Well, I was happy to read this news. On Tuesday, Yvette d’Entremont interviewed Dalhousie University professor Haorui Wu, who, along with another investigator at the University of Calgary, is launching an online survey to see how grocery store workers are being affected by the pandemic. Wu said the idea for the survey was inspired by hearing the stories from his students who work in local grocery stores. Wu said:
They told me all kinds of things like how at-risk they are, and also about the awful behaviour they were receiving from some customers.
At that point, I realized, OK, there’s something we need to do in order to support them.
The online survey will be launched in the new year, and Wu told d’Entremont they hope the results will be used to help shape policy and public health to support these workers. He told d’Entremont: “We really need to build some research capacity to understand what their vulnerabilities and their challenges are so that we can support them.”
For the story, d’Entremont also interviewed Janet, who works in a grocery store, about her experiences in the past year. d’Entremont writes:
She said one ongoing issue is customers yelling and cursing at her because of the province’s mask mandate.
“The worst is when they scream at you for no reason because they’re upset and frustrated,” she said. “Guess what? I’m upset and frustrated too but I’m not treating you like garbage.”
I wish there wasn’t a need for a survey on this. Please be patient and kind to these workers, pandemic or not.
2. What’s at stake as Halifax heads to Supreme Court of Canada over Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes
Caitlin Grady and Reanne Harvey, conservation coordinators for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society Nova Scotia Chapter, along with Hunter Stevens, a CPAWS volunteer, paddle a canoe between Quarry and Susies Lakes in the Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area. Photo: Zane Woodford
In February, Halifax Regional Municipality and property developer Annapolis Group Inc. are heading to the Supreme Court of Canada next year over a battle about Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes. And as Zane Woodford reports in this story today, there will be a lot of people watching the potentially precedent-setting case, including eight intervenors. This is what Woodford wrote about the case — which involves 965 acres of land on the east side of the provincially-protected Blue Mountain-Birch Cove Lakes Wilderness Area — back in January:
Most of the land was zoned urban reserve in 2006 — meaning it couldn’t be developed until 2031 without a significant council process.
Annapolis Group and another developer hoped to build a sprawling subdivision through the lakes and wilderness anyway, and applied to develop the land in 2007. Their plans cut into the municipality’s conceptual park boundary, and the two sides hired an independent facilitator to try to come to an agreement.
The facilitator, Justice M. Heather Robertson, sided with the developer.
Robertson’s report, tabled in June 2016, was not well received, with more than 1,400 people writing to council in opposition. Following a staff recommendation, regional council voted in September 2016 to refuse to start the development process and move ahead with the park as planned.
In January 2017, Halifax developer Annapolis Group Inc. sued the municipality for “alleged de facto expropriation, abuse of public office and unjust enrichment,” seeking $119 million in damages.
That claim of de facto expropriation, central to Annapolis Group’s case, is an allegation that, by not allowing the company to develop its land, Halifax took it from the developer without paying.
Lawyers for the municipality sought in 2019 to have that portion of the lawsuit thrown out, applying for partial summary judgement to dismiss the claim as without evidence and unworthy of a trial. Justice James Chipman ruled for Annapolis Group in November 2019, writing that the company’s claim “raises genuine issues of material fact requiring a trial.”
In January, the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal unanimously overturned that decision. Then Annapolis appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada. Woodford reported on that in June. The court agreed to hear the case and the date is set for February 16, 2022.
A man in his 50s who lived in Nova Scotia Health’s Northern Zone has died from COVID-19. He is the 111th person to die from the virus. Tim Bousquet has the full COVID update.
And the province announced 537 new cases on Wednesday. Here’s the breakdown by Nova Scotia Health zones:
• 434 Central • 36 Eastern • 44 Northern • 23 Western
There 10 people in hospital with the disease; three of those patients are in ICU.
Bousquet also included details on outbreaks at hospitals and nursing homes. Here are those details:
• Dartmouth General — there is now an outbreak at Dartmouth General Hospital. Fewer than five patients have tested positive.
• St. Martha’s Regional Hospital (Antigonish) — There is one additional case, but still fewer than five patients are positive.
• Halifax Infirmary — There are no new cases
Nursing homes
• Parkstone Enhanced Care — another resident has tested positive, bringing the total to two residents and one staff member. No one has been hospitalized.
• Parkland Antigonish — another resident has tested positive, for a total of three residents and two staff members. No one has been hospitalized.
• Ocean View Continuing Care Centre (Eastern Passage) — No new cases. A total of three staff members have tested positive. No one has been hospitalized.
On Wednesday afternoon, Nova Scotia Health tweeted out this news about testing:
The charge against Dicks stemmed from a Black Lives Matter event in New Glasgow in September 2020. African Nova Scotian author and poet Angela Bowden said that while sitting down after the event, Dicks approached her, became verbally aggressive before physically grabbing her leg, squeezing it, and saying “Now, you listen here.”
Bowden said she immediately got up and removed herself from the situation. She said there were several witnesses present including Bowden’s mother. Bowden said that earlier in the day at the event, she and Dicks had a verbal disagreement around the organizing and painting of one of the streets.
