Tag: Fantasia Film Festival

Why Unholy Night’s Italian Family Zombie Curse Is Surprisingly Effective

A folk curse turns Gino’s Italian family into a hungry ghost festival rather an an Unholy Night. It’s not your traditional celebration either when grandma is that zombie!

Unholy Night Poster ImageNot to be confused with the 2019 film of the same name, this 2026 version of Unholy Night needs a suffix to distinguish it from the earlier work. The earlier take is an anthology, and the latest from freshman Michael Gabriele seems to riff on the idea of why hungry ghosts must be respected. Technically, the undead featured here are zombies, and since everyone knows from the title that this film takes place over the winter holidays, just why an Italian family looks targeted is obvious.

There’s a folk curse going on that has Gino (Marc Bendavid) targeted, and his family is fair game in a cat and mouse run around the block. With Nonna (Jacqueline Robbins) uttering death threats, slowly succumbing to old age, and threatening violence to the entire family, we should all worry. When Rene (Shailene Garnett) gets involved, she learns from her boyfriend that they are not alone. Just how much they do to help the neighbourhood sets this film’s tone.

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See No Evil, Hear No Evil… Where’s The Wisdom The Mouths Have To Speak Anyway?

Takashi Shimizu’s The Mouths transforms a cemetery legend into a nightmare involving a cursed tree, cicadas, and a ghoul? Spoiler Alert. You have been warned:

The Mouths Movie Poster
Played on July 26, 2026 at Fantasia Film Festival at the Auditorium des diplômés de la SGWU

If you’re a fan of Ju-on or any of Takashi Shimizu‘s works, The Mouths (口に関するアンケート) will certainly scare you! That’s because once the synopsis revealed there’s a suicide tree, I half expected this film to be about Aokigahara Forest rather than a random hunk of wood located in a dilapidated cemetery. When the legend of the said park overshadows any other urban legend, what’s presented feels like a partial set of short stories, each tied to why four young adults have come here to find the spirit reputed to haunt this tree!

In what begins as a simple truth or dare, it ends up being a challenge of the human spirit against nature. In this case, it’s to see if the curse attached to the said tree is true! And when none of the individuals invited it home, there’s cause for concern! Should this entity not follow its victim(s), it would never feed.

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When Ancestral Beasts Come A Wanting…. Things Are Certainly Cold in the Forest

Ancestral Beasts turns a remote family home into a breeding ground for trauma, giant insects and buried secrets. Morgan Holmstrom anchors this unsettling Indigenous horror story about isolation and inherited pain.

Ancestral Beasts Movie Poster
Screening at Fantasia Film Festival 2026 on July 28, 2026 at the Salle J.A. De Sève

In the movie Ancestral Beasts, either Auntie (Gail Maurice) must have been a shaman for the Red River Métis tribe, or Elyse Poitras’ demons (Morgan Holmstrom) have found the means to literally manifest. She has Indigenous roots, and after telling her sister Nikki (Darla Contois) that she needs her own space, the decision to “go home” comes easily. However, her trepidation grows when folks living nearby try to help. As for her cousins, they try to rekindle what was lost when the two sisters decided life elsewhere was better. Apparently, it wasn’t.

When their family home exists off the beaten path, I knew what came next would basically be a terror-haunting-the-cabin-in-the-woods scenario. As for what exists there, it’s almost easy to tell! No, what’s in the basement isn’t a Deadite, but that was my first thought. Instead, what’s presented is more like an ancient covenant, along with something else involving giant insects!

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Hail Sailor! When There’s No Rest for the Wicked After Navigating the Hoary Seas, What’s Next?

Set on the Faroe Islands in 1862, No Rest for the Wicked blends forbidden romance, Norse folklore and slow-burning Gothic horror. Its haunting atmosphere works better than its confused vampire mythology.

No Rest for the Wicked Movie Poster
Screened at Fantasia Film Festival on July 25, 2026 at the Salle J.A. De Sève

No Rest for the Wicked is a great title for a movie. With early marketing and reviews from the 2026 Fantasia Film Festival describing it as a queer love story wrapped inside a Gothic vampire drama, perhaps Lestat has a new rival. If we’re judging who wears the crown for best-looking vampire, Helge (Pilou Asbæk), the Danish whaler, wins hands down.

There’s also something to be said for stripping away the Gothic excess that vampire stories from this period embraced. Set in 1862 on the Faroe Islands, this tale exists on the edge of civilization, where survival comes before superstition and every stranger is met with suspicion. Young Baldur (Egor Venned) doesn’t have much to do, and he’s like every other kid from a small village: bored.

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Is It Doxxing or Foxing Kitsuné-Tsuki? When Depression and Imagination Run Wild

Takeru Shinozuka’s Foxing Kitsuné-Tsuki explores creative burnout through an animator who may be haunted, or protected, by a playful fox spirit. It’s a thoughtful animated short about depression, criticism and rediscovering the spark to create.

Foxing Kitsuné-Tsuki animated short film poster
Foxing Kitsuné-Tsuki played as part of the Anime no Bento 2026 shorts program on July 18, 2026.

Although the title of Takeru Shinozuka’s animated short, Foxing Kitsuné-Tsuki, seems deceptive, that’s because this creature can be deceptively sinister or be a true trickster at heart. But that depends on which cultural lens this member of the canine family is viewed from. For this animator turned first-time director, the story he tells about life at an animation studio looks authentic; from being told what to do despite objection to having creative burnout, these pressures are real!

That’s what this work really focuses on. By the time Shinano (Wataya Miho) comes home, she can’t do anything without repeating sensei’s wax-on, wax-off training. The muscle memory is there, but not the spark. Koyami (uncredited online) is the trickster spirit who keeps saying, “Draw me instead. I need more expression.” But for this woman, she’s ready to call it quits! And her story about thinking she’s been possessed by a fox spirit is not traditionally recognized. Continue reading “Is It Doxxing or Foxing Kitsuné-Tsuki? When Depression and Imagination Run Wild”

When Home Bodies is Casey Walker’s Sophomore Film Debuting At Fantasia 2026, This Sci-Fi Thriller Is Sure to Haunt!

Two sheltered twins get an unexpected new family member in Casey Walker’s eerie sci-fi fable, Home Bodies, and it seems home schooling can lead to other unsettling concerns.

Home Bodies Official Poster
Played at Fantasia Film Festival on Thu July 23, 2026 9:30 PM at the Cinéma du Musée

* Potential Spoiler Alert

While waiting for news about Casey Walker‘s movie Ithaqua, also slated for release this year, I’m glad his surreal science fiction fable Home Bodies is getting lots of love at Fantasia Film Festival 2026. It’s a beautifully constructed and self-contained story set in the future, one where human experimentation is very real, and we should all be afraid, very afraid.

Blue (Ian Ho) and Red (Emma Ho) are twin siblings living a very sheltered life. They’re not allowed to go out, and while they get to grow up and be who they are, nobody’s filling them in on the birds and the bees, or teaching them how to socialize or the world beyond their four walls. And just how they’re “raised” is rather bizarre. All they have access to are neon coloured VHS tapes and a rather surreal television show called Barn. It’s best not to say too much about this Sesame Street wannabe, but that’s the gist I got.

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