Fright Fest: (clockwise from left): The Theatre Bizarre, The Wicker Tree, the poster for Yakuza Weapon, and The Whisperer in Darkness.


Karim Hussain’s nail-biting Vision Stains depicts a home- less woman who extracts the histories of other transients via ocular brutalization; David Gregory’s stylish Sweets is either a candy-covered joy to savour or a repulsive indi- gestive, depending on your relationship to food; Buddy Giovinazzo’s well-crafted I Love You portrays exactly what can go wrong in the heat of the moment; and Douglas Buck’s The Accident is a vignette of a mother and daughter witnessing a roadside mishap that hardcore horrorphiles might dismiss, but is ultimately a moving opus. The Theatre Bizarre shows that grisly tales told with care can be com- forting, and might explain our collective horror addiction. MG


VICTIMS – UK David Bryant


When the director boasts that the biggest expense was his plane ticket to Montreal to attend FanTasia, you know you’re in for amateur hour. The premise of Victims is prom- ising: a man kidnapped on his wedding day is accused of raping and murdering a girl when he himself was a child. Acting is sometimes strong, but background sirens, traffic and voices detract from the abandoned warehouse inter- rogation, and the lengthy exposition will leave you feeling victimized yourself. MG


THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS – USA Sean Branney


This lovely Lovecraft adaptation by the film collective known as The HP Lovecraft Historical Society (which also made the mid-length film, The Call of Cthulhu) centres on


Albert Wilmarth, a folklore expert at Miskatonic University who confronts the unknown in the backwoods of Vermont. Using beautifully atmospheric black and white cinematog- raphy, the filmmakers attempt to recreate a late 1920s at- mosphere, but at times the film feels more like a 1950s creature feature. Regardless, this is creative and spirited filmmaking. MDB


THE WICKER TREE – UK Robin Hardy


Robin Hardy’s long-awaited follow-up to The Wicker Man in no way matches the power of its predecessor, but taken as a standalone work it’s not without merit. Playing out like a Carry On-style reimagining of the 1973 masterpiece, it stars charming newcomer Brittania Nicol as a gospel pop star who travels to a Scottish village to preach the good book to a group of pagan fiends. While much hilarity, flesh eating and wicker burning ensues, it’s noticeably devoid of the juicy sexuality and menacing tension that made the original so memorable. SFA


YAKUZA WEAPON – Japan Tak Sakaguchi and Yudai Yamaguchi


If you’re a fan of Meatball Machine, Mutant Girls Squad or Versus, Yakuza Weapon is probably already on your must- watch list. These are films you either love or hate. This one continues the tradition of armament-infused, indestructible, shit-talking badasses splattering hordes of helpless min- ions before culminating in a preposterous closing battle in- volving some kind of genital super weapon. In case you’re wondering, this time it’s anal rockets. AM


Included in the “Special Events” program this year were a number of round-tables, conversa-


tions, lectures and master classes, including Architects of The Theatre Bizarre, Die Bad on Screen: Master Class with director Ryoo Seung-Wan, Robin Hardy in Conversation with Richard Stanley, and Voltaire: Puppet Master of the Macabre, among others. One of the highlights was the round-table discussion titled Bloody Breasts Presents: Women in Horror – a title borrowed from documentaries by one of the panellists, local filmmaker Maude


Michaud – which tackled issues relating to women in the horror scene. Moderated by Kier-La Janisse, the panel also consisted of filmmakers Izabel Grondin and Elza Kephart, who discussed their experiences working within the genre and the industry more broadly, including the gender-related pressures they face. A symposium titled, La Mythologie Hammer (in French), was presented by Nicolas Stanzick, author of Dans les


griffes de la Hammer (2008), the first French-language book on Britain’s Hammer studios, which is being re-released this year. It was captivating to listen to a non-Anglo Saxon view on Hammer, and Stanzick delivered a well-organized introductory lecture. He also showed clips and trailers, and discussed the Hammer story from his perspective of seeing the films for the first time in France. However, no time was alotted for a question period. His lecture was fol- lowed by a 16mm print of the underrated 1967 Terence Fisher film Frankenstein Created Woman. MDB


RM 32 One of the most antici-


pated events of this year’s FanTasia festival was Maple Syrup Thrills: A Tribute with John Dunning and André Link, dedicated to the two


founders of Cinépix, Montreal’s own exploitation production house. Often compared to Roger Cor- man, Dunning and Link founded Cinépix in 1962 as a distributor of foreign exploitation fare. But with the founding of the Canadian Film and De- velopment Corporation (now Telefilm Canada), and the institution of tax credits, Cinépix turned to producing its own work. The first movie, Valérie (1969), was inspired by


Joe W. Sarno’s influential Swedish sexploitation film Inga (1968), and went on to become Que- bec’s most successful box-office film. The waves it caused in the province during the late 1960s cannot be underestimated. In fact, the cultural, religious and political changes happening in Que- bec during this period are encompassed in its in- your-face anti-Catholic rebellion, and in the voyeuristic softcore imagery of Danielle Ouimet in the titular role. Ouimet was on hand with Denis Héroux,


Valérie’s director, along with other Cinepix play- ers, including George Mihalka (My Bloody Valen- tine), Jean-Claude Lord (Visiting Hours), Larry Kent (High), Don Carmody (producer of Rabid and Shivers) and actress Lynn Lowry (Shivers) to pay tribute to the two giants of Canadian exploitation cinema. Dunning was unable to attend due to health problems, but interviews with him, David Cronenberg and others, were screened during the proceedings. Hosted by Rue Morgue’s own Paul Corupe, the


evening ended with a 35mm screening of Cro- nenberg’s brilliantly apocalyptic “sexual libera- tion” film Shivers. When it was originally released in 1975, Shivers was described as the “repulsive film Canadians helped pay for,” by Saturday Night critic Robert Fulford. Link and Dunning can be credited for encouraging and helping sustain the subversive and transgressive early work of young filmmakers such as Cronenberg and Héroux at a time when their movies were con- sidered taboo.MDB


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