Heather (Alexandra Daddario) is menaced by Leatherface (Dan Yeager)
TEXAS CHAINSAW 3D
Starring Alexandra Daddario, Trey Songz, and Tania Raymonde
Directed by John Luessenhop
Written by Adam Marcus & Debra Sullivan and Kirsten Elms
VVS Films
Nearly 40 years after its release, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is no longer “just” a horror classic. It is a brand, with the direct sequel Texas Chainsaw 3D, out today, just the latest iteration in a line of sequels, prequels, and remakes. The fact that this new Chainsaw manages to draw fresh blood makes it all the more impressive because, really, who thought this might actually be good?
Starring Aneurin Barnard, Wunmi Mosaku and James Cosmo
Written and directed by Ciaran Foy
Mongrel Media
With the DLB about to become a father himself, the Irish horror film Citadel (which was mostly filmed in Glasgow) – about a single father trying to protect his infant daughter against evil – hit home pretty hard, even if its foundation is not quite rock solid.
Aneurin Barnard stars as Tommy Cowley, a young father left to raise his infant daughter Emma alone when his pregnant wife is attacked by a gang of hooded thugs in their crumbling council estate high rise. She is left comatose and he is left a single father crippled by agoraphobia. Tommy is helped by a caring (and attractive) nurse (Mosaku), but an encounter with a volatile priest (Cosmo) leaves him fearing for his and Emma’s safety as the thugs – who may in fact not quite be human – return.
Barnard is utterly convincing as the fearful Tommy. Beyond the makeup that makes him look as though he has not slept in a year, Barnard radiates sheer terror but also evinces a steely strength as a poor young dad who will do anything to protect the only family he has left.
Writer-director Ciaran Foy, making his feature debut, is smart enough not to reveal too much too soon. The nature of the hooded creatures that attack Tommy remains mysterious until near the film’s end, and Foy drops enough strange visual cues (empty buses, deserted streets, half-glimpsed horrors) to evoke Adrian Lyne’s classic mindfuck film Jacob’s Ladder. Things get a bit silly at the end as Tommy and the priest face off against a high rise full of the feral things, with back story filled in a bit too quickly by the priest, but the end result is mostly horrifying.
With its near-apocalyptic vision suburban blight and a creeping sense of menace, Citadel is one of most dread-filled (and least dreadful) horror films of 2012.
Rating: 3.5/5
Citadel opens in Toronto at Yonge & Dundas, with more cities to follow.
Starring Kathryn Newton, Matt Shively and Katie Featherston
Directed by Ariel Schulman & Henry Joost
Written by Christopher Landon
Paramount
Rue Morgue Magazine received a lot of incredulous feedback when they published my review of the first Paranormal Activity film. I had written that it was the scariest filmgoing experience I had ever had; that was misinterpreted as “Paranormal Activity is the scariest movie ever made.”
It is true: the Paranormal Activity films are best experienced in a movie theatre, which is why Paramount uses night vision footage of screaming preview audiences to hype each new film.
So it will be interesting to see how audiences react to PA4. The guy to my left at last night’s screening was talking, checking his email and texting throughout, and said, “Thank God that’s over” at the end, while the four teen guys to my right were vocal about their enthusiasm for each set piece. (“Bitch got owned!” greeted the death of one character.)
Voice cast includes Charlie Tahan, Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara
Directed by Tim Burton
Written by John August
Disney
It is slightly ironic that 30 years after Disney allegedly fired then fledgling animator Tim Burton for wasting their money making his (somewhat) macabre short movie Frankenweenie that the studio would hire the iconoclastic director to flesh out the concept in stop-motion and at feature-length. But Burton’s legacy of creativity and profit (he returned to the Mouse House to direct Alice in Wonderland) means that the professional oddball can pretty much do what he wants, with or without Johnny Depp.
The DLB recently spoke to Russell Cherrington, the restoration director of Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut, the extended/re-purposed version of Clive Barker’s notoriously troubled second film as a director, for MSN Canada. You can read that article here.
Cherrington, alongside Mark Miller from Barker’s Seraphim Films and effects animator Paul Jones, will be in Toronto tonight (July 19) to present the new Nightbreed as part of Rue Morgue Magazine‘s Cinemacabre film series. The screening starts at 9pm and takes place at the TIFF Bell Lightbox (350 King St. West).
28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo’s follow-up film Intruders hits DVD/Blu-ray after receiving only a limited theatrical release this spring, and we recommend it to rent. The dark fantasy film stars Clive Owen (Closer) as a father whose daughter Mia is being terrorized at night by a figure in her room she calls Hollow Face. A parallel story shows a boy in Spain dealing with the same monster. There’s a connection we won’t give away, but figuring it out is half the fun.
I got the chance to talk to Fresnadillo about Intruders at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
Toronto After Dark returns to The Bloor Cinema tonight for the final installment of its summer series. First up, at 7 pm, is music video director Joseph Kahn’s Detention. The Hunger Games‘ Josh Hutcherson stars in this horror comedy about a killer stalking the halls of Grizzly Lake, and reviews have been surprisingly positive.
The cast of Detention
Next up, at 9:45pm is V/H/S. A found footage anthology film that scared the shit out of Sundance audiences, it sees a group of thieves screening a series of disturbing videotapes during the search for a piece of rare footage. Directors on the film include David Bruckner, Glenn McQuaid, Ti West, Chad Villella, Justin Martinez, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Nicholas Tecosky, Simon Barrett and Tyler Gillett.
Starring Barbara Hershey, Ron Silver and David Labiosa
Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Written by Frank De Felitta
Anchor Bay
Despite online chatter that an Entity remake is on the way (allegedly helmed by Ringu director Hideo Nakata), I find that hard to imagine. First, what studio is going to finance a movie about a malevolent spirit that repeatedly rapes the leading lady? Secondly, which actress would be brave enough to step into the shoes of the original’s star, Barbara Hershey? While not perfect by any means, the original Entity remains a disturbing film made in a bolder time, and a new version would likely be toothless by comparison.
For all those Torontonians (or Southern Ontarians) who have only ever seen Jaws on video or DVD, get yourself to the TIFF Bell Lightbox ASAP to experience Steven Spielberg’s classic horror show in all its digitally remastered glory. The theatre is showing the version of the film being released on Blu-ray August 14, and it looks and sounds amazing, having had itself digitally scrubbed.
I attended the press screening sitting beside Jason from FilmFest.ca who basically said he were about to see God onscreen, and he was right. Show times and info is available here.
Tim Burton fans in and around Toronto later this summer who are eager to get a look at the director’s new film Frankenweenie ahead of its October 5 release have another reason to visit Fan Expo this August.
