Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal served as the launchpad for two provocative works that tested audience nerves and expectations.
Corpus — a tactile, intimate thriller
Corrin Evans premiered her debut feature, Corpus, a steam-tinged thriller set in 1997 New York. The story follows a group of friends who travel to a remote mansion for a party, where the film’s exploration of desire, consent and close-up human interaction takes center stage. Evans relied on her background as an intimacy coordinator when staging scenes, and Lily Cowles — who co-wrote the film and appears as the character Billie — praised the director’s approach to creating safety and trust on set.
Visually the film leaned into a textured, warm aesthetic. Cinematographer Charlie Cole collaborated on a lighting plan that favored natural sources and intense tungsten setups to reinforce the film’s sweaty, visceral atmosphere. Much of the effects work was practical, and the primary mansion location was dressed to feel lived-in. The score was composed by VAAAL, a creative partner Evans had long wanted to work with.
Castration Movie — an evolving, trans-temporal anthology
Filmmaker Louise Weard presented a 2-hour-plus excerpt from the third instalment of her Castration Movie anthology. The overall project is an ambitious experiment in trans-temporality: Weard has worked with family digital camcorder footage, tape re-recording and a DIY production practice while writing, directing, shooting and editing herself.
The excerpt focuses on a romantic couple grappling with one partner’s transition and foregrounds emotional trauma in ways that prompted vocal reactions in the screening room, including heckling directed at an onscreen character. Weard described the anthology as a long-term, near-continuous production: earlier chapters run lengthy runtimes (Anthology i: Traps is reported at 4 hours 35 minutes; Anthology ii: The Best of Both Worlds at 5 hours) and Weard says she has been shooting most weekends for several years. The 2-hour excerpt was presented as an accessible entry point to the larger work, and Weard intends to release the full Anthology iii later in the year while already developing further instalments.
Festival takeaways
- Corpus received attention for its tactile direction, practical effects and intimacy-first production methods.
- Weard’s Castration Movie excerpt provoked strong, divisive responses and signals an unfolding, experimental anthology rather than a conventional feature.
Source: Horror Press — Fantasia 2026: ‘Castration Movie’ and ‘Corpus’ Triumph at Making Audiences Squirm