In the name of transparency, I, C.H. Newell, was a small part of the programming team again this year at Fog Fest 2025, so I’ve seen nearly all the titles below, and I’m simply previewing some of my favourite titles that people will get to see at the festival this year.

A lot of really young folks in St. John’s and around the whole province may not understand what a big deal Fog Fest is to people like myself, a 40-year-old man who’s loved film and horror from an early age. Up until the past five years or so, there’s never been anything like it; not only for those who love to watch film/horror, but for those who love to create it, too. Fog Fest is delivering the horror goods for audiences, and also giving local filmmakers opportunities that otherwise would not exist. If you’re an ageing horror obsessive like myself, or just a general horror obsessive of any age, living in Newfoundland & Labrador and you’ve not yet attended Fog Fest, change that this year.

The following shorts and features are only some of the great offerings at 2025’s edition of Fog Fest. There’s so much more, and a little something for everybody. I’d better see you at The Majestic this weekend supporting independent horror and genre films, or else I’ll find you in your dreams, like a slightly more handsome Freddy Krueger.

---

Shorts

Chemical Egg

I don’t want to go on too much about Chemical Egg, only because the more I write about it, the less fun it’ll be to experience this short for yourselves. Trust me: just let director Mike Simmos take you on a weird, wild journey.

My Lily

Kashika Kaushal’s My Lily is a haunting short about a widow, and her daughter, who’s heading off to college on her own. Both of them struggle with different expectations pushed upon women, particularly the pressures of mothers upon their children. Kaushal’s film is a creepy story about the weight of parents on their children’s lives, no matter how old, and about what it means for a parent to let go of the control they wield over their children. My Lily ends with two unforgettable images that take a moment to sink in; when they do, the story becomes all the more unsettling.

Bronze

Corey Benson Powers returns to Fog Fest in 2025 with another short, Bronze, which follows Tori (Sana Rehman) as she’s sunbathing in the backyard and trying to snap the perfect photos in her bikini. The more Tori’s focused on herself and her pics, the less she registers the world around her. Eventually she receives an airdropped photo on her phone that changes the entire day from fun in the sun to ‘maybe I should run.’ By the time she realises what’s going on, it might be too late to run. Powers previously brought the short film Locksmith to Fog Fest last year, and just like Bronze, it was a terrifying slice of urban horror. Bronze will make you think twice before getting too lost in your smartphone next time.

The Hunter & His Apprentice

Reamonn Joshee’s The Hunter & His Apprentice is a gorgeous black-and-white, silent short with intertitles about the eponymous Hunter training his Apprentice into the world of hunting and trading. Yet the Apprentice struggles with being a successor to the Hunter. They don’t necessarily see the world in the same ways. One day, the Apprentice must go on a hunt alone and return with bounty. He comes upon someone who makes him consider the true toll of the hunt, which puts him at odds with his teacher. A beautiful little film that questions the difference between hunter and prey, and whether all traditions that get passed from one generation to the next are worth preserving.

Poppa

A couple years back, Peter Ahern’s Buzzkill played Fog Fest and it was a delightfully weird, macabre bit of animation, so that’s one reason I was excited to see that his new short Poppa is coming to the festival in 2025. Poppa, similar to Buzzkill, begins with something that feels very real before quickly descending into the best sort of madness. This is another short that can’t be written about too much without spoiling, so do yourself a favour and see this during Fog Fest, even if, like myself, you’re not the biggest fan of animated films (though I respect the craft greatly). Poppa will surprise you and maybe even disgust you, too. I know you want to be disgusted, even just a bit, because if you’re going to Fog Fest you’re probably a sick little horror freak—just like me.

Time Eater

Ryan Couldrey’s Time Eater centres on a mother/grandmother, Anne (Jane Moffat), who’s waiting for her daughter Lori (Perrie Voss) and her daughter’s partner Nic (Lauren Beatty) to drop off the grandchild for a visit with Granny, while also dealing with a painful part of life that many experience as they age. Anne’s trying her best, despite the fact that the woman she sees in the mirror isn’t always the woman she recognises as herself; not just in a philosophical sense, either. Time Eater is a disturbing exploration of the doubt that creeps into a person’s soul when they start to feel their mental health unravel with age, and as the short hurtles towards its climax, there’s no guarantee things will end without painful terror.

Ojichaag

Rachel Beaulieu’s Ojichaag: Spirit Within begins with a heartbreaking moment that leads its protagonist, Marie (Joyce Delaronde), to make a tragic choice. Marie’s torn between the struggle of her everyday life, the Catholicism that seems to hover in the background of her existence, and the spirits that lie just beyond the veil of the living world. She must decide whether she wants to keep on living in spite of all her struggles, or if she wants to become part of the spirit world. Ojichaag—loosely translated into English as ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’—is all the more poignant because of its relevance, as the suicide rate for Indigenous peoples, particularly in Canada and Australia, are generally about three times higher than for non-Indigenous people; in Inuit communities, it’s as much as nine times higher. Beaulieu uses the supernatural to confront very real, pressing realities in Indigenous communities, though Ojichaag‘s horror also comes with a side of hope. This short is not to be missed.

