Favourite Film - I keep waffling between the two, so I'll make it a tie: "Murder Party" for being a barrel of fun and "Alone" for scaring the begeezus out of a theatre full of people.
Favourite Short - I have to give it to "Terror on 3918" which I actually wrote about last June when I saw it at the Worldwide Short Film Festival. The spaceship of the future seems to resemble the inside of a run-of-the-mill apartment and the laughs come from the absurdity of the ship, the very effective use of sound effects to make the everyday objects seem to be controlling things and the actors playing the whole thing straight.
Best crowd reactions - 1) the first kill during "Automaton Transfusion" - the zombies in the audience were thirsting for blood, 2) the nervous laughter leading up to the scares in "Alone" as well as the release laughter afterwards, 3) the applause for the huge round house kicks seen in "The Rebel".
The volunteers - Superb and friendly.
The audience - The zombie films, "Alone" and "Murder Party" were all jam-packed and many other screenings had very sizeable crowds. It was all about having fun and the attendees were pretty relaxed and ready for anything. I also got to meet a couple of fellow bloggers for the first time (Hey Shannon!) and enjoyed the film discussion.
Jaw dropping moments - 1) "Aachi & Ssipak" was pretty much one ridiculous moment after another - but in a good way, 2) the 8 Arrows Of Truth in "Audience Of One", 3) every frame of "Poultrygeist" - but in not as good a way.
Things missed - I heard really good things about all 3 of the features I missed - "Mulberry Street", "In The Name Of The King" and "Wolfhound". Would have been nice to catch them too (though I'm still not convinced about Uwe...). I also would have liked to see the "Cutting Edge Horror" set of shorts. I missed both the opening and closing night parties as well - maybe next year...
Ideas that should be continued next year - The "Pub After Dark", though I didn't get there much.
I'm off boiled eggs for awhile - "Poultrygeist" had more than its share of disgusting moments, but that egg with the green and purple veins that gets eaten by the guy playing Jared...What's the icon for "wretch"?
Poor doggies - Dogs just didn't fare well at this year's festival. In "Blood Car", "Alone" and "Simon Says" dogs all met rather disturbing ends. Even in festival closer "Murder Party", a dog chomps down on a bag of crank before then chomping down on a guy's face.
It would probably make more sense to bundle the review of "Murder Party" with its cousin "Blood Car" since both of them are American independent inexpensively made horror films with dark humour. Not to mention the fact that the two films will be touring North America together for screenings in different cities later this year. But I'm happy to do it as a stand alone. The final film of the week long Toronto After Dark Film Festival may be my favourite of the whole bunch.
It's inventive, sharply scripted and very well acted as it zips along through a rather disconcerting set of events for our poor hero. Walking home from his job as a parking ticket cop, he finds an invitation to attend a Murder Party that evening. Since it's Halloween and it appears that he has nothing better to do, he builds himself a knight's costume out of cardboard and heads out for his evening's entertainment.
It turns out the party is an atypical one...Besides the hosts (5 disaffected artists), he's the only attendee and, of course, the intended victim of the murder which is to be used for the sake of art - and the sake of getting some grant money. The film ends up being a very pointed satire (much more effective than something like "Art School Confidential") of the art scene and the "hipper than thou" members of it. Actor Chris Sharp was in attendance for a Q&A afterwards and confirmed that he and the other actors, writers and crew knew that scene very well...
There are a number of great little moments in the film...In one, our costumed knight finds himself in a closet filled with various pieces of equipment after escaping his abductors. While they wait for him outside, you see him looking around at all the tubing, fire extinguishers, etc. and you expect that he might build some nifty contraption that will enable him to get away. Instead, he throws open the door with an armful of the junk in the closet and then...throws it on the floor and tries to run away. Of course he's immediately recaptured and chained to the chair this time. During another escape, he stops for a quick bathroom break on the roof. While in the middle of relieving himself, one of the potential killers spots him and moves toward him. His reaction and attempt to quickly finish up is very funny.
All of these moments are very well staged and flow nicely within the story. And there just aren't any awkward moments. The film does slow down somewhat in the middle when another artist brings in some truth serum for everyone, but it never feels like they didn't know where to go next. There's even a few early setups of jokes that pay off later in the film, so it's evidence that they really thought things through.
The trailer doesn't really do the film justice in that it looks like it was shot for $1.99. In fact, you get used to the look pretty quickly and the camera work is perfectly suitable for the events. Part of the fun of the film is knowing that these guys did things on a shoestring budget and had to get creative. Even the effects work out quite well. They're pretty small at the outset, but grow as the story progresses and things eventually get bloody. Very bloody. And it works.
Given the end result, I have to think that the entire crew must've worked very hard, for very little money and in the end had a great time putting this together. It's already released on DVD in the U.S. from what I understand and Chris mentioned that they are already working on several potential follow-up projects. I can't wait...
The film was preceded by a double shot of Canadian short features:
Sweet Strangers
Can Chocolate Man save the day? He seems to be the only hope when a monster shows up to terrorize two friends. Only 4 minutes, but very funny and covers a lot of ground in that time.
The Tragic Story Of Nling
The denizens of a small island called Nling create a large walled cylinder into which they dump their garbage. They eventually dump their human refuse in there too, but supply them with alcohol to keep them happy. Until one day the alcohol stops coming...An interesting tale made even better by the style of animation: each frame was printed out on paper, cut out and then captured via scanner.
