{"id":53833,"date":"2026-07-11T15:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=53833"},"modified":"2026-07-10T15:10:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:10:13","slug":"fantasia-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/11\/fantasia-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Cinema Crazed gets the Curtain Raised for Fantasia 2026!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The Fantasia International Film Festival opens on July 16th in Toronto. Check out what Cinema Crazed is looking forward to experiencing in our coverage of the festival’s 30th year!<\/p>\n

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THIRTY YEARS! The Fantasia International Film Festival celebrates THIRTY FREAKIN YEARS of bringing the best genre (and non-genre) from around the world! We here at Cinema Crazed have been covering the festival since 2015, spanning 40 pages of our search function.<\/a> That\u2019s a ton of reviews. And, friends, we\u2019re ready to do it again.\u00a0 [Last year’s coverage altogether here<\/a>]<\/span><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival runs from July 16th through August 2nd across five venues in Montreal!<\/span><\/p>\n

This year, there are three of us covering the festival: Bob,<\/a> Grayland<\/a>, and K Bly, all return for our second round! Keep your eyes peeled, maybe we\u2019ll have a cameo by our old friend Emilie Black<\/a>! This year is stuffed! Over 125 features and 200 shorts (in their own blocks and as connected to features). In addition to the films, the festival is hosting a slew of workshops and special events. See their website <\/span>www.fantasiafestival.com<\/span><\/a> for the full line-up and more!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So many films, but luckily with 3 (and maybe 4) writers, we hope we can make a solid dent into that lineup and give our recommendations. But, we can\u2019t do that until the festival opens on the 16th with Nicolas Winding Refn<\/a>\u2019s\u00a0 <\/span>Her Private Hel<\/b>l (and closes with <\/span>Freaks Part II <\/b>from Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein<\/a>). However, we CAN tell you what we\u2019re excited for. Read on for a handful of selections from Bob, Greylan, and K!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Bob Sez:<\/span><\/p>\n

Glorious Dead <\/b>(written and directed by Toby Poser & John Adams)<\/span>
\n<\/span>I\u2019m always up for the next Adams family movie! Mother of Flies<\/a> premiered at last year\u2019s festival, and the filmmaking family is already ready to give us the next dose of their specific brand of homemade horror. In an isolated town, a sheriff and her deputy try to keep the peace as people go missing, blood runs from the taps, and other strangeness.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma <\/b>(written and directed by Jane Schoenbrun)<\/span><\/p>\n

Gillian Anderson covered in blood? I\u2019m in. Schoenbrun, who made big splashes with We’re All Going to the World\u2019s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow,<\/a> is one of my favorite new filmmakers. For their new feature, they explore the troubles within the continued interest in the slasher film as a queer filmmaker updates and remakes a Friday the 13th-<\/a>style film series, and connects with the first film\u2019s Final Girl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mum, I\u2019m Alien Pregnant <\/b>(written and directed by THUNDERLIPS)<\/span><\/p>\n

One of my favorite shorts of this year\u2019s BoneBat\u00a0<\/a> (and featuring Tandi Wright from Evil Dead Burn<\/a>!) was ready to give birth by the time I saw it three months ago. It\u2019s come to term now and ready to burst our with hopefully all the goo and gore of the short as a young Kiwi woman hits up her ObGyn because\u2026 title. The short was VERY early Peter Jackson<\/a>, so I\u2019m all for the feature<\/span><\/p>\n

Blaise <\/b>(written by Clemence Lebatteux and Dimitri Planchon; Directed by Planchon & Jean-Paul Guigue)<\/span>
\n<\/span>An awkward animated absurdist comedy? Okay, bring it. An introverted kid who says yes to everything to try to be on everyone\u2019s good side starts down a path, escalating issues and troubles. Looks wonderfully weird.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bowels of Hell (<\/b>Director\/Writer Gurcius Gewdner, Director\/Writer Gustavo Vinagre<\/span> )<\/b><\/p>\n