Bowden detailed her version of events in a vlog post on Facebook in May. In August, Cape Breton Regional Police charged Dicks after investigating the allegations.
Last Monday, the morning the charges against Dicks were dropped, Bowden attended the appeal hearing into Kayla Borden’s complaint against members of Halifax Regional Police as a support person to Borden. Bowden said Bill Gorman made her aware that the charges would be dropped prior to Monday.
“If it came down then — and quite often it comes down to your word and the person you accused — then that’s for the judge to decide,” Bowden said. “Because clearly the police believed me, and believed there was enough evidence because they set the charge.”
“So what I’m disheartened at is that we didn’t even have an opportunity to allow the wheels of justice to move because they stopped it midway.”
Byard made a few attempts to contact Gorman about why the charges were dropped and also learned through Hansen that internal consultation took place with an equity and diversity committee. You can read Byard’s complete story here.
5. The Tideline, episode 59: In Review, in conversation
In this week’s episode of The Tideline, Tara Thorne and her guests talk about the highs and lows of film, music, and theatre in Nova Scotia in 2021.
Here is the show’s description:
Amidst an auspicious and downtrodden record week in Nova Scotia, the leaders of its arts sector organizations drop by the show to discuss 2021 in full. Screen Nova Scotia’s executive director Laura Mackenzie has perhaps the best news of all — a record year in the film industry. Music Nova Scotia’s ED Allegra Swanson returns to report on her first Nova Scotia Music Week, and what musicians will need to make it in 2022 and beyond. And Dr. Cat MacKeigan, brand-new executive director of Theatre Nova Scotia, discusses the highs and (multiple) lows of the year in theatre, which has just been handed another shutdown. It’s not fun exactly, but it IS informative!
Taryn Grant at CBC spoke with relatives of young Lee-Marion Cain who was killed in a shooting on Tuesday in Dartmouth. Grant interviewed Miranda Cain, a community advocate and CEO of the non-profit group, North Preston’s Future. Cain is also Lee-Marion’s cousin, who said the young boy was a “joyous, humble kid.” Grant writes:
Every summer, the Halifax-area community crowns a king and queen at a local celebration called North Preston Days. This year, Lee-Marion, who was also known to those who loved him as LeMar, was crowned king.
“He died ‘King Mar Mar Cain.’ He died being the king of North Preston,” Cain said in an interview Wednesday, a day after the fatal afternoon shooting in Dartmouth, N.S.
The boy was in a vehicle with a 26-year-old man when shots were fired at them from another vehicle near the intersection of Windmill Road and Waddell Avenue. The man suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
On Wednesday, Halifax Regional Police held a news conference in which they said the shooting was not a random incident.
Miranda Cain told Grant the community is supporting Mar-Mar’s parents and younger siblings. This part of the story is so heartbreaking:
“His mom, she didn’t spoil the kids, but she worked hard to make sure her kids had everything they wanted,” said Cain.
Cain said there are already Christmas gifts under the tree, with one section for each of the children.
“I’m just feeling sorry for them,” she said. “Christmas morning, to know that that one section is probably going to be left there. It’s going to be hard for [Cain’s mother] to remove that.”
Have you ever thought about aligning your schedule with your cycle? Anita chats with Dr. Ashley Margeson in this episode about using your natural energy to help plan, create, and execute your social media strategy. In addition, get inspired to show up in ways that are authentic!
Just reading the show description I had questions, and all of this seemed odd to me. And unrealistic. Planning your social media strategy around your period?
I sent the link to a friend and said, “Have you ever heard of such a thing? What if you’re menopausal?”
She replied half-jokingly, “If you’re menopausal you just don’t matter anymore.”
Sigh.
So, I listened to the show — the part about the periods and social media is in the first 10 minutes or so — and Margeson said women are designed to work on a 24-to-39 day cycle while men are designed to work on a 24-hour cycle. “Both are valid, both are real,” Margeson said, adding the typical 9-5 day doesn’t work with the cycles of people with periods.
Now, this episode wasn’t just about designing your social media strategy around your period, but designing your productivity around the cycle. So, how do you do this? Track your cycle — Margeson suggests using an app. And if you’re on an IUD, had a hysterectomy, or are on birth control, you can still track your month, just in a different way (Margeson didn’t elaborate).
Then she said you can start to figure out your day-to-day work based on your energy levels during your cycle. Margeson admits that this is not a perfect system and “shit just happens” — like you get an amazing client, for example, and you just do the work. But she broke down the work planning based on the three phases of your cycle:
Follicular phase: This is when your estrogen is rising. Time to brainstorm!
Ovulation: You’re at your peak! Margeson said this phase is “the time to get stuff done.” So, pitch ideas, make cold calls, do a presentation because you’re friendlier and your skin is vibrant and your hair is fuller.
Luteal phase: Margeson calls this “your get shit done phase.” So, you schedule social media, put the hashtags on, pull data on previous month’s work, and so on.
