The Bloor Cinema was shut down last year for remodeling and has reopened as the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema. Toronto After Dark Film Festival has returned to the venue by hosting a pair of screenings this summer. Usually reserved for October, the Festival wanted to give those that can’t wait a chance to come out and enjoy some horror, sci-fi, cult and actions films.
We at Xavierpop love the Toronto After Dark Fest (and it shows by our reviews of every film last year) and are very happy for this summer tease. It is perfect timing as the city is alive with culture around the Canada Day Long Weekend and the fest is a perfect. So on Wednesday, June 27 and then two weeks later on Wednesday, July 11 head on over to the Hot Docs Cinema to catch some great films.
To start the festivities off, the June 27th movies are the Juan of the Dead and The Pact.
Juan of the Dead is a Cuban produced dark comedy about the island nation being overrun by zombies. Although the title closely mimics Simon Pegg‘s Shaun of the Dead, beyond having dark humor, and zombies, and being shot on an island, that is where similarities end.
The Pact is about an unsettling presence emerges in a woman’s childhood home as she tries to unravels a mystery in the wake of her mother’s death. Offering a slow burn with a strong ending, this promises to be a dark ghost story.
The second night of films (July 11th) includes Detention and V/H/S.
Detention is a genre smashing tour de force featuring a group of high-schoolers trying to catch a serial killer with the help of some time travel, all whilst stuck in detention on prom night!
V/H/S is about a group of kids that break into a house, finding a VHS tape that includes some things they did not bargain for. An anthology of five shorts uses found footage editing to tell it’s stories.
Individual Film Tickets are $13 each, with discounts for Bloor Cinema Members ($11), buying Double Feature packs ($22), or Summer All-Access (4-Pack Passes) ($39) and also come with the added benefit of Priority Seating. The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema is located at 506 Bloor St West at Bathurst.
Mike Kellerman (Michael McKiddy) awakens during a zombie outbreak. Horrified at what he sees, he starts running for his life. However, as he is running it slowly dawns on him that they are not attacking him. It is not until he comes across Brent Guthrie (Ross Kidder), he realizes what the audience already knows, they are both zombies.
Thus begins DeadHeads by brother directors Brett and Drew T. Pierce. While thinking, talking zombies may seem an odd backdrop to use for a buddy picture, the directors use the idea very well and to great effect with a wry humor that belies the serious nature of being one of the undead. The two newly found friends decide that Mike needs to find the woman he was to marry. So with hunters trying to capture them and a third zombie aptly named Cheese (Markus Taylor) in tow, they set off in search of love.
Trailers can mislead an audience in regards to the content of a film or the quality. It is now common practice that a film that isn’t very funny will often times put the best jokes in the trailer. So after seeing the trailer for Dead Heads, I went in with some hesitation. Not only was I pleasantly surprised that the jokes in the trailer were not the best ones, they were by no means the only ones.
The jokes come fast and timely, keeping well within the constraints of what the filmmakers set out to achieve. Not only are the situations unique and funny, the running commentary of perennial jokester Brent only enhances what could have been an otherwise pedestrian movie. It is a tribute to the actors and the director to have put together this story in such a way as it has. Every scene has purpose and intent, fitting well within the entire plotline. The ending may be predictable, however like every good road trip movie, the destination isn’t really the point.
The cinematography is well done. While not visually stunning, it is not meant to be and that makes it an easy film to watch. The soundtrack is in the same vein. Sleek and professional, it gives just the right touch to the comedy on film. And let me say, if you are a fan of dark humor, you will find this very funny. I find myself wanting to compare this to iconic and beloved “Shaun of the Dead” as I’m sure some might want to do because the humour is just as good. It is a bit different though, more North American.
There was gore aplenty to satisfy horror fans mixed with more than a few jokes about appendages not staying attached to our heroes and other complexities of being undead. We are also peppered with more than a few 80′s references, and they come fast and without warning. So pay attention.
The real fun is the witty banter between the two leads with Ross Kidder in many cases stealing the show. The idea of two zombies walking to find true love is too farfetched and whimsical to be taken very seriously, yet the actors and directors know this and have embraced this by simply telling it as one long farcical joke. At no pint do you find yourself laughing at it, only with it.
DeadHeads will not go down in history as one of the best comedies ever made, but it will give you a good laugh and a fun time. What else do you need from a comedy?
If this happens, then one of the coolest shows on TV just upped their game to Mad Men level.
While speaking at a panel recently at SXSW Film Festival, Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright let it slip that Frank Darabont had asked him to do an episode of The Walking Dead.
AND HER TURNED HIM DOWN.
Well sort of.
He has a good rationale behind the decision:
Frank asked me to do a Walking Dead, actually, But I feel that there’s some subject matter that, like, even though it’d be great – and I love that show…I actually watched four of the six episodes uninterrupted in one run; it was like zombie Pringles. I think that with something like that, with some TV shows, you wanna be in on the ground floor.
Wright added that he “wouldn’t wanna be the guy that comes in and fucks it up”
source - TotalFilm.com.
I don’t know about you, however Shaun of the Dead came out of nowhere for me. It was funny, smart and a spot-on take off of the zombie film genre. In my opinion, if the Shaun of the Dead had not happened, zombie films would still be on the fringe and not the Box Office powerhouses that they are.
So what’s next?
Aliens, that’s what.
This one is notsomuch a movie within a movie, it’s more of a two guys driving an RV crash into an Alien driving a car then have to drive him to his rendez-vous point so he can be picked up by his alien brothers type of film.
I started watching this trailer and I was pretty close to writing it off. It looked a bit off for the first moments, then BAM, we got what we came for.
I should have known better because with Superbad/Adventureland director Greg Mottola helming this film we have someone who is more capable of capturing the nerd characters that Simon Pegg and Nick Frost play perfectly well together. With the inclusion of Seth Rogen as the alien’s voice and Amy Adams as the ditzy woman who comes along for the ride, we’ve got ourselves a BBQ.
Here’s the thing I am most looking forward to: Jason Bateman is playing the FBI agent hunting them down.
Here is the trailer :
Here is the synopsis:
Simon Pegg and Nick Frost reunite for the comedy adventure Paul as two sci-fi geeks whose pilgrimage takes them to America’s UFO heartland. While there, they accidentally meet an alien who brings them on an insane road trip that alters their universe forever. For the past 60 years, an alien named Paul (voiced by Seth Rogen) has been hanging out at a top-secret military base. For reasons unknown, the space-travelling smart ass decides to escape the compound and hop on the first vehicle out of town—a rented RV containing Earthlings Graeme Willy (Pegg) and Clive Collings (Frost). Chased by federal agents and the fanatical father of a young woman that they accidentally kidnap, Graeme and Clive hatch a fumbling escape plan to return Paul to his mother ship. And as two nerds struggle to help, one little green man might just take his fellow outcasts from misfits to intergalactic heroes.
source - /Film.
