The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
Festivals
The 58th Sitges Film Festival (October 9-19) continues to take shape. The Catalan fest confirmed Alpha (2025) as opening film, with director Julia Ducournau in attendance. Other movies set to screen at Sitges are Grace Glowicki’s Dead Lover (2025), Steven Kostanski’s Deathstalker (2025), Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8 (8-ban deguchi, 2025), Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck (2024), John Maclean’s Tornado (2025), and Addison Heimann’s Touch Me (2025).
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s The Ice Tower (La tour de glace, 2025), starring Marion Cotillard, was named Best Feature Film at the 2025 Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF), which took place from July 4 to 12. Other awards were presented to Honey Bunch (NIFFF International Critics Award), U Are the Universe (Youth Award and Audience Award), and The Ugly Stepsister (Silver Méliès for Best Fantastic European Feature Film). You can find here the full list of winners.
James DeMonaco’s The Home (2025), Stephen Biro’s A Serbian Documentary (2025), Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger (2023), Joe Begos’ Jimmy and Stiggs (2024), and the Adams Family’s Mother of Flies (2025) are part of FrightFest’s 2025 lineup. The festival is happening from August 21 to 25 in London.
The South Florida-based Popcorn Frights Film Festival unveiled two waves of titles for their upcoming 11th edition (August 7-11). Some highlights are Tyler Cornack’s Mermaid (2025), Troma’s Mr. Melvin (2025) – which is a “full reconstruction of The Toxic Avenger Part II and Part III into one film” –, Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy (2025), Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead (2025), and Lauris and Raitis Abele’s Dog of God (Dieva suns, 2025).
Home video
The Criterion Collection will release Guillermo del Toro’s noir Nightmare Alley (2021) on 4K UHD and Blu-ray (on October 28); this four-disc set features both the theatrical cut and a “new black-and-white extended director’s cut.” On the other hand, David Cronenberg’s latest, The Shrouds (2024), is coming to Blu-ray and DVD on October 21, as part of the Criterion Premieres line (previously known as Janus Contemporaries).
The crime/folk horror film Kill List (2011) is finally debuting on 4K UHD, as part of Severin Films’ Summer Sale titles. Among the many supplements on this two-disc edition, there’s a new audio commentary with British director Ben Wheatley himself. Severin’s Summer Sale starts on July 25.
Pascal Laugier’s Martyrs (2008) is also hitting 4K UHD for the very first time. On October 27, just in time for Halloween, Eureka Entertainment is putting out this French cult horror picture on a limited edition dual format set.