By: Liam Parker Scary movies are supposed to keep us up at night. Things that go bump in the night and lurk beyond the shadows rob us of our ability for a good night’s sleep. John Farrelly’s The Sleep Experiment, however, has the opposite effect: it leaves you begging to close your eyes. But wait, the movie isn’t bad! You’ll feel the need to escape to slumberland in order to feel safe again.
By: Liam Parker Reminiscent of Jason Robert Brown’s hit musical The Last Five Years, The Swearing Jar takes the traditional tropes of a rocky relationship and turns them completely on its head. The Swearing Jar is a masterclass in storytelling. What begins as a beautifully sombre tale of love and heartache accented by musical interludes of haunting beauty, descends into a striking and refreshingly human tale of sorrow, loss, and grief.
Jordan Peele has quickly proven to be a filmmaker with a lot on his mind, which he then translates effortlessly to the screen. His intelligent writing for Get Out earned him an Oscar, and Us convinced audiences that Peele’s feature-length debut wasn’t just a fluke. Peele’s third film, Nope, allows the writer/director to expand his scope; both with his screenwriting and as a visual storyteller.
Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Monkeybone, Coraline) is a gifted visionary. Even when his stop-motion animated movies become too outrageous or “out there”, it’s a pleasure watching him throw caution to the wind to create art. Selick has teamed up with Netflix and Academy Award winning screenwriter Jordan Peele (Get Out) for his latest stop-motion horror-fantasy Wendell & Wild, a freaky flick involving an orphan making a connection to the afterlife to make…
Toronto After Dark has been a great platform for short films to be showcased. Former Wylie Writes critic Shahbaz Khayambashi believed that the short selections were the festival’s strong suit and are sometimes better than the feature-length films – and I kinda agree with him.
If you’re looking for genuine scares, look no further. Evil Eye (Mal de Ojo in Spanish) is the real deal. Get ready for great special effects, maximum impact jump scares, and chills.
Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, The Handmaiden) aspires to give audiences a different type of police procedural with Decision to Leave, but I’m afraid he’s put too much of his focus on trying to deliver innovation rather than a story that’s either compelling or accessible.
Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, Doomsday, Hellboy) knows how to make a horror film. The writer/director is responsible for the early 2000’s cult classic The Descent, a film that has been praised for its mature characterization of a group of women (a relatively novel concept, as far as early ’00s horror was concerned). In addition to its dramatic and psychological elements, The Descent was also freaking terrifying. Even the toughest, most hardened horror fans are quick to admit…
By: Liam Parker Nostalgia in cinema is a fickle thing. If done right, it can invoke memories of a forgotten time; sparking comforting feelings in those that lived through it and sparking interest in those who didn’t. Done wrong however, and it can feel like the film is just rehashing old material – like your drunk uncle telling you the same jokes you read in a dog-eared joke book from your elementary school library. While…
Horror-comedy Here For Blood features Shawn Roberts (of the Resident Evil franchise) as Tom O’Bannon, an all-around good guy who has a solid reputation in the world of wrestling and only shows a smidge of an attitude when his girlfriend Phoebe (Joelle Farrow) asks him to babysit a 10-year-old for a few hours while she prepares for college exams. The kid, Grace (Maya Misaljevic), is stubborn at first, but warms up to Tom over some…