The festival is drawing to a close. The final two features were screened before the festival’s closing gala of Murder Party -- which I was not looking forward to. Now I’m caught up in the hype and pretty darn excited for tomorrow.

The first screening was Simon Says an uber-B-grade horror complete with annoying teenage characters, low budget effects, and a deserted woods (which miraculously fills up whenever the director needs more body count). The film is directed by William Dear, best known for Harry and the Hendersens. Cristin Glover plays a pair of murderous twins in an over the top performance that made the crowd go wild. This film embraces its status at the bottom of the genre. You can have a hell of a good time watching it as long as you understand you’re watching crap. B-grade fair is usually reserved for my couch, alone on a Saturday night, so it was refreshing to view it with a lively audience.

Before the screening of the penultimate film, Nightmare Detective, festival programmer, Todd Brown revealed that Alone (screened the night before) had swept the awards. The film took home editing, cinematography, directing and picture.

The film’s success makes me wonder: if there’s a bias toward foreign film among horror fans. One doesn’t have to look far for the genre’s obvious favouritism towards foreign originals over Hollywood remakes. In the case of remakes, almost always, hardcore fans prefer the original. However, Alone has not been remade (yet) and what interests me in this situation is that it just wasn’t that good.

The editing and cinematography were brilliant and those awards are fully deserved. Best director is debatable as it is hard to distinguish between a best director and a best picture. After all the director is responsible for the overall product; winning best director is like saying best overall product, which is exactly what best picture is.

Alone is a good solid horror. I would recommend it to a friend. However, the basic premise is simply a new twist on older ones. The scares were provided with the now familiar techniques of Asian horror. After a promising two thirds capped in a somewhat unexpected twist, the final act relies on clichés and is a doppelganger of the final acts of films like What Lies Beneath and The Grudge. There are also some ludicrous plot holes that I cannot discuss without providing spoilers. While Alone is a solid genre effort I can almost guarantee if this were made by a Hollywood studio it would not be hailed as original or unique.

For these reasons I wonder how much bias there is within the genre to worship the groundbreaking from alternative sources (international or independent) when originality is lacking.

In the same vein Nightmare Detective was nothing new, think Constantine meets Nightmare on Elm Street. Spawned from the warped mind of Shinya Tsukamoto (this is said to be his attempt at mainstream), the film is another solid offering but nothing revolutionary. However, in the closing act when a main characters is drinking pots of coffee, struggling to stay awake (sound familiar?) Tsukamoto does a fabulous job of capturing trying to stay awake -- falling asleep. Unfortunately, this imagery caused me to drift slightly, so possibly I may have missed something brilliant that may have elevated the film into the fantastic.

The highlight of the evening was the Canadian shorts. Mime Massacre by Colin Decker -- down right hilarious. Trev Jimenez offered the brilliant cartoon noir, Key Lime Pie, which could be the result of over-exposure to Frank Miller and Walt Disney. I look forward to Jimenez’s future work.