Toronto After Dark 2008 - 8 Titles Announced!

Earlier this week The Toronto After Dark Film Festival made several announcements for the upcoming third festival that hits the Bloor Cinema in Toronto the October. The excitement is unleashed as 8 titles are revealed, information about the rockin' VIP passes is available and key dates noted to add to your calendar. For those who have not had the scary pleasure of attending the Toronto After Dark Film Festival if you are into horror, sci fi, fantasy, action, thriller, cult and bizarre films - this is a festival for you. The fans are fanatic and it is truly one of the most fun festival experiences around. Where else can you end up in line with a zombie? Want to know more about what the experience is like? Check out my coverage of the 2007 festival.

Looking ahead to the 2008 line up, there is certainly a lot to look forward to. Three of the films caught my attention very quickly. First is the Swedish vampire film Let the Right One In which played at Tribeca and received a love of love at Fantasia film festival winning multiple awards. It does look rather dark, but what vampire film isn't? Another film that looks fantastic is Mirageman, a Chilean superhero/action film. What really stuck me about Mirageman, is that it places the superhero in a current day non-fantasy setting which bring a whole new tone to the genre. Plus, the action is kick-butt! Next up on the happy excitement train is Repo! The Genetic Opera, because you have to have a musical right? Only musicals that include collection agents for delinquent organ replacement recipients and have the stellar cast including Anthony Stewart Head (Giles on 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'), Sarah Brightman and Paul Sorvino. I'm ready to rock out to that I'll tell ya!

More titles include the highly anticipated Japanese gore-fest Tokyo Gore Police on the line up, along with the animated Idiots & Angels and Canadian mockumentary Who is KK Downey?. We also have Red, a compelling thrilled based on the Jack Ketchum novel starring Brian Cox, Tom Sizemore and Robert Englund. Rounding out the titles is Trailer Park of Terror filling in the zombie requirement.

Want to get ready for the festival? VIP passes are now on sale and early birds get a fantastic deal: $99 gets you into all 17 screenings (which works out to less than $6/film), parties and priority entrance to seating. Price goes up to $119 after September 24, 2008 so don't delay. It's one of the best deals around! There are limited quantities of the VIP passes so if you know you are going to go, better snatch one up!

Complete line up and schedule will be released September 24, 2008. Can't wait that long? Well you will have to, but to keep the excitement going you can check out this video from Renerd.com with an interview with Adam Lopez, Festival Director & Founder.

On to the details for all of the films. Below you will find information on each of the eight titles that have been announced including links to trailers (with spoiler warnings), IMDb pages and official film sites if available.

Idiots and Angels
Dir: Bill Plympton
Animated, USA
Official Film Site, IMDb Page, Trailer - spoiler free until halfway point

Let the Right One In / Låt den rätte komma in
Dir: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson
Sweden
IMDb Page, Trailer - spoiler free until halfway point, I stopped watching after that as I've already heard a fair amount about the film. Really looking forward to seeing it!

Mirageman
Writer/Dir: Ernesto Espinoza
Cast: Mark Zaror
Chile
IMDb Page, Trailer - spoiler free, and awesome to boot!

Red
Dir: Trygve Diesen & Lucky McKee
Cast: Brian Cox, Robert Englund, Amanda Plummer, Richard Riehle, Tom Sizemore
USA
IMDb Page, Trailer - spoiler free until 2/3rds through

Repo! The Genetic Opera
Dir: Darren Bousman (Saw II, Saw III, Saw IV)
Cast: Anthony Stewert Head, Alexa Vega, Sarah Brightman, Paul Sorvino, Bill Mosely, Paris Hilton
USA
Official Film Site (autoplays music), IMDb Page, Trailer - very cool trailer, you get the gist of the film by the halfway point

Tokyo Gore Police / Tôkyô zankoku keisatsu
Dir: Yoshihiro Nishimura
Cast: Eihi Shiina, Itsuji Itao, Tak Sakaguchi
Japan
IMDb Page, Trailer - Lots of violence and gore in this trailer. First half it mostly spoiler free and atmospheric, but the second half shows a lot of the really gory stuff and special effect which in this type of film I would consider a spoiler.

Trailer Park of Terror
Dir: Steven Goldmann
Cast: Nichole Hiltz
Official Film Site (autoplays music), IMDb Page, Trailer - spoiler free until 2/3rd through

Who is KK Downey?
Dir: Darren Curtis and Pat Kiely
Cast: Darren Curtis, Matt Silver, Kristin Adams, Pat Kiely, Dan Haber
Canada
IMDb Page, Trailer - spoiler free

The Toronto After Dark Film Festival 2008 runs from October 17-24/08 at the Bloor Cinema, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.