The CanCon Continues!

Yes, let's keep it going here. As you saw in my last post, I was able to procure a copy of 1976's Death Weekend which I've been meaning to watch for some time as I gradually make my way through Will Fruet's genre filmography. Here goes.

A weekend getaway for a womanizing dentist (Chuck Shamata) and his new girlfriend (Brenda Vaccaro) turns deadly when they are set upon by a group of ne'er-do-wells.

I thought this movie slapped. While it could be said that - much like 1977's Rituals is likened to Deliverance - Death Weekend is the Canuck version of Straw Dogs, I feel it goes beyond mere homage. True, the story beats are similar, but this movie has two main strengths that stood out to me, the first of which were the stunts. Starting off with some really good car stuff that rivals most of the tax shelter canon, we also get some solid boat stuff and a good body burn too. Oh, and as soon as I saw the summer house, I was immediately, “oh I've seen this place before!” It's Eaton Hall, but it's certainly not as remote now as it was here, you can probably see the roller coasters at Canada's Wonderland from its balcony now.

The highlight of this picture though, is Vaccaro as Diane. From the get-go it is apparent that she is no bimbo. She's headstrong and not one to be pushed around. Hell, even her voice conveys confidence. Despite being in an environment where is she is surrounded by creeps - even her date Harry peeps at her through a two-way mirror in her bathroom - she is almost never a damsel in distress. I'm actually quite shocked that this character and performance is not mentioned more when cinephiles talk about exploitation heroines.

Brenda Vacarro as Diane in Death Weekend

Diane is also smart and resourceful beyond 99% of the women who populate these movies. When she's hiding in the night, she throws on a dark coat to hide her white sweater. When she tries to make it back to the car, she stays low in the cover of the tall grass. And most importantly, when she inevitably finds the dead body of her companion, she doesn't scream out in surprise. These things all probably sound like common sense, but in the world of genre film, they are exceedingly rare. If Diane's behaviour had been held up as a benchmark, we could have avoided so many of the soon-to-be stereotypes the horror genre would get lambasted for over the next twenty years. But, I digress.

I mentioned Straw Dogs before - it should also be said that Diane has a thousand per cent more agency than Dogs' Amy ever did - but there are also shades of Craven's Last House on the Left, if you swap out the keystone cops for some drunken gas station attendants. The distributors obviously clocked it too, as it was released as the similarly titled The House by the Lake in some markets.

Anyway, I'm pretty chuffed that Death Weekend lived up to the hype. I'd be interested to know how such a grounded and gritty start somehow morphed into pictures like Spasms & Killer Party just a decade later. If only Fruet wasn't such a recluse, I could find out! Check back next week for my thoughts on George Mihalka's Eternal Evil aka The Blue Man.

Cultland!

The VHS Renaissance continues, my friends! I was fortunate to visit a wonderful new establishment aptly called Cultland on the weekend!

Here is just a taste of the marvels within!

I, of course, could not go home empty handed and came away with these two Canadian corkers.

Visitation is currently by appointment only, but if you live near Hamilton, Ontario, you can book a time by going here. You won't be disappointed, as it is literally like stepping into a time machine. Just remember to be kind and rewind!

HCD!

Welcome To Dog Island.

Hey-o! I did it, four weeks, four CanCon flicks! Again, you'll have to forgive that I don't own the VHS, it's not for lack of trying because this is one I've been meaning to watch for a while; Paul Lynch's 1982 joint Humongous.

Six young people get stranded on an abondoned island only to find that are not alone - and whatever it is is hungry.

Truth be told, I probably would have sought this out sooner if I knew it was Canadian. I guess I expected it to be spelt “Humoungous” eh? Seriously though, Paul “Prom Night” Lynch directing and Anthony “Thrillkill” Kramreither producing is enough pedigree for me to partake. So, our movie begins on Labour Day 1946 and it got me thinking that not many - if any - horror films take place on that holiday. I guess this was the era where every slasher - which I guess this objectively is - had to take place on a special occasion.

I didn't get to dwell on that for long, because I was hit with a particularly grody and drawn out rape scene and subsequent dog mauling. Fun. Then it was present day and we meet a bunch of aloof teens(?) who go boating for some reason I can't remember. Among them, is Joy Boushel as Donna, but unfortunately she doesn't get to do much expect rub blueberries on her tits and get verbally abused by her dick boyfriend. No matter, in a few year's she'd get to be in that iconic “be afraid, be very afraid” scene in The Fly. Boushel may have only been in a handful of films, but she sure made an impression. Anyhoo, after picking up a random dude Dead Calm-style, the aforementioned dick boyfriend gets wasted and crashes the boat by doing what he was expressly told not to. 

