A group of pals; Ignacio (Matthew Mitchell Espinosa), Nev (Andrew Hayden Kang), Enoch (Thaddeus Newman), and George (Kiyoshi Shishido) by name, head out for a ‘lil R&R at a remote cabin located deep within the wicked woods.
Along for the ride is George’s cousin Albert (Barron Leung), a meek fella who unfortunately becomes the victim of severe, alcohol-fueled abuse by those mentioned up yonder when George exits the scene to find some help. Why the need for assistance you may ask?
Well, seems the world outside the cabin walls seems to be the subject of some sort of invasion by creatures unknown, and now ol’ Al is faced with a big-ass die-lemma; end his torment by either puttin’ a murder on those bullies, or face whatever in the fuck is lurking outside…
One thing you can say about Canary’s director Taka Tsubota; he’s got a good eye (two of them most likely) for making a film look like a million bucks! To wit: the use of silhouette, color, and snappy editing (Tsubota served as editor as well) make this one a slick looking affair from frame one to frame done (with solid work from cinematographer Ryo Endo adding to all of that biz greatly)!
The brief runtime and effective ramping of suspense in the narrative (courtesy of screenwriter Jasper Chen) help keep this baby hummin’ right along as well, and the use of non-linear storytelling and intriguing other-worldly menace keep the proceedings suitably fever-dream surreal (which is balanced nicely from natural and believable performances from the actor’s involved).
Be sure to keep your eerie eyeballs peeled for Canary as it begins it’s festival run very soon (as of this writing), I promise you cats n’ creeps won’t be disappointed, and I hope we get more horror biz from Tsubota in the freaky future!
