If you’ve ever suffered from a severe mental health condition, you may have viewed it as an uncontrollable force that lives inside you. But what if it externalised itself into a real presence that lurked in the shadows, an extension of yourself that forced you to confront your intergenerational trauma? Tim Riedel’s Ancestral Beasts, which…
Festivals
Fantasia 2026: Most Anticipated Films
Fantasia International Film Festival is just one week away from hosting its 30th edition, running 16 July through 2 August, in Montreal, Canada. Known for its rich, weird, and transgressive genre cinema, the festival is set to screen over 100 feature films across the horror, sci-fi, action, and fantasy genres, including a selection of classic…
Raindance 2026 Review: Shadows of Willow Cabin
In the opening of Joe Fria’s debut feature, Shadows of Willow Cabin, Albert (Bryan Bellomo) heads to his family cabin to spend five days with Devon (John Brodsky), a man he exchanged sexually charged messages with on a dating app. Albert is a high school English teacher with a wife and teenage son who is…
Raindance 2026 Review: Modem
As a tricky situation unfolds at work, Michael (Josh Burdett) escapes to a beautiful house in the Swedish countryside with his family, which consists of wife Johanna (Amanda Renberg), their two year old son Stig, and teenage daughter Nora (Nika Tallroth) from Johanna’s previous relationship. Nora is the first to notice that there’s no signal,…
Raindance 2026 Review: Corporate Retreat
It’s that time of year where the employees of billion dollar company, Immaculate Pond Technologies, are sent on their annual corporate retreat to partake in team building exercises — something they all truly cannot be bothered with. The characters are introduced to us with style: a freeze frame with yellow text telling us who they…
Raindance 2026 REview: The Devil Whispered My Name
Set in rural Argentina, five teenagers celebrate graduating from school by performing an ayahuasca ritual in the woods. In the morning, Carla (Bianca Mitnik) finds her best friend Maria (Mia Cavo) dead by the water, covered in blood and marked by an unusual symbol. Ten years later, Carla (now played by Clara Kovacic) followed her…
Raindance 2026 Review: Serena
Chris Sadowsky (Steven Strait) used to be a rock star, but now he’s a loser who earns money by making personalised songs for children’s birthdays via Fiverr. A recovering alcoholic, Chris is struggling to make a new song, all while his pregnant wife Vicki (María Gabriela González) works as a waitress. The couple are three…
Raindance Film Festival 2026: The Horror Line-Up
Raindance Film Festival, the UK’s biggest indie film festival, returns with its 34th edition this month, 17-26 June, and festival passes are still available. Ranging from £45 for a day pass to £225 for a full festival pass, Raindance also offers a horror features pass for £115, allowing you to access to every horror film…
Overlook Film Festival 2026 Review: The Restoration at Grayson Manor
Bratty piano prodigy Boyd Grayson (Chris Colfer) delights in bringing men back to his opulent family mansion for sex, mainly to taunt his strict, legacy-obsessed mother Jacqueline (Alice Krige) who disapproves of his gay lifestyle. He calls her a “homophobic cunt,” but it’s perhaps more that Jacqueline doesn’t mind his gayness per se, it’s just…
Overlook Film Festival 2026 Review: Affection
Affection opens to a woman lying in the middle of the road as her car beeps behind her. Is she dead? All of a sudden, she breathes in and starts coughing. She stands up slowly and looks ahead into the night. Then she has a violent seizure and falls back to the ground. Later, she…