Thriller
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun
In Joann Sfar’s triply thriller, Dany (an insecure secretary played by Freya Mavor) decides to throw caution to the wind soon after her boss (Benjamin Biolay) and his wife (Nymphomaniac’s Stacy Martin) arrive at an airport.
Blood in the Snow 2016: ‘The Sublet’
Update (11/27/16): Addison Wylie’s original review of The Sublet was posted on 12/09/15 for the film’s SuperChannel premiere. However, due to the film’s Toronto premiere at this year’s Blood in the Snow Canadian Film Festival, the screening information located at the bottom of this article has been updated. John Ainslie’s The Sublet is pretty creepy, but it’s also a testament to how gifted of an actress Tianna Nori really is.
Blood in the Snow 2015: ‘Farhope Tower’
By: Addison Wylie When the Unspecters – a team of bush-league paranormal investigators – are told to up their ante in order to score a television show pilot, they apprehensively set their sights on Farhope Tower. The high-rise has a history of undistinguished suicides, and its been uninhabited for years. The Unspecters are used to spelunking for spirits in caves and dark crevices, but they muster forward into their next challenge. April Mullen’s Farhope Tower is…
Man Vs.
By: Addison Wylie Adam Massey’s broiling small-scale thriller Man Vs. follows reality television show host Doug Woods (a Les Stroud clone played by The Three Stooges’ Chris Diamantopoulos) on his latest survival adventure. Woods gears up for a five-day retreat in Northern Ontario while his production crew camps out far enough away for Doug to fully seclude himself in nature. As these wilderness shows often hammer in, fire and shelter is critical – Doug builds both using the…
The Last Witch Hunter
By: Shannon Page Vin Diesel (Fast & Furious 6, Guardians of the Galaxy) carries most of the weight in The Last Witch Hunter, director Breck Eisner’s fantasy-thriller about a medieval warrior (Diesel) cursed with immortality and locked in an eight-hundred year battle against evil magical forces bent on the destruction of humanity. Diesel’s wooden performance does nothing to distract from the fact that the script is tired and obvious, but even the most worn-out premises…
Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘The Hexecutioners’ and ‘Nina Forever’
The Hexecutioners (DIR. Jesse Thomas Cook) By: Shahbaz Khayambashi If I can give one bit of advice to a first-time attendee of Toronto After Dark, it would be to avoid the festival’s world premieres. In my time of attending this festival, I have had the opportunity to see three world premieres – I’m zero for three. Now, I can say, after having viewed The Hexecutioners, I can chalk up another clunker. This film is an absolute mess…
Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Shut In’
By: Addison Wylie Shut In’s leading damsel Anna (played by Beth Riesgraf) and filmmaker Adam Schindler have something in common: both have the ability to surprise and disarm. Schindler’s thriller begins as one of Toronto After Dark’s tamer offerings, and then socks us upside the head with brutal consequences and intense confrontations. Anna is reserved in mourning, and her agoraphobia keeps her hushed inside a rickety house. When she’s threatened by thieves interested in her stashed wealth, Anna reveals…
Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘The Hallow’
By: Addison Wylie The Hallow is made up of great parts that build towards a fleeting good time. The adult audience gets as much satisfaction out of it as a toddler does with a mall’s mechanical horse. Within the film’s undistinguished Irish town, the community unanimously agrees that the woods are not necessarily a great place to idle. Their distain is brought out when a family of out-of-towners move to a secluded millhouse that happens…
Goodnight Mommy
By: Mark Barber Goodnight Mommy exists at the intersection between Dead Ringers and Psycho, with a little bit of Misery thrown in for good measure. Twins Lukas and Elias (named for their actors, Lukas and Elias Schwarz) settle into their country home with their mother (Susanne Wuest), who is recovering from facial surgery after a brutal car accident. In the midst of divorce proceedings, she does not take the trauma and stress well, and begins…