So tonight was a new experience for me, as it was my first go-round with the Toronto After Dark Film Festival.

Bob has been suggesting to me for a while that I should give it a go. It’s not exactly in my wheelhouse, as I’m admittedly not the biggest fan of genre films…but the fun times I’ve had at the small handful of TIFF Midnight Madness screenings I’ve been to – not to mention last month’s blast at HOUSE – led me to give it a try. Got off to a bit of a slow start though.

Despite the festival running for almost a week, tonight was my first screening – Neil Marshall’s CENTURION. It’s a hyper-violent sword and sandal epic about a platoon of Roman soldiers on the run from a legion of Celtic warriors on the fringes of The Empire. It stars Michael Fassbender, Noel Clarke, Olga Kurylenko and Dominic West, and draws more from GLADIATOR than it does THE 300. Unfortunately though, it wasn’t nearly as much fun as either one of those movies.

One of the best things about it is Olga Kurylenko playing a rather badass tracker – who’s mute, but still manages to let loose a damn good scream. She has a confidence about her, and her character seems to have this Terminator-like unstopability. She plays the sort of hunter you’d desperately try to hide your tracks from, because once she finds you – she’s going to take you apart.

Then there’s Michael Fassbender as our lead roman, a dude named Quintus Dias. He plays the part well, but isn’t given a whole lot more to do besides continuing to lead his band of foxes from the would-be hounds that are perusing them. No badass lines, no wicked cool fighting moves…nothing to make the character particularly memorable in that Leonidas or Maximus sort of way. Again – not much fun.

These shortcomings (and there are many more) aren’t a bad thing per se, as this festival isn’t exactly about bringing in the best films the world has to offer. Unfortunately though, this wasn’t quite the sort of B-Film to get the crowd ramped up. Don’t get me wrong, they certainly were appreciative of a handful of delightfully gory deaths…but it didn’t quite seem to connect with them on a level that I’m told PHOBIA 2 and ALL ABOUT EVIL achieved. Not too sure what this says about CENTURION’s mainstream chances if it didn’t click with an After Dark crowd.

Oh well, ya gotta start somewhere…and it’s always fun to spend a night with my fellow Toronto movie bloggers.

Look for more TADFF coverege on Saturday when I recap my experience watching RUBBER – the film about a killer tire.