Queer.Horror.Movies

The curated portfolio of film journalist Joe Lipsett

[Nightstream Review] Exploring a Broad Range of Queer Horror in the ‘Slayed’ Shorts Program

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Each year queer horror gets the spotlight treatment in the ‘Slayed’ shorts program at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival, which this year was part of the Nightstream Festival.

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[Fantasia Review] Paradise Hills Offers Beauty, But Misunderstands Its Own Appeal

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A beautifully maintained island full of young women that need to be “fixed.” A rebellious princess with a tragic past. A fantasy world with a mildly dystopian undercurrent, complete with a financial caste system. This is the world of Paradise Hills, the feature film debut of Alice Waddington. [Read more…]

[Fantasia 2019] Five Films To Get Excited For At This Year’s Festival

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You know that it’s summer when you start getting emails about Fantasia Film Festival. The largest genre film festival in North America is celebrating its 23rd year in Montreal, QB this summer. 130 features from the globe will be playing the fest, which runs from July 11 – Aug 1, 2019. [Read more…]

[Cinepocalypse] 4 Films to Flag in the Cinepocalypse 2019 Film Festival Line-Up

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Satanic Panic

“Cinepocalypse, Chicago’s premiere festival for electrifying and provocative genre cinema, returns to the Music Box Theatre June 13th for eight days of features, shorts, events and surprises, including eight fantastic break-out world premieres!”

Cinepocalypse is one of the hottest genre festivals in North America, so it’s always a delight when the screening schedule comes out. This year’s fest is already off to a great start with the announcement of a wide diversity of films, including a very welcome number of high profile projects from female directors including Gigi Saul Guerrer, Chelsea Stardust, Caryn Waecther, Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala and Pollyanna McIntosh. The buzz surrounding both Stardust’s Satanic Panic (a product of Fangoria Magazine’s film production wing) and The Lodge (a high profile Sundance acquisition from the directors behind cult classic Goodnight, Mommy) has been steadily building for several months.

Villains

The opening night feature is Verotika, the directorial debut from Misfits founder and punk/metal legend Glenn Danzig. Featuring a plot shrouded in secrecy, a soundtrack of new Danzig music, and based on the output of his comic book publishing company Verotik—a compound of “violence” and “erotic”—the feature film anthology is a realization of his lifelong love of comics and the dark arts that promises to “melt your face off” <gulp>.

Finally, in addition to new films from Lucky McKee and Joe Begos, one final film to keep an eye out for is Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s buzzy SXSW film Villains (which my partner-in-crime Trace Thurman raved about in his festival review). The film, which stars Bill Skarsgård and Maika Monroe, finds the tables turned on two wannabe criminals when thievery runs a foul and the prowlers soon become the prey.

Festival badges are available now, and individual tickets go on sale Friday at noon CT at cinepocalypsegenrefest.com

Here’s the full festival program:

Achoura, dir. Talal Selhami

  • Morocco, North American Premiere
  • Four childhood friends are reunited when one of them re-surfaces after 20 years, forcing them to confront a creature straight out of a spine-chilling Moroccan legend.

Attack of the Demons, dir. Eric Power

  • USA, World Premiere – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • Three friends must use every skill their minds can fathom to stave off a legion of mutating demons overtaking their community. Move over SOUTH PARK, this gore-soaked film is done entirely in hand cut-paper animation.

Belzebuth, dir. Emilio Portes

  • Mexico, North American Premiere
  • After losing his family in a most horrific way, a special border agent must investigate a series of deaths involving young children, possession, and an ancient demon named Belzebuth.

Bliss, dir. Joe Begos

  • USA, Midwest Premiere
  • A brilliant macabre painter facing the worst creative block of her life turns to every vice she can to complete her masterpiece, spiraling into a hallucinatory hellscape of drugs, sex, and a whole lotta murder.

Culture Shock

Hulu’s Into The Dark: Culture Shock, dir. Gigi Saul Guerrero

  • USA, Special Presentation – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • This thriller follows a young woman in pursuit of the American Dream, who crosses illegally into the United States, only to find herself in an American nightmare.

Darlin’, dir. Pollyanna McIntosh

  • USA, Midwest Premiere – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • A direct sequel to 2011’s cult classic THE WOMAN, star Pollyanna McIntosh takes over the director’s chair in this coming-of-age shocker with a horror-tinged twist.

Deadcon, dir. Caryn Waechter

  • USA, World Premiere
  • The horrors and isolation of being a social media influencer run rampant in DEADCON, when a collection of Youtube and Instagram stars soon discover there are things scarier than thousands of teenagers armed with phones asking for selfies.

