Blu-Ray Review: Spring

By Less Lee Moore

I detest romantic comedies. They are often decidedly unromantic and terribly unfunny. Throw drama into the mix and it’s even worse: concocted conflicts and clichéd characters. Horror comedies are a more palatable but often hit or miss. Combining all four genres seems like a bad idea. Somehow Spring manages to do that and still be terrific. It’s the best romantic comedy/drama horror movie you’ve seen yet.

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Spring: Interview with Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson

By Less Lee Moore

In the two years since I talked to Aaron Moorhead about Justin Benson about their amazing 2012 film Resolution, a lot has happened. The pair contributed a segment to V/H/S Viral called “Bonestorm” and brought their second feature, Spring, to the Toronto International Film Festival. (And there was some kind of mascot battle.) In March, they released Spring as part of a BitTorrent bundle, which is an extremely cool way to bring a movie directly to the viewer.

They visited Toronto last week in anticipation of Spring‘s theatrical premiere in Canada so I talked to them about what has changed over the last few years and what they are going to unleash upon audiences next.

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Resolution: Interview with Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead

By Less Lee Moore

Resolution

Resolution was the most unexpectedly intriguing movie of 2012 for me (review). The trailer was fascinating, but I had no idea what I was in for. I could say much the same about writer/director Justin Benson and co-director/cinematographer Aaron Moorhead. Their abilities at keeping an audience transfixed extended beyond the movie and into the intro and Q&A for Resolution at its Toronto After Dark screening.

Luckily, I was able to catch up with the pair a few days ago, in anticipation of Resolution‘s upcoming release on VOD and in theaters. Here’s what they had to say.

On the new poster for Resolution:
Justin: In general, when you make a movie and you make your own key art and you’re really happy with it, you then show it to the distributor who probably has their own ideas, which are very well placed: this is to sell it on VOD. And then you wait for months to get kicked in the balls, thinking it’s gonna be terrible. But we were so happy . . . nothing against horror movie posters, but it doesn’t look like a horror movie poster. There’s something very odd about the poster but it doesn’t look like a horror movie poster.

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Best Of 2012: Less Lee Moore

Noomi Rapace and Rooney Mara as Lisbeth Salander

2012 was the year of the woman. Women dominated the best of music, film, and TV.

The most significant figure for me in 2012 was Lisbeth Salander, the Steig Larsson-created character of the Millennium trilogy of novels, who also appears in the original Swedish film series and David Fincher’s newest film incarnation. Critics and fans may fight over who was better, Noomi Rapace or Rooney Mara, but both were outstanding at portraying my personal favorite female character of the last couple of decades. (Ms. Rapace had the added distinction of playing the more than worthy successor to Ellen Ripley when she inhabited the role of Dr. Elizabeth Shaw in Ridley Scott’s misunderstood but brilliant Prometheus.)

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Toronto After Dark 2012: Wrap-Up & Award Winners

By Less Lee Moore

Toronto After Dark 2012 is over and the award winners have been announced. You can read the full list of winners on the Toronto After Dark website, but I’d like to call special attention to the films I saw and reviewed.

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Toronto After Dark 2012: Resolution Review

By Less Lee Moore

Perhaps more than any other movie I’ve seen this year, Resolution will be the hardest to explain or describe. It’s not necessarily for fear of spoilers, because even if I wrote out the entire plot in detail it would probably 1) reduce the movie to some kind of gibberish and 2) not actually ruin anything because the joy of Resolution is all in the experience of watching it.

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Toronto After Dark 2012: Top Five Picks – Resolution

By Less Lee Moore

What:

Resolution: In a cabin by the woods, a junkie is visited by his estranged best friend in a desperate bid to rehabilitate him. As they rekindle their friendship in the dilapidated abode, they soon find themselves accosted by increasingly sinister neighboring forces, while stumbling upon a series of interconnected media (from diaries to VHS tapes) that surreally begin to embroil them in a supernatural plot that pervades both the cabin and its surroundings. (Synopsis from the Toronto After Dark website)

Who:

Directed by Justin Benson (who also wrote the script) and Aaron Moorhead (who is the director of photography).

