The 30th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off later this month, with a gargantuan program of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and all manner of genre film. The festival run from July 16 through to August 2 in the heart of Montreal, Quebec and tickets are on sale now.
As always, this year’s festival includes a ton of retrospective screenings, including a special presentation of Pontypool (2008) whose director, Bruce McDonald, will be receiving this year’s Canadian Trailblazer Award. But let’s not forgot the absolute treasure trove of new Horror to experience with one of the best genre crowds on the planet. With 125 features and over 200 shorts, it’s hard to pick only a handful of titles but below are the Horror Movies we can’t wait to see at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival.
The Last Footage
Aside from a small handful of arthouse dramas screening at Locarno and such, the national cinema of politically isolated, conflict-plagued Myanmar remains all but invisible outside its borders. Few are aware of its lively, low-budget genre-film scene, circulating mostly online or on VCDs, but writer/director Arkar Soe Oo aims to change that with his innovative feature THE LAST FOOTAGE. Myanmar’s first found-footage horror film, shot entirely in first-person POV, is possibly the first Burmese chiller to hit the global genre-festival circuit.
The events of THE LAST FOOTAGE unfold in almost-realtime, as the sun sets on the haunted Wingabar Forest and eerie howls pierce its night. That, the first-person perspective, and the absence of conventional horror gimmicks (rapid edits and bass-heavy scores, not to mention gratuitous gore and cruelty) make THE LAST FOOTAGE feel more like an immersive work of in-situ theatre. Or perhaps more accurately, like a gleeful romp with friends through a haunted-house attraction at a regional fair, with various creepy creatures leaping suddenly out of the darkness. World Premiere
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Queer, polyamorous director Kris (Hannah Einbinder, HACKS) is obsessed with rebooting an outdated and overdone slasher franchise, known as CAMP MIASMA. Her complicated and woke filmmaker life is consumed by these problematic movies and especially re-casting the final girl of the original film, Billy Presley (Gillian Anderson, THE X-FILES). Billy Presley is the ultimate slasher love interest, allowing her body and performance to be a place of both pleasure and pain for Kris’ enjoyment and the meta-audience of this franchise and film. Eventually, Kris’ obsession with the final girl transforms from cinephile fixation to full-on psychosexual infatuation. Attempting to modernize a film franchise riddled with ignorant and transphobic tropes, TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA explores how complicated identity and desire is when it is informed by problematic pop culture. Canadian Premiere
Freaks Part II
Following the 2018 sleeper-hit sci-fi indie FREAKS and 2025’s critically acclaimed, record-shattering FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES, celebrated Canadian filmmakers Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein return to their mutant roots with the hotly-anticipated FREAKS PART II. Several years after a traumatic escape, we meet Mary (Amanda Crew, of HBO’s Silicon Valley and FREAKS) and her daughter Chloe (Lorelei Olivia Mote, of NBC’s Days of Our Lives and RIDDLE OF FIRE) as they live on the road, hiding their powers and identities.
They are hunted by the Abnormal Defense Force, paramilitary police that specialize in ruthlessly exterminating “freaks” like them. Mary is fueled by revenge, determined to find the ADF officer (Lili Taylor, of THE CONJURING and OUTER RANGE) who killed her first child. There’s great chemistry between Crew and Mote as mother and daughter. There’s also inventive gore – the most we’ve seen in a Canadian film in years – that punctuates the outstanding performances and serious subject matter. Packing dazzling action and thrills, FREAKS PART II is a fierce anti-superhero thriller that skillfully conveys themes of police states, family, and finding your tribe. Cheval Noir Competition. World Premiere.
Unholy Night
Michael Gabriele graced Fantasia screens in 2023 with his short films GET AWAY, which won the Gold Audience Award for Best International Short, and the darkly hilarious ROOM TONE, which also garnered several wins and nominations in 2024. It was only a matter of time until he unleashed his quick-witted violence in a feature-length film, so get ready for Christmas in July with the holiday horror UNHOLY NIGHT!
Family, food and a nonna who won’t die make Christmas Eve a bloody mess for Gino and his family. This tight-knit Italian unit soon finds out that Gino and his ex-girlfriend aren’t the most scandalous things in the family when his dead grandmother comes back to “help” with the festivities. With an ensemble cast that strikes a great balance of horror, heart, and hilarity, its cast includes Marc Bendavid (DARK MATTER, REACHER), Shailene Garnett (FIRE COUNTRY, DIGGSTOWN) and veteran actor Ron Lea of the Canadian classic, CLEARCUT! Gabriele’s debut feature perfectly captures the chaos of the holidays – as Gino and his family battle an onslaught of undead relatives and lost love – all on Christmas Eve. Septentrion Shadows Section. World Premiere.