I think the character who probably should've been the Final Girl of this picture was Carla (Janit Baldwin), but she unfortunately disappears during the climax and is literally tossed aside. She had good energy and reminded me of a mix of Andrea Martin and Sam Hanratty (Young Misty from Yellowjackets). She deserved better, and perhaps Baldwin knew that too because she soon quit acting and became a fashion designer. Maybe that explains why she was half-wearing her lifejacket for a bunch of scenes. She was a trend-setter!

Joy Boushel (left) & Janit Baldwin in Humongous.

I don't know if I have a bunch more to say about this movie. It sadly falls into the trap of low-budget movies where you spend a lot of time watching the characters walking and searching, searching and walking. I'm assuming it was also the budget that caused half of the death scenes to be off-screen. I mean, I get it, a lot of the original Friday the 13th kills were off-screen too, but that had more than six characters. Humongous is pretty much a cross between Madman and The Unseen with the climax decidedly lifted from Friday 2. However, since those guys pilfered heavily from Bay of Blood I can't really scold Lynch now, can I?

“You've done your job well and Mommy is pleased.”

I don't want to harp on the actual Final Girl of the picture, Sandy (Janet Julian) as she is perfectly fine. I got some Jess Harper vibes from her and she does stab the big bad in the dick with a No Trespassing sign so... points for that. It may not be as badass as the throat fisting finale in Just Before Dawn, but what is, really? I can tell you what isn't badass though. When our so-called hero Eric (David Wallace) sharpens a big stick down to a point and then proceeds to use it like a bat.

I hope you enjoyed CanCon June and here's wishing you have a happy Canada Day! Raise a Moosehead and think of your favourite flick from the Great White North!

A Heist In Hogtown!

Full disclosure. This edition of VHS Fridays is a cheat because I don't actually own the movie I'll be talking about. When I was looking up last week's movie Mark of Cain, I discovered it was once put on a double-bill DVD with another Canadian flick from 1984 called Thrillkill. Even a quick glance of its content was enough for me to know I had to watch it. So here we are.

Already 1000% better than Mark of Cain.

A game developer/bank thief hacker named Carlie (Diana Reis) hides the location of her stolen money inside a computer game. Will she be able to escape with it before her dangerous associates catch up with her?

As far as I can tell, Thrillkill is pretty obscure, maybe not as much as Mark of Cain as this one is actually on YouTube, but enough that I'd never heard of it. It was directed by Anthony D'Andrews & Anthony Kramreither, the latter of which was the founder of Brightstar Pictures, which also produced the CanCon treasure The Brain. In '84, even though they didn't have much genre experience behind the camera (they cut their teeth on sex comedies), they still managed to eke out a decidedly enjoyable yarn here.

Thrillkill has a few unexpected turns over the course of its run-time. I guess first is that the killer video game alluded to above is sadly a rug-pull. The game's not even central to the plot like say 1982's Cloak & Dagger was. While some characters do play it - delightfully utilizing live-action graphics that would not be attainable until much later with the advent of CD drives - it's just to push the story forward. I think the producer's were just like, “hey video games are popular, right? Let's put a bunch in this movie!”  I was hoping the talking computer may have been the prototype of Lola, the quick to vaporize office AI from Emmeritus' The Tower to come a year later, but alas, no. This movie is more of a crime thriller, than a horror. Think Daryl Duke's Silent Partner, but with less gravitas. 

It kills by falling on top of you maybe?

The other zag was the protagonist, which gets swapped out halfway through. Though unexpected, it wasn't entirely surprising as I wasn't getting lead vibes from Reis. After a scene that reminded me of something similar in Marathon Man, we shift our focus to Carlie's stewardess sister Bobbie (Gina Massey). Sadly, aside from a stint on The Littlest Hobo (a rite of passage for all up-and-coming Canadian actors in the 80s), she never did anything else which is a shame because she is quite affable.

Gina Massey as Bobbie in Thrillkill.

