Fantasia Film Festival Review: Don’t Say Its Name (2021)

In horror thriller Don’t Say Its Name, outsiders are being killed by an unseen force in the woods in a Canadian Indigenous community. The town’s sheriff, Betty (Madison Walsh), can’t make heads or tails of it, so she enlists the help of badass game warden Stacey (Sera-Lys McArthur). The film is an Indigenous story at its core, one about protecting one’s land as outsiders (a coal mining company called WEC) look to profit off their land. At the very least, Don’t Say Its Name is thought-provoking because of this. There’s strong character work here, especially with Betty and Stacey. Stacey’s an army vet suffering from PTSD, so her healing from trauma of war is an intriguing element on top of Indigenous people coping with their collective trauma.

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The Filmcraziest Show with Benjamin Ross Hayden and Shannon Joel Chappell for Parallel Minds

On this episode of The Filmcraziest Show, I was joined by writer and director Benjamin Ross Hayden and art director Shannon Joel Chappell, to discuss their new film Parallel Minds, which played early this month at Toronto’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival. The plot: In the near future, an A.I. called URM is investigated by a detective named Thomas Elliot (Greg Bryk) and a researcher, Margo Elson (Tommie Amber-Pirie), for a lab about to release a contact lens with the power to record what the eye can see to recreate memories. The film is written and directed by Benjamin Ross Hayden and also stars Neil Napier, Madison Walsh, Michelle Thrush, Wilma Pelly and Chelsea Green. (My review of the film can be found here.)

Blood in the Snow Film Festival Review: Parallel Minds (2020)

In Benjamin Ross Hayden’s new science fiction film Parallel Minds, an A.I. called URM is investigated by a detective, Thomas Elliott (Greg Bryk) and lab researcher Margo Elson (Tommie-Ambe Pirie) for a lab preparing to release a contact lens with the power to record what the eye can see to recreate memories. This is all coincides with the death of head researcher Elise Perrott (Michelle Thrush).