Set during the 1920s occupation of Vietnam by the French, "The Rebel" has a familiar story at its core. But when the familiar is executed this well, it can deliver a terrific movie-going experience - as evidenced by the spontaneous applause that happened several times during the Toronto After Dark screening.
In order to combat the rebels who are against the French controlling forces, local enforcement has been hired to find and quell any opposition. Three friends are all part of this "secret" team and though they may be considered to be traitors among their own people, they each have their own reasons for helping the French. However, after taking out one potential assassin (a young boy), Le Van Cuong reconsiders his reasons. Aided further by witnessing the unwarranted torture of a female prisoner, he decides to leave and essentially becomes one of the rebels.
As mentioned, there are a few familiar story points here bordering on cliche - the long term friends (who call each other brothers) suddenly found on opposite ends of a larger battle, the burgeoning romance between the new rebel and the long serving young woman, the evil French master of a prisoner camp who is sadistic, the sweeping music, etc. But when the story telling is this economical and moves the plot along with characters you actually like, you can easily forgive any shortcomings in originality. The journey is kept interesting and exciting by not derailing the proceedings - even the romantic storyline is kept reasonably at bay in order move towards closure of the final showdown everyone knows is coming.
And it gives room for the fights...The martial arts action in the film is glorious. Each fight follows naturally from the plot and they are fast, furious, exciting and done with little to no wires whatsoever. The After Dark audience, which you would expect have seen a martial arts fight or two in their time, cheered and clapped during several of these lengthy sequences. Johnny Nguyen (stuntman extraordinaire - he did the stunts in the Spiderman films) as our hero and Danny Nguyen are powerhouse fighters with incredibly quick moves and the fights between them are the best I've seen in a long time. Thanh Van Ngo, as the aforementioned young woman, does her own share of terrific work by beating the crap out of a whole slew of guys. The final sequence at the stopped train is just pure enjoyment...
The only real downside was the poor quality print that the festival folks were forced to use. The plan was to use a good quality print which was winging its way to Toronto - until it was stopped and held at the border. Organizers had to resort to a lesser quality print that had occasional jittery video, a number of sound problems and was actually missing the entire set of end credits. But fortunately, none of these issues lasted very long and did not take away from the experience. Congrats to the festival staff for having a backup plan in place.
So it was a great and well-attended showing in the end. "The Rebel" is touted as the most expensive film production in Vietnamese history. They spent their money wisely.
The film was preceded by a Canadian short feature:
The Bullet
A sheriff and his helpers ar eprepping to lynch another man when a mysterious stranger shows up. What does he want and why does he seem to care more about the sheriff than the man with the rope around his neck? All will be revealed...
I'm as guilty as the next person when it comes to throwing around generalizations about film genres. It's hard not to because sometimes it can help you to express your point. So of late I've been falling back on "Asian Horror" to express my preference for horror films that have creeping dread, a sense of foreboding and instill fear via their atmosphere and subtle effects. Both Thailand's "Alone" and Japan's "Nightmare Detective" share some of these traits, but are also vastly different films. It just goes to show that generalizations are typically only good up to a certain point. Though, uh, not as a rule...
Alone
You know a scary film is working its magic when an entire theatre audience (and a packed one at that) begins to giggle nervously at the beginning of new scenes. A woman alone in a bathtub? "Oh boy, something's gonna happen here!" She's walking alone into an elevator? "Now what'll show up?" So they know something is coming, everyone is anticipating it and they can't wait...
"Alone" is an incredibly effective piece of filmmaking. Perhaps Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom's follow-up to 2004's well received "Shutter" is not the most original piece of cinema you'll see, but it succeeds in just about every way in scaring and entertaining the audience.
The film mixes slow creepy sections with a number of sudden jump scares. Though some films pack in the jumps without any context, "Alone" deserves each and every one through its powerfully built up suspense. You know it's coming, you almost even know exactly when it's coming - and you jump anyway.
Pim and Ploy are two conjoined sisters who are separated in their youth. Only one survives and the film begins in her present day comfortable married life. After returning home to see her dying mother, the spirit of her dead sister begins following and haunting her. Through flashbacks we learn more about the relationship between the two girls which had always been very loving - until a boy came along and changed things. The boy falls in love with one of them and this leads to friction, arguments and eventually the separation.
The key to the film is the framing of each scene. You keep expecting to see the ghostly twin appear in the many mirrors, car windows or door openings that pop up throughout. These open spaces reinforce the "aloneness" of the remaining twin and it's also a perfect way to build the anticipation for the next appearance. And the film delivers on every long build up of tension by providing the big release moment of fright.
So all those giggles of nervous energy get transformed into screams and then laughter as the audience relaxes back in preparation for another buildup. And from the crowd's reactions, they wouldn't have had it any other way.
Nightmare Detective
As new detective Keiko Kirishima (played by the absolutely lovely Japanese pop star Hitomi) begins to investigate a series of suicides, it appears that they may somehow be related. Each of the dead people were apparently last talking to the same person on their cell phones before they took their lives (having dialed '0'). We discover that these people have been influenced into killing themselves by a single person who has the ability to enter their dreams.
