Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2016

It's baaack! The Toronto After Dark Film Festival returns for its 11th year. The fun begins tonight and kicks off with Under the Shadow and Trash Fire. As to what I'm most looking forward to this year:

Under the Shadow
Because I can't resist any movie that's billed as "the scariest film ever." We'll see about that.

The Lure
A Polish horror musical about a man-eating mermaid? Come on.

Train to Busan
Normally, I don't get excited about zombie movies, but this one got rave reviews and I've enjoyed past zombie nights at TADFF.

The Stakelander
Although I'm usually wary of sequels, I'm curious to see how this one turns out. I really liked Stakeland, so here's hoping for more of the same. There's no trailer, so here's a short video announcing the sequel.

The Void
I backed this one on Kickstarter so of course I'm super keen to see it!

Bed of the Dead
In truth, I'm not looking forward to it in the sense that I'm excited to see it. Rather, I mentioned this film on TheAvod when discussing upcoming horror movies, and thought it sounded kind of, well, dumb. It reminded me a bit of Death Bed, The Bed that Eats, which is a famously terrible film, but the synopsis on the TADFF website paints a different picture. Still might be dumb.

Toronto After Dark: Top 5 Picks

Something to be thankful for this year (and every year) is Toronto After Dark, the city's premiere genre film festival. A fan-based film fest, TAD offers nine nights of outstanding horror, action, and scifi cinematic entertainment.

This year I'm tasked with having to pick a top five prior to seeing all the films. Will my list hold up or will an underdog outshine them all? Last year's bright star was Found, an as-low-budget-and-indie-as-it-gets horror movie from first-time director Scott Schirmer. What delightful gem will we find this year?

My picks, in no particular order:

Why Horror?

Horror nerd and general dork-at-large that I am, I make a hobby of reading academic horror lit. I also dig a good documentary so I'm looking forward to this Canadian-made doc about horror's appeal.

Open Windows

This is on my list for no other reason than the fact that I really like Elijah Wood. Honestly.

Suburban Gothic

I also really like Matthew Grey Gubler. And ridiculous horror comedies about ghost hunting that also feature Jeffery Coombs (I have a signed The Frighteners DVD, thankyouverymuch).

Hellmouth

I've been waiting over a year to see this movie. I first heard about it at a Fan Expo panel and have been looking forward to it ever since. (Find me at the festival to hear a funny story about Tony Burgess.)

The Babadook

It's supposed to be scary and I haven't had a good scare in a while, so... Yeah. I just hope all the hype hasn't raised expectations too high.