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.