Toronto After Dark Film Festival Coverage

Pre-Festival Coverage:

September 26/07

October 5/07

October 19/07

Daily Coverage:

TADFF 07 Day 1 - October 19/07

TADFF 07 Day 2 - October 20/07

TADFF 07 Day 3 - October 21/07

TADFF 07 Day 4 - October 22/07

TADFF 07 Day 5 - October 23/07

TADFF 07 Day 6 - October 24/07

TADFF 07 Day 7 - October 25/07

Post-Festival Coverage:

Wrap Up

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival ran from October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2007 - Wrap Up

Seven days of mayhem has come and gone. As the Toronto After Dark Film Festival brought us a full week of jump out of our seat moments, scares, swords and last but not least, zombies! After consuming countless tea's, 2 bags of popcorn and the ink running dry of my pen from notes we are left with some great film and experiences. Considering the stellar film selection shown to enthusiastic and large crowds I would say it is destined to continue to bring us more spooktackular films in years to come. I know I have decided to add it to my yearly October rituals, and I think you should as well. If you need more convincing, here are some highlights of the fest.

Best Zombie Film: Mulberry Street - This is not only my favourite zombie film of the festival but also my overall favourite film of the festival. You have zombies, a great story and strong characters. It was a treat that the director as well as members of the cast and crew were present on Day 1 which made it an extra special screening.

Best Thriller: Alone - the trailer for Alone was so scary that on first viewing I had to stop watching, and the film itself led to many jumps and squeals and hiding behind my own hands.

Best Fantasy: Wolfhound - impressive epic Russian film that had all the mixings for fantasy fare, and then some.

Best 'Other': The Rebel, as a historical martial arts film seems not to fit in the other categories, but it was still excellent and well worth mentioning.

Best Short: Terror on the 3918 (Dir: Mathieu Fontaine) on Day 2. Inventive use of everyday items and an apartment as a ship. It's a must see.

Scariest Imagery: Dream sequences in Nightmare Detective

Icky-ist Imagery: Poultrygeist, on so many levels

Best Double Bill: Day 5 double bill of Wolfhound and Alone. Although the two films have nothing in common in terms of theme, they were stand outs in terms of quality.

Still has me thinking: Audience of One from Day 2. The documentary about one mans create a biblical Star Wars type film when he has no film background. What still has me thinking, is why the overwhelming instant reaction is humour.

Interesting Trend: In complete reversal of behaviour in the majority of screenings I went to, the crowd for TADFF often had people quickly opt to sit in the very front row. Centre/centre filled up as well, but people liked to be front and centre as well. I myself opted for the side section on the aisle for good sightlines.

Repeating themes: The world run out of natural resources and alternative are needed - usually scary ones, twins and of course, zombies!!!!

Fullest Screenings: Mulberry Street, Automaton Transfusion and Poultrygeist. Toronto After Dark fans love their zombies!

Wish I hadn't missed: Murder Party. The premise felt a little much for me, but it received glowing reviews across the board. Perhaps I will get a chance to see it on the Blood Car/Murder Party tour.

Wish I hadn't heard: Although I love that each film was introduced, on a few occasions I heard a little more than I would have expected about the film we were about to see. I loved the enthusiasm, but 'Don't worry - everyone dies' is a little too much. We are there in the theatre, we don't need further convincing to see the film.

Best Experience: Day 2 Screening of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale and Q&A with director Uwe Boll lead by Chris Alexander. The audience was enthusiastic, the film was highly entertaining and getting to see Dr. Uwe Boll in person was beyond cool.

Funnest collective experience: Zombies, zombies and more zombies. Walking out of Audience of One to a sidewalk full of zombies waiting for the double bill of zombie flicks that night. Totally awesome.

Can't wait for: Next October to come to see more amazing horror and fantasy films!



The Toronto After Dark Film Festival ran from October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TADFF 07 Day 7 - October 25/07

The final night of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival closes with the Gala screening of Murder Party (dir/writer Jeremy Saulnier) and the screening will be attended by Chris Sharp. Following the screening, the closing party will be at the Bovine Sex Club.

Be sure to check back Wrap 'up post!

TADFF 07 Day 6 - October 24/07

Day 6 rounds out with a equal portion of hack and slash and spooky scares, it was another night of all around goodness at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.