Thrillkill has a ton of familiar faces in it. Just scratching the surface, veteran actor Frank Moore plays Thief #1 utilizing a bold accent choice that just made me think of Count Chocula every time he was onscreen. Eugene Clark plays Thief #2 and if that name doesn't sound familiar, he's motherfucking Big Daddy from Land of the Dead. Then, connecting to Mark of Cain, we get Robin Ward as Frank Gillette, the cop trying to get to the bottom of everything. His scenes with Gina Massey start off as cringe, but get more amusing as the pictures goes along.

Then, you've got the landmarks. Carlie goes to the fucking KEG. It looks like it was more of a bar in the 80s and not the rustic steakhouse it is now. They then go to the “Vegas Club” aka The Pinball Spot which looks more like a bowling alley game-room with a bar in it. This all leads to a climax at... you guessed it, the Ontario Science Centre! A place Brightstar would again visit again in The Brain.

Lastly, my biggest chuckle (and there were many) was when Bobbie's friend Maggie (Joy Boushel, of The Fly, Terror Train et al) says she's got to sleep because she's working the red-eye to Ottawa. From Toronto????  God damn, I had a lot to say about this movie. I seriously think Thrillkill could do with a remaster, as the existing version online is pretty muddy and dark, especially in the last act. It's definitely quirky enough to gain a cult following, like Skip Tracer did, if more eyeballs fall on it.

Okay, let's see if I can pull off one last CanCon title the Friday before Canada Day. We'll seeeee.

June 18th Horror Trivia Watchlist.

To all those who came here from the event or the Trivia FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's a selected list of titles mentioned at the last event. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing. Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here.

Shivers (1975)

Manborg (2011) 

Frankie Freako (2024)

The Stuff (1985)

Fear Street Part Two - 1978 (2021)

Scream, Queen! (2019)

Madman (1980)

The Burning (1981)

Backcountry (2014)

Sleepaway Camp II (1988)

Sleepaway Camp III (1989)

The Witch (2015)

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu (2019)

Death Proof (2007)

Jennifer's Body (2009)

The Invisible Man (2020)

The Menu (2022)

Ready of Not (2019)

Shark! (1969)

The Last Shark (1981)

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

Bait (2012)

Devilfish (1984)

Buried (2010)

Under Paris (2024)

The Mark of Indifference.

Continuing on with some CanCon adorning my VHS shelves, we move onto the 1985 twin thriller Mark of Cain.

Long estranged identical twins Sean & Michael (both played by Robin Ward) are on a collision course reunion, when the latter escapes from an insane asylum.

Director Bruce Pittman is a Canadian institution. Most would know him for his well-liked film Prom Night II, but he actually has a storied history in the biz. Seeing his name of the coverbox is pretty much the reason I picked it up from whichever swap meet I acquired it. Seeing the Vestron and Brightstar logos come up after popping the tape in was also a good sign...

However, this... isn't the best. And it had nothing to do with the fact my tape was so washed out I could barely read the credits. I couldn't help feeling that this movie was basically Blood Rage, but with all the good parts taken out. And the fact the brothers were named Shawn & Michael, I kept expecting someone to get HBK'd. Seriously though, the characters say the name “Michael” more than The Lost Boys and Halloween put together.

Speaking of Halloween, Mark of Cain has one of the worst psychiatrists I've seen ever. Dr. Clifford (Antony Parr) possesses no skills, OBSERVATIONAL or otherwise, and serves no purpose to the plot whatsoever. Then, there's the neighbour Otto (August Schellenberg) who is apparently good friends with Sean, but always has a look on his face like someone shit in his poutine. No notes for Wendy Crewson, who plays the hapless wife, Dale. She is lovely.

 

Murder in Space 4 LIFE!

As a movie, it was fine enough to keep me awake, but it's a but thin. It's weird that the big plot point that would normally happen in the climax of a movie, happens half-way in. So we're left wondering, are we not supposed to know there was a switcheroo here? And the whole way it gets found out - even if it wasn't planted like Chekov's dominant hand - was like something you'd see in a Columbo rerun. Unfortunately, this means the third act is reallllly drawn out. On the bright side, Mark of Cain is hella short at barely eighty minutes so no harm done.

This is as exciting as it gets, folks. It's 5 minutes in.

But hey, maybe this is your bag. If you are looking for aggressive apple eating, countless scenes of people walking around dark hallways and lots of decidedly random religious imagery then Mark of Cain is for you. Otherwise, I would stick with Hello Mary Lou.

