TIFF 12 for '12 Preview: The Fantastic Side of Things

It's day two of our week long Toronto International Film Festival preview series. Yesterday we took a look at some of the big launches. Today we turn our attention to the genre side of things with a number of movies playing in the Midnight and Vanguard sections of the fest. Here are 12 fantastic films to keep an eye out for at TIFF 2012.


SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS
Martin McDonagh won scores of fans a few years back with his hilarious action-comedy IN BRUGES. He reteams with Colin Farrell for this similarly toned follow-up, adding an impressive cast that includes Christopher Walken, Woody Harrelson, Abbie Cornish, Sam Rockwell, Olga Kurylenko, Kevin Corrigan, and Tom Waits. CBS Films is bringing the film to theaters October 12th.
Trailer (Red Band) | Trailer


THE ABCS OF DEATH
The "director" column from my TIFF grid for this 26-part horror anthology just says, "oh boy..." How about Jason Eisener (HOBO WITH A SHOTGUN), Ernesto Diaz Esponza (MANDRILL), Ti West (THE INNKEEPERS), Ben Wheatley (KILL LIST), Angela Bettis (THE WOMAN), Adam Wingard (YOU'RE NEXT), Srdjan Spasojevic (A SERBIAN FILM), and Nacho Viga-freakin-londo (EXTRATERRESTRIAL)... just to name a few??? I don't think I need to say much more to sell this one.
Preview


SIGHTSEERS
Ben Wheatley's follow up to his impressive sophomore feature KILL LIST is this Cannes premiering ill-fated tourist caravner horror comedy. The film is somewhat surprisingly playing in TIFF's Vanguard section as opposed to midnight, perhaps because it is a bit less genre than his last outing. IFC Films have nabbed the flick for US distribution, though no dates have yet been announced.
Clip | Trailer


DREDD 3D
Lionsgate's Karl Urban starring comic book reboot has taken a bit of flak for a plot that runs so similarly to Indonesian hit THE RAID: REDEMPTION. While any correlation is, of course, only a coincidence, the fact that DREDD is playing in THE RAID's TIFF Midnight opening night spot will only fuel the comparison. The good news is that early reports from the San Diego Comic Con sneak preview have been very positive. Olivia Thirlby and Lena Headey co-star in the film that opens wide on September 21st.
Clip | Clip | Trailer | Review by Charles Webb


LORDS OF SALEM
Rocker-turned-horror director Rob Zombie's latest is this tale of witches transported to the modern day Mass. town to haunt the descendants of their persecutors.


NO ONE LIVES
Ryuhei Kitamura (VERSUS) hopes to find more success than the box office disaster of his first English language feature MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN with this Luke Evans starring highway kidnapping thriller.


BYZANTIUM
A whole cast of up-and-coming Hollywood stars including Saoirse Ronan, Caleb Landry Jones, Sam Riley, Tom Hollander, and Gemma Arterton try to match the uber-street cred of Johnny Lee Miller (he was frickin' Crash Override in HACKERS) in Neil Jordan's return to the vampire subgenre. For those who don't remember, Jordan directed INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE.


AFTERSHOCK
Nicholas Lopez's Chilean nightclub cave-in horror looks to please Toronto's late night fans with a cast that includes Eli Roth and teen pop star Selena Gomez.


JOHN DIES AT THE END
Wacky genre fave Don Coscarelli's latest has played a slew of festivals this year including both Sundance (where we first reviewed) and SXSW. Word has come down that those screenings are to be considered "works-in-progress" as the film has been re-edited for this "official" final cut. Apparently, it is all to good effect, as Magnet has picked up the film with an eye to December VOD and a theatrical release to follow.
Trailer | Review by Alex Koehne | Don Coscarelli Interview by Alex Koehne


PAINLESS
Luiso Berdejo, writer of REC, co-wrote this interwoven Spanish supernatural tale of two time periods, directed by first time feature director Juan Carlos Medina.
Trailer


PUSHER
The Luis Prieto directed UK remake of Nicolas Refn's crime classic make's its North American debut in TIFF's Vanguard section. The Weinstein Company's Tom Quinn headed VOD imprint Radius-TWC has picked up the film with loose plans to release it later this year.


ILL MANORS
I'm not quite sure why the "i" is lower case and the "LL" capital in this Riz Ahmed (FOUR LIONS) starring London crime thriller (as in, "iLL Manors"). Perhaps only musician-turned-director Ben Drew, aka Plan B, knows the truth.

A few other titles worth keeping an eye on during the fest include Barry Levinson's (SLEEPERS) small town parasitic invasioner THE BAY, Norwegian director Eva Sorhaug's dark and violent follow-up to COLD LUNCH, 90 MINUTES, and JT Petty's (THE BURROWERS) R-Rated 3D exorcism comedy HELLBENDERS.

Tomorrow we'll turn our focus to some of the high profile Asian films making their North American debuts at TIFF.