Imagine if Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, Darren Aronofsky and Gaspar Noe collaborated on a film. If they did, it might look something like Coralie Fargeat’s extraordinary The Substance, a film that blends multiple elements both familiar and innovative into something truly unique and utterly unforgettable. To unpack the (inevitably) reductive comparison, The Substance features spaces…
If you’re looking for a weed-centric horror film that will make the chillest of pastimes scary, Ariel Vida’s Trim Season may fill your need. After a mysterious murder/suicide leaves a pot plantation without trimmers, five young, down-on-their-luck people are invited to the rural forests of Northern California to work at, what turns out to be,…
The great thing about genre is that it offers fans straightforward and familiar material, but it also allows filmmakers the space to come up with new interpretations within established formulae. This is especially true of horror, and the challenge for the filmmaker is to offer scares within the blend of familiarity and innovation. Bishal Dutta’s…
The case of Lizzie Borden is popular and famous, to the extent of having effectively entered folklore. Taking place in Fall River, Massachusetts in 1892, the murders of Abby and Andrew Borden and the trial of Andrew’s daughter Lizzie the following year that ended in her acquittal, has been the subject of books, theatrical productions,…
Underground. Undertaken. Underpinned. Understated. Of these various under words, the one that tends to fit Canadian horror is “understated.” From the halcyon days of “Black Christmas” and the early work of David Cronenberg up to more recent fare including “Blood Quantum” and “Bloodthirsty,” Canada has produced much distinctive work in the genre, often benefiting from…
“Life’s greatest happiness is to be convinced we are loved” — Victor Hugo Winner of the Golden Lion Award at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, Audrey Diwan’s (“Losing It”) harrowing abortion drama Happening takes place in rural France during the 1960s, a decade before abortion was legalized in France. Based on the memoir by Annie…
London in the swinging 60s. A time of glamour. A place of dreams. An era of magic, cruelty and abuse. Wait, what? That’s right, Edgar Wright’s (the Cornetto Trilogy, “Baby Driver”) latest film, Last Night in Soho, largely eschews the lighthearted tone of his previous work, delivering a tale that is dark, gruesome and visceral,…
