Ancestral Beasts Filming Locations and Cast Details

Ancestral Beasts begins with a retreat that goes badly wrong. Elyse, a Red River Métis woman whose work and family life are unravelling, leaves the city for her aunt’s isolated home, hoping distance will bring some peace. Instead, she discovers a presence beneath the house, one that grows more threatening as her conflict with her sister Nikki deepens. Tim Riedel’s psychological horror film turns buried family trauma into something with teeth.

The 104-minute Canadian feature had its world premiere at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival on July 22, 2026. It developed from a five-minute proof-of-concept screened at the Whistler Film Festival in 2025, starring Darla Contois and photographed by cinematographer Joey Forte.

A Personal Horror Story

Riedel has described the story as partly drawn from his upbringing as the son of a Sixties Scoop survivor who was later diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Rather than treating mental illness as an easy source of scares, the film presents its creature as a metaphor for trauma that can wound both the person living with it and those closest to them. The project was developed with input from Elders, Knowledge Keepers, cultural advisers and Indigenous psychologists.

That personal history helps explain why Manitoba was central to the production. Riedel was born in Winnipeg, and producer Fawnda Neckoway said it was important to bring the story home and make as much of the film as possible with the local community.

Winnipeg Filming Locations

ACTRA Manitoba lists the production dates as November 24 to December 19, 2025. Winnipeg served as the main production hub, with further filming confirmed in Cook’s Creek, Manitoba, and Toronto, Ontario.

The movie’s most important setting looks like a decaying rural house exposed to the Manitoba winter. In reality, its main interior was constructed inside McGee Street Studios, a full-service production facility at 380 McGee Street in Winnipeg’s West End.

Production designer Mamie Griffith and her department created the neglected surfaces, old furnishings and carefully placed signs of deterioration that make the home feel genuinely weathered. Even the rust visible on an antique iron bed was part of the illusion.

Building the house inside a studio gave the filmmakers greater control over lighting, camera movement and the physical effects required for a story in which something is moving beneath the floor. It also means that the ancestral home is not a single, publicly accessible farmhouse, despite how convincingly the finished film makes it appear isolated.

Cook’s Creek, Manitoba

Cook’s Creek was the second confirmed Manitoba filming area. The exact property, road or landmark has not been publicly identified, and no scene-by-scene location breakdown has been released.

Since the principal house interiors were built at McGee Street Studios, Cook’s Creek likely supplied at least some of the rural exterior material surrounding Elyse’s retreat. That is a reasoned conclusion based on the available production information, not an officially confirmed location match. Reports naming a particular Cook’s Creek residence, church or heritage property as the movie’s cabin would therefore be speculative.

Toronto Filming

After working in Manitoba, the production moved to Toronto to complete filming. However, no Toronto studio, building or street has been publicly connected to a specific scene. Until the filmmakers release a fuller breakdown, the confirmed production footprint remains Winnipeg, Cook’s Creek and Toronto, with McGee Street Studios being the only precisely identified facility.

Ancestral Beasts Cast Members

Morgan Holmstrom plays Elyse Poitras, the woman at the centre of the film’s supernatural and psychological pressure. Her performance carries the story as Elyse struggles with fear, anger and the growing possibility that the darkness inside the house is responding to her emotional state.

Darla Contois portrays Nikki, Elyse’s confrontational sister and the other half of the film’s fractured family relationship. Contois also appeared in Riedel’s earlier proof-of-concept, giving her a connection to Ancestral Beasts that predates the feature shoot.

Josh Strait plays Max, the neighbour Elyse initially suspects after finding signs of an intruder. Gail Maurice appears as Aunt Adele, whose rural home becomes the story’s principal battleground. The main ensemble also includes Asivak Koostachin, Shannon Baker, Jess Salgueiro, Victoria Gwendoline and Jesse Nobess.

Additional cast members announced during production included Agnes Tong, Ray Strachan, Emmanuel Oderemi and Sarah-Lynne Otsuji. Fantasia described the film as having an almost entirely Indigenous cast and crew, a significant creative choice for a story rooted in Red River Métis identity and intergenerational experience.

Behind the Manitoba Production

Riedel wrote, directed and produced the film, with Fawnda Neckoway also producing. Joey Forte handled the cinematography, Justin Delorme composed the score, and Mamie Griffith led the production design. Tina Keeper, Phyllis Laing and Edmon Rotea served as executive producers.

The feature was mounted through Michif Koonteur, Kistikan Pictures and Buffalo Gal Pictures. Its locations are limited but purposeful: a Winnipeg soundstage creates the suffocating family home, rural Manitoba provides its isolation, and Toronto completes the production map. In Ancestral Beasts, place is not decorative. The house is where a family’s unresolved history has been left to grow.