Fantastic Fest 2026 brought another sprawling mix of horror, science fiction, animation, comedy, thrillers, and films that are difficult to categorize at all. This roundup collects capsule reviews from across the festival, along with notes on which titles may have the most value for library collections, film clubs, community screenings, and classroom use.
Sci-Fi, Comedy, and the Absurd
Full Phil
Rating: 3.5/5
A Quentin Dupieux (Rubber, Smoking Causes Coughing) double feature kicked off the film festival. First up was Full Phil. Philip Doom (Woody Harrelson) and his 32-year-old daughter Madeline (Kristen Stewart) are vacationing in a luxury suite in Paris. All Phil wants to do is reconnect with his daughter, and all Madeline wants to do is watch her bad black-and-white film and eat forever.
Like most Dupieux films, Full Phil is built around one gag that is stretched out until the end. Kristen Stewart is never not eating in the film, and the film she is watching is a clear nod to Creature from the Black Lagoon. Woody Harrelson struggles with body dysmorphia for a reason, but Madeline mostly takes it as a father trying to embarrass his daughter. It is a ridiculous premise with an absolutely bonkers payoff.
Best for: Philosophy courses, character studies, and film clubs interested in absurdist comedy.
Vertiginous
Rating: 3/5
Vertiginous was the other Dupieux film. In a world composed entirely of Nintendo 64-like sharp-polygon animation, Jacky (Alain Chabat) tries to convince his best friend Bruno (Jonathan Cohen) that they are living in a simulation. Once he does, what they do next is anyone's guess.
This one is amusing but feels a little flat overall. The animation is purposely ugly, but the concept was explored more efficiently with much more appealing animation in the Fantastic Fest 2025 film Decorado by filmmaker Alberto Vazquez (Unicorn Wars). The downside is that the concept feels like familiar territory, which is unusual for Dupieux.
Dupieux has a way of writing characters that is unlike anyone else. While the concept is typically far-fetched, the human interactions centered on that crazy concept feel genuine.
Best for: Philosophy courses, simulation theory discussions, character studies, and film clubs exploring absurdist cinema.
The Squirrel
Rating: 3/5
The Squirrel is set in a not-too-distant future where hygiene and cleanliness take precedence. It's been long enough that most animals are now extinct, while intimacy and physical contact are seen as unclean and animalistic. Pasi (Miro Lopper) works at SynBio while programming artificial dogs for public entertainment.
But Pasi stumbles onto the last living squirrel on Earth. He keeps it and bonds with it, but it soon gets sad and lethargic. It needs nature, open air, and companionship from another squirrel. Despite his feelings for hygiene investigator Emilia (Mimosa Willamo) and it being viewed as unsafe and unnecessary, Pasi intends to take the squirrel to an actual forest, wherever that may be.
The Squirrel is a cute film about loneliness, love, and some of the best things in life not being man-made. However, the film's view of sex is skewed. Likely meant as something beautiful that is earned, sex is portrayed as the only act any living creature wants to partake in when given the opportunity. The squirrel is also adorable, but there simply isn't enough of it, as it spends most of the film lying around.
Best for: Media literacy courses and discussions of human behavior, romance, empathy, and how we treat other living things.
5 More Minutes
Rating: 3.5/5
With 5 More Minutes, Toni (Berto Romero) and Barbara (Belén Cuesta) are trying to have a peaceful weekend getaway in the country. Their host, Carlos (Javier Cámara), is a little strange, as he comes off cold and uncaring and rubs Barbara the wrong way when he offers them marijuana. Just when Carlos gets in his car to drive away, the day resets five minutes earlier. They realize the entire world is stuck in a time loop between 6:30 p.m. and 6:35 p.m.
5 More Minutes is a different time-travel film because things that are broken, injuries, and deaths are permanent. Toni and Barbara are terrible people and make the situation worse with every bad decision. It's a fantastic concept that is executed perfectly, but Toni and Barbara become unbearable in the second half of the film. They have a ton of marital tension, and it explodes in the time loop with them constantly bickering and yelling over each other. Their behavior is sensible in the situation, but that doesn't make it any less irritating.
Best for: Philosophy and ethics courses, film clubs studying time-travel narratives, and discussions of moral quandaries and human behavior.
