Wednesday, October 26th the Toronto After Dark Film Festival and TdotComics were proud to co-present the world premiere of VS, a dark superhero thriller. The theatre was almost at capacity as we all braced for the ride ahead. The film follows four teenaged superheroes, Charge, The Wall, Shadow, and Cutthroat, as they awake to realize they have been kidnapped by their old nemesis Rickshaw who has a twisted game planned for them. This is the set up for a much darker and grimmer super hero film than we are used to.
The film gets right into the game: all the characters have awoken with their powers stripped, and Rickshaw appears on the TV to direct them to their doom. The objective of the game is to save the innocent civilians rigged up to death traps around the town and to stay alive. We learn about the characters through their interactions with each other and the occasional flashback. From what we can tell they have been this hero team for a while, but it is hard to keep all the conflicting personalities working together. I like this aspect of the movie – the feeling like so much has preceded this particular story – it gives the characters more depth.
Rickshaw is on another level altogether. James Remar does an outstanding performance; the character goes from being joyful to angry-in the same sentence-about killing. Rickshaw has the whole town set up with a circus theme – a strongman and an insane uncle Sam and later on animal furry henchmen. Remar does a really great job with this role and the character is frightening and engaging at the same time.
The death traps are pretty unimaginative, though the info at the Q&A gave a little perspective on that–Jason Trost was in attendance for the Q&A (writer, director, acted as Charge). Trost told us this independent film was written in a week and; shot in 15 ten-hour days, so I gotta cut him some slack. All things considered it’s a good film; not the best of the festival but definitely worth a watch. I will be on the lookout for Troust’s work in the future. You can watch the trailer here.
The short that played before the film: How to Rid your Lover of Negative Emotion Caused by You! was super cute and quirky, while at times the gore was a little gross. Definitely worth a watch check out the trailer here
