Fantasia Fest: Flush will excite you, even as it makes you feel like crap
Courtesy AJM Studio
Fantasia Fest 2025 is currently wrapping up and our own Adrian Torres is covering the genre film event—catching break-out new hits and underground premieres. Read all of our coverage here.
In the brain of every movie lover, there’s a quadrant constantly on the lookout for a new viewing experience that makes them sit up and take notice. When you finally discover a gem worth recommending to your friends, it feels magical. You don’t always expect to find that gem waiting for you in a toilet bowl.
That is, however, the case with Flush, a single-location film following cocaine addict Luc (Jonathan Lambert), as he goes to extreme lengths to literally pull his life out of the crapper.
We start with Luc searching for his ex in a dingy bar bathroom. After doing a line of coke in a stall, he calls a woman named Val (Élodie Navarre), who warns him to stay hidden from her boss. Things spiral when Luc stumbles on a stash of drugs, meets the dealer (Rémy Adriaens) and Val’s boss Sam (Elliot Jenicot), leading to a series of unfortunate events culminating in Luc being violently shoved headfirst into a toilet, with the ancient plumbing and repulsive debris muffling his cries for help.
This isn’t just any old latrine. It’s a grimy, decrepit low porcelain slab that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since the Cold War. Luc’s attempts to escape his shitty predicament end in spectacular failure, leading to increasingly horrific scenarios. While it’s hard not to feel sympathy for him, it’s just as hard to stifle laughter as the camera keeps cutting back to his flailing torso.
Despite its confined setting and a setup that sounds better suited to a short film, Flush (which, to be fair, runs a tidier-than-its-subject-matter 70 minutes) never runs out of steam. Director Grégory Morin and writer David Neiss consistently ramp up the tension, discomfort, and humor, using slight breaks in chaos to economically dole out some backstory.
In case you weren’t already thinking it, be warned: Flush is not for the squeamish. Morin puts Luc through a gut-wrenching gauntlet, complemented by…uh…visceral practical effects. It’ll be hard for even seasoned horror veterans not to wince at least once or twice.
Courtesy AJM Studio
The film feels like the result of binge-watching the works of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Gaspar Noé, and Quentin Dupieux while tripping balls on hallucinogens. Morin combines Jeunet’s striking production design, Noé’s detached camera work, and morally questionable characters, and Dupieux’s knack for high-concept absurdity. All of it coalesces (much like a turd, sorry) into a potent, lingering cinematic experience. It’s a wild rollercoaster ride that (I promise, really) you’ll find yourself eager to experience more than once.
Flush is a grotesque, cringeworthy, yet somehow magnificent film that challenges your tolerance for schadenfreude while enticing you (daring you?) to recommend it to others. Packed with severed appendages, a drug-addicted rat, a glory hole gone wrong, and a host of jaw-dropping moments, it’s certainly an endurance test. And that’s what makes it such a joy. Nothing should work, but everything does.
Watch this at your earliest opportunity — just maybe avoid eating beforehand.