Little Doors
Rating: 3/5
Little Doors is a microbudget feature (its budget was $50K) from writer, director, and co-star Anthony Oberbeck. The film takes place during the apocalypse. Everything is on fire and towns are abandoned, but there are human survivors. A woman (Megan Koester) is traveling the world alone and squatting in whatever empty house she can find.
When she comes across a door she can't open, she calls a locksmith (Oberbeck), and the two develop feelings for one another. As the locksmith struggles with ways of showing how much he cares for this woman, she develops a cyst on her abdomen that slowly turns into a locked tiny door. Not only is it a question of what lies beyond the door, but how will it affect their relationship once it's open?
Little Doors follows two super awkward people who aren't used to other people in their lives. It's incredibly clumsy and full of deadpan humor, while the ending leaves you with a lot to think about, like what we hide from people we just met, what we truly are on the inside, and if we pretend to be something we're not just to make something work because the alternative of being alone is worse. The way the film portrays the world as a literal dumpster fire also seems to be a metaphor for what the world has turned into today, which makes Little Doors feel even more relatable.
Best for: Student film clubs, community screenings, low-budget filmmaking discussions, and conversations about relationships and morality.
Alpha Gang
Rating: 2/5
Alpha Gang was the second secret screening, an absurd comedy that sees six aliens come to Earth in the 1950s as a human biker gang in an effort to conquer the planet. There's an emphasis on trying to control one's emotions so as not to jeopardize the mission, while each alien struggles with regular human behaviors such as going to the restroom and what to eat for dinner.
The film is a lot of loud music and dancing, but it doesn't really work until Chris Pine comes in after the first hour. The aliens are stupid and partake in imbecilic activities such as shooting a bunch of ants on a vine (similar to the jungle shooting scene in Predator) and falling in love with a falcon.
Alpha Gang feels pointless by the end as well. Nothing feels resolved, and the sacrifices that are made aren't equivalent to the message the film tries to portray.
Best for: Film studies classes examining absurdist science fiction, unconventional narrative, and the use of human behavior in alien stories.
Horror, Slashers, and Supernatural Nightmares
Ghost in the Cell
Rating: 2.5/5
Ghost in the Cell follows Dimas (Endy Arfian) as the newspaper he writes for is on the verge of closing down. He has a breaking story, but his editor isn't happy with his writing. Suddenly, the editor is found brutally murdered in his office, and Dimas is blamed for it. He's sent to Jakarta prison, where similar murders occur and seem to follow him; each corpse is violently butchered and rearranged in a gruesomely artistic display.
Ghost in the Cell is a mix of comedy, action, and horror, but it's a film that goes on for far too long. It explores stereotypical and cliched prison material such as dropping the soap in the shower and a flamboyantly gay character being the dance instructor of the prison. The supernatural aspect seems to be a detour from Ju-On, as anger is a major factor in people dying horrifically. The film features three motivational speeches that are basically one after the other and are all for the same purpose, but it takes that long for it to work. The most creative aspect of the film is how the corpses are displayed.
Ghost in the Cell runs its course and feels like a hamster in a wheel, treading the same ground over and over again. People dancing and praying to get rid of their red auras and brawling constantly while a ghost mangles people with rage issues only goes so far.
Best for: Film studies courses examining genre mashups, prison stereotypes, sympathetic criminal characters, and action choreography.
Godmother
Rating: 4/5
In Godmother, Colby (Cameron Cuffe) intends to propose to his girlfriend Theo (Paige Evans) during a desert vacation. They are staying at a house belonging to the Martinsons (Bruce Davison and Dee Wallace), who now live down the road. They are welcoming but behave strangely, almost inappropriately so.
Theo disrupts Colby's plans when she insists that her sister Katie (Riley Dandy) stay with them as well. Katie is incredibly imposing and outgoing and likes to party. Things get even more tense when she brings two strangers back to the house simply because she met them after going out for a hike.
Godmother begins as a dark foray into the dangers of vacationing somewhere in the middle of nowhere and turns into something much more unexpected. The horror film feels like a familiar tale of an older couple inviting young couples out into the desert to take advantage of them, but the reason the Martinsons are doing it is totally wild and unpredictable. Figuring out who is involved, as well as where the film's boundaries truly lie, is what makes Godmother so scary and exhilarating.
