Last Updated on July 27, 2021

AITH/JOBLO.COM DO
 TORONTO AFTER DARK!

Part 1 of 2

Intro: Today,
I headed down to the legendary Bloor Cinema in Toronto for the first annual
Toronto After Dark Festival excited as hell. The Toronto After Dark Festival
is a festival strictly for fans of international horror, sci-fi and fantasy
films, and the line up is very eclectic. Fans will get everything from
Swedish vampires to superhuman ninjas. Most of these films are also
Canadian and North American premieres, which is pretty sweet!

The Bloor Theatre…where it
all went down!

Festival Director Adam Lopez and I

Tonight, I was able to see Special, a movie that was a hit at this
year’s Sundance Festival, and thankfully had the same positive reaction at
the TADF festival as well. I was also able to chill out and relax at the
opening gala party at The Mod Club and got to hang out with true
movie geek fans and filmmakers. There’s still four more days and I will be
reviewing each and every film. I hope you enjoy the coverage!

Special

Rating: 3/4
Directors: Hal Haberman and Jeremy Passmore
Starring: Michael Rapaport,
Paul Blackthorne

Special is
a uniquely dark comedy about an ordinary man named Les (played by the
notorious “second banana” Michael Rapaport) who volunteers to take an
anti-depression drug called Special. After taking the drug for
awhile, Les soon discovers he has super powers. He can fly, read people’s
minds, and walk through walls. What Les doesn’t know, is that these
“powers” are only happening in his head. His friends must stop him from
taking the drugs, before Les completely loses his mind.

Here’s
a movie I believed would be a pure comedy. I was very, very wrong.
Special may start off as a hilarious and unique take on the superhero
genre, but then it soon turns into a very dark drama. After laughing at Les
for the first half because he was tackling innocent people, wearing a
ridiculous white leather suit as his superhero costume, and running into
walls, the laughs quickly stop. You soon feel sorry for this man, because
he’s undoubtedly losing his mind, and it becomes sad to watch this man
deteriorate from the once ordinary “Joe blow” his once was.

This is
by far Michael Rapaport’s best performance since Higher Learning.
This movie is the reason why he should be getting more lead roles in other
films. All of the other acting was on the ball as well. The two comic book
geek brothers were great as the supportive best friends of Les, and the
romance subplot involving Les and the quiet cashier, Maggie (Alexandra
Holden) was also sweet and enduring. (Although I think there should have
been more with them in the movie.)

Running
at a mere 81 minutes, Special surprisingly did move slow at parts,
and there were a couple of plot holes that I’m sure the audience will
question after watching the movie, although it’s faults didn’t outweigh it’s
pros. This is a unique movie not only about becoming something
special, but also about a man’s longing to feel special in his ordinary
life. A must see for movie fans!

Frostbite

Rating: 3/4

Director: Andres Banke
Starring: Petra Nielsen, Grete Havneskold

This
slick vampire movie starts in World War II where a small group of unlucky
soldiers hide in an abandoned cabin, only to realize they have chosen a
cabin inhabited by vampires.

The
story then jumps to present day where Saga and her mother, Annika have moved
way up North in Sweden (where night lasts for months) because Annika hopes
to work for a famous doctor who specializes in genetic science. What Annika
doesn’t know is that there’s something very strange about the great doctor,
and when a teenage orderly takes home these pills the doctor carries around,
all hell and blood lets loose!

When
I had heard this movie was more of a vampire comedy than a straight horror
film, I had my doubts. I went into the film with low expectations, and came
out happy. Sure, this vampire flick was more of a comedy, (loved the flower
shadow sequence) but when it came to the horror, these vamps didn’t hold
back. There was plenty of gore and bloodsucking for those who are fans of
the vampire genre.

I was
really blown away by the special effects in the movie. It’s been a long
time since audiences have seen vampires that aren’t completely computer
generated, and Frostbite made the vampires look truly vicious.

However, there were some elements of the movie that didn’t work for me.
Sometimes in the film, when it could have been a frightening moment, it
instead played the scene for laughs. (That talking dog was totally
unnecessary in my opinion.) Also, as stupid as teenagers can be, I don’t
think so many kids would be taking this “mystery drug” at a party without
knowing what the drug was. (Come on! Teenagers aren’t that dumb!)

Frostbite
is a great horror film for it is able to poke fun and yet embrace the
vampire genre at the same time. As long as you go in not expecting anything
too serious, you’ll have a fun time. This Swedish vampire flick has some
serious bite!

Shinobi

Rating: 3/4

Director: Ten Shimoyama
Cast: Yuki Nakama, Jo Odagiri

In this visually stunning action flick, two members of
opposite Shinobi clans named Gennosuke and Oboro fall in love with one
another. The Shinobi happen to be super-human ninjas with amazing powers.
Scared of both clans’ powers, the shogun Hattori Hanzo orders a war between
both groups to the death with Gennosuke and Oboro leading both clans. It’s
Romeo and Juliet meets X-men with ninjas!

A very
entertaining thrill ride of a movie that kept my attention for most its
running time. The film supplied great fighting scenes, remarkable chemistry
between the two star-crossed lovers, and amazing cinematography. The best
part of the movie for me was seeing the two opposite clans finally duke it
out with their super human powers. We get characters that can shape-shift,
break all of your bones in your body by just one glance, poison you with
just one kiss, and one character that is plagued with immortality. There
are many more powers, but you have to see it for yourself. Talking about
them doesn’t do it justice.