I don’t track my cycle… well, not with an app (this is TMI, right?) And I can’t imagine how this would work in my professional world. While I am not a social media strategist, I do have my own social media accounts, I’m the admin for a couple of others, and, of course, I help Tim and Iris with the Examiner social media. Do I just say, “You know, I am in my follicular phase now, so I won’t post to the Examiner Twitter account. Wait until I am ovulating or in my luteal phase.”
And how does this work if you’re a full-time social media strategist for a big company and not a self-employed social media expert who likely has more flexibility? Even Margeson admits in the podcast she’s only on social media for five hours A MONTH. That makes for some easy planning around your cycle.
Still, I had questions about this, so I wanted to find out if there is any science behind this. Are people with periods more productive at certain times of the month? And is there any science to scheduling your social media around your cycle?
But first, I’d like to point out two things:
I am not an expert on social media. Like I said, I have my own personal accounts and help manage some professional accounts. I know very little about data, analytics, scheduling, and so on. Kirkbride is incredibly knowledgeable about social media and I follow her accounts and have learned tips on social media scams and how to make social media more accessible. And unfortunately, social media manager is one of those jobs that some companies expect people to do for little pay (or even for free.) We need more social media literacy, not less, these days.
And second, I am not an expert on hormones or even periods, except for my own. Some people with periods have a lot of challenges with their cycles, and I don’t want to speak to anyone’s productivity at any time of the month. I won’t be scheduling my work around my cycle because my deadlines are all over the place. So I contacted some experts to ask them about this.
(And I know some will say I didn’t interview any female OBGYNs or other experts, but I certainly tried! I couldn’t find anyone available this week for an interview.)
I reached out to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC), sent them the podcast, and asked if they had a member who could speak on this topic. They set up an interview with Dr. Yang Wang, an OBGYN in Kingston, Ontario, who did his residency here in Halifax and is also a Contraception Advice Research and Education (CARE) Fellow at Queen’s University. He also works with patients on how to manage their menstrual cycles.
Wang told me he couldn’t find any definitive evidence that the menstrual cycle influences productivity and he didn’t look at its effects on social media.
“But in terms of productivity itself, I didn’t see any evidence that fluctuations of hormones on a month-by-month level really alter productivity,” Wang told me in our interview.
Wang told me he wished Margeson would have spoken about her references on the topic and said he’d be interested in reading that. But based on his own literature review, he didn’t see any evidence this was the case or there was anything definitive.
There’s probably a lot of anecdotal evidence that individuals who are specifically sensitive during their menstrual cycles do experience fluctuations, but on a science data collection level, I don’t think there’s a lot of well documented evidence of this phenomenon.
Some people do have challenging cycles, of course, which may mean they are less productive during those times. Wang said what he sees a lot in his practice are patients with painful periods/heavy bleeding or dysmenorrhea, which can severely impact your quality of life. Wang said in those cases, people may not be able to go to work or school because of that pain.
And then there’s pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) where people can experience fluctuations in their mental health. Those patients may have anxiety or mood swings. A more severe form is PMDD or pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder, in which people have suicidal ideations. Wang said,
Whether or not this was tying into what the podcast was speaking to, I don’t believe so, but again these are the experiences I see in the clinical practice I work in.
I do wonder how much of it is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you are more aware of your cycle, you’re more aware of your time, and you make yourself more active in your productivity around that time. But this is all just me rattling thoughts in my head. But there’s no great evidence that productivity changes on a week-to-week basis during the menstrual cycle.
So, is there any harm in scheduling your social media schedule around your menstrual cycle? Wang didn’t have specifics, but he said he already has patients who schedule their work around their cycles, mostly around the bleeding periods.
I have a lot of patients who are coming to me for the first time who already doing that month-to-month changes in their work schedules just because they know what to anticipate. Most of the patients I deal with are trying to work their way through it, which is not something women should be forced to do.
I always tell patients if your cycles are affecting your quality of life, whether it’s pain or bleeding, then that’s not normal and you should always seek help, whether it’s through a family doctor or a gynecologist. There are always ways we can help you through it. It’s not something you should be forced to bear.
Margeson is a naturopath, and I admit I am suspicious of naturopathic medicine. Some of the treatments used by naturopaths — like homeopathic remedies — have been debunked many, many times. So, I contacted Timothy Caulfield, who is the Canada Research Chair in Health Law & Policy, a professor at the Faculty of Law and School of Public Health, and research director at the Health Law Institute, University of Alberta.
On Twitter, Caulfield is well known for fighting misinformation about COVID-19, but he’s been fighting misinformation about the wellness industry long before that. He had a Netflix specialA User’s Guide to Cheating Death that ran for two seasons. And he’s written and been interviewed about naturopathic medicine many times, including here and here.
I will add here that naturopathic medicine is not fully regulated in Nova Scotia. According to the Nova Scotia Association of Naturopathic Doctors, they’re “working diligently toward the implementation of full regulatory legislation.” The current legislation for the industry is the Naturopathic Doctors Act (2008).
Anyway, Caulfield emailed this response to me:
Ugh. Gave a listen…
First, naturopathy is an alternative med approach that is built on pseudoscience. It is NOT a science-informed profession. Naturopathy is based on magical thinking, like vitalism. Her clinic offers science-free (and potentially harmful) services like “IV vitamin therapy”. The website is full of evidence-free claims.
