I have to admit, Cheap Thrills was not one of the films I was most looking forward to. I knew the basic plot was about some down-on-his-luck dude who starts doing dares in exchange for cash for the entertainment of a wealthy couple. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that – I mean,…
Tag: film festival
Toronto After Dark: Big Bad Wolves (2013) -Aharon Keshales & Navot Papushado
Toronto After Dark finished up last night with the Israeli film Big Bad Wolves. A film that is being considered for their official Academy Awards submission, and hailed as Quentin Tarantino’s favorite film of the year, it had a lot to prove to the closing night audience. The film follows a cop, Miki (Lior…
Toronto After Dark: The Banshee Chapter (2013) – Blair Erickson
The Scary Night programme of Toronto After Dark came to a frightening close last night at Scotiabank, with the film I have been most looking forward to all festival, The Banshee Chapter. Using the 1950s MK Ultra experiments (something I only learned about because of The X-Files initially) as its launching point, the story follows a…
Toronto After Dark 2013: Found – Scott Schirmer
Gore night at Toronto After Dark got going with the little indie gem, Found. Directed by Scott Schirmer, the film opens with a young boy, Marty (Gavin Brown) telling the viewer that his older brother, Steve (Ethan Philbeck) keeps human heads in his closet. He goes on to tell us very matter-of-factly about how…
Toronto After Dark: Evil Feed (2013) – Kimani Ray Smith
Gory Night continued last night with the second extreme feature, following the coming-of-age, serial-killer is my brother film, Found, with Evil Feed. The film centers on a Chinese restaurant that kidnaps martial artists, forces them to fight in a cage match, and the loser, properly tenderized by the beating, is served up as dinner to…
Toronto After Dark 2013: Last Days On Mars – Ruairi Robinson
Toronto After Dark’s sci-fi night got kicked off with the tense thriller, Last Days On Mars. An international crew of scientists an astronauts has been living in a small research colony on the surface of Mars for the past six months, conducting experiments and searching for signs of life. With less than a day…
Toronto After Dark: The Machine (2013) – Caradog W. James
Sci-Fi night at Toronto After Dark, graciously hosted at Scotiabank Theatre this year, continued with a late night screening of the UK science fiction flick, The Machine, starring Toby Stephens, Caity Lotz, and Denis Lawson. Using Blade Runner, Terminator and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica as its launching point, a number of the festival organizers were chatting…
Toronto After Dark: Solo (2013) – Isaac Cravit
The Toronto After Dark Film Festival screened a couple of winners last night, the enjoyable Odd Thomas and the brilliant camp thriller, Solo. Gillian (Annie Clark) is the newest camp counsellor, and as such must do a solo two night camp out on a lone island. She is driven out by Fred (Richard Clarkin), and…
Toronto After Dark: Silent Retreat (2013) – Tricia Lee
The Sunday afternoon feature at Toronto After Dark was a bit of a mixed bag, with a monster\cabin in the woods tale, that the more I thought about it had more political overtones than one would guess at first blush. Janey (Chelsea Jenish), a ‘troubled youth is sent to a retreat that is meant to…
Toronto After Dark 2013: Stalled – Christian James
I haven’t seen a movie where things go so wrong at Christmas since the days of Gremlins and Die Hard. In Stalled, a custodian-type everyman, W.C. (writer/star Dan Palmer) finds himself trapped in the women’s washroom at a company party on Christmas Eve when the zombie apocalypse suddenly breaks out. Soon he’s barricaded himself…
The Mind Reels 