Our Frightening Five: A Quintet of Films We Can’t Wait to See at Fantasia 2026
The 30th edition of Fantasia International Film Festival kicks off later this week, running from July 16–August 2 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The fest is world famous for its annual droolworthy array of genre films from around the world, including horror, science fiction, dark comedies, animation, and beyond. I’ve taken an early deep dive into some of the films slated for this year, and here I present previews of five highly promising feature-length films. The following film descriptions and festival details are from Fantasia’s official website and related press information. Ancestral Beasts Director Tim Riedel’s psychological horror ANCESTRAL BEASTS was a 2025 Frontieres Platform project at Cannes, and it’s coming to Fantasia for its world premiere! Four years after the loss of her mother, Elyse (Morgan Holstrom, OUTLANDER, SHADOW OF THE ROUGAROU) can’t get her head right. She’s messing up at work, needs stress leave, and her sister, Nikki (Darla Contois, LITTLE BIRD, ABERDEEN), is on her case about everything.
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