Toronto After Dark 2012 - "Game Of Werewolves"

As entertaining as it was to listen to director Juan Martinez Moreno discuss his inspirations for his old school werewolf movie, he didn't really need to mention that classic Universal monster movies and John Landis' An American Werewolf In London were big touchstones for him. Game Of Werewolves says it all quite clearly itself. With big loving, dripping brush strokes. Even if the movie hadn't been the Audience Choice winner from this year's Fantasia Film Festival, it was still a pretty obvious pick for the closing night film at Toronto After Dark. Old school werewolf effects and a mix of both silly and black comedy usually go down very well with a genre audience.

It's a bit slow to pick up the pace and find its footing, but it uses this time to lay down its back story and introduce its characters. The plot revolves around Tomas, a young writer who returns to his hometown village to take part in some local festivities. Thinking himself a far more successful author than he is, he believes that he was invited to help host the event and that the town will be honoured by his presence. Instead, he finds out that he has been invited to his own sacrifice as the village attempts to end a 100 year old curse upon it. Tomas is apparently one of the remaining direct line descendants of local royalty. Her royal highness at the time was desperate to get pregnant with a son, but her husband could not fulfill his duties. So she worked her way through many men until finally forcing herself upon a studly gypsy. Discovering that she was finally with child, she ordered that the entire gypsy clan be murdered in order not to reveal the parentage of her child. But you never mess with the gypsies. If only the queen had watched the same classic and 80s horror films Moreno did...

With her last dying breath the eldest gypsy puts a curse on the queen's son which will turn him into a werewolf once he hits the age of 10. The village can only break the curse on the eve of it turning a century old and only by feeding the werewolf blood from its own family line. The town has the wolf man captured, so they simply need to feed Tomas to it to avoid an even worse fate. But you already know it's not going to be that easy right? Tomas' childhood friend and his agent combine to help him escape and things take a turn for both the worse and the funnier as they try to end the curse on their own. When they fail, part two of the curse is an even bigger job to contain. There are definitely a few slow spots in the early and middle sections, but it easily carries itself over them via goodwill it has already generated and several very funny and original moments.

The film hits just about every beat that is expected of it, so don't expect it to create a great deal of suspense. But that doesn't really matter much when you're having so much fun with it. As mentioned, the effects are almost all practical ones and Moreno uses them well - both for scares and laughs. The threesome are joined by a cop, another of Tomas' relatives and a young boy as they end up having to battle a rather large pack of werewolves. There are enough small surprises and bits of action that the film becomes an easy recommendation - if you like monster movies that simply want to entertain you, I'm confident Game Of Werewolves will fit nicely in your comfort zone. Feel free to curse me if it doesn't.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - "In Their Skin"

Director Jeremy Power Regimbal's feature film debut In Their Skin is a pure genre exercise in tension and suspense. It's sole purpose in life is to slowly but surely make you feel uneasy, make you wince and make you twist in your seat. Even though it owes many debts to its home invasion movie brethren, it does eventually create its own feeling and tone while also playing a bit on its theme of identity (the nature of your own identity; having it taken away from you; etc.). It makes sense that they moved to a slightly more generic title from its original one of Replicas, though, since it doesn't really spend a great deal of time dwelling on the subtext. It's all build, build, build...And it's quite effective at doing it.

It starts almost from the get-go too. There's tension in the marriage of Mark and Mary and it's obviously been percolating for awhile. The couple and their son take off for some cottage time to see if they can repair some of the damage, but it's going to take some time - they aren't at the screaming fight level, but the slow simmer of unspoken issues stage doesn't look to be ending any time soon. Upon meeting their cottage neighbours - the very odd and somewhat daffy Bobby and Jane - Mark feels obliged to invite them over for dinner. Mary's not exactly thrilled at the idea and accuses Mark of simply not wanting to spend time with her alone. It gets worse during the dinner - one of the more awkward and uncomfortable social gatherings you can imagine - and as it becomes apparent that Bobby and Jane aren't exactly the innocent simpletons that we initially thought they might be, Mark and Mary feel they need to end the evening early and send the couple and their son (who they claim is the same age as Mary and Mark's, but is obviously a good 4-5 years older than that) packing with a very clear statement that they will not be welcomed back.

And then everything starts to close in further as the dinner guests return and make no bones about their intent. They want what Mark and Mary have - their house, their lifestyle, their mannerisms and even their names - and they are determined to take it by force. Pretty simple from their point of view. They want the perfect life and they believe that this couple represents it, so therefore they will simply insert themselves into those roles. Problem solved. During dinner and the initial portion of the invasion of their house, Bobby and Jane start to subtly imitate and mimic some of Mark and Mary's ways of doing things. Whether it's a turn of phrase, a way of brushing the hair off their face or even a fashion choice, they want to become this couple. It adds a new level of creepiness to the whole situation, but it really all rests on the shoulders of the actors as to whether you buy into it. Fortunately, a pretty terrific cast has been assembled. Selma Blair and Joshua Close play Mary and Mark as a couple who know each other intimately and even though there's a strong love between them, there's also lots of irritation at each other's little foibles. They've hit a bump in the road, but just haven't been able to smooth it over yet. Blair and Close pull it off like there's an urgent intensity every time they try to communicate. James D'Arcy and Rachel Miner have the difficult job of playing Bobby and Jane since they're just shells desperate to be inhabited by real people. They get to play the awkwardness and complete lack of self-knowledge fairly broadly at times, but never take it over the edge. It's almost funny, but still makes you cringe a bit. Even the two boys tackle their roles like the seasoned veteran actors they are (each has about 40 credits to his name).

