Films to See at Fantasia 2025
Written by: Billy Ray Brewton | July 15th, 2025
For fans of the weird, wild, and wonderful, the 29th annual Fantasia International Film Festival is upon us, July 16th-August 3rd, showcasing works from around the globe. Revered by everyone from Quentin Tarantino and Guillermo Del Toro to James Gunn and Les Cahiers du cinéma, Montreal’s premiere genre fest features a lineup of 125 features and 200+ shorts available to be explored, in addition to workshops, special events, exhibitions, and artist talks.
Apart from opening with Ari Aster’s Eddington and closing with Genndy Tartakovsky’s Fixed, Fantasia 2025 includes the presentation of the Cheval Noir Achievement Award to Tartakovsky (Primal) and legendary composer Danny Elfman (Beetlejuice, Batman, Men in Black, Silver Linings Playbook); the awarding of the Indie Maverick Award to Troma founder Lloyd Kaufman; and a special screening of the new animated musical, Smurfs, from Paramount. Here are a few titles that you should place at the top of your must-see lists.
Flush takes claustrophobic horror to some terrifying and hilarious new levels with the story of a man who finds himself trapped in … well … a toilet. Director Grégory Morin’s twisted tale is as grotesque as you’d expect and as inventive as you’d hope.
Fucktoys has been blowing up the festival circuit since its SXSW premiere. Annapurna Sriram’s romp through a Louisiana dreamscape is radically queer and features supporting work from Brandon Flynn (13 Reasons Why) and François Arnaud (I Killed My Mother).
Good Boy is a ghost story from Ben Leonberg that stars a dog, and that should be all you need. It’s one of the cleverest and emotionally satisfying ghost stories you’ll ever see and it features a truly remarkable turn from Indy the dog in one of the best performances of the year.
Lurker (which Hannah Tran included in her Sundance 2025 curtain raiser, as well) is a dark and sordid tale of a young man with severe mental illness who rises and falls in the world of a pop star. Théodore Pellerin is a revelation in the lead, but it’s filmmaker Alex Russell, who wrote for the shows Beef and The Bear, that emerges as a distinct and exciting new voice.
Obex is a complex indie horror film from director Albert Birney about a digital artist who discovers a new game called Obex, which slowly turns his life upside down. Co-starring Callie Hernandez (Alien: Covenant) and shot and co-written by Pete Ohs, this film embodies the independent spirit.
Queens of the Dead comes to us from director Tina Romero, daughter of the man who created the zombie genre as we know it. It’s colorful, hilarious, queer as hell, and features another delightful performance from Katy O’Brian (Love Lies Bleeding).
Terrestrial marks the return of filmmaker Steve Pink, whose Hot Tub Time Machine has become a cult classic for a whole generation. This dark sci-fi romp builds incredible tension as it slowly peels away the layers of what’s truly going on underneath the surface.
Together (reviewed by Hannah Tran out of Sundance 2025) has been getting loads of buzz for a while now, and Dave Franco and Alison Brie deserve all of the credit, crafting an unforgettable horror experience—along with director Michael Shanks—that isn’t nearly as derivative as folks would have you believe. This is a visceral experience for an audience.
For more information, including schedules, FAQ, and how to purchase tickets and badges, please head to https://fantasiafestival.com/en/.
Fantasia Festival can be found on social media at the following:
• https://www.instagram.com/fantasiafestival/
• https://twitter.com/FantasiaFest
• https://www.facebook.com/FantasiaFilmFestival
Billy Ray Brewton
Billy Ray Brewton is the producer and founder of Make Believe Theatricals, which specializes in promoting unique creative voices that exist outside the mainstream. Billy Ray was the subject of the award-winning documentary, Skanks (Slamdance 2014); wrote and directed the award-winning dramatic horror film Show Yourself (Bruce Campbell’s Horror Film Fest 2017); produced the award-winning documentary Socks on Fire (Tribeca 2020, “Best Documentary Feature”); and served as associate producer on the horror anthology, The Mortuary Collection (Fantastic Fest 2019, “Audience Choice Best Feature”). The short film he produced in 2016, Pool Shark, currently has over 100 million views on YouTube. His next project as a producer, Mental Health and Horror, is scheduled for release in 2025. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, IDA, and Documentary Producers Alliance; is the ultimate heel on the Screen Drafts podcast; and writes about film for Cinepunx.