Falling Down, dir. Joel Schumacher

  • USA, Retrospective – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • An unemployed defense worker, frustrated with the various flaws he sees in society, begins to psychotically and violently lash out against them. Presented in 35mm.

Flatliners, dir. Joel Schumacher

  • USA, Retrospective – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • Five medical students experiment with “near-death” experiences until the dark consequences of past tragedies begin to jeopardize their lives. Presented in 70mm

Ghost Killers Vs. Bloody Mary, dir. Fabrício Bittar

  • Brazil, North American Premiere
  • In this horror-comedy bloodbath, four Youtubers with expertise in supernatural events seek recognition from their viewers while solving the urban legend of Bloody Mary. Prepare yourselves for gut-busting hilarity and gore-soaked chaos.

GWAR Showcase

  • USA, Special screening – Guests in attendance!
  • A retrospective of GWAR’s blood-splattered iconic heavy metal career, including the Grammy nominated PHALLUS IN WONDERLAND, followed by a Q&A!

Hot Dog… The Movie, dir. Peter Markle

  • USA, 35th Anniversary 4K Producer’s Cut Restoration World Premiere

Kindred Spirits, dir. Lucky McKee

  • USA, World Premiere – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • In the latest twisted work from the director of MAY and THE WOMAN, stars Thora Birch, Macon Blair, and Caitlin Stasey shine in this unapologetically dark thriller about a deeply disturbed young woman with a sinister agenda.

The Lodge

The Lodge, dirs. Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala

  • UK/U.S.A, Midwest Premiere
  • In this psychologically unsettling slowburn, a young woman and her soon-to-be new stepchildren find themselves snowed in at a remote winter cabin. Of course, strange and frightening events take place concluding in a final act that will leave you shaken.

The Lurker, dir. Eric Liberacki

  • USA, World Premiere – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • A group of high school theatre students (led by Scout Taylor-Compton), celebrate their final performance of Romeo & Juliet by dying at the hands of a savage killer, in this Chicago-set slasher that gives new meaning to the expression “the show must go on!”

Mope, dir. Lucas Heyne

  • USA, Midwest Premiere – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • The tragic and very icky true story of two best friends and low-end Mopes (slang for wannabe porn stars) who sought fame but gained infamy in a 2010 murder at a San Fernando valley porn company’s warehouse.

The Mute, dir. Bartosz Konopka

  • Poland, North American Premiere
  • Two knights set off to christen a small pagan village hidden deep within the mountains, using vile methods to take control of the foreigners minds and souls. THE MUTE is a spectacle made of visuals and atmosphere combined to create a thrilling, savage, and mystical epic.

Punta Muerto (Dead End), dir. Daniel de la Vega

  • Argentina, North American Premiere
  • A mystery writer is suspected of murder when a colleague turns up dead in the exact way that is laid out in his latest, highly praised book. To prove his innocence, he must find the real killer, in this stunning B&W throwback to ’40s mysteries and film noir.

Rock N’ Roll Nightmare, dir. John Fasano

  • Canada, Special live movie riff event with members of GWAR
  • At a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere, a hopeful hair-metal band seeking inspiration to record their new LP will soon find themselves in a furious confrontation with the Prince of Darkness himself, as well as GWAR!

Satanic Panic, dir. Chelsea Stardust

  • USA, Midwest Premiere
  • A pizza delivery girl at the end of her financial rope has to fight for her life – and her tips – when her last order of the night turns out to be to a group of high-society Satanists in need of a virgin sacrifice.

The Swerve, dir. Dean Kapsalis

  • USA, World Premiere – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • Holly seems to have it all, but there are troubling signs that all is not right as her life begins to spiral out of control. Both a stellar portrait of depression and a horrific drama, this haunting update on a classic tragedy comes from a new writer/director raised on the films of Bergman, Polanski, and Hitchcock.

Tammy & the T-Rex, dir. Stewart Raffill

  • USA, Original R-rated ‘Gore-Cut’ 35mm World Premiere
  • From the director of MAC AND ME, comes a love story like no other. Starring DEnise Richards and the late great Paul Walker. Oh, and of course a T-Rex.

Total Recall, dir. Paul Verhoeven

  • USA, Retrospective – Film Guest in attendance!
  • Presented in 70mm.
  • “See you at the party Richter”. Villain extraordinaire Michael Ironside in attendance for one of the greatest sci-fi action films of all time! From filmmaker Paul Verhoeven and starring Arnold Schwarzenneger. You know this one!

Verotika

Verotika, dir. Glenn Danzig

  • USA, World Premiere – Filmmaker in attendance!
  • Featuring a plot shrouded in secrecy, a soundtrack composed entirely of new Danzig music, and based on the output of his long-running, mature comic book publishing company Verotik—a compound of “violence” and “erotic”—this feature film anthology is Glenn Danzig’s directorial debut!

