Month: October 2022
Toronto After Dark Film Festival describes Isaac Ezban’s latest as “possibly the scariest film in [their] lineup this year,” and it is not difficult to see why. Balancing storybook wonder with Gothic horror, Evil Eye (or Mal de ojo) is a mesmerizing film about witchcraft, abuse, and femininity. Bolstered by some incredible performances and gruesome
“Four people intent on killing themselves meet through the suicide website Black Paradox: Maruso, a nurse who despairs about the future; Taburo, a man who is tortured by his doppelganger; Pii-tan, an engineer with his own robot clone; and Baracchi, a woman who agonizes about the birthmark on her face. They wander together in search
In addition to those that played ahead of the main features, the Toronto After Dark Film Festival screened eight more Canadian shorts in a dedicated showcase. From stop-motion animation to Lovecraftian horror, these films cover a variety of genres, subgenres, and tones. Some are pure horror; others offer no scares at all. Here are our
No stranger to the horror genre, Chad Ferrin found his footing in the film industry as a production assistant on such films as Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers and Hellraiser: Bloodline. He soon moved on to directing himself, working on episodes of the television series Troma’s Edge TV, produced by Troma Entertainment. After participating
Day Zero is a 2022 Filipino zombie action horror, written by Ays De Guzman and directed by Joey De Guzman. Both are fairly active in Filipino cinema, Ays has spent a decade writing for long-running TV shows such as May bukas pa as well as screenwriting a number of feature-length films, on the other hand,
Pig Killer is a 2022 American horror thriller, written and directed by Chad Ferrin. The film is a retelling of one of Canada’s most prolific serial killers, Robert William “Willy” Pickton, who is believed to have confessed to killing over 49 women (although Pickton was only convicted for 6 of those, considered second-degree murder) from
Week Two Nineteenth-century American author Edgar Allan Poe was my introduction to horror. Literary scholars consider him to be a key foundational block of the genre and his works are ubiquitous, certain to be found in any library or bookstore. Even my elementary school had a copy of Tales of Mystery and Imagination that I
Love It or Hate It, The Sanderson Sisters Are Back! The reviews are in, and I think we all knew they’d be divided. Hocus Pocus (1993) is a cult classic that’s been growing its fanbase for almost thirty years, and rumours of a sequel floated around for at least a decade before Disney surprised us
Alongside their dedicated Shorts Showcase (both Canadian and International), the Toronto After Dark Film Festival offers bitesize extras for those attending. Each of the main features is preceded by a short film, resulting in a bevy of horror and comedy in equal measure. Here are our thoughts on those ten extra shorts. Anything, Anything When
Defining the genre of a film can often get tricky, and many films are overlooked for their genre-bending attributes—especially when those films bend into horror. Labeled a post-apocalyptic sci-fi, A Boy and His Dog is a dark comedy that certainly stumbles into horror territory. This isn’t surprising, considering the original novella the film is based