Kirishima recruits the services of a young loner who shares that same ability to enter people's dreams. In his case he sells his services to try to help others get rid of their nightmares, but he is at the end of his own rope. He is unable to continue the back and forth travel between reality and dreams and has built up a hatred of people in general. Between the two of them they realize that someone will have to place that call to '0' and it will likely be Kirishima.
Director Shinya Tsukamoto (from "Tetsuo, The Iron Man" fame) brings to the film his unique view of humankind, technology and death. He is often compared to both David Lynch and David Cronenberg as they all share a warped, surrealistic view of life. This time, Tsukamoto leaves most of his nightmarish visions to the nightmare world - but he still leaves a mark.
The suicides are brutal in nature, bloody and messy - typically involving someone stabbing themselves repeatedly while asleep. And then there's the nightmares themselves...Filled with headache inducing sound and fury, the dreams early in the film don't ever really show what is so terrifying, but they certainly indicate it. The victims are usually alone, scared and apparently being stalked. The thunderous sounds that accompany the approach are frightening enough, but to then cut back to reality and see someone opening up their own throat is an altogether different kind of unnerving event. I must admit that my over-tiredness caught up with me a few times and the repeating "sound and fury" of some of the dreams zoned me out a bit. That just made it all the worse when I snapped back.
An oddly hopeful ending does nothing to erase the deeply unsettling world Tsukamoto has put before us. The dreamworlds are bad enough, but the characters' reality didn't seem much better. Japan has a difficult problem with high suicide rates, but imagine how much worse it could be if it was easy enough to make someone say "I never knew I wanted to kill myself".
Now that's scary.
Each film was preceded by a Canadian short feature:
God's Little Girl
An interesting premise of a woman grappling with the reasons for the death of her one year old and what God really wants from her. Does she need to behave in a really bad manner in order to prevent God from taking her too soon? And how would she ensure that whatever bad things she did weren't somehow for the common good in the end? A bit long, but an interesting spin on an old theme (questions of faith arising from the loss of a young child).
Key Lime Pie
One of the best shorts of the fest. Great black and white animation (with a dash of key lime) depict one man's obsession with Key Lime Pie. Can Death tempt him with one last slice?
The Slasher film is an old staple of the Horror genre by this point, so what would an after dark film festival be without a couple of examples? This past week, Toronto After Dark screened both David Arquette's directorial debut "The Tripper" and the Crispin Glover vehicle "Simon Says" (directed by William Dear). And like many slasher films, they each use many of the conventions of the style and tend to fall into some of its pitfalls. Both films do at least try to bring some twists to the genre and contain a couple of surprises, but sometimes you really need to see results instead of just effort.
The Tripper
A group of young people take their old, drug-filled, blue van deep into the woods for a weekend of nature and partying.
And go figure, many of them don't make it back...
The young people in question are "hippies" attending a weekend long musicfest in the forest with countless others. The rumours of deaths from previous years' shows don't seem to concern anyone except for the town sheriff. On top of trying to provide the additional security, he's caught between the hippies, the good ol' mountain boys, the mayor, the concert promoter and the crazy old man with a history.
The sheriff, played with deadpan perfection by Thomas Jane, is actually the only character about which to give a damn in the entire film. Everyone else is simply unlikeable and completely selfish. I know it's a slasher movie and most people will end up dead, but can we at least feel maybe a twinge of regret when one of the characters gets dispatched? If not, at least perhaps make their screen time be less of a painful experience. Jane's sheriff gets off a few choice lines at each of their expense, so perhaps there was some good to come out their appearances.
But this is a slasher movie after all (at least at its heart) - expectations of serious character development should be left at the door. So what of the terror and mayhem? Well, mayhem certainly occurs, but I don't really remember feeling a moment of terror, tension or even dread. I can't help but think it's because the movie is trying to be far too many things at once - comedic, politically aware, surreal, gory, environmentally conscious, politically incorrect, etc. It's a lot of hats to wear and none of them quite fit.
Getting back to the premise of the film, it does have its moments. The killer wears a Ronald Reagan mask and wipes out just about anyone he comes across in the woods (the film mistreats all political affiliations evenly - both by making fun of them and by slicing and dicing them). Though the killer casts a fine shadow as Reagan wielding an ax, he also speaks in Reagan-isms which, not surprisingly, are not overly funny anymore. And when he starts wiping out a large throng of the hippies with total abandon, it just deteriorates - there's still no suspense and even the killing methods aren't interesting at this point (he's just hacking away with the ax).
I give the film some points for attempting something a bit out of the ordinary at times, but its different parts never come together into anything more than a time wasting sequence of loosely tied together bits and popular culture tie-ins (Paul Reubens is somewhat wasted, but it was nice to see Fishbone again).
Simon Says
A group of young people take their old, drug-filled, blue van deep into the woods for a weekend of nature and partying.
Sound like a familiar premise? It's not the only common link between these movies. "Simon Says" is also infected with a young cast of completely unlikeable friends who are given nothing interesting to say or do. I couldn't even see why any of these 5 main characters would even talk to any of the other 4. They are mean, petty, selfish and simply people I would go out of my way to avoid. Let's see, there was the jock, the stoner, the bitch and the slut. Even the obvious choice of The Final Girl (the extremely attractive Margo Harshman) is a pain in the rear. After this, "The Tripper" and "Automaton Transfusion", I've lost all hope in the young people of today...Apparently they all suck.
