FEBRUARY: Director Profile: 5 Questions for Oz Perkins

Premiering at TIFF tonight, February tells the story of three young girls who are intertwined by a dark, malevolent spirit that is plaguing them. Kat (Kiernan Shipka) is a quiet young girl who has been left at her prep school because her parents mysteriously never showed up, but she makes due by trying to befriend the elusive (and good-smellin') Rose (Lucy Boynton). Far away is Joan (Emma Roberts) who commences a blood soaked voyage to the school, with her motives unclear to the audience until the very end.

February is the debut feature for writer-director Oz Perkins, who although has never sat in the director's chair before, is no stranger to the film industry, working as a writer, actor and editor on several different pieces. I got the chance to chat with him about horror, movies and writing horror movies. (It's really all that I ever concern myself with.)

Richelle Charkot: What attracts you to horror? 

Oz Perkins: The dark glamour; the raw emotion. The fact that horror is all about that which is hidden from us which is far more interesting to me than all that we can see and know and understand. 

RC: What were some of the challenges with shooting February?

OP: It was extremely cold, with a two week prep. 

RC: Who are some of your favourite creepy girls in horror movies? 

OP: Sissy Spacek in Carrie, Eli from Let the Right One In and Catherine Deneuve in Repulsion.

RC: If you were in charge of a late night double-feature at a theatre, what two movies would you play?

OP: Eraserhead and Don't Look Now. 

RC: Can you name some films that first attracted you to the idea of writing and directing a horror film?

OP: The Shining, Let the Right One In, Don't Look Now, Rosemary's Baby, The Strangers, Psycho, Repulsion.

FEBRUARY screening times:

Monday, Sept. 14th, 6:45 PM SCOTIABANK 9
Friday, Sept. 18th, 6:45 PM THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

OVER YOUR DEAD BODY: The Many Adaptations of Yotsuya Kaidan

Takashi Miike could not have chosen a more respectable Japanese play to adapt than Yotsuya Kaidan, aka, Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan. It is a story originated for the Kabuki stage and told many times before--the story of Oiwa, her faithless and cruel husband Iemon and supernatural revenge. Iemon has been hateful and appalling since 1825. And in almost every adaptation I see, he remains just as appalling a person as the first time I saw him in Keisuke Kinoshita's 1949 film. Miike's adaptation gets a special kick from having famed Kabuki performer Ebizo Ichikawa as actor Kousuke Hasegawa who performs Iemon in the film's troubled production of the play. In Over Your Dead Body, Takashi Miike offers his version of Yotsuya Kaidan in the form of a play within a film.

Nakamura Kankuro as the afflicted Oiwa. (via Japan.org)

 Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan was written by playwright Tsuruya Namboku IV (1755-1839) and first produced for the Kabuki stage in 1825. It's typically performed with Kanadehon Chushingura, or The 47 Loyal Ronin. Ghost stories are respectable in Kabuki and Noh and so there are many tales of love, bitterness and vengeful ghosts, but like a certain Scottish play, Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan is relatively unique in having a curse associated with it and cast and crew of any production of the story visit Oiwa's grave to stave off accidents and death. I could explain, but Namboku himself does it so much better in this sweet video with animation and museum artifacts...



The Legend of Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan - Lady... by MstrMacabre

Since 1912, the play has been adapted to film many, many times. I would love to see the silent versions, but I thought I'd mention some of the more recent adaptations that I have seen so you can compare and contrast, after, or even before for maximum appreciation, seeing Over Your Dead Body.

Yotsuya Kaidan, Pt. I and Part II (1949)

In two feature-length parts, director Keisuke Kinoshita intimately details the life of Oiwa and a more sympathetic than usual Iemon, making Iemon's betrayal, and the dread of his inevitable betrayal for those familiar with the story, that much more painful. Kinoshita presents the story in almost psychoanalytic terms with the ghost of Oiwa being an expression of Iemon's guilt. But while it is tragic, it is still plenty spooky, with some startling images.