Micahel Haneke's Funny Games is an obvious older relative, but somewhat akin to being In Their Skin's crazy Uncle who bemoans that the kids today just want their dang video games and violence. Meanwhile In Their Skin just wants to go back to its room and fire up the PS3. It's not quite that clear cut since In Their Skin doesn't relish the violence nor bask in it. It does enjoy the prelude, though, and seems to want to stay in a perpetual state of wetting its audiences palate. If it doesn't offer too much more than that, that's still fine by me since it does it all so well.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - "My Amityville Horror"

I was initially very skeptical when I heard that the documentary My Amityville Horror was to look back at the real life events that inspired the blockbuster 1979 film The Amityville Horror. How do you document word of mouth happenings and alleged paranormal events from 35 years ago? Would there be a litany of "experts" in these fields giving their "professional" opinions? I'll admit that I was worried it would be a frustrating experience and that the reason it was playing at After Dark was that it would likely have re-creations of some of these occurrences that were supposed to be ghostly in nature. The only way I thought the film could really touch on anything remotely interesting would be if it focused on the effect it all had on some of the people involved. Fortunately, that's closer to what the film gave us. In fact, it was quite an interesting portrait of one very broken man.

Though I love horror films about the paranormal (particularly ghost stories), I have little time for claims of actual paranormal activity in real life. Not a single bit of credible scientific evidence has EVER been found regarding any of these things, so the blatherings of psychics, ghost hunters and others who dabble in these fields are tiresome to me. It's not that I will outright state that these things could not possibly exist (how can I prove that they can't?), but I find absolutely no reason to believe that they do. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, so I always wish more people realized that Occam's Razor can be your friend. Of course, I might tread lightly if that topic came up around Daniel Lutz...Now in his mid-40s, bald, stocky and with piercing eyes, Daniel was the eldest child of the Lutz family who lived in the Amityville house and claims to have experienced many of the strange happenings within it. And he's very adamant about it.

The "true" story behind Amityville is indeed frustrating to see in the documentary as we hear several tales of spirits and voices permeating the house from not only Daniel, but a few other folks who were there doing their own investigating. We meet some of these same people in the present day as well and it's an interesting cast - in particular the demonologist Lorraine Warren. Though she's quite sweet and appears genuinely concerned about Daniel (I can't imagine her being a fraud), she's also got numerous ideas about that house (and a variety of other things) that might make you think twice about her sanity. The meeting at her current abode is also one of the stranger moments in the film - due both to the incredible array of items she has displayed on her shelves and the reactions of Daniel. Is he playing things up for the camera? Does he think she's off her nut? Or does he find everything she's saying incredibly revelatory? It feels like all three sometimes. We also get to see some old talk show footage of George Lutz and his wife as they made their book tour rounds in the 70s and made claims about their terrifying time in that house on Long Island. George was the head of the household after marrying Kathy a few years previous and getting three step-children as a bonus. The film presents him as a rather ruthless step-father, a dabbler in the occult and definitely not a sterling example of humanity. We get many of these details from Daniel himself - the only remaining Lutz who is willing to talk. His mother and step-father have both passed away (mention of the latter's passing brings a smile to Daniel face) and his siblings wanted nothing to do with rehashing the story again. It certainly feels like the film had not initially intended Daniel to be the main subject all along, but whether they couldn't get anything else of interest or they just became somewhat seduced by his strong stern voice and hulking frame doesn't really matter. He's an intimidating package for sure, but still provides some fascinating stories that paint a much more detailed picture of himself and his family then they do of the events.

As we hear about his childhood with his family through several different interviews and learn about the abuse that occurred (both verbal and physical and before they ever got to Amityville), you can see how Daniel already had a rocky road ahead of him. But the spotlight of the media on his family and his step-father's desire to control his house and household led to young Daniel rebelling anywhere he could. This led to an early departure from his family to go it alone (when he was around 15) and, if you are to believe Daniel's expressions and grins as he leaves out details of his young adulthood, a whole mess of trouble. It's also somewhat difficult to believe everything he says about the house - not that he's purposely lying about everything since you really do get the feeling that he firmly believes he experienced strange phenomena in the house, but that some of it feels exaggerated. Whether that's for the camera or for himself is hard to say. In the end, it's hard to say anything about those events - as time goes by they become less and less interesting and whether they happened or not feels almost irrelevant. What is relevant is how it all affected a young boy's life and helped shape the man he became. Daniel probably wouldn't want our sympathy, but he does deserve respect for making it through - even if it wasn't completely unscathed.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - "Citadel"

