BITS 2022: The Devil Comes At Night (2022)

The Devil Comes At Night (2022 World Premiere)

Director (and co-writer): Scott Leaver

Cast: Ryan Allen, Adrienne Kress, Jason Martorino, Elias Zarou, Shawn Ahmed, Todd Campbell, Dana Fradkin

A washed up boxer searching for his inheritance must fight for his life when he is trapped in his deceased father’s farmhouse by a local cannibal cult.-IMDB

The Devil Comes At Night is a single location setting film which uses the home invasion framework except its a bunch of odd neighbors trying to lure the main character out into the dark. The festival showed a rough cut version which had a few placeholders in place however to be fair, it didn’t affect the whole premise or structure of the film.

The film has a mixed horror genre premise and while some of the cast didn’t quite feel too natural and there’s a very generic take in terms of portrayal for the threat/enemy, the concept of having weird people did give them that space to feel a little more over the top when trying to be uncomfortable through the dialogue. Due its reasonable runtime, the story is well-paced with well-timed reveals since the film slightly has a mystery element to it as the two main characters in the house try to figure out what is happening. While the story itself has some unknown spaces that makes it slightly incomplete, a lot of the main parts do piece together a good picture for what will happen next. Perhaps its my own lack of horror films but the premise did feel fresh as a reverse home invasion of sorts.

If there was a main issue to discuss would mostly be the cast itself as a lot of the acting felt like it wasn’t too natural. There was a generic bad guy feeling of the crazy over the top evil which seems to be how most people would approach this character and lacked the extra depth to make it feel creepier. While the other people involved in the evil infestation did feel over the top, they did feel more justified to just have that overall bizarre feeling. Where the acting does come together is the main character Ben, played by Ryan Allen who delivers a great performance. While not quite the same level, the woman hiding in the house with him Amy, played by Adrienne Kress also delivered a decent role.

With that said, The Devil Comes At Night actually plays out its best a little after the silly beginning where the main character doesn’t follow the instructions in the house and it feels too late and pretty much his doing that all this is happening but still manages some stalking horror, playing whats hiding in the background and what horrors it holds and when the neighbors might actually break in, creating a really effective creepy atmosphere. Outside, it slowly becomes the mystery of what is hiding in the dark that everyone wants to lure them out. Using darkness yet again as an effective way of creating a ominous atmosphere.

Overall, The Devil Comes At Night is well directed and executed. It uses its setting effectively to create a good horror atmosphere. The acting is great for certain roles but a little lacking in some. The overall story is pretty well scripted with decent reveals and twists to make it intriguing. A s a side thought, since this is a rough cut and there are a few placeholders, I do hope the title is also a placeholder since it reveals more than it needs to which loses the allure of the film by taking away at least the first layer of reveal and mystery.

BITS 2022: Cult Hero (2022)

Cult Hero (2022)

Director (and co-writer): Jesse Thomas Cook

Cast: Liv Collins, Ry Barrett, Tony Burgess, Justin Bott, Jessica Vano, Charlie Baker, Jonathan Craig, Justin Darmanin, Steve Kasan

Manager-summoning control freak Kallie Jones attempts to rescue her husband from a “wellness center” with the help of a washed-up expert Cult Buster. – IMDB

Playing on the ghost hunting investigative reality show, Cult Hero isn’t about ghosts but about cult as its name implies. The film starts off with the downfall of a renowned Cult Buster, Dale whose operation goes immensely wrong when the cult ends up not only following through with the ritual that causes his show to be cancelled. Right away, it sets the tone of the film as the debunking and things going wrong ends up in some over the top silliness. This story takes place 5 years later when the chance comes to hopefully revive his character and his show when a realtor sends her husband to Hope Acres under the recommendation of their therapist in hopes to get him out of his negative mindset when a weekend turns into a permanent stay.

Taking the film from the perspective of Dale, Kallie and the inside operation of Hope Acres, it is a fun and silly viewing experience. Comedy isn’t for everybody but they have a very good balance of the silliness that is needed which makes it a very quick-paced and intriguing story as there’s always that wonder whether its just Kallie’s control freak side which is viewing Hope Acres as a cult when she asks for help but when things start to become much more dangerous, it becomes apparent that her claims are actually rather grounded and even those little things she mentioned before all seem to slide into place and makes sense in the whole spectrum of the narrative and script.

There’s no doubt that films like this are fueled by their cast. Here we have Ry Barrett who is a very familiar face in Canadian indie films of all genres like drama film Still The Water (review) or a bunch of indie horrors from Black Fawn Films and even last year’s BITS festival film The Chamber of Terror (review) who plays Dale Domazar who is the over the top character and plays the heck out of this character in such an entertaining way. He’s been a lot of films that I’ve been very impressed with so this film was already set for some fun times and it definitely delivered. The other main character Kallie Jones is played by co-writer of the film Liv Collins who played alongside Ry Barrett before in Deadsight (review) and she is almost very convincing in her role as a control freak. It feels like her character isn’t quite the same level of silliness and maybe it could have gone a little further but there is still a good balance of her character to keep things a little grounded to reality for this situation. Plus, the film does script her a fantastic big finale moment.

