Altered States

40 Altered

States

Bipolar

QUEENA LI, CHINA, 2021, 110 MIN.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 3 SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9 OCTOBER 1-11 9:00 PM

RIO 4:00 PM CINEMATHEQUE VIFF CONNECT

Canadian Premiere. In the Tibetan capital of Lhasa on a luxury pilgrimage, a broken-hearted musician (Chinese star Leah Dou) impulsively decides to liberate a sacred rainbow lobster from a cramped tank in hopes of returning it to the ocean. The catch? The endless kilometres of weirdness that lay between them and the water. A legitimate trip that asserts “travelling is just like dreaming,” Queena Li’s hallucinatory road movie is delightfully all over the map as it sends the Orpheus myth crashing through the looking glass.

Cast Leah Dou, Giver He Prod Queena Li, Zhang Linhan, Zhang Xu, Chang Bin

Kicking Blood

BLAINE THURIER, CANADA, 2021, 80 MIN.

FRI, OCT 1 9:00 PM RIO SUN, OCT 3 1:00 PM RIO

When Anna (Alanna Bale), a high-on-hemoglobin vampire, becomes enchanted by Robbie (Luke Bilyk), a despondent alcoholic, she nurtures his sobriety and considers forsaking her immortality. But her newfound nurturing instincts and fascination with humanity don’t sit well with her blood-sucking brethren. Sensual and soulful, Blaine Thurier’s latest idiosyncratic genre piece explores the more metaphorical elements of vampirism with considerable inventiveness and precisely the right measure of irreverence.

Cast Alanna Bale, Luke Bilyk, Benjamin Sutherland, Ella Farlinger, Vinessa Antoine, Shaun Austin-Olsen, Rosemary Dunsmore Prod Jennifer Jonas

Saloum

JEAN LUC HERBULOT, SENEGAL, 2021, 84 MIN.

FRI, OCT 8 6:30 PM RIO SUN, OCT 10 1:00 PM RIO

Having successively orchestrated a coup, extracted a foreign drug lord, and absconded with a gold bounty, the Bangui Hyenas fi nd their run of good luck ends abruptly when they’re shot down over Senegal’s Sine Saloum region. Taking refuge at a holiday camp, the mercenaries instantly arouse suspicion and soon unleash something otherworldly. As supernatural chaos rains down and predatory creatures wreak havoc, Jean Luc Herbulot orchestrates an action-horror fi lm that’s a heady mix of mysticism and mayhem.

Cast Yann Gael, Evelyne Ily Juhen, Roger Sallah, Mentor Ba Prod Pamela Diop

The Scary of Sixty-First

DASHA NEKRASOVA, USA, 2021, 81 MIN.

THU, OCT 7 9:00 PM RIO SUN, OCT 10 3:30 PM RIO OCT 1-11 CONN

Canadian Premiere. When two college friends (Madeline Quinn and Betsey Brown) secure a cheap Manhattan apartment, it’s not only too good to be true but worse than they could’ve ever imagined: the suite was previously Jeff rey Epstein’s love nest and is now home to other malevolent forces. Transmitting on frequencies both sinister and comic, Dasha Nekrasova’s outrageous psychosexual thriller employs ‘70s giallo and grindhouse aesthetics to take dead aim at contemporary gender dynamics, internet culture, and power structures.

Strawberry Mansion

ALBERT BIRNEY, KENTUCKER AUDLEY, USA, 2021, 91 MIN.

SAT, OCT 2 9:00 PM RIO SAT, OCT 9 4:15 PM RIO

In 2035, James (Kentucker Audley) audits people’s dreams, assessing them back taxes for their fantasies. Diving into the deep end of an archive of dreams belonging to elderly Bella (Penny Fuller), he embarks on a rollicking adventure featuring seafaring rats, mythical beasts, and a younger Bella (Grace Glowicki). Transforming practically every shot into a showcase of candy-coloured sets, analog technology, and stop-motion creatures, Audley and Albert Birney have dreamt up a beguilingly absurd confection.

Cast Penny Fuller, Kentucker Audley, Grace Glowicki, Linas Phillips, Reed Birney Prod Emma Hannaway, Matisse Rifai, Sarah Winshall, Taylor Ava Shung

Tin Can

SETH A. SMITH, CANADA, 2020, 103 MIN.

TUE, OCT 5 9:00 PM RIO FRI, OCT 8 9:00 PM CINE OCT 1-11 CONN

Racing to fi nd a cure for a global outbreak, a parasitologist (Anna Hopkins) is abducted and awakens in a suspended animation chamber. As she kicks and screams her way to freedom—or whatever the plague has laying in wait—Tin Can trades claustrophobic tension for undiluted nightmare fuel. Seth A. Smith (The Crescent) confi rms his credentials as one of genre cinema’s most singular voices with this deftly executed, undeniably deranged wedding of classic body horror and contemporary anxieties over isolation.

Cast Anna Hopkins, Simon Mutabazi, Michael Ironside, Tim Dunn, Amy Trefry, Sam Vignault, Chik White Prod Nancy Urich

Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror

KIER-LA JANISSE, USA, 2021, 193 MIN.

FRI, OCT 8 8:45 PM RIO OCT 1-11 CONN

Tracing folk horror’s winding path from the infl uential likes of The Wicker Man to more recent fare like Midsommar, Kier-La Janisse has fashioned an astonishingly ambitious deep dive into every recess of one of the genre cinema’s most spiritually resonant and culturally specifi c strains. Assembling clips from 200 fi lms and insights from 50 interviewees, Woodlands Dark explores how these works are deeply rooted in myriad storytelling traditions and alternately embrace and interrogate chequered histories.