Mime Massacre
Dir: Colin Decker
Short
Canada

Impressions: Brilliant in concept and exectution (literally), this bloody short is a must see for anyone scared of mimes, and I'd stretch that to clowns too.

Simon Says
Writer/Dir: William Dear
Cast: Crispin Glover, Margo Harshamn, Greg Cipes
USA

Impressions: Teens camping out, crazy twin brothers and pickaxes. Slasher, or impaler? film Simon Says is full of blood, horror and creepiness galore. Crispin Glover plays both twins to a tee and delivers some pretty funny one liners to boot. Great considering the genre, ok overall.


(director of Key Lime Pie Trev Jimenez and Todd from Twitch)

Key Lime Pie
Dir: Trev Jimenez
Animated short
Canada

Impressions: On man's obsession with Key Lime Pie and the actions he will take, advice he will ignore to get.. that.. pie. Impressive animated short with grim yet humourous outlook.

Nightmare Detective / Akumu Tantei
Writer/Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto
Cast: Ryuhei Matsuda, Hitomi, Masanobu Ando, Shinya Tsukamoto
Japan
Language: Japanese

Impressions: I didn't think I would see something scarier than Alone this year, but Nightmare Detective gives it a good run for its money. Intriguing premise of a man who can enter into the dreams of others, and a detective investigating something that needs that. Although the idea did remind me of the 1984 film Dreamscape, the story is completely different. There is also a bit of a gender flip with the tried and true facts detective is a woman, and the emotional psychic is a man. Unique visual style punctuate the scary moments and a plot that keeps you hanging make Nightmare Detective a sure fire entertainment delight.

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema , Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TADFF 07 Day 5 - October 23/07

Here we are at Day 5 of 7 for The Toronto After Dark Film Festival! It's gone by pretty quickly and I am already looking forward to next year. Day 5 was a stellar success, I couldn't recommend either of the 2 features highly enough.

The Legend of Boruta
Dir: Bartosz Nowakowski
Animated Short
Canada

Impressions: Very stylish animation, amazing use of light, interesting characters and story. I am continued to be impressed with shorts that have little to no dialogue, this one had a few lines in German, but you still are giving all the information you need to understand and enjoy the film. Kudos.

Wolfhound / Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov
Writer/Dir: Nikolai Lebedev
Cast: Aleksandr Bukharov, Oksana Akinshina, Aleksandr Domogarov
Russia
Language: Russian

Impressions: A really fun fantasy film with all the things you would expect and a whole lot more. Like the bat side kick. I kid you not - a bat side kick, who completely won over the crowd. Impressive battle scenes, scenery, costumes and performances are a plenty throughout the film. There are characters to love, hate, cheer for and growl against Wolfhound has all the mixings for a wonderful fantasy film. It would be amiss to not comment that parts of the story bear strong resemblance to other films (Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian), however it does hold true as its own film and is most certainly worth seeing. Wolfhound is one of my favorites of the festival so far.

Check out the Wolfhound official website here

God's Little Girl
Dir: Mitch Davis
Short
Canada

Impressions: The idea behind this short is very interesting, however the one tone voice over and length of the piece dragged it down too much to be very enjoyable.

Alone /Faet
Dir: Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongppom
Cast: Masha Vadhanapanich, Witthaya Wasukraipaisam
Thailand
Languages: Thai, Korean

Impressions: Don't watch Alone alone! It's so freaking scary, and awesome to boot. Brilliant story revolving around conjoined twins, Alone also provides us with stellar acting and scares galore. Even when you knew the scary parts were coming, they still made everyone jump. It was a real treat to see this in the theatre in the presence of an enthusiastic and loud crowd. I still remember the first yelp, then giggles - what could be bad? Nothing, it was all good. Well, fingers crossed I don't get any nightmares!

Check out the Alone official website here

Highlight of the Day: Not only was it a treat that I loved both of the features today, I was accompanied by my sister and her husband for the screenings which made it so much more fun! After the screening of Alone we kept coming up with freaky ideas that would scary people in the style of the film.

Runner up highlight: The bat in Wolfhound.

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema , Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TADFF 07 Day 4 - October 22/07

A little of a quieter day for me at on Monday at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, checking out just one movie, The Rebel a kickin' martial arts film from Vietnam. I decided to forgo the David Arquette directorial debut of The Tripper as I'm a little bloodied out and I have a sneaky suspicioun that it is one of the films that will more readily available. I'm sure I will back for more blood for Wednesday's for Simon Says.

