The fifth annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival wrapped up another successful run at the Bloor Cinema this past weekend. The fest featured the Canadian and world premieres of some of the craziest, funniest, most insane and gory films of the year. Yesterday, the festival announced the award winners from this year’s lineup; some 4300 votes were tallied to determine the audience award winners.

I have to say that I’m a little disappointed that Quentin Dupieux’s amazing Rubber didn’t win any of the main prizes. It was by far the most original film at After Dark (for which it won the Fan Choice award) and easily my favourite of the whole festival. In any event, congratulations to the filmmakers and festival organizers for another great year.

You can to read all of our reviews from this year’s festival here and see the full list of TADFF award winners after the jump. AUDIENCE AWARDS, BEST FEATURE FILM

1. GOLD: The Last Exorcism (Read our review here)
2. SILVER: The Human Centipede
3. BRONZE: I Spit On Your Grave

VISION AWARDS, BEST INDEPENDENT FEATURE FILM
The Vision Awards are given out by the Festival in recognition of outstanding independent genre feature filmmaking.

1. GOLD: Heartless (Read our review here)
2. SILVER: The Last Lovecraft
3. BRONZE: All About Evil

AUDIENCE AWARDS, BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM

1. GOLD: Junko’s Shamisen
2. SILVER: King Chicken
3. BRONZE: Fireman! and Game Night (Tie)

AUDIENCE AWARDS, BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM

1. GOLD: Off Season (Read our review here)
2. SILVER: Pumzi (Read our review here)
3. BRONZE: Deus Irae

For a full list check out the official 2010 Toronto After Dark Film Fest site.

British artist Philip Ridley has only directed three feature films in his career. I must confess that I am not familiar with his first two films, The Reflecting Skin and The Passion of Darkly Noon, but everyone I’ve talked to says they are strange and disturbing experiences. With that in mind, I went into Ridley’s latest film, Heartless, expecting a weird, wild and haunting experience and was not disappointed.

Spoilers to follow.

Jamie (Jim Sturgess) is a young man with a heart-shaped birthmark on his face. Always self-concious about his appearance, growing up with the mark has left Jamie shy and withdrawn. He keeps to himself mostly, living at home with his mother and quietly photographing things around his neighbourhood as a hobby. However, Jamie’s quiet little corner of East London not quite what it seems; the area is plagued by gang violence at night. While most people believe that the seemingly random attacks are just gangs, Jamie soon learns that there is something much more sinister happening. His discovery will give him an opportunity to change things, but at a cost greater than anyone should pay.

Our very own Shelagh selected Heartless for the Toronto After Dark programme this year (read her review here), and I can see why: It was easily the most psychological film playing at the festival this year. Where other films were busy shocking the audience with violence  or amazing them with action, Heartless got in their heads. That’s not to say that there isn’t some pretty shocking violence in the film—a man getting his heart cut out of his body is right up there with the most violent things I’ve ever seen on film—but the movie isn’t about that. The film is about making choices and living with them. No matter what your original intention, when you make a deal with the devil you’ve got to be prepared for the consequences.

Heartless is a moody film, the tone reflects the maddening changes in the character and setting. The film goes from a depressing family story one minute, to horrific Faustian nightmare the next; from idyllic young romance and then back again. Sitting in the theatre I was initially put off by the drastic mood swings the film goes through. The various stages almost feel like completely different films. But the film is about metamorphosis and this is the devil we’re talking about here. If anyone could turn your lonely, living nightmare into a beautiful dream where Clemence Posey was your companion, it would be him. All you have to do is shake his hand and make a promise.

The ending of the film felt very disjointed and confusing, but perhaps that was the point. The rush toward the bittersweet climax was, I hope, intentional. There are a few leaps in logic the film makes near the ending that only make sense if you go with a certain reading of the film and its characters. Ultimately, I don’t know that I really liked Heartless, in fact, the film actually kind of bothered me. Regardless of how I felt though, I was left scratching my head and thinking about the movie well after it was over. If that isn’t at least interesting filmmaking, I don’t know what is.

Here are our picks for some of your best bets playing at this year’s Toronto After Dark Film Fest.
For more details check out the full schedule here.