The interview is a good example of “scienceploitation” — that is, real science and science-y terminology and ideas to inject credibility. It is an ironic strategy as naturopaths reject what the science says about their profession but LOVE to use science-y terminology to make their message sound more persuasive. They want it both ways! That is, they don’t want to be held to a scientific standard, but they want to use science-y to sell product and brand their clinics!
Sure, there is evidence about the role of hormones on cognition, etc. Can you take it as far as this naturopath does? Questionable. Is there good and robust clinical evidence to support her claims to the point that she should be building an entire practice around these ideas? I can’t find any. Interesting speculation, etc., in literature (not a lot of point… See this article in pop press https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180806-how-the-menstrual-cycle-changes-womens-brains-every-month). My friend and colleague, Dr. Jen Gunter would be a great person to contact on this point…
In this age of misinformation, I find it frustrating when noise like this gets exposure in popular culture.
Note: I did reach out to Dr. Jennifer Gunter, who I follow on Twitter, and whose book I own, The Vagina Bible. I plan to get her latest book, the Menopause Manifesto, as well. Her assistant said Gunter was too busy with her work schedule and deadlines for the manuscript for her latest book. I’d still love to hear what she has to say on this topic.
What I am more interested in, though, is how workplaces are supporting women during menstruation and menopause, whether their jobs involve social media or not!
But also, for those readers out there who have periods, are you more productive certain times of the month? And can you connect that with your period? And do you schedule your social media around your cycle? Or are you like me, and just wing it?
Price wrote the book How to Break Up with Your Phone and her most recent book, the Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again, came out of researching that book.
“Once you create better boundaries with your screen, you find yourself with more time,” Price told host Piya Chattopadhyay.
So Price decided to learn how to play guitar with that extra time. Her grandmother played guitar and she gave Price money to buy a guitar when she was in college, but she never really learned how to play beyond a few chords. So she signed up for an adult guitar class, and she said,
I started to notice when I was going to the class I felt this sense of buoyant energy, this sense of joy that buoyed me through the whole week.
Those lessons became the highlight of Price’s week. She tried to put a word to that feeling she experienced and the most accurate word she found was “fun.”
Price gathered what she called a “fun squad” of more than 1,000 volunteers from around the world who shared with her their own anecdotes of what they called fun. She learned that for these people, these stories were some of the most treasured moments of their lives.
Price crafted a definition of “true fun” — the confluence of playfulness, connection, and flow, which she describes in the interview.
That’s very different than what Price calls “fake fun,” which are activities that are marketed to us as fun, like social media or bingeing on Netflix, which can be bad for us.
You know, I think I learned to have more fun when I had a kid. Of course, kids are so good at fun! And it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Price shared a story about a man who recalled one of the most fun times had had was with a young nephew. The two sat on a park bench during an autumn day chatting and catching leaves falling from the trees.
We forget this as adults. And as Price said in the interview, fun lowers our stress levels and is good for our mental health.
But also, there’s so much pressure to monetize everything, including hobbies in which you may excel, but just enjoy for the fun of it. There’s no need to be producing all the time. You don’t need to turn your hobby into a side hustle.
It’s a good interview. Listen here and the go find your fun. It’s okay and you need it.
Halifax 11:00: Oceanex Connaigra, ro-ro container, arrives at Pier 41 from St. John’s 11:30: MSC Kim, container ship, sails from Pier 42 for sea 12:30: Acadian, oil tanker, arrives at Irving Oil from Saint John 14:30: ZIM Monaco, container ship, arrives at Pier 42 from Valencia, Spain 16:30: Nolhanava, ro-ro cargo, sails from Pier 42 for Saint-Pierre 17:30: ZIM Monacosails for New York 18:00: Oceanex Connaigra moves to Autoport
Cape Breton No arrivals or departures
Footnotes
I’ve been chronicling the destruction of my fake white Christmas tree by our 10-month-old kitten, Donovan, who we now call Donovan the Destroyer. The tree is beyond saving. On Friday, I tried to fix its wire branches, to no avail. So, I bought another fake tree — a pink one my kid found in a flyer. It was on sale. We just put it up yesterday, and I’m not sure what to think of it. It’s the colour of cotton candy. And the lights on it are very bright. Like, blazing bright. I bet it’s visible from space.
But while I don’t have the “perfect” tree with ornaments set just so in the perfect spots, I don’t think I ever laughed as much as I have watching and photographing my hilarious kitten enjoy himself while jumping in and out of that now-wrecked white tree, and posing while building a nest in there. And in these days of where we take laughs where we can get them, I took every single one here.
Rest in peace, fake white tree. I know you never knew what hit you.
Toronto, on – Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), a unique and imaginative showcase of contemporary Canadian genre films are pleased to announce the popular Festival is back for its 13th exciting year. The highly anticipated Horror Film festival presented by Super Channelruns November 18th– 23rd at Toronto’sIsabel Bader Theatre. The successful, long running festivaltakes on many different faces this year that include Scary, Action Horror, Horror Comedy, Sci-Fi and Thrillers. Festival goers will be kept on the edge of their seats with this year’s powerful line-up.