Gotta get in the gross-out flick, after last year\u2019s Flush<\/a>. This time, a supernatural occurrence messes with an apartment building’s bowels, and apparently, it gets totally messed up. I\u2019m in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Graylan gives his interests:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Fantasia always brings more to the table than I can possibly consume, despite all of it calling to me. Festivals such as these give audiences a rare chance to discover something that may have slipped past them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Personally, I’m excited for such films as the Canadian anti-hero film, <\/span>Freaks Part II<\/b>, as well as the monochrome comedy, <\/span>The Peril at Pincer Point<\/b>. For horror, I’ve zeroed in on <\/span>Buddy<\/b>, a story about people trying to survive a killer kid’s show akin to Barney. From the holiday horror,<\/span> Unholy Night<\/b>, to Yeon Sang-ho’<\/a>s latest zombie flick,<\/span> Colony<\/b>, there’s no shortage of scares coming our way. The world behind the camera gets a spotlight with<\/span> Rubberhead: The Life & Monsters of Steve Johnson, <\/b>and the fictional <\/span>Los Vampires,<\/b> which depicts two separate actors playing Dracula in the 1930’s. My love for crime thrillers and revenge tales gets treated well thanks to the likes of<\/span> Cul-de-$ac<\/b> from Quebec, <\/span>Penny Lane is Dead <\/b>from Australia, and <\/span>God Skin <\/b>from Thailand. The cherry on top comes in the form of the long-awaited wrap-up to the Becky<\/a> trilogy<\/a>, <\/span>The Last Temptation of Becky<\/b>. I could list titles until the VOD releases come home, which is far from a complaint-worthy claim. Fantasia’s festival brings talent from all over the world, and presents them to those lucky enough to enjoy them. To say I’m excited would be an understatement.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(Bob adds: Los Vampires<\/strong> and Buddy<\/strong><\/a> have been on my radar for a bit, and very exciting for me as well. Freaks was one of my favorites of its year, so very much looking forward to its sequel.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Now let\u2019s hear from K Bly!<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Nightborn <\/b>(written by Hannah Bergholm & Ilya Rautsi; directed by Bergholm)<\/span><\/p>\n

From the director of 2022\u2019s Hatching<\/strong><\/a> comes another tale of family discord and monsters as a woman and her British husband (Harry Potter\u2019s Rupert Grint) welcome a child with some terrible issues into their dilapidated home. Blood seems to flow quite well<\/span><\/p>\n

Her Private Hell\u00a0 <\/b>(written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn)<\/span><\/p>\n

While I\u2019ve found Refn\u2019s filmography frustratingly uneven, there\u2019s always some sort of interesting idea and psycho-sexual drive at the center. His newest, starring Sophie Thatcher<\/a>, continues into the neo-noir giallo trimmings of memory and murder. Maybe a mess? But let\u2019s find out<\/span><\/p>\n

The Fox <\/b>(written and directed by Dario Russo)<\/span>
\n<\/span>Olivia Colman<\/a>? I\u2019m in! She\u2019s the titular Fox, helping hunter Jai Courtney<\/a> deal with the fallout of a cheating wife (Emily Browning). Another dose of the absurd that seems to be running through this year\u2019s festival, with a folk tale vibe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a bonus: Emilie will be pulling from the archives and resharing some of her favorite reviews<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, there are so many more on my \u201cif we can, we will\u201d list. Check back often to Cinema Crazed for our coverage. What are you interested in?<\/span><\/p>\n

Fantasia International Film Festival runs July 16th through August 2nd, 2026, in Montreal. See <\/span>FantasiaFestival.com<\/span><\/a> for more.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fantasia International Film Festival opens on July 16th in Toronto. Check out what Cinema Crazed is looking forward to experiencing in our coverage of the festival’s 30th year!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1284],"tags":[3778],"class_list":["post-53833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-festivalsevents","tag-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53833"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53839,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53833\/revisions\/53839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}