Nightmare Detective stalks Toronto After Dark
The closing night gala for this year's Toronto After Dark film festival is just a night away, but the flick that really drew my eye in this week's lineup was Shinya Tsukamoto's ode to J-horror, Nightmare Detective. The film screened tonight at the Bloor Cinema.
The festival's international programmer, Todd Brown, introduced the film, starting by chiding anyone in the audience who had failed to take in last night's screening of Alone - which, at almost the exact same moment it was screening here in Toronto, was winning a pantload of awards down at the L.A. Screamfest. He told everyone who had missed the Thai conjoined twins horror movie to slap themselves.
(I slapped myself.)
I had to content myself instead with Tsukamoto's labyrinth of bad dreams gone horribly wrong, and the one man (the eponymous Nightmare Detective!) who can put them right. The film works as a kind of Nightmare on Elm Street taken from the cops' point of view (if the police in that movie hadn't been utter wanktards). Multiple victims around Tokyo have been dying of self-inflicted slash-wounds during incredibly violent nightmares; when one Scullyish detective realizes that a serial killer is causing the deaths by manipulating the victims' dreams, she turns to a man who can enter the dreams to search for clues.
Uh-huh.
As bizarre as that plot sounds, its beats are actually surprisingly predictable to anyone who has seen a Japanese horror movie in the last ten years. Cliches aside, though, the storyline is really little more than an opportunity for Tsukamoto to frame a series of startlingly effective nightmare sequences, which he does with Satanic glee.
I think I have Japanese nightmares. There's something about the pervasive, rumbling dread of the imagery of films like this that so specifically reminds me of my own bad dreams that I really find the effect quite unnerving - something few nightmare sequences from films from other parts of the world have ever been able to achieve. I didn't find the story of Nightmare Detective particularly involving, but enjoyed myself thoroughly nevertheless, due to the film's eye-popping frights and topsy-turvy "are we dreaming, are we not?" switchbacks.
I was glad to discover that my earlier concerns about the Bloor's sound system seem to have been unfounded; other than some print damage in the later reels, the soundscape for tonight's presentation (critically important in a film like this) was big, brassy, and effective.
Nightmare Detective played to a generous crowd that seemed to be on board with its creepy dream logic. I continue to be glad to see After Dark getting such strong support in what is, after all, only its sophomore year. This fest was made for this city. There's something about the relationship between fantasy, horror, and Toronto audiences - when the sun goes down in this town, the demons head for the movies to enjoy their bad dreams.
Comments (7)
A little thing I learned about the Bloor this week that might interest you, Matt: the Bloor has installed a new speaker system in their theatre, but it hasn't been wired up yet, so we're still getting the old sound system when watching movies there. One of many improvements the Bloor still needs to make, not to mention their piss-poor projectionist.
I've had nothing but good experiences with the Bloor's projectionist (well one of them anyway) so I don't know what your criticism there is referring to - hopefully nothing too bad. That's interesting about the sound system; as recently as my last post, someone was insisting that the new sound was up and running. I'll ask around the next time I'm at the Bloor.
Johnny 
on October 25, 2007 2:55 PM
Holy Smokes, you're quick! I got home, got into my jammies, hopped in bed with my laptop, and DAMN this review was looking at me. Did we go to the same screening? Or was that your doppleganger?
My criticism comes from whichever projectionist is responsible for not properly checking their setup before showing a film, feature or short, and often having to restart it because it is not being shown in the correct format. Filmmakers get pissed at that and have even resulted in them yelling at the projectionist for screwing up their film screening. It's happened a few times during this festival and has happened before. I don't know how many projectionists work there, but it doesn't always happen, so not all projectionists there are like this. It would just be nice to see all projectionists care about what they're showing and care enough about doing it correctly the first time.
Chris: I do my best to remember that in festivals like this one, prints and masters are coming from all kinds of different places and a full test isn't always possible. So I do **try** to be patient, although like you I really hate to see a filmmaker's work get a bum job when it's being screened in front of an audience that will probably never see it again.
Johnny: yeah man, I write fast. Made me nostalgic for my Midnight Madness reviews from TIFF! ;)
Little update: the new sound system has been installed, but has optimized for film prints, not yet for digital, hence why some of the digital screenings may sound a little less than perfect than film at the Bloor Cinema. And yes there are number of projectonists at the Bloor, all unionized and so by law we use them. We are very patient with them at Toronto After Dark which uses many different screening formats, which often drives them nuts. But there is no other venue we rather call our home that that art deco styled masterpiece theatre! Anyway glad you guys enjoyed the film, hopefully see you for our festival closer, MURDER PARTY tonight!
- Adam
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