Toronto Terror Dispatch #2!
By Scott Weinberg
The Toronto Film Festival's first two days have blown by rather busily,
but of course you guys need another gore-filled update from the Midnight
Madness slate, so here's another pair of pics to keep your eyeballs out for.
Stuck -- If you thought that Stuart Gordon had given up on the creepy
stuff after directing the twisted character study called Edmond, fear
not, FEARnetters. While Stuck probably wouldn't be considered a
true-blue horror flick, it's more than intense, disturbing and gory
enough to keep the Gordon-ites happy. It's the simple (fact-based) story
of a young nurse (Mena Suvari) who (while driving, wasted on ecstasy)
plows into a newly-homeless man (Stephen Rea) and then stashes the car
in her garage -- while the guy's still STUCK in the windshield! Gushing
blood and almost completely dead! Precisely WHY the young woman refuses
to help the man ... I'll just leave that for you to discover, but Gordon
delivers the story with a dark sense of humor, an appreciably brisk
clip, and a rather solid finale. Toss in some very strong work from the
two leads and a few dark surprises, and you've got yet another
under-the-radar winner from the man who gave us Re-Animator.
Dai Nipponjin -- Wow, what a bizarre flick this is. A Japanese export
best described as a mockumentary / action / sci-fi monster mash, Dai
Nipponjin might be a little too lengthy for its own good -- but dang
does it have some entertainingly weird goodies to offer. It's the story
of a fifth-generation monster hunter who lives like a slob, but
transforms into a massive "baddie killer" when a new mutant shows up
looking for trouble. And fortunately for our hero's failing reality
series, the monsters seem to be arriving in greater abundance these
days. Backed by four or five eye-rollingly outlandish battle scenes --
and a finale that pokes some hilarious fun at stuff like Mighty Morphin
Power Rangers -- this is a flick tailor-made for film festivals and
their 'midnight' selections. Needless to say it fits into the Toronto
Midnight slate quite smoothly.
Next update: A freaky French flick from the director of the upcoming
Hitman -- and the newest experiment from genre god Dario Argento!
