We kick off our Fantasia 2026 coverage with the return of the director behind one of our favourite recent genre debuts. Hanna Bergholm’s name may not leap off the page, but her feature debut Hatching certainly did, striking a blend of body horror and coming‑of‑age allegory centred on a young […]
From the Festivals
Our Picks for Frightfest 2026
Forget “Summerween” – every long-time U.K. horror fan knows that FrightFest is the place to go if you’re looking for midsummer monsters and seasonal scares. This August, the beloved London-based genre film festival returns for its 26th year running for five days and nights of cinematic terror, both unseen and […]
Dance Freak (Fantasia International Film Festival 2026)
I’m pretty sure you haven’t seen a movie like Dance Freak – I know I haven’t. Let’s rewind a little to the process of picking movies to cover for this year’s Fantasia. I tend to be ruled by my immediate gut reaction when choosing what appeals to me, and sometimes […]
Attack On Paradise (Fantasia Film Festival 2026)
I think enough time has passed in pop culture for us to stop claiming one movie has utter dominion over a single plot idea or structure, a case in point being Gareth Evans’ The Raid, which isn’t unique enough for the community to claim preferential placement. The World Premiere of […]
You Are The Film (Fantasia Film Festival 2026)
Makoto Ueda is a name that may not leap off the page within the community of Japanese movie lovers, but his work certainly does as he’s the scriptwriter behind two of the most wholesome sci‑fi movies of the past five years – River (2023), and Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes […]
The Curse (2025) Energetic love letter to the ’90s Japanese Horror Boom
Long wanting to catch Kenichi Ugana’s work, it wasn’t until we caught the inimitable punk fever of last year’s The Gesouidoz (at London Fanta) that we finally caught up with the eclectic director making a name for himself on the international festival circuit. When his name popped up again for […]
Our Picks from Fantasia Film Festival’s 2026
Happy 30th Anniversary to Fantasia Film Festival, the Montreal‑based titan of the genre space. Over the past three decades it has grown from upstart festival to one of the few global events genre fans look to for upcoming trends, talent breakouts, and the next 12 months of must‑see titles. Put […]
Seahorse (Raindance Film Festival 2026) A Compassionate Feature Debut
Having just completed its run at the UK Raindance Film Festival, Seahorse is an affecting and well-intentioned feature debut from Canadian actor & filmmaker Aisha Evelyna. As well as writing and directing the film, Evelyna also takes the lead role of Nola, a Toronto woman seeking stability following a stay […]
Littermates (Dances with Films 2026) A Whimsical, Well‑Crafted British Oddity
Scott Tinkham & Michael Woloson’s feature debut fills me with the best kind of nostalgia. Before the most destructive vote in British political history, independent British cinema was in a far healthier place, to the extent that it felt like there was a genuine breakthrough of a new creative voice […]
Kikuyu Land (Sheffield Doc Fest 2026) A journey into the truths a nation keeps buried
Paraphrasing one of the younger subjects of Andrew H. Brown and Bea Wangondu’s documentary Kikuyu Land (fresh from screening at Sheffield’s DocFest), a young man who has probably seen far too much far too young notes that, like any country, there’s the version the world sees and the version kept […]