The Midnite Film Society Returns!
After a nearly year-long hiatus, I’ve released the 13th edition of The Midnite Film Society!
This one focuses on Canadian horror, featuring one of the best creepy doll films ever made. The film in question hasn’t seen a proper HD release, was only released on DVD in the late ‘90s, and no 35mm or 16mm prints are known to exist in archives or collector circles. Someday it’ll surface. I’m happy I held onto my VHS copy.
A primer on Canadian horror
The roots of Canadian horror cinema start in 1961 with Julian Roffman’s 3D flick The Mask (no, not the Jim Carrey one, although they hold striking similarities). The genre evolved in the 1970s when filmmakers like David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman took advantage of tax production credits that existed at the time that helped expand the industry but also drew the ire of the public. The artistic and commercial merits of Cronenberg’s Shivers, for example, were debated on the floor of the House of Commons and was the focus of a Saturday Night magazine article headlined: "You Should Know How Bad This Movie Is. After All, You Paid For It."
What’s in the box?
This compilation features several trailers for celebrated Canadian horror films. The main feature, Pin, is one of my faves and arguably one of the greatest Canadian horror films: a psychosexual thriller from 1988 about a young schizophrenic man and his anatomically-correct doll. Terry O’Quinn as a cold, stern physician father. A young David Hewlett. And a creepy-ass medical study doll.
This one messed me up as a kid. I first saw it late at night on a little black & white TV in my bedroom a few year after it was made. Images burned in my memory. (Running time 1:52.18, 935.7mb). Download