Fantasia Film Festival Announces Insane Second Wave of Genre Titles For 2026 Edition
The Fantasia International Film Festival has announced a stacked second wave of titles for its 30th edition, further cementing this year’s lineup as one of the summer’s most exciting genre-film events. Among the newly revealed selections are Nick Antosca’s Cape Fear, Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Paween Purijitpanya’s God Skin, Corrin Evans’ Corpus, Eiji Uchida’s Tokyo Burst: Crime City, and the Adams Family’s The Glorious Dead.
Here are all the dark genre selections recently announced for the festival which runs July 16 – August 2nd in Montreal, Canada.
Cape Fear
In this reimagining of Cape Fear, a storm is coming for happily married attorneys Anna (Amy Adams, Arrival, Nightbitch) and Tom Bowden (Patrick Wilson, The Conjuring, Insidious) when Max Cady (Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men, Mother), the notorious killer they are responsible for putting behind bars, is let out of prison – and he will stop at nothing to exact revenge on the family who put him behind bars. Executive producers Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg team up with showrunner Nick Antosca (A Friend of the Family, Channel Zero), who deftly crafts a singular reinterpretation of the classic thriller.
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 picture used during the day.
Tokyo Burst: Crime City
Rookie detective Aiba (Sota Fukushi, Bleach), a native of Tokyo’s red-light district, with all the attitude and methods that entails, must team up with Cho (Uhm Ki-joon, Man of Vendetta), a counterpart from Seoul with equally questionable practices, to track down a dangerous criminal spreading terror across Japan, Korea, and the Philippines. While the relationship between the two investigators is frosty at first, they’ll have to learn to work together quickly in the face of such a formidable adversary. The cult franchise The Roundup makes its way to Japan with this wild “buddy cop” film, featuring a barrage of mind-blowing fight choreography.
Corpus
A bold and visceral horror vision, Corpus is the transfixing feature debut from filmmaker Corrin Evans, whose work explores death, eroticism, and the supernatural. Co-written and produced by Lily Cowles, who also stars, Corpus is a body horror yearn-and-burn. Erotic and surreal, the film lands brilliantly as a meditation on identity, desire, and the lethal cocktail of longing, vulnerability, and control.
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.
Windbreaker
A new arrival in the small town of Makochi, Sakura (Koshi Mizukami, Kowloon Generic Romance) is determined to take control of Furin High School – known for its formidable fighters – by knocking its leader out with a few well-aimed punches to the face. Instead, he discovers a tight-knit group of young people working to protect their community from the Shishitoren gang, which aims to sow chaos in order to gain more power. Will he be able to overcome his reluctance to trust others and rise above his bellicose ambitions?
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.
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 Big Break, 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). Directed by Ian Faria. World Premiere.
The Mutation
Se-oh, a Black man born to two white Korean parents, is tired of feeling like a stranger in his homeland due to reactions to his skin color. He spends everything he has on a luxury suitcase containing his most precious possessions, to offer it to someone who would like to join him on a two-day road trip. Sora, a lesbian who lost her partner to suicide due to a forced marriage, decides to join this journey where landscapes, memories, sorrows, and hopes will intertwine.
Penny Lane is Dead
A fierce and fantastic feature debut from writer/director Mia’Kate Russell, spiked with dark humor and gendered rage, Penny Lane Is Dead explodes off the screen with heart-pounding tension and personality to spare. A blood-drenched re-working of Ozsploitation survival/vengeance thrillers that hits hard yet through sheer force of charisma becomes something exhilarating, all while speaking to deeper themes of gendered violence and internalized misogyny. It’s the summer of 1986. Penny Lane (Bailey Spalding, North Shore) has just landed her university acceptance and is primed for celebration. She and friends Toni (Tahlee Fereday, Blue Canaries) and Amy (Alexandra Jensen, Talk to Me) head out to a distant beach house for a wild “no dick event.” Things take a dark turn when Penny’s toxic cousin Kat (Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Year Of) crashes the party uninvited, with awful intentions. Soon, her boyfriend (Ben O’Toole, Bloody Hell) arrives with friends. Circumstances spiral and the girls suddenly find themselves in a savage fight for survival…
Nightborn
With dreams of starting a perfect family, Saga (Seidi Haarla, Compartment No. 6, Icebreaker) and her British husband Jon (Rupert Grint, the Harry Potter series, Servant) move to the isolated house where she spent much of her childhood, deep in the Finnish forest. As soon as their baby is born, despite the reassurance of all around her, Saga knows there’s something terribly wrong with her son. Their marriage begins to crack and Jon struggles to support his wife, but only Saga suspects the terrible truth about her newborn. The sophomore feature from gifted Finnish filmmaker Hanna Bergholm (Hatching), Nightborn launched in official competition at this year’s Berlinale and Fantasia is proud to be the site of its North American birthing.