Why:

One of my most cherished horror film premises is when realistic yet awful situations transform into something extraordinarily terrifying. Resolution seems to meet these criteria, and also points to quasi-conspiracy theories. It also seems to be the kind of horror that doesn’t splatter you with gore but rather lingers, which is the scariest kind of real-life fear. IMDB’s entry for Resolution includes no special effects, which makes its premise all the more intriguing. The trailer varies between uber-gritty realistic settings and disjointed edits and jarring noises.

The film is another Toronto After Dark first feature, this time for Justin Benson, who shares directorial credit with DP Aaron Moorhead, who also shot the rather amusingly titled Dating A Zombie. Resolution screened at Tribeca and Fantasia Film Festival this year.

When:

Resolution makes its Toronto premiere on Tuesday, October 23 at 9:45PM.

Where:

Bloor Cinema, 506 Bloor Street West.

Toronto After Dark 2012: Full Schedule

By Less Lee Moore

Only one day left until the 2012 Toronto After Dark Film Fest!

This year’s nine-day event includes twenty feature films, many of which are premiering in Canada for the first time.

All the films will be screening at the glorious, newly remodeled Bloor Cinema in Toronto, at 506 Bloor Street West. Here’s the schedule:

Thursday October 18

Grabbers, 6:45PM
American Mary, 9:45PM

Friday October 19

Crave, 6:45PM
Inbred, 9:45PM

Saturday October 20

Shorts After Dark, 3:45PM
[REC] 3: Genesis, 6:45PM
Cockneys vs. Zombies, 9:45PM

Sunday October 21

Doomsday Book, 1:00PM
Lloyd The Conqueror, 3:44PM
Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning, 6:45PM
After, 9:45PM

Monday October 22

Grave Encounters 2, 6:45PM
Citadel, 9:45PM

Tuesday October 23

My Amityville Horror, 6:45PM
Resolution, 9:45PM

Wednesday October 24

Sushi Girl, 6:45PM
Dead Sushi, 9:45PM

Thursday October 25

In Their Skin, 6:45PM
Wrong, 9:45PM

Friday October 26

A Fantastic Fear of Everything, 6:45PM
Game of Werewolves, 9:45PM

For more info on the films, trailers, and tickets, please check the Toronto After Dark Film Festival website.

I’ll be profiling my Top Five Picks of the festival over the next few days, so stay tuned!

Toronto After Dark 2012: Full Lineup Released

By Less Lee Moore

Like I said in the interview with Paul Corupe and Andrea Subissati from The Black Museum, Toronto is a wonderful city for genre fans, especially horror fans like me.

The 7th annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival is quickly approaching. This year’s TAD Film Fest starts on October 18 and runs through October 26. TAD Film Fest has expanded from four to nine nights since its inception in 2006.

There are 210 features screening this year, along with 29 short films, many of which are making their North American or Canadian premieres and the list of features this year is spectacular.

The full lineup includes: A Fantastic Fear of Everything, After, American Mary, My Amityville Horror, Citadel, Cockneys vs. Zombies, Crave, Dead Sushi, Doomsday Book, Game Of Werewolves, Grabbers, Grave Encounters 2, In Their Skin (formerly known as Replicas), Inbred, Lloyd the Conqueror, REC 3: Genesis, Resolution, Sushi Girl, Wrong, and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning. If you’ve been reading my Assemblogs for the last few months, you’ll recognize quite a few of these titles.

You can watch all the feature trailers on the TAD Film Fest YouTube page here.

This year will also be the first for the Toronto After Darkcade, which will feature independent horror, sci-fi, fantasy, action, and cult video games.

The complete festival schedule, which includes all feature and short screening times will be announced on Tuesday, October 2, so check the Toronto After Dark site for details. You can also by all-access passes from the site to get the most out of the festival.

Assemblog: July 6, 2012

Citadel still from Bloody Disgusting

New on Popshifter this week: Part two of our continuing series on THE BAND’s discography (The Band); and a review of Ernie Kovacs: The ABC Specials on DVD.

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