By Eric Ortiz
The Fantastic Pavilion presents a Weekly Recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
News
NEON Rated has unleashed the exciting teaser for Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo (2026), ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, September 10-20). Additionally, IndieWire revealed the first look at this “Japanese neo-noir.”
Synopsis: “A disgraced Tokyo detective spirals into a world of corruption, addiction, and violence as he becomes entangled in a twister investigation involving a vengeful ex-Yakuza, an enigmatic FBI agent, and a missing daughter of a powerful American family.”
Shudder confirmed that V/H/S/Mixtape (2026), the new entry in the V/H/S franchise, begins streaming on October 9. V/H/S/Mixtape‘s very interesting lineup of directors includes the RZA (The Man with the Iron Fists, One Spoon of Chocolate), Ernest Dickerson (Bones), and Ghost’s Tobias Forge.
Festivals
TIFF announced the 2026 Midnight Madness lineup: Matt Barats’ Anchors Aweigh (U.S.), Sabu’s Arrested Memory (Taiwan, Japan), Samjad’s Half (India), Nick Kozakis’ Kick On (Australia), Matthew Rankin’s Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney (Canada), Joshua Giuliano’s River (U.S.), Duncan Jones’ Rogue Trooper (UK), Anna Biller’s The Face of Horror (UK), Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral (Italy, France, Belgium), and Eugene Kotlyarenko’s Vintage Violence (U.S., Japan).
Additionally, the festival is hosting special Midnight Madness screenings of Hope (on September 9) and Obsession (on September 11).
The vampire mockumentary I Love Paris (2026) earned the Gold Audience Award for Best International Feature at the recently concluded 30th Fantasia Fest, while “festive holiday horror” Unholy Night (2026) was picked by the festival-goers as Best Canadian Feature. You can find here the piece about Fantasia’s 2026 Audience Awards.
Home video
Hostel (2005), which cemented Eli Roth as one of the horror directors to follow back in the early 2000s, is debuting on 4K thanks to Scream Factory. The limited edition five-disc set features as well the sequel Hostel: Part II (2007) and will be released on October 13. Brand-new intros by Roth are among the supplements.
Speaking of Roth, his latest movie is Ice Cream Man (2026), but there’s a reason why its PR team has constantly indicated that it ain’t a remake/reimagining: there’s a 1995 direct-to-video flick with the same title. And now the latter, directed by Norman Apstein and starring Clint Howard, is available on 4K via Vinegar Syndrome.