The easy read of Citadel is of the black and white revenge variety - "bullies will never change, so 'man up' and blow the bastards away". But it's never that easy is it? A single person's view of the world from their perspective just can't quickly be generalized - even if it looks slightly post-apocalyptic. In this case, the troublemakers in question are roving groups of kids dressed in the universal sign of the juvenile delinquent: the hoodie. They all come from one particular concrete slab of an apartment tower in the terribly depressing outskirts of a city in Ireland. It all looks very alien as the steets are essentially deserted, the cops never crack the perimeter and people live in their shells hoping not to be noticed.

Not an ideal place to raise a family...With the birth of their first child imminent, Tommy and Joanne are moving out of the tower, but on the final trip there Joanne is severely beaten and injected with drugs by the hoodie brigade. The baby survives, but Joanne is left in a deep coma. Tommy begins living in a perpetual frightened state becoming agoraphobic and not even really knowing how to bond with his growing child (he rarely even talks to her). In therapy, a doctor tells him that he pretty much personifies fear in the way he walks in a hunched, rigid fashion and how his face is frozen in a scared mask. With help from one of the social workers, he tries to function on a day to day basis, but he becomes more and more convinced that the hooded kids (who look very much like they're feral) are after his daughter. This is pretty much confirmed for him upon meeting a local priest who has a plan in mind.

The priest is accompanied by a young blind boy who counsels Tommy that the hoodies feed off fear and if you don't show it, they won't even see you. As the film goes on, it becomes more and more surreal - the kids look more creature like, the tower looms larger and everything seems to close in on Tommy. It's enough to make you question what you are really seeing and whether it's all part of Tommy's mechanism to deal (or not deal) with his situation. The overwhelming theme of the film is that we need to face our fears and have faith in ourselves, not simply internalize and avoid. Otherwise the walls start closing in. But it's not always that easy and the film makes that pretty clear.

It's also one hell of a scary movie. Whether you're a parent (talk about a worst case scenario) or not, the film keeps you in a constant state of being unnerved due to the surroundings, the extremely well created sound field and the always present sense of impending doom. Tommy's sunken eyes and colour-drained face often fill the frame and force you to put yourself in his position. It's terribly effective and not long before you feel yourself squirming in your seat. Though it conveys the darkness and dreariness of the rundown outskirts of city centres, the film itself is never dull and provides an engaging ebb and flow. Aneurin Barnard is utterly convincing as Tommy. You can't help but feel that this shoot must've been horrific for him - for all I know he had a blast, but his character's state of mind in the film is not one I would wish on many people and had to have been draining to live within for each take. Whether what we see is reality is besides the point by the end of the film. It's real for Tommy and his only way out is to face down his incapacitating fear. Not an easy task.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - "Doomsday Book"

What better subject to use for an anthology film in 2012 than the concept of "doomsday" for the Earth? Korea's Doomsday Book (which won the jury prize for best feature film at Fantasia) tackles 3 different end of the world stories - each with a different root cause - and does so with style, humour and a sharp eye for satire. What it may have been missing was a script supervisor. With only the three stories, the film still runs close to 2 hours and seems to have trouble letting go of its ideas as it wants to fully explore every single nook and cranny. Fortunately, there are still numerous great moments that are discovered through these thorough explorations.

Pil-Sung Yim (Hansel And Gretel) directs the bookends of the film while Jee-woon Kim (I Saw The Devil, The Good The Bad The Weird) helms the centerpiece section entitled "Heaven's Creation". Devoted to the concept of androids achieving a higher consciousness, it's the most intriguing of the bunch and has a great central premise. An android bot which was initially supposed to be a servant at a buddhist temple appears to have attained enlightenment and the other monks see him as buddha. It prays with the rest of the monks and they seek advice from it, but they can't help wonder why it is different and call in a technician to the temple. While his diagnostic tests show it is functioning properly, his protocol forces him to report it up to the senior executives of the company. They feel the machine should be "put down" since it doesn't just execute orders given to it from humans, but instead ponders their requests. In other words, it does something it wasn't designed to do - think for itself. Though beautifully shot with some interesting back and forth debates between the business people and the monks, it hammers certain points home too hard and drags far longer than it really needs by restating what it had already done quite nicely. Having said that, the ending raises new questions and, even though it is open ended, is highly satisfying.

