Editorials

Rihito Itagaki as Shota J-Horror legend Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On) returns with supernatural curse thriller The Mouths which has its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Packed with long-haired ghost ladies, mystery curses seeking to be unravelled, and creepy atmospheric set pieces, The Mouths follows a group of college friends who, after visiting a cursed tree, begin to experience haunting phenomena. Shota (Rihito Itagaki), encourages a g

Vince played by Brodie Townsend Sex and the supernatural collide in Corrin Evan’s erotic psychological horror Corpus, which has its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. Set in the sweaty summer of 1998 on the outskirts of New York City, Corpus follows a nightlife photographer who finds himself in an unusual and highly dangerous situation after following his crush to a party. Sayo (Jeff Wahlberg) is a drug dealer as well as a photographer who dec

There’s nothing quite like a traditional family Christmas, but what happens when uninvited (and previously dead) relatives crash dinner and all hell breaks loose? Having its world premiere at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival, Unholy Night, directed by Michael Gabriele, is a festive fright which explores whether traditions from days of yore should be respected more in modern society. Gino (played by Marc Bendavid) begrudgingly attends his yearly Italian-Canadia

Mother knows best, and there’s no better depiction of this mantra than Hanna Bergholm’s Nightborn which will be having its North American premiere at this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival. The first year of parenthood is a literal circle of hell, with sleepless nights, countless arguments with partners, changing bodies, and edging onto the brink of insanity, and a young couple in Finland are discovering just how difficult raising a newborn can be. Saga (Seidi Haarl

Morgan Holstrom as Elyse Digging deep into the rooted trauma of Indigenous communities and particularly women, is Tim Riedel’s Ancestral Beasts, which is holding its world premiere at this year's Fantasia International Film Festival. Following an indigenous Métis woman as she attempts to gain some peace from her declining mental health problems, she soon comes face to face with the horror that so many of her fore-mothers were forced to endure. Elyse (played by Morgan Holmstr

Lou Taylor Pucci as Winthrop Based on the podcast Knifepoint Horror, the Daniel Stamm directed psychological horror Lockbox examines the horrors of a person’s mind and how trauma, going untreated, can spill over, affecting everyone in the immediate vicinity. Starring Carla Gugino (Gerald’s Game, The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of The House of Usher) as Ellen who, after moving to small town to deal with the grief of losing her mother, decides to take in her troubled adult

Celebrating its 30th edition in 2026 is The Fantasia International Film Festival which will be returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A de Sève cinemas, with additional screenings and events at Montréal’s Cinéma du Musée, occurring from 16th July through to the 2nd of August, with a plethora of screenings, workshops and events. This year’s incredible lineup is due to include over 125 features and 200+ shorts, appealing to a whole spectrum of genre fans with forays into anime,

Courtesy of AURA Entertainment Photo credit: Courtesy of AURA Entertainment For a mammal that kills more people per year than sharks, lions, tigers, and what most people would consider dangerous animals, the hippo has been a criminally under utilized antagonist in the cinematic genre of feral nature gone wrong. Here’s where James Nunn’s Hungry enters the chat. When holiday makers go on a day trip to the bayou in Louisiana to see some crocodiles, what they don’t expect is to b

Killa B (Brianna Lee) and her Troll The rapid development and ever changing landscape of social media has truly birthed some monsters, ranging from horrifically entitled social media influencers, to online faceless bullies who are relentless in attempting to tear down anyone in the public eye. These online terrors have provided the horror genre with plenty of subject fodder, producing movies such as Influencer (2022) and its sequel Influencers (2025), Sissy (2022), and Unfrie

Finn, Poppy and Hank One of the most prolific indie horror filmmakers, Alice Maio Mackay, is back, with Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw The TV Glow, Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma) in the producer chair, with Our Effed Up World. Having had its world premiere at this year’s Frameline Film Festival, Our Effed Up World is an emotive sci-fi depicting an intergalactic battle against an entity which is intent on eating earth and its resources. Sheri (Sara Thompson) is a young woman, r

