The weather is slowly warming, the snow is gradually (hopefully?) disappearing for another year, and this weekend the Toronto International Spring of Horror and Fantasy Film Festival (TISH) will be in full bloom. We sifted through their 2019 schedule to find several shorts by female filmmakers that will be showcased at this year’s event.
Check them out below!
Girl Trip (2018)
Dir. Catherine Black.
With Girl Trip, filmmaker Catherine Black delivers a sly, dark little horror-comedy that looks at the complicated dynamics of dysfunctional friendships. Naomi (Catherine Black) and Gretchen (Brooke Lenzi) are childhood frenemies with some festering, unresolved tensions. Their road trip takes an unexpected twist—or, rather, a series of them—when they make a pit stop at a roadside bar in the middle of nowhere. Turned away by the salty bar owner, the two nonetheless wind up entangled with a couple of the locals, with some rather dramatic results.
The short is blessed with fine performances, great cinematography, a tight script, and a fabulous soundtrack: sweet synths, riot grrl, melodic indie rock, and some sinister-sounding scoring by Ryan Rapsys accompany the action. Black’s Naomi and Lenzi’s Gretchen share a bitter chemistry that hints at the deep turbulence characterizing their friendship during their adult years, and it’s a wicked joy to watch the two deliver Girl Trip‘s cruel humour.
You can catch Girl Trip screening prior to Reborn (2018) on Saturday, April 6th at 9:15pm.
Future Harvest (2018)
Dir. Carolyn Corkindale
An apparently peaceful pastoral scene turns unexpectedly gruesome in Carolyn Corkindale’s Future Harvest, which could serve as a timely warning to the less environmentally-conscious. They say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned–and Mother Nature could be the most vengeful of all. You may never look at apples the same way.
Check out Future Harvest during the shorts block on Saturday, April 6th at 3:20pm.
Exorcism (2018)
Dir. Lena Burmenko
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be exorcised? Lena Burmenko’s Exorcism offers the POV of a demon resisting a bodily eviction, as shown through a recovered memory scan of its victim.
Exorcism screens prior to Reborn (2018) on Saturday, April 6th at 9:15pm.
All TISH screenings will be held at Imagine Cinemas Carlton and tickets may be purchased here.
anatomyofascream.com 