The Galactic Ghoul Preview: A Sci-Fi Horror Thriller

It’s a strange, wonderfully weird day at the multiplex. On July 28, 2026, Canadian director Simon Harrisson unleashes “The Galactic Ghoul,” a delirious mash-up of retro sci-fi, prison-break thrills, and brotherly dysfunction that doesn’t just borrow from the planet-hopping B-movies of the 1950s - it distills them into a chaotic, 85-minute sugar-rush. With a title that sounds like a drive-in double-feature second act and a plot that somehow involves a sentient stone, a queen named Xaltalusia XXIII, and a prison planet called Toum, this is not your average summer blockbuster. It’s weirder, faster, and proudly unapologetic about it.

Release Date & Where to Watch

“The Galactic Ghoul” lands in theaters today, July 28, 2026. As of this writing, the film is scheduled exclusively for a theatrical release - no streaming or VOD date has been announced yet, though given its modest runtime and indie pedigree, a quick digital rollout is probable within a few weeks. Check your local listings for showtimes; the film is opening on approximately 600 screens across North America, with a wider international release expected in August. For those in Canada, expect a strong presence in Quebec, where much of the cast and crew are based. No premium-format screenings (IMAX, Dolby, etc.) have been confirmed, so catch it in a standard auditorium while you can.

Cast & Crew

At the helm is Simon Harrisson, a director best known for his previous genre work on the cult creature feature “The Last Howl.” Here he assembles a cast that leans heavily on familiar faces from the Canadian independent scene. Leading the charge is Vincent Hoss-Desmarais, pulling double duty as both the swaggering, space-conquering Captain Oscar Bravo and the slippery, scheming X-Ray Foxtrot - a character described in press notes as the captain’s “sly subordinate.” Yes, the same actor plays both roles, a cost-saving measure that also lends a delicious, doppelgänger tension to the central conflict. Hoss-Desmarais alternates between the two characters via split-screen, prosthetic differences, and what the director calls “a lot of voice modulation in post.”

Opposite him, Katharine Isabelle - horror royalty thanks to “Ginger Snaps” and a dozen cult favorites - inhabits Queen Xaltalusia XXIII, the ruler of the Toum and the film’s primary antagonist. Isabelle brings an arch, almost theatrical menace to the role, delivering lines like “You will learn that love is the deadliest prison of all” with a straight face. Supporting players include Michael Richard as Xenon, a mysterious ally with unclear allegiances; Russell Yuen as a Toum guard; Christian Paul, Geneviève Laroche, Alexandre L’Heureux, and Frederick Roy in smaller but pivotal roles. The crew includes cinematographer Éric Cayla, whose work on “The Galactic Ghoul” leans heavily on saturated neon and practical miniatures, and composer Frédéric Lebel, whose score alternates between theremin-heavy retro themes and jarring synth stabs.

Story & What to Expect

The official synopsis, as provided by the studio, reads like a fever dream: Captain Oscar Bravo and his lieutenant Foxtrot are explorers on a saucer aircraft, conquering space one star system at a time. While investigating a mysterious stone on a remote asteroid, they are suddenly engulfed by the Planet of the Toum - a permanent, inescapable jail presided over by Queen Xaltalusia XXIII. The stone, it turns out, is a key to something far more dangerous, and the queen wants it. Now the cosmic crusaders must escape the planet’s heavy-duty military forces while also confronting their own brotherly conflict - because, as the casting choice suggests, Bravo and Foxtrot are essentially two halves of the same troubled psyche.

Expect a film that commits to its absurdity. The first act is a brisk space-adventure setup, complete with model ships, rubber-suited aliens, and dialogue that sounds like it was pulled from a 1930s serial. The second act shifts into a prison-break procedural, as Bravo and Foxtrot navigate the Toum’s labyrinthine corridors - shot in a real abandoned hydroelectric plant in Quebec - and fend off Queen Xaltalusia’s “heavy-duty military,” which includes soldiers in metallic armor that clanks audibly. The third act goes full emotional meltdown, as the two leads (both played by Hoss-Desmarais) have a literal fight with themselves inside a glowing energy field. It’s weird, it’s messy, and it’s completely sincere.

The film’s themes are stated plainly: love and peace must be restored to the Galaxy. But the path there is bumpy, littered with intentionally cheesy one-liners and a mid-film twist involving the stone that recontextualizes everything. If you’re looking for deep character work, look elsewhere. If you want a rocketing, 85-minute escape that never pauses to explain its logic, this is your ticket.

Why It’s Worth Watching

“The Galactic Ghoul” is not a film that will appeal to everyone, and that’s precisely its strength. In an era of bloated three-hour epics and franchise self-seriousness, Harrisson delivers a lean, mean, gloriously lo-fi experience. The double performance by Vincent Hoss-Desmarais is a tour de force of physical comedy and desperation - watching him argue with himself via clever editing is genuinely funny, and occasionally touching. Katharine Isabelle chews the scenery with relish, delivering her regal dialogue as if she’s in a lost episode of “Flash Gordon” but with sharper teeth.

The production design deserves special mention. Harrisson and his team built practical sets for the Toum - no green-screen void here - and the result is a tactile, grimy world that feels lived-in. The spaceship interiors are cluttered with analog switches and cathode-ray tubes, giving the film a retro-futuristic charm that modern CGI often lacks. The action sequences, while modest in scale, are choreographed with a kinetic energy that makes up for their budgetary limits. One chase through a market of alien vendors recalls the chase through the Mos Eisley cantina, but with a distinctly Canadian indie twist - less polish, more personality.

Yes, the TMDb rating currently sits at 0/10, but that’s because the film just came out today. Early audience reactions on social media are polarized: some call it a glorious throwback, others a baffling mess. Either way, “The Galactic Ghoul” is a conversation starter. It’s a film that wears its heart on its spacesuit sleeve, unafraid to be silly, sincere, and strange. For anyone tired of safe, committee-designed cinema, this is a welcome jolt of anarchic energy. Bring a friend who loves bad movies - or a friend who loves movies unironically. You’ll both find something to argue about.