Overall, Cult Hero is straight forward and simple. Its all about having a silly fun time playing on the world of the exhibition of reality shows and the ridiculousness of cults. Sometimes that’s exactly what we want in cinema. To be fair, Cult Hero reminded me a lot of last year’s The Chamber of Terror as it felt the same level of fun. There’s laughs, over the top characters, some guts and gore and while its not a film for everyone as most comedies aren’t but there’s nothing wrong with a film that aims to deliver a good old fun time and it certainly did that for me.

***Cult Hero is as part of the Blood in the Snow program on November 26th at 9:30pm at the Isabel Bader Theatre***

BITS 2022: Shifted (2022)

Shifted (2022)

Director (and co-writer): Adrian Konstant

Cast: Michael Wurtz, Derek Lackenbauer, Victoria Dunsmore, Brian Otto, Alyssa Anne Blasak, Zach Parsons

Murderous creatures roam the streets bringing certain death. Neighbors trapped inside a house with one killing the others. A monster inside and monsters outside. Who will save you when the world has Shifted? – IMDB

Creatures, zombies, shifted humans: Call it whatever you like for Shifted but we’ve basically seen horror films like this or a familiar style of being stuck in one setting like one of the most popular examples, Dawn of the Dead or The Mist, granted they are stuck in malls and this one is being stuck in a house. Its always a little nervous getting into films like these because its always a question of how they can spin it in a different way. Shifted definitely does do that since its story isn’t purely a zombie/creature film but rather its also a whodunnit mystery. The two storylines do crossover with each other pretty good.

A great part of what makes Shifted work is also the cinematography. While its only set in one location in the house and its vicinity, the camera work manages to make this space come alive along with the people in it. It also manages to use the calmness and silence to create a sense of isolation. A feeling that perhaps is the most connected to the story as a house full of mostly strangers have to help each other out as they can’t quite figure out whether to leave or to stay as their rations dwindle and actual strangers end up there.

The execution for Shifted is good as well. For one, it has a little fragmented storyline style as the present story moves along while it has scenes in between which shows how each person ended up at the house together. Its clever since the little snippet gives a good idea of who is connected previously and also those with their dilemma. There is no beginning of how the “shift” started but they also try to deduce their commonalities that they didn’t change. As much as the discussion about leaving is a big topic in the story, its also about the change in dynamic when two strangers end up in the house and deaths start to happen.

That leads us to the cast. Honestly, the cast is pretty decent with a few standout like stranger #1 Bill Winters played by Michael Wurtz who is hands-down the best character in the story from his wandering outside to his arrival to the house. Another one of the characters played by Zach Parsons is also a decent character as well. There are a few iffy characters but it has to do with their character design, but it all comes together when the dilemmas start to surface and the deaths start to happen.

Overall, Shifted is a pretty great premise. Sure, the zombie genre is done to death but Shifted is a bit reminiscent of it but has its own creature design, one that almost feels like its infested by some kind of parasite perhaps an alien. We never quite know what it is but the creature design is pretty cool, other than some dodgy effects when the “parasite” is in action. The whodunnit has enough space to breath and build and everything does make sense as the finale drops the big reveal. Its a solid one-setting horror film about a world that has now mostly shifted. It reminds me a bit of the concept behind South Korean Netflix series Sweet Home but with a little less depth on the creature.

***Shifted is part of the Blood in the Snow Film Festival and will show on November 24th on Super Channel at 12am EST.***

BITS 2022: Residents of Arcadia (2021)

Residents of Arcadia (2021)

Director (and writer): Dom Cutrupi

Cast: Nick Preston, Ishaval Gill, Michael Stephen Perry, Kamantha Naidoo, Stella Lai, Magalie R-Bazinet, Leslie Kwan, Claudia Absi, Mostafa Shaker, Jeremy Xu

Two successful online influencers are confronted with the appearance of a mysterious countdown on their mirrors, that threatens to reveal what’s behind their apparently perfect life. – IMDB

Residents of Arcadia plays on a future where people can be able to experience a different life. Its what brings Mira and Remo, a immigrant couple who will have their work permits expired without an extension to join this world of Arcadia. When their experience has been cut short due to their unique situation that is different from others, they start to not only scramble to find a way to stay together so that they are not separated but also soon get tipped off about certain issues that peaked their interest to investigate further about Arcadia as a whole.

