Rabid, Oct. 26th Bytowne Cinema 6:50pm

Rabid, 35mm, Rated R, 91mins, Bytowne Cinema, 6:50pm

Rabid stands as one of David Cronenberg’s most political, and most explicitly Canadian, horror films. It’s a tale of medical experimentation gone wrong, resulting in a parasite-borne plague rapidly spreading from an isolated rural medical clinic to the big city of Montreal, along with concomitant anarchy. The film initially gained its notoriety for featuring Ivory Snow soap box model/porn star Marilyn Chambers in one of her short-lived attempts to ‘go legit’.  She is actually one of the film’s strongest features, putting in an unsettling performance as the plague’s ‘Typhoid Mary’ who infects the male populace of the city with the insanity-inducing parasites.

Astute viewers will note that Rabid offers a jaundiced view of Canada’s society as one in which powerful institutions, both public, and private, cannot be trusted to fulfill their duties without some measure of negligence and/or incompetence. With the Quebec setting of the late 70s there are naturally echoes of the earlier October Crisis, an event that will always have some place in the psyche of Canadians when considering issues of social order and governmental authority.

Rabid is the only Cronenberg film that wears its Canuck identity proudly on its sleeve. French accents, wintry locales, and rural farmlands reaffirm the sheer Canadian-ness of it all. The Canadian location is paramount, since the threat posed in Rabid is most effective in a society with a concentrated governmental control of services. Rabid proposes a broad examination of the cautions of state control…It is an effective film, biting, clever, dark, timely and ultimately Canadian.

– Canuxploitation.com

Canadian Cult Revue Starts Sept 17th with Deadly Eyes

Deadly Eyes, Rated R, Sept. 17th at 10pm, Mayfair Theatre

 The Lost Dominion Screening Collective presents a gorgeous 16mm print of the Canadian camp classic "Deadly Eyes" (1982), in which Toronto is overrun by giant killer rats!

Disgruntled maintenance worker Scatman Crothers wants a vacation, scream queen Lisa Langlois wants to bed the gym teacher, and noted rat-ologist Cec Linder just wants to talk your ear off, but these losers are no match for the swarm of genetically mutated rodents - actually dachshunds in fur coats! - who set out to eat their extremities for dinner.

In spite (because?) of a forehead-slapping screenplay and an overweening preponderance of love interests, this howler is by far the most entertaining Canadian killer-rat movie of the 80s. Import director Robert Clouse, best known for his many Bruce Lee flicks, makes the most of his tax-shelter budget; the film keeps on catching you by surprise with unforgettable set pieces in bowling alleys, movie theatres and subway tunnels. They even eat a baby.

Jonathan Culp - programmer at "Toronto's Classiest Cinema". Trash Palace - will be there in person to introduce this rare gem, one of the most entertaining films ever to be utterly forgotten by its nation of origin.

The Silent Partner + Black Christmas Dec 15th at the Mayfair

Dec. 15th: Xmas Chills Double Bill, Mayfair Theatre $10

The Silent Partner, 1979, Directed by Daryl Duke, 106mins, 1.85, mono, rated R, 35mm original print


Christopher Plummer gets to play big, bad, and bold as the villain of The Silent Partner, a thriller set in late 1970's Toronto.  Using the Eaton Centre as a prime location, The Silent Partner also stars Elliot Gould as a bank clerk out to thwart Plummer's plans. Great fun, and more than a little shocking at times for its ferocious depiction of ruthless criminality. This film was written by Curtis Hanson, who later went on to direct L.A. Confidential, The River Wild,Wonder Boys and 8 Mile. A highlight of the Tax Shelter Years, this film was one of the more polished films of the era. Also starring Susannah Yorke. Watch for an appearance by John Candy.

Black Christmas, 1974, Directed by Bob Clark, 98mins, 1.85, Mono, rated R, 35mm original print

Director Bob Clark owns the distinction of having produced one of the most beloved Christmas movies of the past 40 years (1983's A Christmas Story) and also the scariest in 1974's Black Christmas. Both were filmed mostly in Canada. Clark is often credited as the inventor of the slasher genre that went on to great commercial success in the 1980's (Halloween, Friday the 13th etc), but that credit does him a bit of a disservice, conjuring up images of generic slice-em dice-em exploitation films with little artistic merit.  If Black Christmas belongs to the slasher genre, it is surely one of the best, and one that uses old-fashioned suspense to scare its audience and rather than excessive gore.  With an star-studded cast including Keir Dullea (star of Stanley Kubrick's 2001), Margot Kidder (Superman), Andrea Martin (SCTV), John Saxon (Enter the Dragon), and Argentinian beauty Olivia Hussey (Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet). 


