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© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 12 movies from El Fantasma Films
A lone cyberflâneur stumbles upon a hidden corner of Google Maps, a forgotten place unfolding in the static. Shadows pace aimlessly, paths dissolve into nowhere, and figures flicker in and out of existence—fragments of untold stories.
Jun 2025
A Venezuelan government official is sent to Switzerland to work on a project, strangely descending into sickness as unsettling events unfold back home.
Aug 2023
After his mother falls ill, filmmaker Humberto González Bustillo flies back home to be by her side. Before his return, he remembers his childhood, and in turn recounts the colonial interests in Venezuelan lands, together with the continuous oil crisis.
Jun 2021
In an abandoned city after a zombie epidemic, José walks the streets looking for supplies in houses, stores and taps to survive. He lives with the freedom that he did not have before the infectious outbreak. At the same time, Matías and Andrea arrive in the same city and are gathering supplies to meet his mother again and go to a safe area. Then they meet.
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In the midst of winter, a Venezuelan woman exiled in Brooklyn deals with daily work, a recurring appearance and unsettling messages from back home.
Oct 2019
A Venezuelan city is emptying. A labor less priest struggles with a sonic sleep disorder while trying to safe-keep his meek buffalo from being taken. As the intentions of the remaining ones become more desperate, the priest’s malaise becomes more alive.
A long-lasting lockdown. The last days of a grandmother. In between, a speculative film diary: a distant homeland, a grieving state possessed by light.
Oct 2022
A machine-voice makes a "sad film of his homeland" for a dying patient to ease its passing: footage from Kennedy's visit to Venezuela in 61' creeps through montage errors, and a seemingly endless poem comes alive one last time.
Aug 2025
A family painting triggers in the "The Young man" memories of his mother, the countryside, and his last lover, while doubt brings him closer to violence.
Jan 2018
A man speculates about the disappearance of his father, a decorated spy from the 90s. Gathering relics from their past together, including cherished family photos and encrypted messages hidden in the electronic devices in his surroundings, he will find a way to be reunited with him.
May 2024
Jul 2022
The director leaves his native country and adapts to new territories. Inside his work routine in a New York City restaurant, messages from his family come and go, shattered pieces of lost paradises.
Nov 2021