Published Aug 18, 2026, 12:01 PM EDT
Ryan O’Rourke is a Senior News Writer at Collider with a specific interest in all things adult animation, video game adaptations, and the work of Mike Flanagan. He is also an experienced baseball writer with over six years of articles between multiple outlets, most notably FanSided’s CubbiesCrib. Whether it’s taking in a baseball game, a new season of Futurama or Castlevania: Nocturne, or playing the latest From Software title, he is always finding ways to show his fandom. When it comes to gaming and anything that takes inspiration from it, he is deeply opinionated on what’s going on. Outside of entertainment, he’s a graduate of Eureka College with a Bachelor’s in Communication where he honed his craft as a writer. Between The IV Leader at Illinois Valley Community College and The Pegasus at Eureka, he spent the majority of his college career publishing articles on everything from politics to campus happenings and, of course, entertainment for the student body. Those principles he learned covering the 2020 election, Palestine, and so much more are brought here to Collider, where he has gleefully written on everything from the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes to Nathan Lane baby-birding sewer boys.
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Fall film festival season is just around the corner, which means it’s almost the most fantastic time of the year. In exactly one month, Fantastic Fest, the U.S.’s premier genre cinema festival, will be back for its 21st iteration in Austin, Texas, to showcase the very best in horror, sci-fi, and more from September 17 through 24. This year, the event will play host to a selection of 73 features and episodic projects, including 35 World Premieres, 21 International and North American Premieres, and 14 U.S. Premieres. That’s all in addition to the typical special events with exciting guests and Opening and Closing Night parties that bookend the fest with a bang.
Last year’s iteration was a milestone for Fantastic Fest, marking 20 years since Alamo Drafthouse’s Tim League founded the event as a haven for unique cinematic experiences that challenge audiences. For 2026, the festival will continue to expand with high-profile, highly-anticipated projects in addition to under-the-radar gems looking to make an impression. The full lineup of feature and episodic titles has been unveiled today, and it begins with two exciting features that emphasize all the festival stands for. Making its world premiere as the festival’s opening film is Lionsgate’s creature feature Beware Boiúna, following a medical mission in the Amazon that evolves into a fight for survival against a giant serpent of legend. Alongside it, Zach Cregger’s much-anticipated Resident Evil, based on Capcom’s beloved series of survival horror games, will be shown in a gala screening for a one-two punch of chilling yet bombastic action.
On the flip side, directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer will close out the festivities with The Swallow, starring Stranger Things’ Grace Van Dien. Described as a “brutally efficient, effects-forward survival horror,” it brings the throwback vibes with a story of rebellious teenagers who, after busting into a fenced-off area of the woods, are terrorized by a sentient ooze with the consistency of quicksand. As for the films in between the cappers, there are plenty of highlights. Victorian Psycho, starring Maika Monroe and Jason Isaacs, and the body horror Bloody Tennis will notably make their North American premieres, while Shudder’s Deborah Ann Woll-led The Cycle stands out among the buzzy world premieres. Horror maestro Mike Flanagan will also return to the festival to preview the first two episodes of his Carrie adaptation for the first time in the U.S. before it premieres on Prime Video on October 7. Attendees will even get to take in a screening of Martin McDonagh’s prospective Oscar contender Wild Horse Nine after its Venice debut.
Your instincts, your strengths, and your particular way of thinking under pressure point to one villain you actually have a fighting chance against. Everyone else — good luck.
Jason is relentless, but he is also predictable — and that is the gap you would exploit.
Michael watches before he moves. He is patient, methodical, and almost impossible to detect — until it’s too late for anyone who isn’t paying close enough attention.
Freddy wins by getting inside your head — using your own fears, your own memories, your own subconscious as weapons against you. That strategy requires a target who can be destabilised.
Pennywise is ancient, shapeshifting, and feeds on terror — but it has one critical vulnerability: it cannot function against someone who genuinely stops being afraid of it.
Chucky’s greatest advantage is that nobody takes him seriously until it’s already too late. He exploits the gap between how something looks and what it actually is.
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Fantastic Fest is often a great launch pad for fledgling filmmakers, and that remains true this year with the return of Fantastic Pitches. Filmmaking teams will present their projects live for a chance at winning $100,000 in financing, distribution, and sales provided by Chroma and Narrative Global Sales to jump-start their idea, along with other goodies. First prize will be decided by a panel of judges hosted by Gore Verbinski and Catherine Hardwicke, and, to coincide with it, the event will world premiere last year’s winner, Play House. That’ll be just one of several exciting events and screenings outside the typical entries, as the fest also offers looks at new restorations, live podcast recordings, conversations, a concert, and a ceremony celebrating director Walter Hill with a special award and a viewing of his underrated neo-western classic Extreme Prejudice.
