Fantasia Film Festival Report by Deirdre Crimmins
Deirdre Crimmins is back from Montreal and she's smuggled some Cuban cigars, bacon flavored Lay's potato chips and her last festival report over the border using nefarious means best not discussed in mixed company.
Toad Road (dir.
Jason Banker). I was looking forward to Toad Road at Fantasia, as it has one of
the better premises for a horror film that I have heard in a while. In rural Pennsylvania there is an old country
road, Toad Road, which goes off in to the woods, and through meadows. Along this road you will find the seven gates
of hell. However the gates have long ago
withered away, or fallen in the thick, which makes your journey to hell is more
a change of awareness and bodily functions, rather than discrete stages. That is the movie I would like to see. Unfortunately, what Toad Road delivers is two thirds of real footage of hipsters doing
drugs, punching each other, and cracking gay jokes, and one third poorly acted
attempts at conveying a plot. Apparently
director Banker has a background in documentary work, and he decided to create
his first fiction feature by grabbing footage of a group of friends hanging
out, and then slowly worked out with the cast what scripted scenes they need to
include. I would really love to see a
successful film that employs this technique, because in-theory it could make a
strikingly realistic movie. However Toad Road is not a success and I must
continue to fantasize about how great the film could have been. 
A Night of Nightmares
(dir. Buddy Giovinazzo). When music
blogger Mark (Marc Senter) is invited to visit his newest underground musical
find while she is renting a ranch in California, he jumps at the chance. She turns out to be just as talented, and
just as adorable, as her album led him to believe. And Ginger (Elissa Dowling) seems to be
enjoying the company of a true gentleman who is truly interested in her music. Of course this budding flirtation in a remote
location turns out to be the perfect setting for a well-paced, original haunted
house film. Though I do love a slow
burn, atmospheric haunting film as much as the next gal, I cannot tell you how
refreshing it was to watch a film where stuff actually happens. Record players turn themselves on and off at
will, cars get flat tires, and characters vomit mountains of pennies. Mark and Ginger both deal with the scares in
different ways, though they do their best to remain a united front against the
dark forces that are afoot. A Night of Nightmares gave great scares,
without any cheap jumps, and it reminded me of the fun you can have while
trapped in a house with some pissed off ghosts.
Doomsday Book
(dirs. Yim Pil-sung & Kim Jee-woon).
Horror has been celebrating a resurgence of the anthology film recently
(The Theater Bizarre and V/H/S are two easy examples), and with Doomsday Book the science fiction genre
gets an excellent anthology set as well.
Two entries by Pil-sung bookend the film with light, quirky apocalypses
of different natures. “A Brave New
World” is a quasi-zombie outbreak short which starts with an infected
apple. A cautionary tale about keeping a
clean apartment, its highlight is actually a newsroom debate that somehow
shifts from awkward political jabs to a sing-a-long. “Happy Birthday” is an apocalyptic, and
post-apocalyptic short that watches as life on Earth comes to a crashing halt
with a meteor impact. Again the best
part of the already strong short is the news broadcast counting down the
moments to impact. The piece in between
these two lighthearted chapters is instead featured without laughs. “The Heavenly Creature” questions to far
reaching implications that ripple throughout a world when a robot finds
enlightenment. Though the Buddhist monks
are in awe of the robot’s achievement of true Nirvana, the company that
produced the machine seems less that pleased.
This episode does get a little preachy regarding ideology, but considering
the themes here it is to be expected.
These sections all fit together to make a complete film that is long in
run time, but absolutely worth it. 
Inbred (dir. Alex
Chandron). If you have ever watched House of 1000 Corpses, and wished that
the Firefly clan included all of their extended family and that they were
British, then you will love Inbred. This is a film that is uncompromising about
the kills, and the fact that the only reason the audience is watching the film
is to watch the heads roll. The loose
plot behind the film is that a group of problem teenagers are sent on an
outward bound to get away and do some manual labor. It is never made expressly clear where those
kids come from, who the adults are with them, and what they are hoping to
accomplish in the tiny village they are visiting. But none of that is actually important. What is important is that there is a solid
supply of fresh meat for these hicks to mutilate in any way they see fit. Inbred
had such fun with the kills, that the film practically rolls around in all of
that blood itself. 
Mon Ami (dir. Rob
Grant). Out of all of the comedies, and
generally comedic films, at Fantasia this year Mon Ami was easily the bloodiest, and got the biggest laughs. It is essentially a kidnapping heist that
goes terribly wrong, most due to the fact that Cal (Scott Wallis) and Teddy
(Mike Kovac) are both a bit timid when it comes to violence. Their discussions and hesitations when trying
to inflict harm on their pretty prisoner would be less charming, and more
clichéd, if left to less apt actors.
Both of the characters are well formed, relatable, and endearing, and
become even more so as the bodies start to pile up. The classical soundtrack to the film almost
acts like a character unto itself as well.
It makes the film and the fact that the characters can take themselves a
little too seriously that much more absurd.
Though the film is clearly a Canadian production, it is for some reason
set in the U.S.A..
Errors of the Human
Body (dir. Eron Sheean). One of the
best things about Fantasia is hearing the filmmakers talk about how their films
came to fruition. Sheean wrote last
year’s post-apocalyptic powerhouse The
Divide where he met actor Michael Eklund.
It was during that shoot that Sheean and Eklund decided to work together
on Errors of the Human Body. The film is a science fiction thriller, which
heavily questions the ramifications of genetic tampering without getting too
preachy or political. Eklund plays a
doctor in mourning, both for his infant son and for the relationship with his
wife that dissolved after his son’s death.
He packs up and goes to Germany at the invitation of a massive lab that
is very interested in his latest research into his son’s terminal genetic
condition. When he arrives he gets
captured in all of the workplace politics that are rampant there, including
research thievery and secret basement labs.
The film itself is quiet, as is Eklund’s performance, but the research
they are conducting, and the beautiful space of the lab, always give you
something to keep your mind occupied. 
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