{"id":612080,"date":"2026-09-26T04:58:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:58:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612080\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T04:58:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T04:58:18","slug":"10-must-watch-films-from-fantastic-fest-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612080\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Must-Watch Films From Fantastic Fest 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

For 21 years, Fantastic Fest has always highlighted the best in upcoming fantasy, sci-fi, and horror films; previous festivals featured premieres of There Will Be Blood<\/a>, John Wick<\/a>, and Zombieland<\/a>. As the festival\u2019s 2026 edition wraps up in Austin, Texas, we\u2019re doing a look back at 10 films that premiered this past week to look forward to.<\/p>\n

1. Adult Supervision (2026)<\/p>\n

Release Date: TBA<\/p>\n

Already chosen as Sweden\u2019s Best International Feature Film entry for the 99th Academy Awards, Adult Supervision follows three parents (Gustaf Skarsg\u00e5rd<\/a>, Fares Fares<\/a>, Linus Wahlgren<\/a>) who chaperone a school trip to the remote Klippvik archipelago. The trip soon goes awry, however, when the parents realize they have little control of the teenage students. As the bullying gets worse, painful adolescent memories resurface and tensions arise between the fathers. Adult Supervision is a dark comedy that provides a harrowing look at modern teenage \u201cmean girl\u201d culture and its effects on everyone, regardless of age. <\/p>\n

2. Beware Boi\u00fana (2026)<\/p>\n

Release Date: October 2, 2026<\/p>\n

A routine humanitarian medical mission to the Amazon rainforest goes sideways when they awaken the Boi\u00fana, a colossal, mystical serpent. Along the way, the team reluctantly allies with a group of colonizers led by Brennan Malloy (Logan Marshall-Green<\/a>) and together the group must leave the forest before the Boi\u00fana retakes control of her domain and kills them all. For fans of 1997\u2019s Anaconda<\/a>, Beware Boi\u00fana<\/a> might just be the spiritual successor to sate appetites for snake-centric creature features. Additionally, for those interested in commentary on colonization and humanity\u2019s interference with nature, Beware Boi\u00fana is sure to slither its way into their watchlist.<\/p>\n

3. Kung Fu Deadly<\/p>\n

\"Steven(Photo by Fantastic Fest)<\/p>\n

Release Date: TBA<\/p>\n

Chinese-Irish actor and \u201cemotional damage\u201d meme Steven He<\/a> stars in Kung Fu Deadly<\/a>, where bumbling Dublin exterminators Danny and Frank (He and Michael Tient<\/a>, respectively) cross paths with Taoist guardian Lien (Gemma Chua-Tran<\/a>). After discovering the fate of Danny\u2019s lineage is intertwined with hers, Lien enlists the duo to help hunt a group of criminals trying to unleash a jiangshi<\/a>, a Chinese hopping vampire, onto the city. Filled with tons of martial arts fight scenes courtesy of action director Lee Huang, Kung Fu Deadly is a fun comedy that both pays homage to predecessors of the genre and provides a refreshing new take on kung fu movies.<\/p>\n

4. What Happened to Doris?<\/p>\n

Release Date: October 1, 2026<\/p>\n

In 1974, single mother Doris Bither reported being violently sexually assaulted by spirits in her Culver City home. The case caught the attention of the UCLA parapsychology department, which extensively documented Bither\u2019s experiences. The ensuing paranormal investigation caught the world\u2019s attention when it was adapted into the 1982 film The Entity<\/a>, but in the new film What Happened to Doris?<\/a>, director Nick Simon<\/a> turns the attention to Bither\u2019s family. Starring Heather Graham<\/a> in the titular role, What Happened to Doris? focuses on the victims instead of the spirits, empathetically navigating the devastating cost of not being believed.<\/p>\n

5. \u00dcrei<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Release Date: TBA<\/p>\n

Extended from Kazakh director Yerkezhan Baizhan<\/a>\u2018s 2024 short film \u00dcrei (which also premiered at 2024\u2019s Fantastic Fest), \u00dcrei<\/a> stars an elderly grandmother (Tynyshgul Sultanberdieva<\/a>) left alone with her granddaughter (Akerke Kozaiyr<\/a>) in a rural Kazakh town. Routines break down as supernatural horror infiltrates their dynamic, exacerbating fears along generational divides and sending both grandmother and granddaughter into a world neither is familiar with. \u00dcrei has something for everyone, with themes of grief, loneliness, and fears of growing old. Plus, the psychological horror will be sure to play with viewers\u2019 minds and stick with them long after.<\/p>\n

