Toronto After Dark

Geek Hard Podcast: Episode 282

On this episode we review Night of the Living Deb and talk about the return of comic book TV shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Flash, Arrow and iZombie.

Geek Hard Podcast: Episode 279

On this episode we review The Martian. We also talk with Donna Davies director of Fanarchy documentary and with programmer Christian Burgess from the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.

TAD 2012 Reviews
Part Three

With the final slate of 2012 Toronto After Dark films upon us, we continue our coverage with looks at the zom-com Cockneys Vs. Zombies, the apocalyptic Korean sci-fi flick Doomsday Book, the country splat fest Inbred, the LARP comedy Lloyd the Conqueror, and the zombie found footage sequel REC 3: Genesis.

CONTEST: See THE CORRIDOR in Toronto!

It's that time again! We've another great contest for our readers in Toronto. Dork Shelf wants to send five lucky winners and their guests to see a screening of the Canadian indie thriller The Corridor in Toronto on Friday, May 18th at 9:00 PM at the Projection Booth Cinema!

The Corridor Review

While the idea of four childhood friends retreating to a messed up weekend in cottage country might sound like the set up for a dull slasher film at best and a remake of the notorious Stephen King misstep Dreamcatcher at worst, the Canadian indie horror The Corridor stands on its own as a cracking character study and genuinely ambitious psychodrama about the shared effects of mental illness on even the best of friends.

TADFF 2011: DeadHeads Review

Genre mash-ups are all the rage these days. Remakes and reboots aside, it seems like the only way filmmakers are able to get a genre film made these days is if they blend well-trod tropes and conventions together. Vampire police procedural? Let's make a deal! Post-apocalyptic rom-com? Sign on the dotted line. Kung fu werewolf revenge drama? Please, just take our money! If any of these made up movie pitches appeal to you, then you might just get something out of the zombie-buddy comedy DeadHeads.

TADFF 2011: Monster Brawl Review

It isn’t uncommon to see movies at the After Dark Film Festival where you can tell others that the plot can be excused. Monster Brawl, which aspires to be a mirror image of a televised WWE special, replaces the scary looking beefcakes with scary looking monsters.The film seems to have a better idea of what it wanted to be rather than how to really accomplish that. “The story didn’t matter” is a common thing to overhear at these events, but I gotta hand it to you, Monster Brawl, “I’m not really sure that was a movie” is a new one.

TADFF 2011: Redline Review

Redline isn’t about nothing, but it isn’t about much. Nothing stops Redline from hitting goals. Nothing stops Redline from victory. Redline is so ferocious and unwieldy that it’s too dangerous to be bound in your hands, it’s too fast for the qualms of plot or logic. It can’t slow down. The wonderful thing about animation is that it’s a world from scratch, created only by the pen instead of constructs of likelihood. Redline is its own universe, and it rockets through it so fast you’ll miss planets if you blink.

TADFF 2011: Manborg Review

Manborg is meant to recreate that VHS tape you once found misplaced in the corner concert film section of a pawn shop. In a world being rapidly flooded with these rehashed nostalgia bombs, Manborg is challenged to represent a new era/aesthetic of re-re-re-rehash, and to be more entertaining than many of the other films in the running. Thankfully for Manborg, it is half man, half cyborg, all Manborg.

TADFF 2011: The Innkeepers Review

As his first film since The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers is horror director Ti West’s opportunity to show a winning streak, or at least an uncanny corridor. It also happens to be a chance for star Sara Paxton, often cast as that pretty blonde in really forgettable roles, to earn a new start, not unlike West himself.

TADFF 2011
The Divide Review

The Divide is a psychological thriller about post-apocalyptic survival that is often horrifying and all around nightmarish. From claustrophobia to torture, radiation sickness and murder, the only thing comfortable about this movie was how snugly it fit into the middle of Toronto After Dark’s line-up.

Toronto After Dark 2011 Top Picks

The sixth annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival kicked off last night at the Toronto Underground Cinema with not one, but two screenings of the horror-wrestling film Monster Brawl. Toronto After Dark showcases some of the best and most off-beat genre cinema from around the world - from horror and sci-fi, to action, cult and everything in between. Here are a few noteworthy titles playing this year that we think are worth checking out.