Fortunately, all is not completely lost - even though you're stuck with a cast you want to see terminated as quickly as possible, you've also got Crispin Glover. He plays a pair of deranged twin brothers (or is it just one?) and he doesn't just chew up the scenery - he devours it, spits it back out and then consumes its bloody entrails. And that's OK because he provides a number of amusing moments. He also seems to have booby trapped the entire woods with a variety of machines that just happen to be positioned ever so perfectly to intercept fleeing college age people. There are some inventive deaths (the "pick ax to the back in order to get dragged across the woods" is a new one), but they also get pretty silly - when you see hundreds of flying pick axes (CGI ones at that) get hurled via these home made contraptions your willingness to suspend belief wanes.
So the movie oscillates between some good and many not so good parts and proves to be an ultimately frustrating experience. It does end somewhat unexpectedly though. After a lengthy capture sequence of The Final Girl, we do get to see her show some intelligence and strength. And the very last scene provides the most disturbing moment of the whole film.
So in the end, although both of the films tried in spots to approach the genre from interesting directions, neither of them really succeeded very well. Each film did actually have its set of fans in the audience - bursts of applause and occasional hoots occurred during certain moments or kills. But for me, the real chills came when we crossed the Pacific Ocean for totally different takes on horror from Japan and Thailand.
Each film was preceded by a Canadian short feature:
Swine
An old man sits across from a pig's head attached to a staff. He talks to it like they have a personal history and gradually begins to get angry. It unsettling, but you begin to wonder if it's just trying to be odd for odd's sake. And then you get to the ending and it comes together. Very nicely in fact. And then another little clip after the titles that puts the final stamp on it.
Mime Massacre
Ever wanted to take care of business when surrounded by mimes? Well the guy in this short certainly does - and it's pretty cathartic. But what if you didn't really mean for it to happen? Solid, fun short that gets bonus points for having little things going on in the background.
Selecting a documentary to screen during a horror/fantasy genre film festival may be an unexpected move, but with "Audience Of One" (directed by Mike Jacobs) this year's programming staff could very well have found the scariest film of the fest. You won't jump out of your seat, but you will see a frightening display of the immense delusional capacity of human beings.
Pastor Richard Gazowsky has a friendly sympathetic face and immediately strikes you as an intelligent communicator. His congregation in San Francisco seem to be made up of past sinners, lost souls, neighbourhood families and perhaps a few lonely older people looking for a community. He doesn't seem to preach fire and brimstone or heal diseases at a touch of his hand. He appears genuine in his love of God.
So there must be a reason to turn a camera on him...And there is. Richard is a dreamer. A big dreamer. My friend Shannon said she loved that about the guy and I can't disagree. His dream is to direct a movie based on the biblical tale of Joseph but with a "Star Wars" feel to it. To be entitled "Gravity - The Story Of Joseph", he wants to bring it to the masses, eclipse production of any previous Hollywood film and to make every scene be something the audience has never come across before. That is what you call a capital 'B' Big Dreamer.
Now how can a man who had never even seen a movie until a scant 10 years earlier (when he was 40) direct the biggest blockbuster the world has ever known? The idea is preposterous from the get go and doomed to failure - and yet the audience can't help but root for him early on. You have to be impressed that he actually gets the project off the ground, finds initial investors and recruits members of his congregation to do various creative and crew roles. It's the flip side to the scary delusional part of the film - the determined collaboration toward a common goal. Perhaps we really can do anything we put our minds to if we have faith in the end goal or person leading the way.
But now that the word "faith" has been mentioned, it brings up a concern several people had expressed going into the film (and even afterwards). Is it all really just one big reality show episode that lets us laugh at Pastor Richard to make us feel better about ourselves? And to a larger extent a putdown of his beliefs and religious views? Granted, it would be a vastly different film if Richard were a plumber or a bus driver who wanted to make a multi-million dollar film, but I found that the filmmakers never made the core of the film about his religion. It's about a good man with an idea who not only deludes himself, but pulls along hundreds of others.
It really has more in common with the great documentary "American Movie" and the single-minded pursuit of that film's main protagonist. The desire stems from a different place, but for both of them The Big Dream seems almost within reach...
...until it begins to go south.
You get the whole range of movie set catastrophes (misbehaving cameras, unskilled labour, language barriers, etc.), but you also begin to wonder a bit about Richard. He has a huge expectation of sacrifice from everyone involved (their money, their time, their safety) as well as an expectation of faith in both him and God that equals his own. His mother sees him as naive and, with sadness and regret in her eyes and voice, wonders aloud why she turned over the control of the church to him. He begins to rationalize a great deal as well - particularly when it comes to the financing of the film. Though his German backers haven't come up with any money for him yet, he continually reassures his crew and others that the $200 million is ready for them. It's a lie, but so sure is he that God will provide for him, I think he has rationalized it to himself that the end justifies his means.
His delusions really start in earnest towards the end of the film. At one point, while the city of San Francisco is getting ready to sue his production company for failure to pay rent on their studio space, he and his team have gone off to a trade show and are making decisions to buy incredibly complex mixing boards and camera equipment. After the city manage to shut down the studio, Richard goes through a period of doubt, but re-establishes his faith - and then some. Presenting to his congregation the Eight Arrows Of Truth, he lists off 8 new goals for the church. Let's just say that his scope has expanded...It's a truly jaw dropping moment. Perhaps these bigger goals are there to detract from the failure of the initial smaller one, but it appears to be the same Richard as before - a big heart and what appears to be an honest calling to the Big Dream.
