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Festival coverage

Beyond Fest

25 September – 9 October 2025

Crimson Peak
Crimson Peak

The Los Angeles-based celebration of fantasy, science fiction, horror and more is back for another amazing year, with a line-up that includes a huge Guillermo Del Toro retrospective.

The festival runs from 25 September to 9 October.

Other years (3)

Latest reviews

  • Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie
    Review preview for Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie

    The underlying formula is a simple one but the chaos around it is managed magnificently so that you can never be sure what will happen next.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    When their plan to book a show at the Rivoli goes horribly wrong, Matt and Jay accidentally travel back to the year 2008.
  • Primate
    Review preview for Primate

    I didn't go in with high expectations but I was thrilled.

    Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
    Home from college, Lucy reunites with family including pet chimp Ben. Ben contracts rabies during a pool party and turns aggressive. Lucy and her friends barricade themselves in the pool, devising ways to survive the vicious chimp.
  • After The Hunt
    Review preview for After The Hunt

    Guadagnino is tilting at windmills and there isn’t even any wind.

    Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
    A college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation against one of her colleagues and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come to light.
  • No Other Choice
    Review preview for No Other Choice

    Park keeps inviting us to laugh, then forcing us to confront what, exactly, we’re laughing at.

    Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
    When a man loses his job he finds himself drifting before deciding to take things into his own hands...
  • Sisu: Road To Revenge
    Review preview for Sisu: Road To Revenge

    I was entertained, in much the same way but not to the same extent as the first outing.

    Andrew Robertson · 2.5 out of 5
    Returning to the house where his family was brutally murdered during the war, “the man who refuses to die” dismantles it, loads it on a truck, and is determined to rebuild it somewhere safe in their honour. When the Red Army commander who killed his family comes back hellbent on finishing the job, a relentless cross-country chase ensues
  • Reflection In A Dead Diamond
    Review preview for Reflection In A Dead Diamond

    For something so lovely, it is hard-edged, and it sparkles with visual wit.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    When the mysterious woman in the room next door disappears, a debonair 70-year-old ex-spy living in a luxury hotel on the Côte d’Azur is confronted by the demons and darlings of a lurid past in which moviemaking, memories and madness collide.
  • Queens Of The Dead
    Review preview for Queens Of The Dead

    Tina Romero is in her element.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    On what should be a fun night at a Brooklyn warehouse party, an outbreak of flesh-eating zombies forces a ragtag group of drag queens, partygoers and party-throwers to band together and somehow survive the night.
  • The Serpent's Skin
    Review preview for The Serpent's Skin

    Alice Maio Mackay’s...most accessible film to date.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A young woman leaves her transphobic small-town, and develops a romance with tattoo artist Gen with whom she shares a paranormal connection. But their deep-rooted insecurities unknowingly release a demon, which possesses one of their ex-lovers and begins feeding on their friends by sucking out their lifeforce.
  • Angel's Egg
    Review preview for Angel's Egg

    Unutterably beautiful.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    A mysterious young girl wanders a desolate, otherworldly landscape, carrying a large egg.
  • Bugonia
    Review preview for Bugonia

    While some directors spend their lives crafting love letters to the worlds they create, Yorgos Lanthimos has developed a fine line in cinematic hate mail to humanity.

    Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
    Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

A–Z of Beyond Fest 2025 reviews

Features

  • Song of the desert
    Kangding Ray on changing attitudes to music in cinema, and scoring Sirât
  • Ice cool
    Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani talk Reflection In A Dead Diamond
  • Abnormal filmmaking
    Mickey Reece on subverting the technothriller with Every Heavy Thing
  • The family that slays together
    Tina Romero on her father's legacy, queer community and Queens Of The Dead
  • The warrior's way
    Daniel Bernhardt on Steven Kostanski's genius, Slash's beautiful eyes, and Deathstalker
  • Beyond control
    Dakota Gorman on the transformative experience of film and Hellcat
  • Claiming her space
    Julie Pacino and Lucy Fry on internalising the hero's journey and I Live Here Now
  • Magic and chemistry
    Alice Maio Mackay, Alexandra McVicker and Avalon Fast on The Serpent’s Skin
  • Monster mayhem
    William Bagley, Chris Mayers and Levi Burdick on Hold The Fort
  • Meet Ruggero Deodato
    The legendary director of Cannibal Holocaust discusses his career