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Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2023: Shorts After Dark

The short films featured at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival are always worth a watch.  The selections hardly miss, and audiences are usually given a wide collection of different types of horror told from diverse perspectives.  The shorts I did catch at this year’s film festival were consistent with the past, but also included some all-timer scares and laughs.

Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2023: ‘Daniel’s Gotta Die’

Canadian filmmaker Jeremy LaLonde is becoming the go-to guy to find humour in despicable people.  After taking a brief break to make an experimental drama (Ashgrove), LaLonde finds himself easing back into his comedic element with Daniel’s Gotta Die, a dark comedy about an inheritance-hungry, ne’er-do-well family being reigned in by a goodnatured sibling.

One-on-Ones

Wylie Writes’ One-On-One with Corey Stanton

Robbery is a solid drama that tells the compelling story of Frank (Art Hindle), a cerebral career criminal suffering from dementia.  When his son, Richie (Jeremy Ferdman), finds himself the target of a dangerous organization to whom he owes money, Frank must come out of retirement and use the remnants of his mind to save his son. I talked with writer/director Corey Stanton to see where this surprisingly unique story came from.

Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2017: ‘Dead Shack’ and ‘Rabbit’

Dead Shack (DIR. Peter Ricq) Audiences that like their zombies with a healthy side of laughs shouldn’t miss Dead Shack, director Peter Ricq’s dark comedy about three teenagers whose week-long vacation at a cabin in the woods takes a nightmarish turn when they learn that their neighbour in the cabin next-door is feeding unsuspecting young locals to her undead family.

Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2017: ‘Defective’

Filmmaker Reese Eveneshen seems to be his own worst enemy with his latest project Defective.  On one hand, on a limited budget, he’s developed Toronto into a nameless city living in a convincing dystopia.  The visuals are on par with the works of Neill Blomkamp (District 9, Elysium).  However, Eveneshen’s overwritten screenplay becomes so convoluted, it reaches a point of no return.

Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2017: ‘My Friend Dahmer’

Whatever happened to that weird kid from high school?  In My Friend Dahmer, the weird kid grew up to be one of the most notorious serial killers in American history.  This film adaptation of Derf Backderf’s graphic novel of the same name looks at the life of Jeffrey Dahmer in his last few years of high school, where he acts like a fool to get attention and drinks heavily to keep the voices at bay.  This…

Festival Coverage

Toronto After Dark 2017: ‘Sixty Minutes to Midnight’

Filmmakers seem eager to work with Robert Nolan – I don’t blame them.  Nolan is, undoubtably, one of the best character actors working in the industry.  He’s respected because of his ability to morph into a role, and because of how professional he is.  I’ve seen him play an embarrassing parent, an insane clown, a teacher on the brink of destruction, and I’ve even seen him pull disgusting “things” out of his body.  He can…