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Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2008
By Mujtaba Mirza The third annual festival was held on October 17th to 24th. Although a new addition to the city’s calendar of events and festivals, After Dark has clearly managed to carve out its niche and create a huge following amongst fans of cult movies. This year’s festival had by far the best line up of movies since its inception in 2006. With a continually growing fan base, the festival had more than four sold out screenings for the first time clearly making it one of the most successful film festivals held in the city. Fans even drove for over 10 hours to attend the festival and there were quite a few who had travelled florm south of the border. This year’s event was organized by genres such as horror, science fiction, zombies, gore and even comedy. The festival added a Canada After Dark Short Films program was also added to its list of events. Every festival selection was preceded by a Canadian short film most of them by film makers in the GTA. Fans were invited after screening to Pub after Dark where they had a chance to chat with organizers, filmmakers in attendance and fellow horror movie enthusiasts. Along with the Annual Zombie Walk, the festival promised to be a great event for horror and cult film enthusiasts and more than delivered on fans expectations. Zombie Walk 2008 In my early years as a horror fan, Zombies were the least scary being you could come up with. But my opinion quickly changed after an introduction to the iconic works of George Romero. It has been several decades since the first zombies were brought to our attention on the silver screen, but now they are a permanent part of modern pop culture. Nowhere is it more evident than annual Zombie Walk in Toronto held on October 19th. On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, zombie fans form across the GTA converged at Trinity Bellwoods Park on Queen West. Slow by nature, they started the scheduled walk a half hour later than scheduled. Zombies from all walks of life were in attendance, including zombie versions of Ronald McDonald, Spiderman, break dancers, various nurses and even Z.E.T.H (Zombies for the Ethical treatment of humans). The walk continued from the park to Queen and Bathurst, and then north to Bloor Cinema on Bloor. Genial as ever, the zombies stuck to their route with no disruption on the roads, despite their demands for “brains” being continually turned down by policemen and passing by streetcars. As they walked by several churches and funeral homes, passersby could not help but smile in amusement with the sheer determination of those who continued to stay in character all the way till the end. At Bloor Cinema, “zombies” were treated to a double bill of zombie movies, Kevin Tenney’s Brain Dead, and Trailer Park of Terror. I have watched many zombie movies in theatres, but it is quite a an experience to get up after the movie to find half the theatre actually filled with zombies munching on popcorn! The Zombie walk was definitely a memorable experience and should probably happen a lot more often during the year. It is quite simply one of the most eclectic and entertaining events held in Toronto making After Dark feel a lot more like a festival. Zombie Walk Photos By Paul Bannister           Select Reviews: Repo: The Genetic Opera Developed from a two person play to a musical, the festivals Silver award winner Repo: The Genetic Opera has finally come to the big screen for fans. The musical was created by Darren Smith and Terrence Zdunich, who also wrote the screenplay for the film as well as the original score. The movie takes us to a dystopic future where after a organ failure epidemic, organ transplants are a fashion thanks to the Geneco corporation, run by Rotti Largo, played by Paul Sorvino and his three children, one of them played by none other than Paris Hilton. Anthony Stewart Head, of Buffy fame, plays the Repo, whose job is to repossess the organs of those behind on there financed organ transplants. A definite groundbreaking project, it is difficult to put in any one specific genre. A must watch for horror and rock opera fans. Repo will open for Canadian audiences in November. 4BIA: A record breaking blockbuster in its native Thailand, 4BIA is an anthology of four short stories all connected in some way. Each one of these shorts is directed by four of Thailands most prominent up and coming horror film directors. The first story involves a girl who while living by herself strikes up a relationship with a stranger throught text messaging. The next involves a bullied school boy who comes back from the dead to take revenge. The third one is about a group of teenagers who are stuck in the jungle while camping when they are suddenly haunted by ghosts. The final one involves a stewardess on an airplane assigned to escort the body of a royal princess when things go awfully wrong. All of the short stories work very well together and there is literally never a dull moment for the audience. The quartet of directors, each bring a different element and style of horror to their stories. While some are dark and brooding, others exploit shock scares and even humour. Winner of the Bronze prize at the festival, 4BIA was indeed among the best movies screened at the festival. 