"It's either God", he says at one point, "or I'm crazy."
One of the things I really enjoyed about last year's initial Toronto After Dark festival (and which continued this year) was the inclusion of short films before each screening. Many were fun or just simply good counterparts to the film about to be shown. As well, it helped local and Canadian filmmakers get a decent audience for their work.
They upped the ante a bit this year though, by including 2 screenings dedicated solely to short films. I wasn't able to make Saturday's Cutting Edge Horror set, but I did manage to make it down for Sunday's Cutting Edge Fantasy showing.
Here were some of my favourites:
Lucid Dream Exploration This short trailer doesn't really get the effect across, but much of this film was done frame by frame on an etch-a-sketch. Somebody has spent some serious time on that damn thing...
Hairlady There's something mesmerizing about this film (in its entirety below). The time lapse of hair growth on the man's face is interesting enough, but once Part 3 kicks in and the music builds against the sped up repeating film, I was caught in its spell.
Trionyx (Soft-Shelled Turtle)
Two short clips from this film about a man who has chosen the soft-shelled turtle as the animal he wants to be when attacking Godzilla.
The Un-Gone
Unfortunately no clips on the net of my favourite short of the screening. Simon Bovey's 8 minute film shows us what happens when there's a glitch in a teleporter. Not for what happens to the person reaching the other side, but what's accidentally left behind...Here's the website.
As Toronto After Dark Film Festival director Adam Lopez was fond of calling it, Sunday was Z-Day (that's Zed for Zombies - yes Zed, not Zee). The two back-to-back zombie film screenings preceded by a Zombie Walk through the city attracted hundreds of the undead. I'm not sure how many tourist dollars you can squeeze out of walking corpses, but I suppose at the very least it makes for good PR.
Unfortunately I missed the zombie walk event, but from the throngs of blood splattered folks waiting outside the theatre to queue up for the first of the zombie flicks, it must've been a lot of good clean fun.
And now for the messy variety...
Automaton Transfusion
There was a great atmosphere in the Bloor Cinema as we awaited this first film by director/writer Steven C. Miller. It looked to be sold out and probably every other person had some kind of zombie makeup or prop to get into the spirit. Choruses of "Brains! Brains!" rang out in anticipation.
Previous to the film beginning, Adam Lopez mentioned that this was the first part of a planned trilogy and warned that the film has an abrupt end with a cliffhanger. So does the story warrant 3 straight films out of the box from a novice filmmaker?
Well, it all starts in familiar territory. We meet the teenagers who will become fodder for the zombies: the cheerleaders, the fat geek, the spoiled rich jock...Just a whole bunch of really unlikeable people. I know we're not supposed to invest a great deal of emotion into many of these characters since they will die nasty deaths, but I do wish some additional thought would be brought to bear for the initial period of time we are forced to spend with them. If the intent was for me to want to see them get killed, then the filmmakers succeeded. Unfortunately I not only hated some of these characters, but I disliked entire scenes they were in and hoped they would just stop talking. That can't really be what you want from your film...
So let's focus on the scenes when no one is talking. Those would be the scenes when everyone is screaming. Though the movie is indeed "energetically directed" especially through the zombie attacks, it's just too much...Too much shaky camera action, too much booming pending doom music cues and too much screaming while heavy metal clanged on the soundtrack - and typically all at once. You know how your picture looks like when you speed up a DVD to 4x? That's what a good deal of this film looked like. It's an exhausting assault on the senses. At times and in small doses it can be effective, but I felt it took away from what could have been a more interesting set of zombie attacks.
It did seem to take a somewhat different route than perhaps what some of the fans in the crowd expected. In particular, one zombified fan sitting next to me threw his hands up in what appeared to be frustration about 10-15 times during the film. I could only guess that he was upset that a specific event did not occur when it was supposed to (e.g. nudity did not happen when it normally does; lingering shots of entrails did not occur when they should have; etc.). I'm not sure why the filmmakers should need to follow the conventions that closely in order to please certain fans, so for not doing that I applaud them.
The plot really starts towards the end of the film when we learn about the origin of the zombies. Earlier, they had just shown up one day, caused havoc and chased the townspeople. But these new plot elements may point towards some interesting avenues the story may take in the sequels.
I just don't know if I care.
Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead
Pound for pound the most disgusting, over the top, politically incorrect, bad pun-filled, potty mouthed experience ever. "Juvenile" is probably the best term for Lloyd Kaufman's new film which brought Zombie Day to an end. It did however provide all the nourishment the hungry zombies in the audience were looking for as hoots, hollers and cheers filled the packed room.
Kaufman's film is a satire of the fast food industry, but also pulls in all number of ethnic stereotypes and political references in an attempt to throw as many satiric elements out there as possible. Subtlety NOT being Lloyd Kaufman's middle name, it's not always effective. In particular, the political jokes fall flat as they were typically of the obvious variety. And though stereotypes can indeed be used to good effect for satirical purposes, it loses its impact when overused. On the plus side, at least he doesn't play favourites with who might get offended - conservatives, liberals, heterosexuals, homosexuals, Mexicans, Muslims, Jews, meat-lovers, vegans, etc. all get barbs thrown at them. Repeatedly.
