In 11 days at the strike of midnight (well, actually 7pm – that was just to be dramatic), the Toronto After Dark Film Festival will creep its way into the city satisfying local horror fans entirely from October 17-25. The festival hosts 19 horror movies with titles which often denote creatures that crawl in the darkest nook in your basement, or you would prevent from entering your house if the event came about.

Titles like Bounty Killer, Big Ass Spider!, and Septic Man are just some of several titles that bring this to mind. This is the festival’s eighth annual event, and one can sense the programmers are not looking to bore. It comes only almost two months after the Toronto International Film Festival, so those who were unable to attend its Midnight Madness programme (or couldn’t get enough of it) will be well-nourished during this festival’s 9-day run.

The After Dark films will premiere at the Scotiabank Theatre on Richmond and John St., where After Dark hosted a pre-festival event with screenings of The Dirties, Europa Report, and others to an enthusiastic response. The Scotiabank theatre has become the mainstay for TIFF as well, where most of the Press & Industry screenings and various public showings played as well (one could often see lineups stretching down John St. beyond the Milestones).

On Thursday, We Are What We Are, a fan favourite at Sundance and Cannes Film Festival, will open the spook event. The movie, about a motherless family of cannibals, is directed by Jim Mickle, who helmed this writer’s favourite horror movie of 2010 – Stake Land. On Saturday, audiences will be showered with a series of 9 new short films that come from around the world. Festivities will conclude on the delectably-titled Big Bad Wolves at 9:30pm Friday, a dark comedy that guarantees hysteria and white-knuckle entertainment.

The recommendation is to purchase your tickets now, with general admission thirteen dollars and students a dollar less. All-Access Passes cost only one hundred and forty-three dollars, and all other important information is linked here. Once October 25 arrives, let’s hope the Toronto Star is right in calling Toronto’s grand horror festival as “quite awesome”.

Stay tuned for Scene Creek’s full coverage of the 8th Annual Toronto After Dark Film Festival.