The Jokes on You

The Jokes on You is only one of two films on this list that I haven’t yet seen, though my hopes are high because it’s a short directed by local talent Brooklyn Cox, a young filmmaker with lots of energy and creepy ideas. Brooklyn’s skills are rare for someone her age and she only continues to hone her craft with each short. One of her previous shorts, 15 Minutes of Fame, particularly showed off the talent she’s been nurturing, so The Jokes on You holds a lot of promise. While there are plenty of well-established people in Newfoundland & Labrador’s growing film/TV industry, young filmmakers like Brooklyn are on their way to being established names themselves. Make sure to get out and support Brooklyn at Fog Fest this year so we can continue to watch homegrown talent thrive amongst the genre film space in this province.

Berta

Lucía Forner Segarra’s Berta begins with the eponymous Berta (Nerea Barros) seemingly doing a regular job working for a tow truck company. She’s towing a vehicle while a man condescends to her, calling her “doll” and questioning why she might be watching a YouTube tutorial on how to tow a truck. Quickly the situation changes and Berta has the man in a very vulnerable situation. She explains to him plainly: “You raped me.” And while the man adamantly denies he did anything to Berta, she insists on the truth, even if that means eviscerating the past and his manhood to bring it out. The special part about Berta is that Segarra takes a more unexpected route to envision revenge less as eye-for-an-eye violence, more like therapeutic theatre. Segarra’s story prioritises understanding of the trauma inflicted upon Berta (albeit slightly violent understanding in the end) over gruesome revenge. Make sure to catch this little gem at Fog Fest, or you’ll regret it!

Features

Mother of Flies

The Adams Family—John Adams, Toby Poser, and Zelda Adams—have returned to the festival circuit with a personal, soulful rendition of witchcraft horror in Mother of Flies. Their film concerns Mickey (Zelda Adams), a young woman been battling cancer, as she and her father Jake (John Adams) head into the deep woods to visit a woman called Solveig (Toby Poser) who claims to be able to help Mickey. Solveig deals in necromancy. She’s even offering her services free of charge. The longer Jake and Mickey stay in the woods with Solveig, the more Jake begins to question the woman’s methods. But Mickey wants to stay the course. She believes there’s hope, even in what presents as darkness.

Every film the Adams Family makes is unique, and their style has given new life to indie horror over the past 5-6 years since they properly announced themselves with The Deeper You Dig. This family of filmmakers has a collective yet singular vision of what horror can be: it doesn’t only have to rest on the dark, the disturbing, or the weird, it can be all that while retaining a beauty and a heart. Mother of Flies is the pinnacle (so far) of the Adams Family’s work, infused with more than just the family’s unique take on horror; this one is deeply personal. Mother of Flies tackles the sometimes uncomfortable and always present ways in which death intertwines with life, and how sometimes the spectre of death can bring forth new life, like a resurrection ripped from the religious and made flesh.

Deathstalker

1983’s Deathstalker is one of those movies I used to see at Allan’s Video in Grand Falls-Windsor where I grew up and I loved the VHS cover art so much that I always thought One day I’ll rent that, but the day never came, and it wasn’t until I was in my 20s that I actually saw it. The original Deathstalker was most certainly a product of its time, featuring lots of swordplay and nudity, though it was and still is good fun. Now, Steven Kostanski—director of The Void, Psycho Goreman, and more—has remade Deathstalker. He’s an interesting director, whose ventures into horror have run the gamut of much more serious-style horror to comedy-horror to old-school exploitation horror cinema. His work takes so much of the great ’80s horror style and transposes it into more contemporary films, retaining the nostalgic, fun aspects of older films while updating the experience for current-day audiences. Deathstalker will no doubt be fun to watch in a packed theatre with other eager Fog Festers, and, as usual, the audience can look forward to lots of throwback practical effects work that has come to be a hallmark of Kostanski’s wonderful filmography.

Foreigner

Ava Maria Safai’s Foreigner follows the unfortunate experience of Yasamin Karimi (Rose Dehgan), who starts at a new school following her family immigrating to Canada. Yasamin worries she won’t fit in: “What if the Canadian kids don‘t like me?” Once she arrives at school, three white girls, led by Rachel Stanford (Chloë MacLeod), act like they want to be her friend, though it’s soon clear—to the viewer, not Yasamin unfortunately—they just want to force her into a white Canadian mould, even if it breaks her. Other sinister things are happening, too. Yasamin is changing, and not for the better. Is it merely the peer pressure of living in a new country amongst a new culture? Or is it something more demonic?

Foreigner is a smart exploration of the pressures many immigrants, specifically those who aren’t white, face when coming to Canada, amplified to horrific proportions. The seemingly sweet exterior of the three white girls gives way to reveal an ugly interior, just like the maple syrupy sweet mask of Canada eventually, once you actually live here (or just finally see through it), begins to slip and the racism reveals itself. Yasamin battles against how she perceives herself and her culture. Underneath that battle are the insidious powers of whiteness at work shaping her perceptions, warping what should be her love of her roots into a poisonous rejection of them.