Monster Fest is an annual genre film festival held in Melbourne, Australia, dedicated to cult and horror cinema.

[2] The original Fantastic Asia Film Festival took place 10–13 November 2011 at the Cinema Nova in the Carlton neighbourhood of Melbourne, and was sponsored in part by online entertainment retailer YesAsia.

[3] The festival lineup consisted of 20 features, including Yoshihiro Nishimura's Helldriver, Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!, Na Hong-jin's The Yellow Sea, Noboru Iguchi’s Karate-Robo Zaborgar, Kim Jee Won's I Saw the Devil, Shinji Imaoka's Underwater Love, Sion Sono's Guilty of Romance and Jiang Wen’s Let the Bullets Fly.

[14] Other films screened included Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D, Mike Mendez’ Big Ass Spider!, Daniel Armstrong’s Murderdrome, Richard Wolstencroft’s The Last Days of Joe Blow,[15] Stuart Simpson’s Chocolate Strawberry Vanilla, Glenn Triggs' Apocalyptic, Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon’s Hell Baby, Jeremy Gardner’s The Battery, Adrian Garcia Bogliano’s Here Comes the Devil, Cody Calahan’s Antisocial, J.T.

Petty’s Hellbenders, Xan Cassavetes’ Kiss of the Damned, Jake West’s Video Nasties: Moral Panic, Censorship & Videotape and more.

Special events included a Lloyd Kaufman ‘Make Your Own Damn Movie’ Masterclass as part of the festival’s new industry component ‘Monster Academy’, a horror trivia night, and free happy hour screenings.

[21] The Soska Sisters returned to the festival (having visited in 2012) alongside fellow Canadians Matt Kennedy and Conor Sweeney of Astron 6.

The opening film was the World Premiere of the Melbourne-made Scare Campaign, with directors Colin and Cameron Cairnes and producer Julie Ryan in person.

The official selection featured 21 films including Bound to Vengeance, Scare Campaign, Bite, Australiens, Vixen Velvet's Zombie Massacre, Bunny the Killer Thing, Hellions and Howl.

The program also featured the world premieres of Queensland horror-western Bullets for the Dead (the final role of Prisoner star Carol “Franky Doyle” Burns), making its debut screening alongside Dave Jackson’s feature version of his 2012 short film, Cat Sick Blues,[24] while guest Fred Williamson presented the world premiere of Nico Sentner’s Atomic Eden alongside retrospective screenings of Black Caesar and The Hammer.

[25] The festival also included a special 10th anniversary screening of Australian horror classic Wolf Creek, a rooftop bands-and-burlesque event called "Munsterpalooza"[26] and an all-day acting masterclass with actress Dee Wallace, co-presented with Melbourne-based film exhibition group Cinemaniacs.

[38] Other features screened at the 2016 festival included Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, Paul Schrader’s Dog Eat Dog, Chris Peckover’s Safe Neighborhood, Alice Lowe’s Prevenge, Bartosz M. Kowalski’s Playground, Liam Gavin’s A Dark Song, André Øvredal’s The Autopsy of Jane Doe, Sophia Takal’s Always Shine, Jesse Moss’ The Bandit, Matthew Holmes’ The Legend of Ben Hall, Gonzalo López-Gallego’s The Hollow Point[39] and a new digital restoration of Andrzej Żuławski’s On the Silver Globe.

[citation needed] Beat Magazine called Monster Fest "Australia's foremost celebration of international cult and horror cinema".

Monster Academy also featured a screening of Ted Kotcheff’s Wake in Fright and a presentation on the transmedia project The Westbury Faery.

Friday Fright Nights screenings have included The Human Centipede III (Final Sequence) with star Laurence R. Harvey in person[50] The Green Inferno, The Pack, Cat Sick Blues, I Am Not a Serial Killer (with Skype Q+A with director Billy O’Brien),[51] Aaaaaaaah!