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).