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Festival coverage

Fantastic Fest

21 September – 28 September 2023

The 2023 edition of Fantastic Fest is packed with great genre titles from around the world. Alongside some of the hottest hits from the festival circuit this year, it has some enticing premières lined up, and a handful of cult oldies which you may never have seen before but probably should.

The festival runs from 21 to 28 September.

View complete schedule

Other years (5)

Box office and information

Latest reviews

  • The Toxic Avenger
    Review preview for The Toxic Avenger

    Even in the cheapest of zombie films, human bodies have never come apart so easily, nor contained such an abundance of blood. It explodes across the screen at frequent intervals, each one more spectacular than the last.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    A reimagining of the Eighties franchise in which a janitor is transformed by radioactive slime and becomes an unlikely hero.
  • Falling Stars
    Review preview for Falling Stars

    What’s missing in most folk horror tales –and indeed in many otherwise diligent historical films – is an understanding of the different perspectives of people with pre-enlightenment beliefs. It’s here that writer Karpala truly triumphs.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    On the night of first harvest, three brothers in the American West set out to see a dead witch buried by their friend and find themselves in a race to stop a curse.
  • The Wait
    Review preview for The Wait

    Clavijo’s tightly wound performance keeps the story feeling taut and personal as its larger themes develop.

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    A gamekeeper seeks revenge on the rich man who persuaded him to agree to a compromise on hunting safety rules which had devastating consequences.
  • Strange Darling
    Review preview for Strange Darling

    A gorgeous piece of work.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A relentless predator tracks an injured woman through the Oregon wilderness. The woman does her best to outsmart her attacker, but with each tense moment she grows weaker and less able. He’s a man on a mission, and it’s only a matter of time before he captures his prey.
  • Animalia
    Review preview for Animalia

    Pregnancy is often depicted as a state of enhanced vulnerability, and one which points the way to increased dependency. Here, Alaoui turns that around.

    Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
    A young, pregnant woman finds emancipation as aliens land in Morocco.
  • The Invisible Fight
    Review preview for The Invisible Fight

    Sometimes the rumblings are of the Shaw Brothers, at others the Marx Brothers.

    Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
    A kung-fu comedy set in an Orthodox Monastery in 1970s Soviet Union.
  • The Coffee Table
    Review preview for The Coffee Table

    It’s cleverly written, beautifully performed and quite unforgettable, and yet I hesitate to recommend that anybody watch it.

    Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
    Black comedy about a couple facing a tricky moment in their relationship.
  • The People's Joker
    Review preview for The People's Joker

    It’s an anarchic mess – the sort of film the Joker himself might have made, and that’s part of its triumph.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    An aspiring clown grappling with her gender identity combats a fascistic caped crusader.
  • You'll Never Find Me
    Review preview for You'll Never Find Me

    The film keeps us guessing for quite some time, despite delivering a number of unsettling hints

    Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
    Patrick, a strange and lonely resident, lives in a mobile home at the back of an isolated caravan park. After a violent thunderstorm erupts, a mysterious young woman appears at his door, seeking shelter from the weather. The longer the night wears on and the more the young woman discovers about Patrick, the more difficult she finds it to leave.
  • The Deep Dark
    Review preview for The Deep Dark

    It’s in [its] understanding of working life that the film really excels, and it’s refreshing to see working class characters given centre stage in a story like this.

    Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
    Miners are forced to take a professor underground with them, to take samples for his measurements. After a landslide prevents them from going back up, they discover a crypt from another time, unknowingly waking up a bloodthirsty creature.

A–Z of Fantastic Fest 2023 reviews

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