The Bullet
Dir: Tanner Adams
Short
Canada

Impressions: This could be the first ever western short I've seen, and it made it expertly clear that the key elements of a western could be succinctly captured in 11 minutes. A hyper use of colour and electric soundtrack are a creative turn completing the extreme nature of this genre and the film itself.

The Rebel
Dir: Charlie Nguyen
Cast: Johnny Nguyen, Thanh Van Ngo, Dustin Nguyen
Vietnam
Languages: Vietnamese, French

Impressions: It is fair to say this is one of the films I was most looking forward to at this year's festival. It has been billed as the most expensive Vietnamese film, starring Johnny Nguyen whose credits include The Protector, Cradle 2 the Grave and the man inside the Spiderman suit. The happy surprize is that is following a current trend that I love which is the martial arts film with so much more. In a way, it reminded me of Myung Sung-Le's Duelist in that it has more than one main character and beautifully combines action and romance, without either feeling cheesy. The Rebel arguable has three main characters, along with Johnny Nguyen's character Chong, we also have Thanh Van Ngo playing a strong female character Vo Thanh Thuy and power hungry Sy played by Dustin Nguyen. The plot weaves through colonialism, rebellion, redemption and a thread of romance. All in all a thoroughly enjoyable film with solid story and of course spectacular fights and spinning kicks galore. Notablely, the Fred Astaire style full body shots were received much more enthusiastically than shots that were pieced together. Not that I doubt the skill, which all three actors have to a level most humans will never achieve. The Rebel is high on my list of favorites for this years festival.

*update* For those that were at the Oct 22/07 screening of The Rebel, it was later revealed that the version that was intended to be shown got held up at customs therefore we saw a back up copy. This explains the audio issues and no credits, and I hope it explains the reason why there were no subtitles at 2 brief moments of the film.

Memorable Quote: "That Goddamn move hurts"
I wonder if that was the character, or the actor...

Visit The Rebel official website here.

Highlight of the Day: Getting to meet fellow TADFF'er Bob from Eternal Sunshine of the Logical Mind.




The Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema,

TADFF 07 Day 3 - October 21/07

Sunday was my fullest day at Toronto After Dark Film Festival by far, fitting in all screenings which included 16 shorts and 3 features. This was a tough decision as it means I missed seeing the zombie walk. Luckily not all was lost and the zombies were tromping around the Bloor and Bathurst area all night. In fact, upon exiting the theatre after Audience of One, I was faced with multitude of zombies, many of which were in line for the next film, Automation Trnasfusion. At one point I nearly crashed into a zombie and then had the quick & friendly "Sorry!" and "It's OK!" exchange. Good zombie!

Cutting Edge Fantasy
The day started with a collection of SciFi and Fantasy shorts which were introduced as "All the cool stuff". I would have to agree, they weren't all pigeon holed into the genre identification as SciFi/Fantasy but I think there could all be appreciated by SciFi/Fantasy fans. Here are the stand outs:

Agnieshka: A Dark Symphony of 2039
Martin Gauvrea
Poland/UK, 2007
12 min

This was the most polished film of the bunch and had an electric like energy to it that drew you in the world it created. Highly stylized with amazing sound and ideas brought to life, it was my favorite of the bunch.

Trionyx (Soft-Shelled Turtle)
Nick Child
USA, 2006
5 min

This brilliant short revolving around the preparation for a fight against Godzilla. Hilarious.

Drop
Flemming Jetmar
UK, 2007
4 min

Clocking in at 4 minutes this is the essence of short film. Enough visual information is provided for everything to mesh together perfectly but also leaves enough to keep you thinking.

The Drift
Kelly Sears
USA, 2007
8 min

Creepy tale of a sounds that overwhelms humans, told in an unnerving visual style bridging the familiar with the unthinkable. One to watch.

One of the great things about seeing SciFi/Fantasy is it opens up to fascinating ideas as well as new and inventive ways to tell stories. Fantastic ideas are the back bone of Ambassador's Day and The Un-Gone, and visual inventiveness is dominant in Hairlady and An Introduction to Lucid Dream Experience.

