So, Is This Hour Dark Or Cold?

Whew. This is literally the first opportunity I’ve had to update you on what’s been going on the last few days. All my time not spent in theatres, has either been in bars, sleeping, or driving in between the two. It has all been worth it though, as this year’s Toronto After Dark has been a bloody good time so far. The opening movie Black Dynamite, a blaxploitation spoof, was absolutely hilarious and the party afterwards was a whirlwind of revelry and great conversation.

The first actual genre movie I took in was on Saturday afternoon. It was a Spanish film called The Dark Hour. Or was it The Cold Hour? I guess it depends on whether you go by the poster or the subtitling on the print. Not really sure what was going on there, as The Cold Hour made more sense, but you know how these marketing types get sometimes. Anywho…

The last survivors of an apocalypse try to exist in an underground bunker. Not only do they have to contend with infected ‘strangers’, but also a frozen presence that roams the halls at night.

Let’s start off with the positive, shall we? The production design was fantastic in this film. The bunker where the film takes place looks worn and lived in and really made me glad of the sunlight outside the theatre afterwards. The acting is also strong, especially that of the child protagonist, Jesús (Omar Muñoz). This seems to be a regular theme with Spanish genre films and they often excel because they seem to have a deep pool of child talent to pull from over there. The creature designs – what you see of them – were also well done and the film had surprisingly good CG for a production this size. The ending was definitely one of the visual high points of the piece.

Unfortunately, there is a lot of stuff that detracts from The Dark Hour. I think the pace hurts the film a little bit. It is not that I have a problem with films that take their time (The Eclipse, a film I recently saw at Fantasia was perhaps the slowest film I’ve seen in a while, but always engaging), but The Dark Hour never seemed to get going for me. It often meandered, never focusing on one thing for long enough to clock into it emotionally. It also didn’t help that I had a really hard distinguishing the male characters from one another. I need more than just the dudes having different degrees of facial hair to tell them apart. Even a subsequent discussion outside the theatre didn’t help sort out who was who.

Am I crazy?

It seems to me that there was a much better movie in here somewhere. I think if the filmmakers had decided on one direction and went with it, I would have been more receptive. This movie is certainly watchable fare, but compared to some of the solid stuff the Spaniards have been putting out in recent years (The Orphanage, [REC] & Shiver), The Dark Hour fell a little short for me.

Agreed!

The Sun Goes Down Friday Night.

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival begins its fourth year this Friday. This festival is always a fantastic time and I'm looking forward to seeing how it performs in its new time slot - the previous three years, the fest has been in October. To mark the coming festivities I have a new Coverbox Wednesday for you. As for a theme, I figured I'd take the term After Dark literally. Enjoy!

Couldn't she just close the door?

Aka The Robert Pattinson fan club.

I'll be posting about the fest all next week, so be sure to check in. Hope to see you when the lights go down. For more info on the festival, click here.

Not A Bad Haul.

So, the Toronto Film Race awards were announced late last night. Snip, the film that Schwartz & I submitted, placed 2nd! We also came away with the Audience Award and Best Writing and Best Set Design honours. Thanks to all who viewed and/or voted for Snip. It was a total blast and we're already planning our next project, so stay tuned. If you want to see who took the rest of the awards, or perhaps watch the other finalists' entries (personally I think Harsh Light Of Day should have taken the top prize), then click HERE.

Thanks again for all your support!

Don't Kill The Messenger XXVII

Okay, it's been a while since I've done one of these, so let's get right into it, shall we?

Blu-ray Moon.

One of the greats is getting the Blu-ray treatment next month. On September 15, John Landis' horror comedy staple An American Werewolf In London hits the Hi-Def shelf. But wait, there's more. Not only do you get all the great content from the already comprehensive 2004 DVD release, but you also get two more documentaries. The first is with legendary make-up man Rick Baker reminiscing about his love of the fictional lycanthrope and the second is Paul Davis' AWIL doc Beware The Moon that has been touring the festivals of late. With the previously announced release of Richard Stanley's Hardware, September looks like its gonna be a stellar month for genre home video.

Resurrected Ricci.

During the week, DirtyRobot likes to play 'Let's give Jay a coronary at his desk', by sending me random links over FB chat. Like this one for instance.

It's a newly released pic of Christina Ricci looking all hot and undead from her upcoming flick After.Life. In it, she plays a girl who is held captive by mad scientist Liam Neeson. It sounds like Deadgirl, except without all the tastelessness. Click here for the rest of the pictures, courtesy of io9.

The Night Of The Living Medium.

The Inevitable Zombie Apocalypse posted an interesting piece of news last week. Apparently, Patricia Arquette's long running television show Medium is doing a Halloween episode where Arquette's character is going to be inserted into the horror classic The Night Of The Living Dead. I don't know how that's going to work, but I'm intrigued. I've never watched an episode of the show, but I'll certainly check this one out. Click here for the original post on IZA.

Trailer Round-Up.

There have been a shit-ton of trailers popping up over the last week or so. I'll leave you with this trio.

Friday Two-Fer.

