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Fantasia Fest 2026 Review Roundup: Unholy Night, I Love Paris, The Last Footage
Image Credit: Fantasia IFF
We’re in the home stretch for Fantasia Fest 2026, which has been another strong year for the genre film festival. The Montreal-based celebration of everything genre has delivered some big hits in its 30th year, with some films that are sure to be on fans’ radar when they make their way to theaters and/or streaming.
I’ve had the chance to screen several films from this year’s festival including the insect-centered psychological erotica drama Insectasy, the Hong Kong mystery-comedy Unidentified Murder, the survival thriller Someone’s Daughter, the Belgian action spectacle Attack On Paradise, and the mental health-focused creature feature Ancestral Beasts. There are more to come shortly, and you can check out a few capsule reviews below.
Unholy Night
What would the holidays be without some horror? We don’t have to wonder this year, because Michael Gabriele has us covered with Unholy Night. Gabriele’s horror comedy plays on that most essential of holiday elements — dysfunctional family drama — and adds a little undead action for spice. Marc Bendavid plays Gino, a somewhat hapless member of an Italian family whose uncomfortable family Christmas Eve dinner is interrupted when his years-dead grandmother shows up and bloody violence ensues.
Gabriele mined his personal experiences as an Italian American for the film, and it shows in the authenticity. The family drama is played for awkward comedic effect, which makes film already engaging (and relatable) before the supernatural horror comes into play. The tone between horror and comedy is mostly well-balanced; it does occasionally lose itself in the last act, but by that point we’re well invested.
Gabriel gets the most out of his cast, particularly Jacqueline Robbins who breathes life (so to speak) into Gino’s undead Nonna. She’s an absolute delight here, managing the kind old grandma with the vicious revenant incredibly well. Bendavid hits those loser-turned-hero beats well enough and Shailene Garnett matches up with him well as Gino’s ex who is back home for the holidays and gets sucked into the proceedings. There’s nothing too original or surprising her, save a climax that goes into an unexpected place and doesn’t quite stick the landing despite a good twist. But the authenticity and charm are what makes this one an enjoyable and occasionally quite heartfelt watch.
Rating: 7.0
I Love Paris
I Love Paris isn’t going to be for everyone. This vampire mockumentary set in the titular city requires a certain level of tolerance for loose narratives. But it’s very difficult to deny the charm of our titular character, an aspiring music star whose attempts to film TikToks lead to her being turned into a vampire. Turning to a creature of the night doesn’t stymie her dreams; rather, she uses it to pursue stardom with bloody and often hilarious results.
The script for the film was co-written by director Nicky Murphy and lead stars Aminata Thiboult and Leonor Oberson, and it contains some clear allegories about fame and the music business in particular. Paris’ rise corresponds with her moral spiral, and it’s not hard to guess that her music career isn’t exactly going to take a Lestat-like road.
Murphy takes a particularly vibey approach to the proceedings, which feels like a decidedly less silly spin on What We Do In the Shadows at times. Thiboult is undeniably captivating as Paris; she’s a complicated character but entirely believable as a normal person with big dreams who is suddenly thrust into a supernatural situation. Murphy doesn’t mind getting is characters bloody either, which is a plus. The film wears out its welcome a bit in the final act as Paris spirals, but it gets to a good place by the end. If you don’t mind a film that is focusing more on its characters than the story, there’s plenty to enjoy here and a decent cinematic takedown of the quest for fame.
Rating: 7.5
The Last Footage
Billed as perhaps the first found footage film out of Myanmar, The Last Footage has a great premise but loses itself quickly in the genre’s tropes. This low-budget production admittedly looks great as it follows a group of friends heading out to an old rubber plantation that one of them has inherited, only to find out to their horror that there’s something dangerous out there.
The film’s biggest problem is how closely it hews to its inspirations. From the opening scrawl that reads like a barely customized version of The Blair Witch Project’s opening card to a character who seems to have to have studied Paranormal Activity’s Mikah in terms of “What not to do when confronted by something supernatural,” there are times that the film feels like it’s just playing the hits instead of trying to do its own thing.
The unique hook here is that camera in question is a pair of 4K-recording smart glasses worn by Aung Khant (Arkar Soe Oo). This is a boon to the film as the images come off looking good, and there’s never the need for the age-old “why are you still filming?” question. Oo also directs, and he manages to tap into a few creepy folk horror moments here and there. But an overly large cast fails to give many characters a chance to stand out, and the climactic moment is undercut by the fact that there are just too many bodies to deal with. At best, The Last Footage shows a lot of potential for its cast and director. It’s just unfortunate for the film that said potential is just not quite realized this time around.
Rating: 4.5
Fantasia International Film Festival takes place in Montreal, Quebec from July 16th through August 2nd.