Yim uses a lighter touch for both "Brave New World" (a zombie story) and "Happy Birthday" (a meteor apocalypse story). The first of these two entries is a warning to us all that we can be at fault for letting new viruses and diseases get started (and containing a sequence reminiscent of Contagion that walks us through how a virus started to circulate among humans - it turns out this section was actually made in 2006, so there's no copying of Soderbergh's work). In this case, a family's incredibly irresponsible cleansing of their home (ie. none whatsoever) results in food being thrown into the recycle bins that has developed some rather disgusting new mold. When it is mixed in with the recycled waste, it then becomes part of a reconstituted feed for animals. The cows eat it and pass it right back to the humans who ingest the meat in restaurants - including the son of the parents who started it all. The sickness takes hold, but builds slowly within individuals even as it spreads fairly rapidly. There's a a mix of goofy humour with charm and it doesn't hesitate to take satirical jabs at how society would end up treating its population as well as how the Korea would react in the international realm. It runs what feels to be 5-10 minutes longer than it needs to in order to tie up its message and character arcs, but it was a solid way to begin the doomsday ideas.

The whole film winds down with "Happy Birthday" (initially conceived as a sci-fi musical take on O Henry's "The Gift Of The Magi", but retooled after financing fell apart) which was easily the strangest and funniest of the bunch. It begins with a young girl breaking and losing her pool-playing Dad's special eight-ball and quickly ordering a new one online. Two years later, a speeding meteor is headed for Earth and fear spreads that it may be the end of the world. Once it gets close enough for a good look, it appears to actually be a giant eight-ball. The girl also notices (via the images on TV) that it is engraved with the userid under which she ordered that replacement ball. As things spiral out of control across the planet, the girl and her family move to an underground bunker and try to figure out how to stop the delivery of the meteor. Set up as a child's own vision of an apocalypse (fear of reprisal at her initial carelessness, parents who always seem to be fighting and blaming each other), it takes the premise about as far as it will go - which is part of the problem. Even though it adds further humour to the already absurd situation (in particular through the news announcers at one of the networks), it still feels overly long. It's always a cause for celebration when the wonderful Doona Bae appears on screen, but in this case she shows up for the first time right when the film really should have been wrapping up. Granted, the last minutes do lead to a great final punchline, but, like the other films, it seemed to have been in need of tighter control of concept.

The execution of all the films is exquisite - the look, the acting, the satirical barbs, etc. - and the ideas are original and interesting, so it's easy to see why this won at Fantasia. However, it couldn't quite retain my full interest within each story. This is a book containing novellas that should've been short stories. And what great short stories they would've been.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - "Crave"

"A broken toy brain" is how director Charles de Lauzirika describes the main character in his feature film debut (after years of documentary experience including many DVD supplementals for major films - many of Ridley Scott's for example). It's a fitting description for Aiden as he starts flitting between fantasy and reality more and more and begins to have some trouble in distinguishing which is which. His reality is already a bit off as he works his job of photographing crime scenes and their gruesome results while living in the large ghost town of Detroit. He's struggling to stay afloat financially (he gets tips from his AA cop buddy - played by Ron Perlman - to come to specific crime scenes), but even more problematic is the constant push and pull of his own voices in his head. He sees so much injustice, but feels inadequate because he can never quite take the step to help.

Aiden starts imagining different scenarios of him saving the day and taking down the bad guys. The film doesn't distinguish between what's real and what's going on in Aiden's head, so the audience is always left trying to figure it out until it's made obvious which world we're in. This is used very effectively at one point in one of the funnier scenes of the film - after Aiden talks to his very pretty but much younger neighbour in the elevator and then beds her, we cut back to him outside the building and left assuming it was all a fantasy - but then we get a little surprise. The film is actually quite funny in several spots which serves to defuse the growing confusion in Aiden as well as add to the confusion of the audience at what we may really be seeing. Even though Aiden does start a relationship with his neighbour Virginia (Emma Lung in a very fine performance), he's still not quite able to focus and get things done. He's living somewhere in between his reality and fantasy and simply can't commit.

The "toy brain" analogy is particularly good when it comes to his relationship with Virginia. Though he's 35 and she's 22, he acts far more like a teenager - always wanting sex, saying the wrong things and, once again, simply not being able to focus. Virginia is confused too since she is just coming off a relationship with Ravi (played in greasy fashion by Edward Furlong), but at least she knows it. Aiden can't even keep his thoughts internally sometimes and blurts things out. In fact, it does become a bit hard to stay with Aiden as he stumbles from one thing to another - just when you think he's on the right track, he derails himself yet again - so it's increasingly difficult to continue to empathize with him. Though I was able to stay with him the whole way, I know several others who had issues.

The streets and buildings of Detroit are shot and framed so that the ghost town imagery comes to the fore - Aiden is really out there on his own. Everyone seems to live in run down warehouses, the streets are just about empty (even in the downtown core) and just about everything is in disrepair. It all pulls together to build a picture of how lonely, frustrating and difficult it must be to live in Aiden's head. The film never tips its hand obviously where it's going, so there's also that perpetual state of tension (which must also exist in Aiden day to day). With some wonderful cinematography from William Eubank (director of last year's lovely low-budget sci-fi Love - which also screened at Toronto After Dark), great characters and a sense of humour that ranges between playful and dark, Crave is an excellent step from de Lauzirika into features. Let's hope he continues to focus in that area.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - "American Mary"

I can't help but feel just a little bit dirty for admitting that I very much enjoyed American Mary - the latest film from Jen and Sylvia Soska (also known as The Twisted Twins). A bit surprised too. I was curious going in and hopeful that lead actress Katherine Isabelle (best known for Ginger Snaps) would provide some spark to a concept that didn't have much appeal to me, but I had expectations the film would be gory for gore's sake. So much for expectations...