The story centers around the opening of a new fast food chicken restaurant that was built on a sacred Indian burial ground. Young Arbie happens across the demonstration with no real investment, but sees amongst the protestors his old girlfriend Wendy - now in the arms of another woman named Mickey (yes, there is indeed a common theme to the naming of the characters). After some back and forth verbal sparring and a song (did I mention the film is also partially a musical?), Arbie decides to get a job at the restaurant just to taunt Wendy. He meets fellow employees Denny, Carl Jr. and Paco Bell.
Don't worry about the rest of the plot - just know that many people eat bad things, spew great amounts of green, red and brown fluids from MANY different orifices and that zombie chickens rip people to shreds (as one female zombie chicken prepares to eat the face she has just peeled off another customer she says "I know it's not good for me, but I just love the skin!"). Though occasionally amusing, I tired quickly of the high school boy humour, the "dirty word" humour, the plentiful scatalogical references and the bountiful fluids being spilled. But if you didn't like a scene (say perhaps you would have preferred a different orifice be the focus of a particular moment), you really didn't have to wait long to see something else. Of course, be careful what you wish for...The songs weren't overly memorable either, though this particular one does lodge in your brain (Warning! The video contains graphically disgusting scenes...):
Having said all that above, there was a sense of fun about the film. Very much an anything goes approach that sat well with most of the audience. And when the audience is having fun (even if everyone at once turns away from the screen with groans of disgust), you can't help but catch some of it. The two leads in the film (Arbie and Wendy) are relative newcomers and were actually quite good at shifting between song, slapstick, dry humour and whatever depravity was asked of them. And the movie is not without its clever bits - whether it's a snippet of song's lyrics, a passing pop culture reference or a background joke or sign. Of course, those good bits are usually trampled over by what follows, but I can't help but hand it to Kaufman...In a post film Q&A, he spoke a bit about the troubles he faces in getting investment and distribution for his films. Not surprising, but still remarkable in that he presses forward with what appears to be good humour and warmth.
So even though neither zombie film quite did it for me, the evening was still wholly entertaining.
Each of the zombie films was preceded by a Canadian zombie short - both quite well done and funny:
Zombie Jesus
A young woman revisits her hometown to see her estranged Dad who is the local pastor. Her timing kind of stinks though since Jesus has just risen - as a zombie. He's taken most of the congregation with him, but the woman still thinks she should try to communicate with her Dad - zombie or no. Some of the zombie footage was actually taken at last year's Zombie Walk.
Eat The Parents
A young woman's parents are on their way over to meet her new boyfriend. She's had bad luck in the past with introducing her gentlemen friends into the family, so she's really trying to make this work. Unfortunately, her boyfriend dies before they get there. Fortunately, he has just brought home an ancient stick capable of raising the dead. Understandably, complications arise after she uses it...
It's probably not often that you run across common ground between whacked out Korean animation and a North American Indie horror film by a first time director. But when you do (in this case during Saturday's screenings at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival), it should be recognized...Both "Aachi & Ssipak" and "Blood Car" use an energy depleted world as their jumping off points for "what would humankind do?" scenarios. The former certainly has the more drastic view of how things could change, but both are funny, purposely crude and splatter numerous bodily fluids whenever possible.
And isn't that what you're looking for in your futuristic scenario movies?
Aachi & Ssipak
Todd Brown from Twitch gave a great intro to the film and wondered aloud "why aren't there more animated films coming from Korea?" Considering the amount of animation being produced there (for TV shows like the Simpsons, etc.), you would think that would drive further creative outlets. There's certainly enough inventiveness and originality at play in this film to have been an outlet for many an animator...
The story? OK, let me take a deep breath here...Set in some distant future where normal sources of energy have been depleted, society has changed to embrace a new source that scientists have tapped - human feces. In order to encourage the population to defecate more and use the feces for the greater good, the government not only runs all sorts of marketing ads, but also provide a reward every time someone "donates". Individual blue Juicybars (which look like frozen popsicles) are delivered immediately and are not only tasty but contain addictive narcotics. And thus an underground black market has been created. The biggest of the gangs involved is called the Diaper Gang - a group of small, blue mutants who are completely addicted to the bars. They pull off a daring theft of a truck load of the bars by wiping out its police escort, but then are foiled in their attempts at getting the loot back to their base by a one man wrecking crew cyborg created by a government mad scientist.
And that's the opening 5 minutes...
Here's the trailer (the censoring bleeps aren't in the film, though I think it makes the trailer funnier):
The film is filled with pop culture and movie references. The terrific mine shaft chase is straight out of "Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom", while references to "Misery", "Robocop" and even Paris Hilton crop up. Some of this stuff is a bit much (and really, Paris Hilton has never been funny as a reference point), but don't worry - the pace of this movie never relents so you'll find something new pretty quickly. It's actually quite exhausting, but not necessarily in a bad way.
It's also violent, gory and totally shameless in being disgusting. I could've certainly done without some of the more scatalogically inclined bits of humour and the entire subplot of the anal porn king was, at best, uncomfortable...But the film never pretends to think of itself as clever with its potty humour - it is what it is. And then it's on to something else. There are also a number of satirical elements to the film - especially when terms like "Axis Of Evil" are thrown into the mix - and you can see a kernel of truth in situations like the government expecting more defecations from its population for the good of the state.
