The annual, all-genre film festival Fantastic Fest is wrapping up its latest event this week and, as expected, it was jam-packed with incredible genre movies. Gizmodo was there for five of the eight days and saw 15 films in total, almost all of which we really enjoyed. Some of them are big studio films with release dates in place. Some are movies so new they aren’t even on Rotten Tomatoes yet. And below, you’ll find our 10 favourite films from the festival, all fascinating and cool genre films you should keep an eye out for in the coming weeks, months, and maybe even years.
1. The Antares Paradox
Our favourite film of the festival is this teeny-tiny Spanish film that made its world premiere at the festival. The Antares Paradox is about a SETI researcher who intercepts a radio signal that might be from extraterrestrial life. As she tries to verify it, her life comes crumbling down around her. It’s set in a single room, with a single actress, and is one of the most exciting, emotional films we’ve seen in a long time.
The Antares Paradox does not yet have any distribution, but here’s our review and we will definitely keep an eye out for when you can see it.
2. The Menu
Winner of the Audience Award at Fantastic Fest, The Menu isn’t a sci-fi movie. But the things that happen in it are truly messed up and occasionally horrific, so we think you’re really going to like them.
Ralph Fiennes stars as a chef at a very exclusive restaurant who is about to serve the meal of his life to some very special guests (played by the likes of Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Judith Light, and others). The Menu is scheduled for wide release November 18 and here’s our review.
3. Bones and All
Bones and All stars Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell as two cannibals falling in love. It’s poignant, poetic, and super duper bloody. It opens in theatres November 23 and here’s our review.
4. The Visitor From the Future
Based on a popular French webseries of the same name, The Visitor From the Future is the story of a group of time travellers trying to save the world from a zombie apocalypse. But it’s hilarious and heartfelt too. Just a great movie.
The film already opened in some European countries but there’s no word yet on an Australian release. Read our full review here.
5. Smoking Causes Coughing
If you’ve heard of director Quentin Dupieux, you know he makes very weird movies. He tries to top them all with Smoking Causes Coughing, a pseudo anthology movie featuring a superhero team.
The film opens soon in Europe but there’s no word yet on an Australia release. Read our full review here.
6. Kids vs. Aliens
What happens when a group of best friends are forced to fight a group of killer aliens? That’s the basic premise of Kids vs. Aliens, a very violent, funny, nostalgic sci-fi action film from director Jason Eisener (Hobo With a Shotgun, Dark Side of the Ring.) I didn’t review the film because I’m personal friends with Jason but I’d be remiss if I didn’t get it on your radar, because I thought it was just so much fun.
RLJE Films recently picked it up for distribution so check for it in theatres probably next year. It’ll go to Shudder after that.
7. Blood Relatives
A vampire who has been around for almost a century is forced to change his immortal ways when he realises he has a half-vampire daughter he didn’t know about. First-time director Noah Segan, who also stars, has a great movie here with Blood Relatives, especially because the horror takes a back seat for a more human story.
Blood Relatives will be heading to Shudder in the near future. Here’s our full review.
8. Sick
Two college girls decide to quarantine together in April 2020 in this covid-19 period piece slasher movie. It feels a little too soon to joke about some of these things but, coming from the mind of writer Kevin Williamson, the movie has plenty of twists and turns to make it enjoyable.
Sick does not yet have a release date but you can read our full review here.
9. Werewolf By Night
Every year Fantastic Fest does a few secret screenings to surprise audiences with an unexpected title. This year one of those titles was Marvel Studios’ upcoming Halloween special, Werewolf By Night, an homage to monster movies of all eras starring Gael Garcia Bernal.
This new era of the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes to Disney+ on October 7 and you can read our review here.
10. Garcia
Garcia is an upcoming HBO Max mini-series based on a comic of the same name, about a secret agent frozen during World War II who is unfrozen in modern times. The streamer showed two of the six episodes at Fantastic Fest and quickly piqued our interest with the fun action sequences, incredible production values, and comic book twists and turns.
Garcia is hopefully hitting Aussie streaming services on October 28.
And also…
Those are our 10 favourite films of the festival, but we saw more too.
Smile is a new horror film from Paramount that opens this week and left us far from smiling (read our review here). Tropic is a French sci-fi film about two brothers training to be astronauts that takes some very interesting turns but ends up underwhelming. Vesper is an indie sci-fi film about a young girl attempting to save her sick father in a technologically advanced, post-apocalyptic world. It has its moments but ultimately feels smaller than it wants to be. And then there’s Project Wolf Hunting, the most violent film we saw at the festival which has not one, but two fun premises, neither of each quite work. You can read our review of that one here.