Turbo Kid

An affectionately schlocky homage to bottom-shelf 80s genre flicks, Turbo Kid goes all out on the nostalgia front, packing View-Masters, Rubik’s Cubes and an air-punching John Farnham power ballad in the opening minutes alone. Set in the distant future of 1997, in a post-apocalyptic wasteland roamed by ragtag BMX-biker gangs, it marks the feature debut of Montreal collective RKSS – a trio whose filmmaking creed appears to be “if in doubt, throw a bucket of blood at someone.”

For a while, this playful collision between retro kids’ adventure and gushing gore is reason enough to follow laser-gloved teen The Kid (a suitably puppyish Munro Chambers) on his quest to defeat megalomaniacal warlord Zeus (era icon Michael Ironside, faultlessly cast). The arterial sprays and comic disembowelments later lose their edge through overuse, but the film has plenty of warmth and charm to fall back on, securing it the instant cult status it clearly craves. [Chris Buckle]