The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
News
Judging from its first trailer, police brutality and racism are some of the themes of Ryan Prows’ vampire movie Night Patrol (2025), starring Jermaine Fowler and Justin Long. It had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest and now it’s heading to US theaters on January 16.
Synopsis: “An LAPD officer must put aside his differences with the area’s street gangs when he discovers a local police task force is harboring a horrific secret that endangers the residents of the housing projects he grew up in.”
After screening at Venice and Sitges, the documentary Sangre del Toro (2025) is now on Netflix. Directed by Yves Montmayeur, Sangre del Toro is about “the humanistic and monstrous universe” of Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro – whose latest feature, Frankenstein (2025), is also streaming on said platform –.
Mórbido Fest and Beyond Fest selection Sayara (2024) – described by director Can Evrenol himself as a “crazy and brutal anti-revenge” flick – is currently available on VOD in the US.
Synopsis (from Amazon Prime): “When her sister is brutally murdered by a group of politically connected gangsters, Sayara – a quiet girl who cleans the local gym – begins to follow the military training she learned from her father, seeking a path of bloody revenge.”
The science fiction anime All You Need Is Kill (2025) recently served as the closing night film of the 18th Mórbido Fest. It’s based on the novel of the same name, which also provided the basis for Edge of Tomorrow (2014). All You Need Is Kill hits US cinemas on January 16 (teaser here).
Full synopsis: “Set in the year 20XX, All You Need Is Kill follows the story of Rita, a resourceful but isolated young woman volunteering to help rebuild Japan after the mysterious appearance of a massive alien flower known as Darol. When Darol unexpectedly erupts in a deadly event, unleashing monstrous creatures that decimate the population, Rita is caught in the destruction and killed. But then she wakes up again. And again. Caught in an endless time loop, Rita must navigate the trauma and repetition of death until she crosses paths with Keiji, a shy young man trapped in the same cycle. Together, they fight to break free from the loop and find meaning in the chaos around them.”
Shudder released the official teaser for Kier-La Janisse’s The Occupant of the Room (2025), the second movie of the anthology The Haunted Season (“a series of chilling horror tales following the tradition of telling ghost stories for Christmas”). The Occupant of the Room premieres on December 1.
Synopsis: “The Occupant of the Room is based on the classic chiller of the same name by Algernon Blackwood about a schoolteacher whose late-night arrival at a hotel in the Alps without a reservation leaves him with no option but to accept the room of a missing hotel guest, leading to a sleepless night full of strange and uncanny occurrences.”
Festivals
Mórbido Fest’s 2025 Blood Window WIP Awards went to: Lucila Las Heras’ The Muglur (supervision of editing for the final cut), Fabián Achondo’s El infinito (final color correction in suite with senior colorist, direct pass to the Blood Window Showcase at the 2026 Fantastic Pavilion in Cannes), Manuel Rodríguez’s Hyena (professional sound design supervision for the final cut, legal consulting), and Frank Benítez’s Extinción (professional DCP creation for theaters and festivals).