The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
News
Continuing with the trend of taking well-known children’s characters into horror territory, Screamboat (2025) will feature a monstrous and murderous version of Mickey Mouse, as it’s based on the classic Walt Disney short Steamboat Willie (1928), which entered the public domain earlier this year.
Directed by Steven LaMorte (who also helmed The Mean One, in which the Grinch becomes a slasher villain) and starring David Howard Thornton (the man behind Terrifier‘s Art the Clown), Screamboat is set to hit U.S. theaters in January 2025. Its first teaser is now available.
Apartment 7A (2024) is as a prequel to Roman Polanski’s classic psychological horror film Rosemary’s Baby (1968). Directed by Natalie Erika James (Relic), Apartment 7A stars Julia Garner as a young dancer who ends up moving to the NYC apartment building where the Castevets (here played by Dianne Wiest and Kevin McNally) also reside. While the movie will screen at Fantastic Fest (on September 20 and 23), it’s a Paramount+ original and will be available to stream on September 27 (in the U.S., Canada and Latin America) and September 28 (in the UK, France, among other European countries). You can watch here its first trailer.
Smile 2 (2022) has a brand new trailer. It focuses on a pop singer (Naomi Scott) who is followed by the supernatural entity from the previous film. Parker Finn returned to the director’s chair for this anticipated sequel, which arrives in theaters from October 16.
Patricio Valladares’ latest is Invoking Yell (2023), a found footage horror movie that takes us back to 1997, when an all-female black metal band from Chile went deep into the woods to find a haunted location that they considered the ideal place to record their demo tape. Of course they ended up invoking “an unspeakable evil.” Invoking Yell, which screened at Mórbido 2023, is now set to be released on digital platforms in the U.S. on September 20. A Blu-ray from Massacre Video will be available at a later date. Meanwhile you can watch the new trailer here.
Festivals
MOTELX – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival (September 10-16) has released its full 2024 program. The Irish folk horror movie Fréwaka (2024), the documentary Dario Argento: Panico (2023), the zombie film Handling the Undead (Håndtering av udøde, 2024), and the serial killer flick Strange Darling (2023) will screen at MOTELX. Features that were previously announced include In a Violent Nature (2024), The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad, 2024), Sayara (2024), The Substance (2024), Kill (2023), and The Surfer (2024). You can delve here into the festival’s complete program.
Everything is ready for the 15th edition of the SLASH Film Festival, scheduled to take place from September 19 to 29 in Vienna, Austria. This year’s program includes genre pictures like Fabrice du Welz’s Maldoror (2024), Bruce La Bruce’s The Visitor (2024), Steven Kostanski’s Frankie Freako (2024), Alice Lowe’s Timestalker (2024), Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024), E.L. Katz’s Azrael (2024), Jason Yu’s Sleep (Jam, 2023), Ant Timpson’s Bookworm (2024), Damian Mc Carthy’s Oddity (2024), and Sander Maran’s Chainsaws Were Singing (2024). Visit the festival’s website for more information.
The Sitges Film Festival announced the winners of their 2024 Open Calls:
WomanInFan’s Fanlab Teaser-Short Film Creation Competition
Marina Badia’s Cordero de mí
WomanInFan’s Fantastic Residence
Day García (The Pause)
Arianne Hinz (Marionettes)
Marina Badia (Cordero de mí)
Sitges FanPitch
Feature Length Format
Joseph Diaz’s Triangle
Renata Pinheiro’s Carrion
Matías Rojas’ Dog Legs
Koldo Serra’s Salvaje
Rocko Zevenbergen’s Flapjax
Laura Muñoz’s The Weak
Elisabeth Crummett’s Delia’s Ghost
Series
Víctor García’s Aigües de foscor
Maria Lara’s Antarctica
Chinh Van Tran and Éric Romero’s Be Happy, or Else
Steen Agro’s Heretics
Robyn Matuto’s The Haunting of Trisha Lozada
Additional Projects
Eric Tessier’s Flo
Shreyom Ghosh’s The Vampire of Sheung Shui
Fredrik S. Hana’s Planet
Francisco de la Reguera’s Fantastic Funerals
Martín Desalvo’s Spittle
Ale García and Carla Sierra’s The Woman Who Dreamt Underwater
Mariana Gil Ríos’ A Different Garden
Elisa Puerto, Gigi Romero and Anna Kasinska’s New Deadly Sins
Paul Urkijo’s Gaua Gauekoentzat
Sitges Coming Soon
Christian Mejia Carrascal’s Simbiontes
Andrés Goteira’s Monstro
Natalia Hermida’s Llueve sobre Babel
Diego Bellocchio’s Mitra, apaga la luz para poder ver
Kullachat Jitcajonwanich’s Once Upon a Time Muay Thai Rainbow