Yotsuya Kaidan (1956)

Masaki Mori's adaptation stars Tomisaburo Wakayama as Iemon. You might know Wakayama better as Ogami Itto, the hunted samurai of the Lone Wolf And Cub / Babycart Assassin series. Wakayama played Iemon again, inYasushi Kato's The Ghost Of Oiwa (1961). Mori's film is lovely and a fairly straightforward story of impoverished samurai meets beautiful and sweet samurai woman, man marries woman, man meets a wealthier woman, man throws wife's body into the river and marries his new sweetie, terrifying ghost of ex haunts man.

Ceiling ghost sees everything you do.

Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan (1959)

Nabuo Nakagawa's Tokaido Yotsuya Kaidan adaptation seems to be the biggest influence on Over Your Dead Body. With surreal, gorgeously composed and colored films like Jigoku, Nakagawa himself seems to be an influence on Miike. This version was the first in widescreen and in color and, holy cats, is it in color. It is lurid in the best way and far more familiar as contemporary horror. And Iemon is just a terrible, terrible person in this version. Far more terrible than usual.

"I, Kazuo Hasegawa, am certainly very evil. Just look at me!"

Yotsuya Kaidan / Thou Shalt Not Be Jealous (1959)

Kenji Misumi directed another version the same year, and I feel bad for him because his was not a color spectacle and it's hard to compete with Nakagawa's--especially when Kazuo Hasegawa plays Iemon and it's just hard for Hasegawa to be a terrible person. Of course Misumi works with that by having Iemon not directly responsible for Oiwa's death and decide to avenge her. Doesn't save him, though. Not at all. And I'm sure it's totally a coincidence that there's a character named "Kousuke Hasegawa" in Over Your Dead Body, and that actor plays Iemon in the play within the film.

All this blood? Just illusion...

Yotsuya Kaidan / Illusion of Blood (1965)

Tatsuya Nakadai plays Iemon and Mariko Okada plays Oiwa in Shiro Toyoda's version. He is a morally conflicted scoundrel who at first saves his sister-in-law from his father-in-law, but then finds his wife is in the way, again, of his moving up in life. (Spoiler: she's in his way by being married to him when he could marry someone with better family connections). This adaptation is plenty gory and Tetsuya Nakadai is always a pleasure to watch, but if you can only watch one lurid, bloody, stylized version of Yotsuya Kaidan, go with Nakagawa's.

Oh, there's so much more Yotsuya Kaidan out there, but this seems like a good place to stop.

(I used Japan.org, Kabuki 21, Wild Realm Reviews, IMDb and wikipedia in writing this post).

OVER YOUR DEAD BODY screening times:

Thurs., Sept. 11, Ryerson 6:00 PM
Fri., Sept. 12, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema 9:00 PM
Sat., Sept. 13, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 6:30 PM

ALLELUIA: Director Profile + 5 Questions with Fabrice du Welz

Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz studied at the Conservatory of Dramatic Arts in Liege and at INSAS, a film school in Brussels. But his deep, abiding love of horror movies might be more relevant to his work as a filmmaker than any formal training. A look at his career is definitely in order since his new film Alleluia will be playing at the Toronto International Film Festival's Vanguard programme.

Laurent Lucas wonders how he's going to get all that mud off his clothes.

With his explosive, controversial debut film Calvaire (2004), Du Welz was unfairly lumped in with the subgenre of "torture porn" by a few unimaginative critics. Strongly influenced by both Psycho and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Calvaire is a "very strange fairy tale," a dark, grotesque psychological thriller that defiantly transcends genre conventions. In it, Laurent Lucas portrays Marc Stevens, a traveling chanteur who finds himself trapped in the midst of the lonely Belgian countryside when his van breaks down a few days before a Christmas gala at which he's scheduled to perform. Unfortunately for Marc, the people who come to his aid have some serious unresolved issues and he suffers unimaginably as a result.

Emmanuelle Béart wonders if Laurent Lucas has any laundry tips.

Although Du Welz's second feature, Vinyan (2008) is far less gory than Calvaire, it is still dark and psychologically disturbing. Rufus Sewell and Emmanuelle Béart play Paul and Jeanne Bellmer, a couple who lost their only child, Joshua, in the 2004 tsunami. While watching a video of children being held captive in Burma, Jeanne becomes convinced that one of them is her son. She and Paul embark upon a dangerous mission to find him, and in the process their sanity unravels. Vinyan is a stunning accomplishment with incredible production and sound design and a gorgeous score from François Eudes (À L'Intérieur).

