Written by Andreas Babiolakis

This is a review of a film from The Great Canadian Horror Film Festival that just concluded. Click here to find information surrounding the upcoming The Great Canadian Sci-Fi Film Festival.

The most simplistic definition for the noun entropy is the disregard for order, and this is exactly what we see in Kameron Hale’s horror genre compilation of the same name. The film tonally begins like a Mulholland Drive tribute, with a pair of lovers on their way to a dinner (and yet we can tell this is likely going to be the path to their doom). This identity shifts rather quickly: almost a Rosemary’s Baby of sorts; Entropy’s slasher film milieu isn’t far behind. In a way, it’s like Hale is trying to channel every kind of horror in one here, which feels like a major success for the genre’s largest fanatics (particularly the kind that will wind up at horror specific film festivals). It may not sit as well for other kinds of cinephiles, but consider this a blood drenched smorgasbord for fear junkies; that may be who Hale had in mind.

In a more streamlined sense, let’s look at the actual story here. A young woman discovers that she has cancer on the same day that she and her girlfriend (of a few months) are en route to an important dinner. Already, this sensation of uneasiness is set, and Entropy’s fixation on getting right to the good stuff is apparent. Since the film loves to cut to the chase, we have a number of interesting close up shots, a mightily fast pace, and exposition revealed on command. I feel like this lightning fast focus gets in the way of the dialogue, rendering some lines a little clunky, and thus yanking the performances with them, but I can’t scrutinize an indie film with a penchant for blood, guts, and screams too much, since this is more or less a good time with filmmaking friends meant for likeminded individuals to have the same fun. Nonetheless, I do notice these hiccups, because I feel like Entropy does have quite a bit of strength at its core.

What does this look like? Well, the moments that conclude scenes are often more powerful than the sequences themselves (say a blood soaked floor that follows the actual stabbing), and Hale excels at these kinds of shocking aftermaths. I think some toying with patience and time can make these images even more rewarding, and we get a glimpse of this at the actual dinner itself (particularly with a long take with a zoom out full of realization, with some precise timing of performances as more reactions start to fit into the frame). The special effects make up is quite good, and the slaughter sequences are equally as intriguing, but I feel like having more of the tension from that dinner scene throughout Entropy would truly cause reality to slip from one’s grasp: a major achievement in a horror film, considering that audiences won’t know what to expect next. Instead, the film’s tone and message is what escapes, but we at last have a strong portfolio of horror filmmaking (even if all of the pieces don’t mesh together).

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.