The Fantastic Pavilion presents a weekly recap with the most relevant news about the world of genre cinema.
News
Weapons (2025), the highly anticipated new feature from Barbarian (2022) director Zach Cregger, got its first official trailer. The flick follows Julia Garner as a teacher, after “all but one child from the same class mysteriously vanish on the same night at exactly the same time.” Josh Brolin also stars in what it seems to be an intense addition to the creepy kids horror tradition. Weapons hits the big screen on August 8.
Alief debuted through Variety the teaser for Luna Rosa: The Seventh Ascension of Atabey (Luna Rosa: La 7ª ascensión de Atabey, 2025), the latest movie by Omar Rodríguez-López (guitarist of The Mars Volta). It premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), where it was described as an “inventive, ambitious experimental film” with elements of “science fiction, anti-colonialist and feminist politics, and indigenous religion and myth.” It features a score composed by both Rodríguez-López and John Frusciante (current guitar player of the Red Hot Chili Peppers). Luna Rosa: The Seventh Ascension of Atabey will screen at FICUNAM (May 29-June 5) and SXSW London (June 2-7).
Neon Rated presented the official poster and announced the release date for Michael Shanks’ Together (2025), a horror film about a “supernatural encounter” that transforms the life of a couple (played by Dave Franco and Alison Brie). Together is being labeled as “the best horror movie of the year.” We’ll see about that when it opens theatrically on July 30.
Deadline confirmed that Ben Leonberg’s Good Boy (2025) – the horror flick about a dog that must protect its human from dark forces – has been acquired by Shudder. Good Boy celebrated its world premiere at SXSW and more recently earned an Honorable Mention for Scariest Feature Film at the Overlook Film Festival.
Unleashed last March as a Midnighter at SXSW, Julia Max’s supernatural horror movie The Surrender (2025) is now heading to Shudder on May 23. Watch here its trailer.
Synopsis: “A fraught mother-daughter relationship is put to a terrifying test when the family patriarch dies, and the grieving mother hires a mysterious stranger to bring her husband back from the dead. As the bizarre and brutal resurrection spirals out of control, both women must confront their differences as they fight for their lives – and for each other.”
Festivals
The Fantastic Galas are returning during the third edition of the Fantastic Pavilion in Cannes. This year’s lineup was unveiled via Variety and includes: Can Evrenol’s The Turkish Coffee Table (Cam Sehpa), Adrián García Bogliano’s Talking to a Stranger (Hablando con extraños), Alex Kahuam’s The Remedy, Ángel González’s The Osha Rule (La regla de Osha), Pablo Aragüés and Marta Cabrera’s Ancestral, and Daniel de la Vega’s Eyes of the Abyss (Los ojos del abismo).
Fantaspoa has disclosed the award winners of its 21st edition, which took place in Porto Alegre, Brazil from April 9 to 27.
Nicolai Schumann’s The Lonely Musketeer (2024) was named Best Film from the International Competition, while Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy took home the Best Direction award for Dead Mail (2024).
On the other hand, Juan Albarracín’s The Instinct (El instinto, 2024) was selected as Best Film from the Ibero-American Competition. Edgar Nito won the Best Direction prize for A Fishermen’s Tale (Un cuento de pescadores, 2024), a Mexican folk horror movie that also got an Honorable Mention for its ensemble female cast.