Du Welz's latest, Alleluia, is his cinematic interpretation of the lives of real-life murder couple Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez, but set in Brussels. Like he did in Calvaire, Laurent Lucas stars. We wanted to find out what inspires du Welz, so we asked him.

Probably not a laundromat.

1. You've said that your first love is horror, but that you don't like the mainstream Hollywood horror movies or those horror movies that "close doors." What are some of your favorite recent horror films that you feel allow the audience to explore their imaginations?

Honestly, with time it's very difficult for me to be surprised and thrilled about modern horrors films today. Last time I've been impressed by horror was with Kill List by Ben Wheatley, Antichrist by Lars von Trier, or Under The Skin by Jonathan Glazer. Those films provoke you and I love to be challenged by films. [All of these films screened at TIFF!]

2. The director of photography on Alleluia is Manu Decosse, who filmed Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's Amer and The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears. Are you a fan of the Giallo genre and if so, which movies are your favorites?

I love Bruno and Hélène's films. They are friends. Manu Dacosse is a very gifted DOP and he'll be very present in the future. Of course I love the Giallo genre even though my cinema is very different from B&H's work. Some aspects of Alleluia could be related to Giallo but it's not Giallo.

Black hides bloodstains very well.

3. As a director who believes in strong characters in films, who are some of your favorite film characters and why?

I always prefer strong female characters. We have so much to learn from women... I do, at least...

4. Are there any films that people might be surprised to find out that you like or which have influenced your own work?

So many films influenced my personal work. Before being a filmmaker I am a cinephile. I had always watched loads of films. I cannot mention here all the films I love. All I can say is during Alleluia's production I watched and rewatched Zulawski's Possession a lot... 

It's not blood, it's raspberry preserves, I swear!

5. Alleluia is part two of your Ardennes trilogy (with Calvaire being part one). What are your plans for part three?

Yes, we have plans and Vincent Tavier and I are working on the script at the moment. I cannot tell you more right now.

There's just enough time to catch up on du Welz's cinematic influences as well as his own filmography before Alleluia premieres, so head to your favorite cool local video store and get some popcorn ready.

ALLELUIA screening times:
Tues., Sept 9th, 10:00 PM, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Thu., Sept 11th, 3:00 PM, BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sat., Sept 13th, 9:15PM, SCOTIABANK 13

SAPI: Filipino Supernatural Threats!

With the last screening of Sapi today, you might want to brush up on your supernatural threats of the Philippines. Sure it might be all a media hoax, but still, who wants to be licked to death?

First up, spirit possession and soul loss. If you are placed in a frightening or startling situation, your soul could be knocked right out of you. Even more, if you have been rude or thoughtless or malicious or have just run across the wrong mangkukulam or bruha, (practitioner of black magic), you can get the whammy put on you and end up possessed. Spirit possession is a big problem.

In 2011, 56 students were possessed at Compostela National High School in the Philippines. (And this CNN article reporting on it is really asking for some whammy). In June, 2013, 22 elementary school students exhibited signs of spirit possession.

School administrators have suspended  classes in an elementary school in Mandaluyong City on Thursday after "evil spirits" possessed 20 students.

Report said some of the female students of Isaac Lopez Elementary  School on Barangay Vergara began yelling while others fainted inside the classroom.

Teachers rushed to the scene and tried to restrain the "possessed" students from hurting themselves, the report added.

After calming down, four of the students told the teachers that they saw images of a mother and a child. They also saw an image of a man in black clothes.

Due to the commotion, school officials decided to suspend classes for the whole day.

They had apparently been playing a divination game beforehand, but school principal Loida Matic reports that they were faking possession. Still, even if you feel you have a good hold on your soul,  be careful out there. The spirits of the jealous dead and malicious spirits (Hantu Demon) might just be thinking of moving in. Of course, there are several other supernatural threats to be aware of.

Manananggal in flight via here.

Dila:  A dila won't possess you, but it will lick you to death. Yes, to death. It is a tongue spirit and you know where it comes from? Through the floor. Possession isn't looking so bad, now, is it?