Alien vs. Ninja

Directed by Seiji Chiba, Yuji Shimomura

Have you ever wanted to see deadly ninjas go toe-to-toe with vicious aliens? If you answered yes, then this is the film for you. Think of Alien vs. Ninja as a Japanese take on Predator, minus the muscles and the budget, and instead of commandos you have sword-wielding ninjas. The title of the film is truth in advertising, by all accounts there is plenty of alien versus ninja action to go around.

See the trailer for Alien vs Ninja here.

Black Death

Directed by Christopher Smith

At the height of the bubonic plague in medieval England thousands were dying. However, one village remained untouched by the disease and the powers that be want answers. The church sends a young monk named Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) and a knight, Ulrich (Sean Bean), to investigate the mysterious village. As you can imagine, things don’t go very well. The presence of the beautiful Carice Van Houten doesn’t hurt either, even if she is playing a witch. Knights, necromancers, witches and the plague—sounds like a party I was once at.

See the trailer for Black Death here.

Centurion

Directed by Neil Marshall

The director of Dog Soldiers and The Descent brings us this sword-and-sandals actioner set in Roman Britain. After an entire legion is ambushed and wiped out by the tribal Picts, Centurion Quintus Dias (Michael Fassbender) and a band of survivors attempt to rescue their captured general (Dominic West) and escape. However, if the Pict warrior Etain (Olga Kurylenko) has anything to do with it, things won’t go easy for the Romans. How often are you going to see McNulty from The Wire play a Roman general? Exactly.

See the trailer for Centurion here.

Evil – In the Time of Heroes

Directed by Yorgos Noussias

Evil – In the Time of Heroes is a Greek zombie film co-starring Billy Zane. Take a minute to let that description sink in: Greece. Zombies. Billy Zane. If that doesn’t sound at least kind of interesting to you, then we can’t be friends anymore.

See the trailer for Evil – In the Time of Heroes here.

Heartless

Directed by Philip Ridley

This Faustian thriller stars Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe, 21) as Jamie, a young man with a heart-shaped birthmark on his face. The East London neighbourhood Jamie calls home has been plagued by violence. While most people believe that the seemingly random violence is gang related, Jamie soon discovers that there is a much more sinister cause behind attacks.

See the trailer for Heartless here.

HIGH School

In director John Stalberg’s HIGH School, a promising student named Henry faces a random drug test after trying pot for the first time. Facing failure and expulsion if he is caught, he devises a plan to get the entire graduating class high. Hey, they can’t fail everyone. Michael Chiklis stars as Principal Gordon and Adrien Brody plays the local weirdo “Psycho Ed”.

See the trailer for High School here.

The Last Lovecraft: The Relic of Cthulhu

Finally, a Cthulhu themed horror-comedy! The story about an ordinary schlub who, upon discovering he is the descendant of author H.P. Lovecraft, is tasked with protecting a relic that will unleash Cthulhu if it falls into the wrong hands.

See the trailer for The Last Lovecraft here.

Phobia 2

Directed by Paween Purijitpanya, Visute Poolvoralaks, Songyos Sugmakanan, Parkpoom Wongpoom, Banjong Pisanthanakun

The original Phobia debuted at After Dark a few years ago, and the sequel to the Thai horror film will have its Canadian premiere at the fest this year. The film is a collection of five separate stories made by five different directors. Some will terrify you, some will disgust you, while others may leave you scratching your head. The original was well received and the sequel is by all accounts a better film.

See the trailer for Phobia 2 here.

RoboGeisha

Directed by Noboru Iguchi

The creator of the ridiculously over the top The Machine Girl gives us his long awaited followup: RoboGeisha. How do I describe it without sounding insane… You see, there are these two geishas who get kidnapped by mad scientists and turned into cyborg assassins—then it gets weird. Japan has always made some wacky B-movies and I’m sure this one is up there with the best of them.

See the trailer for Robogeisha here.

In addition to the feature films, Toronto After Dark will also feature a selection of short films from all over.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Heartless also stars the gorgeous Clémence Poésy and the awesome Eddie Marsan.
No North American release date has been set, but keep your eye on the official site for any news regarding a local screening.

Be sure to check out Shelagh’s review of Heartless from last year’s Sitges Film Festival.