Best for: R-rated Halloween programming, adult horror film clubs, and discussions of human behavior and genre expectations.
In a Violent Nature: Part 2
Rating: 3/5
One of two secret screenings was In a Violent Nature: Part 2. This was a workprint version of the film, as it was still being worked on and technically didn't have an actual release date when it screened. The sequel feels much more like a nod to the Friday the 13th franchise, as it picks up immediately after the first film with Johnny still wandering around the corpses he left previously.
The story then shifts to Alex (Lucas Nguyen), a 14-year-old on his last day of summer camp at Camp Puddingstone. Urban legend says that Johnny will kill anyone who blows a fireman's whistle three times; first he kills everyone else and then the whistleblower. Alex begins the film by blowing the whistle and, despite being bullied and having a crush on one of his counselors, soon realizes that he's the reason the campgrounds are covered in blood and countless bodies.
In a Violent Nature: Part 2 is everything you loved or hated about the first film, but more of it. The kills are even more creative and grotesque, and there's more of an actual story. If you've ever wanted to see someone's eyeball ripped out through their ear or someone's skull pushed out through the front of their face, then look no further.
Best for: Horror and film studies courses examining the slasher genre, censorship, gore, and how contemporary slashers engage with the films that inspired them.
The Cycle
Rating: 4.5/5
In The Cycle, Meg (Deborah Ann Wolf) works on a body farm and specializes in recreating corpse conditions in crime scenes to help identify victims regardless of their level of decomposition. Thirty-five years ago, Meg's father left her and her mother and never returned. In the present day, a crime scene with a double homicide is ruled as some sort of animal attack when both bodies appear to be torn apart.
However, a third corpse is found near the crime scene, but its condition is totally different. What they find is an older yet well-preserved corpse believed to be Meg's father. Meg works with the local police to solve the mystery of why her father, whose wounds indicate a death by asphyxiation, would be at this crime scene.
The Cycle is an intense crime thriller where nearly all of its horror elements are in its last half hour. The film feels like what made The X-Files so great: a riveting investigation that only gets stranger and more intriguing with every clue that's uncovered. What the film is hiding is hidden so well, but it is brought to light with spectacular special effects and impressive gore that transforms the film into something truly nasty, unsettling, and memorable.
Best for: Film studies courses examining mystery construction, narrative reveals, special effects, and the gradual transition from crime thriller to horror.
The Heretiks
Rating: 1.5/5
The Heretiks takes place on Halloween night, when a coven of witches plans to make a human sacrifice during an apocalyptic ritual. The Heretiks is a weird one because it is loaded with kid jokes and mouthy and obnoxious children, but the film gets more R-rated as it progresses.
The film begins as a glorified Lifetime network movie, diving into the broken relationship between sisters Ada (Josie Juliette Wert) and Mabel (Ava Mae Seidensticker). Ada is busy trying to get her ex-boyfriend back while the two argue about Ada being a bad older sister because their parents are never around. All of the drama is dropped during the last half hour, when suddenly people start throwing profanities around and there are full-body skin rips and splashes of gore.
The Heretiks dives more into human behaviors than it does witchcraft or who they worship. It's more of a drama with bits of action thrown in.
Best for: Adult Halloween film clubs and discussions of films that shift abruptly between family drama and graphic horror.
What Happened to Doris
Rating: 2/5
What Happened to Doris is a god-awful ghost film. It is based on true events that occurred in 1974 involving Doris Bither (Heather Graham), who was reportedly followed by a violent supernatural entity until she died. The ghost sexually violates her and somehow still isn't as troublesome as her three kids, who all behave like they need to be slapped or spanked endlessly until they stop acting so entitled and whiny.
The problem with ghost films like this that are based on a true story is that the fact the case was never solved is exploited for cheap scares and a cinematic narrative that doesn't have to make sense.
Best for: Media literacy classes and film clubs discussing supernatural stories, portrayals of women in the 1970s, and the challenges of adapting unresolved "true" stories into narrative films.
Platypus
Rating: 1/5
Platypus is a slasher film designed to look like 1970s horror, with bright red blood, a film-like look, and bottom-of-the-barrel acting. It feels deeply rooted in giallo, and that's about all it has going for it.