Membabarang: Female black magic practitioner who will make insects come out of you. (Note: Do not annoy a membabarang).

Manananggal: Sometimes also called or considered an aswang, a manananggal is a spirit, usually of a woman who died in childbirth, whose upper body flies around on wings, with viscera dangling, while her lower body remains in place as a roost. Manananggal hide out on the roofs of women in childbirth or pregnant women and try to eat the babies/fetuses by sticking their very long tongues through chinks in the roof and into the woman. Then they suck out the baby/fetus. So, ladies, keep your roofs patched!

Tiyanak: And also, you should probably not investigate any baby's crying you might here. Tiayanak are ghosts of dead babies who pretend to be cute, helpless babies left behind in the forest. Then they eat you. Of course, if you can't resist the pitiful cries of a baby, always keep a silver spike on hand for dealing with any tiyanak you encounter.

So, yeah. Be careful out there!
 

SAPI Final Screening:

Sunday, Sept 15th, 3:00 PM SCOTIABANK 14

SOUL: Press Round-Up!

The Wall Street Journal's "China Real Time Report" blog profiles director Chung Mong-Hong.

Taiwanese director Chung Mong-hong sees himself as a non-conformist.
In an era of Chinese-language romantic comedies, tear-jerkers, police dramas and lavish historical dramas, Mr. Chung says he doesn’t want to follow the crowd by making films with themes that are seen everywhere. 

The director, sitting in his studio in Taipei with a cigarette in one hand, says he draws inspiration from the works of American filmmaker David Lynch, director of Blue Velvet (1986) and Mulholland Drive (2001), and the late Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi, who thrived on dissecting sensitive and controversial subjects. 

“If you liken the movie to a house when you watch a Kobayashi movie,” Mr. Chung says, “you feel like you are inside a very serious and solemn home, and you automatically want to sit up straight at the edge of your chair.”

Exclaim.ca's Scott A. Gray reviews his film, Soul.

A uniquely moving and disturbing picture, Soul uses surreal cinematic poetry to postulate schizophrenia as a disassociation of the spirit. Taiwan's Chung Mong-Hong (The Fourth Portrait) is an accomplished visionary capable of balancing a calculated use of technical ability with instinctual artistry, as demonstrated throughout this emotionally gripping and consistently stimulating film.

SOUL Final Screening:

Saturday, Sept 14th, 12:00 PM SCOTIABANK 10

SOUL: Profile of Director Chung Mong-Hong

Chung Mong-Hong (aka, Chung Mang-Wang) has written and directed five films: Doctor (2006), Parking (2008), The Fourth Portrait (2010), and the segment, "Reverberation" in the anthology celebrating Taiwan's Centenary, 10 + 10 (2011), and now Soul.

Born in Pingtung, Taiwan, Chung studied information technology engineering at National Chiao Tung University and film as a graduate student at the Art Institute of Chicago. In an interview with Ho Yi at The Taipei Times, Chung shares what inspired him to become a filmmaker:

 I had lived in the countryside in Pingtung until high school. Going to a movie was the ultimate form of entertainment. We saw lots of Bruce Lee (李小龍) and Michael Hui (許冠文) films. I was particularly fond of the James Bond movies because they were like pornography for us kids. [He laughs.]

In high school I had a chance to see Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr Lawrence. There is one scene where David Bowie kisses Ryuichi Sakamoto. It got me to start thinking, “Wow, movies can show so many special things, things I don’t understand.”

He has directed over one hundred commercials, but in an interview with Ryuichi Sugiyama at the Tokyo International Film Festival's blog, he indicated a desire to move away from commercial film-making.

When shooting Parking, I had tried not to fall into the habit of making commercial films, which ended up in vain. So with that in mind, in making The Fourth Portrait, I took the utmost care in simple film making, but I don't think I am thoroughly successful in that sense. My assignment is to get rid of the habit of making commercial films....I think my experience in TV commercial making is an obstacle when making movies. The fact that most of the directors with TV commercial career are not making a big success in Taiwan might be the proof.

