Fantasia 2026: Insectasy Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Fantasia International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

In the history of film, multiple directors attempted to delve into the human obsession with their sexual desires. Throughout these different interpretations, filmmakers have explored how lust could drive an individual crazy. Similarly, this is the thematic axis of Canadian writer-director Angus Silver’s latest film, Insectasy. The film is a world premiere in the Underground section, one which programs bold and unconventional genre films.

Insectasy tells the story of Sadie (Healy), a young woman who works as a receptionist at a doctor’s office. Despite her tedious work, she feels free at home, exploring her sexuality through her fetish: an erotic fascination with insects. She pleases herself by placing insects on her skin and exploring different species. Suddenly, she is unable to balance the triad of her life: the sexuality, the work, and the social life. Piece by piece, her daily life starts to crumble as she explores her interest in other people, such as a convenience store worker named Theo (Emmett Roiko) and a pet shop attendant named Honey (Huber). As a result, she must find a balance between all those elements, while maintaining her sense of identity.

From its opening seconds, the score by Tomas Cepeda and The Rats That Drink Blood captures the audience’s attention. The synth sound rings loudly throughout the frames that showcase Sadie’s sexual desires. Those compositions, at first, remind one of Goblin, the Italian band that scored most of Dario Argento’s classic films, including Suspiria and Profondo Rosso. We understand the chilly, odd atmosphere of the small-scale film that Silver is crafting. The director centers the attention on Healy, who embodies this sexually insatiable individual, eager for more.

In this sense, Silver positions the camera around his muse, Healy, who captures our attention with her desires and her discomfort with the world surrounding her. Throughout the economy of its narrative, he avoids multiple subplots as the film delves into the fetishes of a young woman, whose days highlight is the fulfilment of her sexual urges. Following her different actions, Silver plays with the blurry line between her dreams, a peasant reality, and the reality with the fascination for multiple huge insects. The development of her arc is compelling enough because of the misé-en-scene, which features impressive blocking for a director this young.

By the end, despite the quirkiness of the last sequence, which is welcome to Angus Silver’s premise, Insectasy is a film about desire. It highlights Tirion Healy’s great performance, one which reminds audiences of the grandeur of female acting in multiple horror classics, as well as Tomas Cepeda and The Rats That Drink Blood’s versatile score.

Overall, Insectasy is a great work that showcases the ability of the Fantasia Film Festival to present such incredible small works.

still courtesy of Foggy Ocean Pictures

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Pedro Lima

Brazilian film writer. He is also a producer and executive producer for Zariah Filmes. Member of the International Film Society Critics Association (IFSCA), International Documentary Association (IDA), and Gotham and Media Film Institute.