Fantastic Fest is truly movie heaven. It’s a week-long film festival that all takes place in a single theater (an Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas), and for the price of one pass, you can see up to five movies a day, every day. Sometimes those movies are big titles you’ve heard of, sometimes they’re weird movies no one will ever see again, and sometimes you don’t know what you’re seeing until you take your place in the audience. Along the way, that single setting and non-stop scheduling create community and conversation that can’t be topped anywhere else.
I’ve been going to Fantastic Fest for around 15 years and though it can be physically and mentally exhausting, it’s always a blast. This year was no different, as I was able to squeeze in 20 movies over the course of about five days. And, of those 20 movies, there was only one I actively disliked. That’s a pretty fantastic ratio.
Below, I’ll run down my 15 favorite films that I saw—which just about covers everything I saw that you need to know about and add to your radar for the coming months.
The Wild Robot
Opening in theaters this week, I truly can’t recommend this one enough. It’s got the opportunity to become a formative, generational film. It’s that good. Read my full review here.
Bookworm
I didn’t review this one because technically it’s not a genre film, but it’s so fantastic and so in that spirit I’m going to mention it here. Nell Fisher (Evil Dead Rise) stars as a super-smart 11-year-old who convinces her absentee father, who happens to be a magician (Elijah Wood), to take her camping so they can find a very special animal. It’s heartwarming, it’s hilarious, it’s dark, it’s a wonderful film.
Escape from the 21st Century
Three friends acquire the ability to time travel into their future selves 20 years into the future and must foil a plot that could end the world. The film is super flashy and video game-influenced, but with a lot of heart too. Read my full review here.
A Different Man
Now in select theaters, Sebastian Stan stars as an actor with facial disfigurement who is able to heal himself, only to realize his biggest disability wasn’t his looks, it was himself. A Different Man is a very unique, unpredictable movie that will keep you thinking long after the credits roll. Read our full review here.
Daniela Forever
Henry Golding (Snake Eyes) stars as a DJ who deals with the death of his girlfriend by abusing drugs that allow him to lucid dream. A unique and visually stunning rumination on love and loss from the mind of madman Nacho Vigalando. Read my full review here.
Heretic
Hugh Grant stars as a creepy man who traps two Mormon missionaries in his home to test their faiths. The film doesn’t end as strong as it starts but it’s a surprising, engaging, and scary film nonetheless. It opens in November but read our review here.
Never Let Go
In this film now in theaters everywhere, Halle Berry stars as a mother who must protect her kids from an evil that will attack them if they dare to lose touch of their house. Great worldbuilding and mysteries abound. Read our interview with the film’s director here.
Terrifier 3
Art the Clown is back and he’s even more depraved than ever. Truly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a disgusting, gory, vile film as this. Which is a compliment. It opens October 11 and you can read our review here.
Ick
Brandon Routh plays a former high school star quarterback who gets stuck in his home town and, decades later, ends up trying to save it from an evil substance growing from the earth. Director Joseph Kahn (Detention, Bodied) gives the film energy and nostalgia with a 20+ song soundtrack of 2000s pop punk. Read our full review here.
Mads
We follow Patient Zero of an apocalyptic outbreak through what appears to be a near 90-minute long take across a suburban French neighborhood. Lots of energy, lots of gore, lots of awesome. It’ll be on Shudder in October and you can read our review here.
Planet B
When a totalitarian government captures members of a Resistance, it puts them in a secret virtual prison where prisoners can be tortured without dying. One of the captives then teams up with a journalist who sneaks her way in to try and stop it. Great ideas, a little predictable, but a super solid movie nonetheless.
Dead Talents Society
The winner of the prestigious Audience Award at this year’s festival centers on a world where ghosts exist but they can only stay ghosts if they gain social media notoriety as world-class scarers. Think Beetlejuice for the TikTok generation. I liked it a bit less than everyone else but it’s definitely a weird, fun movie.
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush is forced to enter an elder care facility where he’s terrorized by a man (John Lithgow) who wears a fake baby doll on his hand. A truly upsetting movie with excellent performances.
House of Spoils
Oscar winner Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) is a world-class chef who gives up a job in New York to open her own restaurant upstate—a restaurant she soon realizes is haunted. DeBose is excellent and the settings are wonderful, but the cooking portions are more intense than the supernatural stuff. Still though, it’s a solid premise that takes some unexpected turns.
Chainsaws Are Singing
This Estonian horror musical follows a group of strangers terrorized by an evil family led by a killer with a chainsaw. The songs are awesome, the violence is fun, and the tone is hilarious. We just wish it was about 20 minutes shorter.
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