Brains!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the exciting things about today was that it was the annual zombie walk. Although I didn't attend myself, the zombies were everywhere!!! Here is Thea Faulds, Zombie Walk Coordinator looking fabulously ghoulish with Adam Lopez as they hand out prize packs before the screening of Automaton Transfusion:

Terror on the 3918
Dir: Mathieu Fontaine
Short
Canada

Impressions: Ironically after viewing all the shorts in the fantasy selection, I find my favourite short so far directly after it. Canadian and in French to boot this film brilliantly pairs known scifi culture to every day home devices. Absolutely brilliant.

Audience of One
Dir: Mike Jacobs
Documentary
USA

Impressions: This film was by far the one I heard that most people in being interested to see it, possible because it is a documentary. I wonder if it falls over 'horror' or 'fantasy'. I'm thinking they were going for fantasy. The documentary follows a pastor set out to direct a biblical film of Star Wars scale with zero experience and the continual refrain that 'the funding will come through'. Although there were many great moments ranging from hilarious to unbelievable the continual thought ran through me of why we think it is funny? Is it because of the religious element? The ineptitude? The main focus is really about one man's dream and going for it even if it is big and crazy idea - and that is something I can be totally for! Although it's more about him getting people to follow his dream, as oppose to everyone having their own. I would also be curious as to why he agreed to be filmed throughout, and if he has seen the film. It is entertaining on many levels, so for that I give it credit.



(Adam Lopez and Steve Miller before Zombie Jesus)

Zombie Jesus
Dir: Steve Miller
Short
Canada

Impressions: Wonderful, zom-com merging the ideas of religion to current day life with a twist of zombieness. Very well received and stellar zombie film.

Q&A Highlights: Parts of the film were filmed during the 2006 Zombie Walk, and numerous zombies from this year were in the audience! Cool!

Automaton Transfusion
Dir: Steven C. Miller
Cast: Garrett Jones, Juliet Reeves, William Howard Bowman
USA

Impressions: Introduced as a film that will be the first in a trilogy, this bloody as hell zombie film is entertaining but didn't quite meet the mark for me. I think it is the bloodiest of the films so far (excluding the possibility of Blood Car which I didn't see), and surely had lots of cheers from the audience. There are promising young actors but I felt some aspects of the film didn't quite hold up including that some of story is 'told' instead of 'shown', as well as some continuity issues. It was entertaining and the crowd loved it, but in terms of zombie feature films I found Mulberry Street from Day One of the festival to be a much more satisfying.


(Adam Lopez and Jason Zukowski before Eat the Parents)

Eat the Parents
Dir: Jason Zukowski
Short
Canada

Impressions: Very rowdy crowd gave this short about a average couple meeting the parent's dinner to a ritual zombiemaking process a welcoming response.

(Adam Lopez with Lloyd Kaufman and the Troma crew)

Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead
Dir: Lloyd Kaufman
Cast: Jason Yachanin, Kate Graham, Lloyd Kaufman
USA

Impressions: Where to begin. My impression going into it was a zombie-chicken-musical. I thought, ok that sounds interesting. This is my second D'oh! moment of not reading the description carefully enough. This satire with the theme of protesting against the fast food business on an ancient burial ground, with the most visible protesters being girls who for some reason remove their shirts. Right. Add to that bathroom humour, bodily fluids, solids and parts all flying around going into things or being cut off or multiple other possibilities. I haven't even gotten to the whole chicken thing, or zombie thing, or satire thing. I think I'll leave it at that. I would think you would be able to know by now if the film was meant for you.

Q&A Highlights: The film did us mostly old school special effects as opposed to CGI, the soundtrack has karaoke delights, and it was good to hear that independent film is still kicking and that a lot of people volunteered from all over the world to help put this film together.

Highlight of the Day: Walking into zombies all day and night.



The Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TADFF 07 Day 2 - October 20/07

Here is the daily news for Toronto After Dark for Saturday October 20, 2007.

Glitch
Dir: Peter Ricq
Canada
Short film

Impressions: Fabulous short film exploring alternate realities, an excellent use of colour fully punctuates this theme. A creative visual style accompanied by strong narrative made this short film a treat to watch.

