Amidst the found-footage craze of late aughts and early 2010s, Canadian thriller Grave Encounters carved out a small niche for itself. Following the success of The Blair Witch Project, the Paranormal Activity series proved that the found-footage format was cheap to produce with a huge potential box office upside. For its part, Grave Encounters gain […]
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Just one month into 2023 and horror’s success at the post-pandemic box office continues. Though it’s not a box office hit along the lines of M3gan, Canadian DIY horror Skinamarink has generated the kind of buzz most movies will never enjoy. It’s about as barebones as it gets. First, writer and director Kyle Edward Ball […]
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In the 1980s, Canada exported a few standout slasher movies that achieved some cult status and notoriety. Both Prom Night and My Bloody Valentine are considered B-movie slasher gems. Next in line were decent efforts like Curtains and Happy Birthday to Me. And Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night 2 straddles the fence between obscure title […]
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Sometimes good movies just find their audience. Such is the case with the 1997 independent Canadian sci-fi/horror hybrid, Cube. After Cube screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, it only saw a marginal theatrical release. But late-night showings on cable television and VHS gave this Kafkaesque thriller a much-deserved second chance. Followed by two so-so […]
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Nostalgia is all the rage right now. Take a look at familiar franchises that tried to reboot with fresh ideas. Star Wars The Last Jedi. The 2016 Ghostbusters. Halloween III: Season of the Witch. As it turns out, despite what they claimed, audiences didn’t want something new. They wanted something familiar with an upgrade. Not […]
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The 1980s was a decade defined by greed where the ‘rich got richer’. And it’s also the decade that saw a ‘Satanic Panic’ grip the United States. From handwringing over heavy metal music to a primetime special edition of Geraldo, Americans believed that Satanists were hiding in plain sight across the countryside. Recent horror movies […]
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If you’re old enough, Canadian slasher movie Humongous might look familiar. Even if you never saw the movie, you probably caught the VHS cover along the top shelf in the horror section. Yet even at the height of the slasher movie cycle, Humongous didn’t make much of an impression. Its director, Paul Lynch, fared much […]
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For its U.S. audiences, Shudder released its latest original movie, Violation. After premiering at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Violation generated some strong critical buzz. A subversion of the rape-revenge narrative, Violation has also elicited some conversation around its disturbing violence. Though it’s only been available for less than a week, audiences are […]
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