Tin Can – Fantasia Review (4/5)

TIN CAN is a new Sci-Fi Horror movie that works as two movies in one. It has a lot going for it and is quite the mindf*ck. We screened it at Fantasia 2021 and it’s a definite festival pleaser. Read our full Tin Can movie review here!

TIN CAN is a new Sci-Fi Horror movie with two quite separate parts to its story. And a third in the form of flashbacks to explain how we got to the actual main story. While the second half is a huge mindf*ck in many ways, I also found myself enjoying it quite a lot.

We screened it as part of our Fantasia 2021 coverage, which includes quite a few movies. Still, I have no doubt that this particular movie is one that I’ll remember when we’ve watched all the movies we’re covering this year. I mean, damn!

Continue reading our Tin Can movie review below.

From claustrophobia to a new mystery

As already mentioned Tin Can essentially has two stories. First, we’re joining the main protagonist (played wonderfully by Anna Hopkins) in what could easily be described as a tin can (hence the title). From flashbacks, we learn that a deadly plague has hit the Earth and this is probably part of a possible solution.

And no, the plague is nothing like the pandemic we’re currently enduring.

Instead, it’s a sort of fungus that grows on human skin and takes over our bodies like a parasite. It looks like snails or a big milky jellyfish. Awesome, and simple practical effects show how this plague works.

At this point, Tin Can did remind me a bit of Oxygen which was recently released on Netflix. Mostly because we’re trapped inside this small space with one character, who is communicating with others and trying to find a way out of the predicament she’s in.

DO CHECK OUT

Our review of the Netflix sci-fi thriller Oxygen here >

Once she gets out (and she does about halfway through), the movies changes. It becomes even stranger in ways, but also offers up a lot of new information. I won’t spoil anything about the final half of Tin Can here. You’ll just have to watch it and find out for yourself.

A Tin Can scene that will make you squirm!

Fair warning: Anyone equipped with a penis might want to look away during one particular scene in Tin Can. It’s quite a pivotal moment in the story but that scene definitely also made me squirm.

Don’t worry, you’ll know which scene I’m talking about when you see it. There’s just one scene with a penis in Tin Can!

Check out Tin Can when possible

Seth A. Smith is the director and co-writer of Tin Can. The other writer of the screenplay is Darcy Spidle and the two have made several genre films together in the past. Including the horror mystery The Crescent (2017) and the fantasy mystery Lowlife (2012).

The latter was the first feature film for Seth A. Smith and premiered at Fantasia, so it’s only right that he’s back at the festival with this new feature film as well. With Lowlife, the budget was just 5K and I have no doubt that it was much higher with Tin Can which offers gorgeous visuals and effects.

While Anna Hopkins is the absolute star of Tin Can, the film does also have Michael Ironside as part of the cast. Don’t expect to see him much though. After all, much of this film is played out in a tin can, where both the main protagonist and others are in these somewhat crude life-suspension chambers.

Tin Can was screened at Fantasia 2021, which is where we caught it. It will be out in US theaters on August 5, 2022, on VOD on August 9, and then on Home Video on September 6, 2022.

Details

DIRECTOR: Seth A. Smit
WRITERS: Seth A. Smith, Darcy Spidle
CAST: Anna Hopkins, Michael Ironside, Kristin Langille, Simon Mutabazi, Chik White