Festival Director Lisa Dreyer emphasized that, although Fantastic Fest offers attractions for all manner of genre enjoyers, the focus remains on the next generation of acclaimed filmmakers. She teased that, 21 years in, the event is only building on its programming designed to share fresh talent with audiences.
“This year, we’re doubling down on what we do best: introducing the world to exciting new talent and helping launch filmmakers’ careers. We really focused our programming efforts on bringing new discoveries to our audience of discerning and passionate cinephiles. I guarantee we have the next batch of breakout directors in our lineup, and you’ll discover them first at Fantastic Fest.”
Fantastic Fest runs from September 17 through 24 at the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar in Austin, Texas. Check out the full lineup below.
Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, Croatia, Luxembourg, 2026
Three weeks after his friend’s suicide, a teenager joins his classmates on a school trip. As the bullying escalates and tensions boil over, tongues loosen, forcing the truth out into the open.
A husband and wife in an ailing marriage discover that actions really do have consequences in this darkly funny twist on the time loop motif.
When three fathers volunteer to chaperone their teenage daughters’ school trip, the initially idyllic getaway quickly reveals brutal social dynamics that have them in over their heads.
After seven years of no sleep, grief, and nightmares, Suleyman finally reunites with his mother in Paradise—just as henchmen, cops, and one very bad raid drag him back into hell.
Deep in the Amazon, a medical mission spirals into a fight for survival when Boiúna, a colossal ancient predator, awakens to reclaim her domain. In the jungle where nature holds absolute power, she decides who lives and who dies.
Happy biiiirthday to you! Nora is turning 40, and for her birthday she’ll be getting three uninvited guests who claim she isn’t who she says she is, plus the unraveling of her carefully constructed life.
Elizabeth Báthory, a recently reawakened vampire, pursues an ancient artifact that could destroy her family in present-day Austria.
World Premiere of the 4K Restoration, 67 min
A 4K restoration of the world’s first “splatter” film from AGFA + Something Weird.
Sophie’s coming of age gets sweatier and bloodier than expected when she joins a summer tennis academy where the blood-red morning smoothie is by far the least weird thing going on.
After her father’s sudden, untimely death thrusts her into the unforgiving ecosystem of public high school, Carrie is forced to navigate a viral bullying scandal that tears through her community, the relentless pressure and casual cruelty of the social‑media
age, and the awakening of mysterious telekinetic powers that rise alongside her adolescence.
USA, 1908, 1910, 1912, 1919, 1922, 1929, 1930
Directors - THE THIEVING HAND - Unknown Director / FRANKENSTEIN - J. Searle Dawley / DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE - Lucius J. Henderson / THE GHOST OF SLUMBER MOUNTAIN - Willis O’Brien / HÄXAN: HELL SEQUENCE - Benjamin Christensen / HELLS BELLS - Ub Iwerks / THE
HAUNTED SHIP - John Foster & Mannie Davis
A live string quartet plays new scores for seven classic silent horror short films. Seven composers, aged 17 to 24, composed new scores for these films under the mentorship of some of the industry’s top professionals.
A corporate client relations rep pulls a loose string, unraveling a vast conspiracy in this doom-laden found footage stunner.
Three friends flee the club scene for an exclusive, steamy party at a remote estate only to find themselves victims of increasingly erotic and violent supernatural attacks.
When the body of a man missing for thirty-six years is discovered at the scene of a horrific crime, it’s up to his estranged daughter to unravel his dark past.
Venezuela, Canada, Italy, Luxembourg, 2026
After her father’s death, Caro travels to Venezuela to sell the family cacao plantation, only to find it occupied by a mother who refuses to leave—forcing Caro down a path of violence with devastating consequences.
A dying man returns to his childhood home to film messages for his son when he discovers a supernatural presence haunting the isolated cabin in this emotional ghost movie.
Banned in Thailand for almost 30 years for insulting religion, and maybe the monarchy too, the elusive DOG GOD emerges as a gleefully anarchic critique of blind faith.
Chile, France, Netherlands, Uruguay, Germany, 2026
Directors - Cristóbal León & Joaquín Cociña
In a kingdom where love has been declared a plague, a princess travels across different realities to find love, confront grief, and attain individuation.