Though the characters Aachi and Ssipak are integral to the way the story plays out, it's interesting that the film is named after them. They aren't really that much more sympathetic than anyone else in the film and many scenes take place without them even being involved.
But I guess there must be a rule of marketing that states "Avoid the words feces or defecation in your film title". Probably sage advice.
Blood Car
Though it's hard to imagine one could ever say that any film was similar to the whacked out "Aachi and Ssipak", "Blood Car" does indeed share a common beginning point. Sometime in the future (though possibly only two weeks from now states the opening prologue), the fuel shortage has risen gas prices to over $32 a gallon. No one drives anymore, people bring picnic blankets to drive-ins and teenagers have to resort to having sex in car graveyards.
Archie, a kindergarten teacher and vegan, has taken it upon himself to try to invent a new engine that will work on wheatgrass juice. He is concerned about the environment (as he shows by the ever present slogans on his T-shirts) and thinks an engine of this type would solve a great deal of the world's problems. Success eludes him though, until one night he accidentally cuts himself and manages to drip some blood into his fuel mixture. The engine jumps to life and he realizes that blood is the secret.
Lots of blood.
Here's the trailer:
Black humour is the order of the day in this low budget first feature by writer / director / producer Alex Orr and he never shies away from it (particularly an ending that may even offend those who loved all the carnage). Archie's requirement to keep his car running becomes increasingly important to him once he meets Denise. She owns the local meat stand (opposite the local vegetable and wheatgrass juice stand) and loves to ride in cars. She is also more than willing to provide a wide range of "services" to Archie for continued use of the car. Hence his need to find more blood.
This leads to further and further acts of desperation on Archie's part. To feed the car, he starts by shooting small animals in his neighbourhood and eventually escalates to humans - first a neighbour he finds dead and then some of his own killing. He has additionally incorporated rotating blades in the trunk of the car in order to chop up fresh resources to provide blood directly to the motor. Kind of like a really big juicer. All the while, guys in suits are monitoring his every movement...This setup leads to many gross out, yet very funny moments. The film (also like the above Aachi & Ssipak) purposely attempts to offend at many turns and succeeded at getting any number of groans from the otherwise quite happy late night audience (it was an 11:30PM screening).
Along with a few missed opportunities at getting more laughs, there are some awkward scenes that stretch a bit long and could've used some tighter editing. Anna Chlumsky, in her first feature film in about a decade, also seems a bit out of place and not overly well used. But these are minor complaints to the obvious fun at work here.
There's an additional amusing moment I found that may or may not have been intentional...As our hero Archie comes over the rise on his bike wielding an ax at one point in the movie, we hear "The Barber Of Seville". The great 1979 film "Breaking Away" and the classic to top just about all other classic cartoons "Rabbit Of Seville" both use this music and this one scene evoked both of these favourites at once. I don't know if Orr had any thoughts about paying tribute to either of these other films, but it put a big smile on my face...
Each film was preceded by a Canadian short feature:
Glitch
The question of what is reality is played with in this nicely done short. What appears to be a glitch in the virtual world dumps a young man into a completely foreign mostly mechanized world run by little white penguin like cyclops blobs. But even this reality may not be what it seems.
Please Stand By
Lobsters are attacking. They appear to be slowly picking people off one by one. If that isn't bad enough, our young hero's girlfriend won't call him back.
Have I mentioned I'm looking forward to the next few days? The Opening Gala of Toronto After Dark kicked off Friday night with a showing of "Mulberry Street" at the Bloor Cinema. Though I had to miss the initial festivities, I'm going to make the majority of the remaining films.
The full schedule of 14 feature films (and 2 themed short film screenings) to be presented at this year's Toronto After Dark Film Festival was released today.
I'm gonna try to make as many as possible, but after a quick scan the ones I'm most excited about are:
Alone - I'm a sucker for the "Asian" horror films of the last decade and good creepy atmosphere...Though the concept doesn't totally grab me - the conjoined twin who dies during surgery to separate her from her sister makes ghostly reappearances - it still looks like it may be fun with a crowd. From the directors of "Shutter".
Audience Of One - A documentary about one man's vision to make a Christian version of Star Wars. Strangely enough, everything goes wrong...
Aachi & Ssipak - Animated Korean action adventure with likely no sense of subtlety or good taste. Sounds like fun.
Nightmare Detective - The director of "Tetsuo" subverts the J-horror genre? Sign me up.
The Rebel - Vietnamese martial arts historical drama. It could be a bit cheesy and outside of the fight scenes there doesn't look to be anything not seen a hundred times before...But did I mention the fight scenes?
Other titles such as "Blood Car", "Simon Says" (with Crispin Glover) and "Murder Party" look like they will be bringing some humour to all the death and mayhem. As for "Poultrygeist - Night Of The Chicken Dead" (dancing zombie chickens!), I think it speaks for itself.
While reading my friend James' blog yesterday (and specifically this post), I was reminded that I've neglected to make much mention of another great Toronto film festival - the upcoming Toronto After Dark Film Festival.