6. Pathetic Fallacy<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Release Date: TBA<\/p>\n

Adam Egypt Mortimer<\/a> directs Pathetic Fallacy<\/a>, a new original horror musical. Asher (Scott \u201cKid Cudi\u201d Mescudi<\/a>) and Iris (Jessica Rothe<\/a>) are in love, but Iris soon succumbs to cancer. Asher, overcome with grief, enters an alternate universe where a spider (Natasha Lyonne<\/a>) offers him the chance to resurrect Iris \u2014 but at a cost. A psychedelic feature shot on 35mm film with original songs by Mescudi and Rothe, Pathetic Fallacy breathes new life into the horror musical genre with an emotionally charged look at love and the lengths people will go to for it.<\/p>\n

7. The Heretiks<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

Release Date: September 19, 2026<\/p>\n

If Home Alone<\/a> was set during Halloween, it might look something like The Heretiks<\/a>. On Halloween night, 13-year-old Mabel (Ava Mae Seidensticker<\/a>) discovers she\u2019s been targeted by a coven of witches intent on sacrificing her to bring about the end of the world. Her disaffected older sister Ada (Josie Juliette Wert<\/a>) teams up with rogue coven member Cai (Kimberly Epstein<\/a>) to save her sister. As the sisters repair their bond saving each other, this coming-of-age\/home-invasion film blends its horror elements with heart and will tug at any viewer\u2019s heartstrings. <\/p>\n

8. The Swallow<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

Release Date: September 24, 2026<\/p>\n

From directors Kevin K\u00f6lsch<\/a> and Dennis Widmyer<\/a>, The Swallow<\/a> closes out Fantastic Fest\u2019s line of programming for 2026. When five teenagers (Grace Van Dien<\/a>, Jack Wright<\/a>, Tayler Buck<\/a>, Kalama Epstein<\/a>, and Kayla Di Venere<\/a>) go offline and \u201ctouch grass\u201d for a weekend in the forest, they stumble upon a section chained off for good reason \u2014 it\u2019s home to a strange, quicksand-like sludge that starts to swallow (get it?) members of the group. As the group\u2019s numbers whittle down and the forest shows no sign of going dormant again, the scares are harrowing enough that it might convince just about every viewer to stay inside forever and never leave their house again.<\/p>\n

9. Death of a Yellow Bird<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

Release Date: TBA<\/p>\n

When an unnamed man (Ari Millen<\/a>) halts his cancer treatment to return to his family\u2019s old cabin, he discovers a ghostly voice speaking to him through VHS tapes he films for his son. Initial reviews for Death of a Yellow Bird<\/a> praise the sound design, setting a hauntingly ethereal tone for the film. While the \u201cisolated in a cabin\u201d and ghost subgenres are tried and true to horror, director Cody Calahan<\/a> fuses the two in a devastating examination of grief, family, and death. Death of a Yellow Bird spans past, present, and future, asking viewers how long a loss is grieved after it happens. <\/p>\n

10. Upiro<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

Release Date: TBA<\/p>\n

From Spanish director \u00d3scar Mart\u00edn and inspired by the first documented case of vampirism in the Iberian Peninsula, Upiro follows a young woman Ana (Pauline Brisy) who is sent to a remote monastery to atone for her sins. While there, she discovers that several sisters begin suffering a mysterious, bloodborne illness. After a priest discovers they have been turned into upyrs<\/a>, the Slavic predecessor to the vampire, the monastery races against time to treat it before it affects everyone in their isolated community. Upiro blends folk and religious horror, creating an unsettling world where nothing is safe and the countdown to the next victim keeps ticking.<\/p>\n

Find Something Fresh! Discover What to Watch, Read Reviews, Leave Ratings and Build Watchlists. Download the Rotten Tomatoes App.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 21 years, Fantastic Fest has always highlighted the best in upcoming fantasy, sci-fi, and horror films; previous…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[156,410,409,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-612080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-horror","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}