Blood in the Snow Festival begins with the return of alumni (Wolf Cop) Lowell Dean’s action horror feature Dark Match featuring wrestling veteran Chris Jericho followed by the mysterious Hunting Mathew Nichols. The unexpected thrills continue with Blood in the Snow World Premiere of Pins and Needles and the Fantasia Best First Feature Award winner, Self Driver. The festival ends this year on a fun note with the Toronto Premiere of Scared Sh*tless (featuring Kids in the Hall’s Mark McKinney). Other titles include the horror anthology series Creepy Bits and Zoom call shock of Invited by Blood in the Snow alumni Navin Ramaswaran (Poor Agnes). The festival will also include five feature length short film programs including the festivals comedy horror program Funny Frights and UnusualSights and the highly anticipated Dark Visions program, part of opening night festivities. Blood in the Snow Film Festival Director and Founder, Kelly Michael Stewart anticipates this year’s festival to be its strongest. “This was the first time in our 13 year history, all our programmers agreed on the exact same eight feature programs we have selected.”
Below is this year’s horror fest’s excitinglineup of features and shorts scheduled to screen, in-person at the Isabel Bader theatre.
**All festival features will be preceded by a short film and followed by a Q&A with filmmakers.
Super Channel is pleased to once again assume the role of Presenting Sponsor for the Blood in the Snow Film Festival. We extend our sincere appreciation to the entire BITS team for their unwavering commitment to amplifying the voices of diverse filmmakers and providing a platform for the celebration of Canadian genre content. –Don McDonald, the CEO of Super Channel
Blood in the Snow Festival 2024 Full screening schedule:
Monday November 18th 7pm – Dark Visions
Shiva (13:29) dir. Josh Saltzman
Shiva is an unnerving tale about a recently widowed woman who breaks with a long-held Jewish mourning ritual in hopes of connecting with her deceased husband.
How to Stay Awake (5:30) dir. Vanessa Magic
A woman fights to stay awake, to avoid battling the terrifying realm of sleep paralysis, but as she risks everything to break free, will she be released from the grip of her nocturnal tormentor?
Pocket Princess (9:45)dir. Olivia Loccisano
A young girl must take part in a dangerous task in order to complete her doll collection in this miniature fairytale.
For Rent (10:33) dir. Michèle Kaye
In her new home, Donna unravels a sinister truth—her landlord is a demon with a dark appetite. As her family mysteriously vanishes, Donna confronts the demonic landlord, only to plunge into a shadowy game where the house hungers for more than just occupants. An ominous cycle begins, shrouded in mystery.
Lucy’s Birthday (9:29) dir. Peter Sreckovic
A father struggles to enjoy his young daughter’s birthday despite a series of strange and disturbing disruptions.
Parasitic (10:00) dir. Ryan M Andrews
Last call at a dive bar, a writer struggling to find his voice gets more than he bargains for.
Naualli (6:00) dir. Adrian Gonzalez de la Pena
A grieving man seeks revenge, unwittingly awakening a mystical creature known as the Nagual.
The Saint and The Bear (6:34) dir. Dallas R Soonias
Two strangers cross paths on an ominous park bench.
The Sorrow (13:00) dir. Thomas Affolter
A retired army general and his live-in nurse find they are not alone in a house filled with dark secrets.
Cadabra (6:00) dir. Tiffany Wice
An amateur magician receives more than he anticipated when he purchases a cursed hat from the estate of his deceased hero.
9:30 – Dark Matchdir. Lowell Dean Horror / Action
A small time WRESTLING COMPANY accepts a well-paying but too good to be true gig.
Tuesday November 19th 7pm – Mournful Mediums
Night Lab (15:00) dir. Andrew Ellinas
When a mysterious package arrives from one of the lab’s field research stations, a promising young researcher uncovers a conspiracy against her masterminded by her jealous boss. She soon finds herself having to grapple with her conscience before making a life-or-death decision.
Dirty Bad Wrong (14:40) dir. Erica Orofino
Desperate to keep her promise to host the best superhero party for her 6-year-old, young mother Sid, a sex worker, takes extreme measures and books a last-minute client with a dark fetish.
Midnight at the lonely river (17:00) dir. Abraham Cote
When the lights go out at a seedy little motel bar, at the crossroads of a seedy little town, nefarious happenings are taking place, and three predators are enacting their evil deeds. Enter Vicky, a drifter who quickly realizes what’s happening right under everyone’s nose. After midnight, In the shadows of this dim establishment, evil begets evil, and the predator becomes the prey.
Mean Ends (14:58) dir. Émile Lavoie
A buried body, a missing sister and an inquisitive neighbour makes for a hell of an evening. And the sun isn’t close to settling on Eric’s sh*tty day.
Stuffy (18:26) dir. Dan Nicholls
A young couple sets off in the middle of the night to bury their kid’s stuffed bunny, as one of them is convinced that the stuffy might be cursed.