He told The Taipei Times that he decided to start his feature career with a documentary, Doctor, "Documentary filmmaking is the opposite of commercial filmmaking." And elaborated:

You must divide the two. Have you seen any movies made by television commercial directors? Basically they all fail. It hurts me to see my colleagues fail. The problem is if you look at a 100-minute project with an eye trained for a 30-second ad, you are bound to be crushed.

Styles and forms are not sins in and of themselves. But the most important thing is to return to the basic question: what do you want your audience to see? It would be wrong if a director plays with a [visual] style thinking, “Wow, it’s cool!” and repeats it for 100 minutes. As a commercial director, you have to give up what you excel in — images and combinations of images.

Doctor follows a Taiwanese-American doctor who loses his son to suicide and a patient to cancer.



Parking starts with a parking dispute and escalates into much more. It stars Chapman To, Chang Chen, Jack Kao and Kwai Lun-Mei and frequent Chung collaborator, Leon Dai, who also appears in Soul.



And where Parking was influenced by the paintings of Edward Hooper, The Fourth Portrait features art made by Felix, the boy who committed suicide in Doctor.



However, as Chung tells Ryuichi Sugiyama at the Tokyo International Film Festival's blog:

Doctor is a documentary, but I have a special feeling for it because it is my first feature film. It is very true that the picture drawn by Felix had a great influence in making the The Fourth Portrait, but I am thinking of saying goodbye to Felix after this film. I’ve made up my mind to get over his past and go on to a completely new direction for the next film....It is going to be a very scary horror film featuring schizophrenia.

 Make sure to read both interviews and then see what new direction Chung has taken with Soul.

SOUL Screening Times:

Monday, Sept 9th, 6:15 PM SCOTIABANK 11

Tuesday, Sept 10th, 6:15 PM SCOTIABANK 3

Saturday, Sept 14th, 12:00 PM SCOTIABANK 10

SAPI: Poster and Trailer

We're sorry, little afflicted girl, but the poster and trailer for Sapi were posted by Indiewire and we just have to look.

First up, the poster has all the creepy markers, smoke and skulls and an old house and a robed figure.

I don't think you should tell them what you are afraid of...

And here is the full-on creepy trailer.

SAPI screens two more times:  

Saturday, Sept 7th, 9:45 PM SCOTIABANK 10

Sunday, Sept 15th, 3:00 PM SCOTIABANK 14

Six Films with HORNS

Daniel Radcliffe is looking pretty good sporting that set of horns in this still from HORNS. He certainly knows how to dress to make them look their best.

And this picture has inspired us to come up with some other fine horns in cinema history. (Thanks to Sasha James and Leslie Hatton for their suggestions).

Pan's Labyrinth / El laberinto del fauno (2006) directed by Guillermo del Toro

In Pan's Labyrinth a young girl is led into a secret underworld where a faun asks her undertake three tasks to prove her worthiness. Aside from magic and wonder and the appeal of the The Faun's nice sheep-like horns and forehead swirls, Ofelia might well want to escape the Spanish Civil War raging above and her cruel father. I would surely trust the Faun with my baby brother over a captain in Franco's secret police.

The forehead spirals really make the look.

Red Dragon (2002) directed by Brett Ratner.

As far as adaptations of Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon go, I prefer Michael Mann's 1989 Manhunter. But we are talking horns here and one of the things the Red Dragon has is a fine pair of horns in the form of a tattoo on Hannibal Lector's pen-pal, Francis Dolarhyde. (Dolarhyde's back is played by Ralph Fiennes' back).

Nice ink.

Legend (1985) directed by Ridley Scott.

Tim Curry plays Darkness, a diabolical red satyr with a massive rack in this dark fantasy. Darkness is understandably lonely, trapped underground and unable to stand the light. Unfortunately, his solution is kidnapping a young woman, Lili, and telling her about his plans to kill unicorns, which is too bad because Darkness has some moves (or at least his magic dress does). I guess he thought it worked out for Hades. It's possible that his neck-straining rack is compensating for some low self-esteem.

Seriously, look at the size of his rack.

