Every September, movie fans flock to the Alamo Drafthouse's South Lamar location in Austin, Texas for a one-of-a-kind film festival. Fantastic Fest, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, boasts yet another lineup of genre-focused titles ready to wow audiences. With an emphasis on World Premieres, there are too many titles debuting before enthusiastic crowds who have no idea what to expect. With that exciting mysteriousness in mind, I've put put together a list of my most anticipated titles in Fantastic Fest 2025's stacked lineup.
Here's what I'm hoping will be the biggest discoveries of the festival this year. I'll be here all festival, too, so be sure to say "Hello!" and "Demon Wind rules!" if you spy me roaming the festival grounds.
Deathstalker
Astron-6 alumn Steven Kostanski is back with a [checks notes] reboot of James Sbardellati’s 1980s cult classic Deathstalker? Color me seventeen shades of excited. The creator of The Psycho Goreman and Frankie Freako (most recently) brings his fun-loving, do-it-yourself practical effects to the Kingdom of Abraxion, where the ex-soldier “Deathstalker” roams. Swiss actor and stuntman Daniel Bernhardt (John Wick, Atomic Blonde) stars in the titular role, with Patton Oswalt voicing his companion, Doodad. There’s an amulet, an evil sorcerer called Necromemnon, but most of all, a whole host of freakazoid demons and gnarly violence that’s right in Kostanski’s practical SFX wheelhouse.
After Manborg, I was always going to be excited for another Kostanski flick. Deathstalker is no exception to that rule.
Beast of War
The director of Wyrmwood made a WWII shark attack movie? Hell yeah.
As a lover of “Fin Flicks,” Kiah Roache-Turner’s Beast of War was destined to be one of my most anticipated of Fantastic Fest. Stranded Australian soldiers find themselves floating on a 20-foot piece of wood in the Timor Sea, with a “scarred white shark” picking them off one by one. Your standard aquatic horror creature feature, which might not grab everyone’s attention, but we already have a trailer, and here’s the exciting part: the shark looks GOOD. That’s hardly a given — trust me, I’ve seen too many piss-poor animated sharks in the last decade — so I’m already over the moon based on the menacing-looking monster alone.
The trailer also feels a bit like The Shallows: scattered objects to swim between, characters having to outsmart the predator. If it’s anywhere near as good as Jaume Collet-Serra’s A+ Fin Flick, we’re in for a vicious treat.
Obsession
Curry Barker, one of the funniest sketch comedians on TikTok, just sold his second horror feature, Obsession, for over $15 million out of its TIFF’s Midnight Madness premiere. The social media celebrity turned heads with his unnerving debut Milk & Serial — free to watch on YouTube — but reports are already hyping Obsession to be even more of a crowd-pleaser. The monkey’s paw premise boast a juicy horror hook: Bear, who has a crush on his coworker Nikki, wishes she would love him back … and it works. Nikki becomes dangerously attracted to Bear, in what’s described as a “descent into madness” with “impressive gore.”
Barker is yet another comedian turning to the horror genre and finding instant success. Obsession sounds like a proper slice of anti-rom-com craziness, which is precisely what I expect based on Barker’s unpredictable and absurd sense of darkened humor.
Don’t Leave The Kids Alone
I've been impatiently waiting for Emilio Portes to return to the horror genre since 2017's fantastic Belzebuth. Portes' genre-crossing ambitions and boundaryless originality hopefully return in Don't Leave The Kids Alone, his ode to the horrors of childhood. Two brothers are left home alone and encounter haunted perils that sound Skinamarink-ish (in themes), except with "80s nostalgia" and a house that eventually "breathes and groans." It's Portes' take on sibling relationships and fears of overwhelming unknowns, dragging us back to childhood memories where we would scamper up the basement steps out of concerns about whatever could lurk when we shut the lights off (gee, what an oddly specific example).
I'm here for Portes no matter what, but I'm doubly sold on the concept.
Deathgasm 2: Goremageddon
Is this pick too on-brand? Too bad. I still have and proudly wear my Deathgasm trucker hat from its SXSW premiere. I’ll never hide how much I adore Jason Lei Howden’s Deathgasm, and news of the crowdfunded sequel hit me like a miracle. According to the synopsis, Brodie (Milo Cawthorne) sees a television advertisement for a local battle of the bands and “heads to the graveyard to put the band back together.” You’re telling me I get an undead reunion sequel with gallons of blood and another headbanging metal soundtrack? Triple points awarded for the return of Trivium frontman Matthew Kiichi Heafy, who provides an “ear-bleeding” score.
Death to false metal, baby. Deathgasm comes again!
V/H/S/Halloween
The V/H/S franchise has only gotten better with age (despite horror sequel stereotypes). V/H/S/Beyond was, in my opinion, the best yet — but I have high hopes for V/H/S/Halloween. It’ll be hard to top Radio Silence’s V/H/S “10/31/98” segment in terms of Halloween mayhem, but I have complete faith in all the creators that they’ll try their hardest. The eclectic roster of filmmakers for this anthology includes Bryan M. Ferguson (Pumpkin Guts), Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks), Micheline Pitt-Norman & R.H. Norman (Grummy), Alex Ross Perry (Her Smell), Paco Plaza (REC), and Anna Zlokovic (Appendage)—and it’s going to take all my willpower not to talk Plaza’s ear off about REC if I see him at the Alamo South Lamar’s attached bar.
The V/H/S brand under Shudder has done a tremendous job sourcing talent and cultivating short features that gel together, and they’ve struck the perfect theme with “Halloween.” Hopefully it’s all treats, no tricks.
