If theres a spate of I had insomnia last night excuses for arriving late to work during the Vancouver International Film Festival, blame it on Curtis Woloschuk.
WE Vancouvers film reviewer is in charge of Altered States, a series of seven movies that will be screened at midnight at the Rio Theatre. Not only do you have to stay up late to watch them, but their dark content might also make you wary of turning out the lights when you finally make it home to bed. As VIFF says, Your dreams may never be the same.
The seven films are:
Willow Creek Sasquatch lurks in all our nightmares; do not go into the woods today (Sept. 27)
A Field in England a genre-defying, magic mushroom-fueled vision of the English Civil War (Sept. 28)
Borgman it falls under the headings sci-fi and horror, sex and eroticism, thrills and suspense. Do you need a plot line? (Oct. 4)
Big Bad Wolves a dark comedy revenge film with heady mix of brutality, merciless black comedy and potent subtext (Oct. 5)
Halley a dead man can no longer hide the fact that his body is decaying; a melancholic, meditative body-horror movie. (Oct. 6)
XL an alcoholic Icelandic politician decides to go on one last bender before checking into rehab (Oct. 10)
Antisocial chaos reigns when something sinister goes viral through social media (Oct. 11)
I saw Altered States on TV at midnight when I was about 11, and it was the first movie that messed with my head, Woloschuk says of why the series title makes a nod to Ken Russells 1980 film.
VIFF used to have late-night screenings but that was about a decade ago. With the addition of the Rio Theatre as a venue this year, it seemed the perfect time to resurrect midnight screenings. People who stay up for midnight movies love to have the communal feeling of watching a movie together, Woloschuk says. They get to experience what everyone else is feeling at the same time.
Lets just hope they dont all share the same bad dreams afterwards.
As well as screening at 11:30pm at the Rio as part of Altered States, the movies are also screened at other times and locations. Go to VIFF.org for details.
