Weapons (2025) – Zach Cregger

Much like Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian, it’s best to go into this film for the first time with no real knowledge beyond what is provided by the poster… one night, almost all the kids from a single classroom disappeared. What happened? That’s the initial launching point for a story that shifts narratives and fractures fairy…

Under Paris (2024) – Xavier Gens

Under Paris delivers my second favourite shark movie of all time. The first is Jaws, of course. That whole slew of Sharknado films couldn’t do a damned thing for me. They are so far beyond cheesy that they become an embarrassment. You have to be able to walk a line with shark movies, to balance…

Edenville (2023) – Sam Rebelein

I love a good horror novel, and I often find myself cruising best of lists to find something that catches my interest and haven’t heard of. Apparently in October of last year, I missed a stellar horror release by Sam Rebelein. Combining folk, cosmic and body horror, Edenville pulled me in and completely enraptured me…

Disquiet (2023) – Michael Winnick

There are some fun and familiar ideas at work in Michael Winnick’s Disquiet which is getting a limited theatrical run, and VOD release tomorrow, but it just isn’t as strong as it could be. At just under an hour and a half I still felt the editing could have been tighter, and the characters could…

TAD 2022: International Shorts Program

Festival directors and Scotiabank Theatre invites After Dark fans to attend the International Shorts Progam this afternoon. Take in an offering of strange and unusual entries from around the world that will bemuse, beguile and befuddle. Bug Bites, directed by Daniel DelPurgatori is a bizarre little short about what we are led to believe, initially…

The Prisoner (1967) – Arrival, and The Chimes of Big Ben

The Prisoner is a series I had long heard about, but, for some reason known only to some deep, dark corner of my psyche, I had never watched. Everything I heard about it suggested I would enjoy it, that it would be right up my alley. But I never dug in and screened it… ……

TAD 2021: Canadian Shorts

Canada delivers its own Shorts programme for Toronto After Dark, with 9 selections, that like the International Shorts features a variety of styles, sensibilities, and genre mashing. There’s some great work in here, and despite the fact that none of the films were as laugh out loud as the highly enjoyable Shiny New World, there…