Family can be pure hell, and no one knows this better than the estranged children of Harriet Scaflan, who have been brought together by the death of their grandmother in Mark O’Brien’s demonic horror The Voices of Our Mother. Starring Sheila McCarthy, Georgina Reilly, and the writer and director himself, The Voices of Our Mother seeks to explore familial trauma through the lens of a family curse of biblical proportions. When family matriarch Johanna (Anna Ferguson) falls ill

Gül (Hazar Ergüçlü) All aspects of motherhood are a play-by-play real life enactment of a body horror, and from its explosively bloody opening sequence, Mutter: The Diary of a Mother goes forth with the intention of showing just how horrific an affair being a mother can be. Written and directed by Alphan Eşeli, Mutter: The Diary of a Mother centres itself on a single mother living desperately on the bread line as she attempts to keep the birth of her alien baby hidden. The f

Andre Øvredal burst onto the horror directorial scene with his dark fantasy found footage Trollhunter (2010) and then continued to scare audiences cold with the haunting The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), followed by the luke warmly received Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019) and The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2026). Three years on from his last release, he’s moved on from vampires hunting on the high seas, and turned his attention to ghostly hauntings on the highways wit

Returning for it's 7th year is June's SOHO HORROR PRIDE, the world's biggest LGBTQ+ genre film festival. Not only is it beaming itself as per usual into the comfort of audience's homes via its online edition, but this year, for the first time ever, Soho Horror Pride will also be hosting a live in person special event for one day only at London's only LGBTQ+ cinema, The Arzner. So get ready for glitter, gore, queerness and fear, and dive into the 50+ films making up this year'

With the constant renewal of interest in the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) largely in part to investigative documentaries such as Netflix’s Trust Me: The False Prophet (2026), it was only a matter of time until the historic traumas of past members of this religious sect was used as fodder for a horror film. This is where Daniel J. Phillip’s Diabolic takes centre stage. The film centres around a young woman who, after suffering devastating blackouts, decide

Bryan Larkin as Joe Having had its world premiere at this year’s FrightFest Glasgow, The Vasily Chuprina directed chamber piece Jailbroken explores the criminal justice system, racial tensions, and abuse of power all from the tiny confines of a British prison cell. Bryan Larkin stars as Joe, a violent incarcerated criminal who, as he prepares for his final three days in prison, discovers that his ex-wife and child have been kidnapped. With only a prohibited mobile phone at hi

Kimberly Cruchon Brookes as Janet Episodic thriller series Puke Bitch screened its first episode in a world premiere at this year’s Slamdance Film Festival in LA last month. Written and directed by Sam Tricomo, the series follows teenage siblings Dove and Larry and their neighbour Janet as they journey through their everyday life, each harbouring dark secrets and covert desires. Dove (played by Jaclyn Iskow) is a withdrawn teenage girl, constantly dissociating whilst dealing

Having had its world premiere at Dances With Films NY back in January, the Nicholas Pineda directed chiller Infirmary is a low-fi chiller that utilises the found footage medium in order to document the first and last night on the job for fresh-faced security guard Edward. Portrayed through personal body cams and security cameras, former marine Edward (played by Paul Syre) is a newly employed security guard on the night shift at an abandoned asylum, Wilshire Infirmary. Paired

Dina Silva as Frankie Exploring an inherently misogynistic society’s negative attitudes towards fat bodies and pretty privilege, Dina Silva and Pierre Tsigaridis’ eighties grime inspired slasher Frankie, Maniac Woman delivers its message to audiences with buckets of violence and blood. Frankie (Dina Silva) is an aspiring musician who is constantly hindered at every turn by society’s treatment of her based on her looks, to the point that she is driven mad by the impossible st

There was a brief period during the dreaded Covid-19 worldwide lockdown where film festivals and their respective programmers seemed to understand the need for accessibility. With film festival audiences unable to attend in-person screenings and events, many festivals took to the internet, providing the cinema experience to people in their home. However, with the re-opening of the world, and social outings being allowed again, many online editions of film festivals became not