The
Toronto After-Dark Film festival brought something new to the plate this year in
advance for fans of the genre by screening 2 days of summer “Spotlight
Presentations” ahead of the main
festival that takes place in October every year. This event or “mini festival”
was a great opportunity to experiment and gaige the level of interest of current
and new audiences to see if they would
actually attend this genre event outside of the main festival during a
different time of the year. And what an experimental success it has been for
the festival as it brought out crowds to the Bloor Cinema and even had a sold
out theatre which fits some 700+ people for its final screening of V/H/S. The festival quality event has not only been a
treat for the loyal fanbase of the genre but also a great opportunity for those
new to the festival and its films to actually experience what they can expect from
the main event that will take place in October.
The 4 features that screened on June 27 and July 11 this summer included:
Juan of the Dead, The Pact, Detention and V/H/S. Both screenings were followed
by an after-party pub night at “Paupers” which was an all inclusive perk for
ticket and pass holders alike to mix and mingle and get that opportunity to
analyze, wow and bash their likes and dislikes. And incase you want to disguise
your fear under the pretext of blaming your memory for being “oh so weak” here
is a quick re-cap of what went down:
Day
1:
The
first feature that screened on day 1 was “Juan of the Dead” by Alejandro
Brugues which is a funny, clever and very entertaining zombie flick from and
shot in Cuba. The script is fresh, keeps you involved wanting to know what will
happen next as nothing feels as you would expect it to be. This is the story of Juan who is a pretty
useless, lazy fisherman and absent father who simply spends his days having an
affair with a married woman and/or hanging around with his very good friend
Lazaro on his building rooftop patio drinking. While they live their days all
of a sudden we see something strange and noticeable that begins happening to
the people of Havana island. Zombies begin to appear and then some more as the infection
starts to spread rapidly. Instead of making a run for it to a safer haven, Juan
comes up with a money making idea to work along his pals and become rich. The services
provided would include to quote “killing your loved ones” i.e. killing zombies
and training fellow citizens to defend themselves against zombies. Although it
does not seem like a very big budgeted film, the zombie lovers will not be
disappointed as there is ample gore, slashing and smashing of brains and even
the good ol’ fashioned cannibalism going on throughout the film. The film is mostly
hilarious, almost burst out laughter funny for me personally in parts, as the
humour used is both personal to the characters as well as a mockery of the
political system in Cuba under Castro. Eventually however Juan’s business plans
fail when things start to get out of control and this is where the audience
really begins to get their fill of zombies as herds of them begin to appear
feasting on guts. If you have a weak tolerance for too much blood and nibbling
on raw human flesh then perhaps this is not for you. Zombie lovers, this will
be a treat for you!
The
second feature that screened on day 1 was “The Pact” by Nicholas McCarthy,
essentially a ghost film is nonetheless a mix of genres , both horror and
mystery. The story revolves around two sisters Nicole and Annie who have had a
rough and abusive childhood under their mother’s care. Nicole returns to her family
home after her mother’s death to take care of funeral arrangements and insists
that Annie come and help her but she refuses. Later that night, Nicole
disappears. Shortly after, the rough and tough bike rider,Annie arrives on the
scene at the house and begins to witness the creepy and odd noises, doors
opening and shutting, things falling. The first half of the film is solid and
scary keeping you on the edge of your seat not knowing what to expect next.
However the film slows down a bit as we transition a bit from ghostly horror to
a mysterious story that eventually leads to the big reveal. Steering away from
the conventional horror films, The Pact felt like an experimental cross over of
genres with very clever and unexpected writing which might not be for everyone
but still makes it quite an interesting watch.
Day 2:
Detention, by Joseph Kahn, the first feature to screen
during the second set of screenings at The Bloor cinema was probably one of the
summer favourites which had a handsome set of whole-hearted giggles originating
through satirical comedy based on teen flicks over the decades, pop culture and
a lot of references of the 90’s. It would be fair to say that unless you are
well attuned to the pop culture, know and have seen teen flicks over the decades
it would be a bit hard to get the fairly fast paced jokes and humour. The story
which is a mix of comedy, gore, slasher, time travel, and everything else that
could possibly exist, follows a group of teenagers in their final year who play
a very exact reflection of their character, a mockery so to say which makes it
all the more hilarious to watch. Amidst the usual ho-pla of teenage drama that already
exists the group also has to deal with the fact that there may very well be a
killer amongst them. It would be unfair to summarize the story of this film in
a few lines as there is so much going on in there that it would almost feel
disjointed. What I enjoyed the most was when they played two songs from the
very famous 90’s boy band The Backstreet Boys in setting where the group of
teenagers are in detention trying to figure out who the murderer is. Another
highlight was the Canadian character Gord, a passionate meat lover who only
wears a sports jersey and quite possibly might’ve even stolen the show here in
Toronto per his outrageously hysterical personality. The film definitely has
the potential for a re-watch especially if you want to do true justice to it
and also if you a bit slow like me to get all the jokes the first time round!
The second and last screening of
the festival was the greatly hyped V/H/S, an anthology of isolated found
footage films, 5 in total, that play against a back drop of a sixth story. A
group of crooks hired to break into a house to steal a vhs tape, boldly film
their break in and find a collection of VHS tapes which they begin to watch one
by one. The first tape which was quite interestingly shot through a pair of
glasses is the story of some drunk, drugged out jocks who pick up some girls to
get laid and get laid they do! The second is a slasher cum weird story about a
couple who are on a road trip taking breaks at motels when someone enters their
locked room to film them. The third almost shot in the blair-witch style is the
story about four friends who go into the woods where a killer awaits to slice
them all up. The fourth and one of my favourites especially since by this time
I was in a position to appreciate the motionless camera setting, is the story
of a haunted house told through a webcam conversation of a couple. The last
film, another one of my favourites is a Halloween story where a group of guys
break into a known haunted house for some thrills and actually come to face to
face with a she-devil!
All the films were well done in
their own respect, with a proper start and finish to their own individual
storylines, without any connection or transition to each other. This might or
might not have worked in their favour though as it almost affords the audience
an opportunity to re-coup from the scares they just witnessed. I quite enjoyed
the film overall as it was very different and apart from what I have seen,
although the scares didn’t completely live up to the hype that I had originally
expected it would. There were definitely some good scares with dark setups and
encounters with the devil being my personal favourites that played out in the 1st,
4th and 5th, film. The only thing that could make this
film a little difficult to watch for those with motion sickness is the
constantly shaky camera and often times authentic yet unclear picture quality
that could really give you a headache. Other than that I feel this is an
interesting concept and there definitely is a potential films to be made this
way.
With that the Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2012 summer
screenings wrapped up for now. A little something new and exciting that was
announced by the founder of the festival, Adam Lopez on the closing night of
the last summer screening is the introduction of indie video game submissions
for the main festival that are scheduled to be played at an after party venue of
the main event this year. This is in addition to the roughly 20 feature
presentations that will screen this year along with a much talked about set of
amazing shorts to name a couple of programs. If you weren’t already, I’m sure
by now you are just as excited as I am, anxiously awaiting the upcoming
festival in October that will bring more horror, sci-fi action, thriller and
cult films to Toronto audiences. Be sure
to check it out this year, you wouldn’t want to miss it!
Myra Rehman
@myrawales
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