The killer is a guy in a baby mask painted white with a black soul patch, a black afro, a blue jean jacket, white slacks and gloves, and brown loafers. The kills are dumb too; a guy is stabbed through the back of the head while eating an apple by the river, two guys taking a bath together are hammered to death, and the killer catches someone off guard by playing a violin on a street corner in broad daylight before choking her to death.
The storyline isn't coherent at all, as actors can't hold a straight face, the camera is always out of focus, and there's a dance sequence for no reason. This girl is praised for her dance moves, but it's worse than Elaine's skill set on Seinfeld. There's also a guy who is somehow stalked by the killer while painting, and another scene sees the killer kill someone by forcing them to eat fiberglass insulation.
Platypus is so bad and so trashy, but it embraces it, blurry warts and all.
Best for: Media literacy and film studies classes examining 1970s horror homage, giallo influences, intentionally thin narratives, and the cultural appeal of nonsensical horror.
Victorian Psycho
Rating: 3.5/5
In Victorian Psycho, it's 1858, and Winifred Notty (Maika Monroe) is a governess beginning employment at Ensor House. The catch is she's totally insane, despite narration in which she claims to be the sanest person she knows, and is fighting something deep inside that is urging her to kill anyone at a moment's notice.
Victorian Psycho is relentless when it comes to its kills, but it's also very funny. She traumatizes the Ensor children but also chokes back the urge to slap them, yet kills babies because they won't stop crying. The film thrives because of an all-around talented cast, with Maika Monroe stealing every scene. Monroe juggles desperation and murderous urges as if her life depended on it, and she makes it both entertaining and believable, or as believable as possible when it comes to what's living in her stomach.
Best for: Sociology students, film clubs, and courses examining character behavior, social expectations, horror-comedy, and unreliable protagonists.
I Have Proof
Rating: 3/5
I Have Proof is a found-footage horror film where six VHS tapes of evidence are meant to prove that Alex (Larsen Deane) is being stalked by a demon. He's isolated himself in a motel room, doesn't speak, writes notes to the camera in blood, and stalks a woman at the local supermarket.
Much of the film is listening to Alex breathe heavily as he films himself. It's a bizarre film that takes the Frailty approach of addressing whether Alex is crazy and this is all in his head or if it's legitimate. It features some gnarly appendage removal and a predictable ending that is still somewhat satisfying.
Best for: Media literacy and film studies discussions of found footage, psychology, unreliable perspective, and how filmmakers manipulate uncertainty about a character's sanity.
Urei
Rating: 3/5
In Urei, a young teenage girl named Kalima is sent to the country to stay with her grandmother after getting caught drinking alcohol with her friends. However, the grandmother begins acting strangely, moaning and crying at night, walking around barefoot outside, and having violent mood swings with no recollection of her behavior toward her granddaughter.
As her parents are preoccupied with marital problems at home, Kalima's desire to contact them becomes dire when her grandmother takes a turn for the worse.
Urei follows an elderly woman who loses her mind and takes it out on her granddaughter. She has past trauma she's never been able to let go of that the film eventually reveals, but Urei's most shocking and horrific moment is erased when it's revealed to be a dream. Everything that follows that sequence isn't as extreme, and the film suffers for it.
While the performances are strong, the mystery is worth unraveling, and Kalima's treatment is devastatingly torturous, Urei chooses to strip itself of surprises with a journey to the end credits that is far safer than it should be.
Deep down, Urei is about forgiveness and letting go of the past.
Best for: Psychology students and film clubs exploring trauma, forgiveness, grief, family relationships, and psychological horror.
Pathetic Fallacy
Rating: 3/5
Iris (Jessica Rothe) is diagnosed with brain cancer at the beginning of Pathetic Fallacy and dies soon after. Her husband Asher (Kid Cudi) can't get over it and travels to Mount Samdi because he believes that he will somehow see her again there. He encounters Doyle (Travis Femmel), an off-the-grid woodsman who is also a murderer.
After barely escaping Doyle's clutches, Asher meets a magic talking black widow (Natasha Lyonne) and a group of smack-talking, flesh-eating prairie dogs that claim they'll grant any wish if Asher kills seven people.
