Last at TIFF for Midnight Madness fun "Black Sheep", director Jonathan King has crafted a well made, post-Harry Potter teen flick with enough spooky mood and moments to keep even the most jaded genre fan happy.

Improbably, the fate of the world rests in the hands of a pair of adolescent, precocious teens in Wellington, New Zealand. Buried under the Volcanic hills that surround the city are creatures banished by aliens. Their impending escape must be stopped with the aid of firestarter Sam Neil.

As preposterous as this all sounds, it's actually quite an effective narrative. The spooky neighbors across the pond literally ooze bile, and some fine effects work from Weta make for a slick looking flick.

A youth oriented film with genuine thrills and a sense of danger, King's film thankfully refuses to neuter the suspense in order to make the film "kid friendly".

Joe Dante is back, this time with another teen fright fest. Goonies fans, beware!

A big selling point of this film has been its 3D projection - let me state firmly that the 3D does nothing to add to this film, as it's used as little more than a gimmick (look, I'm throwing a ball towards camera! Oooohhh...) This is SCTV 3D at best.

The film itself, 3D aside, is actually quite well done. The hole in question is a portal to one's own fears, and as those fears are brought to life, we're given the usual treatment of blaring sound effects, sudden reveals, and enough dramatic tension to keep it all interesting.

Yet it is the characterization of the kids (all of whom do an excellent job) that elevates the film. There's very authentic presentation of sibling rivalry, and some great parent-to-kid conversations that seem miles away from the trite dialogue that used to suffice for such characterizations.

Soderbergh has crafted a period piece of the weirdest kind, meshing early 90s fashion with a sublime throwback soundtrack by Marvin Hamlisch.

It's surely no coincidence that the music echose the soundtrack for the "Sting", a film where the plans of the con are meticulously presented, each obfuscation a careful build upon the one before. "The Informant!" is another con, but this one actually took place deep within the halls of a soulless multinational food conglomerate. Corporate espionage sexed up with heist music, this brilliant collision of styles makes for a head scratching joy of a film.

There's a breathless quality to the proceedings, a sense of escalating ridiculousness that drives the movie along until it finally peaks at the end. A slightly more rounded Matt Damon is delightful, holding the entire film together with his restrained, exasperated performance. Scott Bakula's FBI agent is a brilliant bit of casting, as he's drawn further and further into the deceit.

There's such a lightness, a freshness of this tale that it seems easy to dismiss. But it is in the very effortlessness of its telling that it seems to shine - a complex tale well told in a breezy style, intellectually engaging, and ridiculous through and through.

A man wakes up in a pool of blood. Quickly realizing that it's not his own, he washes up, stumbling out the door to his job as a driver's instructor.

This opening speaks volumes of this work - little details are provided from the outset, but as the story unfolds, we are given glimpses of the horror that has occurred. The film is entirely driven by the unanswerable question - what does one do when they've already done that which cannot be taken back.

Yup, another Vampire flick. But this one is different - it's smart, witty, gory, supremely well shot and produced. It has an epic feel, has noir overtones, and some fabulous performances by the likes of Willem Dafoe, Sam Neil and Ethan Hawke.

It's a world where humans are farmed for blood, but the source is running out. Fearing economic collapse due to a lack of supply, the corporation is working on a substitute, while hunting humans to maintain supply.

This is a post-apocalyptic film along the lines of "Children of Men", with the rest of the genre conventions attached to speak to a bigger question of environmental degradation and corporate duplicity. Add in a dose of "Blade Runner and "Mad Max" and you've got the recipe for a literate, action filled fright night.

It's at times heady stuff for Midnight Madness, to be sure, but the film never lacks in moments of great, blood spattered impact. Plus, it's not afraid to wrap this futuristic tale with old-school tropes such as no mirror reflections, shooting silver bullets or death-by-sunlight, all while finding a new way of exploring them narratively.

This is a thinking person's horror flick, and ain't no angsty Goth teen's guilty pleasure. It deserves a wide audience, and is miles better than many other works of late that also sew the fields of the Vampire genre.