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Another Fantastic Fest is upon us which means another year of some of the best established and new voices in horror and genre. The Festival now celebrating 20 years of weird and chaos reigning, is a celebration of everything that can come when allowing new voices that often steer away from the beaten path. Sometimes they will be familiar and other times they will be so out of left field you practically get whiplash just from trying to keep up. Here are three very different films featured at the fest this year that are an equal and important embodiment of what Fantastic Fest is all about.

COYOTES

(Colin Minihan)

We all want to believe that when faced with danger we could protect ourselves and our loved ones. To be able to always defend our pack no matter what comes at us. For Scott (Justin Long) protecting his family is obvious but at the same time he has made himself far too busy in his career as an L.A. based comic book creator. Scott with his wife Liv (Kate Boswroth) and young teenage daughter Chloe (Mila Harris) there life seems simple enough. After all they are up in the Hollywood Hills where there biggest fear is some possible rats running around the house. That is until a night of a major storm which seems to have set off a chain of wild and very blood hungry coyotes. COYTOES directed by Colin Minihan is a horror comedy that struggles from the beginning to find a proper tonal balance. A film that plays like it was based off an idea told one night after a few too many drinks. If a pack of animals attacked could you fight them off? COYOTES may struggle initially but it does carry a humorous and quite on the nose observation of L.A. life where many people have brought themselves for fame and fortune without thinking of the ecological catastrophe that could occur while they hold little to no skill to manage them.

Once the coyotes start attacking its anyone’s game at this point. Scott who can barely hit a nail with a hammer must become a hero to a family he has not given the proper time to in quite some time. Long and Bosworth have natural chemistry (it helps that the real life couple translates to the screen) and it allows there to always be a genuine fear and consequences. Long and Bosworth however do the heavy lifting as the script does little to no favors for its more colorful side characters that just fall flat in their comedic delivery. It is that comedy that also becomes a downfall for COYOTES moments of genuine tension are reduced to one liners or peculiar behaviors hellbent on laughs not frights, and the scare factor can only work so well when the CGI coyotes feel rushed with little impact. There is little desire to see real animals being used especially when their lives are met with a quick demise (often in form of a laugh that is neither funny nor welcomed). But COYOTES finds its way to a more emotional finale that would have been better carrying the film all along. Maybe it would have been too familiar but very little about COYOTES is groundbreaking.

C

COYOTES PREMIERED AT THE 2025 FANTASTIC FILM FEST. IT WILL BE RELEASED IN THEATERS OCTOBER 3

SILVER SCREAMERS

(Sean Cisterna)

It is nearly impossible to get your movie made today. Funding falls apart at every second and trying to convince others to take this crazy journey with you is not always an easy task. For Sean Cisterna the dream of getting any film made is at a standstill. A Canadian who is having trouble finding funding in his Native home, Sean sees a small but possibly very creative loophole. Grants are given out all the time for Senior Citizen programming, whether this be bingo game night, karaoke or just outings from their retirement homes. So when Sean wants to adapt a short horror story known as “The Rug” he seeks out funding in the form of senior citizen programming which means hiring a crew of elderly men and women to run his film set. SILVER SCREAMERS doesn’t just put a giant smile on your face throughout its entirety it also becomes a heartwarming look at defying the expectations and limitations that comes with aging. What makes the film so hilarious in its initial moments is just trying to persuade any elderly person to hop on board and make specifically a horror film filled with blood and gore. After many asks, Sean eventually lands on eight willing participants. SILVER SCREAMERS will hit at home for anyone who has ever made or struggled to make a film that never came to fruition. But it also serves as a reminder that there continues to be a generation we often forget about especially in the United States, and while the documentary takes place in Canada many Americans (and I am sure Canadians) may feel some sense of guilt about not giving their Grandparent that call back even after they butt dialed them for the tenth time…that day. As we follow and learn more about these eight individuals the reluctancy comes less from the horror genre but more so fear if they can live up to Sean’s vision. And yet it is so endearing to see subjects like Diane jump to become a the makeup artist since she was one in her younger years, as well as camera man Sonny who once had to give up on his dream of making his own movies in order to save his health. There are other heartwarming stories from the members but all seem to circulate around this idea that joining this project gives them a newfound sense of purpose. Many of them have lost their partners or experienced life threating health issues so to be amongst a group of younger filmmakers mentoring them it allows them to feel like they are being taught something possibly new to them as well as just being treated on the same playing field.

