4 Of The Best Quirky, Subversive Gems We Found at Fantastic Fest 2025

There is so much to take in at Fantastic Fest that it can be difficult to digest it all! Sometimes small bites help. Here is a quick list of the best quirky, subversive, under the radar features that I caught at the festival that I hope you’ll be able to check out in theaters near you sometime soon!

Body Blow (World Premiere)

Aiden is a young, muscle bound cop when he is tasked with an undercover mission within the nightlife of the local gay community. With a scandal in his past to live down and personal demons to fight, all he wants to do is be a good cop and a good person. When he meets Cody, a captivating twink bartender controlled by the local drug lord drag queen things get…complicated. Things also get very, very sexy. This is an erotic thriller in the vein of late night Cinemax in the 90s, the kind of thing you keep your finger on the remote for in case your mom comes in and you need to change the channel real quick.

Writer/Director Dean Francis uses this racy noir to explore exploitation within the gay community both from establishment authority figures like the police as well as manipulation of younger, more vulnerable members of the community by older predatory men who use poverty and drugs to keep them defenseless. Tim Pocock as Aiden and Tom Rodgers as Cody play perfectly off each other as they trade back and forth who is the aggressor and who is the pursued.

Come for the steamy neon drenched nightlife, stay for a story that ends up being really fun and heartfelt without hesitating to soak us in blood and gore.

 

Camp (World Premiere)

Taking a summer job at a Christian kids’ camp might seem like a strange move for someone who isn’t at all religious, but after suffering repeated traumatic tragedies it might be just the change that Emily needs to begin healing. The leaders of the camp might be deeply religious but everyone else there seems to be driven by the freedom to party and hook up while the children…sleep? We’re not totally sure where the kids are most of the time honestly. Emily connects quickly with four other counselors who bring her into their manifestation rituals and secret inner world that looks a lot like witchcraft. Part The Craft, part Wet Hot American summer, absurdist without being laugh out loud funny, Camp is a dreamy lo-fi coming of age story that blurs the lines between reality and fantasy in a really beautiful way.

With her second feature film writer/director Avalon Fast is solidifying her very specific voice and style of storytelling. If you don’t get it it’s not for you, but if you do it might just become your entire personality. The young cast, led by Zola Grimmer as Emily, feel like girls you know or girls you want to know. Camp feels like the future of vibes based genre films with its strong world building and loose plot specifics. I am excited to see where Fast goes from here as her experiences and budgets increase.

 

The Cramps: A Period Piece (World Premiere)

Having a uterus means a lifetime of body horror, and some of them are worse than others. This is definitely the case for poor Agnes whose menstrual cramps manifest as nightmarish monsters that seek to ruin her life. Against the wishes of her overbearing mother Agnes gets a job at a beauty salon where she finally meets independent, progressive, women who can help her find her way in the world outside of her family. Unfortunately the horrors of womanhood sideline her again and again in ways that are both gruesome and hilarious.

Writer/director Brook H. Cellars is unabashedly paying homage to John Waters in this highly stylized, shot on film, period piece (in two senses of the word). With wigs, drag, a satanist and a lot to say about the way women are treated when reporting how they feel in their bodies, this film could not have been released at a better time. While Lauren Kitchen leads the cast as the wide-eyed Agnes it is Olivia Peck as salon customer and potential romantic rival Petunia Partridge who steals every scene she is in. The Cramps: A Period Piece is likely to become a well deserved cult classic among high camp enthusiasts.

 

Night Stage (Texas Premiere)

Matias and Rafael expected to have a one night fling after connecting on a hook up app, but it quickly becomes much more. For Rafael his sexual preferences could derail his hopes of becoming mayor and leave his campaign donors calling for his head. Although Matias, an experimental theater performer, doesn’t seem to have the same high stakes at first it becomes clear that the same bias could hamper his dream of becoming a famous actor, starting with landing his first TV role. As the need for secrecy increases Rafael and Matias discover they both have an emerging exhibitionist kink that leads them into some pretty risky situations.

In the hands of writing/directing duo Filipe Matzembacher and Marcio Reolon this steamy erotic thriller becomes a metaphor for societal pressures that keep those in the gay community closeted even as the culture appears more progressive on the surface. Gabriel Faryas and Cirillo Luna are both great as Matias and Rafael. They have amazing chemistry and are well cast as the carefree artist and the straight laced politician. Night Stage ratchets up the tension at every turn and keeps us guessing at who the true villains of the story are until the final moments when the pressure is finally relieved (innuendo intended).