After Dark Film Festival

TORONTO AFTER DARK FILM FESTIVAL REPORT

8 nights of horror, sci-fi, action and cult cinema take place annually in time for Halloween.  This is the TORONTO AFTER DARK FILM FESTIVAL that is more fun than art and pretentiousness.  The attendees are out for a good time as evident in the annual zombie walk on the Sunday of the film festival.  Participants get a ticket discount to the 2 zombie flicks screened that night.

The week long festival includes features, shorts, a pub get-together after the films and more.  Check out the website at:
http://www.torontoafterdark.com
For additional information of activities year around.

The festival attained one of the best horror films to be screened this year.  From Sweden “Let the Right One In’ actually combines art (expert camerawork and staging) and horror in good old fashioned suspense.

Caught three films at the festival.

Here are the reviews:-

BRAIN DEAD (USA 2007) ***
Directed by Kevin Tenney

Kevin Tenny’s (NIGHT OF THE DEMONS) BRAIN DEAD is another entry in the zombie genre that fulfills its task in satisfying fans all over.  Tenney’s film delivers the blood and gore, the skin, the raison d’etre of the zombies (crash landing aliens), the shocks and scares, the humour in the form of one-liners and a good climax.  The characters holed up in the log cabin form a nice cross-section of victims waiting to be zombied.  As an additional bonus, Tenney has lots of surprises up his sleeve that he dishes out at various points of his film to keep the momentum up.  Tenney is totally devoted to this genre of filmmaking and during his introductory speech, he claims to have put his personal finances into the making of BRAIN DEAD.  Still, the production values are not top-notch as this is not big budget Hollywood million dollar production, but Tenney delivers.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN (Sweden 2008) ****
Directed by Tomas Alfredson

A series of murders suddenly takes place in an unnamed Swedish town.  The common denominator is that the victims are all drained bloodless.  LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, is one of the slowest moving vampire (though the killer refuses to be called one) movies but by no means less effective.

The film, based on the best-selling novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist concerns a bullied 12-year old, Oskar who meets the new girl, Eli next door. 
Alfredson’s camera is often placed at a distance from the characters – allowing a certain aloofness that somehow suits the storyline.  Set in winter, Alfredson knows how to contrast the bright red colour of blood to the pure white snow – which he indulges a few times with great effectiveness.  The mood of anticipation is maintained throughout the film – most effective when Oskar finally takes the stick to the bully’s ear.

The film never explains the origin of Eli or the reason her (assumed) father is not a blood drinker (as observed by him downing human good in one scene).  It is interesting to note that in most horror films, the origin of zombies is always explained but not that of vampires.

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN is a vampire film with a neat twist in a well worn genre.  It earns top marks for its pacing, atmosphere and ongoing creating of audience anticipation.  Besides dealing with the fictitious topic of blood sucking creatures, Alfredson blends in real life problems like school bullying, young love, loneliness and the need for companionship (shown here also with the older folk in the town.) The setting in a desolate wintry Swedish town is just short of perfect.

Kathryn Bigelow’s vampire film AFTER DARK also touched on the theme of romance between the young undead and the dead but Alfredson’s film goes out all the way with a friendship bond that knows no bounds.  Though the ending scene is predictable (as to what happens after Oskar’s head is pushed into the water), the fact that what happens can still keep the viewer silently applauding is remarkable filmmaking in pacing and camerawork.  This one gets my vote as the best horror movie of the year!

REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA (USA 2008) **
Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman

The oddest entry this year at the movies, the director of the SAW sequels (II – IV) makes a diligent and odd entry with a rock horror gore fest opera, entitled REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA.

First of all, REPO! is a musical.  Bousman has styled it a little to THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.  And a non-melodic all out gross one at that – with characters contorting their bodies, lots of skin being displayed and lots of blood splattered for good measure.

The film is set in the year 2056.  The titles, lasting at least a fill 5 minutes, go to explain, comic book style the background.  The world is devastated by an epidemic organ failure with a savior entering the picture in the form of the company, GeneCo owned by a madman played by Paul Sorvino who looks like he needs liposuction than an organ transplant.  Yes, he can sing!  His family includes a bevy of misfits, one of which is played by Paris Hilton.  The Repoman of the title is the good-hearted ‘villain’ who repossesses the organs (shades of MONTY PYTHON’S MEANING OF LIFE) if payments are not made in time.

If all of what is displayed on film was funny, parody-ish or exciting, the gore and weird fantasy would be forgivable, but director Bousman indulges to no end.  Though certain segments are acceptably staged, one wonders at the immense amount of effort gone into the writing of the score (if one wants to call it that).  The result is an extremely un-engaging boring film, despite the content.

There will be a limited fan base for this movie – if one can get into it.  I at first cannot imagine any distributor wanting to touch this project.  But Lionsgate (Maple Films in Canada) who financed the SAW franchise did.