SILVER SCREAMERS is the kind of documentary that like any good doc exists beyond its cinematic qualities. A film that can inspire other senior citizens as well as a younger population to understand that age should never lead to no longer seeing someone as having the abilities to accomplish goals. If nothing else SILVER SCREAMERS teaches the value of patience and even when the doc’s editing is poorly paced at times you find yourself laughing because maybe things are taking their time because the participants are the ones who truly need that. As their short film comes together it opens up the obvious to some and unfamiliar too many discussion that a film set can be such a welcoming and loving place. For “The Rug” production only last two days, but it is an ongoing process that will last far beyond the film itself. SILVER SCREAMERS and specially “The Rug” gave that back to a group of people who have no choice but to look ahead to the limited time they have left on this earth, but like any good horror film can tell you death is only the beginning, and the fun you have before hand can outlive anyone.

B

SILVER SCREAMERS SCREENED AT THE 2025 FANTASTIC FILM FEST. IT IS CURRENTLY SEEKING U.S. DISTRIBUTION

APPOFENIACS

(Chris Mars Piliero)

Paranoia is at an all time high right now and frankly with good reason. Worrying about what may go wrong next is one thing but what if someone can happen to you without you even knowing. The use of artificial intelligence is still in its infantry and yet it seems to have slipped into every aspect of the world. Some will claim its progress and others will damn it at the mere sight of it all, but one thing that will always happen any time new technology is integrated…really awful people will use it. APPOFENIACS directed by Chris Mars Piliero integrates a world that is all too real even if its final results seem as absurd as it can get. A horror film where deep fake videos are the killer and the man lurking in the shadows is now right in front of the internet for all too see. There once was a time where maybe some mistakes in your past could come back to haunt you, but with deep fake video technology getting more believable mistakes you’ve never even made can be your undoing. But what makes APPOFENIACS so disturbing is less the chaotic bloodshed that ensues later on and more so people’s inability to listen to the victim of a deep fake. We automatically want to believe its truth because conversation is a lot less “fun” than rejecting them from the start. Even when the film goes off the rails it is less hard to believe since to some degree we are already there. People who have actually done something wrong continue to get a free pass and lies about good people become truth ruining them or at least allowing the powers at be to control a sadistic narrative. And while APPOFENIACS chooses not to take on the larger heads in power it shows an equally scary villain, the every day person with a  phone in their hand and an app that can destroy loves leaving nothing but a trail of chaos and blood behind.

APPOFENIACS starts off with a lie. A young man James (Chad Addison) sees a video of his girlfriend cheating on him with another man. There is something off about the video, the quality seems warped but just enough for a now depressed man to believe. This video and James’ next deadly move sets off a chain of reactions that very few audiences members will see coming. In fact a lot of the demented fun of APPOFENIACS is being to guess most of the situation but very little of the actual context. A fake video leads to a bloody weekend getaway involving pcp, cosplay, an uber driver hired for sex and even more and more lies becoming truth. APPOFENIACS bolsters an energetic cast (including Michael Abbot Jr, Will Brandt, Massi Pregoni and Simran Jehani respectively) that all blends into one another, talking over each other and throwing their own chaos into the ring before blood even begins to shed. Piliero who also wrote the script chooses lengthy dialogue early on and while the eye roll Tarantino comparisons will be thrown the film is still in its own realm of characters that spew utter bullshit and believe its scripture. None more so than Duke (Aaron Holiday) who is our stand in for all the incels that continue to dominate the online world and seek their anger into anyone that happens to maybe pass them by the wrong way. As reality starts to unfold and we see that Duke has no prejudice to who he chooses to deep fake the film finds its more open and cohesive narrative but looses none of the chaotic fun. As we follow along another of Duke’s victims a young woman name Lazzy (a terrific Paige Searcy playing possibly the unluckiest character ever) the film drives us home to a finale that is brutal as it is humorous and yet even with its very dark comedy the film always feels rooted in its horrific view point that even when the lies start to reveal themselves at just that it is far easier to use bloodshed than just admit we were duked. Manipulation can only go so far and it is up to the person to fully give into it and right now APPOFENIACS proves its point through some insane weaponry that you couldn’t even imagine that all this no matter what will end in bloodshed. APPOFENIACS will certainly be the kind of film that will grow stronger over the years, but if there is any luck its ideas and fears will dwindle if the world attempts to get even the slightest bit smarter allowing the film to be a time capsule of insanity.

A-

APPOFENIACS HAD ITS NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE AT THE 2025 FANTASTIC FEST. IT IS CURRENTLY SEEKING U.S. DISTRIBUTION