Toronto After Dark Film Festival – 2023

It’s a small enough film festival that I get the All-Access pass and see all the films.

Toronto After Dark 2023 opens with LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL, the scary horror hit of this year’s SXSW and film fest circuit, that similar to the CONJURING series, spotlights 1970s America’s fascination with the occult! Facing cancellation, a late-night talk show host (THE SUICIDE SQUAD’s David Dastmalchian) tries to spike his audience ratings by producing a Halloween TV special for the ages, featuring a live to air exorcism. As the night unfolds, the chilling event spirals out of control! Alas, no trailer, but take it from Rotten Tomatoes where it’s 100% Fresh, Letterboxd where it’s Ranked 2nd on the Top 50 Horror Films of The Year, and the King of Horror Stephen King himself, who raves it’s “absolutely brilliant!”. There’s a very good reason this is our Opening Gala Film, and rest assured, you will curse yourself if you miss it!

The film begins with this voice-over.

“It’s said that mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children. She can be glorious, or terrible, benevolent, or filled with wrath. She’ll fight away the monsters with the fangs of a wolf and the teeth of a dragon – and love with a ferocity that can never be matched. Her job is to protect – no matter the cost – and if anyone would ever harm her family, there’s no telling what she’d be capable of.”

In Matthias Hoene’s psychological thriller, two renegade criminal brothers face off against their fiercely protective and vengeful mother. The psychodrama Little Bone Lodge examines the boundaries of motherhood. It turns the dilapidated, dark house into a living, breathing crime scene, complete with skeletal hints and photographic proof and an eerie, lived-in vibe. Because family bonds are pulled apart in this “safe” haven from the outside world only to be rewoven into even tighter knots, and we witness the emergence of another Psycho due to a mother’s unending vindictiveness and horrific nurturing.

UFO Sweden is an association that studies extraterrestrial phenomena. Teenage rebel Denise appears one day with a case that’s unlike anything they’ve ever seen. They set out on a perilous journey together that takes them far beyond the boundaries of the law and into a realm of unexplained phenomena. The plot of UFO SWEDEN is about regular people who go on an amazing journey full of suspense, drama, and action.

The movie has a fantastic pace. The story never moves so quickly that the audience misses an opportunity to reflect on major themes and broad plot developments or to simply enjoy the wonder we share with our heroes. However, it’s also not a slow film. Smaller action, heist, and pursuit set pieces are interspersed throughout the game, all of which have superb rhythm, and the overall theme is a race against the clock.

All of this culminates in a very moving and exquisitely rendered third act that, despite having a smaller budget, evokes the same sense of wonder that science fiction masterpieces like Interstellar or Close Encounters of the Third Kind bestowed upon us. UFO Sweden is amazing, to the extent that even when the storyline veers off course in the

Tossing in a sci-fi here. It does have some horror elements as it’s a pretty dark vision of our future. As a bonus, it’s all shot in Prague. We will be heading there on vacation in a few months. Although Prague in this film as been digitally altered to a futuristic look.

In 2041, humanity has advanced to the point where it can elude death. Everybody who passes away in an abnormal way has the right to resurrect themselves. To maintain your personality, all you need to do is create a restore point, or backup, of it at least once every 48 hours. However, there is a group of people who work to undermine this idea. Agent Em is pulled into a case that is more complicated than it initially appears and has political ramifications that extend to the highest echelons of government. The debut feature film from director Robert Hloz is an engrossing story, a remarkably creative visual experience, and a polemic that questions the notion that advancements in technology are inherently positive.

Daniel’s Gotta Die is a 2022 hybrid that resembles Glass Onion and The Menu. Daniel (Joel David Moore) is named the only heir to the opulent Powell family estate after his father (Iggy Pop) passes away. But in exchange, his estranged siblings—addict Victor (Jason Jones), “influencer” Jessica (Carly Chaikin), and deadpan Mia (Mary Lynn Rajskub)—must endure a weekend of family bonding at their beach house in the Cayman Islands. Daniel is thrilled about the possibility of a reunion, but the siblings are only thinking about killing each other.

The movie moves quickly, is funny, and is surprisingly original. What turned out to be a clever, absurd, and ultimately incredibly satisfying comedy-(almost)horror was not captured in the trailer. In a cast that is already hilarious, seeing Daniel go from being meek to confused to righteously angry was a pleasure to witness and expertly structured. Even though not every character moment or joke works perfectly, this movie has more than enough hits to make it something unique and well worth seeing.

Founders Day by the Bloomquist brothers has everything needed for a successful comedy-horror film: a charming suburban town with a white picket fence, a cast of intriguing young actors who are somewhat recognizable, and a daring, defiantly themed new killer who, of all things, is armed with a gavel.

If the title, the killer, or the central plot—which centers on a contentious local mayoral election—didn’t make it abundantly clear that the movie is about America’s political polarization, then the Bloomsquists’ attempts at theme and subtext are hilariously overdone to the point of parody. However, none of these issues prevent Founders Day from being an absolutely fantastic film for fans of the genre. The jokes are so ridiculously funny that you can’t help but laugh at the over-the-top characters and the ridiculous kills that make you root for the killer. Finding too many flaws in a movie that obviously adores the genre it’s emulating is difficult and unfair. So be it if the spirit of the slasher subgenre continues to live on through easily accessible, inexpensive independent films like Founders Day. Particularly when they’re as continuously enjoyable and well-liked by the masses as this one.