The Devil's Rain (1975) directed by Robert Fuest

Like me, I am certain that William Shatner is the first name you think of when you hear the words, "Satanic Cult." But he's not the only one. Robert Fuest's The Devil's Rain has an amazing cast including Shatner, Ida Lupino, Eddie Albert, Tom Skerritt, Keenan Wynn, John Travolta and a special appearance by Anton LaVey. It also stars Ernest Borgnine as Cult Leader, Jonathan Corbis, aka, the Devil Himself. And the Devil has a sweet pair of horns to go with his cute ears and goat's beard. Don't let Corbis know I called his ears and beard cute, though.

Anton LaVey tries not to find Corbis' ears endearing.

The Crimson Cult / Curse of the Crimson Altar / Curse of the Crimson Cult (1968) directed by Vernon Sewell

A young man moves into a house and is haunted by nightmares of horrifying rituals and the pressure to sell his soul. He, however, far less interesting than the scenes of Boris Karloff and Christopher Lee discussing the history of the house and the constant bother of black magic in the parlor. And he is far less interesting than Barbara Steele's amazing Witch Queen outfit, green skin, feathers, golden horns and all.

The whole film should be Barbara Steele, Boris Karloff & Christopher Lee

The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958) directed by Nathan H. Juran

Okay, this Harryhausen fantasy classic has many fine and admirable creatures, but the one I'm interested in is the fantastic cyclops. Sinbad never faced a cyclops you say? That was Odysseus you say? To that, I say--Cyclops! Sure, has just one horn, but who needs two horns? This cyclops is comfortable enough with himself. He doesn't need more.

Who needs two horns?

Let's see how Daniel Radcliffe's rack measures up in Horns!

HORNS Screening Times:

Friday, Sept 6th, 6:00 PM THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Sunday, Sept 8th, 1:00 PM SCOTIABANK 4

THE SACRAMENT: Director Profile: Ti West

Is there anything Ti West can't do? He's a director who's also written, shot, produced, and edited his own movies as well as collaborated on the score for one (2004's The Roost). As an actor, he's appeared in films by Adam Wingard, Simon Barrett, and Joe Swanberg (You're Next, Drinking Buddies, All the Light in The Sky, Silver Bullets). The Sacrament is his latest film, and it will premiere as part of the Toronto International Film Festival's Vanguard Programme

 

In 2004, West made his feature directorial debut with The Roost, which has a classic horror premise. On Halloween night, four teenagers on their way to a friend's wedding manage to get their car stuck in a ditch. They walk to an abandoned farmhouse and run into killer bats, zombies, and in a bit of self-reflexivity, a TV horror host played by Tom Noonan.

2007's Trigger Man, in which three friends go camping in the wilderness only to find themselves stalked by unseen prey, has the vibe of the film Rituals. Even the final shot in the trailer resembles the dam in the underappreciated 1974 Canuxploitation classic..

West's next endeavor, writing, and producing the 2009 sequel to Eli Roth's Cabin Fever, didn't have a happy ending, even for a director whose movies don't traffic in them. He wanted Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever to goin one direction, but the producers had a different idea, so he exited the film, leaving them all of his shot footage.

Fortunately, for Ti West, 2009 also saw the release of his superlative flick The House Of the Devil. A college student needs to make some quick cash in order to put a deposit on an apartment, so she takes an unorthodox babysitting gig in a giant, old house out in the country. If reading the premise gives you a nervous feeling in the pit of your stomach, be warned. The film creates an environment of excruciating tension heightened by quick bursts of terror that is nearly unbearable.

The House of the Devil is set in the 1980s, but as West notes in Interview, "it's not kitschy, video-killed -the-radio-star Eighties. It's brown, feathered hair, wood-paneling Eighties."  Such attention to detail makes it all the more effective.

Would you be interested in film like this? A couple of hotel employees are stuck working the last weekend at a soon-to-be-closed hotel. They kill time trying to prove the existence of the ghosts rumored to haunt the place and are warned against going into the basement by a creepy visitor. Did you answer yes? Then you should see The Innkeepers, West's 2011 film. Of course, the above synopsis doesn't encompass everything that happens. Things do get weirder and scarier from there (this is a Ti West movie, after all).

The 2012 found-footage anthology V/H/S includes a contribution from West. "Second Honeymoon" does what it says on the tin with one exception: someone is following the couple. "Second Honeymoon" transcends the found-footage genre by being both utterly realistic and scary. As a horror hound, I am not ashamed to say that I had to turn on the lights while watching it AND I couldn't sleep after it was over.

