Toronto’s favourite genre film festival kicks off its 7th great year tonight, back at its old home the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. Presenting 20 feature films and, just as exciting to me, 29 short films over its 9 day run, the Toronto After Dark Film Festival is definitely a high point of the year for fans of sci-fi, horror, action and “cult” movies. As always, I’ve got my eye on a few things.
- Thursday October 18, 6:45pm Grabbers – an Irish horror-comedy about a village plagued by bloodsucking tentacled aliens. Turns out (of course!) that staying drunk provides some protection. Most Irish films have a lot of fun with stereotypes (The Guard and Zonad being two recent examples), so Grabbers should be good fun for this Irish lad.
- Saturday October 20, 3:45pm Shorts After Dark – a showcase of 9 sci-fi, horror, action and “cult” short films from around the world, including Bobby Yeah, one I’ve been trying to see for a while.
- Sunday October 21, 3:45pm Lloyd the Conqueror – a comedy about LARPers (Live-Action Role Players)? I enjoyed that element of Role Models quite a bit so this could be funny. Plus, it features Mike Smith, better known as Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys.
- Tuesday October 23, 6:45pm My Amityville Horror – when I was growing up in the ’70s, the allegedly true book (and then film) The Amityville Horror scared the crap out of me. Then I heard its story of a real haunted house was all a hoax. This film seems to refute that. Intrigued, to say the least.
- Thursday October 25, 9:45pm Wrong – I thought director Quentin Dupieux’s last feature Rubber (which I saw at After Dark!) was just about the craziest thing I’d seen that year. That’s enough to get me interested in this.
- Friday October 26, 6:45pm A Fantastic Fear of Everything – Simon Pegg as a children’s book author turned crime novelist who begins freaking himself out. Yes.
The fun starts tonight, so what are you waiting for? See you AFTER DARK!