Fantasia 2018: Part Two

In amongst all the films, patio beers and fine foods, I was able to fit in several extracurricular activities, as well. You'd be surprised how much free time I had now that I wasn't constantly hunkered down in my Airbnb writing reviews. I had some of my best naps in recent memory last week! 

The first Fantasia event I attended was a retro screening of Hoi Mang's Blonde Fury on 35mm with Cynthia Rothrock in attendance.

Cynthia Rothrock aka China O'Brien aka Lady Dragon

Man, she's a lovely lady with so many stories about the glory days of Kung-fu cinema and the ups and downs of being a outsider in the industry. She regaled us with stories of how it went both ways, as some crews loved her because she was pretty much up for anything and some did not because the concept of “being beat up by a girl” was just too obtuse. There's no question of her icon status though. I mean, how many people can say they've inspired a video game character?

Next, was an In Conversation with genre heavyweight Michael Ironside.

Michael Ironside!

Considering his demeanor onscreen, I was expecting something between surly and grizzled, but it was amazing how affable he was. And the stories, man. So many! After ninety minutes, I felt like I knew the man. He spoke of his beginnings as a playwright and painter, working with Walter Hill, Paul Verhoeven and David Cronenberg as well as some wild tales about his personal experiences with telekinesis. Much to my delight, he even got to sneak in some talk about V.

On Saturday night, I got my picture taken with the star of the new Puppet Master movie. As you know I've always been a Blade fan.

Too bad about the movie though :P

My last day there I checked out the book launch for Michael Gingold's new book, Ad Nauseum.

Man, it's like he read my mind. Something as comprehensive as this could only be pulled off by someone who not only lived during the era, but also had the presence of mind to collect EVERYTHING. I'm of a similar ilk, but Mike's got almost a decade on me, so I gladly defer. This book is the best!

Aside from Fantasia events, a group of us walked over to the Grevin Musée to take in some wax figures. I was pretty impressed with the setup there, including the shrine to Alfred Hitchcock.

Hitch & Ali Chappell.

I was hoping my bae was going to be there--

--AND SHE WAS!!!

On our way out of town, we stopped at two movie houses that just happened to be within minutes of where we were staying. Behold, the house from 1983's Of Unknown Origin!

And the house from 1977's Cathy's Curse!

I've been going to Fantasia for eleven years now and I'd say that this trip was top five for sure, maybe even top three! Until next time, bon nuit!

Revisiting The Brain.

This is a post I've been meaning to do for quite some time now, and the Laser Blast screening tonight at The Royal was the kick-in-the-pants I needed to finally get it done.

Event poster by Leigh Young

Six years ago, I did a post gushing over how much I loved Ed Hunt's 1988 creature feature The Brain. Part of the movie's appeal is that it (like many of Hunt's pictures) was shot in my area. So, since then I've been tracking down a lot of the locations used in the movie.

The most striking location in the film is obviously that of the Psychological Research Institute. 

This site is actually the Xerox Research Centre of Canada in Mississauga, Ontario. Those trees in the foreground have all grown in thirty years, so it's now basically obscured from this angle. 

By ridiculous coincidence, my friend Kurt works there and last year he gave me a tour of the place. We walked around the perimeter looking for some of the places used in the film. The doorway and glass panel facade is still the same.

This shot is from where the paper box in the above still was.

Sadly, the area where Willie (Bret Pearson) & Janet (Cynthia Preston) enter the facility, and the parking lot where Verna (George Buza) chases her and Jim (Tom Bresnahan) down were built over when the building was extended sometime in the nineties.

Gone forever :(

Even though some commercials and TV (most notably the pilot for Bill Shatner's TekWar) were shot inside the XRCC, it was not used for The Brain. The interiors of the Institute hallways, front desk and the television studio were shot inside the Ontario Science Centre in North York, Ontario.

All of the industrial interiors were shot at the Canadian General Electric plant in the West End of Toronto. Several sets, including the opening bedroom scene, the Brain control room and the warehouse climax were built in one of the buildings on the CGE site. (Ed - The Brain's assistant art director Michael Borthwick informs me that the shooting took place in a smaller building that was behind the one pictured.)

