There are so many incredible selections at this year’s edition of Fantasia International Film Festival that we had to run at least one more curtain raiser article for the fest besides our first one! Fantasia 2025 takes place from July 16–August 3 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The fest is renowned for its wide array of quality genre films, from horror to science fiction to animation to quirky comedies and beyond. Here Horror Fuel previews another seven of the highly promising fear fare films on tap for this year’s edition of Fantasia. The following film descriptions and festival details are from Fantasia’s official website and related press information.
For more information, visit https://fantasiafestival.com/en.
AN EXHILARATING FEAT OF FILMMAKING: GABRIELE MAINETTI’S THE FORBIDDEN CITY
Two unlikely people, a chef and an immigrant martial artist, search (and fight!) for the truth in the underbelly of Rome in this massively entertaining mix of martial arts, crime, and romance. Unquestionably one of the best films of 2025, THE FORBIDDEN CITY establishes Fantasia alum Gabriele Mainetti (2016’s THEY CALL ME JEEG and 2023’s FREAKS OUT) as one of the best commercial filmmakers in movies today, with a cinematic knockout that’s guaranteed to slap a huge smile on your face. Yaxi Liu, making her formal lead acting debut after blowing minds as the main stunt double in MULAN, truly impresses with a breakout performance that’s by turns strong, funny, and heartbreaking. Co-starring Enrico Borello (FAMILIA), Sabrina Ferilli (THE GREAT BEAUTY), and Marco Giallini (PERFECT STRANGERS), films like this don’t come along often – and THE FORBIDDEN CITY promises to become a new favorite. North American Premiere.
NESTING DELIVERS A VISCERAL LOOK AT MOTHERHOOD
A familiar name to Fantasia audiences, Chloé Cinq-Mars returns to the festival with her debut feature, NESTING (PEAU À PEAU). Delving into the quiet horrors of early motherhood, the film opens with a scream in the night. Pénélope (Rose-Marie Perreault, FAKE TATTOOS), a new mother grappling with sleep deprivation and postpartum depression, finds herself unable to separate dream from reality. After witnessing a violent hold-up in a convenience store, her already fragile psyche begins to crack. Sensitive and haunting, NESTING offers an intimate, unsettling portrait of a mother unraveling. Perreault delivers a career-defining performance, capturing Pénélope’s disintegration and tender attempts at self-reclamation. Denied the idealized “glow” of new motherhood, she’s left to drift in darkness, slowly losing her grip on reality. What emerges is a chilling and deeply human exploration of identity, isolation, and the aching silence surrounding maternal mental health. Les Fantastiques Week-Ends du Cinéma Québécois 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.
GARO: TAIGA MARKS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE TOKUSATSU FRANCHISE
Since the 1980s, director, screenwriter, and designer Keita Amemiya (KAMEN RIDER, ZEIRAM) has brought his special touch, full of surprising innovations and peculiar fascinations, to the universe of tokusatsu—Japanese sci-fi cinema and television. For the last twenty years, Amemiya’s main focus has been his ever-expanding world of GARO, an ongoing chronicle of otherworldly conflict resplendent with gothic gravitas and gruesome monsters, mystical symbolism, and elegant steampunk accents. This latest work reveals the story of Taiga Saejima, who, like his descendants after him, assumes the lupine aspect and magical armor of Golden Knight Garo to battle the demonic Horrors. Entirely accessible to newcomers to the franchise, GARO: TAIGA marks its 20th anniversary in grand style. World Premiere.
DOLLHOUSE (Japan) – dir. Shinobu Yaguchi
Director and screenwriter Shinobu Yaguchi (SWING GIRLS) takes an intelligent and effective approach to horror cinema in this downward spiral involving an evil doll. Official Selection: Fantasporto 2025, Hong Kong International Film Festival 2025. Canadian Premiere.
DUI SHAW (Bangladesh) – dir. Nuhash Humayun
Following 2023’s folk-horror anthology PETT KATA SHAW, four new fearful fables from the leading light of genre film in Bangladesh, this time redirecting focus towards social ills plaguing South Asia. Each of DUI SHAW’s segments is strikingly distinct in theme and tone, ranging from gritty and gruesome to haunting, hilarious, mythic, and magically musical. Official selection: SXSW 2025 Canadian Premiere.