My Bloody Valentine meets Lovecraftian creature feature?  I’m so in!

“The Deep Dark (Gueules Noires) is a mix of horror and adventure, in the best tradition of H.P. Lovecraft stories, but set in a French reality and a strong social context,” 1956, northern France. A gang of underground miners (Samuel Le Bihan, Amir El Kacem, Thomas Solivéres, Bruno Sanches, Marc Riso, Diego Martín) are forced to take a professor (Jean-Hugues Anglade) to take samples a thousand meters underground. After a landslide prevents them from going back up, they discover a crypt from another time, and unwittingly awaken something that should have remained dormant.

The Deep Dark, the monster film of my dreams, tells the story of a group of French coal miners in the 1950s who are tasked with accompanying a professor on his research expedition to the lowest levels of their mine. This is nothing new. He is searching for a secret that lies far below the mine’s surface in the catacombs. When they finally break through the floor at a spot he chooses, they unleash an unimaginable horror that eliminates them one by one.

A wonderful homage to the late Stuart Gordon. Gordon was brave and skillful to take on H.P Lovecraft’s work and bring it to film, very successfully. Fans of From Beyond, Dagon and Re-Animator will love this film. It even has Stuart’s muse Barbara Crampton in it.

While Joe Lynch clearly makes Suitable Flesh his own by adding a very different flavor of horror along with the creative instinct to gender-flip the original Lovecraft story, the film frequently looks and feels like a Stuart Gordon production. While From Beyond and Re-Animator welcomed slime, goop, and gore, Suitable Flesh focuses on obsession and a psychological disintegration that provides ample material for the actors to work with. As Elizabeth Derby loses all sense of self, Heather Graham excels as the unintentional psychiatrist thrown into a wild quest to clear her name, channeling every personality along the way. Not only are Graham and Judah Lewis performing double duty here, but they also have to assume several roles quickly one after the other.

A more self-contained tale, Suitable Flesh is more focused on its characters and the fallout from body-hopping chaos than it is on visceral cosmic horrors. That’s not to argue Lynch doesn’t employ gory violence, though. Suitable Flesh may feel familiar, but Lynch pays homage to a horror master through painstaking detail while avoiding a total retread, making it daring to take unexpected turns or eschew cliches. Lynch’s admiration for Gordon never quite matches his voice, forging an exciting new route for a younger generation that is carrying on the horror masters’ legacy. The end product is an odd, alluring horror film that combines elements of Lynch and Gordon in a way that feels both fresh and timeless

In the mysterious opening sequence of Lovely, Dark, and Deep, we are introduced to Arvores National Park, which has the unsettling reputation of having the highest number of unreported missing person cases worldwide. Georgina Campbell, a new park ranger, has come to Arvores in search of answers regarding her past, specifically her sister’s unexplained disappearance when they were kids. The film primarily centers on Lennon’s journey to come to terms with a very personal loss, but it also tackles the unsettling idea that the woods may have sinister secrets and may require gratuitous sacrifices. The film makes the argument that these natural mysteries ought to be kept unsolved. Sutherland’s masterful use of the woods as a camera angle makes for an engaging opening sequence, but things start to go wrong as soon as the plot attempts to veer too close to the realm of pure terror. The surreal atmosphere doesn’t feel like a plunge into lunacy and paranoia, nor is it frighteningly strong. I usually find horror films intriguing because they explore the idea of not providing clear solutions to evil, and I really wanted to enjoy this, but this one didn’t work for me.

What if Scream (1996) and It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) were remade as a horror-comedy with a Christmas theme? The end result is a cheesy, Hallmark-esque film that gives you the satisfaction of seeing the characters in Tyler MacIntyre and Michael Kennedy’s It’s a Wonderful Knife, a festive, macabre, and entertaining combination, die. Winnie Carruthers (Jane Widdop), a high school student living in Angel Falls—a whimsical take on Bedford Falls—is the protagonist of the story. Winnie appears to have the ideal life, complete with a quarterback brother who is a star, a boyfriend, a best friend, and loving parents. But on Christmas Eve, a masked murderer who resembles an angel terrifyingly goes on the rampage, killing Winnie’s friends in the process. Despite her survival and eventual victory over the murderer, the trauma causes her to become emotionally aloof and hopeless. Her relationships suffer as a result of the fallout, and she begins to wish she had never been born. She is propelled into a parallel reality by a turn of events in which the murderer is still at large and she does not exist. If Winnie’s intervention had never taken place. The number of bodies increases while the killer stays at large. Together with her classmate and outsider Bernie (Jess McLeod), Winnie sets out on a quest of self-discovery as they race against time to repair the timeline. The film is deserving of praise for its skillful blending of two very different genres. While some jokes miss the mark and the dialogue occasionally falls short (a common occurrence in Hallmark films), each genre’s traditions are upheld while a distinctive twist is added. It’s a Wonderful Knife provides an alternative for those who like their holiday cheer a little more gory, even though it might not become a classic like its predecessors did. In addition, I think any comedy-horror starring Justin Long is a win. I start hollering and hooting when he arrives.