Isabelle plays Mary Mason, a medical student struggling to make ends meet. She's one of the sharpest in her class and has the attention of the senior doctors (she even has the ability to provide bad news to patients' relatives in a quick, dispassionate way), but needs to find some additional income to keep up with tuition and living expenses. Looking for a quick chunk of cash, she answers an ad looking for women to give sexy massages and provides her resume to a seedy club manager. Their "interview" is broken up when he has to deal with an "issue": a beating gone a bit too far on a client who missed some payments. Knowing that Mary has a surgical background, he offers her money to fix the guy up. Wary, but not really as wary as maybe she should be, Mary accepts. That single "job" leads to one of the club's dancers coming to her for some elective surgery. This isn't your run of the mill cosmetic changes, though, and Mary once again treads where she likely shouldn't by becoming involved with body manipulation surgery.

As gruesome as that sounds, the film doesn't dwell on the gore. Not that it holds back on the explicit details of the cutting or other disturbing images, but it doesn't bathe gleefully in blood. The Soskas seem know when to pull back and when to dive in, so that the main focus is the character of Mary and her story. Those story elements, by the way, do a lot of shifting and twisting and provide sudden jogs to the left and right throughout (by the end, maybe one or two too many), so that you really never quite know where Mary's arc is headed. After suffering a terrible act at the hands of the doctors, she quits medical school and goes into body modification surgery on her own with help from the club's manager and his bodyguards. As unhealthy as all that sounds (which is all happening in tandem with an awful plan of revenge Mary has embarked on), Mary comes across as confident, powerful and - if not necessarily happy - comfortable in her own skin. As we meet many of her patients with a variety of "changes" made to their bodies (I'm pretty sure that all of these people are very real), we see that they too are comfortable within their newly altered skins. Be who you are and "let your freak flag fly" is definitely one of the messages that the film drives out.

Given her last name, you could've guessed that Mary would be effective at building her American Dream of making money doing what she's good at, but her ongoing revenge and difficulty at engaging in anything but an awkward relationship with the club manager may lead to her downfall. And despite some truly grisly things Mary does, you can't help but root for her to avoid that. Credit has to go to the Soskas for not limiting the route of Mary's story and for making the film look pretty damn fantastic, but it's all mostly due to a fantastic performance by Isabelle - someone who I've long thought deserved much wider recognition. But if she can power her way through genre work and raise it to this kind of level, that's fine by me. I'm confident that at this stage she can bring something extra to just about any role thrown her way. And that's an expectation I'm happy to keep.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - "Grabbers"

Grabbers is your quintessential creature feature. It's not the best one you'll ever see, but it a perfect example of the genre since it leans ever-so-heavily on what came before it. Let me be clear though, that's not a bad thing. It creates a solid premise with a new twist, characters you enjoy spending time with and borrows all the standard tropes in a loving way. Do you like Tremors and Gremlins and wish there were more movies using a strong combination of monsters and humour to keep you engaged? Well, now you have Grabbers.

The story is set on a small island off the coast of Ireland where a keen Garda (ie. a cop) named Lisa has been assigned for a two week stint. The two man police force will be down by 50% while the captain is off on vacation, so he requests her help to cover off the community just in case anything happens. Not that much ever goes on here, but his normal partner Ciaran is stuck in a bit of a cyclical drunk/hungover state of mind, so there's reason to worry about him being left solely in charge. Ciaran's not too happy about the situation and the "hate-at-first-sight" dynamic is off and running.

Soon after Lisa starts, though, several odd events occur: three fishermen go missing (in the opening scene of the film which shows us both the nature of the "grabbers" and where they came from), an array of dead whales show up on the beach, a few other people disappear under odd circumstances and Paddy the fisherman captures a tentacled squid like creature. Even with their different styles and arguments, it doesn't take long before the two cops start piecing things together. The turning point is when Paddy gets attacked by the creature he brought home and put in his bathtub. They've figured out that the beasts need water and blood to live (blood for food and water for their skin not to dry out), but when Paddy survives an attack because he was drunk, they realize that alcohol is poisonous to the slimy beast. So how do you protect the entire village while you try to take down the biggest of all the creatures? Throw an open bar party at the pub and keep everyone drunk.

