Canadian Horror Movies

These are some of my favourite horror movies which happen to be filmed in Canada.

The first movie on my list is Black Christmas (1974). The film made me almost jump out of my skin each time the phone rang. I must caution you the phone conversations have strong offensive language even by today's standards. Working from a budget of $620,000 it grossed $4,053,000. It is one of the first movies where a killer stalks and kills college students. Canadian actors Keir Dullea, Margot Kidder, John Saxon, Andrea Martin, Doug McGrath, Art Hindle and Argentina born Olivia Hussey star in the classic movie.

The next film The Changeling (1980) is another great Canadian film. George C. Scott and his real wife Trish Van Devere stars in this ghost film. Scott stars as Dr. John Russell, a composer living in New York City, who moves cross-country to Washington state following the tragic deaths of his wife and daughter in a traffic accident while on a winter vacation in upstate New York. In suburban Seattle, Russell rents a Victorian-era mansion and begins piecing his life back together.

However, Dr. Russell soon discovers that he has unexpected company in his new home when a poltergeist, the ghost of a murdered child, haunts the house. Russell investigates and finds that the mystery is linked to a powerful local family, the heir of whom is a wealthy US senator. In one scene Russell uses a tape recorder to tape a seance and picks up the voice of a dead child loud and clear (wish it was that easy). This is a perfect family horror movie because it contains no nude scenes, no gore or strong offensive language. The movie was filmed at the University of Toronto and Vancouver, This film was #54 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

The movie Videodrome (1983) is another piece of Canadian horror. Although a bit dated, it stars Debbie Harry, James Woods and Canadian Sonja Smits. The film scored fourth as Bravo TV's 30 Even Scarier Movie Moments. The movie was filmed in Toronto and the budget was just under six million dollars and it grossed only $2,120,439. The movie is about Max Renn (Woods) a TV station president, who finds a satellite TV show from Asia. He tries to pirate the show but finds weird events which surround the show. He meets Nicki Brand, a radio announcer (Harry), who leads him astray and gets him into a "hurt locker" of sorts. This movie is not a family movie. Strong language and other scenes including "tasteful gore" make it into this movie. A remake of this movie is date for next year.