Nick Nolte stars as a Texas Ranger engaged in a showdown against his former childhood friend turned drug kingpin, played by Powers Boothe, in this classic neo-Western action film.
A vain knight, an inconvenient wife, and a marriage built on murder. Anna Biller’s gloriously lurid ghost story proves that killing your wife may only be the beginning of your problems.
An annoyingly optimistic, but endearingly earnest, fast food restaurant manager is tasked with relaunching the long-dormant product, Flapjax, and no amount of mysterious warnings or disappearances are going to get in his way in this campy horror-comedy.
North American Premiere of the 4K Restoration, 89 min
Tired of only fantasizing about murdering young, attractive men, Dennis decides to take the plunge and do the deed in this restoration of Todd Verow’s 1995 gay serial killer fantasia.
Tim, Eric, K-Stew, Woody, and Dupieux team up in this feature-length comic romp that’ll leave your belly full o’ laffs.
In a dystopian future, a young couple clashes during their time-traveling vacation.
A joyous celebration of imagination, awkward parenthood, and the transformative power of play that ventures deep into the wonderfully eccentric world of live-action role-playing.
Witness Indonesian genre visionary Joko Anwar’s most deliriously ambitious film: a blood-soaked fusion of supernatural horror, prison thriller, martial arts action, and pitch-black political satire.
Delve deep into the world of conspiracy theories in North America in this compassionate documentary by Brad Abrahams and Simon Ennis.
In this deadpan Slovenian romp, a lonesome guy desperate for human connection decides to steal the bicycle of the town’s self-appointed vigilante; as the “sole witness” of the crime, he is inducted into joining her nightly escapades.
A sheriff and her deputy awaken to a world transformed: bloody chasms erupt from the earth, grotesque flesh-born creatures roam the land, and the recently deceased rise again.
A meticulously planned desert couples’ vacation spirals into chaos when family tensions and a pair of mysterious hosts with devilish intentions transform a romantic getaway into a nightmare.
Two half-human, half-vampire siblings are run off the road and left for dead by a gang of scavengers—and they’re coming back for bloody revenge.
World Premiere of the Restoration, 86 min
A restoration of the essential Y2K-era doc from the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA) with director George Ratliff in person.
World Premiere of the 35mm print, 83 min
A brand-new 35mm print produced for the 40th anniversary of one of the 20th century’s most harrowing films, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER features a chilling, career-defining turn by Michael Rooker.
When a coven of witches determined to unleash the apocalypse marks Ada’s younger sister for sacrifice, she joins forces with a renegade witch in a relentless fight for survival.
Alex has proof, and he wants you to see it.
Directors - Evan Wolf Buxbaum & Drew Mylrea
A man’s efforts to win back his estranged wife are derailed by a mysterious extraterrestrial force that keeps snatching him from Earth.
Indonesian horror specialist Kimo Stamboel cooks up a deliriously demonic prequel to his box office hit SEWU DINO, as a pair of desperate siblings stumble unwittingly upon a centuries-old satanic ritual orchestrated by their wealthy relatives.
Directors - Marco Nguyen & Nicolas Athane
As a virus that turns gay people straight sweeps across the world, Jim Perfect goes on a quest across Paris, with his number one fan Lucien, to find the cure in this animated comedy.
A white woman launches her own investigation into her Black fiancé’s violent murder only to find herself hunted in her apartment complex by a killer determined to keep the truth silent.
Four friends trying to keep their late-night bender going end up at the apartment of a reckless mobster; what starts as a casual substance-fueled afterparty quickly escalates into a violence-filled rager.
A late-to-launch young man and his even less responsible friend realize they may be the last line of defense between humanity and an ancient Chinese evil. Martial arts and supernatural horror collide in this romp of a buddy comedy.
Director - Mason Jeffrey Newton-DeRushie
Grimdark fantasy, an epic quest, buckets of blood… all puppets. Need we say more?
Two socially awkward people find love and then define it for themselves in a barren, post-apocalyptic world before they discover a small, wooden door in the side of her body and decide whether or not to open it.
Ghosts, Goblins, and Crowley. MAGICK MTN. is a rock and roll fairytale set deep in Laurel Canyon using instruments of the occult to dig beneath the soil of a hillside marked by tragedy and death.
A raunchy series of sexy, horrifying, and hilarious vignettes, MR. CREAMJEANS’ HIDEY HOLE is a shocking, disgusting, and ultimately satisfying anthology that’s never afraid to put a man in his proper place.
After Baldur is rescued from drowning by a handsome whaler, the two begin a passionate love affair that requires sacrifices to an Elder God to endure.