Aachi and Ssipak
Dir: Jo Beom-Jin
Animated
Voices: Seung-wan Ryoo, Chang Jung Lim, Yeong Hyeon
South Korea

Impressions: Easiest thing to say would be that this does not suit my tastes. In all fairness it is described as "South Park meets the Matrix". The initial action sequence is quite good but the premise of the film was just too ridiculous for me: in response to requiring an alternate source of energy and the chosen raw material is human waste. Add to that a fair amount of gender imbalance including the following line by one of the only female characters "Why do I need to know? Isn't being pretty enough?". If your tastes fall along the lines of bathroom humour plus gangster films then it would be suited for you. It did start out with a strong audience reaction but lost quite a few folks throughout the duration of the film. In the end there was loud cheering and clapping so it was enjoyed, just not by all.

The Pit and the Pendulum
Dir: Marc Lougee
Animated
Canada

Impressions: Stylistically strong with characters that are alarmingly full of depth given the fact that there is almost no spoken language (voiceovers being and exception). The quality of the film makes it no surprize that it has played at over 100 festivals.

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
Dir: Uwe Boll (Bloodrayne, House of the Dead)
Cast:Jason Statham, John Rhys-Davies, Ray Liotta, Matthew Lillard, Leelee Sobieski, Burt Reynolds, Ron Perlman , Will Sanderson, Claire Forlani, Brian J. White, Kristanna Loken
Germany/Canada/USA

Impressions: Highly enjoyable fantasy fare with impressive cast, effects and fight scenes. This film had the most vocal crowd so far, to the point of lines being called out from the audience to the screen. Eventually a not so polite retort quelled the tone down a little and I then realized that there were people enjoying the film in a non humorous way. Fair play to them, this film has a fair amount to offer (look at that cast!), being of the fantasy genre I was interested right away. The story begins with a simple task which becomes complicated and intertwined with numerous characters throughout the duration of the film. Strong performances include Jason Statham as a hesitant avenger, creepy factor runs high with Ray Liotta and comic relief by the bushel full with Matthew Lillard as the selfish nephew to the king. Leelee Sobieski and Kristanna Loken round out the cast and I was impressed by the presence of strong female characters. All in all I would say I enjoyed it and I believe numerous people in the crowd did as well.

Q&A Highlights:
Right off the bat Chris Alexander addressed the similarity to Lord of the Rings to which Uwe Boll replied that any fantasy film made will bear the burden of being compared to Lord of the Rings, however he said it’s a different story, there is no goal revolving around an object. In my opinion, In terms of art direction and the ‘creatures’, you can’t help but see a similarity but if in fact the film is true to the world and story that the video game created it would be the video game, not the film, to which complains should be directed to about the similarities.

I think it would be safe to say that this Q&A was one of the most highly anticipated of the festival. Not only was it led by Chris Alexander, one of the critics who took up the challenge to box Uwe Boll, but also because people have such a strong reactions to his films. What I found more riveting about the Q&A was that Uwe Boll is that he speaks his mind in such a straight up manner without hesitation to be very frank about the people his worked with and the experiences he’s had be they good or bad. I think that is remarkable.


(Chris Alexander, Uwe Boll)

Highlight of the Day: After the screening of In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale there was a preview of upcoming documentary titled The Maneuver In Vancouver when there were some technical difficulties Uwe said from inside the theatre “I am here, I can do it live”. I think that might be the best moment of the festival.

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

TADFF 07 Day 1 - October 19/07

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival started out with a bang on with a full and energetic house piled in The Bloor Cinema to see the zombie film Mulberry Street. The room was full of energy as festival director Adam Lopez introduced both the short and feature films of the day, as well as the festival itself. It was a treat to have special guests at the event including Jim Mickle (director) and Nick Damici (actor/writer) from Mulberry Street.

Latchkey's Lament
Dir: Tory Nixey
Canada
Short film

Impressions: Interesting concept involving a creature whom abducts keys, this short film is very successful in producing a very creepy setting and premise. The costuming of the creature is wonderfully bizarre along with is paired with an overall rich and creepy setting.


(Adam Lopez along with cast and crew of Mulberry Street)

Mulberry Street
Dir: Jim Mickle
Cast: Nick Damici, Antone Pagan, Sarah Dickinson, Kim Blair, Ron Brice, Bo Corre, Larry Fleischman, Javier Picayo, Lou Torres, John Hoyt
USA

Impressions: After being introduced as not like a regular zombie movie, but has an emotional kick to it, I wasn't sure what to expect from Mulberry Street. I believe that can be a great way to approach a film and in this case it was. The suspense and the story draw you in over time, and the depiction of the infected rats whom create zombies, was really creepy and accompanied by an excellent use of sound. An unnerving feel is achieved by confining the majority of the film to an apartment building where the main character, Clutch, lives. The neighbours fill in the roles of a large supporting cast and bring a full and realistic feel to this film. You quickly get a sense of who everyone is shortly after their onscreen appearance and grow attached to them, which is a dangerous thing given the nature of zombie films! All in all, Mulberry Street was a delightful zombie film full of scares, thrills and not only brains but also heart.

