Puppet Killer, Copenhagen Road, and The First and Last Time at BITS

Warning - disturbing/mature content, images, and language

PUPPET KILLER

(Dir. Lisa Ovies) TORONTO PREMIERE (83 mins)
While celebrating Christmas at a cabin in the woods, a group of high school students are stalked by a psychotic killer obsessed with horror movie icons.

MY TAKE: I love it when a horror-comedy is more than just a parody, but rather an homage.  Lisa Ovies says her film Puppet Killer is a love letter to all her favourite slasher and horror movies of the 80s.

Tons of little Easter eggs for fans of movies such as Halloween, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street and the like. Simon the titular puppet is a demented, murderous Elmo and just as adorable (more so, if you ask me).

A strong ensemble cast including  Aleks Paunovic (Van Helsing, War for the Planet of the Apes), Lisa Durupt (Heartland), Lee Majdoub (The 100, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency), Gigi Saul Guerrero (Super Monsters), Richard Harmon (Van Helsing, The 100), Kyle Cassie (Dead Pool), Geoff Gustafson (Hot Tub Time Machine), and Beverley Eliot (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Once Upon a Time).

Ms. Ovies took a risk—she cast all the teenagers with actors WELL over the age of 30—a trait of many of the slasher films (Jamie Lee Curtis was definitely NOT a teenager when she got her big break in Halloween), but Lisa and Writer decided to push the envelope further — Aleks Paunovic, who plays the lead, Jamie, is 50! She mentioned at the Q&A that a lot of people fought her on that choice, but she stuck with it, and frankly, I’d say it paid off. Watching this cast of grown-ass adults talk like horror movies think teenagers talk doesn’t stop being funny for a minute.

I gotta say, though some may find Simon to be an ugly puppet, I find him cute and endearing. What does that say about me? We’ll save that analysis for another day (tell me that you don’t get a little sad during a scene late in the film where Jamie must make a hard decision about his childhood friend).

COPENHAGEN ROAD

(Dir. Lee Chambers) (8:20 mins)
Late one night Craig, a mechanic, reluctantly agrees to help Nicole, a desperate young woman with a flat tire, in a car all too familiar to him. Nicole's mysterious incident on the old Copenhagen Road slowly strikes an eerie note for Craig and brings his own shady past rushing forward.

MY TAKE: Mysterious characters and an atmospheric setting!

THE FIRST & LAST TIME

(Dir. Peter Sacco) (5:27 min) Music Video
Do you believe in ghosts? The legendary band the Spoons visit a historical haunted mansion.

MY TAKE: A fun music video that plays out like a paranormal investigation television episode!

Subscribe to my newsletter/list tailored to the tastes of us cult movie fans and Frankenfiction aficionados - particularly those who love to mash up horror and comedy!

If you'd like your own copy of my very own feature film B-movie parody (including my short film parody, The Scary Bitch Project, in the special features) you can buy the DVD of my feature film, Space Zombies: 13 Months of Brain-Spinning Mayhem!

You can also buy or rent it through iTunes.

And if you're interested in my series of novellas, the "Trilogy of Horrifically Half-baked Ham," here are the links:

Space Zombies! (or Amazon)
They Suck (or Amazon)
Horror at Terror Creek (or Amazon)