Movies
Toronto’s After Dark Festival Announces First Wave Of Films
Toronto After Dark has announced their first wave of films that will appear during the 10th annual edition of the film festival, which runs October 15th-23rd, 2015. The films announced include Deathgasm, Synchronicity, A Christmas Horror Story, and much more.
Head below for the full list, synopses for each film, and a YouTube playlist featuring trailers for each of the 10 films.
More information on the festival, as well as ticket purchase options, can be found at the official website.
DEATHGASM (New Zealand) Toronto Premiere & Closing Gala Film
In the latest crowd-pleasing horror-comedy from New Zealand that’s taken the festival circuit by storm since its debut at SXSW, a group of metalhead outcasts unwittingly unleash a horde of vicious demons upon their sleepy suburban neighbourhood. Now they’ll have to engage in an epic duel of blood and metal with Satan’s hordes if they’re to win back their town.
TALES OF HALLOWEEN (USA) Toronto Premiere & Opening Gala Film
Acclaimed filmmakers Neil Marshall (THE DESCENT), Lucky McKee (MAY), Darren Lynn Bousman (REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA), Paul Solet (GRACE) and many more team up to deliver 10 wickedly entertaining tales of terror all set on the same hellish Halloween night. The huge cast of fan favourites joining into deliver thrills and chills galore include John Landis, Adrienne Barbeau, Joe Dante, Barbara Crampton, Lin Shaye and Barry Bostwick!
LAZER TEAM (USA) Canadian Premiere
Web series gods Rooster Teeth hit it out of the park with their feature film debut, a crowd-pleasing sci-fi action comedy. When Earth is threatened by an advanced alien race, the planet’s only hope lies in four morons, the self-proclaimed “Lazer Team” and some high tech weaponry that’s never been tested before!
NINA FOREVER (U.K.) Toronto Premiere
Winning rave reviews on the fest circuit, this twisted, messed-up, dark horror comedy from Britain is about a young man trying to start a new relationship with a supermarket co-worker while all the time being stalked by his very jealous, very dead, ex-girlfriend.
A CHRISTMAS HORROR STORY (Canada) Toronto Premiere
A delightfully creepy, Yule-themed horror tale from the same talented team behind the GINGER SNAPS movies. Living icon William Shatner stars as local radio DJ Dan working the Christmas Eve graveyard shift, when all hell breaks loose around him in the snow-covered town of Bailey Downs. Santa’s having the most terrible night of them all, having to fight off an outbreak of zombie elves heralding the arrival of his evil nemesis, the monstrous Krampus!
TAG (Japan) Toronto Premiere
From the warped mind of acclaimed Japanese director Sion Sono (SUICIDE CLUB, LOVE EXPOSURE, WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL) comes a shocking, satirical, horror-action-thriller about three Japanese schoolgirls in the race of their lives as they try to outrun a mysterious malevolent force that’s brutally killing every girl around them.
LOVE & PEACE (Japan) Toronto Premiere
A wildly imaginative Japanese fantasy/monster movie mashup about a down-trodden office worker who aspires to be a rock star and his pet turtle who wants to grow up to be a giant city-destroying creature like Godzilla! Don’t miss this one-of-a-kind cinematic delight from the eccentric mind of director Sion Sono (SUICIDE CLUB, LOVE EXPOSURE, WHY DON’T YOU PLAY IN HELL) that’s rightfully winning Audience Awards!
THE DEMOLISHER (Canada) Toronto Premiere
A hypnotic, dark, award-winning thriller about a mentally unstable vigilante, The Demolisher, who deals with his personal frustrations by donning a suit of body armour and prowling the streets at night, delivering brutal justice to those he feels deserve it. The film’s atmospheric nocturnal city landscape is superbly enhanced by a fantastic synth score from Glen Nicholls aka Future Funk Squad!
SYNCHRONICITY (USA) Toronto Premiere
From Jacob Gentry (Sundance hit THE SIGNAL) comes another smart, dark, sci-fi thriller, this time heavily influenced by the noir ambiance of BLADE RUNNER. A brilliant young scientist tries to crack the secret of time travel whilst thwarting the advances of a sinister corporate leader (portrayed by fan fave villain Michael Ironside), while falling for a mysterious woman whose suddenly appeared in his life. Title Image Coming Soon
PATCHWORK (USA) International Premiere
A delightfully dark, Frankenstein-themed horror comedy about a re-animated corpse, made from the stitched together body parts of three murdered young women, that decides to go on a bloody quest to find their killer and avenge their deaths!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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