Psychological Horror Feature ‘Ancestral Beasts’ Debuts Trailer Ahead of Fantasia World Premiere (EXCLUSIVE)

“Ancestral Beasts,” in which a young Métis woman, Elyse, is stalked by a grotesque creature after returning to her ancestral home to focus on her mental health, prowled Cannes’ Marché du Film in 2025 as a Proof of Concept project at Fantasia’s Frontières Platform and became the first acquisition for Cercamon’s new genre sales label Vorteks.

This week, the project emerges as a fully formed psychological horror film ready to connect with audiences, kindle buyer conversations, and make you look under the bed just one more time.

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Ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 22, Métis writer-director Tim Riedel has shared the trailer exclusively with Variety and offered new insights into his work.

Riedel is hosting the Fantasia premiere screening with stars Morgan Holmstrom (“Outlander”), who plays Elyse, and Asivak Koostachin (“Duster”), who plays Cody, along with key producers and crew.

“Ancestral Beasts,” which was lensed in Manitoba in late 2025 and boasts a nearly all-Indigenous cast and crew, has a second screening (a rarity for Fantasia) on July 28. Mongrel Media has boarded the film for Canadian distribution; a release date has yet to be set.

“The theme of the film is the idea of curses,” Riedel tells Variety before the festival, just a few days after a closed screening of the film to a group of elders and survivors of the Sixties Scoop. Many of those elders wanted to express their personal connection to the film’s story, something Riedel regards as a part of his reconnection to his community.

“What we inherit is not our fault, but we often allow those things to become our responsibility,” he says, referring to mental health struggles of family members.

Riedel spent more than a decade documenting underrepresented global issues and communities for NGOs before shifting his focus to his own backyard, so to speak. The process of reconnecting with and learning about his Métis community sparked his feature debut.

“An elder challenged me: ‘You seem to be traveling all over the world telling other people’s stories. Why don’t you ever tell our stories?’

“You’re not supposed to disagree with an elder; you’re supposed to take time to listen and contemplate,” Riedel continues. “So, I did.”

Indigenous filmmakers and screen storytellers often feel pressure to burn sage and show feathers, Riedel says. “Though that’s part of our tradition, it’s not necessarily everyday life. I didn’t want any of that in my film.

“My attitude was: This is the story, this is the journey that the character is on, this is the obstacle in her way, this is who or what is putting obstacles in her way, and this is how she’s trying to overcome those obstacles, and this is what she needs to sacrifice.”

The creature in “Ancestral Beasts” does not relate to specific Métis stories or Indigenous mythologies. “I don’t like putting our folklore out there,” Riedel says. “As far as I know, there are no creatures from our mythologies that look like a giant centipede, with gnarled old hands for a head.

“I wanted something unique, and this was the image I had in mind.

“The centipede is representative of the homeland but also gives that creepy feeling. The hand represents intergenerational trauma handed down from generation to generation.”

Riedel says major U.S. distributors have expressed interest in “Ancestral Beasts.” Riedel and Vorteks’ David Kwok are eager to accelerate those conversations at Fantasia, as well as chat up Riedel’s next genre feature project, “Nine Dying,” which deals with the way humans inflict inhumane acts on other humans by hiding behind systems, corporations and government procedures.

“The focus of my next film is a community that comes together to solve the greater issue. It’s sort of ‘Saw’ meets ‘Squid Game,'” Riedel says. “But those films and shows make you feel dirty and hopeless, whereas I’ve designed this one to make you feel closer to your neighbors by the time you leave.”

“Ancestral Beasts” screens at the Fantasia Film Festival on July 22, its premiere, and July 28.