Dungeon of Death (18:33) dir. Brian P. Rowe
Torturer Raullin loves a work challenge, especially if that challenge involves hurting people to extract information from them.
9:30 – Hunting Matthew Nichols(96 mins) dir. Markian Tarasiuk
Twenty-three years after her brother mysteriously disappeared, a documentary filmmaker sets out to solve his missing person’s case. But when a disturbing piece of evidence is revealed, she comes to believe that her brother might still be alive.
w/ short: Josephine (6:15) dir. John Francis Bregar
A man haunted by his past seeks forgiveness from his deceased wife, but a session with two spirit mediums leads to an unsettling encounter.
Wednesday November 20th 7pm – BITS and BYTES
Ezra (10:57) dirs. Luke Hutchie, Mike Mildon, Marianna Phung
After fleeing the dark and demonic chains of his shadowy old home, Ezra, a killer gay vampire, takes a leap of faith and enters the modern world.
Head Shop (18:14 episode 1-3) dir. Namaï Kham Po
In a post-apocalyptic world, Anna’s life and work are dominated by her father Sylvestre, a short-tempered mechanic with a terrible reputation for tearing the head off anyone who dares cross him. He decides that she’s old enough to follow in his footsteps, much to her dismay. To prove herself, she must now decapitate her first victim. Can she find a way to defy fate?
D dot H (18 :15 episodes 1-2) dirs. Meegwun Fairbrother, Mary Galloway
Struggling artist Doug is visited by the beautiful and enigmatic H, who claims he holds the power to visiting “inconceivable places.” Still half-asleep, Doug is shocked when H vanishes suddenly and her doppelganger, Hannah, strides past.
Creepy Bits: “Last Sonata” (21:08) dir.
Adrian Bobb, Ashlea Wessel, David J. Fernandes, Sid Zanforlin and Kelly Paoli.
Set among forests, lakes, and small towns, Creepy Bits is a horror anthology series helmed by five innovative filmmakers exploring themes of human vs. nature, the invasion and destruction of the natural world by outsiders, and isolation within a vast, eerie landscape that is not afraid to fight back.
Tales from the Void: “Whistle in the Woods” (24:36) dir. Francesco Loschiavo
Horror anthology TV series based on stories from r/NoSleep. Each tale blends genre thrills & social commentary exploring the dark side of the human psyche.
9:30 – Self Driverdir. Michael Pierro Thriller
Facing mounting expenses and the unrelenting pressure of modern living, a down-on-his-luck cab driver is lured on to a mysterious new app that promises fast, easy money. As his first night on the job unfolds, he is pulled ever deeper into the dark underbelly of society, embarking on a journey that will test his moral code and shake his understanding of what it means to have freewill. The question becomes not how much money he can make, but what he’ll be compelled to do to make it.
A couple on a cottage getaway tries to work on their relationship but ends up getting more than they bargained for when they discover something sinister lurking beneath the surface.
Thursday November 21st 7pm – Funny Frights
Midnight Snack (1:41) dir. Sandra Foisy
Hunger always strikes in the dead of night.
Hell is a Teenage Girl (15:00) dir. Stephen Sawchuk
Every Halloween, the small town of Springboro is terrorized by its resident SLASHER – a masked serial killer who targets sinful teenagers that break ‘The Rules of Horror’ – don’t drink, don’t do drugs, and don’t have sex!
Gaslit (10:36) dir. Anna MacLean
A woman goes to dangerous lengths to prove she wasn’t responsible for a fart.
Bath Bomb (9:55) dir. Colin G Cooper
A possessive doctor prepares an ostensibly romantic bath for his narcissistic boyfriend, but after an accusation of infidelity, things take a deeply disturbing turn.
Any Last Words (14:22) dir. Isaac Rathé
A crook trying to flee town is paid an untimely visit by some of his former colleagues. What would you say to save your life if you were staring down the barrel of a gun?
Papier mâché (4:30) dir. Simon Madore
A whimsical depiction of the hard and tumultuous life of a piñata.
The Living Room (9:59) dir. Joslyn Rogers
After an unexpected call from Lady Luck, Ms. Valentine must choose between her sanity and her winnings – all before the jungle consumes her.
A Divine Comedy: What the Hell (8:55) dir. Valerie Lee Barnhart Dante’s classic Hell is falling into oblivion. Charlotte,
sharp-witted Harpy, navigates the chaos and sets out despite the odds for a new life and destiny.
Mr Fuzz (2:30) dir. Christopher Walsh
A long-limbed, fuzzy-haired creature will do whatever it takes to keep you watching his show.
Out of the Hands of the Wicked (5:00)dirs. Luke Sargent, Benjamin Hackman
After a harrowing journey home from hell, old Pa boasts of his triumph over evil, and how he came to lock the devil in his heart.
The Shitty Ride (9:13) dir. Cole Doran
Hoping to impress the girl of his dreams, Cole buys a used car but gets more than he bargained for with his shitty ride.
9:30 – Inviteddir. Navin Ramaswaran Horror
When a reluctant mother attends her daughter’s Zoom elopement, she and the rest of the family in attendance quickly realize the groom is part of a Russian cult with deadly intentions.
w/ shorts: Defile dir. Brian Sepanzyk
A couple’s secluded getaway is suddenly interrupted by a strange family who exposes them to the horrors that lie beyond the tree line.