Pathetic Fallacy is a fever dream of psychological horror that is essentially pure madness built around the tunnel of terror sequence from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The film also features several musical numbers where the infectious beats are far better than the obviously Auto-Tuned vocals. Pathetic Fallacy injects tear-jerking drama and ridiculous humor into acid-laced horror. It's definitely an experience.
Best for: Film clubs studying loss and grief, along with classroom discussions of trauma, psychological deterioration, and surreal horror.
Sick
Rating: 2.5/5
Sick sees 16-year-old Maks (Konrad Kakol) and 19-year-old Emma (Katarzyna Labik) taking care of their grandmother, who suffers from an extreme, bedridden case of dementia. She's also shedding her skin and excretes strange puddles of white goo.
This one is like a disturbing drama with overwhelmingly vile moments. Maks is at the age where he's always horny, and everything sets him off. There is so much sexual tension between him and Emma from the start that you can see where the film is going, and it's so gross that you can't help but see it through to the end.
The film is well-made and beautifully shot, while Maks and Emma inappropriately tease each other throughout the entire film. It has shades of Lars von Trier's Antichrist, where lust and desire trump any sort of logical thought.
Best for: Film studies courses examining taboo cinema, incestuous narratives, censorship, and how filmmakers find cinematic value in deliberately uncomfortable material. Adult-only library programming may also find discussion value here.
The Blood Countess
Rating: 1/5
A book that threatens vampires is hidden in Vienna in The Blood Countess. Countess Bathory (Isabelle Huppert) is on the hunt for it along with a red elixir of life, with the help of her maid Zofe Hermine (Birgit Minichmayr).
Described as a campy comedy, The Blood Countess has exquisite costumes and was shot on location in Vienna, so it's an eye-catching film. However, the film is all people playing dress-up while crashing fancy dinners, extravagant balls, and Ferris wheel meals. The silly character name is the only humor The Blood Countess has.
Best for: Media literacy, literary analysis, vampire and monster film clubs, and discussions comparing different approaches to familiar supernatural characters.
Corpus
Rating: 3/5
In 1998, Sayo (Jeff Wahlberg) is a nightlife photographer. His ex-boyfriend Vince (Brodie Townsend) comes back to town after nine months of no contact and invites Sayo to a party along with another regular and wealthy partygoer named Ross (Michael Vlamis).
The party turns out to be a casual get-together with another model named Wren (Nuha Jes Izman), another photographer named Billie (Lily Cowles), and Billie's partner Cata (Ching Valdes-Aran). As sex becomes more than implied between the five of them, something much more sinister is in play.
Corpus is a gay horror thriller with some supernatural aspects sprinkled in for good measure. The film is hiding something that redefines Corpus as psychological horror, and its execution is so well done. The biggest issue is that the film is too horny for its own good, as it focuses on the sexual tension between everyone rather than the incredible horror concept it introduces.
Best for: LGBTQ+ film programming, Pride Month screenings for adult audiences, queer horror film clubs, and discussions of genre twists and psychological horror.
Half
Rating: 2.5/5
Half is an Indian thriller where twins are left for dead after bandits target them and try to steal everything they have. But once night falls, the twins heal and begin to leave a bloody trail of revenge.
Half does a terrible job of explaining that the twins are vampires. They walk around in sunlight and don't drink any actual blood until the last scene. The story is thin and the acting is bad, but the action sequences, choreographed by Very Tri Yulisman, whose credits include The Raid 2 and The Night Comes for Us, are bloody spectacular.
The action is great and the gore is impressive, but Half has incredibly upbeat music that doesn't match the overall vengeful tone of the film.
Best for: Film clubs interested in vampire action cinema, seasonal horror programming, and classroom discussions of genre evolution. Comparing it with films such as Blade or the Underworld franchise could make for a useful genre study.
Animation, Shorts, and Midnight Weirdness
Udders
Rating: 3/5
The short Udders played before Flapjax. Udders sees a naked man frantically running through a cornfield, but he has cow udders where his genitals should be. He cuts off one of his teats and passes out.
When he wakes up, he's been captured and bound. He's then milked, killed, turned into burgers, and eaten. It's short and disturbing.
Best for: Adult horror film clubs, short-film programming, body horror discussions, and film students examining extreme genre imagery.
