TORONTO SCREAM FEST 2009 - PART II
Monday, August 17, 2009 at 3:06PM | Elana Steingart 
Really, who isn't a movie expert? We are all such avid and experienced consumers of cinema that the amount of exposure alone almost makes any member of Canadian society a movie expert. But then there are people who study film in an academic context at university, learning about all kinds of fancy terminology. Or perhaps real expertise can only come from putting the theory into practice and turning an idea into a series of moving pictures.
Hopefully, to be a film reviewer, you don't need much 'expertise' past having watched a bunch of movies and having good taste. (Qualified: me.)
And to have your film screened at Toronto Scream Fest, you don't need much filmmaking expertise past having a camera.
Don't get me wrong, I won't begrudge anyone for being new at something. This is my first film review, and my first post here at Sharp Objex. The first four films screened at Toronto Scream Fest were by first time filmmakers or students, and we've all got to start somewhere. It was also a first for the festival organizers, since this was Toronto's first Scream Fest. They did a marvelous job, putting together an interesting and diverse sequence of movies, and made the excellent choice of the Fox Theatre as the venue.
The Fox is a single screening room in an older building, with a little museum display of old cinema equipment at the rear, and comfortable seats (they recline better than at AMC!). It definitely feels like a local independent theatre, and is located in a part of Toronto that is known for its close-knit community and appreciation for the arts. It's a place that makes you want to be supportive of first-time filmmakers' work and forgiving of their minor slip-ups.
The second two films were by more experienced indy filmmakers, and were more cohesive projects, with fewer rookie mistakes to forgive.
I went into the festival naively expecting several hours of continuous zombies, but was pleasantly surprised by the broad interpretations of "horror". There was a mixture of gore, grindhouse, psychological, and mystery/suspense, as well as at least one example of comedy riffing on familiar horror icons.
Here's a selection of my three favourite movies from the evening.
---
"Behind My Eyes"
Directed by: Robert Barrow
Runtime: 10 min.
This film was directed by Sheridan grad Robert Barrow. It's a ten minute piece that largely takes place in one set: a room with slatted walls, light shining crazily through the gaps, and everything shot in a hallucinatory blue-gray aesthetic. As I understood it, the project in the given ten minutes wasn't to convey a particular narrative, but to relate a mood and create an experience for the audience. The mood? Insomnia and psychosis.
You know when you've gone for days without proper sleep, and you start to see things? Brief flashes of images, unbidden, sometimes alarming, and you wish there was someone around to ask if they saw it too, because you really can't be sure what's real anymore?
No?
Um. Then I guess you'll have to watch the movie to understand.
The many sudden startling cuts in BEHIND MY EYES conveyed the insanity of exhaustion really effectively. It didn't just evoke the memory of this feeling - it actually replicated the experience, by flashing jarring images at you that just don't quite work with what you were looking at before. It cut together sequences that don't make sense chronologically: the character commits acts of self-mutilation, and the parts of him that are maimed are alternately whole again. Is he dreaming of being intact, or is the violence only a dream?
This movie is horror because it features a few of the common themes: blood and gore, madness, self-inflicted violence, isolation in a small dirty space. But there's also classic horror in the sub-text, referencing possession, demons and exorcism, and adapting it for a culture that has already absorbed and familiarized the concept of mental illness. The acts of self-mutilation sometimes seem like efforts to exorcise a hideous inner demon, or like an evil alternate personality - a raging, self-loathing subconscious. I enjoyed the ambiguity; although it might be an obvious parallel, they executed it in a way that required some attention and thought from the audience.
---
"Stripped!"
Directed by: Mike Klassen
Runtime: 15 min.
This was the movie I was looking forward to the most, because I assumed that it was going to be about stripper zombies. No to zombies, yes to strippers, so I'd still call it a victory.
Most of the stripper action was in slow-mo over the opening credits, and that filled the gyrating booty quota for the film. The rest of it was a quasi-feminist action movie, involving a pair of sisters being terribly violent in a corrupt strip bar that rents out its girls to police men. I say "quasi" because for every tough butt-kicking lead female role, there was the looming threat of rape, or counter-feminist cliches like the Russian madam or the vicious attack-girl who scratches with exorbitantly long nails. This pleases me. One thing I love the most about Canadian independent art is that we are comfortable ignoring hard lines and definitions. The movie didn't make a choice between being feminist or pure exploitation, because it didn't have to.
After a few hours of first-time filmmakers and movies thrown together on shoestring budgets, this movie's fifteen minutes were an exciting sight, with actual cars, establishing shots, character moments and clever camera angles. They successfully played with plot narration, showing us the middle of the story first, backtracking, and then revealing simultaneity, without a moment's confusion - testament to solid editing. A lot of moments in the movie were quite satisfying, especially the liberal use of the f-word by an emphatic young actor. This was the last film I saw at the festival, and the first one during which I noticed that I had actually been immersed in the story enough to have temporarily forgotten my analytical role as reviewer. So, well done then.
---
"Jason Goes to Work"
Written and Directed by: Ryan Doyle
Produced by: Christine Armstrong
Runtime: 3 min. 26 sec.
Here is the surprise hit from the 'first-time filmmakers' section at the beginning of the festival.
This five-minute film got in, made great jokes, and got the fuck out. Premise: Jason Voorhees' machete broke, and he has to get a job to pay for a new one. The corporate world has no time for his "slow-motion stagger", and verbally abuse him as he stoically works the bottom of the totem pole - an absurd thing to watch. We're sitting here waiting for him to go nuts and let the gore loose, and when there is finally a moment of sudden violence against his boss.
Then stunned silence, followed by the glasses-taken-off slow clap, building to the standing ovation in the office.
I love the slow clap, when used for comedic effect. I was probably the loudest laugh in the theatre at that moment.
The lesson here was twofold:
1. The corporate world enjoys a bit of upwards aggression.
2. Some guys are just pricks who need to be hit, and you're justified in doing it, even if you're Jason Voorhees.
To me, this movie was genius. Short films, for me, are about having one purpose and achieving it in the shortest possible time. This one hit us with jokes which lasted just long enough to stay fresh and funny, and it ended on the highest note. Perfection. It felt like a really upscale Internet short. This team really understands today's market and attention span, and I really appreciated it.
---
Scream Fest was a really good time. The audience was full of cast and crew, and horror fans in festively gothic regalia. There were well-spaced breaks, so the films never got tiresome. I'm no horror film buff, but I enjoyed myself. If you're worried about coming out to an independent short film festival because you're afraid it'll be too obscure, or that you'll be trapped watching painfully bad movies, put it out of your mind: this year's Scream Fest was a lively and intimate cinematic party.
Reader Comments (5)
Thanks for the fantastic STRIPPED! review! It was a delight working on that indie film. . . right up my grindhouse alley!
I disagree that Stripped was at all good. I did not care at all what happened to the characters; The dialogue was very 'student;' most of the sets were poorly designed; and there was zero character development. I expect more from Sheridan students.
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