Despite
being glued to the screen, I did have a few issues with it. The fact that
this film’s main plotline is about two Romeo and Juliet-like lovers, it
spent little to no time developing the love story between them. I just
didn’t care enough for these two characters. I didn’t feel the passion or
the angst they felt for one another. Also, there were way too many shots of
the scenery during this film. (We get it’s a beautiful setting, now move on
with the story!) Finally, I felt the final battle to be very anti-climatic
considering the nature of this film.

Overall, I have to say this movie was very interesting despite its flaws.
It’s not everyday movie goers get to see ninjas with superpowers onscreen,
so I was very happy to see something so different from the mainstream
kung-fu movies we see today. Shinobi is an entertaining
action-adventure flick that will most likely have a cult following in the
near future.

Retribution

Rating:
2/4

Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Cast:
Koji Yakusho,
Manami Konishi

Detective Yoshioka (Koji Yakusho) is assigned to investigate a series of
grisly drownings. After a while, he soon discovers evidence that
unfortunately points to him as a suspect to the murders. Not only that, but
he is constantly haunted by a lady ghost dressed in red who is hell bent on
scaring the living sh*t out of him. Plenty of drownings in salt water and
salty tears of boredom ensues.

Is
anyone truly frightened by the Japanese ghost woman who haunts people
anymore? In my opinion, it’s so tired and done, and I wish they would stop
making these movies or at least put a little more creativity into them.
Well-known director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, (who has directed Cure and Kairo),
filmed this movie but to be quite honest, this movie isn’t covering any new
grounds when it comes to the Japanese horror genre. This movie is very slow
paced, and usually I don’t mind if I know the movie is going to pick up, but
it never does and it becomes quite boring to watch.

There
were some good things about the movie however. It had a very strong cast and
smart and witty dialogue, and some of the scares worked effectively.
Unfortunately, most of the scares did not work very well. The “lady in red”
did not invoke fear into me, in fact she caused me (and most of the audience
members) to laugh out loud whenever she was trying to scare the detective.

This
Japanese horror movie may not be my cup of tea, but if you enjoy these sort
of psychological thrillers, then by all means go see it. Although, if you’re
looking for something a little more original and not so dated, then it would
be better to skip this one. (I’m crossing my fingers that this doesn’t
become an American remake in the future.)
 

The Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell

Rating:3/4

Directors: Jonny Gilette and Kevin Wheatley
Cast: Kevin Wheatley, Jamie Bullock

The year is 2097 A.D. Twenty years ago, America was
destroyed in a nuclear holocaust. The few “lucky” survivors finally emerge
from hiding. Tex Kennedy leads the adventure with his two loyal robot
bodyguards, Quincy and Yul, and deceivingly innocent looking, “Cannibal Sue”
on the quest to find and appoint the new king to rule New America.

I have
to commend the filmmaker/writer Kevin Wheatley for thinking of such a
creative, inventive and well thought out idea for a movie. I can honestly
say, I have NEVER seen anything like this before. The movie opens like a
short movie sequence in the Sly Cooper video games, and I was hooked
from then on. It meshes the perfect amount of horror, sci-fi, comedy, and
political satire to please any indie fan. I was also pleased to see the
surprise celebrity cameos by Jane Seymour and Daniel Baldwin that did very
well in their limited screen time.

Although the film has very interesting and compelling characters (the spawn
of Satan, the great grandson of Fidel Castro, and killer surfers to name a
few) I felt some of the acting was not as impressive as the rest of the
film. At some points, it took me out of the movie and made me wince.

I also
thought there were way too many characters to follow in just one film
Cutting out a few storylines and leaving them for future sequels would have
made this a much more tighter film.
Beach Party at the Threshold
of Hell is
Wizard of Oz meets Sin City. It’s also the first of a planned
trilogy that I will be certainly looking forward to. Definitely a cult film
in the making!

Vengeance

Rating: 2.5/4
Director: Preaw Sirsuwan
Cast: Andy Tungkaprasert, Chalad Na Songkhla

When a
group of thieves head to Thailand’s North Border, a determined and vengeful
cop (who is connected to the gang leader and the priest he killed) leads his
squad into a mystical jungle full of unfortunate surprises such as tiger
wasps, killer lady fruit, snakes, and shape-shifting. Let the
action/adventure begin!

This
film is able to create the same eerie elements and atmosphere best used in
other jungle horror films such as Predator and Anaconda. It
also has an incredible amount of supernatural creatures to keep any horror
buff’s attention. Although, I would have to say that is also the film’s
biggest flaw. Vengeance doesn’t have the
budget to be the movie the director most likely envisioned.

Its CGI
makes the creatures used in Van Helsing look real. (Yeah..that bad!)
It kept the audience’s attention merely for laughs. (Gotta love those
crocodile/lizard creatures) It’s only when the film uses special effects and
make-up to enhance the creatures’ appearances when the audience took the
horror seriously.

Unfortunately, those times were far and few in between and I would have
opted for more of those F/X shots.
Vengeance
is good, ol cheesy B-movie
fun that isn’t meant to be taken too seriously. Go in with low expectations
and you’ll come out happy!
 

How I looked….after the
Festival!

STAY
TUNED FOR PART 2 OF THIS REPORT SOON!