The Toronto After Dark film festival got started on Thursday night with a bang with Late Night with the Devil. And it was a crowd-pleaser. If you are a horror fan, this is one to seek out, this is one to demand from your streaming service, this should move to the top of your viewing…
Tag: 2023
TAD 2023: Restore Point dir. Robert Hloz
Restore Point fro the Czech Republic has a lot of things going for it, and I ended up having lots of nit-picky questions that suggest to me that I really liked the film and wanted to understand all the things behind it, the logistics of the scenario. But most of all, I loved all the…
TAD 2023: UFO Sweden dir. Victor Danell
Do you want to believe? Young Denise (Inez Darl Torhaug) does. She remembers the night her father disappeared chasing down UFOs, and it’s been an obsession ever since. She’s grown to be a young woman, tech savvy in the mid-90s and is determined to find the truth of what happened. As she begins to cross…
No One Will Save You (2023) – Brian Duffield
Writer/director Brian Duffield delivers a lot to unpack thematically with his alien thriller No One Will Save You, which is delivered virtually silently with almost no dialogue at all. With obvious nods to films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Invasion of the Body Snatcher, the film is a tense, white-knuckle thriller that…
Making It So (2023) – Patrick Stewart
Whether Patrick Stewart knows it or not (I’m fairly sure he doesn’t) he’s been an essential part of my life since my formative teen years. He’s always been there in some form or another, and he’s helped me through a lot of tough times. A story he and his fellow castmates of that super popular…
The Flash (2023) – Andy Muschietti
Yes, some of the special effects are terrible, and yes, the film seems to be played more for laughs than telling a dramatic and serious story, and the cameos, such as they are, seem a little wasted, and Ezra Miller can come across as severely unlikeable but having waited a few months since the film’s…
The Pope’s Exorcist (2023) – Julius Avery
For something that claims to be based on the actual documented cases of the Chief Exorcist of the Vatican, Father Gabriele Amorth, one would expect something smarter, scarier, and perhaps not as trope-ridden as what viewers are given with The Pope’s Exorcist. The film gives us Russell Crowe as Amorth, not quite chewing scenery, but…
Renfield (2023) – Chris McKay
Nicholas Hoult, Nicolas Cage, and Awkwafina star in Chris McKay’s bloody, hilarious, and over-the-top love letter to the supporting character of the original Dracula story, Renfield, including some wonderful homages to the original 1931 film. It’s modern-day America and Renfield (Hoult) has relocated Dracula (Cage) yet again to hide him from those who would hunt…
A House with Good Bones (2023) – T. Kingfisher
T. Kingfisher aka Ursula Vernon has entertained and creeped me out with each of the books I’ve read by her; three to date, with A House with Good Bones being the latest. Once again she introduces us to a relatable character, in this case entomologist Samantha who, when her summer dig is cancelled, decides to…
TIFF ‘ 23: Mr. Dressup – The Magic of Make-Believe
I’m not crying. You’re crying! Is there anything more Canadian to children who grew up in the 70s/80s/and early90s than Mr. Dressup? I can’t remember a time in my own life when I didn’t know about him, Casey, Finnegan and the Tickle Trunk. In fact I’m sure that at some point I had a stuffed…
The Mind Reels 