The ABCs of Death segment "M is for Miscarriage" was West's next directorial effort in 2012. Although grotesque and interesting, it's too short to successfully establish the aura of dread at which West excels.

This year's Toronto International Film Festival Vanguard Programme features The Sacrament, a movie in which three journalists visit a relative at a religious commune. Eli Roth is the producer, but West has been quick to point out that it's not an Eli Roth Movie. In an Entertainment Weekly interview, West says, "It’s a very confrontational movie and it’s very horrific and it’s very dark. It’s different from what people might expect from me and something different from what people expect from Eli as well.”

Ti West bristles at being pegged as a "horror director." In a genre that is overpopulated by weak narratives, excessive exposition, and no genuine horrors to speak of, this is probably a good thing. "All of the stuff in the film that's not horror is what makes all of the horror stuff work," says West, zeroing in on exactly what distinguishes a boring horror movie from an outstanding movie that also happens to be a horror movie.

He also seems to enjoy exploring the theme of "people in a rural and/or unfamiliar place who are then terrorized by something or someone." This coupled with his remarkable ability to craft slow burn scares through suspense and imagined, briefly glimpsed, or unseen horrors, ensures that The Sacrament will add another thrilling accomplishment to Ti West's oeuvre.

THE SACRAMENT Screening Times:

Sunday, Sept 8th, 5:15 PM THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA

Tuesday, Sept 10th, 9:45 PM SCOTIABANK 7

Friday, Sept 13th, 8:45 PM SCOTIABANK 3

The Poster for Ti West's THE SACRAMENT

Check out the retro Seventies style poster for Ti West's The Sacrement via Entertainment Weekly. It has a fantastic newspaper ad style that evokes both Jim Jones and true crime novels.

"The latest film from indie genre icon Ti West (The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers) sends frequent collaborators AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz, Joe Swanberg and Kentucker Audley on a harrowing journey into madness and messianic bloodshed."--From the Vanguard Programme notes.


THE SACRAMENT screening times:
Sunday, Sept. 8, 5:15pm, The Bloor Hot Docs Cinema
Tuesday, Sept. 10, 9:45pm, Scotiabank 7
Friday, Sept. 13, 8:45pm Scotiabank 3

Director Profile: Alexandre Aja (HORNS)

If you're familiar with the term "New French Extremity," then you've probably heard of or seen the work of writer/director/producer Alexandre Aja (pronounced AH-zhah). Haute Tension (a.k.a. High Tension or Switchblade Romance) splattered the screen as part of the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival's Midnight Madness programme, joining the legacy of other ultra-gory French horror films like À l'intérieur, Frontière(s), Irréversible, Martyrs, and more.

Before Haute Tension, there was Furia, Aja's feature film debut, starring Marion Cotillard (Rust and Bone) and Stanislas Merhar (La Folie Almayer). Furia is based on "Grafitti," a short story by Julio Cortázar and critic Mark Deming provides a brief synopsis on AllRovi.com:

Combining romance, science fiction, and a political parable, Furia takes place in the future, after an oppressive government, which has shut down all political opposition, recognizes art as a means of free expression--and therefore bans painting on public surfaces.



2003's Haute Tension, a riveting, terrifying, incredibly gory film, earned Aja an international reputation, and rightly so. The less you know about it going in, the better, but here's a trailer that will give you a taste.



Aja reimagined Wes Craven's low-budget shocker The Hills Have Eyes for his first English-language film in 2006, and the result is a better-looking, more believable, more frightening, and ultimately better film (I realize horror fans will fight me on this one but I am standing my ground).



Aja then wrote and produced the somewhat-less-popular P2 about a woman trapped by her stalker in an underground parking garage on Christmas Eve and then wrote and directed Mirrors, an English-language remake of the Korean film Into the Mirror, starring Kiefer Sutherland as an ex-cop haunted by hallucinations, murderous mirrors, and abusive nuns at a convent (it's actually more coherent on film than it sounds on the page).

