If you’re into vampires as much as I am, you’ll already know the legend of Countess Elizabeth Báthory. If not, Vampires of the Velvet Lounge gets you up to speed with some heavy text exposition: Born in 1560 Hungary, Báthory was a noblewoman whose behaviour became increasingly bizarre following the death of her husband, Count…
horror
Review: Scream 7
Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a quiet life for herself in Pine Grove, running a coffee shop and raising three children with her husband, police chief Mark Evans (Joel McHale). With the two youngest staying with Mark’s parents, it’s teenage Tatum (Isabel May)—named for Sidney’s late friend—who takes centre stage. Timid and struggling to…
Review: I Live Here Now
Julie Pacino’s debut feature, I Live Here Now, follows actress Rose (Lucy Fry), who spends her time auditioning for roles and hanging out with her TikToker boyfriend, Travis (Matt Rife). As she hasn’t been bookable for years, Rose is happy when she lands the opportunity to meet top agent Cindy Abrams (Cara Seymour), who abrasively…
Review: Cold Storage
Cold Storage begins with a prologue introducing us to Skylab, a space station which fell out of orbit in 1979. “Pay attention,” a title card reads. “This shit is real.” And it is. Host to countless scientific experiments, it was important to recover all the pieces that weren’t destroyed during atmospheric reentry—but an oxygen tank…
Review: Blood Barn
Set in the summer of 1985, Blood Barn follows Josie (Lena Redford), a camp counsellor who gathers her friends (played by Chloe Cherry, Andrea Bambina, Simon Paris, Samuel Lanier, Felipe Di Poi, and Pierce Campion) for a final weekend at her family’s secluded barn before they part ways for college. However, their fun and nostalgic…
Review: Forgive Us All
Set in a post-apocalyptic world where a biotech virus has transformed humans into violent cannibals, Rory (Lily Sullivan, Evil Dead Rise) hides in an isolated cabin in the New Zealand wilderness with her father-in-law, Otto (Richard Roxburgh, Van Helsing). Two years earlier, Rory lost her husband and daughter to the virus, moments that still haunt…
Fantastic Fest Review: Coyotes
Set against the backdrop of the Palisades wildfires, Scott (Justin Long), his wife Liv (Kate Bosworth), and their daughter Chloe (Mila Harris) become stranded in their Hollywood Hills home when a windstorm knocks out their power and destroys their SUV. Driven towards the neighbourhoods by the fires, a pack of savage coyotes has been picking…
Fantasia 2025 Review: Sugar Rot
Exploitation film Sugar Rot, which had its Quebec premiere at Fantasia Festival, follows punk girl Candy (Chloë Macleod, Foreigner) who works at an ice cream shop. When she is brutally assaulted by an ice cream man, she becomes the host of a mutant foetus and begins to transform into ice cream. Around her, store owner…
Fantasia 2025 Review: Foreigner
Set in 2004, Iranian teenager Yasamin AKA Yasi (Rose Dehgan) has just moved to Canada with her dad, Ali (Ashkan Nejati), and grandma, Zoreh (Maryam Sadeghi), following her mother’s dealing some years prior. Nervous about starting a new school, Yasi sits watching her favourite sitcom, repeating the English dialogue, often at the same time as…
Fantasia 2025: The Wailing (2024)
Pedro Martín-Calero’s The Wailing, which had its Canadian premiere at Fantasia Festival, tells the story of three interconnected women who are all haunted by the same supernatural entity and an eerie wailing. In 2022 Madrid, young student Andrea (Ester Expósito, Venus) spends most of her time at university texting and video calling her boyfriend, Pau…