+ A Mother’s Love dir. Lisa Ovies
A young girl deals with the consequences of trusting someone online.
Friday November 22nd 7:00 pm – Creepy Bits(anthology horror series)
Creepy Bits is a short horror anthology series that explores pandemic age themes of isolation, paranoia and distrust of authority, serving them up in bite-sized chunks. Directed by Adrian Bobb, Ashlea Wessel, David J. Fernandes, Sid Zanforlin and Kelly Paoli.
9:30 – Pins and Needles (81 min) dir. James Villeneuve Horror / Thriller
Follows Max, a diabetic, biology grad student who is entrapped in a devilish new-age wellness experiment and must escape a lethal game of cat and mouse to avoid becoming the next test subject to extend the lives of the rich and privileged.
w/ short: Adjoining (11:42) dirs. Harrison Houde, Dakota Daulby
A couple’s motel stay takes a chilling turn when they discover they’re being observed, leading to unexpected consequences.
Saturday November 23rd 4pm – EmergingScreams (94 mins)
Apnea (14:58) dir. David Matheson
A single, working mother finds her career and her offbeat son’s safety in jeopardy when she discovers that her late mother is possessing her in her sleep.
Nereid (7:48) dir. Lori Zozzolotto
A mysterious woman escapes from an abusive relationship with earth shattering results.
BedLamer (15:00) dir. Alexa Jane Jerrett
On the shores of a small fishing village lives a lonely settlement of men – capturing and domesticating otherworldly creatures that were never meant to be tamed.
Blocked (6:30) dir. Aisha Alfa
A new mom is literally consumed with the futility of cleaning up after her kid.
Dance of the Faery (10:23) dir. Kaela Brianna Egert
A young woman cleans up her estranged, great aunt’s home after her death. Upon inspection, she soon realizes that her eccentric obsession with fairies was not born out of love, but of fear.
Deep End (7:36) dir. Juan Pablo Saenz
A gay couple’s heated argument during a hike spiral into a nightmare when one of them vanishes, leading the other to a mysterious cave that could reveal the chilling truth.
Ojichaag – Spirit Within (11:21) dir. Rachel Beaulieu
An emotionally devastated woman seeks comfort in her choice to end her life. As she faces death in the form of a spirit, she must decide to let herself go to fight to stay alive.
Lure (9.56) dir. Jacob Phair
A tormented father awaits the return of the man who saved his son’s life.
Let Me In (10:00) dirs. Joel Buxton, Charles Smith
A reluctant man interviews an unusual immigration candidate: himself from a doomed dimension
7:00 pm –The Silent Planet (95 mins) dir. Jeffrey St. Jules Sci-fi
An aging convict serving out a life sentence alone on a distant planet is forced to confront his past when a new prisoner shows up and pushes him to remember his life on earth
w/ short: Ascension (3:57) dir. Kenzie Yango
Deep in a remote forest, two friends, Mia and Riley, embark on a leisurely hike. As tensions run high between the two, a strange humming noise appears that seems to be coming from somewhere in the woods.
A plumber and his germophobic son are forced to get their hands dirty to save the residents of an apartment building, when a genetically engineered, blood-thirsty creature escapes into the plumbing system.
w/ short: Oh…Canada (6:20) dir. Vincenzo Nappi
Oh, Canada. Such a wonderful place to live – WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT. A musical look into the artifice surrounding Canadian identity.
Sometimes, you just have to return to the classics.
That’s especially true as Halloween approaches. While you queue up your spooky movie marathon, here are 10 iconic horror movies from the past 70 years for inspiration, and what AP writers had to say about them when they were first released.
We resurrected excerpts from these reviews, edited for clarity, from the dead — did they stand the test of time?
“Rear Window” (1954)
“Rear Window” is a wonderful trick pulled off by Alfred Hitchcock. He breaks his hero’s leg, sets him up at an apartment window where he can observe, among other things, a murder across the court. The panorama of other people’s lives is laid out before you, as seen through the eyes of a Peeping Tom.
James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter and others make it good fun.
— Bob Thomas
“Halloween” (1978)
At 19, Jamie Lee Curtis is starring in a creepy little thriller film called “Halloween.”
Until now, Jamie’s main achievement has been as a regular on the “Operation Petticoat” TV series. Jamie is much prouder of “Halloween,” though it is obviously an exploitation picture aimed at the thrill market.
The idea for “Halloween” sprang from independent producer-distributor Irwin Yablans, who wanted a terror-tale involving a babysitter. John Carpenter and Debra Hill fashioned a script about a madman who kills his sister, escapes from an asylum and returns to his hometown intending to murder his sister’s friends.
— Bob Thomas
“The Silence of the Lambs” (1991)
“The Silence of the Lambs” moves from one nail-biting sequence to another. Jonathan Demme spares the audience nothing, including closeups of skinned corpses. The squeamish had best stay home and watch “The Cosby Show.”
