In Cinemas: September 25, 2015 — The Second Mother, Hellions, Cooties, The Green Inferno, Pawn Sacrifice, The Intern, Hotel Transylvania 2

Friday night is the start of the new season of Carbon Arc!

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As I mentioned, I’m helping the independent screening series out with communications and programming, and I’m happy to do it. They bring in quality international cinema that Cineplex has no interest in showing locally. Go here for a list of the upcoming screenings.

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The first film is a Brazilian drama, The Second Mother, screening at 7pm and 9:30pm. As of this writing on Thursday, advance tickets for the first screening are sold out, though there will be a few available at the door. Advance tickets are still available for the later show, and there’ll be availabilities when the doors open at 9pm.

Speaking of see-it-now-or-miss-it screenings, Hellions only has a single screening: Friday night 11:30pm at Park Lane. The fact that it’s from Canadian indie auteur Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, Pontypool) makes it a draw.

I’ve seen the film, which is a dreamlike horror about a 17-year-old, Dora (Chloe Rose), in a small town who on Halloween discovers she’s pregnant. Worse, some of the little kids are trick-or-treating are demons. Or, at least, that’s what Dora thinks. The film plays fast and loose with Dora’s pregnancy anxiety and whether or not all she’s seeing is in her head. If it’s meant to scare promiscuous teens, or anyone with a problem around the responsibility of misbehaving little rugrats, it could work, but it’s sly as a satire of that kind of societal fear. Too bad it didn’t show up in cinemas in about a month to cash in to the season. Also starring Rossif Sutherland as Dora’s gyno and Robert Patrick as a local cop.

One question: Where in Canada is it still light at 7pm on October 31? #CanuckContinuityErrors

Speaking of fear of kids, here’s a second movie this week plumbing the same themes, believe it or not: Cooties, a comedy horror starring Elijah Wood and Rainn Wilson. It’s a zombie movie where children are the zombies.

The Green Inferno is the newest picture from Eli Roth, and sounds like a variant on his favourite themes: Young Americans go somewhere and get tortured to death in creative ways. In Cabin Fever it was the woods, Hostel was Eastern Europe, and here it’s the Amazon. (With added xenophobia and cannibalism!)

Pawn Sacrifice opens at The Oxford on Friday. Before you see this dramatization of chess master Bobby Fischer’s story starring Tobey Maguire, I recommend you check out Liz Garbus’ Bobby Fischer Against The World documentary from a few years back. And, for that matter,  Steven Zaillian’s Searching For Bobby Fischer from 1993.

Nancy Myers is responsible for such respectable middle-of-the-road Hollywood dramedies as What Women Want, The Holiday, and Something’s Gotta Give. (My favourite of her stuff is her screenplay for Private Benjamin.) Now comes The Intern, starring Anne Hathaway and Robert DeNiro. The reviews have been mixed, but those who are into Myers, well, you know who you are.

And something for the kids (the ones not haunting your nightmares): Hotel Transylvania 2

About the author

flawintheiris

Carsten Knox is a massive, cheese-eating nerd. In the day he works as a journalist in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At night he stares out at the rain-slick streets, watches movies, and writes about what he's seeing.

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