Turbo Kid earns Quebec love at Fantasia festival

A post-apocalyptic gore film — written and directed by Montreal filmmakers — received a standing ovation at its Canadian premiere this week at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

"Turbo Kid" is a mish-mash of genres: it's a horror movie that takes place in a dystopia, but also a love story that looks straight from the 80s. The protagonist, a reluctant hero, rides a BMX bike.

"We always wanted Turbo Kid to be like some lost crazy kids movie from an alternate 1980s that's somehow has just been rediscovered," said the directors in a statement.

It's the first feature for a team that goes by the name "Roadkill Super Stars" (known by the acronym RKSS).

Their debut has already been around the world on the festival circuit, earning sold-out screenings at Sundance, winning the Midnighters Audience Award at South by Southwest, and featuring in the Bucheon Choice Feature Competition in South Korea.

RKSS a product of Montreal

RKSS is made up of brother and sister Anouk and Yoann-Karl Whissell, as well as Anouk's boyfriend, François Simard. The 30-somethings got their introduction to gore and genre films at Fantasia and have spent their summer vacations making short films for years.

Their big break came when they entered a genre film competition in New Zealand.

That led to a pitch at the 2012 Fantasia Frontieres International Market where they got a co-producer, Montreal's EMAfilms.

Blood and guts, but also love

Turbo takes place in Wasteland where water is so scarce, people kill each other for a sip.

But it's also a sweet love story, starring Canadian actors Munro Chambers from Degrassi: the Next Generation as The Kid and Montreal-native Laurence Leboeuf as his kooky girlfriend, Apple.

"When I first read the script I thought this is crazy and wild. Why is all this blood and guts going everywhere?" says Chambers.

But he thinks it's the love story that draws the audience into the gore.

"That's what sets it apart. It's a coming-of-age story in this outlandish wasteland and then this charming love story where it's a kid kind of alone, keeps to himself. Then he meets this girl who takes him outside his comfort zone. To build that arc in this kind of wild world was a lot of fun to create," he said.

Taking him out of his comfort zone meant fighting the ruthless Zeus (Michael Ironside) and his gory torture methods. Toasters, blenders, a bicycle-propelled eviscerating tool generate a lot of splatters, but the Kid has a turbo-charged glove to use in his defense and a couple of friends, including Apple, who turns out to have super fighting skills herself.

Michael Ironside describes his character, Zeus, as a metaphor for everything that's wrong with corporate America. 

"He was fun to play. You've got to remember this film was meant to be tongue in cheek. We were supposed to take all the genres to the edge and hopefully not to go over the edge," he said.

Premiering in Quebec on August 14

They're also looking forward to the commercial release of Turbo Kid in Quebec on August 14.  The film will open across Canada and the US on August 28th.

It's already opened in New Zealand and it will be released in the UK and Europe at the end of the summer as well.

The RKSS team has pitched another feature to producers at this year's Frontieres market.