If the humour isn't always as sharp or original as it could be and if all that setup doesn't always pay off perfectly, there's a great deal that works. Ruth Bradley brings a lot of charm to the character of Lisa and makes it totally believable that the grumpy Ciaran (also well-played by Richard Coyle) might get a bit smitten with her. As for the creatures (whose CGI never really gets too much in the way), even though tentacled monsters have been done often, there's enough tweaks and unique aspects to these to keep things interesting - particularly in how the biggest of them moves. By the time Gremlins is borrowed from openly for one particular scene, you'll likely be engaged enough that you'll welcome it with a smile on your face. A fine start to the festival.

7 Years Of Toronto After Dark

There was a thread on Twitter recently about people's most memorable theatrical experiences. As I thought about which ones I might list, it became quite apparent that a good chunk of those that sprung immediately to mind have taken place at one of my favourite film festivals of the year: Toronto After Dark (TAD). As we head into the festival's 7th year tonight (it runs for 9 days from October 18th to the 26th), I thought I would reminisce a wee bit about some of those memorable After Dark screenings...

Funky Forest (TAD 2006) - The feeling of community during the screening of this bizarre, funny and highly entertaining film was incredible. Throughout its 2 and a half hours (and two intermissions - one running 3 minutes and the other 17 seconds), complete strangers would turn to each other to share in the ridiculousness - initially with WTF looks on their faces, but eventually fully laughing with the film. As the first 3 minute intermission started its countdown clock on screen, there was a buzz in the room as everyone laughed at the countdown, then quickly began covering some of the highlights with each other and then settled back with anticipation as the clock passed 30 seconds. The applause that erupted as the film kicked back into its second half was warm, genuine and a bit giddy at the thought of what else was in store for us.

Alone (TAD 2007) - Once again, that sense of community was present during this great Thai horror flick from 2007 (made by the same team that did the original Thai film Shutter). Great theatrical experiences just seem to embrace being part of a larger group, don't they? In this case, it was that shared cycle of dread --> anticipation --> giggles --> jump/scream --> release (laughter) --> short downtime --> repeat...Why this film still hasn't been released in region 1 is beyond me. I can only assume that someone has bought the rights and is sitting on it. A damn shame...

4bia (TAD 2008) - As I've mentioned before, I'm a sucker for anthology films, so this set of four short horrors from Thailand was already a strong candidate to be a favourite. Though 3 of the 4 were quite good, it was that fourth one that put it over the top. Though easily compared to Scream due to its "meta" nature, its story of four male friends going on a camping trip and trying to up each other with scary stories and urban legends stands on its own. Their encyclopedic knowledge of movies and U.S. culture is shown on their various T-shirts, but as things start to go wrong on the trip, they begin questioning whether all these stories don't have some basis in fact. It felt tailor made for an audience of genre film fans and provided some of the loudest and longest laughter of any of the festival years.

Lazer Ghosts 2: Return To Laser Cove (TAD 2008) - Easily the best short I've seen at the festival - and that is no small praise due the excellent eye the programmers have had for the Canadian shorts that open each screening and the foreign ones put together into an entire program of their own. But this one...Perfection. Made by the Astron-6 team (who eventually brought us both Manborg and Father's Day last year), it's a complete distillation of every wonderful cheesy thing that people love about low-budget 80s sci-fi.

Black Dynamite (TAD 2009) - Talk about a crowd eating up, wait scratch that, devouring a movie. There were attendees who knew of its power, who foretold the riotous guffaws that were to follow that night...Oh sure, we believed that it would be amusing and possibly even "funny", so we patted those people on the heads, rolled our eyes and took our seats. 90 minutes later, we wiped the tears from our faces and began to start to breathe normally again...It still plays well on a second viewing on DVD, but my goodness was that a rollicking good time being jammed between others convulsing with laughter as much as I was.

The Forbidden Door (TAD 2009) - Though I quite enjoyed this Indonesian Lynchian tale of a sculptor, his wife and a strange club for members only, that's not the main reason to remember this screening. I arrived late and absolutely soaking wet from a massive storm that broke loose while I was on the subway (the theatre is a 1 minute jaunt from the subway doors and I still got drenched head to toe), but when I poured myself into the theatre I was surprised to see the house lights up and the crowd chatting away. Apparently the storm blew out the circuit for the projector shortly after they kicked things off (we learned later that tornados touched down North of the city and caused very serious damage - including to a friend's parents-in-law's house which was destroyed) and ended up delaying the whole thing by a further 30 minutes. It was perilously close to being cancelled completely, but one of the After Dark staff rode his bike back to his house (in the torrential rain), picked up the backup copy of the film on his external hard drive and pedaled madly back. It actually looked pretty damn good considering the source, but the playback was interrupted several times and affected the flow of the film. But the effort to ensure the show went on was roundly recognized by the crowd - staff mentioned later that only 4 or 5 people actually left and asked for their money back from an audience of about 400-450. That's the kind of festival this is - no one wanted to leave the theatre even when there wasn't a film on!

