In the preface to this issue of Cinephile, Tanya Horeck and Tina Kendall note the importance of approaching extreme cinema in a way that recognizes aesthetic, cultural, and historical differences. This approach need not eliminate the possibility for a comparative approach to extreme cinema, however, as making links between films across cultures and periods can help to illuminate the particular ways that each film addresses the spectator through a distinctive treatment of challenging subject matter. With this comparative approach in mind, we sought to gauge the situation of extreme cinema within the particular context of Vancouver’s cinema culture by attending the Vancouver International Film Festival.