The Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), Canada’s premier showcase of homegrown genre cinema, celebrated its 14th edition this month. Following are capsule reviews of three of the terrific Canadian feature films presented this year.
SON OF SARA
Synopsis
Haunted by strange urges and visions, a pregnant woman accepts a dinner invitation that descends into a bloody, nightmarish spiral.
Review
Writer/director Houston Bone serves up the latest entry in the pregnancy horror subgenre with Son of Sara, and it’s a wild one. Sara (Chloe Van Landschoot) is pregnant because of a one-night stand with Troy (Garrett Hnatiuk), and her partner Carol (Tymika Tafari)is supportive during this difficult time, which includes raw meat cravings. Sara literally bumps into Troy on the street, and when he learns of her pregnancy, invites her to have dinner with his mother Agnes (Jane Moffat). A highly suspicious Carol advises Sara against it, but we would have few horror movies if people listened to their level-headed significant others.
Bone focuses on the couple’s drama early on so that viewers get to know the protagonists well before ramping up the craziness and violent mayhem once dinner begins. Son of Sara wears its pregnancy fright-fare influences on its cinematic sleeve — naturally, Rosemary’s Baby is part of the mix — but adds enough originality that a few surprises are unveiled on the way to its crazy climax. The performances are a bit over the top at times, but that is obviously by design and fits the proceedings nicely.
Chloe Van Landschoot won BITS’ Best Lead Acting Performance in a Feature Film award for her portrayal of Sara, and deservedly so. She also gives a fantastic lead turn in the short Heirlooms, which screened along with Son of Sara at BITS.
Perhaps a bit spoilery but right there in the opening credits, the poster, and elsewhere, such as on IMDB: Son of Sara is also known as Son of Sara: Volume 1.
VIOLENCE
Synopsis
In an alternate 1980s, anti-hero Henry Violence navigates a brutal cartel war, making impossible choices to survive the violent landscape.
Review
Punk rock and punk attitude rule the day in director Connor Marsden’s horror/crime thriller outing Violence, which certainly lives up to its name.
Henry Violence(Rohan Campbell) is a recovering addict gone straight-edge punk who wants to rescue his former lover Charlotte (Sarah Grey) from local crime boss Jimmy Jazz (Joris Jarsky), who has Charlotte and countless others hooked on a street drug called Red. During his Orphean trip through a savage underworld, he encounters Charlie Rocket (Maddie Hasson and her brother Bats (Tomaso Sanelli), straight edgers who have a plan to kill Jazz and start a rebellion.
Marsden, working from a screenplay that he cowrote with Devin Myler and William Woods, crafts a nihilistic alternative 1980s urban landscape that looks terrific and is bolstered by a superb score by Nowhere2run, which won BITS Best Music Score in a Feature prize. Campbell is excellent in the lead role, heading up a solid, sizable cast. Hasson was awarded Best Supporting Acting Performance in a Feature Film.
NASH THE SLASH RISES AGAIN!
Synopsis
A cinematic ode to Canadian music icon Nash The Slash, exploring the mind, madness, and artistic journey of this electronic pioneer and performance innovator. Clips from silent film, horror, and noir illustrate his emotional landscape, revealing a timeless message about identity and embracing one’s true self.
Review
Aging myself a bit here, I saw Nash the Slash open for Gary Numan in San Francisco. Not being familiar with Nash yet, I was bemused and intrigued during his set, and then he blew the audience away with his cover of Jan and Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve.”
Numan is one of the many talking heads paying tribute to the truly one of a kind late musician in director Tim Kowalski’s wonderful documentary Nash the Slash Rises Again!. Multinistrumenalist Nash, whose real name was James Jeffrey “Jeff” Plewman, was a huge part of the Toronto alternative music scene, eventually performing as a one-man band while wrapped in bandages for a look that evoked The Invisible Man. I’m a horror film fan, if you’re reading these reviews the chances are great that you are a horror film fan, and Nash was one, as well.
If you know nothing about Nash the Slash, this fine documentary is a perfect introduction. Longtime Nash aficionados will likely find much to enjoy, also. Performance and interview clips are plentiful, and those who knew Plewman well discuss the man under the bandages. Music lovers and scare-fare devotees alike should put Nash the Slash Rises Again! On their need-to-see lists.
I have previously reviewed two films that won BITS awards. Influencers captured four prizes: Best Picture, Best Director for Kurtis David Harder, Best Cinematography in a Feature for David Schuurman, and Best Editing in a Feature for Robert Grant and Harder. Writer/director Ava Maria Safai’s Foreigner won Best Screenplay in a Feature.
Son of Sara, Violence, and Nash the Slash Rises Again! screened at Blood in the Snow Film Festival (BITS), which ran November 17–22, 2025, in Toronto, Canada.
