Today's Review:

The Orphanage
BY DANU MANDLSOHN

With Guillermo del Toro’s name attached to a film about undead children at a haunted Spanish orphanage, you might think it would it be scary. Muy bien. Although the Pan’s Labyrinth auteur is merely the producer on this one, debut director Juan Antonio Bayona strikes gold, cherry-picking from modern gothic classics like The Sixth Sense and The Others. He knows that true horror comes from the unseen, not buckets of blood and guts. That and a string of masterful set-pieces, including a brilliant night-vision seance sequence that rivals early Spielberg. Macabre at times, but with a heart. The late-night festival audience ate it up, laughing giddily as if they were going up the track on a roller coaster. 4.5/5

Today’s Listings:

4:45 p.m. – Programme 1 (Short Cuts Canada) – Review – ROM Theatre
6:00 p.m. – Juno (Special Presentations) – Ryerson Theatre
6:00 p.m. – No Country for Old Men (Special Presentations) – Visa Screening Room
6:30 p.m. – The Counterfeiters (Contemporary World Cinema) – Review – Cumberland 2
6:30 p.m. – Erik Nietzsche the Early Years (Contemporary World Cinema) – Scotiabank 2
8:00 p.m. – When Did You Last See Your Father? (Special Presentations) – Review – Wintergreen Theatre
9:45 p.m. – Heavy Metal in Baghdad (Real To Reel) – Review – ROM Theatre
9:45 p.m. – Boy A (Vanguard) – Review – Cumberland 3
9:45 p.m. – Chrysalis (Vanguard) – Scotiabank 1
9:45 p.m. – Gone With The Woman (Contemporary World Cinema) – Scotiabank 14
11:59 p.m. – Diary of the Dead (Midnight Madness) – Ryerson Theatre