We hit the red carpet at the 2025 Blood in the Snow Film Festival, catching up with filmmakers from the festival’s short film programs, festival director Kelly Michael Stewart, and the team behind the documentary Nash the Slash Rises Again! BITS 2025 Interview Timecodes 00:00 Introduction 00:13 Andrew G. Cooper on Strangers 02:23 Prasanna Paul…
The murderous identity thief tries to stay one step ahead of her vengeful victim in Influencers. CW (Cassandra Naud) has been living in hiding in the south of France, where she has entered into a relationship with Diane (Lisa Delamar). A trip to the countryside is disrupted when CW and Diane lose their room to…
The origins of the cult Canadian children’s show is told in Behind the Castle Doors: The Origin of the Hilarious House of Frightenstein. In 1971, Hamilton’s local TV station CHCH ordered 130 episodes of a new horror-themed children’s series from brothers Riff and Mitch Markowitz, based on the not-yet-fulfilled promise that they could get Vincent…
A former drug pusher tries to save his junkie girlfriend in Violence. In an alternate 1980s, a city is under the control of drug kingpin Jimmy Jazz (Joris Jarsky). After Jimmy’s stash of “red powder” is stolen by straight-edge vigilantes, Charlie Rocket (Maddie Hasson) and Bats (Tomaso Sanelli), Jimmy’s former dealer, Henry Violence (Rohan Campbell),…
The story of the avant-garde Toronto punk musician is told in Nash the Slash Rises Again!. Jeff Plewman, better known by his stage name Nash the Slash, was an independent progressive rock artist who began by performing in Toronto’s 99-cent Roxy Theatre in the late 1970s. Nash the Slash had an extremely experimental sound, based…
A group of influencers accidentally free a ravenous inmate in an abandoned prison in Fresh Meat. Aspiring influencer June Nolan (Joelle Farrow) and her collaborators, Valerie (Hannah Galway) and Brett (Alex Sands), hope that their upcoming exploration of the abandoned Coldwater Prison, home to violent riots in 1985, will open up monetization and sponsorship opportunities….
An increasingly strange series of events is told through local television commercials in Buffet Infinity. In the community of Westridge County, the local businesses compete for your attention, whether it be personal injury attorney Mostley Rosin (Kevin Singh), local pawnshop owner Ahmed Ahmed, or Jennifer Joy Avery’s (Allison Bench) sandwich shop, where she has the…
A Persian immigrant’s attempts to fit in make her the target of a malevolent entity in Foreigner. Yasamin Karimi (Rose Dehgan) moves to Canada from Iran with her father, Ali (Ashkan Nejati), and grandmother, Zoreh (Maryam Sadeghi), in an attempt to begin a new life, following the death of her mother. On her first day…
A pregnant woman is invited to a dinner that spirals into a nightmare in Son of Sara: Volume 1. Sara (Chloe Van Landschoot) is in the late stages of a pregnancy that is really taking its toll on her, despite the constant care by her partner, Carol (Tymika Tafari). In addition to frequently getting sick…
Here are our reviews for films screening as part of the Dark Visions Horror Shorts Program at the 2025 Blood in the Snow Film Festival. Please note that we were unable to screen the short films Zoé or Lost in Your Thoughts in advance.
This Review Is an Expansion of Our Original Review Published as Part of Our Coverage of Fantasia 2024 The stars of a 1980s professional wrestling league find themselves part of a Satanic cult’s ritual in Dark Match. SAW is a ragtag 1988 wrestling league managed by Rusty Beans (Jonathan Cherry) and featuring a roster of…
Creepy Bits Season 2 is a 10-episode chilling horror collection created by David J. Fernandes, that delves deep into the unknown, drawing inspiration from contemporary issues and venturing into uncharted territories of fear. Creepy Bits Season 2, Episode 1: The Massacurra Man – Directed by Adrian Bobb Hitman Jamie targets Leslie, the unassuming owner of…
This Review Was Originally Published as Part of Our Coverage of the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival A plumber and his germophobe son discover a man-eating slug has invaded the septic system of an apartment complex in Scared Shitless!. Don (Steven Ogg) is the proprietor of Donahue Plumbing, who has been dealing with the fact that…
This Review Was Originally Published As Part of Our Coverage of Fantasia 2024 Two strangers on a prison planet discover that they may have a tragic connection in The Silent Planet. Theodore (Elias Koteas) is a terminally ill convict, serving an isolated sentence on a silent mining planet, whose memory of life on Earth has…
In advance of the film’s Toronto premiere as part of the Blood in the Snow film festival, here is the interview we conducted with writer/director Jeffrey St. Jules (Bang Bang Baby) on his third feature THE SILENT PLANET, prior to the film’s World Premiere at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival. Jeffrey St. Jules Interview Time…
A diabetic grad student fights to survive a deadly cat and mouse game in Pins and Needles. Max (Chelsea Clark) is a biology grad student, who is driving home from a retreat with her friend Harold (Daniel Gravelle), though warning signs go off after Harold also offers a ride to the shady-looking Keith (Damian Romeo)….
