Tag Archives: The Nightshifter

My “Weekly” Adventures: Fantasia and More Events

Posted in My Weekly Adventures by

Are you ready? This past month was so busy that I’m still trying to get grips and find back all the energy. Its why well…a lot of things have been behind. The one thing that we haven’t left behind is the heat wave because its still as present as ever. Not really a bad thing because I can now have time to go back into the pool once I catch up a little more. This post might be a little heavier on the Instagram since its easier to do that than to just keep uploading photos. Its going to be heavy on pictures on the things that happened. To be honest, Fantasia took up most of my life so not all that much happened.

Let’s just jump right in!

Fantasia Festival

Boy was this a festival and a half this year. I pushed really hard and covered 5 more movies than I normally would. Of course, I had work because if I didn’t, I would be at the screening rooms and covering even more. However, this year was a really nice selection of films. Most of the films delivered fairly well. There were some odds and ends that didn’t quite land as well for myself. I probably will still do some sort of Fantasia wrap-up within the next week. Its a little after the event but I still would like to highlight some of the films.

As for my Instagram game, I even impressed myself when I went to do some press work and took pictures of the directors and cast and such whenever they were present.

So yeah…A lot of fun times here. I didn’t take any pictures with the cast and crew although you could, except for the director of Big Brother but then my shyness came out since I’m really a behind the scenes person (except when I do Game Warp, I guess). That picture is just for myself since I looked like an elephant. The roster of lists from when I posted the Weekly Adventures a month ago definitely did end up changing a little since I ended up missing a few other films but adding in some other titles.

You can find all the reviews now. The full roster of films: A Rough Draft, Big Brother, Bleach, Cam, Fireworks, Knuckleball, Laplace’s Witch, Lifechanger, Nightmare Cinema, The Nightshifter, Our House, The Outlaws, Playing Hard, Pledge, Rondo, Searching, Tigers Are Not Afraid, Under the Silver Lake, The Vanished, The Witch in the Window.

Wedding in Toronto

Wedding

One of my best friends had her wedding in Toronto. It  was absolutely lovely despite the heat with both the church and the dinner reception. These moments also have the time to see everyone dressed at their best and partying together and wishing happiness for our dear friend as well. It was a great time. Of course, it helps that my husband also was able to be there. I talk about that a lot but thats because my husband used to work the graveyard shift so now its always grateful to have this new shift where he can live normal human hours and do things and attend events.

Some people take for granted how amazing it is to spend time with the ones we love but sometimes different situations make it hard but hey, you work through it and it all comes together in the end. Rambling again…

Brossard Festin Culturel

Mon Ami Restaurant – Korean Food

Street Monkeys – Cambodia Food

Mucho Burrito – Mexican Food

Every year, the last weekend is always a busy one. We would hit two festivals. This year, we decided to not head out to the Matsuri Festival. A few key reasons is honestly the crowds and the parking and the traffic going out since road works are ridiculous right now. So, we went to check out earlier the Brossard Festin Culturel  which is a cultural festival in the Montreal suburbs. Its primarily a family event and this year, it moved locations so we wanted to see how it all went down and actually this new location works really well, even better than before. We tried out some cool restaurants also and enjoyed the sun a little and walked around. Fun times!

 

Matinee Movie Date

I feel like every time that I tell you all about going to the theatre it will be for some popcorn flick where its not outstanding terms like Oscar films but just a pure entertaining film. Most of the films that I look forward to and will watch in theatres (aside Fantasia) is honestly films that I feel the big screen will make a difference. Just to be clear, my suburban theatre only offered UltraAVX and 3D had more choice in times than the normal which had one showing only. Either way, I don’t really regret it at all. The experience for The Meg was quite unique since I honestly really got into the film and had some moments where I literally was startled and jumped back in the seat. Its a pretty awesome shark film experience. I know this movie has its issues. Either way, my review will be going up. In the meantime, we did a Movies and Tea After Hours kickoff show reviewing The Meg that literally just went live today.

I’ll still reblog the post tomorrow or something but just to have a fun listen!

Tranquil Dreams on Facebook

In case you missed the announcement post a few weeks ago, we are officially on Facebook! It was meant to happen eventually but you know circumstances changed  for Facebook linking here so I got that set up quickly. Head over and give us a like or follow! I’ll share random stuff there every once in a while so it’ll be a fun time. Check it out HERE.

