Hype-Worthy Thrillers at Sundance 2010

Sundance usually caters to a select crowd - you know the kind. The kind who like stuff about a malnourished hobo with homemade tattoos and a chick who lives on a mountain with her drug-dealer dad.

However, in case you're the kind of film fanatic who enjoys movies about vengeance, torture, bio-engineered monster, and Ryan Reynolds stuck in a box, do yourself a favour and keep reading.


Buried, starring Ryan Reynolds, directed by Rodrigo Cortes

This is hands-down the most exciting thing I've heard out of the festival circuit this year. Ryan Reynolds stars as a contractor in Iraq who literally gets buried alive. What ensues is an entire film that takes place in a dark coffin with one man, one lighter, one cell phone, and what promises to be one absolutely terrifying experience for someone claustrophobic like me. Rumours are flying about Buried becoming this year's Paranormal Activity, and a pretty good testament to the fact that it doesn't require a ton of money to create a great thriller. Check out the teaser trailer here.


Splice, starring Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody, directed by Vincenzo Natali

Vincenzo Natali (responsible for cult-horror hit Cube - arguably a better pre-Saw film than Saw) teams up with fellow Canadian Sarah Polley (director of the acclaimed Away From Her) and Adrien Brody for Splice, a tale of two young and eager scientists who use cutting-edge biotechnology to create what later becomes a monster. According to IMDB, the creature "develops from a deformed female infant into a beautiful but dangerous winged human-chimera" - um, yes please. Here's a clip, which, in my professional opinion, looks pretty batshit insane.



Les 7 jours du talion (7 Days), starring Remy Girard, directed by Daniel Grou

Yet another (French) Canadian Sundance selection, the news is that 7 Days does what other torture horror films fail to do - be quiet, contemplative, and (judging by the trailer - it's in French but you get the idea) with beautiful cinematography as well as explosively graphic violence and brutality. After his young daughter is murderer, a father kidnaps and tortures her killer over a course of seven days. Reports that this is a difficult film to watch stem from both the extreme violence and the emotionally gripping visions the audience has into the mind of the traumatized father. Dark, bleak, and depressing for sure, but it does look fantastic.