This afternoon, Toronto After DarkWE is showcasing its Canadian Shorts Program at Scotiabank Theatre. Shorts can be a lot of fun because even if you don’t like one, there will be another one along in a few minutes. And whether you like them or not, you can always recognize the quality of work and talent…
Tag: woods
The Witch (2015) – Richard Eggers
Eggers’ atmospheric The Witch, is always an enjoyable Halloween watch, it’s beautifully executed, wonderfully scripted, and has everything you would expect in a classical telling of an 17th century new world fairy tale. A devout family in New England, whose father, Will (Ralph Ineson) has been deemed by the local village to be too extreme…
TAD 2021: Ditched dir. Christopher Donaldson
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…
TIFF 2021: Petit Maman dir. Celine Sciamma
Director Celine Sciamma delivers a gentle pontification of loss, family and understanding in this gentle, and quiet drama. When Nelly’s (Josephine Sanz) grandmother dies, she regrets the fact that she didn’t get a chance to truly say goodbye to her. While her mother (Nina Meurisse) deals with her grief, and the job of clearing out…
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984) – Joseph Zito
Back when I first started the blog, I got through the first three Friday the 13th films, and kind of stalled. Now, here I am ten years later, continuing the journey with Jason (Ted White in this film) as I explore the beautiful Shout! blu-ray box set. This is the last film released that still…
The Red House (1947) – Delmer Daves
I dug into another of the trauma inducing titles from the Ten Bad Dates With De Niro movie book, and this one is pretty dark, filled with intimations that can be drawn out as you observe the action, and the undertones at work in this film. Edward G. Robinson headlines this back country melodrama that…
Toronto After Dark 2019: Witches in the Woods (2019) – Jordan Barker
Witches in the Woods is the second film of the Toronto After Dark film festival, having its North American premiere this evening. The film follows a group of twenty somethings on what is supposed to be a skiing getaway, but, of course, they get lost on the way, mired in the snow covered woods, with…
Those Across the River (2011) – Christopher Buehlman
This week’s Book Shelf brings me another horror novel, this one from a list of scary books that I hadn’t read yet. Set after the end of the First World War, Orville Francis Nichols, and the young woman soon to be his wife, Eudora, move to a small town in Georgia, Whitbrow. A town that…
Pet Sematary (1983) – Stephen King
This week’s great Stephen King re-read brings me the horror classic, Pet Sematary, which I read in the mid-80s, shortly after I had discovered the prolific writer. I remember greatly enjoying it, and being very unnerved by King’s riff on the famed horror story The Monkey’s Paw. This time around I was entertained by it, but…
The Twilight Zone (1964) – Come Wander with Me, The Fear, and The Bewitchin’Pool
We arrive, this week, at our last stop in The Twilight Zone. The exploration of The Complete Series comes to its ultimate conclusion with this last trio of episodes. First up is Come Wander with Me. Written by Anthony Wilson, this episode, directed by Richard Donner, debuted on 22 May 1964. The story follows musician…
The Mind Reels 