Festival season is finally winding down, and holy shit, it’s been a run. From Fantasia in Montreal to the Toronto […]
Festival season is finally winding down, and holy shit, it’s been a run.
From Fantasia in Montreal to the Toronto International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest in Austin, our writers have spent the past few months digging through everything from giant snake movies to gothic revenge stories, haunted puppets, and some deeply weird body horror.
We’re not completely finished, of course. Beyond Fest is still going, with premieres and repertory screenings that make me incredibly jealous of anyone who lives close enough to take advantage of them. But before we get completely swallowed by October, I wanted to stop and highlight some of the movies our critics have been excited about.
Some of these you’ve already seen us talking about. Others could easily get lost in the sheer amount of stuff coming out of these festivals. That’s why we do this.
Here are 12 films from Dread Central’s July–September festival coverage worth keeping on your radar, with our critics’ scores and links to their full reviews. All ratings are out of five. There’s also a bonus pick at the end that’s particularly close to my heart.
FANTASIA
Black Zombie
★★★★★
A zombie documentary earned one of our biggest recommendations of the summer.
film explores the zombie’s roots in Haitian culture and the ways Hollywood transformed that history into the flesh-eating monsters we know today. praised its depth and perspective, writing, “Discovering the roots of zombie lore through Bedward’s lens is an intellectual pleasure.”
Maya Annik Bedward’s
Caroline Colvin
If you’ve spent your life watching zombie movies, this sounds like a pretty essential addition to the conversation. Read Caroline’s full review ofBlack Zombie.
Suzuki=Bakudan
★★★★☆
A man arrested for disorderly conduct claims he can predict a series of bombings. Then his predictions start coming true.
That’s the setup for Akira Nagai’s interrogation thriller, which Daniel Kurland called “a white-knuckle cat-and-mouse masterpiece.” Daniel found some of its additional plot threads less compelling, but the central battle of wills delivered the kind of tension that makes a movie hard to shake.
Sometimes a room, a terrifying suspect, and a ticking clock are all you need. Read Daniel’s full review ofSuzuki=Bakudan.
Corpus
★★★★☆
Corrin Evans’ erotic horror film follows a photographer whose encounter with a toxic ex leads her to a remote mansion and a gathering of mysterious women.
Caroline Colvin praised the film’s intimacy, atmosphere, and uneasy relationships, with body horror waiting beneath the seductive surface. Their verdict: “you’re in for a steamy treat.”
For anyone looking for something a little more sensual, strange, and uncomfortable in their horror rotation, this belongs on the list. Read Caroline’s full review ofCorpus.
Godhead
★★★½☆
Two strange siblings approach a priest with an impossible request: determine which of them is the Holy Spirit. Things get considerably worse from there.
Mark H. Rapaport’s black-and-white nightmare impressed Ashliene McMenamy, who called it “philosophical, tender, and breathtakingly beautiful all at once.” She had questions about some of its unresolved ideas, but its performances and imagery left a real impression.
This is the kind of uncomfortable festival discovery that gives you something to argue about afterward. Read Ashliene’s full review ofGodhead.
TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Everybody Wants to F*ck Me
★★★★½
A man suddenly becomes irresistible to women. Sounds like a fantasy, right? Then the attention turns into obsession, stalking, and something considerably more frightening.
Jonathan Schey’s feature debut was one of Seth Fox’s biggest TIFF surprises, with Taron Egerton (Carry-On) playing a supposedly enlightened “nice guy” whose carefully constructed persona starts falling apart.
Seth’s verdict says plenty: “Funny, scary, deeply uncomfortable, and at times genuinely intense. A phenomenal directorial debut.”
Anna Biller’s gothic horror film earned a huge recommendation from Matt Konopka, who found a richly stylized nightmare driven by betrayal and vengeance.
He described it as “a gruesome, gothic haunter as colorful as it is tragic, as infuriating as it is hysterical.”
Matt had some reservations about the length, but the film’s embrace of theatricality and classic gothic horror more than worked for him. If your idea of a good time involves gorgeous sets and deeply unpleasant people getting what’s coming to them, take a look.
“It’s a road movie with vampires where the destination is vengeance.”
That’s how Matt Konopka summed up Samjad’s bloody revenge film, which sends half-vampire twins through a violent ordeal in the Rajasthan desert.
Matt found the story fairly thin, but the action and energy carried it. Not every festival discovery needs to leave you untangling its meaning for three days. Sometimes you want vampires, revenge, and a movie that puts its foot on the gas.
We’ve been talking quite a bit about this one, and Matt Konopka’s review gives you a good idea why.
Joshua Giuliano’s slasher follows siblings whose trip to scatter their father’s ashes becomes a nightmare. Matt wrote, “River’s like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre if it were run through a French Extremity filter.”
He wasn’t sold on every tonal shift, but its dread and brutality made an impression. That comparison alone should put it on plenty of your watchlists.
A grieving young man buys a house and discovers tapes of a disturbing children’s puppet show. Yeah, that sounds like something we should be paying attention to.
Nicolas Curcio’s feature debut, co-written with Kirby Gladstein, impressed Mary Beth McAndrews with its mix of frightening imagery and compassion for people struggling to figure out adulthood.
She called it “a deeply affecting horror experience that’s both haunting and life-affirming in one fell swoop.” Creepy puppets get you through the door; apparently, the characters make it worth staying.
Joko Anwar traps a group of inmates inside a prison with a murderous supernatural presence, and somehow the result is also surprisingly heartwarming.
Mary Beth McAndrews called it “one of the nastiest feel-good horror movies out there,” praising the combination of grotesque violence, comedy, and camaraderie.
That’s an unusual combination, and exactly the kind of thing I love seeing come out of these festivals. Give us something vicious, then make us care about the people trying to survive it.
Let’s end our review picks with a giant fucking snake.
Mike P. Nelson’s Amazon-set survival horror film earned a pretty memorable endorsement from Matt Konopka, who called it “the meanest, bloodiest, scariest giant snake film to ever slither onto screens.”
Matt flagged some pacing and supporting-character issues, but the creature mayhem delivered. There’s room for a ridiculous snake movie, and there’s room for one that wants to make you afraid of what’s moving beneath the water. This sounds firmly interested in the latter.
And while we’re here, I have to give a little love to The Heretiks, which had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest.
Full disclosure: I’m a producer on the film, and it’s a production of Be Afraid, the company that owns Dread Central, alongside Bleiberg Entertainment. So, yeah, I have a pretty personal reason to be excited about this one.
Directed by Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead, SiREN) and written by Luke Piotrowski and Ben Collins (The Night House, Hellraiser), this Halloween-set home invasion movie follows a renegade witch protecting a group of young people from her former coven, whose plans involve a sacrifice and the end of the world.
We’ve poured a whole lot of love into this movie, and I think it’s great. Keep your eye out for it. I’m excited for you to see what we’ve been working on.