The concept of living a life through avatars in a more technologically advanced future is not exactly a new concept. We’ve seen it before in Ready Player One as one of the bigger examples. However, Arcadia is a different concept and it turns into a deeper discussion about immigration and its various issues for those involved using two people with different backgrounds both struggling in their own regards. The script brings up a worthy discussion of the broken elements of the system even in the future but also, takes a dive into the world of living a perfect life and perhaps how the experience is a real vs expectations scenario when pulled out and especially Remo ends up having a great revelation from it.

The issues of Residents of Arcadia actually do lie mostly in its pacing. It feels like the premise never fully flourishes to what it could achieve. In reality, it never fully dives deep enough into the unsettling feeling of being in Arcadia and actually that segment ends fairly quickly and its back to readapting to reality. The harsh reality is good to have that sudden pull back into reality early on however, it does feel like the mystery never gets the worthy exploration as they hunt down those answers and everything seems to just fall into place.

The cast here is also relatively good. Mira and Remo played respectively by Ishaval Gill and Nick Preston are believable in their roles. Dr. Lin played by Stella Lai is actually one of the better characters in the film as a whole as she pulls all the pieces into place. The script for her character works the best to add substance but also has this part where you don’t know whether to fully believe everything she is saying as she also seems to have some kind of authority.

Overall, Residents of Arcadia is a good premise with a decent cast. The discussion point is a good angle even if its set in the future, it is still relevant. There are some flaws with pacing and just taking a step further with the mystery elements but as a whole, it delivers an enjoyable experience and leave you with a little something to ponder on.

***Residents of Arcadia will be showing at the Blood in the Snow Film Festival on November 23rd on Super Channel at 12am EST***

BITS 2022: Emerging Screams

Emerging Screams is a shorts program of Blood in the Snow Film Festival which features new or first-time Canadian genre directors.

Gnaw (2022)

Director: Rosalee Yagihara

Cast: Bethany Brown, Luvia Petersen

As romantic tensions consume Cote and her girlfriend, a pesky hangnail triggers a downward spiral into obsession. – IMDB

The most spinechilling premises are the ones surrounding the subtle things in life. In this short, its about biting your nails and hangnails to almost an unstoppable state where the more her girlfriend says not to do it, the worse it is for her temptation. Gnaw eventually decides into body horror to a certain extent and it is both cringey and disturbing all at the same time.

Folk (2022)

Director: Gabriel Miron

Cast: Sara Sue Vallee

Folk is a much more extensive short which takes place on Halloween night when two kids in creepy masks ring at her doorbell for candy and won’t go away. Except they end up finding a way in and making her join some kind of ritual.

Creepy kids is almost always a winning element in horror films and this one is no exception. Add in the nicely crafted creepy atmosphere and this short has a good horror film to it with decent elements of home invasion and use of both sounds and silence as well as lighting. While the narrative and what the ritual actually did feels a little unclear, its hard to waive the fear of this whole situation.

Smiley Face (2022)

Director: Francois Ricard-Sheard

Cast: Alice Clément, Sara Sue Vallee, Anais Damphousse Joly, Devin Swift, Jérémie Garipépy Ferland

Three young women fight for their lives as they fall prey to a flesh-eating humanoid creature. – IMDB

Something of a creature feature, Smiley Face takes on both creature design and a narrative that starts at the end and circles back at how it gets to that point. The narrative and execution style is one that is pretty good (but then I have a bias towards anything that does a clever little play which creates the feeling of going full circle). The creature itself isn’t really scary even if its running stance looks like a little like a human imitating a chicken or an ostrich running but the film does have a lot of gore as it does eat humans.

While there’s a certain creepiness to this and some odd humanoid creature eating these girls and then at some point they get dragged away by someone, who we learn in the credits is a dwarf, there’s a lot of unexplained elements here. Granted the short is only 9 minutes long so its understand. It would have been nice to have a little bit more context.

444 (2021)

Director (and co-writer): Alexandre Nachi

Cast: Felix-Antoine Cantin, Alexandre Nachi, Jules Ronfard, Sandrine Bisson, Evelyne de la Cheneliere, Isabelle Vincent, Sylvain Cantin, Felix Beaulieu-Duchesneau, Laurent Allaire

444 tells the story of man who wakes up with no memories in an unknown house and unfamiliar family that seems to be constantly changing and is asked to “Trust the protocol”.

444 refers to the 4:44 on the clock which is shown a few times in the film perhaps the time things reset in real life or his memory. Its a pretty odd and trippy narrative but the acting is pretty decent and theres some clever moments and good cinematography playing well with the lighting and color palette to bring out the mood and atmosphere.

L’Abattu des Vents (The Wind Down, 2021)

Director (and writer): Félix-Antoine Garneau-Chouinard

Alone on a secluded island, a lightkeeper is prisoner of his own madness. – IMDB

L’abattu du Vents is a rather unique one as it has no dialogue and is an animated film using clay figures or at least the main character is like that. This short is fairly straightforward in its portrayal and rhe execution is decent as well.