For a more detailed preview of the double bill by John Yemen go here

Oct. 20th Ginger Snaps + American Psycho

Mayfair Theatre,  Halloween Double bill  $10

Ginger Snaps, 2000, Directed by John Fawcett, 108mins, 1.85, 35mm print, Rated R

A darker Canadian counterpart to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Ginger Snaps, directed by John Fawcett in the year 2000, explores the darkness lurking in the Canadian suburbs where teenagers know that things are not all well. If you ever thought adolescence had a monstrous side, Ginger Snaps is for you. A tale of two sisters, and the things go bite in the night, Ginger Snaps is both an effective scary movie and smart social commentary, exploring the world of the modern teenager with a wit  seldom seen outside of the films of John Hughes. It's a biting wit, and to its credit, it's a film that's not afraid of the horrific underbelly of high school.  

American Psycho, 2000, Directed by Mary Harron, 101mins, 2.35 Cinemascope, 35mm print, Rated R

Bret Easton Ellis’s best selling novel is transformed by Canadian director Mary Harron into the first cult classic of the 21 century. Set in the 80’s world of big business Patrick Batemen (Christain Bale) takes no prisoners and whips out all competition in his strive for power and perfection in the corporate world. Mary Harron puts a female spin on the story and adds a lot of humour to this serial killer romp. 

 “The film regards the male executive lifestyle with the devotion of a fetishist. There is a scene where a group of businessmen compare their business cards, discussing the wording, paper thickness, finish, embossing, engraving and typefaces, and they might as well be discussing their phalli. Their sexual insecurity is manifested as card envy". Roger Ebert.

The cinemascope photography, shot in Toronto, also perfectly suits the film. The Director of Photography used the lowest speed film stocks and almost all the lights available to him on set to give the film a deep focus, sterile look. The end result is a film that is visually stunning on the big screen. Also starring Willem Dafoe, Reese Witherspoon and Jared Leto.


For a more detailed review by collective member John Yemen go here.

The Brain + Search and Destroy Double Bill

Sept. 22nd, Mayfair Theatre, $10

The Brain, 1988, Directed by Ed Hunt, 90mins, 1.85, Dolby A, rated AA,  Perfect colour.

The advent of the vcr enabled many lower-budget filmmakers to thrive in the 1980's with a built-in audience of b-movie addicts, with action and horror genres dominating the most successful rentals. If these films received theatrical release at all, it was the video store where they received their second and more appropriate lease on life.  If you can see past the cheesy monster effects and get past the other hilarious elements of the story, The Brain is a horror movie with a message: the importance of independent thinking. Proving that The Brain is a movie with (at least some) brains.

Check out this online review of the film here:

Search and Destroy (AKA Striking Back), 1979, Directed by William Fruet, 92mins, 1.85, mono, rated PG, 35mm original print, colour has faded and some wear.

William Fruet, the writer of Goin' Down The Road directs this revenge film centred on the traumatic after-effects of the Vietnam War.  The tax-shelter years of the 1970's created an opportunity for Canadian productions that might not have gotten off the ground in previous years, often using imported American stars, often providing surprisingly rich opportunities for Canadians to see their own country on film as Canada. You can debate just how “Canadian” these stories are, but what's not debatable is that they established a commercial industry that fostered many of the films of the English Canadian film renaissance of the 1980's. This exciting thriller is set in Niagara Falls, starring George Kennedy, tv stalwart Perry King (Riptide, Melrose Place), and Tisa Farrow (younger sister of Mia Farrow).

March 24th Sci-fi Double Bill @ the Mayfair Theatre, The Start of the Canadian Cult Revue!

 

eXistenZ 1999, Director by David Cronenberg, 97mins, 1.85, Dolby Digital, Rated R, 35mm, Studio print. 7PM

David Cronenberg's labyrinthine take on video games and virtual reality was most commonly compared to The Matrix when it was released in 1999, and the general consensus was that it suffered in comparison. Mainstream audiences were confused by its darker tone, and some critics, expecting dazzle, wrote it off as a lesser effort in the Cronenberg canon.  In retrospect, eXistenZ is a much better science fiction film than The Matrix, with real ideas, and much better performances including ones by leads Jude Law, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Don McKellar.  A fairer comparison is to Cronenberg's own reality-bending works, like Naked Lunch and Videodrome, and it stands up well. So yourself plug in, play the game, and watch for those clues.

Cube 1998, Directed by Vincenzo Natali, 90mins, 1.85, Dolby SR, Rated R, 35mm, Archival print

9:15PM

Cube was the first feature film produced out of Norman Jewison's Canadian Film Centre.  An impressive directorial effort from Vincenzo Natalie, Cube follows the trials of seven individuals as they mysteriously awake inside of, and try to escape from, the Cube, a morphing prison-puzzle filled with death-traps.  A true representation of the sci-fi “What If” scenario, Cube acquits itself well both as a science fiction film and as a model of ingenious low-budget film making.