Phobia 2 (TAD 2010) - A sequel of sorts to 4bia with five stories this time - including another one with everyone's favourite characters from the previous film. The other four stories are quite solid, but again it's our four nerd friends who steal the show. This time they are working on the set of a movie - a sequel to the aforementioned Alone (which, without giving anything away, is a ridiculous conceit in and of itself). It's essentially the ultimate send-up of horror movie tropes and folds in on itself in very funny ways without ever calling attention to how clever it is. The crowd was with it all the way.

Midnight Son (TAD 2011) and Father's Day (TAD 2011) - I just wrote about these last year, so check out the reviews in the corresponding links. Let's just say both films made my Top 20 for the year - for very different reasons.



There have been plenty more great films, fun screenings, interesting Q&As and, of course, very late nights at Pub After Dark. And it wasn't just the beer and conversation that made those hours after the movies great, it was getting to know the many other people who spent time in that same dark theatre. More and more of them every year.

That's probably my biggest reason for loving Toronto After Dark.

Toronto After Dark 2012 - Preview

Toronto After Dark 2012 (the 7th edition of the festival) starts in just over 2 weeks and it's the biggest festival yet. I suppose I said the same thing last year (I just checked and indeed I did), but the festival keeps growing - not by leaps and bounds, but in small natural increments. 20 feature films (with Canadian shorts before each one) and a screening of International shorts will hit the screen at the Bloor Cinema (the fest returns to its home after being at the Toronto Underground last year during renovations). It'll be great to be back in the Bloor/Bathurst neighbourhood - there's a stronger Halloween vibe in that area during October and with Pauper's Pub right across the street, the Pub After Dark will be in full swing just about every night.

One thing I promised myself that I would do different this year is to completely avoid any and all trailers for the films showing at the fest. The trailers for After Dark films have typically been horrendous at setting expectations - typically selling the movie completely different than what it is and even sometimes selling it far too short. So if I'm going to the films anyway, why not go in unspoiled?

Here's a rundown of the full lineup (quotes in italics are taken from the After dark web site - the rest of each blurb is my thoughts about what to expect). Trailers for each film can be found at the Toronto After Dark site.

Grabbers (Jon Wright) - "in the mould of TREMORS, when a small Irish town is invaded by bloodsucking tentacled aliens, the locals discover that getting drunk may be their only way to survive". As the opening night salvo (and with a brand new liquor license established at the Bloor), I'm going to simply assume that this is going to be heaps of fun.

American Mary (Jen and Sylva Soska - aka The Twisted Twins) - "a disillusioned medical student decides to ply her trade in the shady underworld of unregulated surgeries and body modification with horrifying consequences.". Katherine Isabelle, best known for being the lead in Ginger Snaps, is the big reason to see this as I've been hoping to see her get wider exposure. Is this the right vehicle to do that? Hard to say given the controversial reputation of the Soskas, but all reports are that Isabelle is excellent.

Crave (Charles de Lauzirika) - "a mentally unstable crime scene photographer spiraling into darkness, madness and violent vigilantism on the gritty streets of Detroit.". The promo points to both Taxi Driver and Fight Club as antecedents from a style perspective - certainly good lineage, but the jury will remain out as to how much of that is true and how much is complete salesmanship. There's some talent associated with this, though, so I'm leaning closer to the former.

Inbred (Alex Chandon) - "this over-the-top gory British horror film finds a group of inner-city kids and their counsellors on a field trip fall prey to a rural village’s inbreds and their uniquely violent form of hospitality.". The write-up on the After Dark site also contains the teaser "Not for the weak of stomach!", so I guess gore-hounds will be happy. It doesn't sound like my cup of tea (and enough with the inbred concepts too...ugh), but it stars Jo Hartley so I'm curious how they handle a more mature woman in the lead which is unfortunately a rare sight in the horror domain (hell, in ANY domain).

REC 3: Genesis (Paco Plaza) - "the latest instalment of the hit Spanish zombie movie series relocates the action to a lavish wedding where the guests - including the bride wielding a chainsaw - try to survive a terrifying outbreak of the undead!". I loved the original Spanish REC - tense, claustrophobic and never dull, you felt like you had shed a couple of pounds by the time it was over. It's sequel REC 2 fell back upon very standard horror movie tropes and was one long annoying HIGH DECIBEL EXPERIENCE! I truly don't know where this one will land since only one of the two original directors is back for this - so we'll have to see which previous film he leans towards.

Cockneys vs Zombies (Matthia Hoene) - "a bunch of East End bank robbers find themselves caught in the middle an outbreak of the undead on the streets of London, it’s every gangster for himself.". The Saturday of the festival always has a double feature of zombie films to coincide with the city's Zombie Walk - a great idea, but it really requires a good slate of zombie films from which to choose. Whether I end up digging REC 3 or not, I'm sure it's safe to say it'll satiate the brain-hungry hordes who show up. Hard to say about the latter half of the 1-2 zombie punch - could go either way.

