet of Films We Can’t Wait to See at Fantasia 2026

The 30th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off later this week, running from July 16–August 2 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The fest is world famous for its annual droolworthy array of genre films from around the world, including horror, science fiction, dark comedies, animation, and beyond. I’ve taken an early deep dive into some of the films slated for this year, and here I present previews of five highly promising feature-length films. The following film descriptions and festival details are from Fantasia’s official website and related press information. Ancestral Beasts Director Tim Riedel’s psychological horror ANCESTRAL BEASTS was a 2025 Frontieres Platform project at Cannes, and it’s coming to Fantasia for its world premiere! Four years after the loss of her mother, Elyse (Morgan Holstrom, OUTLANDER, SHADOW OF THE ROUGAROU) can’t get her head right. She’s messing up at work, needs stress leave, and her sister, Nikki (Darla Contois, LITTLE BIRD, ABERDEEN), is on her case about everything.

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 13, 2026

Italy’s Oscar Submission ‘Familia’ Hits US Digital Platforms This Week

Breaking Glass Pictures has officially announced the North American release of Familia, the highly acclaimed Italian psychological thriller from director Francesco Costabile. Selected as Italy’s Official Submission for the Academy Awards® for Best International Feature Film, Familia arrives with massive critical momentum. The film originally had its world premiere at the 81st Venice International Film Festival. And Francesco Gheghi won the prestigious Venice Horizons Award for Best Actor for his raw, volcanic performance. A Haunting Portrait of Inherited Violence Familiawas adapted from Luigi Celeste’s raw memoir Non Sarà Sempre Così (It Won’t Be Like This Forever). It delivers an emotionally charged look at a family perpetually haunted by domestic abuse, psychological scars, and the grueling path toward redemption. The film follows Luigi “Gigi” Celeste. He finally thinks he has found a sense of purpose and tribal belonging within a dangerous, radical extremist group. However, his new reality is violently upended by the unexpected return of his abusive father after years

Continue reading →
Kelli Marchman McNeely
Jul 6, 2026

Spoiler-Free Reviews: AnyMart and A Weapon in My Heart (Jeonju International Film Festival 2026)

AnyMart (Japan, 2026) Official Synopsis Sakai, the protagonist, works as an assistant manager at a local convenience store. Outside of work, he lives a quiet, routine life — playing online games and using dating apps — having spent most of his twenties tied to the store. The store is his entire world. And yet, beyond its doors, the world itself seems to be coming to an end. Review Shõta Sometani as Sakai, a clerk at the convenience store owned by his gruff, stick-to-corporate-rules father, gives a fine performance. His character is all but dead on the inside at work, and not much motivated socially or otherwise outside of his job, although he attempts romantic connections, awkward though they may be. Sometani nails this everyman character as writer/director Yusuke Iwasaki uses the konbini and his protagonist as a representation of the frustrations of twentysomething life in modern Japan. The kills are sudden and often shocking, the gore is impressive, and the

Continue reading →
Joseph Perry
Jul 3, 2026
Next →