A family is shocked to realize that the Zoom wedding they were invited to is a cult ritual in Invited. Linda (Martina Schabron) is a recovering alcoholic, who received a Zoom invite from her estranged daughter Jessica (Beáta Imre), who is suddenly getting married to her Russian boyfriend Adrik (Michael Lake). The call is joined…
A cash-strapped ride-share driver gets more than he bargained for when he’s recruited to use a new start-up app in Self Driver. D (Nathanael Chadwick) was recently laid off from his office job, and he has been struggling to make end’s meet using a ride-share app called VRMR. Nic (Adam Goldhammer), one of D’s passengers,…
A woman makes a documentary about the search for her missing brother in Hunting Matthew Nichols. On October 31, 2001, 17-year-old Matthew Nichols and his friend Jordon Reimer disappeared after venturing into the Black Bear Forest, near the small town of Port Rupert on Vancouver Island. Over two decades later, Matthew’s younger sister Tara (Miranda…
This Review Was Originally Published as Part of Our Coverage of Fantasia 2024 The stars of a 1980s professional wrestling league find themselves part of a Satanic cult’s ritual in Dark Match. SAW is a ragtag 1988 wrestling league managed by Rusty Beans (Jonathan Cherry) and featuring a roster of stars that includes Mean Joe…
The Blood in the Snow Film Festival just announced the line-up for their 2024 edition. This year’s festival will include 7 features, 1 short film anthology, and 5 short film programs. As I have previously seen three of the features at the 2024 Fantasia Film Festival, I will explain why I should consider seeing them…
An outcast teenager tries to balance their new love with their darkest secret in My Animal. Heather (Bobbi Salvör Menuez) is an aspiring hockey goalie, who is cursed by the fact that their father Henry (Stephen McHattie) is a werewolf and passed this trait down to Heather and their younger brothers Cooper (Charles F. Halpenny)…
A whiskey tycoon and his family uncover a long-buried laser-blasting ice mummy in The Hyperborean. Hollis Cameron (Tony Burgess) calls his children Diana (Liv Collins) and her husband Ian (Michael Masurkevitch), Rex (Ry Barrett) and his influencer partner Lovie (Jessica Vano), and Aldous (Jonathan Craig) over the weekend to discuss the future the Cameron Whiskey…
Six stories based on Blackfoot urban legends are told in Tales from the Rez. Elder Uncle Randolf (Charles Duck Chief) introduces a series of chilling tales based around the Blackfoot reservation. In “Queen’s Hotel,” recovered alcoholic Eddie (Eugene Brave Rock) tries to save the soul of his brother Jacob (Shane Ghostkeeper) from a dark cowboy…
A troubled woman is sent to housesit in a house run by a sinister A.I. in Romi. After being part of a hit-and-run accident, Maddie Keys (Alexa Barajas) is sent by her senator mother to housesit in a smart home owned by Hertig (Pavel Kríz), controlled by an advanced AI named Romi (Jocelyn Chugg). The…
Escapees from a Russian prison camp have to fend for survival in the wilderness in Walking Supply. Henry (James McDougall) is part of a group of American office workers kidnapped in St. Petersburg, Russia and sent to work in a Siberian Gulag. Henry’s skills as an electrical engineer make him useful to his captors and…
A woman accidentally brings a cursed VHS tape to one of the last remaining video rental stores in The Last Video Store. Owned and operated by Kevin (Kevin Martin), Blaster Video is located in the basement of an alley and is home to over 3000 titles on VHS. Nyla (Yaayaa Adams) arrives at the store…
A pop singer seeks the help of a private detective to locate her mother in purgatory in Purgatory Jack. After a suicide attempt, pop star Viv Vacious (Alexandra Beaton) finds herself in the decrepit land of Purgatory, where lost souls wander and barter for spare body parts from the likes of Flo (Emily Alatalo) and…
An alcoholic woman has to deal with home-invading drug dealers and crooked cops in Last County. Abby Gardner (Kaelen Ohm) has separated from her husband Brian (Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll), due to her alcoholism, and she has relocated to her family’s house near a small town. Without warning, Abby is taken hostage by drug dealer Bennett (Gord…
