The 2025 Vancouver International Film Festival guide is out, and it looks amazing compared to prior years! That’s because the lineup includes a piece from Steven Kostanski. Without him, I would not be planning a trip to the mainland to see this film! While this event rarely offers a proper Midnight Madness mini-festival within, this year looks like it may well be a star. Let’s hope so, because who doesn’t want a bit of terror this Autumn season?
The following are my top ten picks:
Arco
Dir. Ugo Bienvenu
Chasing a rainbow through the woods, Iris encounters Arco, a boy who has stolen a time-travelling suit from his scientist parents and crash-landed in 2075. This charming animated fantasy blends futuristic adventure with heartfelt storytelling, offering a visually inventive world that appeals to all ages.
Bienvenu’s work has always blurred the line between retro charm and forward-thinking sci-fi, making this a must-see for animation enthusiasts.
Deathstalker
Dir. Steven Kostanski
(read our interview with him here)
As the Dreadite horde cuts a path of destruction across the land, one man wields the power to rid the world of their evil — Deathstalker, a relentless and courageous hero. FX master Steven Kostanski conjures a bloody, entertaining hack-and-slash adventure, brimming with over-the-top action and dark humour. This reboot of the original film from _ is sure to please, and with this creative mind behind the production, it’s sure to be bloody! And for those unable to visit Vancouver for this cult classic, Shout! Studios will release it Oct 10th, 2025.
With Kostanski steering the gore and fun, this could very well be the new gold standard for fantasy revivals.
Dead Lover
Dir. Grace Glowicki
A foul-smelling gravedigger’s romance ends in tragedy, prompting her to attempt resurrection through a series of madcap scientific experiments. Glowicki and Ben Petrie inject zany, DIY horror energy into this modern twist on Mary Shelley’s classic themes of love, loss, and reanimation.
Glowicki’s quirky, hands-on aesthetic makes this one to watch for fans of experimental Canadian cinema.
Foreigner
Dir. Ava Maria Safai
(Read our movie review here)
An Iranian teenager who recently immigrated to Canada struggles to fit in at her new high school. Pressured to conform, she unintentionally unleashes a demonic force rooted within her. This darkly humorous coming-of-age horror explores identity, cultural tension, and the supernatural in clever, unsettling ways. By weaving cultural anxieties with supernatural dread, this film echoes the grounded terror of early Cronenberg.
Dracula
Dir. Radu Jude
A bawdy deconstruction of Romania’s most notorious legend, Radu Jude’s Dracula parodies the use of AI in filmmaking while delivering a cinematic feast of irreverent humour. The film is a multi-layered, genre-bending experience with six interwoven narratives designed to amuse and provoke.
Jude’s fearless satire might make this the most divisive entry of the festival — and that’s exactly why it belongs here.
Honey Bunch
Dir. Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli
After awakening from a coma with memory loss, Diane is taken to an experimental treatment centre in the wilderness by her husband, Homer. As visions of past trauma surface, Diane slowly uncovers dark truths about her marriage in this tense psychological drama that blends horror, mystery, and emotional depth. Sims-Fewer and Mancinelli excel at intimate, unsettling character studies — expect this one to linger long after the credits.
Nirvanna the Band
the Show the Movie
Two eccentric dreamers experience a freak accident that propels them back to 2008. Their inadvertent meddling wreaks havoc on the timeline, unleashing a riot of pop culture references, copyright-defying antics, and surreal gags. The result is a wildly inventive, meta-comedic journey through nostalgia and absurdity. Expect this to be a fan-service riot for those who followed the original cult TV series — and a trip for newcomers, too.
OBEX
Dir. Albert Birney
A computer nerd finds himself transported into a video game fantasy world when his dog is taken by the evil demon Ixaroth. Birney’s lo-fi adventure fuses analog horror with RPG mechanics, creating a nostalgic, black-and-white vaporwave aesthetic that celebrates retro gaming and DIY ingenuity.
This project feels like a love letter to gamers who spent nights with VHS rentals and pixelated screens.
Memory of Princess Mumbi
Dir. Damien Hauser
Can a filmmaker depict the future without AI? Damien Hauser crafts an Afro-speculative fable set in a resurrected African kingdom, blending romance, war, and epic storytelling. A micro-budget yet ambitious cinematic experiment, the film is fueled by digital innovation, imaginative visuals, and deep emotional resonance.
This feature could be the sleeper hit of the festival, showing how vision and creativity can eclipse budgetary limits.
Resurrection
In a fractured reality where humanity has lost its ability to dream, a Fantasmer becomes a puckish outlier, slipping into the dreamworld and reincarnating across a century. Each rebirth unfolds within a different film genre, offering a kaleidoscopic exploration of imagination, memory, and the enduring human desire to create.
Expect cinephiles to adore this genre-shifting ride — it’s practically a love letter to film history itself.
Zeb’s Spider isn’t so itsy bitsy, and this woman can give Sam Greenfield, the unluckiest person in the world from the animated movie, Luck, a run for her money. They both live in sub-basement apartments, and just have a lot of problems in life to face. This down-and-out individual is deathly afraid of arachnids, and as for what she does to the wall crawler is an entertaining variation of a cat and mouse tale.
October 1 to 11th * Various Venues * Vancouver, British Columbia
By Ed Sum