Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010: I Spit On Your Grave

While it's certainly flawed, there is absolutely something of value in I Spit On Your Grave. So much so, in fact, that the original - to say nothing of the awful sequels - is hardly worth watching in comparison, and honestly is rendered completely obsolete with Monroe's adaptation. For those looking for Hostel-esque kills and gore, there's certainly lots here, and for those looking for a kick-ass female going to town on the most ignorant bunch of jackasses to grace the screen at After Dark 2010 - well, you're covered there too.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010: The Last Exorcism

First things first – whoever put together the trailer for the Eli Roth-produced exorcism tale, The Last Exorcism needs to get their head straight. Whether painting the film as a scare-a-minute Exorcist retread was the work of a promo team or was the result of an overzealous studio, let me assure you – THEY’RE DOING IT WRONG. The Last Exorcism is a very different kind of exorcism tale than the...

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010: High School

In what’s surely to be one of the most out-of-left-field movies in a festival that resides squarely in the left field, High School brings together a bizarre, very eclectic cast and a screenplay that should be framed on your dealer’s wall.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2010: The Last Lovecraft, Relic of Cthuhlu

The Last Lovecraft is a tough movie to review - on one hand, it seems to have been shot on a budget of about $75 (with $74 reserved for visual effects). Director Henry Saine has devised a tale that will positively infuriate fans of H.P. Lovecraft’s work, transforming Lovecraft’s mythical octopoid alien god Cthuhlu into a badly-rendered tentacle-laden blob (that is, when you finally do see it). On the other hand, the film is quite enjoyable to watch and is, at least, somewhat self-aware. Saine chooses to direct the humour at the characters, rather than the Cthuhlu mythos or Lovecraft himself, and this works at least half the time.