The Final Take with Parker Mott

Don't go into "Room 237"...but "The Shining" still keeps its doors wide open.

The Shining is probably Stanley Kubrick’s most mind-boggling film, certainly not his best but not far from what its poster heralds as “a masterpiece of modern horror.” Watching the film for maybe the seventh time the other day – but the first ever on the big screen, in a gloriously crisp 35mm print at Toronto’s TIFF Bell Lightbox – the film registered to me as droll. Many scenes, thanks to Kubrick’s craftsmanship, sink their hooks in you, while others hang loosely with pin-dropping bemusement. (continue reading…)

Rooney Mara is a curious, engaging face put to waste in "Side Effects".

I wouldn’t be the first to report that Side Effects marks the touted indiemeister Steven Soderbergh’s final feature and, after his TV movie Behind the Candelabra, the end of a 24-year career beginning with his 1989 drama Sex, Lies, & Videotape. Most critics in their reviews of Side Effects have formally rued the retirement of a great filmmaker, who particularly made an impact with his (overrated) 2000 feature Traffic. (continue reading…)

Paranormal Activity 4 (95m) – ***
V/H/S (115m) – **1/2 

The found-footage genre dates all the way back to 1980’s Cannibal Holocaust by Italian filmmaker Ruggero Deodato, a film that was put under much controversy for its strikingly vivid human death scenes and actual acts of animal cruelty. The movie is still banned in several countries, but in Canada or U.S. you can probably find it in the basement of your local mom-and-pop video store. (continue reading…)

Frankenweenie.

Frankenweenie may be a return to Tim Burton’s past, but it’s not quite a return to form. This is an example of a filmmaker who employs all his tools and tricks, but can’t find a way to twist out the awe – or, what might be more accurate for Burton, morbidity. His latest film, a 3D stop-motion monster romp, is not at the mediocrity of Burton’s last two efforts Alice in Wonderland and Dark Shadows, but it feels for too much of its 87 minutes unremarkably Burton-lite. (continue reading…)

FATAL PICTURES is proud to announce “FAMILIAR”, a new Horror short starring Robert Nolan, Astrida Auza & Cathryn Hostick as the seemingly idyllic yet ultimately doomed Dodd Family.

SYNOPSIS:

Through a series of tragic events a middle aged man grows to suspect the negative impulses plaguing his mind may not be his own… (continue reading…)

Gemma Arterton plays Clara, the owl-eyed mother/vampire, in "Byzantium".

“I throw my story to the wind”, writes Eleanor Webb at the beginning of Byzantium as she sits at her desk in low-light, casting away her age-old secrets. Psychologists often recommend if one is grieving or conflicted, they should put their thoughts down on paper and then destroy them. It’s the ultimate catharsis. Eleanor clearly understands this human exercise, but she’s a vampire, which means she is immortal and must perpetually feed off fresh human blood. (continue reading…)

Rating: 14A – Coarse Language, Disturbing Content
Run Time: 113 minutes

Robert De Niro is a mystical presence in "Red Lights".

“Red Lights” wages a philosophical war between supernatural and natural laws, and begs the question whether the former defies the logic of the latter. Is there something beyond the veil that exceeds our worldly understanding? John Locke believed we must predicate truth on mental perceptions, whereas the later David Hume was a skeptic to the validity of human knowledge and sensory perception. For me, the supernatural is adjacent to the realm of objectivity: both may exist, but they predominate a state outside immanent human existence. (continue reading…)

An entry in the 2012 Worldwide Short Film Festival in Toronto, ON.

The Captured Bird breaks the illusion of death with a fantastical tale both abstract and visually bizarre, and yet strikingly literal in its message – death is alive, and it feasts on the curiosity of our younglings. First-time director Jovanka Vuckovic finds a style with an unsettling mix of grace and dread. Her imagery moves in harmony, developing a lyricism that the score – performed by Redeemer (Passion of the Christ, Hostage) – elevates with its eerie blend of beguiling chimes and a remorseful violin. (continue reading…)

Pleasant on the outside, crazy on the inside: Robert Nolan as Dodd in "Familiar". © Fatal Pictures

Some of the best horror films aren’t, in fact, horror films. Those that veer into the dramatic and focus on the personalities of the characters and their daily struggles tend to resonate the most. The terror that unfolds, therefore, is unleashed from a natural state of fear and discontent – emotions we can easily tap into. This purpose is what permeates from the works of the talented Richard Powell, a Canadian filmmaker who demonstrates in his new short film “Familiar” that he is perhaps perversely fascinated by a human’s body and mind.  (continue reading…)

Rating: 14A – Coarse Language, Disturbing Content, Graphic Violence
Run Time: 90 minutes

Lost in "Chernobyl Diaries".

The 1986 Chernobyl disaster in Ukraine is a cataclysm begging to be made into a horror movie. In a way, it’s sort of sad that a spook fest should spring from the pain, loss and suffering of the people and animals who inhabited Prypiat, the town that sat in the shadow of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. (continue reading…)