TIFF 2024

‘Shell’ – Max Minghella Reveals Surprising Cinematic Influences in His “Nostalgic Homage” [Interview]

Meagan Navarro Elisabeth Moss, Interviews, Kate Hudson, Max Minghella, Shell, TIFF 2024

Director Max Minghella (Spiral: From the Book of Saw, Horns) wears his cinematic influences on his sleeves with sophomore feature effort Shell, a body horror dark comedy written by Jack Stanley (The Passenger). Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man) finds herself embarking on a scary new beauty treatment as aging actor Samantha Lake. She quickly befriends Zoe Shannon […]

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‘The Girl with the Needle’ Review – A Gothic Portrait of Empathy and a Serial Killer [TIFF]

Meagan Navarro Reviews, The Girl with the Needle, TIFF 2024

The Girl with the Needle draws from one of the most heinous murder cases in Danish history, yet director Magnus von Horn (Sweat, The Here After) isn’t interested in retreading a familiar serial killer biopic ground. Telling a story inspired by Dagmar Overby presents fertile ground for horror, but Dagmar’s chosen victims were children and […]

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‘The Shadow Strays’ Review – Timo Tjahjanto Takes No Prisoners with Gory, Ultraviolent Actioner [TIFF]

Meagan Navarro Movies, Netflix, Reviews, The Shadow Strays, TIFF 2024, Timo Tjahjanto

Writer/Director Timo Tjahjanto (May the Devil Take You, The Night Comes For Us, V/H/S/2) approaches his action features the same way he does horror: full throttle. There’s no coming up for air in a Tjahjanto joint; the filmmaker goes for the jugular and immerses audiences in a violent sensory assault. So much so that it’s […]

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‘Hold Your Breath’ Review – Sarah Paulson Can’t Save a Predictable Frontier Tale [TIFF]

Joe Lipsett Alona Jane Robbins, Amiah Miller, annaleigh ashford, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Hold Your Breath, Hulu, Karrie Crouse, Nathan Gariety, Reviews, Sarah Paulson, TIFF 2024, Will Joines

Hold Your Breath opens with a nightmare. It’s a recurring nightmare of Margaret Bellum’s (Sarah Paulson): every night she goes to sleep and finds herself caught in the middle of cruel Oklahoma dust storm. She’s quickly forced to the ground, choking. Then when she’s about to die, Margaret awakens, gasping for breath. Written by Karrie […]

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‘Shell’ Review – Max Minghella Revives ’90s Horror with Escapist Genre-Bending Comedy [TIFF]

Meagan Navarro Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, Max Minghella, Reviews, Shell, TIFF 2024

Much like Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, director Max Minghella‘s Shell explores the hells of aging in Hollywood with vibrant style and biting wit. That both employ body horror, harken back to golden eras of the industry, and screened at TIFF will further draw inevitable comparisons. Yet they couldn’t be further removed in just about every […]

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‘Nightbitch’ Review – Dark Comedic Fairy Tale is Too Scared of Its Feral Setup [TIFF]

Meagan Navarro Amy Adams, Marielle Heller, Nightbitch, Reviews, TIFF 2024

Writer/Director Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) refuses to color within the genre lines in her feature adaptation of Rachel Yoder‘s novel, Nightbitch. Heller employs everything from poignant family drama to pitch black comedy to horror fairy tale to highlight the complexities of motherhood and identity. It’s so defiant of easy categorization and tone […]

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‘Ick’ TIFF Review – Joseph Kahn Delivers An Entertaining, Uneven Horror Comedy

Joe Lipsett Brandon Routh, Dan Koontz, Harrison Cone, Jeff Fahey, Joseph Kahn, Melina Pauli Weissman, Mena Suvari, Peter Wong, Reviews, Samuel Laskey, TIFF 2024

You know a Joseph Kahn film when you see one. There’s an approach to style, narrative, and editing akin to pure adrenaline; it’s as though the filmmaker drank a bunch of coffee, ate a bunch of candy, and then immediately made a movie. Ick, Kahn’s first feature since 2017’s Bodies, is pure sugar/caffeine rush: when […]

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‘Else’ TIFF Review – Worlds and Bodies Merge in French Virus Film

Joe Lipsett Alice Butaud, Edith Proust, Emma Sandona, Léo Lefèvre, Lika Minamoto, Matthieu Sampeur, Reviews, Thibault Emin, TIFF 2024