Flapjax
Rating: 3/5
Flapjax follows fast-food chain Hamudders manager Arrow Bentley (Gabriel Cagan) attempting to save the Hamudders brand as nobody seems to be buying their food anymore. Higher-ups insist that the only way to bring people back to Hamudders is to bring back their flapjax, but never to eat them. Not only are the flapjax a hit, but people begin going a little too crazy for them.
Arrow is a lot like a live-action version of SpongeBob SquarePants, extremely perky and enthusiastic about his work when no one else is. The comedy is overwhelmingly corny and outrageous, but the Society-like body horror it turns into almost makes up for it.
Best for: Horror film studies, discussions of fast-food satire, adult Halloween programming, and film clubs interested in body horror.
Welcome to Dolly's House
Rating: 1/5
Welcome to Dolly's House sees two influencers who specialize in streaming the abnormal become infatuated with a mysterious woman, her mansion, and the dolls that she creates. This one is unfortunate, as it's a breakthrough for Taiwanese animation, but the story is massively predictable and the animation is clunky. Backgrounds are gorgeously vivid and full of color, but human characters seem stiff and rigid.
The main character, Princess Maria, is so clingy and whiny that you aren't invested in her story. All the horror the film promises is in its final ten minutes, which is the film's highlight. But Princess Maria's infatuation with her boyfriend A-Yue is mind-boggling because he's a selfish jerk who is on the verge of breaking up with her the entire film. The film's beginning tries to explain why he feels the way he does, but it feels like he uses her the rest of the time while his feelings seem to reside with someone else.
Best for: Libraries building mature animation collections, animation studies, and viewers interested in Taiwanese animation and horror.
Fight for the Fantasy
Rating: 1.5/5
Fight for the Fantasy is a ten-minute short revolving around online dating. The short is supposed to be a comedy, but Clarice (Sara Hennessy) is hopelessly desperate for anyone to have sex with. Divorced twice and wanting to fornicate as often as possible, Clarice matches with Gino (Nick Naney), a guy who looks kind of like Adam Sandler, doesn't have a job, and can name the year any film was released off the top of his head.
Clarice is an obnoxious motor-mouth with pick-me energy. She tries so hard to be funny and accepted but is overwhelmingly annoying. Meanwhile, Gino is the quieter of the two yet also wants to make this work no matter what.
The online dating part of the short is incredibly accurate, but Clarice lays it on so monstrously thick that nobody in their right mind would actually stick around to deal with all of that.
Best for: Adult film clubs and discussions of online dating, romance, and how people behave when they're searching for connection.
Drawn & Quartered
Ratings: Wolpie of the Woods 3.5/5; Insecticida 3.5/5; The Magician 4/5; Shape of Your Heart 1.5/5; Visit Into Irradiated Land 1.5/5; Eight Uncomfortable Robots 3/5; Pre-Parenting 3/5; Starlit 3/5; Penguin 3/5.
Drawn & Quartered is a block of animated shorts that Fantastic Fest prides itself on being made by humans, meaning no AI.
The Magician was my favorite, as it was one of the funniest things I've seen during the festival. Every short was worthwhile, but I didn't care for Visit Into Irradiated Land. The animation style is interesting but was a slog to get through.
Shape of Your Heart felt like it lasted an eternity and was purposely some of the ugliest animation, like a third grader trying to recreate the style of Dr. Katz. Starlit is cool because it looks like it was animated with marker drawings on paper. Insecticida is a frenetic animation set to chaotic jazz, a turbulent mix of claymation with splashes of ink and paint.
Some of these shorts are seen here or at other festivals but aren't available to see otherwise, or ever again.
Best for: Animation-oriented film clubs, film students comparing animation techniques, and discussions of independent short-form animation.
Magick Mtn.
Rating: 1/5
Magick Mtn. is three stories about a drug addict, a goblin with a curse that likes to steal, and the devil. The film is supposed to have some sort of satanic theme, but it's not a movie, as there's no real story.
It's a bunch of rambling sequences and stretched-out scenes of people doing nothing with a vague demonic thread stringing everything along. It's not funny or interesting. Magick Mtn. is just grayscale boredom set to the tune of '80s hair metal. It's a rough watch.
Best for: Student film clubs and experimental-film discussions about narrative structure, or the intentional lack of it.
