Jason Widgington

Jake West has a knack for painting a set red, so to speak, and for 88 of Doghouse's 89-minute running time (minus the credits) viewers are treated to the best British horror comedy in years. If not for that one minute, Doghouse could have been the perfect crossover genre film.

Iconic director Ken Russell was in town to receive a lifetime achievement award from Fantasia for his 50-plus years in the business, a career that has spawned many genre classics including Altered States, Gothic, and The Lair of the White Worm. But it was the little-seen and hard to find The Devils from 1971 that proved to be Russell's most controversial work, and Fantasia managed to snag a copy to be screened on Russell's big night. In the video, Russell discusses the true story behind the film and receives his award with the grace befitting one of the great filmmakers of all time.

In honor of the 25th anniversary of classic splatter-comedy Re-Animator, Fantasia hosted a midnight screening of a 35mm print of the film, followed by a mammoth Q&A session presided over by director Stuart Gordon, actor Jeffrey (Dr. Herbert West) Combs, and screenwriter Dennis Paoli. We were there to capture the festivities on video.

Guaranteed to be one of the most controversial films in years, A Serbian Film is nothing if not intense in its brutal imagery and fervent in its social commentary. Thankfully, director/producer/co-screenwriter Srdjan Spasojevic, co-screenwriter Aleksandar Radivojevic, and producer Nikola Pantelic were on hand to explain some of that commentary at the film's Canadian premiere at Fantasia. We were there and managed to capture some of it for posterity.

Short of having the filmmakers attend every screening and explain it to them, audiences would have no idea, save for perhaps the title, that this piece of transgressive cinema has a deeper meaning than the atrocities they're witnessing up on the screen.