Stitched Up (2022)

Director: Keisha James

Stitched Up is about a friend who buys a sewing machine for his sewing friend to find out that the sewing machine is alive and they must find a way to retaliate.

Stitched Up is something of a horror comedy and feels very campy however with the premise its going for, it all fits well together. Its fairly silly as a whole and everything seems deliberately done to embrace the campiness completely. While the story is simple and the acting is a tad over the top, its fits well with the overall feeling and tone of this scene.

Cruise (2022)

Previously seen at Toronto After Dark HERE

The Cradle (2022)

Previously seen at Toronto After Dark HERE.

Darkside (2022)

Director (and writer): Spencer Zimmerman

Cast: Blakely David, Siobhan Connors

Darkside tells the story of an astronaut who struggles to complete his mission to find a lost crew after a devastating tragedy.

Darkside is probably the best of the program as a whole. Its about a space expedition that goes wrong. The story backtracks to his memories and conversation that leads him there to eventually reveal what he had lost in the tragedy. From the visuals amd cinematography to the acting and depth of the script, Darkside has it all and keeps the balance and pacing in this 10 minute short.

***This Blood in the Snow Film Festival short film program is available on Super Channel on November 22nd at 12am EST.***

BITS 2022: Mournful Mediums

Mournful Mediums is a short films program in the Blood in the Snow Festival which is a selection of the best in Canadian medium-length shorts.

Vicinal (2022)

Director: Andrew David Osborne

Cast: Katherine Ross, Nathan Bigec, Daniel Coo, Ryan Heffernan

Vicinal is a 20 minute short about Thom and Romina who moves into an apartment in the city when a former tenant Walter shows up to pick up a package and asks for a tour to see what they’ve done with his old place when things get weird after he claims he forgot something in the little cubby hole in the upstairs bathroom leading to the attic.

There’s quite a bit to like about this one particularly the atmosphere as it plays really well on the mysterious and dark attic and what it could hide. It starts building right from the beginning and is reinforced when Walter arrives and strange things happen. It plays well on hiding what is really hiding in the shadows. While some of the creepy moments are fairly expected, it still manages to send chills down the spine as they all struggle to go into the attic and whenever they disappear inside, most of the time its all behind the ceiling until the very clever reveal.

While the acting could be better and more natural for Thom and Romina, Walter is just the right amount of eccentricity and odd to make this uneasy feeling with his presence and making his warning about the attic all the more valid and creating this lingering uneasiness. Its a well thought out story.

Spark (2022)

Director: Camille Hollett-French

Cast: Christina McInulty, Eugene Lipinski, Nneka Croal, Pam Kearns, Kyra Weston

When a disillusioned woman is implicated in the disappearance of a lonely aging scientist, she must convince the police that hope has the power to bridge dimensions. – IMDB

Written by its female lead Christina McInulty, Spark is a fairly slow-paced and wordy tale as a woman recounts the events of the disappearance of a lonely scientist. The concept behind it is pretty good and the execution also works pretty well. The tale is one about hope and belief specifically about bridging dimensions so it all dials down to whether the woman’s story will convince the police. As she recounts the events, what happens plays out in the short which is pretty good.

There are some nice cinematography in this and the script is pretty decent. The only deal with this is that it doesn’t seem to pack enough of a surprise. In the end, its about what consequences she would have is the police didn’t believe her because it felt like it was set up for the audience to already believe that she witnessed this unbelievable event so it made the story feel like the premise was really promising and fun but the payoff was a little lackluster.

AlieNation (2022)

Director (and co-writer): Ray Raghavan

Cast: Maria Frazer, Margarita Iturriaga, Reece Presley, Christian Lagasse, Kyal Scott, Claire Johnstone

A family of immigrants is chased through the woods by border patrol. But they’re not alone. – IMDB

The first thoughts when reading the synopsis is that we will be watching some sort of Predator inspired short. In some ways, it did feel that way and nothing makes me happier than living up to my expectations and actually AlieNation kind of surprised it as well. There’s a pretty decent flow of events here. With the mother and daughter separated and the mysterious monster lurking in the forest relatively unknown and unseen until the big finale. Its a good use of keeping things mysterious. At the same time, they are being hunted by border patrol. The tension and adventure is who will get to them first.

While the acting for the border patrol cast seemed a little rigid, the mother and daughter did do a pretty good job. As they run all over the forest and sneak here and there to avoid the border patrol, they slowly figure out that there is something else there. The whole story is overall well put together.

The Fore-Men

Director: Adrian Bobb

Previously reviewed for Toronto After Dark HERE.

