Insectasy [Fantasia International Film Festival Review]

by Mike McGranaghan

In the opening minutes of Insectasy, we watch as Sadie (Tirion Healy) pleasures herself naked in bed, a glass jar containing a cockroach resting upside down on her chest. Right as she climaxes, she lifts the jar, allowing the bug to scurry across her body. That’s not even the most shocking thing that takes place in Angus Silver’s film, which had its world premiere at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival. Such material certainly grabs your attention, but the movie is about much more than shock value.

Sadie has a sexual fetish for bugs. It colors her relationships with other people because they can’t give her what the insects do. A guy she repeatedly encounters while on a smoke break at work tries to hit on her, and a female pet store worker plays one of those hot-and-cold head games with her. These dalliances are not as arousing as when she takes crickets and… you get the picture.

Insectasy uses its provocative premise to tell a story about sexual empowerment. Yes, Sadie’s predilection is odd. Does it really matter, though, if it makes her feel good and hurts no one else? Over the course of the running time, the character grows more confident in her taste. Trying to force herself into conventional sexual mores doesn’t do the trick. The only way to find real satisfaction is to be true to herself.

There is a tongue-in-cheek quality to the picture. If bugs freak you out, you’ll definitely squirm at times, but this isn’t one of those cases where they’re used in a menacing way, like Mimic or Arachnophobia. More than once, I reacted with the combination of a laugh and a shudder. The way a sex scene ends between Sadie and the pet store worker is especially grotesque and darkly funny. It’s also very necessary in driving home the themes Silver wants to explore.

Much credit goes to Tirion Healy, whose performance can only be described as fearless. She makes Sadie so much more than a “weirdo,” effectively showing how this young woman learns to have confidence in herself. Insectasy hooks you with its edgy premise, then proceeds to tell a meaningful tale about the power of learning to love your quirks.