The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
News
Dust Bunny (2025) has gotten an official trailer, ahead of its U.S. theatrical release on December 5. It was written and directed by Bryan Fuller, who’s best known for the Hannibal (2013-2015) TV show.
Synopsis: “Ten-year-old Aurora has a mysterious neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) who kills real-life monsters. He’s a hit man for hire. So, when Aurora needs help killing the monster she believes ate her entire family, she procures his services. Suspecting that her parents may have fallen victim to assassins gunning for him, Aurora’s neighbor guiltily takes the job. Now, to protect her, he’ll need to battle an onslaught of assassins – and accept that some monsters are real.”
There’s a new poster for Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover (2025), a 16mm horror comedy that screened at Sundance, Rotterdam, and TIFF (as part of the Midnight Madness section).
Synopsis: “A lonely Gravedigger who stinks of corpses finally meets her dream man, but their whirlwind affair is cut short when he tragically drowns at sea. Grief-stricken, she goes to morbid lengths to resurrect him through madcap scientific experiments, resulting in grave consequences and unlikely love.”
In Colin Minihan’s Coyotes (2025), a “family must fight for survival” against a “pack of savage coyotes.” Starring Justin Long and Kate Bosworth, this animal attack flick will have its world premiere at the upcoming Fantastic Fest (September 18-25). It’ll hit U.S. cinemas on October 3 (trailer).
Festivals
Beyond Fest has revealed its full 2025 lineup, which includes Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice (2025), Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy (2025), Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8 (2025), Chris Stuckmann’s Shelby Oaks (2024), Dust Bunny, Scott Derrickson’s Black Phone 2 (2025), and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia (2025). The festival is also hosting a Meiko Kaji tribute, a screening of The Devil’s Rejects (2005) – with Rob Zombie and Sheri Moon Zombie in person –, and the previously announced Guillermo del Toro retrospective. The 2025 Beyond Fest is taking place from September 23 to October 8 (schedule here).
Terry Gilliam will receive one of the Grand Honorary Awards at this year’s Sitges Festival (October 9-19), while Ben Wheatley will be honored with a Time Machine Award. The Catalan fest also added a bunch of high-profile films to its already packed program, including No Other Choice, del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025), Bugonia, Black Phone 2, Jalmari Helander’s Sisu: Road to Revenge (2025), and Takashi Miike’s Blue Fight: The Breaking Down of Young Blue Warriors (2025) and Sham (2025).
The Brooklyn Horror Film Festival (October 16-25) is set to screen such genre flicks as Queens of the Dead (2025), Dead Lover, Honey Bunch (2025), Dust Bunny, Mother of Flies (2025), and Touch Me (2025). For the complete lineup and showtimes, visit the festival’s Eventive page.