Ted Tally adapted the Thomas Harris novel with great skill, and Demme twists the suspense almost to the breaking point. The climactic confrontation between Clarice Starling and Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine) is carried a tad too far, though it is undeniably exciting with well-edited sequences.
Such a tale as “The Silence of the Lambs” requires accomplished actors to pull it off. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins are highly qualified. She provides steely intelligence, with enough vulnerability to sustain the suspense. He delivers a classic portrayal of pure, brilliant evil.
— Bob Thomas
“Scream” (1996)
In this smart, witty homage to the genre, students at a suburban California high school are being killed in the same gruesome fashion as the victims in the slasher films they know by heart.
If it sounds like the script of every other horror movie to come and go at the local movie theater, it’s not.
By turns terrifying and funny, “Scream” — written by newcomer David Williamson — is as taut as a thriller, intelligent without being self-congratulatory, and generous in its references to Wes Craven’s competitors in gore.
— Ned Kilkelly
“The Blair Witch Project” (1999)
Imaginative, intense and stunning are a few words that come to mind with “The Blair Witch Project.”
“Blair Witch” is the supposed footage found after three student filmmakers disappear in the woods of western Maryland while shooting a documentary about a legendary witch.
The filmmakers want us to believe the footage is real, the story is real, that three young people died and we are witnessing the final days of their lives. It isn’t. It’s all fiction.
But Eduardo Sanchez and Dan Myrick, who co-wrote and co-directed the film, take us to the edge of belief, squirming in our seats the whole way. It’s an ambitious and well-executed concept.
— Christy Lemire
“Saw” (2004)
The fright flick “Saw” is consistent, if nothing else.
This serial-killer tale is inanely plotted, badly written, poorly acted, coarsely directed, hideously photographed and clumsily edited, all these ingredients leading to a yawner of a surprise ending. To top it off, the music’s bad, too.
You could forgive all (well, not all, or even, fractionally, much) of the movie’s flaws if there were any chills or scares to this sordid little horror affair.
But “Saw” director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell, who developed the story together, have come up with nothing more than an exercise in unpleasantry and ugliness.
— David Germain
Germain gave “Saw” one star out of four.
“Paranormal Activity” (2009)
The no-budget ghost story “Paranormal Activity” arrives 10 years after “The Blair Witch Project,” and the two horror movies share more than a clever construct and shaky, handheld camerawork.
The entire film takes place at the couple’s cookie-cutter dwelling, its layout and furnishings indistinguishable from just about any other readymade home constructed in the past 20 years. Its ordinariness makes the eerie, nocturnal activities all the more terrifying, as does the anonymity of the actors adequately playing the leads.
The thinness of the premise is laid bare toward the end, but not enough to erase the horror of those silent, nighttime images seen through Micah’s bedroom camera. “Paranormal Activity” owns a raw, primal potency, proving again that, to the mind, suggestion has as much power as a sledgehammer to the skull.
— Glenn Whipp
Whipp gave “Paranormal Activity” three stars out of four.
“The Conjuring” (2013)
As sympathetic, methodical ghostbusters Lorraine and Ed Warren, Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson make the old-fashioned haunted-house horror film “The Conjuring” something more than your average fright fest.
“The Conjuring,” which boasts incredulously of being their most fearsome, previously unknown case, is built very in the ’70s-style mold of “Amityville” and, if one is kind, “The Exorcist.” The film opens with a majestic, foreboding title card that announces its aspirations to such a lineage.
But as effectively crafted as “The Conjuring” is, it’s lacking the raw, haunting power of the models it falls shy of. “The Exorcist” is a high standard, though; “The Conjuring” is an unusually sturdy piece of haunted-house genre filmmaking.
— Jake Coyle
Coyle gave “The Conjuring” two and half stars out of four.
Fifty years after Sidney Poitier upended the latent racial prejudices of his white date’s liberal family in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” writer-director Jordan Peele has crafted a similar confrontation with altogether more combustible results in “Get Out.”
In Peele’s directorial debut, the former “Key and Peele” star has — as he often did on that satirical sketch series — turned inside out even supposedly progressive assumptions about race. But Peele has largely left comedy behind in a more chilling portrait of the racism that lurks beneath smiling white faces and defensive, paper-thin protestations like, “But I voted for Obama!” and “Isn’t Tiger Woods amazing?”
It’s long been a lamentable joke that in horror films — never the most inclusive of genres — the Black dude is always the first to go. In this way, “Get Out” is radical and refreshing in its perspective.
In Ari Aster’s intensely nightmarish feature-film debut “Hereditary,” when Annie (Toni Collette), an artist and mother of two teenagers, sneaks out to a grief-support group following the death of her mother, she lies to her husband Steve (Gabriel Byrne) that she’s “going to the movies.”
A night out with “Hereditary” is many things, but you won’t confuse it for an evening of healing and therapy. It’s more like the opposite.
Aster’s film, relentlessly unsettling and pitilessly gripping, has carried with it an ominous air of danger and dread: a movie so horrifying and good that you have to see it, even if you shouldn’t want to, even if you might never sleep peacefully again.
