TIFF Lightbox | Thoughts & Scribbles

HELLIONS

Director: Bruce McDonald

Starring: Chloe Rose, Robert Patrick, Rachel Wilson

Written by: Pascal Trottier

Released by: IFC Midnight

It’s Halloween Night, and 17-year old Dora Vogel is looking forward to a night of partying with her boyfriend, Jace. The night has other plans for her, starting with her doctor’s diagnosis that she’s four weeks pregnant. From there, things only get worse as her house is visited by an unsettling gaggle of trick-or-treaters, who have less than benevolent plans for her and her unborn child… plans that require blood. Under siege, with her pregnancy moving along at an accelerated pace, Dora is soon pulled into an alternate plane in a fight for survival against the pint-sized invaders. This Halloween is going to be one hell of a night.

HELLIONS , Bruce McDonald’s second foray into horror (following the universally-acclaimed PONTYPOOL) is a very much a beast of a different stripe. While initially a by-the-numbers “alone in the house” slasher story (with an army of costumed demon-kids as the monster of choice here), the film abruptly changes gears and slides into a more surreal, dream-like state. The visuals become more hallucinatory, the narrative disjointed and abstract. The feeling is akin to watching a Stephen King movie, than changing channels to a Lucio Fulci film. The effect is jarring, but effective.

hellions-trailer

The film is shot beautifully, with Dora’s shift into the “other side” rendered in a bleached colour palette that creates an unsettling, otherworldly feel. While the film trucks with the standard proto-Halloween imagery and symbolism (most notably, an ominous looking pumpkin patch where the “Hellions” gather), it all has an ominous tone, saturated with dark oranges and brown and tinged with rot. The trick-or-treaters, all decked out in grimy and distorted “old-timey” Halloween costumes, are an unsettling mix of nostalgia and nightmare. It’s Ray Bradbury’s rose-coloured recollections of the autumnal “October Country”, reimagined by Hieronymous Bosch and filtered through the minds of madmen. It’s wonderfully unsettling stuff.

6.-DoraCorman-1280x900 As far as the cast, the bulk of the heavy work rests on newcomer Chloe Rose’s shoulders. A lot of advance word on Rose’s performance as Dora has come out of HELLIONS’ multiple festival screenings, and with good reason. Rose’s performance is solid, conveying Dora’s terror of her inter-dimensional peril, as well as her impending motherhood, with conviction and palpability. Even as the film’s narrative goes deliriously off the rails, she anchors things with her believable and sympathetic performance, thus earning all those “one to watch out for” kudos. Genre vet, Robert Patrick, delivers great work in his small role as the sheriff who gets pulled into Dora’s nightmare, bringing down-home gravitas to the proceedings and proving he’s still one of the best character actors working today.

The film’s narrative, much like the filmography of the above-mentioned Fulci, defies any concise logic or common sense. By the three-quarter point, it fully embraces its nightmare sensibilities, leaving the “whats” and “whys” open to personal interpretation. Has Dora been pulled into Limbo by her unwanted visitors? Is this all happening in her mind? Is it a symbolic fever dream brought on by her impending parental anxieties? Who can say? McDonald and screenwriter Pascal Trottier aren’t interested in spoon-feeding the audience, and that’s actually refreshing. Horror and allegory have long gone hand in hand, so there’s much to appreciate in a film that encourages you to interpret what you just saw.

HELLIONS is a pretty bold experiment, one that goes way beyond what its promotional campaign would lead you to believe. It’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea – the abstract visuals and plot will probably lose, even irk, some viewers along the way. If you’re willing to let go of preconceptions and go along with its dream-like flow, you’ll be rewarded with a nightmarish little trip. HELLIONS has both tricks and treats in its little bag, if you’re brave enough to open the door when it comes knocking.

HELLIONS is now available for viewing on VOD, as well as in limited theatrical release, through IFC Midnight.

Although school doesn’t officially start for another couple of weeks, Toronto cinephiles can get some higher learning starting tonight, as Guillermo Del Toro returns to TIFF Lightbox to host the Gothic Master Class.

This will be the fourth time around for Del Toro at TIFF, having curated and hosted the Fright Nights Series (2011), The Alfred Hitchcock Master Class (2012) and Ken Russell’s THE DEVILS with Richard Crouse ( 2014). For this series, Del Toro has hand-picked three films which best represent the Gothic cinematic tradition, tying into the imminent approach of his Gothic-heavy ghost story, CRIMSON PEAK (due out in October). Each film will be bookended by an introduction and a post-screening lecture by Del Toro, delving into the origins and signifgance of both Gothic literature and film.

It all starts tonight with a screening of Rebecca, Alfred Hitchcock’s adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier‘s novel. A fitting lead-in, as Del Toro is considered one of the world’s pre-eminent Hitchcock historian/experts, as evidenced at his previous Hitchcock Master Class.

Following that, TIFF will also screen David Lean’s Great Expectations, based on Charles Dickens‘ immortal classic, as well as Jane Eyre, starring Orson Welles and Jane Fontaine, directed by Robert Stevenson and adapted from the novel by Charlotte Brontë.

(L to R: Rebecca, Great Expectations, Jane Eyre)

The gameplan breaks down, as follows:

August 26 – Rebecca (7 PM)

August 27 – Great Expectations (7 PM)

August 31 – Jane Eyre (7 PM)

As of now, all tickets are “Rush” status only, but take my word for it: it’s worth the wait if you manage to snag a ticket to even one of these events. Put simply, the man knows of what he speaks. With an encyclopedic knowledge of film and folklore, as well as being an incredibly entertaining (and occasionally profane) speaker, the lectures are worth the price of admission alone.

I will be covering the inaugural screening tomorrow night for my old alma mater, Rue Morgue Magazine, so expect to see my review of the night’s events on rue-morgue.com, as well as right here.

Need more info? Head over to TIFF’s website for all updates and information as they become available.

TIFF Lightbox is located at 350 King St W, in the heart of Toronto.

Classic cinema and education from one of the most revered filmmakers of our time under one roof?
There are certainly worse ways you can spend the end of summer.