I've got a few thoughts rattling around the old noggin about two recent releases - Jennifer Chambers Lynch’s Surveillance and David Twohy’s A Perfect Getaway – so I figured I’d just throw them together in one post. First up is Surveillance.

The details of a deadly altercation on a desert highway are told to a pair of FBI agents (Bill Pullman & Julia Ormond) through the testimony of three separate witnesses.

Every once and a while, I have a hard time gauging how much I like a film. It usually happens when I’m watching one and find myself, for whatever reason, about fourty-five minutes ahead of the characters in it. I remember also stuggling with this issue during my experience with Bill Paxton’s 2001 film Frailty. Everything else about the production is great, but you have that nagging twinge about being cheated out of the finale because the filmmakers didn’t play their cards close enough to their chest. Aside from that though, Surveillance is a pretty good flick.

The first act is very reminiscent of the work of her father, right down to the mannerisms of eccentric FBI agent Sam Hallaway (Pullman). After the setup though, Chambers Lynch strikes out on her own. In some odd/inspired casting, Michael Ironside, Hugh Dillon, French Stewart and former SNL alumni Cheri Oteri show up in supporting roles. And last, but certainly not least, Julia Ormond puts in a strong performance as Hallaway’s partner Liz Anderson. A thing that struck me after watching the film was why it was called Surveillance. At first, it seems appropriate, but that whole angle is all but abandoned halfway through the film. Like I said before, Surveillance’s only downfall is its inherent obviousness. Regardless, it is safe to say Jennifer Lynch has fully rebounded from Boxing Helena, a film which seemingly kept her out of action until now.

Now, onto A Perfect Getaway, a screening I fell into by chance. I went to the theatre to see the documentary The Cove, but they oversold it, so they offered me tickets to Getaway instead. Being that I generally see ANYTHING with Milla Jovovich in it anyway, this was not a tough sell.

Cliff & Cydney (Steve Zahn & Milla Jovovich) are honeymooning in Hawaii, when they hook up with fellow trail-walkers Nick & Gina (Timothy Olyphant & Kiele Sanchez). As they get further and further into the bush, Nick & Gina’s behaviour gets a little odd. What’s worse is there is news of a serial-killing couple on the loose nearby.

I wasn’t aware that it was directed by David Twohy (Pitch Black, Below) until the opening credits, so that was a nice surprise. What makes the movie work for the most part is the great cast, the best of which is Olyphant (or 'Olyphantastic' as Kevin Smith once referred to him in one of his An Evening With performances). He really takes the role that was handed to him and runs with it. There is a great deal of self referential dialogue which I can usually take or leave, but the delivery sells it for the most part. Another important point I must make is how brilliantly the Hawaiian islands are showcased in this movie. It's going to make for a gorgeous Blu-Ray. I have to say though that A Perfect Getaway was somewhat of a frustrating experience because I feel that to get to its conclusion, Twohy engages in some dishonest misdirection.

As far as survival thrillers go, this is a good effort, but I still can’t help feeling that it comes off the rails at the end though, as some of the setup just doesn’t gel with its payoff.

Halloween Tales Long Overdue

The final film to round out my amazing trip to Montreal was fittingly a little title you may have heard of called Trick ‘r Treat. If you’ve spent anytime visiting horror websites over the last three years, you no doubt know of this shelved anthology flick. It is a movie that has been awaiting a release for what seems like forever – only John Levine’s All The Boys Love Mandy Lane can declare it has been waiting longer to see the light of day. Well, it seems that Trick ‘r Treat is finally getting some play. As I said, it showed at Fantasia last week, but it will also screen at Toronto After Dark this month and hopefully release on DVD this Halloween.


Four intertwined stories about all manner of things that go bump in the night unfold in a sleepy Ohio town on Halloween night.

I’ve stated before that I love anthologies and Trick 'r Treat is a perfect example of what makes them so appealing to me. Director Michael Dougherty orchestrates a quartet of stories while maintaining a clever thread throughout. A horror anthology usually employs some sort of wraparound or narrator, but Trick ‘r Treat takes this one step further by – in addition to some animated Creepshow-inspired transitions – staging all its stories in the same town on the same night. Characters from each of the four stories weave in and out of each other and events are seen from different perspectives. The real strength of Trick ‘r Treat is how it plays with convention. Some things are easier to spot than others, but I guarantee that you will be ‘tricked’ at least once. The ensemble cast here is solid, as well. Going beyond the always sexy Anna Paquin, there are several other familiar faces like Dylan Baker, Leslie Bibb, Brian Cox and Tahmoh Penikett. Oh, did I mention Anna Paquin appears in a Little Red Riding Hood costume?


I think it is goes without saying that Trick ‘r Treat deserved a wide theatrical release. I understand that some of the subject matter might not have sat well with the studio/censors, but guess what? It’s time to fucking grow up! After seeing some of the shit slung into theatres instead, I implore them to look themselves in the mirror and say they made a good decision here.

You shit the bed! Bad studio!!!

I really don’t have a negative thing to say about Trick ‘r Treat, but I still can’t say it rocked my world either. I suppose it's possible that I may have been expecting too much by having had to wait so long to see it, but there is no question that Trick ‘r Treat delivers the goodies.