Sleep No More
Sisters Putri and Ida decide to visit the wig factory where their debt-ridden mother apparently took her own life in the middle of a shift, in order to understand what might have happened. Upon arrival, they meet the boss, Mrs. Maryati, who watches over a tight-knit community of employees. Horrific workplace accidents caused by overwork are on the rise, and the two young women come to a grim conclusion: the factory is haunted by a demon.
With the unsettling SLEEP NO MORE, selected for the latest Berlinale, director and co-screenwriter Edwin (winner of an award at Locarno 2021 for VENGEANCE IS MINE, ALL OTHERS PAY CASH) makes his first foray into pure, unadulterated body horror, delivering a barrage of shocking practical effects that, at times, recalls Carpenter’s THE THING. Beneath this oppressive, blood-soaked atmosphere lies a powerful critique of the horrific working conditions and pitiful wages endured to feed the insatiable monster that is capitalist industry. Official Selection: Berlinale 2026. Cheval Noir Competition. North American Premiere.
MotherWitch
Eleni (Margarita Zachariou) is a painter isolated from her wider community and consumed by unbearable grief after losing all three of her children in a senseless accident. In desperation, she enters into a Faustian pact with chthonic feminine forces to bring them back. Filmed on location in an abandoned settlement in Cyprus and making sublime use of its mountainous rural terrain, Minos Papas’ MOTHERWITCH weaves fairy tale, dark Gothic ambience, mythology, and stunning practical effects into the fabric of folk horror.
The film becomes a profound exploration of motherhood, grief, and the act of creation itself, fueled by compelling performances from leads Zachariou and Sifis Katsoulakis. The historical backdrop of English-occupied Cyprus in the 1880s adds further layers of unease and colonial violence to its richly textured world. Official Selection: Rotterdam International Film Festival 2026. North American Premiere.
Bowels of Hell
For those who believe they’ve seen everything cinema has to offer, here comes Brazilian madmen Gurcius Gewdner and Gustavo Vinagre’s BOWELS OF HELL, unquestionably the grossest film of Fantasia 2026 – and also one of its wildest, most unpredictable, and hilarious. It’s not entirely a scatological humor fest, because BOWELS is also a surprisingly touching story about parents and children, and the struggle to focus on the people in your life that matter the most. It’s also filled with some of the most disgustingly inventive kills seen in any movie in some time, and it should come as little surprise that even the legendary Bruce LaBruce shows up at one point.
When you gotta go, you gotta go… but in this film’s haunted São Paolo apartment complex, “go” means that your time is most certainly up! Produced by Rodrigo Teixeira, the Oscar-nominated producer of THE WITCH, I’M STILL HERE, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, and THE LIGHTHOUSE, BOWELS OF HELL is an unexpectedly layered mix of family drama, social satire, cranked-to-eleven grossout horror, and poop jokes told with energy, wit, and style, coming to the continent after blowing minds and stomachs at the Rotterdam Film Festival. North American Premiere.
Village of Eight Gravestones
Following the death of his mother – whom he hadn’t seen in years – young Tatsuya decides to visit the rural village where she lived. Along the way, he encounters private detective Kosuke Kindaichi, who had been searching for him at the behest of the Tajimi clan – a family burdened by a dark past. Tatsuya’s grandfather had once committed a gruesome massacre that left a deep scar on the villagers; consequently, they are now, to say the least, hostile toward Tatsuya and his family. When death strikes the locals once more, Detective Kindaichi must quickly find answers before the situation boils over.
Takashi Shimizu, legendary creator of the JU-ON saga, delivers an entertaining, bloody horror thriller populated by eccentric characters and bizarre rituals. He brings to life the legendary Detective Kindaichi – a character created by author Seishi Yokomizo and featured in no fewer than 77 novels – while dropping visual and auditory clues for the audience to piece together the mystery behind the unfolding killing spree. VILLAGE OF EIGHT GRAVESTONES is fascinating folk-horror packed with tons of startling surprises. World Premiere.
Junction Row
Ashlea Wessel has directed festival-favorite shorts like 2018’s TICK and 2020’s WEIRDO, and rounded them out with segments in the 2024 horror anthology CREEPY BITS. Now, audiences can see the World Premiere of her feature debut, JUNCTION ROW. Canadian horror icon Katharine Isabelle (GINGER SNAPS, AMERICAN MARY, BACKROOMS) is Juno, a recovering addict who leaves a fringe housing compound for a better life, leaving her beloved Ruby (Natalie Brown, of FX’s The Strain and THE BREACH) behind. When she learns that Ruby has gone missing, Juno returns, only to find Junction Row has become a hotbed of criminal activity, but she encounters much more than menacing drug dealers on her mission to find Ruby.