Angakusajaujuq – The Shaman’s Apprentice (2021)

Director: Zacharias Kunuk

Cast: Madeline Ivalu, Lucy Tulugarjuk, Jacky Qrunnut

A young shaman must face her first test-a trip underground to visit Kannaaluk, The One Below, who holds the answers to why a community member has become ill. – IMDB

The Shaman’s Apprentice is one of the unique shorts of this batch. One because its an animated short and two because it features an Inuit tribe and uses their language as well. Its makes it rarely seen and very unique. What also makes it stand out is the stop motion animation which is done really well especially with the facial expressions of the Shaman and the apprentice.

The premise of going to the underground brings in a fantastical element and plays on the dangers and death. There’s this really wonderful moment as they climb down where they leave the shadows of the skeleton behind and it goes away when they go back up after the task which is very stylish.

I’m not particularly familiar with Inuit tradition or folklore but it definitely feels like some of that is injected here especially when the front of the entrance to the underground is guarded by a giant dog who can sense fear and the story revolves around a taboo while also could be interpreted as their beliefs.

I don’t know how much of this is fantastical and how much is actual Inuit tradition but this was a fascinating short film. It is really stylish and some part of the story feels like it doesn’t elaborate enough but the main message of the message is easy to catch.

***This BITS Film Festival program Mournful Mediums are going to be available on November 21st on Super Channel at 12am EST***

TADFF 2022: Pre-feature Shorts

The Cradle (2022)

Director (and writer): Massimo Meo

An angry mob interrupts a witch as she prepares breakfast for her collected children. – IMDB

The Cradle is a short running at a swift 3 minutes. The film is quiet for the most part and only pans through the titular item for a few seconds and then moves around the house of where this is set before it hits a final shocking reveal at the end. While the story itself feels a bit abstract to understand, it does have some pretty nice cinematography as it pans through the house and the items following a woman. Even if its a bit of a question mark why its called The Cradle, the film does have some good visuals and nice reveal at the end which gives some nice creepy vibes.

Cruise (2021)

Director (and writer): Samuel Rudykoff

We’ve all received scam phone calls, but what about the person making the calls? Cruise is a dark workplace satire about a hapless telemarketer trying mightily to give away a free cruise. And if he fails, there will be dire consequences. – IMDB

Cruise is a fun little dark humor short which looks at a possible scenario of what’s going on at the other end of a scam call. Maybe its not all that we think it is and the people making the calls really are there for other reasons and have their own obstacles and consequences. Its a pretty clever take on the scam calls story which looks at the callers and their bosses. Maybe it will make you think twice before you hang up on a scam call…

Anything, Anything (2022)

Director (and writer): Emma Higgins

Anything Anything is a short that starts itself with a conversation between two girl friends when one comes to visit the other to make sure they are okay after some abusive issues before. As the conversation goes along, the question now becomes whether the abusive danger still exists. Its not until after the friend leaves that we get the answer of what is actually going on. The setup of the story and the lighting works together to create a suspicious and sinister atmosphere.

The Ratcatcher’s Daughter (2022)

Directors (and co-writers): Jim Bryson & Adam Jeffcoat

Based on the short story “The Rat-Catcher” by Alexander Grin, The Ratcatcher’s Daughter is a 15 minutes short which definitely feel much more fleshed out due to the longer runtime. This animated feature follows a revolutionary who meets the plague ratcatcher’s daughter spontaneously and ends up running from the military and walk right into a sacrificial ritual. There’s a lot of nice animated cinematic style here as it chooses a more darker palette for the most part and chooses to only highlight the blood red colors so for example, the bloody moments and red eyes of the mice really pop. The story has depth and carries a pretty intriguing story that it almost feels like a prologue to what could become a full length animation. In some ways, the atmosphere and narrative execution reminds me a little of South Korean animated film Seoul Station.

In The Dark (2022)

Director: Bronson Allen

In The Dark tells the story of a girl who has been consistently unlucky with men who ends up going for a date with a man who seems to be normal. When she gets there, everything seems to be going fine until she starts to realize that all the light switches have been anchored to stay on. In further conversation, the man confesses that because of a child experience, he now has a monster that lurks in the darkness that wants to hurt him.

Everyone wonders whether the monsters that we think we see in the dark are real. We’ve seen some decent movies that navigate imaginary friends and monsters in our bedroom with kids. Rarely do they follow them into adulthood but this brings up the question as a seemingly pleasant date runs off course when the man tells the story of why he can’t close the lights. This short truly plays on the audience being the more knowledgeable group who believes the story more than the woman in the date and the question remains what will happen if the lights turn out. While the creature design here is a little funny (just the low budget feeling which is normal) more than creepy, the story takes a clever twist for its ending.

Dissós (2022)

Created by Unreal Engine, Dissós is a three minute short film that feels like a video game as you follow its protagonist who wakes up outside an abandoned house and goes inside to investigate to soon realize that there’s something odd at work.

