EIFF 2011 announces lineup of genre films

While Toronto might be hogging the majority of the film festival spotlight in Canada at the moment, the city of Edmonton is working very hard at filling their own festival with films that might not be seen in the city under other circumstances. The Edmonton International Film Festival starts on September 23 and runs to October 1. While the full lineup and list of venues will be announced on August 31, the festival has shared with Criticize This! a peek at some of the spooky genre programming for their Canadian, documentary, world cinema, and ‘Edge of Night’ film series.

The ‘Oh, Canada!’ series announced two titles today for their program. The horror film The Corridor makes its way to Edmonton by way of Montreal’s Fantasia Festival where it was an audience favourite. The film (which is described as being a cross between The Big Chill, Dreamcatcher, and Event Horizon ) surrounds a group of friends who take a wrong turn in the woods and find themselves faced with one of those nasty “cabins of doom.” Also announced for the series is the Canadian premiere of Exit Humanity, which focuses on an outbreak of zombies during the American Civil War. The film is directed by John Geddes, who recently directed the film Monster Brawl (which also debuted at Fantasia), and has appearances from character actor icons like Stephen McHattie, Dee Wallace, and Bill Moseley, with narration from none other than Brian Cox.

The ‘World Cinema’ series has announced a trio of international creepers including the Swedish supernatural thriller Marianne, the Mexican thriller Adverse Effects, and the latest film from renowned director Pedro Almodovar, The Skin I Live In (which will also be screening at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier in the month and previously screened at Cannes). The Doc Central series will also have its share of odd behaviour when it screens the HotDocs festival favourite Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. The film takes a closer look at some sometimes disquieting and nonsensical street art that might be the work of a shut in with some serious mental health issues.

The majority of the genre films at this year’s EIFF will come in their ‘Edge of Night’ series, which kicks off with the Canadian premiere of director Travis Betz’s The Dead Inside. The film combines elements of musical comedy and horror in a complex tale of two artists in love and at a creative impasse. Also showing in the program areAbsentia, a low budget (but impressive) horror film from writer-director Mike Flanagan about a mother and daughter investigating a series of mysterious disappearances, and I Didn’t Come Here to Die, a story about a group of volunteer workers trapped in an ever escalating series of accidents.

The one film that we over at Criticize This! are probably most excited for is the Edmonton premiere of the absolutely wonderful (and Canadian filmed) Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil (pictured above). This horror comedy from Eli Craig stars Alan Tudyk and Tyler Labine as a pair of remarkably sympathetic Appalachian hillbillies caught in a hilarious series of misunderstandings with a group of camping fraternity members. Tucker and Dale is an incredibly gory film with huge laughs and an even bigger heart that is one of the most fun moviegoing experiences of the year. It will be on DVD later this year, but it is a film that demands to be seen with a crowd.

More information can be found at the website for the festival and ticket packages can be purchased in advance through yeglive.ca.