The Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival ’23: ‘Faceless After Dark’ And ‘V/H/S/85’
Shannon Page’s coverage of this year’s Vancouver Horror Show Film Festival (VHS) concludes with reviews of two spooky features – Faceless After Dark and V/H/S/85.
Anthology
The Christmas Tapes
A “found footage” horror anthology gets a seasonal spin in The Christmas Tapes, but it’s only further proof as to why these projects are a tough task to pull off.
Grave Intentions
In general, the horror anthology is a devastatingly underrated genre. Brian and Jocelyn Rish’s Grave Intentions is a great example of how entertaining this format can be when done right.
The Final Ride
Mikey McMurran’s long-awaited sophomore effort The Final Ride reunites the filmmaker with headliners from his former horror flick Secret Santa. Watching this reunion made me nostalgic for Secret Santa; the humble “lil’ slasher that could” catching on through word-of-mouth and becoming a hot commodity at 2015’s Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival – midnight screenings were either sold-out or close to selling out. The Final Ride has that same Midnight Madness appeal, but it’s a…
Toronto After Dark 2019: ‘8’, ‘The Assent’ and ‘The Mortuary Collection’
8 (DIR. Harold Holscher) Horror can be found just about anywhere, however not all horror is equal. This is why films that incorporate real-life horrors must be particularly aware of how they incorporate the various elements. Former TAD presentation Under the Shadow is a great example of how to do this correctly. But, this is why Harold Holscher’s 8 is so conflicting. It doesn’t really have much to say about its source events, creating a final product…
Toronto After Dark 2018: ‘Extracurricular’, ‘Lifechanger’, ‘Nightmare Cinema’, and ‘You Might Be the Killer’
Extracurricular (DIR. Ray Xue) As the Canadian pop-punk band Sum 41 once sang, “motivation, such an aggravation.” That seemed to be Ray Xue’s complaint as well when he was directing Extracurricular, which is the only way to explain why anything in this film happened. Long time readers may recognize the number one rule of TAD: if a film is having its world premiere here, it will be terrible. This is not a knock against any of…
In the Name of All Canadians & Canada In A Day
Canada turns 150-years-old on Saturday, July 1, and film aficionados have been given two homegrown films to anticipate this historic birthday.
Galaxy of Horrors
The team behind last year’s efficient horror anthology Minutes Past Midnight return to bring similar chills and thrills with Galaxy of Horrors, another feature-length anthology hand-picked by Torontonian film programmer Justin McConnell. This time, he’s showcasing horror shorts with a sci-fi twist.
XX
It’s no secret that women are all too frequently shut out of the film industry, with few of them being able to make a living or having their work seen. In recent years, there has been a renaissance of genre films made by women, but their work is still a minority in cinemas or at film festivals.
Minutes Past Midnight
The Toronto After Dark Film Festival is one week away, but programmer Justin McConnell wants a head start in frightening you.