4BIA is highly recommended for horror enthusiasts. Tokyo Gore Police: No horror festival is complete without its fix of gore for audiences and Tokyo Gore Police takes it a whole new level. TGP is directed by Takashi Nishimura who is involved with special effects in huge blockbusters to low budget Indies in Japan. The movie is about a time where the Tokyo police has been privatised and are fighting “engineers” – mutants who bio-fuse with weapons when they are injured. I love gore and this movie was joy every second. To put it simply most people will need a stomach of steel to sit through its entirety. TGP is a great addition to the gore movie genre with its outlandishly entertaining fight sequences. Too much blood and violence might prevent it from a wider release in Canadian theatres but fans should look out for it on DVD soon. Mutant Chronicles Mutant chronicles headed the science fiction bill at the festival. With a big cast, including Thomas Jane, Ron Perlman, Devon Aoki and John Malkovich, the movie was among the few big budget movies in the festival. Based on the graphic novel, it is set in a future where four corporations effectively rule the world and constantly wage war over the remaining resources left. On one of the battlefronts an explosion raises the ancient machine which seems to turn people into mutants. As the world is effectively over run by the mutants, a monk of an ancient brotherhood (Ron Perlman) assembles a rag tag group of fighters , to destroy the machine and save Earth. The movie had good special effects and art direction. The future resembles a lot like early twentieth century plus the space ships. Some good action sequences and sceneries to boast, a predictable storyline and weak dialogue might keep this one in just the DVD world. Netherbeast Incorporated Netherbeast Incorporated (NI) was one of the two comedy films screened at the festival. N.I has a great cast with Daryl Hammond (SNL), Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall) and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob). The movie gives us an alternative version of history and a different version of the popular vampire myths. A small company started some 100 years ago is comprised of vampires or Netherbeasts who love to indulge in human blood and flesh in a lot more civilized fashion. Things are going great until the boss (Daryl Hammond) starts to have “retardations”, forgets he is a vampire while becoming paranoid that there are vampires hiding in the office. What is good about the movie is that it is not overdone while it resembles the Office in many ways. The actors have given good performances in their respective roles. There is no scheduled date set for its release in Canada as yet, and it is more likely to find it in DVD soon. Trailer Park of Terror Trailer Park of terror was played along with Brain Dead at the festival’s Zombie double header on Sunday. The film is based on the Imperium comic series and revolves around a trailer park where tragic events have turned the residents into the undead waiting to feast on those who stumble into their trailer park. The storyline stood out as there was no sympathy created for any of the characters and the quite clearly the undead trailer park folk were the stars of the movie. That is usually quite clear when every death is cheered on by the audience. Although there is plentiful gore and horror, the film does not go beyond being just another horror movie. If anyone ever feels the need to see it, find it on DVD. Festival Review: Attending the festival for the first time, I was excited to see the number of people who came out to catch movies of their favourite cult genres. A well organized event, it was nice to see a film festival with a lot simpler process of getting your tickets and passes compared to the bigger festivals held in the city. It was exciting to meet several other fellow horror and science fiction enthusiasts from various parts of Ontario and abroad as well. There were two elements which really helped After Dark as an event were the introduction of Canadian Shorts and the Pub After Dark. Every feature presentation was preceded by a Canadian short. The festival in this effort provided a showcase for such films where a large audience was able to watch and their works. Considering the great talent showcased at this years festival shorts, it’s not surprising how the audience loved almost all the shorts screened. Notable shorts were Manny Kargov’s “Lucky 10”, Steve Konstanski’s “Laser Ghost 2: Return to Laser Cove” and “Bum Rush” by Jesse Macmillan and Steve Box. Another great part of the festival was Pub After Dark. Movie goers were invited to a pub across the street where they had a chance to interact with many film makers in attendance as well as the festival staff and programmers. It was a great experience discussing horror movies in great depth with fellow fans and as well a chance to speak to the several local film makers who were more than eager to explain their stories, concepts and production details. The Toronto After Dark Film Festival continues to grow with more screenings sold out this year than ever before and ever improving line up of movies. The festival is great celebration of horror and science fiction genres, a strong recommendation to fans of cult horror and science fiction movies enthusiasts. Till next years After Dark, make sure you check out Rue Morgue’s Cinema nights held every three weeks at Bloor Cinema. |