Being a relative newcomer to Toronto, I made some bad navigational decisions and arrived at the Bloor Cinema about half an hour later than I had anticipated. I arrived to what can aptly be called hell on earth. There were three lines formed all bubbling with confusion. By some miracle of festival organizing, about 15 minutes before the scheduled start the staff jumped into action and managed to get everyone in on time.

Safely seated inside the theater I let myself relax and prepared for the pending bloodshed. The Bloor is over 100 years old and still has trapped inside it a taste of that cinematic magic that resonated around the continent in the first half of the twentieth century. It is a land that time forgot in the shadow of the ultra-modern mega-plexs that have sprouted up everywhere. With it’s dark walls and blood red curtains there could not be a more fitting venue for a festival that will be showing films that most of the world will never even hear of.

Adam Lopez, the festival director, takes to the stage and tires to excite the crowd. The mention of zombies and Lloyd Kaufman seem to do the trick. This festival is Lopez’s lovechild and his passion for it and horror films is infectious. I overheard him talking to a fan about the opening feature film, Mulberry Street, lit up with excitement like a child before Christmas. After Lopez outlines the key events for the festival he calls Jim Mickel to the stage.

Mickel is the director/co-writer behind the feature presentation Mulberry Street. He informs the crowd that after the feature the films Q&A will also be featuring three other members of the film’s cast and crew: Nick Damici (co-writer/lead actor), Adam Folk (producer/actor) and Tim House (Executive Producer/actor). The crowd ignites once again when Mickel reveals that House, the films main financier, is also a Toronto native. Mickel closes up with the announcement that the film will be opening wide in 3 weeks then horror begins.

The first film is Latchkey’s Lament, a 17 minute short by Troy Nixey that made the official selection at the Toronto Film Festival. It centers around two lovers who are abducted. However, there is a twist, the two lovers are in fact keys (yes actual keys for opening locks) and the abductor is a villainous key fiend. What is a key fiend you may ask? A key fiend is what would happen if Big Bird went bald and got a taste for S&M gear. He is also a type of key-vampire, consuming keys for sustenance.

This bizarre film is a mix of computer animation and live action. The make-up that produces the key fiend is spectacular and the animation has some high points. However, the film is lacking something. There is a bit of Edgar Allen Poe style dialogue at the beginning and perhaps if this was extended it would have stabilized the gothic tone of the film, as it currently stands it comes across as a warped Tom & Jerry cartoon.

Next up was the feature presentation, Mulberry Street, a New York rat-zombie film. The premise of the film is nothing new; a virus has spread through the city turning its victims into rat-zombies. What makes this film stand out is its strong characterization and production values. The film is truly an independent production with its low budget, utilization of guerrilla filmmaking (some shoots were broken up by the police) and it was shot on standard consumer 24p digital devices.

The key actors deliver strong performances and cinematographer, Ryan Samul blitzes around with eerie multi angled shots in a film that look far bigger than its budget. However, I found the film a bit mild on the fright-side. There simply was not enough tension, partly due to cinematic timing and partly due to the dream-like music provided by Andreas Kapsalis (which worked well at setting the opening tone of the film). Overall I still came away liking this charming little zombie movie.

From there it was off to the after party at the Gladstone Hotel, which marks another important aspect of the festival. The festival is heavily marked on MySpace and Facebook, having a large online community, with many of them meeting for the first time at the festival. In addition the filmmakers and organizers attend the event and mingle with the audience. The Gladstone is filled with semi-strangers discussing that which they love, horror and the macabre.