Being a gamer myself and being very familiar with the horror genre in gaming, the film had a predictable moment and then the big reveal was also quite obvious as it came around but then, it is the type of surprise reveal that I personally enjoy a lot, where the beginning and end are connected to each other. The animation was done well and the atmosphere of the house was pretty well-structured. There was a good unsettling feeling at the start and it could be fun concept to experience further either as a full flesh story or a game.

Les Dents de la Maison (Paws, 2022)

Director: Austin Birtch

Les Dents de la Maison starts off its story with a man looking for a cat sitter for an evil cat. The film switches to a narrative format as the sitter comes to do his job and gradually the real deal is revealed. It flips also from English normal film to the French narrative with subtitles which isn’t a huge deal. The film in general right away delivers the uneasiness of this cat who seems to right off the get-go be evil because of how they portray the eyes and then as the sitter narrates, it seems to set it up whether its his paranoia or just that the cat actually is evil. It sure feels like cats are never used enough in horror films as the main villains and its only ever seemed to appear in short films once in a while. To be fair, the execution doesn’t make it scary even if the ending is pretty intriguing and unpredictable as didn’t quite see it going in that direction either.

Diggin’ A Hole (2022)

Director (and writer): David Bragg

I feel like talking about cats in the last short and jumping to this one seems so suitable as this short is basically the cautionary tale of “curiosity killed the cat”. A woman is digging a hold in the middle of a field when a man walks by and starts pressing her for an answer as to why she is doing it. The conversation doesn’t really get anywhere as it seems like every answer she gives is either avoiding or isn’t the truth. It takes the audience for a loop as she starts talking about one thing and then it all leads up to the actual reason. There’s a bit of dark humor embedded in the dialogue and how its executed but for something that is about a conversation in a middle of a field, it has decent pacing to keep the intrigue going.

Horse Brothers (2022)

Directors (and writers): Milos Mitrovic & Fabian Velasco

Two paranoid brothers are consumed with murderous fantasies after a horse convinces them that they are each others’ enemies. – IMDB

Horse Brothers is a trippy and weird short. There’s a grainy texture to the scene like its in the past. As the short moves along, the camera and lighting effects are really where it creates the more psychedelic sort of feeling. The story itself a little odd in general especially with the beginning where I can only assume its the horse talking to the brother which happens to be in a screen with Italian (I think). Because of the trippy feeling, the whole film also has this mysterious and unsettling feeling with how certain effects are used. While the film is a little too much for myself personally since the narrative is all a bit too odd, the last shot on the lake is very captivating.

TADFF 2022: Canadian Shorts After Dark

The Flying Sailor (2022)

Directors (and writers): Amanda Forbis & Wendy Tilby

Inspired by true events, the highly anticipated new film by Oscar-nominated duo Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis is a meditation on a sailor’s unexpected voyage. – IMDB

The Flying Sailor tells the tale of a sailor that flies out after two ships collide near the harbor and ends up rumbling and tumbling through the sky and into outer space before falling back onto Earth. In the process, he reflects on his life in flashbacks which blend both animation and real life.

There’s a lot to love about The Flying Sailor aside from watching a man fly through the sky completely naked right down to private part flapping around in all directions. Of course, that is besides the point but its a compliment on the attention to detail. In the process of flying through the sky, its flashbacks that bring him back to where he is now. While the process itself feels like it does flash by rather quickly, it still carries a ton of creativity. There’s a wonderful use of colors and the beautifully drawn visuals of the animation element. While its inspired by true events, there has to obviously be an exaggeration of the situation.

Black Forest Sanitorium (2020)

Director (and writer): Diana Thorneycroft

Starving for companionship, Quinn pursues an unorthodox approach to resolving her intense loneliness. – Letterboxd

Black Forest Sanitorium is a stop motion animation which follows a creature that moves around a sanitorium with a cart and stops to explore the patients. Perhaps the plot itself if I hadn’t read it in advance would be rather confusing. The big reveal does piece together what Quinn had planned for this visit. Perhaps its the stop motion animation element but the story never feels very creepy, maybe macabre and bizarre might be more correct to describe it. The different creatures that are in the sanitorium for the nature of the location definitely feels fitting and what Quinn sees suitable is also rather specific.

The Temple (Le Temple)

Director: Alain Fournier

The Temple is an animated short film about the crew of a German U-boat that sinks into the depths to avoid an enemy attack when they realize they can no longer go back up to the surface. As the U-boat drops into the depths, madness strikes the staff until he drops to the bottom and sees a temple.

The Temple is a really well-done short. The story it tells at the beginning with the war and attack creates a good start for the story. It combines both a narrative style and dialogue between conversations. As they sink lower underground, the imagery that is shown is pretty good since they start seeing all kinds of creepy thing, much like how the crew also slowly falls into their own craziness. The titular Temple isn’t really part of the film but rather shows up very late in the film and yet, it manages to feel meaningful to the story and the purpose. The animation, the visual, the premise: The Temple does a really good job in all these elements to create a memorable film experience.

