Picture a Stephen King novel directed by Steven Spielberg, with a score by John Carpenter, and a beautifully balanced touch of nostalgia and you have the wondrous, scary, funny, and exciting ride that is Netflix’s latest winner, Stranger Things. Created by Matt and Ross Duffer, the series is set in Indiana in the year,…
Tag: horror
Queen of Spades: The Dark Rite (2015) -Svyatoslav Podgayevskly
It’s always interesting to see what genre films look like from other countries, and this Friday at select cities across the country, and on VOD on the 19th, we can have a look at Russia’s Queen of Spades. A riff on the Bloody Mary urban legend that is seemingly as old as mankind, the…
The Red Badge of Courage (1951) – John Huston
We delve back into the war section of the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, and the next big title there, is John Huston’s adaptation of Stephen Crane’s novel, that follows a young, Union soldier, Henry Fleming (Audie Murphy) also known as The Youth, as he struggles with his fear, and the…
Hot Docs 2016: Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World – Werner Herzog
My Hot Docs got under way this afternoon at about 1pm as I settled in for my first screening at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, director Werner Herzog’s latest film, Lo and Behold. I was first struck, as I always am, by the amazing turnout this festival has. It should be no wonder of…
Village of the Damned (1960) – Wolf Rilla
The Sci-Fi Chronicles plunges me into B-movie horror filled with creepy blonde-haired children in this classic that is still a little unnerving. Based on the novel, The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham this one still has the power to make the viewer uneasy. Strange things are afoot in the English village of Midwich when…
JeruZalem (2015) – Doron and Yoav Paz
Opening today in Toronto at the Carlton Cinema, and also being released on VOD, is this could-have-been-great found footage (don’t we have enough of these yet?) from the Paz brothers. This time, the film’s camera is supposedly in the form of a pair of Smart Glasses. This ends up being a nice touch, because…
Toronto After Dark 2015
It’s time!!! One of my favorite film festivals in Toronto is here!!! Starting tomorrow night and running through until the 23rd, it is nine nights of action, sci-fi, horror, spills, thrills, chills and cult films, as Adam Lopez, festival runner, and his adept festival crew present us with some of the most unique, entertaining,…
We Are Still Here (2015) – Ted Geoghegan
Coming out today from Anchor Bay, available on both Blu-Ray and DVD is this film that is bound to be a divisive one for the horror community. If you’re a gore hound, love your jump scares, or just have a short attention span and a need for instant gratification, this may not be the…
A HPLHS Double Feature – The Call of Cthulu and The Whisperer in Darkness
The good folks over at Raven Banner, and GAT PR were kind enough to invite Sue and I over to chat with them the other day, and I was lucky enough to go home with two films from the HP Lovecraft Historical Society, which Raven Banner had a hand in distributing here in Canada….
The Day of the Triffids (1963) – Steven Sekely
The Sci-Fi Chronicles brings me yet another film I’ve never seen, and yet feel I know, because it shows up everywhere, The Day of the Triffids. based on the classic science fiction tale by John Wyndham. This adaptation fairly mangles the original novel, tagging on a Hollywood Happy ending, or as happy as a…
The Mind Reels 