For the remake of Joe Dante's beloved (do not question me on this one) Piranha, Aja was a triple threat, writing, directing, and producing this exceptionally popular and bloody (Aja says they used more fake blood than Kill Bill) tale of spring break insanity and killer fish. Also, boobs. Lots of boobs. And did we mention it is in 3DD?



For the 2012 remake of the infamous 1980 William Lustig slasher Maniac,  Aja wrote and produced, but snagged old friend Franck Khalfoun (who directed P2) to direct. Maniac, which stars Elijah Wood as the titular character, screened at Cannes to impressive critical acclaim.

Which brings us to Horns, premiering at The Toronto International Film Festival's Vanguard Programme this year. Based on Joe Hill's novel, Horns stars Daniel Radcliffe as Ignatius "Ig" Perrish, who, after being blamed for his girlfriend's murder, not only wakes up one day with horns growing from his head, but also becomes the confessor to everyone he encounters. He hopes to use his developing status as a way to find the real killer.

Aja apparently likes giving actors associated with one iconic character a chance to prove they can do something vastly different, and Horns, which skillfully blends horror, fantasy, and mystery, intends to do just that.

HORNS Screening Times:
Friday, Sept 6th, 6:00 PM THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Sunday, Sept 8th, 1:00 PM SCOTIABANK 4

Happy Birthday, Dario Argento!

Dario Argento prepares to cut the cake.

Today's Dario Argento's Birthday! Argento is an innovator in horror and a master of the Italian giallo genre.

He's also an alumnus of the Toronto International Film Festival, having shown: Mother of Tears (2007), The Stendhal Syndrome (1996),  Trauma (1993);  Two Evil Eyes (1990), co-directed with George Romero; Opera (1989). In fact, after director Takashi Miike, Argento's shown the most films at Midnight Madness.




His most famous films include Suspiria; The Bird With The Crystal Plumage; and Deep Red. More recently he's had two episodes of Masters of Horror, ("Jenifer" and "Pelts"); Giallo starring Adrien Brody, and his newest film is Dracula 3D with Rutger Hauer as the Count.

Happy Birthday, Maestro!

And you can celebrate by watching two movies that are definitely influenced by Argento's legacy.

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO Screening Times:
Mon., Sept. 10th, 6:00 PM BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Tue., Sept. 11th, 2:45 PM CINEPLEX YONGE & DUNDAS 3

LORDS OF SALEM
Mon., Sept. 10, 11:59pm: RYERSON
Wed., Sept. 12, 5pm: CINEPLEX YONGE AND DUNDAS 6

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO: What's a "giallo"?

In Berberian Sound Studio, Toby Jones plays the part of a meek English sound engineer who is in Italy working on the sound mix for a "giallo" film. For those not familiar with this genre, I thought I'd provide a little background.

Example of a "giallo" paperback novel

"Giallo" is the Italian word for yellow and refers to a series of cheap paperbook mystery novels with yellow covers that were popular reading from the 1930s onward. Though the books were often in the vein of Agathie Christie or Ellery Queen, when filmmakers began adapting them in the 1960s, they soon added their own very distinct touches, taking the films into territory more associated today with the horror and slasher genres.

Poster for Dario Argento's The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963)

Directors like Dario Argento, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Sergio Martino made dozens of these films, rather quickly and cheaply, during the 60s and 70s. They were often filled with operatic levels of violence, not to mention liberal amounts of nudity and sex.

Poster from Sergio Martino's All the Colours of the Dark (1972)

Though best known for their often-garish visual style, giallo films were also innovative in their use of music and sound, which is where our poor sound engineer comes in. Many of the plots were based on madness and psychological horror, and the sound design was integral to setting the right mood.

Poster from Andrea Bianchi's Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975)

In fact, many of these films were shot completely without sync sound, so everything from dialogue to foley effects was recorded later in a studio, perhaps somewhere like Berberian Sound Studio.

p.s. You might notice a certain similarity in the posters I've included. A (presumably male) hand poised over a woman in peril. These films were nothing if not formulaic, but they've been a huge influence on succeeding generations of trashy thrillers.

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO screening times:

Mon., Sept. 10, 6PM:  THE BLOOR HOT DOCS CINEMA
Tues., Sept. 11, 2:45PM  CINEPLEX YONGE AND DUNDAS