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Less horror-ble year ahead in films
2006-09-15
The year ahead will be less scary for moviegoers with the release of cheeky horror films about sheep gone wild, pet zombies and families as protagonists, in lieu of the latest bloody slashers. "The Sadism cycle with films like 'Hostel', 'The Hills Have Eyes' and 'Saw,' that served as a reaction to the atrocious images we saw in the news every day from Iraq and elsewhere, is coming to an end," said Colin Geddes, horror movie programmer for the Toronto film festival, a precursor for upcoming releases. "The next wave will be more like the traditional film noir with filmmakers taking old styles and adding a fresh twist," he said, as people come to terms with their real life fears. "Expect more comic relief in horror movies this year where something horrible happens to build tension and comedy is used to release it." A handful of such new films had their world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, with mixed audience reactions. "Black Sheep" by director Jonathan King uses special effects designed by Weta Workshop, the studio that created beasts in Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (2001-2003) and "King Kong" (2005), to show angry sheep run amok in New Zealand. The film is peppered with as many sheep jokes as there are sheep in New Zealand -- about 40 million sheep, estimates the filmmaker. "With those psychotic eyes, gummy mouths and nasty little hooves, they've got to be scary," quipped Weta Workshop's Richard Taylor in a statement. In the film, Henry Oldfield, played by Nathan Meiser, returns to the family farm to sell his half to his brother Angus (Peter Feeney) who has been running reckless experiments that turn mutton mad. Together with farmhand Tucker (Tammy Davis) and animal cruelty activist Experience (Danielle Mason), he must face his demons, or childhood fear of sheep, as the wooly carnivores wreck havoc. The film, which caused a behind-the-scenes frenzy as distributors kicked off a bidding war Thursday for the distribution rights, is "baaaad," quipped one viewer. Distributors also tripped over themselves for the rights to Jonathan Levine's "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane" which introduces relative newcomer Amber Heard as the shy, but beautiful loner title character drowning in a sea of ostentation and insecurity at a typical high-school. There, the boys go wild for her, and at a remote party compete for her attention, until an unknown admirer begins to take out the competition after dusk. Sorry boys -- the film went to distributor The Weinstein Company. "Interest in musicals or Westerns fluctuates, but horrors are always popular with buyers and audiences because they take the edge off our daily lives," explained Geddes. "People say: 'I have problems, but I don't have those problems.'" Meanwhile, director Andrew Currie's "Fido" about a boy (actor K'Sun Ray) and his pet zombie, played by Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, in a 1950s alternate reality America proposed: what if a zombie's appetite for human flesh could be curbed. Of course, accidents happen and nerves are frayed when neighbors start to mysteriously disappear. It also stars Carrie-Anne Moss ("The Matrix" and "Chocolat") as a housewife. For Bon Joon-ho's "The Host," Weta Workshop worked with John Cox's Creature Workshop ("Babe") and The Orphanage ("Hellboy") to create a river monster pitted against a dysfunctional family instead of typical horror movie protagonists: the military, a government or scientists. The film had its North American premiere here this week after breaking box office records in South Korea. "The situations are just so not believable, over the top and absurd," Geddes observed. There are several horror movie remakes in the pipeline too, he said, but none were shown at the film festival. "I'm not sure if they're improvements on the originals," he added.
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