The time has come as it's preparing for the latest edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival. It's a special festival that we've had the honor of covering in the past and are quite excited about continuing for the current year, as this promises to be a packed year with plenty of amazing films to look forward to. In no way is this exhaustive or comprehensive, but to give an idea of what's in store, here are some of the many films we're looking forward to the most for this year's festival.
OUR FAVORITE BAD GIRL IS BACK! GET READY TO BE LED ASTRAY AND BETRAYED WITH INFLUENCERS!
Just when you thought it was safe to travel again, CW pops into your feed and activates your FOMO. After 2022’s smash hit INFLUENCER, Kurtis David Harder takes us to the South of France with dark persuasions and fatal outcomes. Starring the one and only Cassandra Naud as the mysterious chameleon CW, there’s no imposter syndrome here! Along with her fantastic co-stars, Veronica Long (BILLY THE KID) and Jonathan Whitesell (HAPPY FACE), they bring a new timeline and sicker-than-ever plans as CW opens her heart to a beautiful new girlfriend, played by Lisa Delamar (SURVIVE). This time, jealousy rears its ugly head as CW locks in on a popular British Influencer named Charlotte (Georgina Campbell, BARBARIAN, LOVELY, DARK, AND DEEP), who throws a wrench in her anniversary plans with Diane. Gorgeous cinematography, nasty twists, and an outcome you won’t want to miss, INFLUENCERS will make you fact-check your socials forever! Septentrion Shadows section. World Premiere.
BUCKLE IN AND HOLD THE FORT
A HOA turns out to be more troublesome than usual in this wildly amusing, FX-heavy freak-out about newly minted suburbanites unexpectedly forced to take part in a struggle against monstrous forces. Narratives about motley groups of ill-equipped characters battling forces of evil are a staple of the modern horror/comedy world, but HOLD THE FORT, from writer/director William Bagley, is many yuks above the norm. With very funny dialogue, outrageous circumstances, and plenty of stylish splatstick as both the human and inhuman are dispatched in gruesome, sometimes giggle-worthy ways, with heaps of spurting, splashing gore and a nonstop parade of practically-created creatures and zombies. Starring Chris Mayers (OZARK), Haley Leary, sketch comic YouTube creator Julian Smith, and Tordy Clark (GLORIOUS), and featuring a charismatic turn from veteran stunt performer Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson (BLACK PANTHER, AVENGERS: ENDGAME). World Premiere.
NECROMANCY AND BELIEF VS CORPOREAL DECAY: MOTHER OF FLIES SPELLBINDS
When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods... but every cure has costs. Written and directed by John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser (The Adams Family), who also star, shot, edited, and scored, MOTHER OF FLIES is the latest creation from the filmmaking family behind such singular landmarks as THE DEEPER YOU DIG, HELLBENDER, and WHERE THE DEVIL ROAMS, each of which has World Premiered at Fantasia. Described by the filmmakers as their fairytale manipulation of the darkly shadowed, yet love-lined pathways between a human life and death, MOTHER OF FLIES is an extraordinary work of personal genre storytelling, gestated through the family’s own experiences battling and surviving cancer. It stands with the strongest of their work, a poetic, haunting, and moving film that glows with otherworldly imagination, exploring the concept of necromancy in connection with two women who have very intimate relationships with death. World Premiere.
A JOLTING FOLK HORROR VISION: ADILKHAN YERZHANOV’S KAZAKH SCARY TALES
Continuing a breathtaking marathon of creation, multi-time award-winner Adilkhan Yerzhanov (STEPPENWOLF, THE OWNERS, THE GENTLE INDIFFERENCE OF THE WORLD) has turned his visionary lens towards skin-crawling occult horror storytelling. A cop (Kuantai Abdimadi, MOUNTAIN ONION) ventures into a remote village to investigate a gruesome series of inexplicable events and soon finds himself in the center of an otherworldly storm of local witchcraft and death. It becomes clear that the curse of Albasty, a spirit said to devour infants, is horrifyingly real. Bringing nightmarish regional folk horror to the screen through a tense, neo-Noir Trojan horse, KAZAKH SCARY TALES was produced as an anthology series for a domestic streamer but deemed too frightening by focus groups. Fantasia will be presenting the first three episodes as a complete feature narrative, the first time that anything from the series will be shown anywhere in the world. A stunning, disturbing work featuring a cast from across Yerzhanov’s filmography, including Anna Starchenko, jury award winner at last summer’s Fantasia for her astonishing performance in STEPPENWOLF, Dinara Baktybayeva (A DARK, DARK MAN), Daniyar Alshinov (GOLIATH), Yerken Gubashev (THE ASSAULT), and Sanjar Madi (YELLOW CAT). World Premiere.
