A spooky Canadian Halloween awaits for you on your TV screen

By: Alisha Shaikh

With Halloween approaching, let the horror-movie-bingeing begin. With so many great scary movies to watch, it may be hard to choose which one to start with. Here are a few iconic Canadian Halloween films to make your doom-scrolling a bit easier.

The Witch (2015)

Directed by Robert Eggers and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, The Witch is one of Canada’s most iconic horror films, earning more than $40 million USD at box office. Although The Witch is an international co-production between the United States and Canada, it is primarily shot in Southern Ontario.

The movie does a spectacular job of building suspense and engaging its audience. Max Weiss, a film critic for Baltimore Magazine, reviewed this film as a “more slow burn than an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but it builds steadily to its dreadful and earned conclusion.”

The story follows a farmer and his family in New England in 1630, whose life is filled with fear and despair when their youngest son mysteriously disappears. The oldest daughter (Anya Taylor-Joy) is blamed for her brother's death, which leads the family to drown in chaos. As their paranoia grows, suspicion of witchcraft is suspected, putting the clan's faith, loyalty and love for one another to the test. Although The Witch was released in 2015, it’s still a perfect movie to get you in the spooky Halloween mood. The movie has a score of 90 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Changeling (1980)

The Changeling is a classic Canadian-produced supernatural, psychological horror film that won a Canadian Screen Award for Best Screenplay. It was directed by Peter Medak and released in 1980, starring George C. Scott. The plot centers on composer John Russell, who is on vacation with his family when his wife and daughter are killed in a car accident. Russell, devastated by his loss and unable to cope, relocates to New York City in a massive, remote mansion. Soon after, Russell starts to feel the presence of a young boy who drowned in the bathtub of his new home. The film leads to uncovering the spine-chilling secrets of the boy's death and the mansion itself. The film left many feeling scared and terrified, which earns it a spot on this iconic Canadian Halloween movie list.

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Ginger Snaps, set and filmed in Ontario, is an iconic dark and gothic Canadian film. If you’re a horror movie fan with a love for werewolves, this is a must-watch. It was directed by John Fawcett, and it stars Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins, all three of whom are Canadian. It’s also highly acclaimed by moviegoers and critics alike, with a 90 per cent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes

The story follows two outcasted sisters obsessed with death. As they attempt to deal with the unfortunate consequences placed upon them, one is bitten by a deadly werewolf. Watch how these sisters' lives unravel with the actions they must take in order to prevent chaos. With plenty of plot twists, desire and murder, this modern classic has something for everyone.

Videodrome (1983)

A classic from the '80s, Videodrome is a movie housing a myriad of genres from horror to sci-fi to gore. Canadian David Cronenberg directed the film, which starred American James Woods. Videodrome is set in Toronto during the early 1980s and is produced by Telefilm Canada. The film centers on the CEO of a small television station in Toronto as he discovers a broadcast signal of odd movements. As he determines the origin of the signal, a strange mind-control conspiracy begins to unravel.

Videodrome was released in 1983 and was a raging success, earning more than $2 million USD at the box office. Brian Eggert, a veteran film critic for Deep Focus Review, reviewed it saying, “films like this rouse powerful reactions to their extreme metaphors and violent imagery; but then, there has never been a film quite like this one.”

Along with these four must-watch scary movies, there are so many more great Canadian horror films out there. This list is a great way to start your Halloween movie marathon!

By Alya Stationwala

After the cult-horror success of He Never Died in 2015, this Canadian sequel brings a female centric twist to the gory noir comedy that brought Henry Rollins his lead actor debut in a feature film.

Produced and directed by Canadian Audrey Cummings (Berkshire County), a scary movie veteran, She Never Died reintroduces the supernatural creature of a cannibalistic anti-hero through the character of Lacey (Olunike Adeliyi). Caught in the middle of a human trafficking ring, Lacey is discovered by Detective Charlie Godfrey (Peter MacNeill) who is looking to shut down the underground criminal organization. Self-healing and human flesh eating, she agrees to work with the detective as a way to kill Terrance (Noah Danby), one of the leaders of the organization and “the man with the rings” whose fingers she’s been craving to snack on. Along the way, Lacey saves Suzzie (Kiana Madeira), a kidnapped girl, who eagerly joins her on her quest to find Terrance against Lacey’s will.

Olunike Adeliyi as Lacey in She Never Died. (Courtesy of A71 Entertainment) — Olunike Adeliyi as Lacey in *She Never Died*. (Courtesy of A71 Entertainment)

With an unlikely friendship brewing between an odd collection of characters, Lacey, Godfrey and Suzzie are a fun group of people with very two-dimensional motivations that glue them together. Lacey serves her undeniable cannibalistic urges by searching for morally corrupt people, Godfrey has a vendetta against the trafficking ring because that’s how he lost his daughter, and Suzzie is fresh off being kidnapped with nowhere to go and an attachment to the woman who saved her, Lacey.

While He Never Died relied on their starring actor’s presence, Cummings’ reinterpretation filled the gaps with supporting characters that push the protagonist forward in her pursuit. As Cummings said in an email interview with CanCulture, “It’s a strong female-driven film with a female protagonist, antagonist and bubbly sidekick. Thematically there are some strong storylines about women supporting women and the fight against misogyny and human trafficking.”

However, it’s not without fault. The characters, from the trio of good guys to the villains, are caricatures — an exaggerated representation of common archetypes. They have little to no development and thus there is little to no motivation to root for any of them. Terrance and his sister Meredith (Michelle Noldan) are cartoon villains, teasing the protagonist with false superiority but no proof that they have any power to succeed. Suzzie serves as the upbeat tone in an otherwise dark story, offering a “reluctant friendship between [her and Lacey]. I felt it would create such an interesting dynamic if they were like yin and yang,” said Cummings.

However, relying on Lacey’s complete disinterest towards Suzzie to get a laugh out of the audience is a note you can only hit a few times before it gets old. Even Godfrey is a classic old detective lost in the rabbit hole of a case he could never solve — something done many times before.

The most interesting person to follow is Lacey because of the air of mystery around her character. She was inspired by the mythological creature of Lilith, “Adam’s first wife [who] refused to be subservient to him. She wanted equality and for that, was cast out of the Garden of Eden. Ultimately she was an independent female figure that challenged the system,” said Cummings.

The corny relationships Lacey shares with characters who keep bothering her, even though she prefers to be alone, hide an underlying depressing storyline of someone who is being wrongfully punished. Despite never really getting this explanation of her character in the movie itself, there is both an interest sparked and a deterrent created by the lack of information provided. Much like He Never Died, minimal dialogue and an enigmatic main character keep you invested in trying to decipher what’s happening. However, with no actual answer to the question without a little biblical knowledge, one has to ask whether it was worth sitting through the film to try and figure out.

In the end, the acting is what shines through She Never Died. Olunike Adeliyi leads this film fiercely in a strong female role that lets the audience play bystander to casual acts of violence and enjoy it. Cummings clearly “found the balance between having just enough gore and not enough,” something she said is difficult to find. Lacey is disinterested in most things and bland like the porridge she eats, but her creativity shows through the egregious ways she kills her opponents which leave you waiting to see what she will do next. Her short and abrupt chime ins are cute and quirky one-liners and allow you to feel less terrible for rooting for more gore. Adeliyi really pulls this otherwise dull movie out from the shadows and makes She Never Died an enjoyable horror-comedy worth your time.