Movie Review: Suburban Gothic (2014) and Young Blood (2014)
Mid-October is an exciting time for Toronto genre film lovers. The Toronto After Dark (TADFF) is one of the largest film festivals in Toronto. The festival is in its ninth year and is held at the Scotiabank Theatre located in the downtown core. Heading towards its opening night, I’m thankful for the new location. As I walked over to the theatre from the subway, the rain was coming down hard. I’m grateful that I get to wait in an indoor line. Tonight’s offering is Suburban Gothic, paired with the Canadian short Young Blood.
Steven Landry, the programmer for tonight’s screening, is a tall man whose voice is on par with Barry White’s. He doesn’t spend a lot of time hyping up the film, saying the film will speak for itself. Before every film, Toronto After Dark programs a Canadian short that is similar to its full length feature. Tonight, we are treated to Young Blood.
Young Blood is a Canadian B&W short by writer/director Jeffrey Hanley. The film starts off with Ben, a 12 year old, who goes over to see his Uncle Jake who was just released from jail. While the set up sounds like a drama, Young Blood is far from that. Hanley’s aim was for this short to be a B-film, and I think they’ve achieved it. While the acting is spot on, the sound effects during the fight scenes were too muted, which is a shame as the fight scenes were campy and entertaining. I wanted the sound effects to match the punches delivered on the screen. I also loved the opening scene with its rapid-fire dialogue between Ben and his two step-sisters. You can watch Young Blood‘s Trailer here.
Before Suburban Gothic starts, we saw Richard Bates Jr.’s, the director and the writer, video introduction. His introduction is an interesting confessional about the making of his film. He explains that after his last film, Excision, it was hard for him to get meetings within the film industry. During this lull, he spent a lot of time re-watching kids horror television series like Are you afraid of the Dark?. By watching these shows, Bates says his passion for making movies was reignited and the end result was Suburban Gothic.
In the film, we meet Raymond (Matthew Gray Gubler), an unemployed MBA graduate, who has to move back into his parents’ suburban home. On the same night as Raymond’s return, a vengeful ghost begins to haunt the house. Raymond recruits the local bartender, Becca (Kat Denning), to solve the mystery and put the ghost to rest.
Bates describes Suburban Gothic as a family movie made for adults and I cannot think of a more apt description. As I was watching the film, I saw elements of Pee-Wee’s Playhouse and Goosebumps in Bates’ characters, settings, and situations. However, Suburban Gothic also carries some of the drawbacks of the family film genre. Typically, we see characters that are campy and two dimensional. Each character seems to be a caricature of a stereotype: Mother, Politically Incorrect Dad, Jocks, the Bad Girl, etc. The only exception is Raymond’s mom, Eve, played by Barbara Niven. Her character seems to have a lot more layers than the rest of the players. Perhaps given the film’s aims and intentions, the pantomime characters were necessary.
The laughs are suitably gross, and constant. Even though a lot of the characters are 2D, I still found myself rooting for the good guys, and hating the bad guys. The John Waters’ cameo made my day. As an added bonus, I really enjoyed the soundtrack.
Toronto After Dark Film Festival runs until October 24, 2014.