Halloween Weekend at TIFF Bell Lightbox

Finally announced!

Chills! Thrills! Creeps! Freaks!
Halloween Films at TIFF Bell Lightbox!

I'm excited to announce that I've selected four films to play over the Friday and Saturday of the Halloween weekend at the brand new, state of the art cinemas at TIFF Bell Lightbox here in Toronto. I've picked two personal favourites that I programmed in the past at TIFF's Midnight Madness, THE LOVED ONES and S&MAN, and then two films that have NEVER been screened in Toronto, Neil Marshall's debut film DOG SOLDIERS and Ti West's THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL. Plus, before the midnight festivities, on Saturday, be sure to check out a spooky sci-fi double bill selected by Vincenzo Natali - Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES + Ridley Scott's ALIEN!

Click on the links for to purchase tickets.

Hope to see you at Lightbox for some tricks and treats!

TIFF Bell Lightbox
Reitman Square, 350 King Street West

Friday October 29
11:59PM - DOG SOLDIERS
11:59PM - THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL
12:15 AM - S&MAN
12:30AM - THE LOVED ONES

Saturday October 30
8:00PM - PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES / ALIEN double bill
12:15AM - THE LOVED ONES
12:15 AM - S&MAN
12:30AM - DOG SOLDIERS
12:30AM - THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL

Sunday October 31
6:30 PM - S&MAN
9:00 PM - S&MAN

Ticket prices:
Regular: $12.00*
Students/Seniors: $9.50*
Members (up to Family/Dual level): $9.00*
Members (Contributor level or higher): $6.00*
** Prices do not include HST, building-fund fee and service charges


DOG SOLDIERS
dir. Neil Marshall
UK 2002
105 minutes

"Six soldiers. Full moon. No chance."

Grab your silver bullets and pack some wolfsbane for this rare screening of the debut film from cult director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday). A squad of British soldiers on a routine training mission find themselves pitted against a clan of werewolves in an action-filled romp that knows never to take itself too seriously (we’re talking to you, Underworld!). A cockney mix of Night of the Living Dead and Aliens, Dog Soldiers takes the conventions of the werewolf subgenre and tears them apart as the hairy beasts lay siege to the stranded soldiers in a battle that eschews CGI for deliriously gruesome physical effects. "One of the most gloriously unsubtle and adrenalized extreme shockers since The Evil Dead." – Seattle Times

THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL
dir. Ti West
USA 2009
93 min.

"Talk on the Phone. Finish Your Homework. Watch TV. Die."

Desperate to earn some cash for a deposit on an apartment, pretty college sophomore Sam (Jocelin Donahue) accepts a suspiciously well-paying babysitting job from a very odd couple (cult actors Tom Noonan and Mary Woronov) in their creaky Victorian mansion deep in the woods. As a total lunar eclipse plunges the night into darkness, Sam finds to her horror that there is no baby... yet. Set in the 1980s and based on the "Satanic panic" urban legends that gripped America during the Reagan era, writer-director Ti West's House of the Devil is a remarkable exercise in suspense, a terrific—and terrifying—horror film that can be enjoyed by hardcore genre fans and casual viewers alike. "After years of vivisectionist splatter, here is a horror movie with real shivers." – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
http://www.houseofthedevilmovie.com/

THE LOVED ONES
dir. Sean Byrne
Australia 2009
84 min.

Winner, Toronto International Film Festival 2009 Cadillac People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award

High school senior Brent (Xavier Samuel) lives in a haze of pot smoke and metal music to escape the pain of his dad’s death. His only ray of hope is his girlfriend Holly (Victoria Thaine), who is grounded, caring and gorgeous—a dream date for the high school prom. His plans to take her to the prom are thwarted by a secret admirer who has sadistic romantic intentions for Brent under the mirrored disco ball. First-time director Sean Byrne delivers a fusion of two horror classics, The Evil Dead and Carrie, with equal parts shock-laced jolts and tongue-in-cheek humour. A runaway hit on the festival circuit, The Loved Ones is destined to become a scary and deliciously deranged date movie classic.

S&MAN
dir. JT Petty
USA 2006
84 min.

When horror filmmaker JT Petty (The Burrowers), sets out to make a documentary about the world of underground extreme horror films, things don't go exactly as planned. Initially making the comparison between filmmaking and voyeurism within the horror genre, he interviews academics (Carol J. Clover, author of Men, Women and Chainsaws), psychiatrists, actors and a selection of directors who are out to meet the demand of their disturbed audiences. One interview subject has created a homemade film series called "S&MAN," and as Petty digs further into his subject, trying to get him to reveal the names of the actors who play the onscreen victims, he begins to realize that they might not be actors at all. As the mystery deepens and Petty finds himself in dangerous territory, S&MAN becomes the most unsettling documentary film experiences in years.

“S&MAN is a post-modern masterpiece … A documentary of an astounding and surprising power, this is almost required viewing…” - Mathew Kumar, Twitch Film

“It won’t help if you keep repeating, ‘It’s only a documentary…’” - Richard Corliss, Time Magazine

Saturday October 30
8:00PM - PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES / ALIEN double bill
Join us for a rare screening of Mario Bava's 1965 sci-fi/horror hybrid Planet of the Vampires, a visually arresting and creepily atmospheric account of a spaceship crash on a distant planet, the survivors of which are beset by the resurrected corpses of their crewmates. Following Bava's low-budget classic, try to spot the Italian horror maestro's influence in the mesmerizing design of Alien, Ridley Scott's stomach-churning tale of a canoe-headed extraterrestrial wreaking havoc on the crew of an industrial space freighter. 35MM prints! – Curated by Colin Geddes and Vincenzo Natali.