The Fore-Men (2022)

Director (and writer): Adrian Bobb

Weeks after a mysterious time-compression event violently splices environments from the past and future into the present, two survivors encounter the foreboding figures responsible for the event and experience firsthand their sinister nature. – IMDB

The Fore-Men is one of the more mind-bending and future apocalypse sort of feeling to the whole story. It follows a woman who is a researcher to see what the world has suddenly become and what lurks in the land creating this new environment. Its one of the shorts that feel like its a snippet of a much bigger scope and world building which would be suitable to expand into something much bigger to explore. This world is rather fascinating. At parts feeling a little like the enchantment of Annihilation with its big snails and creatures hanging around while there is something much more dangerous lurking around and while that form seems to be made up of many table lamps combined together, it still has this interesting imagery at the last scene when the camera pulls away that is very neat.

Nude (Nu, 2022)

Director (and writer): Olivier Labonté-LeMoyne

Nude is a French Canadian short that follows a couple driving into the woods looking for a secluded spot to make love. When they finally feel like they have found it, they start to realize they are being watched.

Nude is an odd and creepy short. In some ways, the couple themselves have some interesting dialogue but once things start getting weird the story gets a little creepy. There are some unsettling moments as what the man is worried about comes true in abundance. Not to mention, as they try to escape, the whole process has a certain creepy element to it. The film does jump from daytime to evening very quickly which is something that feels a tad odd in terms of flow of events but overall, the story itself while doesn’t quite explain what happens in the end, it gives room for the audience to draw their own conclusions (unless its just me not getting the point). However, the atmosphere is well created that the shadows and darkness are used to their advantage.

The Trunk

Director: Travis Laidlaw

The Trunk is a short about a father and daughter who finds a chained up trunk in the woods and brings it home to see what valuables are inside. Right from the poster above, you can tell that what they found is not valuable and pretty horrific in general. While its never quite explained, it sure feels like what they unleashed is some kind of witch (or something along those lines).

The Trunk is an interesting one to talk about. While the premise of the trunk and the unknown of what’s inside is what creates a lot of mystery especially against the dark backdrop as its set at night. The story does have a certain level of predictability especially when it comes to what appears in the trunk is sinister and what happens afterwards to the father and daughter.

In The Shadows (Dans l’ombre)

Director (and co-writer): David Emond-Ferrat

Melanie, a newly separated mother, is spending a weekend at her mother’s house with Tom, her 8-year-old son who is still unaware of the breakup. In the shadows, a creature in search of fresh flesh lies in wait for them, examines them and searches for their loophole in order to lure them into its lair. – IMDB

No doubt the best short of the entire program. Dans L’Ombre packed in some well-executed horror moments and had a really good flow to their story and its pacing. For a short, it had a solid narrative structure and a few nice tricks up its sleeve that made it truly stand out. There were some decent unsettling and creepy moments and some other moments, the atmosphere had this dread and impending danger feeling throughout. The use of the danger that lurks in the shadows created some nice scary moments as well. Well-executed, well-acted and a good story: Dans l’Ombre is an exceptional horror short.

The Community

Director: Milos Mitrovic

The Community is about two men who go to find a secret in the woods which goes a bit against their expectation when they end up finding something else more than they expected in the process.

The Community is a comedy short. It tries to build up some mystery as to what they are looking for in the woods which basically has its big reveal when they meet other people in the woods doing a similar act. What they find is a community as the titles hints at of a group of men having a shared hobby together. You go and piece together what the possibilities are. This one’s downright silly and not exactly my type of humor but that’s just how it is with comedy, it just doesn’t work for everyone.

TADFF 2022: Day Zero (2022)

Day Zero (2022)

Director: Joey De Guzman

Cast: Brandon Vera, Pepe Herrera, Mary Jean Lastimosa, Joey Marquez, Freya Fury Montierro, Yohance Levi Buie, Ricci Rivero, Jema Galanza

When society breaks down due to a violent outbreak that turns victims into undead monsters, a former elite soldier breaks out of jail to find his family. – IMDB

Having only seen one horror short film from Philippines before and nothing else, Day Zero is my first feature film to break into Philippine cinema. Day Zero is an action horror film which spends most of the viral outbreak in the apartment building where the main character Emon’s (Brandon Vera) family resides as he tries to get to them with the help of his inmate friend, Timoy (Pepe Herrera). Focused heavily on the action element, the horror element is mostly with its zombies. Zombies have been done to death at this point and yet as another film is made, we still try to figure out the nature of these zombies which creates most of the horror elements when it first is introduced with its first attack on screen in the opening scene.

