The Cultural Gutter is attending Fantastic Fest again this year! This time the Gutter’s own Carol Borden will be attending strapped into the chairs of the CG Viewatorium (and Sachin Hingoo might be if he survives TIFF 2026). We’ll be sharing first impressions and reviews here at the Gutter. In the meantime, here’s some of the movies Carol is interested in this year.

Every year at Fantastic Fest, the the Adams Family presents something new and I am excited to see what they’ve wrought this year. The Glorious Dead promises practical effect gore set against a snowy backdrop–an excellent opportunity for the Adams’ patented mix of gory beauty. And who doesn’t want to see Toby Poser as a sheriff of a small town in the middle of an apocalypse? After years of thinking about adaptations of Yotsuya Kaidan, I am intrigued by the possibilities of Anne Biller’s The Face of Horror, a take on Yotsuya Kaidan re-set in medieval Europe and seemingly permeated with a 1960s and 1970s Eurohorror feel. Speaking of which, the legendary filmmaker Ulrike Ottinger has a campy, Queer take on Elisabeth Bathory starring Isabel Hupert, The Blood Countess that sounds very much my thing. Indonesian horror movie stalwarts Joko Anwar and Kimo Stamboel both have new films at the festival. There’s a good chance I’ll be watching Joko Anwar’s satirical, supernatural horror (with gore and action) Ghost In The Cell from behind my hands. And I’m curious indeed about the bloody old dark house Gothic horror of Kimo Stamboel’s Janur Ireng: Sewu Dino the Sequel. I am there for Dublin exterminators fighting a jiangshi in Fergal Costello’s Deadly Kung Fu (with action director Lee Huang). I’d liked to be first in line consume the dystopian fast food horror comedy of Rocko Zevenbergen’s Flapjax. And Mason Jeffrey Newton-DeRushie’s Kylgor In The Grisly Abyss brings both puppets and dark fantasy to the table, which looks rad, fun and grisly, but with stop motion and puppets. And if Phil Tippet and Mad God (2022) have taught us anything, it’s that animation and puppets can be very grisly indeed.

What I always look forward to the most, though, are the films I didn’t know I’d love–films I’ve never heard of and might never have another chance to see. I can’t wait to find out what those films are this year. I can’t wait to discover the wonders.