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Festival Coverage

Festival Coverage

Blood in the Snow 2015: ‘White Raven’

November 22, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Shannon Page Andrew Moxham’s White Raven follows four friends (Andrew Dunbar, Steve Bradley, Aaron Brooks, and Shane Twerdun) as they head out for a weekend of male-bonding in the remote wilderness.  When one of the friends (Bradley) slowly begins to lose touch with reality, the others find themselves fighting for their lives. There is a lot going on beneath White Raven’s by-the-books survivalist horror surface.  At its core, the film makes a serious attempt to…

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Festival Coverage

Blood in the Snow 2015: ‘Secret Santa’

November 20, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

By: Addison Wylie Secret Santa has been made to entertain, and entertain it does. Mikey McMurran’s horror throwback pays homage to an era where slasher films ruled exploitation cinema.  There was an unlimited supply of blood, actors camped it up, and synthesizer stings sliced through any scene with a hooded figure.  If you’re looking for visual and audio cues in a surface-deep tribute, you’ll be satisfied by the Cambridge native’s low budget lark.  Secret Santa…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: Shahbaz on Short Films

October 27, 2015Addison Wylie5 Comments

By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Once again, the sun sets on another successful edition of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.  On the tenth anniversary of this local darling, I felt it necessary to shine a light on what I have consistently felt to be an important and underappreciated part of this festival: the shorts. The first time that I went to the festival, about six years ago, my first screening was the Shorts After Dark program and I…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Deathgasm’ and ‘The Diabolical’

October 26, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

Deathgasm (DIR. Jason Lei Howden) By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Think to yourself for one moment: what do you imagine when you think of a film entitled Deathgasm?  Jason Lei Howden’s film is basically that. The plot is simple enough: four teenage New Zealand metalheads decide to form a band, after sneaking into a Varg Vikernes stand-in’s house and coming into possession of music and lyrics to a demonic song which turns the inhabitants of their small town…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘A Christmas Horror Story’ and ‘Love & Peace’

October 25, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

A Christmas Horror Story (DIR. Grant Harvey, Steven Hoban & Brett Sullivan) By: Addison Wylie It’s easy to picture the pitch meetings around the anthology project A Christmas Horror Story.  The movie, after all, is strung together by ideas that probably sounded better on paper than how they look on the big screen.  However, no matter how awesome they first appear to be, A Christmas Horror Story doesn’t know how to assemble them together into a cohesive flick….

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘The Hexecutioners’ and ‘Nina Forever’

October 23, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

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…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Backtrack’ and ‘Patchwork’

October 23, 2015Addison Wylie3 Comments

Backtrack (DIR. Michael Petroni) By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Michael Petroni’s Backtrack contains a villain that does not often end up in horror films: guilt.  Adrien Brody portrays a psychiatrist, still seeing patients as he is being torn apart inside by the death of his young daughter.  It is at this juncture of his life where he realizes that he needs to come to terms with a traumatic accident that he witnessed, and inadvertently caused, as a child….

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Lazer Team’

October 20, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Shahbaz Khayambashi For the first time in their ten year history, the Toronto After Dark Film Festival broke with tradition and allowed an under-18 crowd to one of its screenings.  More specifically, anyone over the age of 14 was invited to come and view Lazer Team, the new film from Rooster Teeth Productions.  A company which is apparently very popular with kids, according to the sheer number of teenagers who turned out to see…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Tales of Halloween’ and ‘Synchronicity’

October 19, 2015Addison Wylie1 Comment

Tales of Halloween (DIR. Darren Lynn Bousman, Axelle Carolyn, Adam Gierasch, Andrew Kasch, Neil Marshall, Lucky McKee, Mike Mendez, Dave Parker, Ryan Schifrin, John Skipp, Paul Solet) By: Shahbaz Khayambashi Let me get two simple facts out of the way: I love horror anthology films and, even with this love, I can easily admit that there are very few truly good ones out there.  They do exist, but for the most part, horror anthology films…

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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2015: ‘Gridlocked’

October 19, 2015Addison Wylie0 Comments

By: Addison Wylie I don’t consider it a good sign when a film makes you consider similar movies of its kind that you’ve given bad reviews to.  Take Allan Ungar’s Gridlocked.  I not only didn’t like it, but it made me wonder if I was too harsh on other action copycats like Olympus Has Fallen.  However, I’m not going back on my word.  Olympus Has Fallen is as much of a Die Hard ripoff as…

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