SIFF 2026: 'Fifteen' Movie Review

As we all know, growing up is a horror show with no equal. Such is the case for BFFs Ligia (Greta Marti) and Mayte (Macarena Oz). Outcasts, the poor kids at their hoity-toity private school, they’re bullied and mocked and picked on. All they want is to stage the perfect joint quinceanera and show up their priggish classmates, a plan that goes awry when Ligia’s ne’er-do-well boyfriend is bitten by a sewer monster and knocks her up. An unwanted teen pregnancy is tough enough, but in writer/director/brother duo Jack Zagha Kababie and Yossy Zagha’s Fifteen (Quince), it is much more monstrous than that. 

 

Reference points for this film abound. You’ve got shades of Carrie, Mean Girls, and Heathers. Not to mention CHUD and The Brood. There’s teen movie, body horror, creature feature, and more to find. Think a cryptid Gen Z spin on Rosemary’s Baby and that starts to paint a somewhat accurate picture. 

 

[Related Reading: 'Marama' Movie Review]

 

But in this wild genre stew, the brothers cook up something more than a simple collection of homages and allusions. It’s fun and bloody and occasionally covered with goo and viscera. The two leads play well off one another and you feel the depth and earnestness of their connection, as well as the messy strife of typical high school pressures and a fracturing friendship. When a friend is willing to use their quince money for your sketchy back-alley abortion, that’s a true ride-or-die, but sometimes, even in the closest of friendships, you want to light your bestie on fire. [Grade: B]

 

Find all of our SIFF 2026 coverage here.