Isabelle continues to be a crowd-pleaser as an action star, and supporting roles by Glen Gould (Paramount+’s Tulsa King, AT THE PLACE OF GHOSTS) and Kyle Mac (Netflix’s Between, AppleTV’s Government Cheese) don’t disappoint. With distinct Lovecraftian dread, this creature feature, penned by Adam Cesare (CLOWN IN A CORNFIELD), Matt Serafini, and Wessel, conjures a story where the fear of the unknown isn’t confined to what lies above, but what waits beneath. Septentrion Shadows Section. World Premiere.
Buddy
A brave girl (Delaney Quinn, IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU) and her friends must escape a kids television show, stalked by a homicidal mascot (Keegan-Michael Key, KEANU) in the wickedly deranged Sundance sensation BUDDY, the long-coming feature theatrical debut from Casper Kelly (TOO MANY COOKS, ADULT SWIM YULE LOG). Inspired in part by the filmmaker’s own childhood envy of the kids who got to live in the worlds of his favorite children’s shows, before he began to question their presented realities.
A remarkable achievement in gonzo world-building, inventively shot, meticulously designed, and bubbling with imaginative scenarios that frequently re-invent themselves, BUDDY lands with singular impact, its conceptual outrageousness grounded by a terrific lead performance from the always-strong Cristin Milioti (HBO’s The Penguin) and a sharp supporting cast that includes Topher Grace (BLACKKKLANSMAN), Michael Shannon (THE SHAPE OF WATER), and Patton Oswalt (RATATOUILLE). From the producers of WEAPONS and COMPANION. International Premiere.
Recluse
When a sound recordist is summoned back to her childhood home to care for her father, a famous artist rumored to have dabbled in the occult, she must confront the unearthed demons of her family’s past and contend with the house’s dark, malevolent energy. The eerie feature directorial debut of Henry Chaisson (writer of ANTLERS and SERVANT) stars Sasha Frolova (THE EMPTY MAN), Toby Poser (MOTHER OF FLIES), Xander Berkeley (TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY), and Kimball Farley (HIPPO). Official Selection: Tribeca Film Festival 2026. Canadian Premiere.
Los Vampires
In 1930 Hollywood, a Spanish actor (Henry Ian Cusick, LOST, MACGYVER) is cast in the night shoot of a soon-to-be-legendary vampire film, forced to imitate the English-speaking star (Thomas Kretschmann, THE PIANIST, SPECTRE) who performs the same role by day. The two actors regularly meet at the transitory hours of their shoots, and a rivalry stirs between them. All the while, a string of murders are occurring on and around the soundstage.
With names respectfully altered, Craig Mitchell’s LOS VAMPIRES is a fantastical fictionalized account of the making of George Melford’s Spanish DRACULA (1931), the arguably superior version of the Universal Horror classic which had been shot overnight on the same sets Tod Browning’s landmark pictured used during the day. Cusick and Kretschmann captivate as uncanny surrogates for Carlos Villarías and Bela Lugosi, while Daniela Couso (SERIAL BEAUTY), Tony-winner Jefferson Mays (INHERENT VICE), Oscar Nuñez (THE OFFICE), and Jorge Diaz (FOR ALL MANKIND) round out an immaculate cast. LOS VAMPIRES is a meticulously designed, occult-tinged tribute to the dignity of performance… and a darkly imaginative, bittersweet love letter to old Hollywood – and the forgotten struggles that made it what it was. World Premiere.
The Glorious Dead
A small-town sheriff (Toby Poser) and her young deputy (Zelda Adams) wake to find the world they believed in no longer exists. Blood drips from faucets, people and pets are missing, and fleshy creatures walk the woods. Soon, the dirt can’t keep the dead down. Anger and fear spread through the community. Co-written and co-directed by John Adams and Toby Poser, the latter of whom also stars, and co-starring Zelda and Lulu Adams, THE GLORIOUS DEAD is a personal genre vision that speaks to the increasing horrors of American life in times of enormous, instigated division while retaining the interpersonal poetry, imagination, and dark humor that its creators are renowned for.
This will be the sixth consecutive work from the singularly talented filmmaking family to World Premiere at Fantasia following the festival’s launches of THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS, HELL HOLE, and MOTHER OF FLIES, the latter having won our 2025 Cheval Noir Award for Best Feature. In their words: “This film takes dangerous fundamentalism at face value and asks what remains for the rest of us.” World Premiere.
