Thriller

Reviews

ReBroken

By: Jeff Ching ReBroken is an ambitious and unique exploration of grief that qualifies as a thriller, drama, horror and a mystery.  It’s an unpredictable puzzle that the audience slowly pieces together.  But despite that selling point, I can’t wholeheartedly recommend Rebroken.  I will always applaud a filmmaker for taking risks over playing it safe.  However, I didn’t enjoy this experience, which could’ve been fixed had the film built an essential emotional connection to the material.

Reviews

Cocaine Bear

By: Jeff Ching Walking into Cocaine Bear, I was expecting the movie to be the latest inductee to the “so bad, it’s good” list. Something along the lines of Snakes on a Plane or the Sharknado franchise: movies that are not good, but fun to laugh at.  Cocaine Bear, however, is not “so bad, it’s good” – it’s “so good, it’s umm….…the best movie of 2023 so far”. Look, it’s only late February, and I don’t expect…

Reviews

Firenado

By: Trevor Chartrand With the title alone, Firenado makes its intentions (or lack of intentions, perhaps) clear right off the bat: this is not a movie to be taken seriously.  As if a film like this ever could be.  This flaming twister of a motion picture is a zero-effort waste of your time – in the most entertaining ways possible.

Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2022: ‘The Lair’

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…

Reviews

Piggy

Piggy is committed to its framework and characters, but it hasn’t settled on a primary genre.  Actually, as confusing as it is, the story tries to make its main character the genre which, you can imagine, poses issues.

Reviews

Halloween Ends

By: Jolie Featherstone Halloween Ends, the final instalment of the latest Halloween trilogy, reunites Laurie Strode and Michael Myers in a bloody battle that can also be interpreted as a proud celebration for scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis.

Reviews

Dark Glasses

Dark Glasses is a contemporary giallo from legendary Italian filmmaker Dario Argento.  Approaching this movie as someone who is unfamiliar with Argento’s work and giallos in general, I was excited and nervous about what Dark Glasses would have in store (similar to my anticipation prior to David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future).