Final Girl turns 20!

It is absolutely crazy to me, but one of my favorites corners of the Web, the Final Girl blog, turns 20 today! 

Stacie Ponder and her blog were a huge inspiration to me and a large reason why I started pounding the keys myself here at The Horror Section. Her interactive posts like the Final Girl Film Club kept me active in the early days, breaking up all my gushing over VHS coverbox art. 

The best part? She didn't just let this huge milestone roll by unannounced, No! With Gaylords of Darkness sadly defunct and, possibly even more sadly, The Detective and the Log Lady Twin Peaks (re)watch podcast approaching its end, there was about to be a Briefcase Woman-sized hole in the pod-verse.

But have no fear, Final Girl After Dark is here!

Congrats Stacie!

In Canada, No One Can Hear You Scream.

Hey all! I'm back with another VHS. With Canada Day approaching, it was enough of a kick in the butt to do a few Canuxploitation posts leading up to one of my favourite holidays. This one is a title I've been meaning to crack into for some time now, Bill Fruet's 1987 creature feature, Blue Monkey.

The denizens of a hospital attempt to survive a viral outbreak caused by a giant insect. A doctor (Gwynyth Walsh), a cop (Steve Railsback) and an entomologist (Don Lake) must race against time before everyone is infected.

It was not a surprise to see the title card "INSECT" appear onscreen, as Blue Monkey always seemed like an odd title, even with my only cursory knowledge of the movie. The movie itself is amusing, but I have to admit a lot of the appeal comes from how Canadian it is. Forgive me for blathering on about the CanCon, but as a kid who grew up in the eighties, there are so many homegrown faces here. Joe Flaherty, John Vernon and pretty much the entire fucking cast of The War of the Worlds TV show. It was also not lost on me that Blue Monkey featured not only the Nabob Coffee guy (Michael J. Reynolds) but also the Contact C guy (Don Lake). I mean, this movie even had Sarah Polley in it for Christ sake.

Sarah Polley, already a veteran.

But I digress, after some setup and the introduction of what seems like a million characters, things do get going. Following the appearance of the hospital's "Laser Research" area, I was getting worried that we wouldn't get back to it, but thankfully Walsh & Railsback do eventually takes turns waving the laser gun around. It is delightfully awkward and the kind of stuff that makes my heart sing.

Lasers make everything better.

Let's be real though. Despite things getting set in motion by an exotic plant - and several B-plots involving boozy bitties, unsupervised sick kids, and a pregnant woman with her overzealous husband - it does become apparent by the third act that this is yet ANOTHER Alien clone. And that's fine, but Blue Monkey is just not as interesting as Fruet's genre-bending Killer Party or his bonkers psychic snake joint Spasms. Oh, I almost forgot the probable nod to The Thing, as well?

I am, of course, sympathetic to its budget restraints, but even I can't overlook the fact I was largely watching Pertwee Dr. Who level creature effects get waved around in front of the camera. I mean, they didn't even deliver on the bug I thought FOR SURE was going to rip itself out of the pregnant lady's vagina - ala Humanoids From The Deep. 

In closing, I will ask you this. Is there anything more Canadian than having inebriation be the cure to the virus? Save perhaps injecting poutine drenched with maple syrup directly into their veins?

May 28th Horror Trivia Watchlist

To all those who came here from the event or the Trivia FB page, welcome! I am Jay, one half of the horror trivia quizmasters and this is my humble blog. Here's a selected list of titles mentioned at the last event. Click on the titles to be redirected to their Imdb listing. Horror Trivia Night happens at Storm Crow Manor in Toronto. If you're in the area, come on down! Register here.

Killer Party (1986)

Deranged (1974)

Road Games (1981)

Tremors (1990)

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

Horror Express (1972)

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

The Brides of Dracula (1960)

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

House of the Long Shadows (1983) 

Inside (2007)

Pearl (2022)

30 Days of Night (2007)

Ready or Not (2019)

Rabid (1977)

House on Haunted Hill (1999)

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973)

Puppet Master (1989)

Ghoulies III (1991)

Subspecies (1991)

Dollman vs Demonic Toys (1993)

The Gate (1987)

It Lives Again (1978)

The Brood (1979)

Troll 2 (1990)

Storm Crow May Trivia, Screenshot Round.