Terms & Conditions
Rating: 3/5
Terms & Conditions is an eight-minute short about a guy using ChatGPT to help him summon a demon. Once summoned, he describes a woman who turned down his advances and wishes for the demon to take the woman back to Hell. The demon then forces him to create a new password and read the terms and conditions, which proves to be more difficult than it sounds.
Terms & Conditions is a clever take on demon summoning and the lengths we go through to get what we want.
Best for: Short-film clubs, horror-comedy programming, and community screenings centered on human behavior, contracts, technology, or the absurd.
Mr. Creamjeans' Hidey Hole
Rating: 2/5
Mr. Creamjeans' Hidey Hole is a demented anthology revolving around the stinkiest and raunchiest jokes regarding sex and male and female genitalia you'll possibly ever come across.
The film is five stories. The first sees a group of construction workers get attacked by a group of women who secretly spit acid out of their most desirable orifice. The second is about a woman who can't satisfy her husband's BDSM needs. The third has a man who has a crush on his female neighbor while his wheelchair-bound grandfather, clearly made of papier-mâché or some sort of other homemade arts and crafts, craves blood and consumes it through his giant elephant trunk of a phallic member. The fourth is about a serial killer who dismembers women's genitalia and wears them as a skin poncho. The wraparound story is about Mr. Creamjeans himself (Josh Griffey, who also co-wrote the film) blackmailing someone he views as an artist but who has a dark secret of his own.
The writing of the film deserves some accolades because the sexual puns are ridiculous and constant, but the comedy is like a one-hit wonder on repeat for 90 minutes. It'll be viewed as disgusting to some, but even those with this type of humor will view it as growing redundant within the first half hour.
The film was made for a measly $40K and is the equivalent of sticking yourself into a greasy glory hole at a nasty truck stop and hoping you don't catch something; all pleasure and no protection. Its decision to have a no-holds-barred perspective of raunchy humor and carnal desires leaves you feeling like there's no real structure apart from a constant string of ejaculate jokes.
Best for: Adult film clubs focused on raunchy comedy, along with potential college discussions of gender, sociology, sexual humor, and cultural taboos. This is not a practical choice for general library or community screenings.
Burnt ENDominations
Ratings: Psycho Psalms 4/5; Demoni Ferox: Night People Stole My Baby 3.5/5; Showgirls: The Da Da Edit 3/5; Tom Thumb 3/5; I Have A 3.5/5; Mother Earth 2/5.
Burnt ENDominations is a yearly series of animated shorts the likes of which you won't see anywhere else.
Psycho Psalms is a series of four shorts that are mostly about a character known as Timecrow. It's stop-motion and seesaws back and forth between being totally psychedelic and weird and being laugh-out-loud funny. This was the highlight of the block and one of the best films at the festival.
Demoni Ferox: Night People Stole My Baby is another stop-motion short but is memorable due to how visually disturbing it is. Showgirls: The Da Da Edit reimagines certain sequences of Paul Verhoeven's Showgirls but animated with crayons on paper. Tom Thumb was animated with paper cutouts and looks a lot like Terry Gilliam's animated sequences in Monty Python's Flying Circus. I Have A is animated traditionally but has one segment with a snake puppet. It's a guy musically listing all the things he has in life and is a total bop.
Lastly, Mother Earth is disappointing. Based on the first issue of a Skinner comic book, this was animated in Cinema 4D and is completely computer-generated. Skinner brought this incredible short in 2025, known as Shrine of Abominations, which is an all-time great stop-motion animated short, and this is really ugly in comparison. Skinner's style and character design are there, but the CGI looks dated on purpose, and the story never moves past humans and aliens killing each other.
Best for: Animation-oriented film clubs and film students comparing stop-motion, paper animation, traditional animation, CGI, and other experimental techniques.
Thrillers, Drama, Action, and Everything Else
Death Has No Master
Rating: 1.5/5
Death Has No Master is an Italian Canadian Venezuelan dramatic thriller written and directed by Jorge Thielen Armand. It stars Asia Argento and is trying to say something about entitlement and who owns what after somebody dies.