The term body horror evokes certain types of visuals and visceral responses. Famously associated with directors like David Cronenberg, body horror is used to generate gross-out visuals as easily as it advances the narrative (see: the way Coralie Fargeat uses bodies for her scathing feminist social commentary, The Substance). Writer/director Thibault Emin uses body horror […]

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‘Heretic’ TIFF Review – Hugh Grant Steals Verbose Theological Thriller

Meagan Navarro Bryan Woods, Heretic, Hugh Grant, Reviews, Scott Beck, Sophie Thatcher, TIFF 2024

It turns out that the effervescent but neurotic wit and charm that made Hugh Grant an enduring romantic lead actor translates quite well to horror. His disarming villain, an impish type who delights in psychological and theological warfare, elevates Heretic, the latest from writer/director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (65, Haunt). The self-contained chamber […]

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‘Dead Talents Society’ TIFF Review – An Instant Horror Comedy Classic

Joe Lipsett Bai Bai, Chen Bolin, Eleven Yao, Gingle Wang, John Hsu, Reviews, Sandrine Pinna, TIFF 2024, Tsai Kun-Lin

In the cold open for Dead Talents Society, the new film by director John Hsu (2019’s Detention), a young woman enters hotel room 414. Bizarre events quickly add up, including a whole wall that is suddenly plastered with glamour pictures of a woman. Then the closet door creeps open and the woman from the picture […]

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‘Shell’ Exclusive Poster Teases Max Minghella’s Body Horror Dark Comedy

Meagan Navarro Elisabeth Moss, Exclusives, Kate Hudson, Max Minghella, Movies, Shell, TIFF 2024

Elisabeth Moss (The Invisible Man) finds herself embarking on a scary new beauty treatment in Shell, the upcoming body horror dark comedy from director Max Minghella. We can exclusively unveil the new poster that teases some of the madness ahead of the film’s world premiere at TIFF. If the poster below is any indication, someone […]

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‘The Life of Chuck’ TIFF Review – Mike Flanagan’s Uplifting Celebation of Life At the End of the World

Meagan Navarro Mike Flanagan, Reviews, Stephen King, The Life of Chuck, TIFF 2024

It’s not the horror that makes prolific author Stephen King‘s works so compelling, though it certainly helps, but rather his talent for capturing the nuanced multitudes of the human condition. His three-dimensional characters leap off the pages and into Constant Readers’ hearts, ensuring their emotional journeys resonate with or without horror. It’s something writer/director Mike […]

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‘The Substance’ Review – Absurdist Horror Comedy Unleashes Jaw-Dropping Body Horror [TIFF]

Meagan Navarro Coralie Fargeat, Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Movies, Reviews, The Substance, TIFF 2024

Writer/Director Coralie Fargeat set the bar high for herself in 2017, with her debut feature Revenge delivering a visceral, feminine twist to the rape-revenge thriller that climaxed in an epic bloodbath. So much that it seemed nearly impossible to top. Yet the filmmaker does just that with sophomore effort The Substance, transforming a familiar concept […]

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‘Seeds’ Review – Indigenous Comedy Thriller Is Fun, But Inconsistent [TIFF]

Joe Lipsett Dallas Goldtooth, Dylan Cook, Indigenous, Kaniehtiio Horn, Meegwun Fairbrother, Reviews, TIFF 2024

Indigenous horror has become increasingly popular in recent years, particularly in Canada where efforts are being made to seek out, fund, and promote First Nation stories (see also: Slash/Back and the late Jeff Barnaby’s work like Blood Quantum and Rhymes for Young Ghouls). With Seeds, we can add Kaniehtiio Horn’s name to the list. The […]

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TIFF 2024 Midnight Madness – First Looks at All the Hot Genre Films Including Coralie Fargeat’s ‘The Substance’

Meagan Navarro Coralie Fargeat, Dead Mail, ick, It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, Joseph Kahn, Movies, The Shadow Strays, The Substance, TIFF, TIFF 2024, Timo Tjahjanto

The Toronto International Film Festival announced today the TIFF 2024 selections for the highly regarded Midnight Madness program, which will open with the North American Premiere of Coralie Fargeat’s anticipated horror thriller The Substance, starring Demi Moore. From the press release: “One of the most beloved programmes of the Festival, this year’s Midnight Madness highlights the […]

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