THE LAST EXORCISM Review

[With the film releasing tomorrow now's the time to revisit my review of The Last Exorcism.]Do not hold the marketing campaign for Daniel Stamm's The Last Exorcism against it. It is not Stamm's fault that marketers opted to sell the... More »

By Todd Brown

TADFF 10: HEARTLESS Review

"Beauty is the beginning of terror." From that line of poetry/exposition, there is a bit of a promise (and a warning) of things to come in Philip Ridley's dark fairy tale, Heartless. Starting out as a grim London East Side... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

TADFF 10: ALL ABOUT EVIL Review

While introducing a kids matinee performance of The Wizard of Oz (with Dad both the theatre-owner-producer and Mom the Wicked Witch of the West), young Deborah catches a bit of performance anxiety resulting in an embarassing wetness on her Dorothy... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

TADFF 10: CENTURION Review

[The first film playing on a UK double-bill at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival tonite, I suppose it is time to revisit my review. Note there are other takes on the film below in the links.]Michael Fassbender is Centurion... More »

By Andrew Mack

TADFF 10: ALIEN vs. NINJA Review

You gotta love this tagline from The Sushi Typhoon website. IF IT BLEEDS...NINJAS CAN KILL IT!... More »

By Andrew Mack

TADFF 2010: CARGO review

Eight years. 2 million dollars. Swiss.Make it your mantra when watching Cargo. Cause in the time that it took the filmmakers to put together this nifty offering to the Sci-Fi genre other higher profile films have been made, screened and lauded... More »

By Andrew Mack

TADFF 10: PHOBIA 2 Review

[The first 4Bia anthology set was a surprise and a delight at Toronto After Dark several years ago, and they kindly bring the second (and even better) collection of Twilight Zone-y goodness to this years festival. Be sure to attend,... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

TADFF 10: THE LAST LOVECRAFT Review

[Because Toronto's week of genre and cult mayhem, The Toronto After Dark Film Festival (TADFF) is kicking off today, we are re-running Todd's Slamdance review of The Last Lovecraft: Call of Cthulu. Where the Park City sub-festival was also the... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

THE REEDS: Review

These last couple of years there's been a constant stream of British quality horror films. Just to name a few, think of The Children, Mum and Dad, Eden Lake and The Broken. The Reeds is the latest to join that... More »

By Niels Matthijs

Fantastic Fest 09: THE CHILDREN Review

[This review originally appeared when the film screened at Toronto After Dark and reappears now with itès arrival at Fantastic Fest.] Ah, children. They're sweetness and light and all the good things about life. Too bad they can also... More »

By Todd Brown

FantasticFest2009: Trick 'R Treat

[I'm going to bring this review back up from Toronto After Dark because despite any misgivings I may have had about the film I have one thing to say. The Spirit of Halloween is dying in my opinion. Each year... More »

By Andrew Mack

Fantastic Fest 09: THE REVENANT Review

[This review originally ran with the film's appearance at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and reappears now with the screening at Fantastic Fest.] Soldier Bart Gregory is killed while fighting in the Middle East. He is given a military... More »

By Andrew Mack

TIFF 09: THE BAD LIEUTENANT - PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS Review

So is Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans a remake, a sequel, or what? Parse it any way you like (and I shall attempt this) but it is a dynamite piece of satire and perhaps something more. Werner... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

TADFF 09: GRACE Review

Let us put the cards down on the table, shall we? Most horror movies these days aim to titillate, not actually scare. When you are cheering for the victims (or the slasher) to be splattered or carved on screen, this... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

TADFF 09: ROUGH CUT Review

Su-ta is going through a particularly bad patch in his career. He may be a popular film star, but his press has being going sour for a while. He is hiding his current relationship from the paparazzi by reducing it... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

TADFF09: Must Love Death

Norman's getting over a difficult relationship breakup when he meets Jennifer, actually she meets him - with her car - and falls in love all over again. But due to an unfortunate misunderstanding he leaves the city heartbroken and... More »

By Andrew Mack

TADFF 09: THE CHILDREN Review

[Todd has a very different take of the film and we're playing dueling reviews. Read his review here.] "You brought them into this world. Now ... They will take you out" is the, frankly pretty awesome, marketing hook on the... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

TADFF09: Someone's Knocking at the Door

Meant to be a mind fuck from start to finish, the challenging Someone's Knocking at the Door features over the top killer phallus, sexual deviancy, and drug induced hallucinations. A group of drug-taking medical students are shocked over the murder... More »

By Andrew Mack

TADFF 09: Embodiment of Evil

Embodiment of Evil marks José Mojica Marins' return to the big screen as his iconic character Coffin Joe after a decades-long absence. Released from prison after 40 years Coffin Joe continues his search for the woman who will help... More »

By Andrew Mack

TADFF 09: STRIGOI Review

With all the contortions and mutations that the vampire movie has taken in the past 75 (heck, the past 2) years, it is quite refreshing to see that there remains interesting potential in the genre. Take for instance, Faye Jackson's... More »

By Kurt Halfyard

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Leading Voices in Global Cinema

Todd Brown, Founder & Editor Toronto
Peter Martin, Managing Editor Dallas
Ryland Aldrich, Festivals Editor Los Angeles
James Marsh, Asian Editor Hong Kong
Brian Clark, European Editor Paris

Destroy All Monsters: Retire Superman

While the internet is tearing itself apart in its efforts to empirically determine whether Man of Steel "sucks" or "is awesome" - because such things are now apparently possible, given Superman Returns' near-unilateral, and intellectually disturbing, dismissal - I'd like to pause to make a gentler request: may we please... More »

Fifteen Unfilmable Novels And The Directors Who Should Try Anyway

Ah, the 'unfilmable' novel. Go back ten or fifteen years and it seems everyone had some sort of list of great novels that could never be brought to the screen. The limitations at the time were largely technical and in recent years those lists have dwindled with titles such as... More »

Jason Gorber's Cineruminations: On MAN OF STEEL, SuperJesus, and THIS IS THE END's Jewpocalypse

Back in 1933, while Hitler was ascending into power in Germany and diasporic Jews throughout the world looked on with concern, two high school students created one of the most indelible mythical heroes of the last century. Borrowing from the Nietzschean concept of the Übermensch, Joe Shuster and Jerry... More »

Twitchvision: Talking MAN OF STEEL and THIS IS THE END

This is the big week of Superman's return, with Zack Snyder's take on the caped saviour hitting our screens. While my opinion's kind of mixed on the film, there's still plenty to admire about it. I also discuss the overt Jesus imagery throughout, as expanded in a full cineruminations column... More »

70s Rewind: Bridges, Barbra, Bogdanovich, Brynner

Amazon's Prime Instant streaming service is not as well-established as Netflix and has far more modest offerings in off-beat and strange cinema. Still, since I temporarily dropped Netflix, I've been diving deeper into Amazon's catalog, and discovered a good number of films from my favorite movie decade. Here's a selection... More »