The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
News
Shudder unveiled the official trailer for the Adams Family’s Mother of Flies (2025), the horror flick about witchcraft that won the Cheval Noir Award for Best Film at the Fantasia International Film Festival. Mother of Flies hits Shudder on January 23.
Full synopsis: “Mickey (Zelda Adams) faces a deadly diagnosis, but she isn’t ready to die yet. Heading into the woods with her father (John Adams), she seeks dark magic at the hands of mysterious recluse, Solveig (Toby Poser), who has an intimate relationship with death and roots that go deep in the land. For three days, Mickey endures Solveig’s extreme rituals of death magic. But every cure has its cost, and every curse is another’s gift. As buried secrets claw their way to the surface, the veil between the living and the dead begins to unravel, and Mickey finds herself facing dark truths that only the dead and the dying can know.”
Frankenstein (2025), the latest feature from Guillermo del Toro, was nominated for five Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture – Drama. The genre films Sinners (2025), Bugonia (2025), No Other Choice (2025), Weapons (2025), and Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) also got noms. The 83rd Golden Globes will take place on January 11.
Festivals
The Sundance Film Festival (January 22-February 1) announced its 2026 lineup and, as usual, the Midnight section is the one genre cinema aficionados and professionals should pay attention to. Here are the 2026 Midnighters:
The Best Summer (Director: Tamra Davis). Immersive POV camera footage reveals electric performances, candid interviews, and intimate backstage life with the Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, Foo Fighters, Pavement, Rancid, Beck, The Amps, and Bikini Kill. An all-access view inside an era-defining moment in music.
Buddy (Director: Casper Kelly). A brave girl and her friends must escape a kids television show.
Leviticus (Director: Adrian Chiarella). Two star-crossed teenage boys must escape a violent entity that takes the form of the person they desire most: each other.
Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant (Director: THUNDERLIPS). When a messy millennial underachiever accidentally gets alien-pregnant, she must overcome skeptical doctors, a useless baby daddy, and her oversharing mum in order to survive and reclaim her life.
Rock Springs (Director: Vera Miao). After the death of her father, a grieving young girl moves to an isolated house in a new town with her mother and grandmother, only to discover there is something monstrous hidden in the town’s history and the woods behind their new home.
Saccharine (Director: Natalie Erika James). Hana, a lovelorn medical student, becomes terrorized by a hungry ghost after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
undertone (Director: Ian Tuason). The host of a popular paranormal podcast becomes haunted by terrifying recordings mysteriously sent her way.
The Fantasy Filmfest White Nights is happening in seven German cities: Berlin (January 24 and 25), Frankfurt (January 24 and 25), Hamburg (January 31 and February 1), Cologne (January 24 and 25), Munich (January 24 and 25), Nuremberg (January 24 and 25), and Stuttgart (January 17 and 18). The program includes Can Evrenol’s The Turkish Coffee Table (Cam Sehpa, 2025), Rod Blackhurst’s Dolly (2025), Martín Mauregui’s Crazy Old Lady (Vieja loca, 2025), and Alberto Vázquez’s Decorado (2025).
The Méliès International Festivals Federation (MIFF) has welcomed the Curtas Festival do Imaxinario and the Galician Freaky Film Festival (GFFF) as competitive members. Both of these Spanish festivals “will run the competition for the Méliès d’argent for the best European short film, starting in 2026.”
Home video
Eli Roth’s first horror movie Cabin Fever (2002) – which was recently chosen by Quentin Tarantino as one of his favorite films of the 21st century – is set to be released on 4K UHD on January 13. Pre-orders are now available at Lionsgate Limited.