Caro (Argento) returns home to sell her deceased father's house, but single mother Sonia (Dogreika Tovar) and her son Maiko (Yermain Sequera) have been living there for more than five years, caring for the property, and believe they have a right to stay. The film is supposedly psychological but is mostly 100 minutes of Argento riding in a car, walking around, reading books, and having weird canyon visions of a masked man telling her to kill people.
She throws a temper tantrum when things don't go her way and wanders out into the rainforest to rub dirt on herself. She also gives a child alcohol because he was digging through her room. People start dying when Caro tries to hire someone to get Sonia and her people out.
The film tries to dance around a sort of Kill Bill form of revenge that implies that death can take anyone, but the film is an aimless bore. "There is no land. There is no God. There is no house. There is nothing." Death Has No Master is a film gushing with nothing.
Best for: Film studies courses examining human behavior during crisis, property and entitlement themes, and unsuccessful psychological-thriller narratives.
Jollyface
Rating: 3/5
Jollyface is a horror thriller from first-time filmmaker Justin Floyd. A white woman named Blair (Emily Kimball) and a black man named Nick (Kofi Siriboe) are longtime partners on the verge of proposing to one another.
Just when it seems like they're about to take the next step of their lives, Nick is shot and killed. Originally ruled as a black-on-black crime, Blair becomes obsessed with discovering who killed her husband. Meanwhile, everyone around her begins to show their true colors.
Jollyface has a jaw-dropping revelation about halfway through, but its overall message is muddled and unclear. It can't decide if it wants to say something timely about racism or that everyone is racist to some capacity and the battle against it can never be won. It's a surprising film that deserves to be seen, but unfortunately, it simply doesn't live up to its own potential.
Best for: Teachers, librarians, and film clubs looking to encourage critical thinking and discussion around racism, systemic issues, and complicated social dynamics.
Girl in the Night
Rating: 3/5
Girl in the Night opens with Rok as a kleptomaniac who steals to feel something. He crosses paths with a young girl who spends her nights helping people and fighting crime. His desire to steal results in him stealing her bike. Once she finds out, she swears to kill whoever stole it.
Rok then joins up with her as her sidekick not only to fight crime but also to find her bike, even if it costs him his life.
Girl in the Night feels like Kick-Ass if it had the tone and ambiance of Let the Right One In. The girl, played by Lara Wolf, is all business, can handle herself, and delivers a couple of decent brawling sequences. The film toys with whether or not she actually has a superpower.
Rok's actions are strangely selfish and manipulative, as he's constantly lying to his roommate Kremen (Rok Roudi), and the crime-fighting sidekick thing is a questionable motive for him.
You're under the impression he starts doing it to keep an eye on the girl and steer her away from ever discovering that he stole her bike, but it becomes more of an explanation of why he did what he did. It's an intriguing perspective that adds to the overall enjoyment of the film, but Girl in the Night feels far too familiar to leave a long-lasting impression.
Best for: Community screenings and film clubs interested in superhero stories told from a criminal or antihero perspective.
Attack on Paradise
Rating: 2.5/5
Attack on Paradise tries so hard to be a worthwhile action film, and it just isn't. The narrative is basically the same as Dredd or The Raid, where the main characters are trying to survive while traveling to different stories of a high-rise building.
The issue is that the action choreography is bland, with lots of brawling and stabbing but nothing of value, and all of the blood in the film is crusty-looking CGI splatters.
The John Wick nature of Attack on Paradise hints at the film being an entertaining addition to a community screening calendar at a local library. It would likely be a crowd-pleasing film for the average movie watcher.
Best for: Adult community screenings, action film clubs, and discussions comparing contemporary action choreography and high-rise survival narratives.
A Prayer for the Dying
Rating: 3/5
A Prayer for the Dying is based on the book of the same name. In 1870 Wisconsin, an outbreak is decimating the entire town of Friendship. To make matters worse, a wildfire changes course and is heading straight for them. Jacob Hansen (Johnny Flynn), the town sheriff, is forced to decide who to save and how he'll save the survivors of the disease.
Beautifully shot and expertly acted, the biggest issue A Prayer for the Dying has is that it is so slow by design. It is also tremendously bleak, which will likely make or break your opinion of it.
Best for: Book-to-film programming, classroom compare-and-contrast assignments, historical drama screenings, and film students interested in cinematography and deliberately slow pacing.
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