It’s the tail-end of 1971, and Blackvale School for Girls is closed for the holidays — except that two boarders, Samantha and Clara (Madison Baines and Georgia Acken) are stuck here, which means that Miss Tanner (Chloë Levine) and her boyfriend, handyman Jimmy (Gus Kenworthy) have to stick around too. But there’s worse to come: fresh from a murderous crime spree, four Manson Family-type killers (one of them a Blackvale alumna) show up bearing bloody body parts, intent on raising hell and performing an ancient occult rite…
Jenn Wexler’s second feature has a couple of major, mind-bending twists up its sleeve which we can’t even begin to hint at… Let’s just say that horror tropes are significantly upended and there’s a subversive strain that runs rampant in the movie’s second half. Worth noting, too, a splendidly over-the-top performance by Mena Massoud (Aladdin) as the cult’s charismatic leader.
Narrative turns, characters that challenge perceptions, and slasher-like bloodletting yield a devilishly fun new entry in holiday horror.
Bloody Disgusting
Series Media Partner
Mena Massoud, Olivia Scott Welch, Chloë Levine, Madison Baines, Georgia Acken, Derek Johns, Laurent Pitre
USA
2023
Altered States
English
Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Marc Coté, Philip Kalin-Hajdu, Albert I. Melamed, Emily Gotto, Samuel Zimmerman, Roman Kopelevich, Crystal Hill, Roman Viaris, Mena Massoud, Olivia Scott Welch, Peter Phok, Benoit Beaulieu, Mike Klymkiw, Walter Klymkiw, Mark Berry, Duane Farley, Shuxia Yu
Producer
Philip Kalin-Hajdu, Albert I. Melamed
Screenwriter
Jenn Wexler, Sean Redlitz
Cinematography
Alexandre Bussière
Editor
Arthur Tarnowski, Mathieu Bérubé
Production Design
Ted Samuels
Original Music
Mario Sévigny
Director
Jenn Wexler
Jenn Wexler is a writer and director, whose directorial debut, The Ranger (2018), world premiered at the SXSW Film Festival, premiered in Canada at the Fantasia International Film Festival, and was released by AMC Networks’ Shudder. In television, she’s directed for The CW’s Pandora and TruTV’s Late Night Snack. Wexler has also produced acclaimed and award-winning genre films including Darling (2015), Like Me (2017), Depraved (2019), and Most Beautiful Island (2017), which was nominated for the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award and won the Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature at SXSW.
Filmography: The Ranger (2018); The Sacrifice Game (2023)
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
La Bola Negra
A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
The Mad Dog of Europe
The story of an unmade screenplay from the writer of Citizen Kane. In 1932, Herman Mankiewicz wrote a film that foretold the persecution of the Jews and the war in Europe. But Hollywood wouldn't take the risk and The Mad Dog of Europe was never made.
The Mortal Storm
In this explicitly anti-Nazi melodrama directed by Frank Borzage (Three Comrades) a year before the US entered the war, Margaret Sullavan and James Stewart fall in love as their friends and family fall prey to the rise of Hitler's Nazi party in Germany.
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
Three Comrades
Scripted by F Scott Fitzgerald, Three Comrades (1938) was the first US studio film to chronicle the rise of European fascism in the 30s. Three German veterans open up a repair shop and try to regain a normal life, but political extremists have other ideas.