Day Zero isn’t exactly a unique zombie film. In fact, both the nature of the zombies and how they move feel very familiar to other films that have been done. However, the undead can have its own frightening element. Adding to the apartment building, it revolves a lot around neighbors that the female lead as Emon’s wife Sheryl (Mary Jean Lastimosa) know and paired with taking care and eventually losing their mute daughter Jane (Freya Fury Montierro) who summons them with a bell, its where the tension builds even if you can see where the potential dangers will occur. The narrative of the film has all the elements it needs and in execution, is pretty fast-paced as well. The drama element of the film is definitely not lacking as well when there are necessary sacrifices and human nature is one of the things that come into play in the end.

If there was something to criticize more, it would be that the acting is not quite too good here. There are some highlight moments but basically no one really the supporting cast is only there as a means to an end whether to save Jane or to push forward some danger element. Looking at the main cast, Timoy is one of the more memorable characters as the script gives him a very nice and touching trajectory especially since his loyalty is one that exists when Emon helps him out without considering his consequences in prison at the beginning of the film. Being the main focus, Emon played by Brandon Vera isn’t exactly really a great actor but much like he reminds me a lot of an Asian version of Vin Diesel appearance-wise, his background in real life as an ex-MMA fighter does come in handy to create some great action scenes with bare-fist combat against zombie which obviously is risky business in the first place.

Honestly, I don’t believe that zombie films need to be complicated in plot in the first place. Day Zero knows exactly what it wants to deliver in its action horror and while the balance is a little off and the horror eventually fades away into drama by the end, the action element is done in a fast-paced and gripping way especially when it gets to the final act and the story needs to pan between three people as danger lurks closer by the minute. While its nothing too unique in terms of zombie film, my first venture into Philippine cinema is a pretty decent one.

TADFF 2022: The Lair (2022)

The Lair (2022)

Director (and co-writer): Neil Marshall

Cast: Charlotte Kirk, Jonathan Howard, Jamie Bamber, Tanji Kibong, Leon Ockenden, Mark Strepan, Hadi Khanjanpour, Troy Alexander

When Royal Air Force pilot Lt. Kate Sinclair is shot down over Afghanistan, she finds refuge in an abandoned underground bunker where deadly man-made biological weapons – half human, half alien – are awakened. – IMDB

Its been almost 20 years since The Descent and yet, its still the bar we set when we talk about Neil Marshall’s films. When his latest film The Lair, its sold as a revisit to the underground caves in this action sci-fi horror film which shows a lot of promise. If it were to be more accurate, The Lair feels a little more like a blend of Dog Soldiers and The Descent and pretty much a creature feature.

It starts off with the film being a recount of disturbing events that happened prior to it being bombed. That being said, it already sets up the story that there is going to be some kind of time sensitive situation in play right from the get-go. The film feels like a B-movie as a whole and one that probably might have that eventual cult classic sort of feeling, something like Deep Rising. There’s some pretty odd dialogue in places and the camera work has fun with some of the scenes moving quickly from one person to the next in the room. However, the film has this comedic undertone (actually, it might be a step higher than an undertone and some bits being pretty obvious). The deal is that with a film like this, it always dials down to whether its meant to be funny which I wholeheartedly believe the humor is meant to be there.

The film stars a strong female lead Sinclair (Charlotte Kirk) who doesn’t hold a lot of backstory other than a little bit on her family. She gives off a bit of Milla Jovovich’s vibe both in her outfit and the way that she delivers her lines. Her character has the most backstory from the beginning scene to her array of abilities. The film takes the direction that this group is there solely gathered to get through this situation together so all the characters are built based on how they react to it from the decisions they make. The US army group is a ragtag team of soldiers that all have their own set of issues and along the way, they end up picking up a man Kabir (Hadi Khanjanpour) who is on the enemy side but turns out to be forced into it as well and ends up teaming up with the team as well. Kabir is not exactly a main character but he gets some of the best dialogue of the entire film and there’s some really great action moments for him also.

As for the creature, I don’t want to go into detail too much. Its a bit sad that the poster that I’ve opted to not use does reveal it so its not exactly a spoiler to talk about the appearance itself. The creature basically looks a bit like Venom. The moments with this creature is where we see all the blood and gore. This is probably where the horror lies in the film even though I personally don’t think its a particularly scary film as a whole.

Overall, The Lair is an average film. It touches lightly on sci-fi and horror but delivers in spades with the action. Its tight runtime and fast-paced action does it a lot of favors as the film never slows down enough for you to reflect too much on the whole situation but just takes its audience for a ride. While there is some clunky dialogue and below average acting, the film itself does have some fun elements. Looking at it from a B-movie perspective, a lot of the elements slot into place especially with the dark humor that it carries throughout. Its far from a great film but as a B-movie creature feature, there’s some entertaining elements here.