Directors - Mohamed Chabane & Théo Jourdain
Fresh out of prison, Idriss enters the derelict Kraken apartment complex to find his ex-girlfriend’s brother, only to be dragged back into violence by a ruthless squatter tied to the past Idriss is fighting to leave behind.
World Premiere of the Restoration, 89 min
Bleeding Skull presents a restoration of the fabled underground slasher from France.
At the end of the 19th century, as a mysterious plague spreads across the countryside, a young woman living under the tyranny of her deeply religious father fights to reclaim her freedom.
After suffering the devastating loss of his wife, a man embarks on a surreal journey to bring her back.
A blind lonely teen becomes the latest breed of telecom criminal in this crackling dial-up thriller.
Kimberly’s recurring dreams of a masked killer murdering young people around town progressively close in on her in this Canadian genre experiment.
While renovating a dilapidated house to win back his ex, Elliot discovers VHS tapes of an unaired children’s TV show. The show’s dark history seeps into his life, threatening his last chance at reconciliation. Winner of the 2025 Fantastic Pitches.
Zoe returns home to her estranged father, seeking comfort from a series of VHS birthday recordings left behind by her deceased mother, and uncovers an occult ritual that upends everything she was told about her mother’s death.
In a rural Wisconsin town in 1870, Sheriff Jacob Hansen—a man still haunted by the Civil War—is pushed to his psychological limits when a deadly plague sweeps through his community and encroaching wildfires close in.
A vampire posing as Santa Claus invades the home of a family whose rebellious teenage daughter wants only one thing: to become a vampire herself and escape her miserable life.
From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger (WEAPONS, BARBARIAN) comes a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the RESIDENT EVIL franchise. In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds
himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos. From TriStar Pictures, Constantin Film, and Davis Films, RESIDENT EVIL hits theatres September 18, 2026.
When three estranged siblings reunite in their hometown after the death of their father, they set out to scatter his ashes at his favorite spot on a remote river. But when their boat breaks down, the trip devolves into a waking nightmare.
French cinema maestro Bertrand Mandico and mega-starlet Marion Cotillard broadcast a daring hyper-pulp transmission straight from 1980s Italian cinema.
World Premiere of the Restoration, 64 min
An evil space emperor plots to take over the Earth in this restoration of one of the first fully animated feature films from Mexico.
World Premiere of 4K Restoration, 93 min
Your new favorite queer horror rediscovery, newly restored.
Things spiral out of control in more ways than one when two siblings are tasked with caring for their ailing grandma.
When Alice’s estranged mother arrives with a confession about a twenty-year-old bargain, Alice discovers that the miracle that saved her came with a debt… and the bill has finally come due.
Finland, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, 2026
In a sterile future devoid of nature where emotions are forbidden, a toy designer developing robotic companion dogs rescues an injured squirrel, setting him on a journey of self-discovery and societal rebellion.
Directors - Kevin Kölsch & Dennis Widmyer
A sentient, quicksand-like sludge terrorizes a group of young people in this brutally efficient, effects-forward creature feature.
Transferred to the French countryside, a disgraced cop investigates a rift between the local farmers and hunters, uncovering corruption that runs far deeper than the damage the exploding population of wild boars has wreaked on the region’s crops.
In the Age of Enlightenment, Ana is sent to a remote monastery to atone for her sins. There, she finds a place plagued by a mysterious blood disease linked to a supernatural being: the upyr.
When a young girl is left with her aging grandmother in rural Kazakhstan, an ordinary act of familial care quickly turns into an unsettling descent into the unknown where loss can take monstrous forms.
Quentin Dupieux offers a delightfully off-kilter take on the simulation hypothesis with early Y2K graphics and his trademark deadpan wit, turning the theory into an absurdly funny mirror of contemporary life.
Set in Victorian England, VICTORIAN PSYCHO sees an eccentric governess arrive at a remote gothic manor, where strange happenings stir suspicion that she’s not what she seems.
Directors - Seven Ych, Rady Fu, & Tree Muta
Taiwan’s first major rotoscoped 2D animated feature tells the story of a ghost-debunking influencer who begins to question her own identity after entering the mansion of a famously reclusive doll-maker.
Based on the terrifying true story that inspired THE ENTITY, WHAT HAPPENED TO DORIS? follows a single mother whose violent encounters with an unseen force draw UCLA investigators into one of the most infamous paranormal cases in American history.
A CIA mission to Easter Island unravels amid conspiracies, secrets, and Chile’s looming coup.
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Shay Hatten, Zach Cregger