Backstage Madness
Creating a script is already challenging, especially when everyone except the writer wants to control the creation. A 70-year-old screenwriter struggles to protect his artistic ideals as his producer keeps interfering. Desperate to find that balance, the writer comes up with an extreme idea to spark inspiration, sending the creative process spiraling into madness. Drawing from his own experience, Kyrgyz director Amanbek Azhymat’s debut feature Backstage Madness sharply exposes the absurdity, exploitation, and ridiculousness of the film industry, with bold visual inspiration from Quentin Tarantino, while also capturing a creator’s struggle to preserve even a small piece of his dream.
Nameless
Security-camera footage has captured evidence of a vicious murder at a café, but the police are baffled that the suspect can slash people to death without even holding a weapon. Who is this man? How is he able to kill without a blade or a gun? Why is he shrouded in mystery? Based on star Jiro Sato’s own web-manga, Nameless is a compelling and gripping psychological thriller directed by Hideo Jojo, and another brilliant feature with the insanely talented Sato in its lead role. Jojo takes the Japanese thriller genre to the next level with superb pacing, visceral suspense, and remarkable character development. 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.
Niko
In dystopian Seoul, with curfew and lockdown in effect, broke screenwriter Niko suddenly disappears. As her boyfriend Jeremy and new bestie Ji-eun try to locate her, they become unexpectedly intertwined in a love triangle. In the meantime, Niko is on a journey of self-discovery, slowly but surely finding her lost hope in humanity and romance. Writer/director Julien Birban Levy’s feature debut demonstrates his passion for both Asian and French cinema. Even if it’s taking place during the end of the world, he manages to depict Seoul as a lively character in and of itself. International Premiere.
The Origin of Ultraman
Six decades to the day since the broadcast of the first Ultraman episode, Fantasia salutes this key figure in the festival’s history with a special screening of Tsuburaya Productions’ heartwarming and informative anniversary documentary, overseen by no less than award-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda. Combining critical insights, fascinating memories from surviving team members, and personal reflections from the likes of Hideaki Anno, Hideo Kojima, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Guillermo Del Toro, The Origin of Ultraman is an essential tribute to the red-and-silver champion of cosmic order from Nebula M78, whose stature as an icon of Showa era tokusatsu matches that of Godzilla, Astro Boy, and the Tokyo Tower itself. International Premiere.
Teenage Death and Sex at Camp Miasma
Visionary writer-director Jane Schoenbrun (I Saw the TV Glow, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair – Fantasia 2021) will arrive in Montreal fresh off their Cannes premiere and Palm Queer win with the Canadian premiere of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson. After years of slapdash sequels and waning fandom, the Camp Miasma slasher franchise is handed over to an enthusiastic young director for resurrection. But when she visits the original movie’s star, a now-reclusive actress shrouded in mystery, the two women fall into a blood-soaked world of desire, fear, and delirium. A MUBI Release. Canadian Premiere.
Never After Dark
A solitary medium, accompanied by her sister’s ghost, confronts an evil specter with a terrifying past. Moeka Hoshi (Shōgun) 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.
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.
Levitating
Indonesia’s folk tradition of animal-spirit possession at communal trance gatherings, a startling form of soul-cleansing rite practiced to this day, serves as the basis for something both warmly familiar and wonderfully strange. Within the framework of a coming-of-age sports drama, with requisite comedy, romance, and family friction, Levitating toys with the surreal, even supernatural, as it follows spirit channeller Bayu’s struggle to be regional champ, achieving moments of rare transcendence while homing in on a very grounded pathway to inner peace. Official Selection: Sundance 2026. Canadian Premiere.
Black Zombie
Blending horror and Haitian history, Black Zombie, Maya Annik Bedward’s 2018 Frontières project, returns to Fantasia as a feature-length documentary. From White Zombie to Night of the Living Dead, the zombie has haunted popular culture via capitalism, racism and hive-mind virality. Bedward examines the iconic creature and its connection to the transatlantic slave trade, the brutality of the mass importation of African people, and African religious practices demonized by European colonialism in Haiti. Official Selection: SXSW, Hot Docs, CUFF 2026. Septentrion Shadows Section. Quebec Premiere.
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