That’s it for this adventures! 🙂
Things are getting back on track. Hopefully summer has been treating you all fantastic!

Fantasia Festival 2018: The Nightshifter (World Premiere, 2018)

Posted in Fantasia Film Fest!, Film Festivals, Movies by

The Nightshifter (2018)

The Nightshifter

Director: Dennison Ramalho

Cast: Daniel de Oliveira, Bianca Comparato, Caua Martins, Fabiula Nascimento, Annalara Prates, Marco Ricca

Stênio works the night shift at a morgue in a very large, very violent city. On the job, he sees cadavers in every conceivable state, often the victims of horrific gang warfare. While most would be rather unsettled by it all, Stênio is not. For the dead speak to him. Not in any metaphorical sense but in a very literal way. Stênio was born with an occult gift and while not everyone would be at ease conversing with mutilated cadavers on slabs, he has learned that there are endless secrets that can be gleaned this way. Related to crime. To prosperity. One day he learns a terrible secret about people in his own life. He commits the sin of acting on knowledge obtained from the dead, cursing himself and those dearest to him in the process. – Fantasia Festival

Talking to the dead and messing with the paranormal is not exactly a novel idea. However, The Nightshifter takes its audience to the Brazil landscape where the audience gets to see the society and the unrest. The opening scene with police radios and societal unrest in a city filled with violence and crime makes it quite an effective way to make it feel immersive as it leads to a victim being taken to the morgue where Stenio (Daniel de Oliveira), the main character of The Nightshifter appeared. Based on a short story, The Nightshifter highlights some Brazil society issues from its patriarchy and the male arrogance to the bigger picture of violence and crime in the big city.

The Nightshifter shows a lot of great qualities from the immersive sound design that created both atmosphere and accentuated the jump scare moments. The deliberate loud noises and creep albeit at times, cliche sounds effects (like doors creaking open or slamming shut, to mysterious knocks) all were timed and merged well with the atmosphere to make it feel much more effective. It is all about executing it at the right time and for the most part, The Nightshifter lives up to the task. However, a part of this also was its downfalls as the middle had some dragged out moments which felt a little bit of the same with still effective jumpscares but felt like going through the motions of a horror film but not adding substance to the story, making the scares a little more predictable. Perhaps, it is the middle act’s pacing that needed to be better improved.

The Nightshifter
Aside from those little moments, this Brazilian horror film is quite the indie gem. It knows how to escalate the story in a charming way. Visually, there are some skilled shots. At the first half, it relied heavily on the gruesome work at the morgue. In the second half, it relied more on the lighting and scene set-up for creating atmosphere.There was guts and gore all over the scene with close-ups and overhead shots. The cinematography and lighting create depth for the scene from watching Stenio in his bloody job. At the same time, the odd choice of using CGI effects for the dead when they are talking makes for a rather goofy and strange feeling that oddly adds some dark humor in the beginning that eventually build to become some rather bone-chilling transformations by the end. It is something like this that best show the example of how the story itself also escalates bit by bit as Stenio’s life and his decisions start off in an easygoing day of conversation with the dead until he learns a secret from his own personal life that causes him to use a knowledge from the dead and act upon it with some horrifying consequences. The best part is that these consequences also build as the haunting moments start light and build to an intense final act. The final act’s effectiveness does rely on its audience attention to detail while boasting some great acting throughout to get to that powerful final act by Bianca Comparato (the leading actress from Netflix Original TV series 3%) as Lara, Fabiula Nascimento as Odete as well as Daniel de Oliveira as Stenio.

The Nightshifter
From the sound design to the cinematography and general execution, even if there were some slight pacing issues in the middle act, this long-awaited debut feature film from seasoned director Dennison Ramalho with many short films like Ninjas and a segment in The ABC of Deaths 2 shows his eye for detail and imagination. There are genuinely bone-chilling creepy moments in The Nightshifter. As a final note, The Nightshifter could be leading to a future TV series, so the ending scripted might be a head-scratcher for some but it opens up the possibility for future plans. It takes away a little from the self-contained element initially but taking away this knowledge, it does still make sense. Despite the small missteps here and there, it is a worthy foreign film to check out.

This review is also found on That Moment In.