Last year was the inaugural event and it was terrific fun. As you might expect from its title, the festival mostly covers genre cinema or as their web site states "new independent and international horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action, animation, and offbeat works from across North America, Europe and Asia". I had only bought a 4-pack last year, but since the films, crowd and audience were so good (OK, 3 of the 4 films were anyway), I made a last minute decision to go see one of the final night's films as well. And I'm glad I did. This was also where I saw "Funky Forest: The First Contact" (the strangest film I've ever seen and one of the most fun - especially with the audience who came out for it) as well Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "Retribution" (when is this coming to DVD...?).
Half of this year's slate has already been announced on the web site and the remaining titles are to follow on September 26th. Tickets go on sale that day as well. Festival director Adam Lopez points out that even though their feature film slate has only grown by one, they have spread the festival out over 7 nights (from 5 last year) and:
The BIG innovation is 2 extra screenings for the first time, to cover the amazing world of international genre shorts and we have two sidebars - one fantasy and one horror themed that will knock your socks off.
And they even have great commercials! Don't believe me? Well it says here that last year's TV spots just won an ICE Advertising Award. All 4 spots can be found at the above link, but I will include one here (just to whet your appetite to give some traffic to the site):
The Toronto After Dark Film Festival had its initial run last October and I was thrilled to stumble across it just before tickets went on sale. Especially when I found out that Kiyoshi Kurosawa's latest Retribution would be playing there (I think I was one of the few that really liked it). After noticing that the Pang Brothers also had a film there (Re-Cycle - shoulda skipped it), I decided to go for the 4-pack and roped in the fine ninja-clan battle film Shinobi and the truly unbelievable Funky Forest. I had such a great time at all the films (except the dreadful Pang Brothers one) that I decided to belly-up to the ticket window for the final night screening of the closing film - Behind The Mask: The Rise Of Leslie Vernon. It was one of my better recent spontaneous decisions.
Some basics about the film - it begins somewhat as a mockumentary style look at an up and coming serial killer who hopes to follow in the footsteps of Freddie Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers (in the world of the movie, those horror film icons actually existed). A student documentary crew follow him around during his preparations for his big night and we learn many of the tricks of the trade and the mythology of those late 70s horror films (Halloween, Friday The 13th, etc.). Leslie even has a retired psycho-killer as his own mentor. But as the crew get more involved, the story starts to shift from mockumentary to a real horror film.
The extended trailer should pretty much lay it out:
Yes, that's Zelda Rubinstein at the beginning of the trailer...And Robert Englund shows up too. So the references are knowing and clever, but they're done with warmth and fondness as opposed to any kind of ironic detachment (no potshots at Scream here - just distinguishing between the methodolgies). Leslie's preparations are documented by the team of journalism students and include stalking the "virgin", planting newspaper articles about his family history so that she finds them, doing cardio in order to be able to chase fleeing teenagers, etc.
The film is well paced, ingenious and a lot of fun. It shines mostly when it works with those conventions of horror films and weaves them into the story (occasionally poking fun at them too). In particular, the mid-section of the film when Leslie steps young journalism student Taylor through his plan for the big night. This section encompasses a great deal of the meat of the film - the breaking down of the slasher genre into its components to analyze a style and story that the filmmakers obviously love. Leslie explains to Taylor the Yonic imagery of the environment (Yonic is the female counterpart to the term Phallic) where the big night will take place and relates the sanctity of "the closet" (when a victim hides there) to the womb. This all ties back to the "Final Girl" he hopes his target ends up being - will this young girl take matters into her own hands (and there's discussion as to what it is she really is "taking into her own hands"), choose to fight back and become a woman in the process? There's also the gentle mocking of the genre conventions - when Taylor asks why Leslie takes into account the breaking of the second floor windows as an escape route but doesn't concern himself with the first floor ones, he answers back that none of the victims ever seem to think to escape that way - "you'd think they would..." he says offhandedly.
There's some good gags and setup previous to this that flesh out part 1 of the film - the documentary filmed portion takes up about two thirds of the running time. Up until this point, the entire film has been from the point of view of the two cameramen following Taylor and Leslie and is the footage that is to be used in their final story (actually there is one previous scene that briefly jumps out of the documentary footage - it is entirely around the first "kill" of the movie). The two cameras allow for the cutting between shots so the visuals stay reasonably interesting.
But then...Just past the hour mark, the cameramen shut down their cameras and the film jumps to an external viewpoint like standard horror films. To heighten this, the sound field opens up to surround the viewer (away from just 2 channels like the previous part of the movie). The documentary crew are now in the story they were covering - part of Leslie's big night. And though it isn't terrificly scary or filled with dripping tension, it's still a great deal of fun because it's dealing with all the conventions and plans Leslie took us through previously. And yet the viewer is still unsure where the story will end. It's a neat trick and well executed.
Where it diverts from the standard genre films is in the acting - it's uniformly quite good. In particular, Nathan Baesel is perfect in the title role. He's very funny, charming enough that you can see why the students stay with him and then flashes his violent side when necessary. Scott Wilson also deserves special mention as his mentor. They play it quite deadpan and it delivers much bigger laughs that way.
Horror fans (of the "classic 70s" genre) should really love this film, but only if they understand it isn't exactly like those films - it's a tribute and a loving one at that. First time director Scott Glosserman has done a superb job in creating an incredibly enjoyable film.
