FANTASIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2026
Week Two
by "Doc" Hunter Bush, MovieJawn Staff Writer and Podcast Director, and cohost of the Hate Watch/Great Watch Podcast
Fantasia International Film Festival runs until Aug 2nd in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Get your tickets HERE.
Good things take time. We've all heard that adage, but is it true? On one hand, Phil Tippett's Mad God and Richard Williams' The Thief and the Cobbler each took about thirty years to make and they're both marvels (even if Thief and the Cobbler is an imperfect version of the director's vision, but I digress). On the other hand, the Fantasia International Film Festival has also been around for thirty years, and while their 2026 line-up of films and events is great, in truth Fantasia has been going strong for a while now, as a showcase for international genre films, with an emphasis on Asian offerings. So I guess the jury is still ultimately out on the universality of that particular proverb.
Fantasia 2026 rolls along and I've just been trying to hold on! It's been a wild ride, with whimsical tales from the sea, explosive cat and mouse mind games, dangerous dancing, mysterious murders, and so much more! Below I've cobbled together a few titles that I think are worth seeking out when you get the chance. This won't run until the festival has wrapped up, but I intend to spend the days between then and now viewing as many films on offer as I reasonably can. Until next year, Long Live the Movies!
THE PERIL AT PINCER POINT
Written by Jake Kuhn, Noah Stratton-Twine
Directed by Jake Kuhn, Noah Stratton-Twine
Starring Jack Redmayne, Alyth Ross, Michael Mackenzie, Os Leanse
When a sound designer is sent to the titular location to hunt down the perfect sounds for a famous director's next project, he unknowingly wanders into the supernatural mystery that plagues a small town. The Peril at Pincer Point has been compared to the works of Ryland Brickson, Cole Tews and Mike Cheslik (The Lake Michigan Monster, Hundreds of Beavers) presumably because of its hand-made, low-fi aesthetic, gorgeous black and white cinematography, and absurdist tone. While that is a fair comparison, The Peril at Pincer Point also has a fair amount of campfire ghost story in it. Not as cartoonish as the works of Tews & Cheslik (which I love, don't get me wrong), The Peril at Pincer Point is a delight that's as much Twin Peaks or classic Doctor Who as it is John Carpenter's The Fog.
SUZUKE=BAKUDAN
Written by Masahiro Yamaura, Hiroyuki Yatsu, based on a novel by Katsuhiro Go
Directed by Akira Nagai
Starring Jirō Satō, Kan'ichirô Satô, Atsurō Watabe, Yuki Yamada, Sairi Itô
Suzuke=Bakudan (a.k.a. Bakudan) is a really fascinating version of the police procedural. When a man named Suzuke (Jirō Satō) is arrested for vandalizing a vending machine, he offers to assist the police in preventing a series of upcoming disasters using his innate psychic abilities. If you're wondering what kind of disasters, you may want to know that "bakudan" translates to "bomb". As his predictions come true, he becomes the prime suspect, and a complicated net of lies, wrongdoings, and abuse of police power is unearthed. The narrative repeatedly shifts focus from the police interrogation room to the city at large, and from the present to the past, all while Suzuke plays mind games with the detectives interrogating him, offering clues if they're able to decipher his rambling, tangled stories. I love a good criminal mastermind tale and Suzuke=Bakudan kept me in rapt attention the whole time.
BREAK FREE
Written by Yu Nakamoto
Directed by Yu Nakamoto
Starring Akito Fujii, Mai Fukagawa, Ui Mihara, Shogo Iwaya, Atomi Mizuishi
( * ) The other yakuza dance film is called The Specials and as of the time of this writing, I haven't gotten a chance to watch it, but I hope to do so before Fantasia 2026 concludes.
THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER
Written by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, based on a novel by Honobu Yonezawa
Directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring Masaki Suda, Masahiro Motoki
An interesting companion piece to Suzuke=Bakudan, The Samurai and the Prisoner takes place in 1578, and is a fascinating bit of work: a film about opposing warlords that is almost completely unconcerned with combat. Written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse) The Samurai and the Prisoner is set largely within the grounds of Arioka Castle, examining a series of strange deaths for signs of either political betrayal or supernatural intervention. It's a film as much about honor and strategy as it is about the historical, sociopolitical mystery at its center. I'm not inherently familiar with the persons involved in this story, and The Samurai and the Prisoner made the somewhat complicated allegiances, and the political and military maneuvering very easy to follow and understand, leaving me free to focus on the film's more introspective concerns. A slow burn, but an incredible bit of filmmaking, with gorgeous cinematography by Yasuyuki Sasaki.
STUDIO Q
Written by Marcela Fernández Violante, based on a novel by Vicente Leñero
Directed by Marcela Fernández Violante
Starring Juan Ferrara, Helena Rojo, Armando Silvestre, Víctor Junco, Jorge Dizan
One more wonderful aspect of Fantasia is their selection of "retro" offerings; screenings of (frequently) remastered older films before they become widely available as physical media through boutique labels. Studio Q (a.k.a. Misterio) is a Spanish language meta-thriller originally released in 1980, that has been restored by Severin Films. Telenovela actor Alex (Juan Ferrara) finds his day-to-day on the set of his latest job blending with his real life: his character is also named Alex, and is married to a character with the same name as Alex's wife; the plot revolves around a telenovela actor trying to film a new project amid constant distractions from salacious costars, hordes of fans, and a quietly megalomaniacal director. But am I talking about the film itself or the project the film is about? The answer is: YES. I loved the playful ways this just kept twisting in and around on itself, constantly moving the audience further and further from a clear idea of what was really going on.
Fun fact: writer / director Marcela Fernández Violante was, when the film was made, only the third female feature film director in the Mexican film industry!
