By Eric Ortiz
The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
Festivals
The recently unveiled artwork for the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival (July 16-August 2) “conjures three generations of sorceresses, one for each of Fantasia’s three decades, gathered around a cauldron to summon the iconic Cheval Noir.” The festival is announcing its first wave of titles in May.
News
The Horror Section unleashed the teaser poster for Ice Cream Man (2026), Eli Roth’s upcoming horror flick in which the titular antagonist (played by Ari Millen) “serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results.” Ice Cream Man will be released in U.S. theaters on August 7, via Iconic Events Releasing.
Chiwetel Ejiofor deals with a liminal space in the intriguing full trailer for Kane Parsons’ highly anticipated Backrooms (2026). It hits U.S. cinemas on May 29, via A24.
Synopsis: “A strange doorway appears in the basement of a furniture showroom.”
Bong Joon-ho’s animated feature has gotten a title and a first-look image. Ally is coming in 2027 and, according to Deadline, tells the story of the titular “piglet squid,” who “is thrust into an extraordinary journey that will take her all the way to the surface,” once “a mysterious aircraft sinks into the ocean and Ally’s peaceful world is thrown into danger.” Ally was written by Bong and Jason Yu (Sleep).
Daniel Goldhaber’s Faces of Death (2026) – the horror movie for the content creation era inspired by the 1978 video nasty of the same name – opens theatrically in the U.S. on April 10. You can watch here its latest trailer.
Synopsis: “In Faces of Death, the exploration of the original film’s infamous is ‘it real or not?’ conceit continues as a woman (Barbie Ferreira) working as a content moderator for a major video platform discovers what appears to be re-enactments of murders from the original film. In an online world where nothing can be trusted, she must determine whether the violence is fiction, or unfolding in real time.”
Home video
Can Evrenol’s revenge picture Sayara (2024) is getting the special edition treatment in Germany. Indeed Film is putting out on June 5 a 4K UHD/Blu-ray Mediabook with a 60-page booklet (plus English subtitles). Sayara was described by the Splat!FilmFest as a “genre mix of gore, action-thriller and drama.”
The 4K UHD (+ Blu-ray) of the original Faces of Death (1978) is available now for pre-order at Vinegar Syndrome. The film has been restored “from its 35mm and 16mm camera negative.” Conan Le Cilaire’s Faces of Death combines “grueling imagery depicting the stark reality of mortality, with cleverly staged, ultra-gory re-enactments of murders, suicides, executions, and more too horrible to imagine.”