By Eric Ortiz
The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
Festivals
The Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF) has presented the poster for its upcoming 25th edition, set to take place from July 3 to 11. The artwork was created by Théophile Glauser and Raphaël Piguet.
The Turkish Coffee Table (2025), Dolly (2025), Crazy Old Lady (2025), Obsession (2025), Kraken (2026), The Red Mask (2025), and Mum, I’m Alien Pregnant (2026) are just some of the movies that are part of the 44th Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival (April 3-18).
Fantaspoa (April 8-26) continues to add titles to its 2026 lineup. Karmadonna (2025) – directed by Aleksandar Radivojević, co-writer of A Serbian Film (2010) –, the Australian “first person horror film” Dead Eyes (2026), and Fantastic Fest selection Meat Kills (2025) will screen in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
The 13th HARD:LINE Film Festival runs from April 16 to April 22 in Regensburg, Germany. The program includes such genre pictures as Paul Urkijo Alijo’s Gaua (2025), Yerden Telemissov’s Stinker (2025), Laura Casabé’s The Virgin of the Quarry Lake (2025), and the Adams Family’s Mother of Flies (2025).
News
After premiering last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, Kenji Tanigaki’s The Furious (2025) is heading to U.S. theaters on May 29. You can watch now its pretty terrific trailer, which promises an intense revenge actioner with buddy movie elements.
Synopsis: “After the daughter of Wang Wei (Xie Miao) is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself. His only ally is Navin (Joe Taslim), a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers in this explosive martial arts showdown.”
Judging by its trailer, Nathan Hertz’s Thinestra (2025) looks like a sci-fi body horror flick in the vein of Coralie Fargeat’s hit The Substance (2024). Thinestra played Sitges in 2025 and now is hitting VOD in the U.S. on April 14.
Synopsis: “Thinestra tells the story of Penny (Michelle Macedo), a young woman tormented by body dysmorphia and relentless societal pressures around perfection. When Penny impulsively takes a mysterious, Ozempic-esque weight-loss drug, she experiences a horrifyingly literal transformation. The fat she sheds returns as her ravenous doppelgänger, Penelope (Melissa Macedo), and chaos ensues.”