By Eric Ortiz
The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
News
MUBI is releasing Arco (2025) in Mexican and Chilean theaters on February 5. This French animated sci-fi flick is one of the Golden Globes nominees for Best Motion Picture – Animated. You can watch its trailer in Spanish here.
Synopsis (from the Annecy Festival’s site): “Imagine if rainbows were actually time travellers? 10-year-old Arco lives in the distant future. During his first flight in his rainbow suit, he goes off course, loses control, and lands in our near future. Iris, a little girl who’s the same age as Arco, sees him fall from the sky. She will do everything she possibly can to help him go back home.”
IFC Films and Shudder unveiled the poster for the zombie picture This Is Not a Test (2025), which is set to hit cinemas in the U.S. on February 20. Based on the novel of the same name, This Is Not a Test follows “Sloan and a small group of her classmates,” as they “take cover in their high school to escape their suddenly apocalyptic hometown.”
If you’re a genre cinema aficionado in Los Angeles, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is hosting some events worthy of your attention. A folk film series (January 10-February 12 at the Ted Mann Theater) features Midsommar (2019), Häxan (1922), The VVitch (2015), Viy (1967), The Wicker Man (1973), and Onibaba (1964), among others. Another screening series is paying homage to the late, great David Lynch: from January 19 to 26, such Lynch movies as Blue Velvet (1986), Mulholland Dr. (2001), and Inland Empire (2006) are being shown at the David Geffen Theater.
Home video
There’s a bunch of new cool stuff over at Vinegar Syndrome, like 4K UHDs of two Dario Argento pictures – The Stendhal Syndrome (La sindrome di Stendhal, 1996) and The Phantom of the Opera (Il fantasma dell’opera, 1998) –, Lloyd Kaufman’s Terror Firmer (1998), and Sergio Corbucci’s snow western The Great Silence (Il grande silenzio, 1968).
Happy 2026!