Meadowvale High School was pretty easy to find, as it is in fact, Meadowvale Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario.

The exterior has changed a lot in thirty years, so much that if it wasn't for its close proximity to the XRCC, I'd wonder if it was in fact the actual location. I did go inside, but unfortunately the library isn't public, so it's only open during school hours. 

The only two sequences that weren't shot in the Toronto/Mississauga area were done around Dundas, Ontario. The scene where Jim pushes his car off the cliff is at the quarry there, and the shot where he looks out at the city at night was no doubt Dundas Peak. (Ed. - a helpful reader in the comments let me know that cliff is actually the Devil's Punchbowl in Stoney Creek, Ontario.)

The other location I was able to track down was the used car lot Jim walks through toward the end of the movie. It is now a strip mall, but I was able to find it because of the Red Lobster/McDonalds in the background.

As with the XRCC, tree growth has obscured the original angle, but you can see that this is likely the location.

I am still on the hunt for Jay's Burger Bar.

I know it (or its current incarnation) is somewhere in the Lakeshore/Mimico/Long Branch area, but that is some sizable ground to cover and not something I want to take on while it is minus a million degrees outside.

The Mississauga suburbs are just rows and rows of houses that all look the same, so finding Jim's house is unlikely, but maybe someday I'm come across the one that girl tumbles out of at the beginning.

Anyway, that's the tour. I'm pretty stoked about the screening tonight. It is technically a Christmas movie, so I'm killing two brains here!

*Thanks to Kurt Halfyard and Ken Gord for all their assistance in putting together this post.

California Dreamin'

I'm back on home soil. I can definitely see the appeal, as I didn't see a cloud until the fourth day of my visit to LA.

Sure, the traffic's bad, but otherwise, what a life! My trip was fantastic, and I managed to tick off everything on my list. My first night there, I checked out The New Beverley Cinema.

The screen's not the biggest, but the admission & concessions are affordable, their programming is solid and everything is on 35mm. This place is a gem. I drove by the Chinese & Egyptian Theatres, and I'll definitely hit Cinefamily my next time round.

Being a big fan of David Lynch, I took the winding ride along Mulholland Drive with the top down, and dined at Du Par's, an establishment Lynch frequents often.

The next day, I walked down the stretch known as The Monster Mile, which includes such establishments as Creature Features, Dark Delicacies and Halloween Town.

I also went to Gallery 1988, which is currently featuring Alex Solis' series Icons Unmasked from which I picked up this beauty.

Saturday was Monsterpalooza, for which there are not enough words to describe the multitude of spectacles I saw there. All I have are these poorly snapped pics.

Sideshow continues to kill it.

Life-size I Was A Teenage Werewolf sculplture by Mike Hill. 

Shuna Sassi bust at Clive Barker booth.

Bunny from the Twilight Zone movie.

3D Frank the Bunny print by Dave Warner.

Painting by Clive Barker

Painting by Eric Swartz

Painting by Adam Padilla.

Painting by Chris Mann.

This little guy followed me home!

I was so busy walking around the show, I only got to see one panel, a talk on the current state of horror, including the likes of Mike Flanagan, Axelle Carolyn, Nick Phillips and Sandy King Carpenter.

Perhaps my highest priority was going to the various locations used in John Carpenter's classic Halloween. As most of you know, the original Myers house has been moved from its original location, and now sits right across the street from where the hardware store was.

The Strode house still looks similar, and the stone flats where Laurie waited for Annie to pick her up are still there, as well.

We looked up the other two houses used in the finale, and one still has the same outside lamps!

The last day I was there I went to Universal Studios. It was a really fun time, and especially liked seeing some classic sets like the Bates Motel from Psycho and the lake used for The Creature From The Black Lagoon.

Norman welcomed us as we drove by.

The Bates house is tucked behind the plane wreckage of the War of the Worlds remake.

The Gillman lurks...

Then, alas I was on a flight back home. It was a super fun time and amazing to actually see the land I've spied in so many movies.

Now, back to reality...