“Creepy Passion” might sound like a dating site for certain high-profile members of the movie industry, but in this unambitious found footage horrorer, The Follower, from feature debutant writer-director Kévin Mendiboure, it’s the name of a faux YouTube program specializing in all things scary. That’s why its presenter, David Baker (Nicolas Shake, “A Prayer Before…
Sometime in the 1990s, somewhere in Toronto, in the scuzzy Gemini Motel, a prostitute is raped. She becomes pregnant. Overcome with grief, she kills herself. Cut to 23 years later, and it seems the baby survived. Helen (Alanna LeVierge, “Mia and Me” TV series) is at a loss in the world. She’s drawn to the…
It might not bode well when a film’s title is a text message initialism (compounded with a nonsensical exclamation rather than a question mark), but Peter Herro’s debut feature, WTF!, is a surprisingly enjoyable micro-budget slasher with an old-school sensibility. After a nifty credits sequence, which sees the camera prowl around a grisly crime scene,…
For some, watching an M. Night Shyamalan film is an experience that fills them with dread. But this dread can be separated in two distinct camps: First, the good kind of dread that accompanied Shyamalan’s first blockbusters in Hollywood — “The Sixth Sense,” “Unbreakable,” “Signs” — all quietly unsettling thrillers that, despite some weaknesses, still…
Nowadays, we could probably use all the knowledge and understanding of mental illness that we can possibly obtain, so Cyrus Trafford’s well-intentioned short film, The Voice in the Head, certainly has something meaningful to offer. The 12-minute piece uses a young woman’s final exam essay question in a psychology class to probe our perception of…
In Sun Choke, Janie (Sarah Hagan, “Spring Breakdown”) is just trying to get well, and while undergoing psychological treatment administered by Irma (Barbara Crampton, “You’re Next”), she’s making progress. She practices yoga and breathing exercises, she drinks blended green drinks for nutrition, and she’s working on keeping herself calm and focused. Though she’s been staying…
First-time director Paul Dalio’s Touched with Fire, originally titled “Mania Days,” is an honest attempt to provide insight into the illness commonly known as bipolar disorder. The film depicts how two young poets are compelled to battle parents, doctors, and the cultural consensus to maintain their relationship which is considered dangerous by the community because…