Villains, dirs. Dan Berk & Robert Olsen

  • USA, Midwest Premiere
  • When a pair of painfully amateurish criminals break into a suburban home, they stumble upon a dark secret in the basement that two sadistic homeowners will do anything to keep from getting out in this black-comic thriller.

Why Don’t You Just Die, dir. Kirill Sokolov

  • Russia, Midwest Premiere – Presented by L’Étrange Festival
  • A detective brings together a terrible group of people in his apartment, each one of whom has a reason to want revenge. With plenty of dark Russian humor, this rip-roaring rampage of violence and gore plays more as an evil Looney tunes than your basic gross-out experience. Presented by L’Etrange Festival in Paris.

What do you think of the line-up? What films are you most excited for?

[BitS Review] MONTRÉAL DEAD END Is An Uneven Horror Comedy Anthology

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Montréal Dead End is an adventurous anthology feature that is steeped in the geography of one of Canada’s most gorgeous cities. The self-proclaimed “no budget” horror film created by 18 different directors takes several different approaches that helps to set it apart from its anthology counterparts and while, like its peers, it’s not always successful, it’s worth checking out just to see how all of the pieces play together.

It’s traditional for anthologies to use a bracket storyline to link the various entries together or provide some kind of thematic through-line. Montréal Dead End opts more for the latter approach, but intriguingly chooses to intersperse the ongoing storyline throughout the film. The film’s opening introduces a noxious green gas escaping from a sinkhole in the middle of the city and the remainder of the film explores the endless stream of terrors and monsters that arise in the mist’s wake (zombies and cannibals, mostly) in different parts of the city.

As the film progresses, it is revealed that the gas is tied to a forthcoming apocalypse that can only be prevented if the Guardian and the Archivist (Jérémie Earp-Lavergne) read from a powerful spell book within 24 hours of the gate opening. These segments tend to feature encounters between the Guardian and an agent of darkness with their own agenda (the Baron of Montréal North or the Priestess of Outremont, for example), but they’re rather repetitive and, most disappointingly, the resolution of the bracket storyline (ie: the climax of the film) occurs far too quickly and is resolved in an underwhelming fashion.

The other issue with Montréal Dead End is that the quality of the shorts vary dramatically. Because there are so many filmmakers involved, many of the 15 segments are quite short; at times this proves to be a minor blessing, but more often than not the need to cram in more ends up cutting off a promising story. Not unlike The ABCs of Death, the sheer number of shorts overwhelms the proceedings, so much so that they bleed together and become difficult to distinguish from one another. It also makes the 87 minute long film feel much longer than it actually is.

Thankfully there are several hidden gems. Many of the shorts that lean into comedy fare best (possibly because it’s easier to deliver a punchline than develop a mood, build tension and pay off a scare in the same amount of time). Among the strongest shorts are:

  • The Marché Atwater: Tom prepares for a date by cooking dinner, but when his produce from the market begins attacking him, the kitchen becomes a battlefield.
  • Villeroy: A lonely girl discovers a mutated man in a back alley, and befriends with candy. An unlikely friendship quickly arises in this cute, but too brief segment.
  • Mile-End: An interracial lesbian zombie couple barters body parts with a local grocer in anticipation of a romantic/icky dinner date.
  • Parc Lafontaine: I’m 50/50 on this short, which literally mines the exchange of bodily fluids for comedy. What starts off humourously with a couple who swap bodies after they kiss becomes both vulgar and stupid when a semen joke results in penises on a face. Proof that a good concept can go very badly, very quickly.
  • Beaubien: My favourite of all of the segments, this English & French comedy short focuses on a cutesy couple who ignorantly miss all of the signs that everyone around them has disappeared or died (and reanimated). An obvious, but still very funny bit finds them peering into a cafe window, repeatedly avoiding a malicious attempt to murder them with a pair of flower pots from above. Throw in a Celine Dion joke and this segment is a winner.

Several of the more horrific shorts are also enjoyable, but too many lean on familiar trappings: cannibals and/or zombies. One nearly silent short set in the The Village starts out promisingly: a pair of girlfriends fight about one’s wandering eye in a gorgeous purple neon-lit dance club. A strange man follows them home and lurks outside of the window as the envious philanderer first resists, then initiates sex, culminating in a physical attack. The association of carnal longing and food is subtle and effective, but the short has barely begun before it’s over. Contrast this with a meandering silent short about an old woman who is recruited for a bath by a group of feral children in the woods that is interminable.

Clearly not all of shorts are made equal.

Montréal Dead End plays the Blood in the Snow Film Festival Sat, Nov 24 at 9:30pm EST.