Doomsday Book (Jee-woon Kim, Pil-Sung Yim) - "this trio of apocalyptic tales features the rise of sentient robots, a zombie virus outbreak and an asteroid on a fatal collision course with earth.". A Korean anthology film starring Doona-Bae that also won the Fantasia jury prize? This just became my most anticipated without even needing to know a single other thing about it.

Lloyd The Conqueror (Michael Peterson) - "a fantasy comedy about three male college students who are roped into battle with Derek the Unholy, a dark wizard who is determined to hold onto his title as champion of the Larpers". This Canadian entry has potential as long as it doesn't think it needs to hit a broad audience.

Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning (John Hyams) - "Action legends Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme reunite in the latest bone-crunching chapter of the popular Universal Soldier sci-fi action movie series.". Note I didn't bother including any plot details in the promo snippet? You'll make your decision either way without them. I've heard surprisingly good things about this, so I'm oddly interested.

After (Ryan Smith) - "two bus crash survivors awake to find themselves the only people left in a deserted small town. Even worse, they only have a limited number of days left to solve the mystery of their predicament". There's more to the plot description in the promo on the site, but why give away additional details? Sounds pretty good already...

Grave Encounters 2 (John Poliquin) - "a young documentary filmmaker obsessed with finding out what really took place at the institute (from the first film) persuades a group of his friends to help him break into the building at night and record whatever they find.". The original Grave Encounters was apparently a "found footage" style horror which I know is a bad sign for most people these days. I tend to have a higher tolerance factor for those films, though, as long as they show some creativity. Not knowing anything about the first, I'll give this one the benefit of the doubt. Be creative though!

Citadel (Ciaran Foy) - "Following an unprovoked attack by a mysterious group of hooded thugs, a young father finds himself paralyzed by fear and unable to leave his home. To compound his nightmare, the local priest warns him that the hoodies will be back one day to claim the child.". Winner of the Midnighters Audience Award at SXSW, I'm hoping this leans towards an atmospheric-tension style.

My Amityville Horror (Eric Walter) - "40 years after the most infamous alleged haunting in American history, Daniel Lutz who was just a young boy at the time, finally breaks his silence and tells his side of the story". Hoo boy...I count myself as a fan of the original film Amityville Horror (dated though it is), but I'm deeply worried as to how this "documentary" will approach the subject of the "true" story. It sounds like it should be a portrait of the now grown young son of the couple who owned the original house and whose story spawned the bestselling book and many films. It could be a very interesting and compassionate look at what Daniel Lutz's life was like growing up under scrutiny or it could be a whole mess of hooey attempting to bring new "facts" to life. Concerned, but curious.

Resolution (Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead) - The site promo only mentions "Creepy photographs, bizarre found films, mysterious caves, possibly supernatural forces at work, and too many twists and turns to mention." and stays completely away from giving any idea what the film is about. Clever and effective. Once again hopeful.

Sushi Girl (Kern Saxton) - "A reunion dinner for a gang of vicious criminals reopens old wounds with deadly consequences". Easily the biggest name cast of the whole festival (Danny Trejo, Tony Todd, Michael Biehn, Sonny Chiba and Mark Hamill) and a solid premise. Bring it.

Dead Sushi (Noboru Iguchi) - "A vacation resort faces an attack of killer sushi". Yeah sounds fun don't it? But...But it comes from the same folks who brought us Robogeisha and I'm frankly tired of the goofy Japanese splatter gore. Then again, Iguchi had one of the best shorts in ABCs Of Death (with the very strange, scatological and funny "F Is For Fart"), so maybe he's figured out the right mix of humour and odd/freaky/blood-soaked imagery.

In Their Skin (Jeremy Power Regimbal) - "a young husband and wife and their son find themselves in a fight for their lives with another similar aged family who have taken them captive at their vacation home.". By itself, this isn't a premise that does a whole lot for me. Apparently it received some strong praise at Tribeca and Selma Blair is pretty much always good, so expectations are raised a bit.

Wrong (Quentin Dupieux) - "an absurd crime thriller about a man and the very strange things that happen to him as he tries to track down his kidnapped dog.". By the director of Rubber. Say no more. Can't wait.

A Fantastic Fear Of Everything (Crispian Mills, Chris Hopewell) - "dark and quirky comedy about a very nervous writer played by fan favourite Simon Pegg struggling with a slew of mental demons while working on a new novel about Victorian serial killers.". This has all the initial ingredients: a great premise and a strong comedic actor in Pegg. The flip side is that these are first time filmmakers, but since I'm in a "benefit of the doubt" mood, let's assume they've been building up to this.

Game Of Werewolves (Juan Martinez Moreno) - "When a struggling young writer returns to his remote village home after years away in the city, he’s shocked to discover it’s become cursed by werewolves and also that he might just be the only one who can stop them.". You know what, let me just copy the rest of the promo info: "Fantastic old school effects, great werewolf fight scenes and kills, and an endearing misfit hero makes multiple Audience Award winner GAME OF WEREWOLVES an absolute delight for fans at every festival it plays!". Certainly sounds like they found the right film to close down the festival.