Known for creating and directing the Ju-On franchise, including the American remake starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Takashi Shimizu is back with two brand new films, both of which screened at Fantasia International Film Festival. While I didn’t get the chance to watch Village of Eight Gravestones, which had its world premiere on 28th July, I…
horror
Fantasia 2026 Review: Unholy Night
The holidays are a time for family, food, and cheer, but they can be a real nightmare for those with difficult family dynamics. That’s certainly the case for the family in writer-director Michael Gabriele’s feature debut, Unholy Night, which had its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival. The film opens on an idyllic Christmas…
Fantasia 2026 Review: When You Open the Door
Eriko Katagiri’s When You Open the Door had its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival on 25th July. The film, which was written by Katagiri and Tomoko Shinozuka, follows 27-year-old Miki (Serena Motola). She wakes up in her small apartment from her sleepy memory of herself as a child, with a red-haired doll and…
Fantasia 2026 Review: Godhead
Mark H. Rapaport’s Godhead, which had its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival, begins with a Priest (Al Warren) who finds a baby on the doorstep of his church. When the Boy (Luke Speakman) is a little older, the Priest tells him about how God created the universe in seven days—but he adds an…
Fantasia 2026 Review: Insectasy
Insectasy had its world premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival yesterday and I would’ve loved to have been in the room when it screened. Not only as a witness to everyone’s reactions, but also as a participant. Writer and director Angus Silver wastes no time dropping his audience into the bizarre and sensual world he’s…
Fantasia 2026 Review: Ancestral Beasts
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…
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…