THE CORPSE EATERS
Thursday, April 14
Broken City
SHIVERS
Friday, April 15
Globe Cinema
PLAYGIRL KILLERS
Saturday, April 16
Broken City
If you’re aware that Canada has contributed more to the horror genre than David Cronenberg, you’ve probably already practised your smug face in preparation for the Calgary Underground Film Festival’s (CUFF) mini-retrospective on Canadian horror cinema. For the uninitiated, Canada has produced enough B-horror movies to fill a 230-plus page book on the topic. You got it – when it comes to naff horror movies, Canada has something to be proud of.
As maligned as they may be, small-budget horror movies are often a source of innovation. And as Hollywood continues to rip off one Asian horror movie after another, why not reconnect with Canuck horror cheese? CUFF is bringing in Caelum Vatnsdal, author of the recent book They Came From Within: A History of Canadian Horror Cinema, who will present three seminal Canadian horror titles in Calgary.
"I guess I became the world authority on Canadian horror movies because nobody else wanted to be," says the Winnipeg-based filmmaker, writer and freelance journalist. The reluctant expert is no dilettante. He began his research in 2002, thinking it would make a fun radio piece. "When I realized there was way too much information to pack into five minutes, I thought about writing a magazine article." But Vatnsdal quickly realized it was a book-length topic. "I thought I knew a lot, but I found out how little I actually knew."
Looking at horror through a national lens is pointless if there’s nothing particular about the country’s take on the genre. But Vatnsdal comes to some interesting conclusions, which he addresses in the title of the book. They Came From Within was the American title given to David Cronenberg’s horror classic Shivers.
"A group of Americans looked at it and decided that’s what it should be called. It stood out to me as a characteristic of the film and by extension Canadians," says Vatnsdal. "The horror emanates from within. Our greatest terror is losing this polite, controlled facade. Almost all Cronenberg films, for instance, are about characters losing their humanity due to internal forces."
Vatnsdal will present three films, all pioneers in their own respect: Shivers (1975), David Cronenberg’s first feature and required viewing; The Corpse Eaters (Donald R. Passmore and Klaus Vetter, 1974), Canada’s first zombie movie, shot in scenic Sudbury; and The Playgirl Killer (Erick Santamaria, 1966), an oddball movie about a Montreal photographer who murders models, which Vatnsdal sutures to Quebec’s Quiet Revolution.
"All three movies have interesting background stories that I think will get people interested in seeing the movie," says Vatnsdal, who was approached by CUFF after organizers read his book. Knowing that real horror will always have one foot in the underground, Vatnsdal saw an alternative festival as a perfect forum. "Granted there are some wimpy horror movies out there which are eager to please," he says. "But true horror tries to stir shit up. It’s meant to make you uncomfortable."
Vatnsdal’s compendious book is an amusing read, displaying an irreverent love for the material. While avoiding much film analysis, They Came From Within outs films like the Prom Night movies, which nobody knew were Canadian, and delivers scads of production histories of some films so obscure they verge on lost-film status.
The little known Corpse Eaters, for instance, was short on cash, but high on charm. Instead of using fake blood and guts, Vatnsdal writes, the filmmakers not only recruited homeless people to play the zombies, they used "real meat and animal parts, including sheep eyes…. The only problems came when the hungry hobos ate up all the animal parts that were being used as gore." |
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