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TADFF Review: ‘I’ll Take your Dead’ is a Strong, Hearty Genre Stew

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I'll Take Your Dead

With the release of their newest film, I’ll Take Your Dead, director Chad Archibald (Bite, The Heretics) and Black Fawn Films have delivered their strongest work to date. The film mixes elements of a suspense thriller, tragic ghost story, intense home invasion, and coming-of-age drama into an emotional journey for both the characters and the audience. It’s a genre stew that’s flavored with bitter tension and complex warmth – a combination that is perfectly suited to the harsh rural winter setting.

From a script written by Jayme Laforest, the film follows William (Aidan Devine), a humble and quiet man with a simple job – he makes dead bodies disappear. This is not a job he takes pride in, but, through circumstances out of his control, his country farm house has become a dumping ground for the casualties of the gang related murders in the city. His daughter Gloria (Ava Preston) has become used to men dropping off corpses and is even convinced that some of them are haunting their house. After a woman’s body is dumped at the house, William begins his meticulous process when he realizes she’s not actually dead. As the gang activity increases, William patches the woman up and holds her against her will until he can figure out what to do with her. As they begin to develop a very unusual respect for each other, the woman’s murderers get word that she’s still alive and make plan to go finish what they started.

via Black Fawn Films

I’ll Take Your Dead is undeniably a character-driven film. The main action is not surrounding the disposal of bodies or the lost souls that haunt Gloria – it’s the shifts and balances between our three leads.

Jess Salgueiro as Jackie skillfully flips between the roles of panicked captive, wary heroine, and caring surrogate sister. The scenes between Salgueiro and Ava Preston as Gloria are rich with nuance; the audience can gain volumes of information from their physical movements and subtle reactions to one another.

via Black Fawn Films

Aidan Devine carries a stillness that William wields as a shield when acting as his efficient alter-ego. Where Devine really shines is the moments when William is caught off-guard; he slips the stony exterior and we see flashes of the worry and anger that he’s trying to hide. One particular scene – in which William mistakes puberty for injury – carries an avalanche of embarrassment and it’s incredibly endearing. As a single father who intentionally isolates his daughter for her safety, William finally recognizes that he’s far out of his depth.

Admittedly, I did find that the father-daughter bond was plagued by a repetitive, heavy-handed gesture for the sake of emotional connection. It’s meant to communicate the link between the two, but in the film’s 78-minute run time, we see this hand gesture a few times – and with increased frequency – in the third act.

It reads as a rushed attempt to remind the audience of their strong father-daughter relationship, trying to build emotional resonance, and it’s not really necessary. It’s a point that doesn’t need stressing – the actors do a wonderful job of expressing that connection on their own (or maybe it just reminded me too much of the “face waterfall” from Face/Off).

The ghost elements also feel a tad rushed, but with the brisk run time, that would be the logical place to trim the fat for a more robust development in the main plot.

via Black Fawn Films

Overall, I’ll Take Your Dead is strongest when it focuses on the themes of family, loss, and the cycle of violence. Everyone in the film is stuck in a lifestyle surrounded by violence – to the point that young Gloria has completely normalized the death that lives around her.

Every character just scrapes by, fighting to get closer to that dream of a better life. But the isolation that can be found in such a crowded lifestyle is so oppressive that any resistance seems futile, and sometimes, good people are pushed to bad things. I’ll Take Your Dead recognizes that family is more than just blood, and the family you surround yourself with will help to inform your future.

For more on I’ll Take Your Dead, click here to read my interview with the cast at Toronto After Dark Film Fest, and click here to view the first official trailer. The film is currently on the festival circuit, so keep your eye out for screenings near you.

Keep up to date on this film and where it’s playing by following their Facebook page.

via Black Fawn Films

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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