Three American filmmakers get more than they bargained for when investigating a ghost story in rural Quebec in Curse of Aurore. Casey Nolan, the host of the YouTube series Mind Seed TV, plays a video off a thumb drive found in a Dark Web mystery box. On it is footage shot by American filmmakers Aaron…
A woman who runs a hidden video channel exposing classified scams finds herself the target of a twisted revenge fantasy in Follow Her. Jess Peters (Dani Barker) is a woman who runs a web series called “Classified Crazies” on the video social media site Live Hive. She secretly films and exposes men who post classified…
A small-town police officer’s last case has him investigating a gruesome murder in The Breach. John Hawkins (Allan Hawco) is the police chief of the tiny town of Lone Crow, who takes one last case before transferring to the big city when a canoe carrying the grisly remains of local scientist Cole Parsons (Adam Kenneth…
A group of women on a healing retreat confront the monsters of the past in Dark Nature. Still traumatized after escaping an abusive relationship with her boyfriend Derek (Daniel Arnold), Joy (Hannah Anderson) is convinced by her friend Carmen (Madison Walsh) to go on a retreat for trauma survivors led by Dr. Carol Dunnley (Kyra…
Disclosure: This review is based on a Rough Cut screener of The Devil Comes at Night, so any technical limitations have been ignored A washed-up boxer finds himself trapped in a house surrounded by a demonic cult in The Devil Comes at Night. Incoherent following a bar fight, Ben (Ryan Allen) is dropped off at…
This double episode contains the remaining interviews from the 2022 Fantasia Film Festival. First up is our interview with writer/directors Hannah Barlow and Kane Senes of the film Sissy, which is now available to stream on Shudder. Next, we have writer/director K.C. Carthew and star Viva Lee from the film Polaris, which is having its…
A woman finds herself in a cell and is forced to do a series of tests to save her daughter in Control. Eileen (Sara Mitich) wakes in an empty cell with no memory of who she is. A voice (Karen LeBlanc) instructs Eileen to complete a series of tests or else her daughter Eve (Evie…
A group of neighbours taking shelter from murderous creatures have to deal with a killer among them in Shifted. An unknown outbreak has turned humans into bloodthirsty creatures. Derek Monroe (Derek Lackenbauer), Becka Thomas (Victoria Dunsmore), Jimmy Tenneson (Brian Otto), Cindy Dawson (Alyssa Anne Blasak), Frankie Bernard Isaacs (Zach Parsons), and Lauren Goode (Alyssa Schermel)…
A neurosurgeon whose life is falling apart finds himself forced to return home to confront the past in L’Inhumain. Mathieu Cote (Samian) is a gifted neurosurgeon whose life begins to fall apart when he is put on leave for a substance abuse issue, followed by his wife Julie (Véronique Beaudet) leaving him after discovering an…
This review was originally published as part of my coverage of Fantasia 2022 A disgraced reality TV star is recruited to save a real estate agent’s husband from a death cult in Cult Hero. Kallie Jones (Liv Collins) is a real estate agent in Owen Sound distressed about losing clients to Cynthia Doyle (Jessica Vano)…
A social media star’s new friendship while vacationing in Thailand takes a dark turn in Influencer. Madison (Emily Tennant) is a famous social media influencer on vacation in Thailand who is distraught over the absence of her boyfriend and manager, Ryan (Rory J. Saper). Madison ends up meeting CW (Cassandra Naud), who helps Madison to…
A young woman recently released from juvenile detention believes a powerful God targets her in The Protector. Evelyn (Chelsea Clark) is a juvenile delinquent on probation release in the town of Wilfrid under the care of Dr. Flora (Rebecca Jenkins). On her 21st birthday, Evelyn is gifted a book speaking of the powerful Indian God…
The review was originally published as part of my coverage of Fantasia 2022 A time traveller from the future tries to make the world a better place in Relax, I’m From the Future. Casper (Rhys Darby) is a man from an unspecified time in the future who arrives in the present day and sets forth…
