By ROCCO THOMPSON
Blood in the Snow (BITS) is back! Now in its eighth year, we’ve got the full rundown of features and shorts set to chill you when Canada’s biggest celebration of northerly frights returns later this month!
Check out all the details below and follow the link to grab your tickets before they’re gone!
The biggest celebration of Canadian horror is back with a fresh slate of northern chills! Blood in the Snow (BITS) 2019 takes place from November 21 to 26 at the Royal Cinema in Toronto. With six nights of the best horror fare in the nation, including feature films, shorts, webseries, and the newly added podcast category, BITS 2019 is set to be our most exciting year yet.
PUPPET KILLER
The Festival opens with the comedy slasher PUPPET KILLER (dir. Lisa Ovies), featuring BITS alumni Gigi Saul Guerrero (The Purge, Culture Shock). A group of teenagers must discover if the psychotic killer stalking them is their emotionally damaged friend, or his murderous childhood toy.
BITS veteran Audrey Cummings (Darken, Berkshire County) returns with SHE NEVER DIED, the followup to 2015’s He Never Died staring Oluniké Adeliyi as the cannibalistic immortal Lacey, who must face her own inner demons while simultaneously finding her next meal.
THE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS
Also returning is THE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS (dir. Paul Tanter)where we revisit the killer couple of Santa and Mrs. Claus for another murderous rampage in this follow up to 2017’s Once Upon a Time at Christmas.
Montreal filmmakers Chris Bavota and Lee Paula Springer (Even the Darkness has Arms) make their feature BITS debut with DEAD DICKS, which took home the audience award for best Canadian feature for its world premiere at this year’s Fantasia Film Festival.
Other feature debuts are the award winning HAPPY FACE (dir. Alexandre Franchi), UFO conspiracy film MAJIC (dir. Erin Berry) and the long-awaited werewolf thriller HUNTER’S MOON (dir. Matt Campagna).
Z
The Festival closes with Z (dir. Brandon Christiensen), starring Keegan Connor Tracy (Bates Motel), about a family terrorized by their son’s imaginary friend.
BITS 2019 also features three new short film showcases:
FUNNY FRIGHTS sees the return of BITS alumni Ryan LaPlante (DON’T SNEEZE), Ryan Couldrey (THE TRAINEE), as well as debuts from Kelsey Bollig (ASKING FOR A FRIEND), Anik Jean (BE GOOD), and Nada Cosovic (VIDEO VENGENCE).
EMERGING SCREAMS features emerging Canadian filmmakers including the return of Kaw Tay Whee School (Frostbite) with SNACK TIME! We also see BITS’s first film from Newfoundland with NEW WOMAN directed by Benjamin Noah and the first from Nunavut with TRASH by Suzanne Ethridge.
DARK VISIONS takes a moodier tone with shorts including ROMI by Robert Cuffley, ABHORRENT directed by Davis Scott, DREAMCATCHER from Michael Alexander Ucello, and FORET NOIRE by Jean-Marc E. Roy and Philippe David Gagné.
NEW WOMAN
Our web series program returns as well as a newly introduced feature length web series program with the World Premiere of Sci-Fi series DEEP SIX (dir. Davin Lengyel), sponsored by the Independent Production Fund.
The festival closes with our yearly “Bloodies” awards show followed by the exclusive World Premiere of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD VR, both presented by Hollywood Suite. BITS fans will be able to try out this 360 degree virtual reality experience at our closing party at the Monarch Tavern. For the first time ever, fans will be able to interact inside the virtual version of the original house from the 1968 classic film by the late George A. Romero.
BITS 2019 is presented in partnership with Telefilm Canada and the Independent Production Fund and sponsored in part by McCam Insurance, Hollywood Suite, Spacefy, FlexDay, Henderson Brewing and the Peacock Public House and Pub.
More into and tickets available now at www.bloodinthesnow.ca