Q&A Highlights: An audience asked what the logistics of working with the rats were to which director Jim Mickle replied that the star is Nick, and other than that the start is the rats. One of which they caught footage on the street but other than that they made a set and had a rat wrangler and hoped to get the shot. Also, the indoor apartment scenes were shot all in Nick Damici's apartment, painted in different ways.

Highlight of the day: The crowd! Packed to the gills and cheering along ("Brains!!") this is one of the things that makes festivalling so special. So come on out and be a part of it!


(Jim Mickle, director of Mulberry Street capturing the crowd at TADFF 07)

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs October 19-25/07 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival - it begins!

The day has finally come! The Toronto After Dark Film Festival starts today. A recent announcement has indicated that four of the feature film screenings will have special guests in attendance.

Screenings with special guests include:

Friday October 19/07 - Gala screening of Mulberry Street, director Jim Mickle will be in attendance along with cast and crew

Saturday October 20/07 - In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale, director Uwe Boll will be in attendance

Sunday October 21/07 - Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead, Lloyd Kaufman will be in attendance

Thursday October 25/07 - Murder Party, lead actor and co-producer Chris Sharp will be in attendance.

Short and sweet news here shows us the full line ups of the shorts that are running during the festival. I am thrilled ot hear that Canadian shorts will be shown before the features films, what a treat that will be! Here is the short film schedule:

Saturday October 20/07 1:45pm: Cutting Edge Horror (please note this screening is at Innis Town Hall)

Sunday October 21/07: Cutting Edge Fantasy (Bloor Cinema)

Throughout: Cutting Edge Canada will be show before feature film screenings.

See you in the dark!

Toronto After Dark Film Festival - Full Line Up online!

Well, fans of horror and fantasy - happy news for you! The full line up of films is now available on the Toronto After Dark Film Festival website. I went through the list of feature films and I can say I'm really impressed - they left some of the really juicy ones to the last minute and it is quite an exciting bunch!

From the newest released info these are the ones I am most looking forward to:

Alone / Faet (Banjong Pisanthanakun and Parkpoom Wongpoom)
Creepy looking thriller from Thailand exploring the scary possibilites of conjoined twins. The trailer freaked me out so much I couldn't watch it all. This is one I will not miss.

The Rebel (Charlie Nguyen)
1920's period film from Vietnam with some kick butt action and some familiar faces, this one will be a highlight for me.

and last but not least:

In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale (Uwe Boll)
Uwe Boll is back with another film based on a video game, this time the cast line up includes Jason Statham, Ray Liotta, Leelee Sobieski, Ron Perlman and Burt Reynolds. Words can not describe the experience of a Uwe Boll film (although I tried with my review of Bloodrayne), so I do anticipate this to be one wild ride.

The festival has got a great line up. Check out their site for more info and trailers for all 14 feature films. I will be attending the festival from Oct 19-25, 2007 and posting daily. See you in the dark.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival

Who is in the mood for scary movies? I know I am! If you are too you are in luck as the 2nd Annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival of new horror and fantasy cinema is less than a month away!

Currently 7 feature films for this year's festival have been announced, and I have to say it's a very exciting line up so far. Here are my current most anticipated flicks:

The Wolfhound / Volkodav iz roda Serykh Psov (Nikolia Lebedev)

Russian epic fantasy with swords and a warriors quest, I am so there.

Automaton Transfusion (Steven C. Miller)

Some serious looking zombie scariness here, I might have to bring a blankie and cover my eyes.. but it will be worth it!

The remaining 7 feature films and 36 short films will be announced later today.

The craziness doesn't end at the movies, on Sunday October 21, 2007 will be the Official Toronto Zombie Walk so remember to stay up all night and get some healthy bags under those eyes, throw some (fake!) blood on your sunday's best clothes and stumble with fellow undead-ers.

I'll be attending the festival this year and looking forward to reporting all the ghoulish details.