Big Break
Years after Simple Town split up, three comics reunite with their successful ex-collaborator, leading to a fight for their lives (and careers) as dark secrets are revealed, and these washed-up comedians learn what it really means to kill! Jumping from the stage to the big screen for their feature film debut, New York’s cult comedy darlings Simple Town wield their knack for absurdist situational comedy like an axe to the horror genre.
With an all-star team of indie producers including Richie Doyle (IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU), Conor Hannon (THE PEOPLE’S JOKER), Graham Mason (INSPECTOR IKE – also the editor of TEENAGE SEX AND DEATH AT CAMP MIASMA), Ani Schroeter (BUNNYLOVR), and Sarah Wilson (DAD & STEP-DAD), BIG BREAK navigates the harsh realities and moral dilemmas that come with being a part of the entertainment industry, and greets them with a punch(line), finding humor in the struggle and relatability in its cast of characters. Directed by Ian Faria, BIG BREAK recalls underground American horror-comedy classics while carving out a space entirely its own thanks to Simple Town’s special brand of chaotic cringecore sketch comedy. World Premiere.
I Love Paris
Shot in a mockumentary style, I LOVE PARIS is an explosive and vibrant vampire film that’s equal parts funny, dynamic, and haunting. Avoiding the traditional pitfalls of mockumentary filmmaking , I LOVE PARIS feels real but never forgets to keep its audience entertained. The film stars an explosive and hypnotic Aminata Thiboult as Paris, an aspiring musician who gets vampirized mid-shoot, giving all new meaning to the underground nightlife. Not just a vampire movie, this is a music film where the beats actually hit.
I LOVE PARIS captures an improvisational style that blends comedy, music, and horror to draw in the audience. With obvious comparisons to WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, director Nicky Murphy brings in a dash of Tony Scott’s THE HUNGER – creating a vampire story that’s funny, pulses with youth and ambition, and blends down-under humor with effortless French cool. Underground Section. World Premiere.
The Last Temptation of Becky
Fantasia’s family of returning filmmakers is large, and proudly includes director/producer powerhouse, Jenn Wexler. Her breakout debut, THE RANGER, came to Fantasia in 2018 and was followed by the World Premiere of her supernatural Christmas crime heist, THE SACRIFICE GAME, in 2023. For Fantasia’s 30th anniversary, the fest couldn’t be happier to have her back with the next chapter of the popular BECKY franchise, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF BECKY!
Becky Hooper (Lulu Wilson, THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE) has annihilated Neo-Nazis and all manner of victimizers, but this time, she’s going straight to the source! Now a CIA agent, managed by genre favorite Kate Siegel (HUSH, MIDNIGHT MASS), she’s taking down a nefarious modern-day Nazi played with camp brilliance by the one and only Neil Patrick Harris (SUNNY DANCER, GONE GIRL)! Wexler shines here, highlighting the underdog heroine and going for broke with tons of gore and crazy kills. Meanwhile, Wilson reprises her beloved character with gusto, unleashing Becky’s signature rage on an army of insane baddies! World Premiere.
Never After Dark
A solitary medium, accompanied by her sister’s ghost, confronts an evil specter with a terrifying past. Moeka Hoshi (SHOGUN) shines in this innovative and terrifying film, the feature debut of writer/director Dave Boyle, showrunner and lead director of HOUSE OF NINJAS. Winner of the Midnighter Audience Award at SXSW 2026, the grand jury prize for feature film at the 2026 Overlook Film Festival, and the Golden Raven at the 2026 Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival. Canadian Premiere.
Read Nightmare on Film Street’s Full Review of Never After Dark HERE
Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant
A millennial underachiever with a tentacle fetish (Hannah Lynch, THE RULE OF JENNY PEN) accidentally gets alien-pregnant by a shy neighbor with tentacles for testicles (Arlo Green, M3GAN) in the brilliantly hilarious, riotously gnarly body horror comedy that took Sundance by storm. MUM, I’M ALIEN PREGNANT is a sincere successor to the groundbreaking early work of Peter Jackson, both in terms of outrageous splatter and distinctively side-splitting New Zealand humor… but most significantly, for the genuine sweetness it’s imbued with. Canadian Premiere.
Read Nightmare on Film Street’s Full Review of Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant HERE
The Fantasia International Film Festival runs from July 16 through to August 2 in the heart of Montreal, Quebec. Click HERE to see the entire program, and let us know which Horror Movie you’re most excited to see over in the official Nightmare on Film Street Discord!
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