THE IMMIGRANT EXPERIENCE BECOMES A HIGH SCHOOL NIGHTMARE IN FOREIGNER
For her debut feature film, FOREIGNER, Ava Maria Safai expertly harnesses the power of identity, social acceptance, horror, and comedy. It’s 2004, and Iranian immigrant Yasamin, or Yasi, is the new girl. Her high school experience is daunting, as she tries to improve her English by watching her favorite sitcom and befriends a trio of pastel-clad girls who feed Yasi’s need to fit in. Desperate for acceptance, she dyes her hair blonde and, in doing so, also attracts a demonic force. With a fun retro setting, great performances by Rose Dehgan as Yasi, Chloë MacLeod as the creepy high school “Queen Bee” Rachel, and a blend of our favorite teen horrors, FOREIGNER takes up space as a new entry to “bubblegum horror,” bringing a fresh narrative to the Canadian immigrant experience. Septentrion Shadows Section. World Premiere.
FINE ART AND FREAKY FUN COLLIDE IN TAROMAN EXPO EXPLOSION
Osaka, Japan, was the site of Expo ‘70, and emblematic of that memorable event is the sculpture/building Tower of the Sun, envisioned and designed by renowned artist Taro Okamoto, “the Japanese Picasso”, a challenger of conventions driven to liberate creative expression for one and all. His works and ideas inspired director Ryo Fujii and the team behind the 2022 TV series TAROMAN, broadcast on the NHK network. Mixing mockumentary elements with the tropes and aesthetics of 1970s tokusatsu superhero shows - ULTRAMAN in particular - the series was purported to be an obscure archival find... and the result? A sublime mix of public art education, nostalgic invention, and gleeful weirdness for its own sake. With such big ideas and such a gigantic protagonist, Fujii and friends simply had to revive TAROMAN for the big screen. TAROMAN EXPO EXPLOSION has arrived and with a bang! World Premiere.
GET YOUR RAINCOATS OUT FOR THE BOOK OF SIJJIN AND ILLIYYIN
A woman regularly belittled and bullied by her employers calls upon evil forces to obtain her vengeance in the most heinous of ways. Blending Islamic folk horror, ocular torture à la Lucio Fulci and imagery evoking THE EVIL DEAD, Indonesian director Hadrah Daeng Ratu’s THE BOOK OF SIJJIN AND ILLIYYIN will satiate even the most ravenous fans of gore and ultraviolence. Writer Laila Lele offers a gut-churning script that plunges us into the heart of a waking nightmare in which even children aren’t safe - and can end up splattering the walls like miniature Jackson Pollock artworks. Viewer discretion is highly advised here, as Indonesia has become an inexhaustible source of terrifying works, generous in their offerings of gore, twisted tales, and fascinating Muslim mythology populated by djinns and other demons. All we can really do is sit back and take pleasure in discovering and exploring - to our own risk and peril! North American Premiere.
HAUNTED MOUNTAINS: THE YELLOW TABOO TAKES A HIKE INTO HELL
A couple’s peaceful hiking trip takes a wrong turn and becomes a nightmare when a mysterious force targets Yu Hsin, repeatedly taking her life in horrifying ways. Chia Ming, unfortunately, is trapped in a time loop and forced to witness her death over and over again, always powerless to stop it. What went wrong? Why Yu-Hsin? Directed by emerging filmmaker Tsai Chia Ying and adapted from one of the scariest urban legends of Taiwan, HAUNTED MOUNTAINS: THE YELLOW TABOO, depicts not just traditional horror, but its layered narrative explores love, grief, and the emotional burdens we all carry. With a powerful cast including Jasper Liu (MORE THAN BLUE), Angela Yuen (CHILLI LAUGH STORY), and Tsao Yu Ning (PIERCE), HAUNTED MOUNTAINS: THE YELLOW TABOO brings not just the scares, but a reflection on the ties that bind us. International Premiere.
This is a small handful of the titles on offer as the Fantasia International Film Festival will celebrate its upcoming 29th edition with an electrifying program of screenings, workshops, and launch events running from July 17 through August 3, 2025, returning to the Concordia Hall and J.A. de Sève cinemas, with additional screenings and events at Montreal’s Cinéma du Musée. Check out their official site for more details and stay tuned for more of our coverage of the festivities.
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