Closing out the Toronto After dark film festival tonight at Scotibank Theater is the latest film from the Pierce Brothers as they have the Toronto Premiere of The Wretched. With overtones of 80s classics, like The Evil Dead and Fright Night (and going a little further back to the 70s with Jaws – I may…
Tag: horrific
The Hunger (2018) – Alma Katsu
There is a sense of dread and menace that seems to ooze off the pages of Alma Katsu’s retelling of the haunting, and infamous Donner Party expedition. Everyone knows, or thinks they know the story, and Katsu uses that troubling knowledge and lets it hang over every page – you know each of the characters…
From Beyond (1986) – Stuart Gordon
Cult favorite actor Jeffrey Combs is the mad scientist in the next title featured in DK Canada’s highly enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. Based on the seven page short story by H.P. Lovecraft the story follows Crawford Tillinghast (Combs) and a group of scientists that have developed the resonator, an experimental machine that can allow…
Altered States (1980) – Ken Russell
William Hurt is on the search for the purest truth, and that, in this case, places him squarely in the mad scientist chapter of DK Canada’s very enjoyable Monsters in the Movies book. Eddie Jessup (Hurt) is a scientist seeking the ultimate truth, and finds himself experimenting with isolation chambers and a ritualistic, possibly hallucinogenic…
NOS4A2 (2013) – Joe Hill
So I wanted something spooky and creepy, but needed a quick respite from revisting King’s work. I kept it in the family and dug into his son’s novel, NOS4A2. This one feels almost epic in size as we follow the horrors committed by Charlie Talent Manx and the life of a woman, Victoria McQueen who…
TAD 2018: The Dark (2018) – Justin P. Lange
Having had its Toronto premiere last week at Toronto After Dark, writer/director Justin P. Lange’s film, an Austrian-Canadian co-production hits VOD today. Despite its bloody and horrific trappings, The Dark is a gentle tale that sees a young girl, Mina (Nadia Alexander, best known for her work in The Sinner) become a monster because of…
Fahrenheit 11/9 (2018) – Micheal Moore
A failed democracy. Democrats and Republicans not representing the working class who are forced into voting for people picked by the party ‘elites.’ Despotism. Nazism. Parkland. Flint. Greed. Racism. Micheal Moore’s films usually have a comedic hint to them to balance the bitter pill of reality that is being displayed by the documentary filmmaker, Fahrenheit…
The Vault of Horror (1973) – Roy Ward Baker
Taking its cue from the EC and Horror comics of the 1950s, The Vault of Horror is an anthology film and is the next stop in John Landis’ Monsters in the Movies book, available now from DK Canada. While I’m still in the Vampire section of the book, this film only features one vampire tale,…
Sunset Boulevard (1950) – Billy Wilder
As I return to the films of yesteryear, thanks to DK Canada’s The Movie Book, I settled in for a film that I’ve never been sure I wanted to watch, Sunset Boulevard. I just never imagined it would be my thing, but it does have a great pedigree including a cast that includes Gloria Swanson…
Schindler’s List (1993) – Steven Spielberg
The next title on the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film as I return to the historical section of the book is Spielberg’s heart-wrenching, anguish filled look at the Holocaust through an adaptation of a true story. Over the course of three hours, this black and white film, with only significant and poignant uses…
The Mind Reels 