TADFF 2009: Undead soldier takes a bite out of crime

Published at 4:37 am on August 17, 2009
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L.C. Willis

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If there is anything as predictable as the rising of the sun, it’s the loyalty of horror fans to zombie films.

Throngs of the walking dead invaded the Bloor Cinema for Zombie Appreciation Night, featuring the international premiere of the latest critically acclaimed undead comedy. The hordes lurched, shuffled and strolled in costume to the third day of the Toronto After Dark Film Festival, where festival director Adam Lopez joined forces with Toronto Zombie Walk organizer Thea Munster to honour the living dead with half-price admission.

On the first sold-out evening of this year’s festival, Lopez welcomed writer-director Kerry Prior to the stage to introduce The Revenant. The film features recently deceased soldier Bart and his best friend Joey as unlikely vigilante heroes in their quest for human blood to satiate the undead’s appetite. Blurring the fine line between vampires and zombies, The Revenant indulges atheism and religious damnation as one possible cause of Bart’s transformation.

“I looked at old folklore to guide me through what a vampire did and how the mechanism of it works,” Prior said, citing the different physical and theological causes of vampirism. “At the end of the day, Bart is searching for his spirituality.”

Prior, a veteran special effects artist who worked on cult classics such as The Lost Boys and Bubba Ho-Tep, provided the final version of the movie for the screening. A workprint of the film screened the Cinevegas Film Festival, winning the audience choice award, and was selected as best feature film at the Xanadu Las Vegas Fantasy/Sci-Fi/Horror Convention earlier this year.

The Revenant followed on the heels of another audience favourite, the Toronto premiere of Norway’s Dead Snow. In the campy comedy, several friends descend upon a secluded mountain cabin and succumb to the wrath of undead Nazi soldiers who return for their stash of stolen treasures. An official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, Dead Snow features a more traditional approach to the zombie genre that pays homage to the similarly styled classic The Evil Dead.

Before the gut-munching and blood-sucking began, Munster announced a special director’s cut of the traditional Toronto Zombie Walk to celebrate cult icon George A. Romero’s new status as a Canadian citizen. The September 12 walk will be followed by a free screening of Night of the Living Dead in Yonge/Dundas square, with Romero himself greeting the loyal legions of zombies.

Until then, Toronto After Dark continues the resurrection theme with tomorrow night’s double feature – Japan’s Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl and Romania’s Strigoi.