[Perry] Tales from After Dark

The past week in Toronto featured the After Dark film festival.

It’s an annual thing. Whole bunch of horror, thriller, and science fiction movies converge on the city for a week and those of strong constitution can take part.

I usually check out at least a couple movies each year with my buddy, but we missed last year as he was in Korea, teaching the heathens how to communicate in english.

He was back this year, though, so we hit it up.

And boy, was the selection ever choice this year.

Just a note to start, though? We didn’t actually end up watching anything that was scary this year, for whatever reason. There was one film, called The Babadook that looked wonderful, but it was sold out almost instantly, and the other actually scary movies didn’t really pique our interest as much as the others ones.

So without further ado, let’s take a look at the pickings this year.

Zombeavers – Trailer here.

I will own up that this one was purely my choice.

But COME ON. Can you blame me? Zombie. Fucking. Beavers. Campy horror doesn’t really get much better than that.

The movie itself was a lot of fun, primarily because the crowd was into it. But, that’s to be expected really, I mean, how many people willingly drop money to watch a movie called Zombeavers in a movie theater? >.>

Still, the movie sold out haha. So we had a theater full of jovial folks to jeer and laugh and groan at the events on screen with us.

The movie itself, I’d rate at a solid 6/10. It’s fun enough that it’s worth dropping a bit of cash for if it’s a social gathering (catching it with like-minded friends), but generally not something you’ll want to spend money on.

Wait for it to come out on Netflix or whatever and have a good time on a rainy afternoon with it.

Predestination – Trailer here.

Wonderful, solid movie. It’s a little bit mind-bending, so this one’s best watched without the side effect of being tipsy.

It plays a little like Minority Report, in which it deals with the idea of preventing crimes and awful things before they happen. But does so in a bit of an interesting, kind of navel gazing way. Follows along one such agent of the time travel bureau as he works to try and identify and stop the “Fizzle Bomber” from setting off his masterwork and killing ten thousand people.

Heard some people complaining about how twisty turny it was on the way out of the theater, but honestly, if you can easily follow along with a movie like Inception? Or The Prestige? This one shouldn’t give you much trouble.

Special mention to Sarah Snook’s performance in this movie as something really, really special.

Time Lapse - Trailer here.

This one and Predestination played on the same night, as a double feature. Which just served to show me that I’m very clearly not a young man anymore and that I can’t do this kind of shit on a work night haha.

In the movie, three friends discover their neighbor has a camera that takes a picture 24 hours in the future. The camera is huge, and set up so that it takes a picture of said friends living room.

They don’t really explain the mechanics of it, and it’s better that they don’t. They gloss over the discovery pretty quickly and jump immediately toward what that means for our heroes and how it affects them.

It was pretty neat stuff. Great performances from the three main characters, and enough twisty turny to keep things interesting without going off the deep-end into navel gazing.

Add in a very neatly avoided paradox situation at some point in the movie and it makes for a wonderful, suspenseful watch.

Wyrmwood – Trailer here.

Note, the scene in the linked trailer wasn’t actually in the movie, but it does a good job of setting up how the movie looks/feels.

Billed as a mix between Dawn of the Dead and Mad Max, the movie certainly delivered on all fronts.

Zany humor, action and a bit of blood, plus a fucked up plot concept leading to some interesting and black humor type moments?

It was quite a fun movie, really.

Keep in mind, though, that it IS an Australian film, so if the accent and understanding it is a problem, you may want to stay away.

Conclusions

Zombeavers: Worth checking out on the cheap. Should prove to be quite the hilarious movie night undertaking with the right group of friends and some liquor. 

Predestination: Wonderful time travel concept. Definitely a bit of a thinking movie but if you’re in the right frame of mind for it? It’s a wonderful movie to check out.

Time Lapse: Not quite as serious and reserved as Predestination, but does a great job of keeping you on the edge of your seat once the story takes off about twenty minutes in.

Wyrmwood: It’s definitely a few steps up from Zombeavers when it comes to gravity and overall quality, but make no mistake, it IS definitely a bit of a campy zombie movie, so go into it with the right expectations and you’ll have a wonderful time with it.

 

 

 

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