The Carpenter-esque, Canadian-made, Ditched is available for streaming from the Toronto After Dark film festival today. I think I enjoyed the idea of it more than the actual movie itself. Melina (Marika Sila), a paramedic, wakes up in her overturned ambulance, and has to brace herself for a long violent night of the soul, as…
Author: TD Rideout
TAD 2021: Nightshooters dir. Marc Price
Nightshooters is a kinetic, frenetic, UK actioner laced with humour, cold tea, and explosive gore, and it’s enjoying its Canadian premiere on today’s line up of Toronto After Dark titles, as the virtual format of the film festival continues! Falling squarely into the wrong place wrong time of action films, the film follows a group…
The House of the Devil (2009) – Ti West
Ti West films can be very divisive, you either love them or hate them, and I have to be honest, I fall firmly into the like them category. Having said that, the first time I sat through The House of the Devil, I was a little disappointed by it, people are right when they say…
TAD 2021: Post Mortem dir. Peter Bergendy
Toronto After Dark delivers it’s first spectral tale of the festival, with the beautifully crafted Hungarian film, Post Mortem from director Peter Bergendy. This one, has all the trappings of a classic ghost story, and does it right, well, and without going overboard on the visual effects. Tomas (Viktor Klem) is recovering from a near…
TAD 2021: Alien On Stage dir. Lucy Harvey & Danielle Kummer
The right idea, at the right time, can be magic. It happened in 1979 when Ridley Scott delivered the first true science fiction horror film. It also happened again in 2013, in Dorset, when a group of amatuer actors, and professional bus drivers decided to bring the film to the stage instead of their usual…
The X-Files (2000) – Hollywood A.D., and Fight Club
David Duchovny writes and directs Hollywood A.D., that sees Mulder (Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson) being misinterpreted on the big screen. First airing on 30 April, 2000, the agents find themselves involved in a strange case involving an item known as the Lazarus Bowl, which may have the words Christ spoke to raise Lazarus from…
TAD 2021: Canadian Shorts
Canada delivers its own Shorts programme for Toronto After Dark, with 9 selections, that like the International Shorts features a variety of styles, sensibilities, and genre mashing. There’s some great work in here, and despite the fact that none of the films were as laugh out loud as the highly enjoyable Shiny New World, there…
TAD 2021: International Shorts
The Toronto After Dark Film Festival unveils its International Shorts programme today. With an all virtual format this year, the Festival is not presenting a short before each feature, but is bundling them into two separate viewing packages, the International and the Canadian Shorts. Both collections feature a wealth of talent, and storytelling styles, and…
TAD 2021: Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It dir. Yernar Nurgaliyev
Kazakhstan delivers Toronto After Dark’s Opening Night Gala Film, Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It, and it sets up perfectly what to expect from TAD if this is your first time. There is going to be blood, wild on-screen deaths, laugh out loud moments, uncomfortable humour, and a lot of cross genre entertainment. Datsan (Daniar Alshinov)…
Mission: Impossible (1969) – The Glass Cage, and Doomsday
There’s a lot going on in The Glass Cage, the first episode up this week as I continue my journey through Mission Impossible: The Complete Series. Written by Paul Playdon from a story by Alf Harris, the episode first debuted on 2 February, 1969. I was absolutely delighted to see that it also featued Larry…
Foundation and Empire (1952) – Isaac Asimov
The second book in the foundation series ups the stakes for humanity a bit, as we get a glimpse inside the still crumbling Empire, and the reclusive Foundation and the traders that have sprung from it. We learn that the Foundation is in someways becoming corrupt as well, as some despotism is occuring, and it…
Alien 3: The Unproduced First-Draft Screenplay by William Gibson (2021) – Pat Cadigan
Author Pat Cadigan takes William Gibson’s original script for Alien 3 and transforms it into a white knuckle thriller ride of a novel that gives us a glimpse at what could have been in the Alien film series. Fans know the convoluted story of how Alien 3 came to the screen, and that were countless…
