Short of the Week #41: The Good Samaritan

I'm going to bend the rules a little bit this week and post one of my own projects. Just in time for Halloween, the short film Darrin Suzuki & I made last year is now online. Here for your viewing (dis)pleasure is The Good Samaritan.

Shock Stock 2018!

Last weekend was yet another greasy edition of Shock Stock. I barely had time to recover from the Carpenter Brut show the night before I was speeding down the 401 to London, Ontario.

It was once again at the Ramada this year - I have no idea the Vagrancy Brothers convinced the hotel to have us all back – black magic perhaps – and the party spread out over the entire grounds. I found out that everyone staying there this weekend was involved with the Con, except five or six long-term guests and I'm sure they were warned. Shock Stock even had its own beer this year.

The Good Samaritan screened on the night before I arrived, but I hear it went over well. When I got there Saturday morning, the place was already hopping. I met up with Schwartz and we picked through the VHS. I have to say I was very good this year, only coming away with one poster and three tapes.

I don't speak Italian, but I love that it appears someone is comparing Mattei to Hitchcock in that poster. Plus, I also couldn't resist picking up this Phantasm magnet from The Butcher Shop that I've walked by year after year.

Effects guru Carlos Henriques was showing off his Jason Part 7 bust at the show which was pretty fucking sweet.

Ok, I'm lying. I'll be spending more money at the Twisted T's online store, as they have some new designs available there that weren't at the show. There were some new vendors this year that had some cool stuff. Hipster Lasers in particular caught my eye with their custom cutting boards.

There were several panels over the course of the weekend, but I only made it to two. The first was Kane Hodder with two of his onscreen rivals Lar Park Lincoln (from Friday Part 7) and Parry Chen (from the Hatchet series). This was a fantastic time with lots of great stories. I was especially happy Hodder got to talk about his experience working on the video game. Check out the audio from the Q&A below.

The second was a live recording of The Witch Finger Podcast. You may remember I mentioned that I was surprised that I had never run into Yasmina Ketita at Shock Stock before. Well, lo and behold, she and her two podcast sisters had a booth this year.

The live show was really fun and I think it improves the experience when you can actually watch along with the movie that they are covering. It also has nothing to do with me winning trivia at their show. My knowledge of fictional character Bennett Tramer netted me this sweet VHS board game.

As with last year, the dining area gave way later in the night for some live entertainment, including a pretty lively performance from Blood Opera.

Sunday was pretty low key. I took in an entertaining documentary about Lloyd Kaufman & the history of Troma called Greetings from Tromaville and walked the show floor one last time. The day ended with The Crystal Shockers, the awards ceremony for which two of my compatriots won honours – Mike Pereira for Best Director (Zandavi Lives) and Ry Barrett for Best Actor (The Heretics, Zandavi Lives & The Good Samaritan)

And then I was heading back home. I've been away from home the last two weekends, so I'm looking forward to some R&R thi-- Texas Chainsaw Marathon?! Awww maaaan.

CUFF '18

Wow, what a fantastic trip that was! I was only gone three nights, but boy did I fill it up with some bangin' stuff, including sampling some Alberta beef, a side road trip to Banff with an old friend and the usual festival schmoozing.

The festival really took care of me, putting me up in a fancy hotel and filling my pockets with cinema food & drink tickets. The Globe Cinema is a great little movie house with a pair of sizable theatres one on top of each other. CUFF turned fifteen this year and you can tell there are lot of regulars and sponsors eager to be involved with the fest.

My screening went really well - anytime no one boos is a win - and there were a surprising number of questions during the Q&A. I never thought I would have to explain the difference between Canadians & Americans, always just assumed it was common knowledge, but there you go. 

CUFF programmer Brennan Tilley & I at Saturday's Q&A.

Both shorts programmes were really strong, but I'll elaborate on them in a later post. In addition to the special events at the fest like the Saturday Morning Cereal Party - that involved me chasing after Toucan Sam all morning - and the most recent iteration of the Found Footage Tour, I also took in some cool flicks including the half crime movie, half crime doc American Animals and a rewatch of Coralie Fargeat's Revenge. I recommend both. And Tigers Are Not Afraid. That movie is still aces.

The dark princes of VHS Nick Prueher & Joe Pickett. 

And there's also this random Teletubbies penis sculpture in town for some reason.

So yeah, I had a blast. I am so thankful to CUFF for inviting me and being such gracious hosts. You guys rock!

To The West!

I'm headed out west this weekend for the Calgary Underground Film Festival. 

I'll be representing my latest project The Good Samaritan which plays today as part of the A Turn For The Worse shorts programme. More to come!

Go West!

I have some great news. My latest short The Good Samaritan will be playing the 15th edition of the Calgary Underground Film Festival next month.

I was lucky enough to have The Monitor play there in 2015, but this time I'm going to fly out there to be part of the festivities. I'll get to partake in another one of Kier-La Janisse's Saturday Morning Cartoon Cereal parties, as well as some other great programming, including a probable re-watch of one of my 2017 faves Tigers Are Not Afraid.

I'll also get to sample Alberta beef right from the source! Excited!!!

Coupla Things!

I'm just dropping in with a few announcements. The 58th edition of Little Terrors will be happening January 31st and has a ton of great shorts, including my latest project, The Good Samaritan!

Art by Darryl Shaw

Also, HexFest unveiled the new poster for this year's event and it is pretty, pretty, pretty... pretty sweet!

Art by Susana Vilchez.

For info on HXFF, click here. See you tomorrow for a new VHS Friday.

TGS Premiere.

It was a fabulous weekend. The Good Samaritan, the short film that I wrote and produced for my longtime collaborator Darrin Suzuki screened at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival last Saturday.

Director Darrin Suzuki, actress Storm Steenson & I with programmer Peter Kuplowsky (left)

We were extremely fortunate to play to a packed house at the Scotiabank Theatre, due to us having been paired with the highly anticipated Korean action flick The Villainess. Our short seemed to go over well - nobody booed which is always a plus - and Darrin & I came away feeling pretty chuffed about it.

Clowning around with Taddy!

Now, onto the next!

After Dark 2017

Toronto After Dark unleashes its horrifying wares upon Toronto this evening. Among them is Saturday's premiere of my newest short made in collaboration with my good friend Darrin Suzuki.

Come on out and say hi if you are able. As for things here, aside from a brief look-in tomorrow for obvious reasons, I'll be swept up in the festivities all weekend so you likely won't hear from me for a bit. Until then, stay safe kiddies.

Also of Note.

Now that the Toronto After Dark titles have finally been released, I can also announce that the short film I wrote & produced for my good friend, Darrin Suzuki is also playing this year's fest.

Again, I am ecstatic to have something playing a festival so near and dear to me. I think this will be screening a year almost to the day that we were running around the fields & forests of Clarington, Ontario shooting it. If you happen to be in the GTA on Saturday the 14th at 6pm, come on out to the Scotiabank!

Thx

Happy Canadian Turkey Day everyone! I have emerged from the other side of this weekend's short film shoot feeling pretty good about things. There were no shortage of challenges, but we all persevered. I worked with a bunch of new faces this time around, and can't wait to hopefully work with them again at some point in the future.

Mostly, I'm just relieved that the hard stuff is behind us now, and I can concentrate on my regular October celebrations. With both Toronto After Dark and Horror-Rama coming up this week, it's gonna get busy here very shortly. Stay tuned!

Please Excuse The Interruption.

I've been busy preparing for an upcoming shoot, so posts will be a little thin until next week. It sucks because it's October and there's plenty of stuff I could be writing about, but hey, there's only so many hours in the day right?