Welcome to 1980s Canada, the decade that bore the birth of our constitution, MuchMusic, and the end of a seven-year stretch of wild-west tax shelter films. Canada’s tax shelter era of unfettered tax rebates allowed many American productions to move their films over to the north; what we got was the birth of a Canadian film industry and work for Canadian crews and Canadian filmmakers. In exchange, these productions got a 100% tax relief on their productions. Sounds fair, right? In the process of foreign investment sheltering in Canada and quick pop-up production companies opening all over the country, there was no mandate to showcase Canada at all in the films. In fact, fearing U.S. alienation, films shot in Canada were usually stand-ins for American towns and cities, creating this strange bifurcation of a Canadian film on paper but an American one on screen. Thankfully, in and around 1982, Canada tightened up its tax relief program, and while there were still many American productions basing their films in the U.S. and being shot in Canada, Canadians were able to build something that didn’t throw Canadian culture by the wayside and instead instilled it into their productions, stories, cast, and crew. What begins to take shape in this era is a strong emergence of David Cronenberg. He is probably the most famous director of Canadian horror of the 1980s, and claims three spots on this list. While some films on this list still reflect the Americanization of the tax shelter era, many of them were important stepping stones into the emergence of a strong Canadian film industry with films like The Changeling (1980), where some of the filming took place at Hatley Castle, located in Victoria, B.C. Or the emergence of the slasher genre, spun off from the Italian Giallo subgenre and crystallized in Bob Clark’s Black Christmas (1974), an early prototype for the modern slasher film. While tax shelter films tread a fine line between American and Canadian, I think it’s okay for Canada to claim films like Black Christmas, The Changeling and other tax shelter films as our own… Well, the good ones, of course.
While many of the films on this list (since we are looking at an entire decade) surpass 1982, many of the films are incredibly hard to find, if not impossible. The only way this changes is by demanding that streaming services, such as MUBI, Shudder, and Crave, just to name a few, resurrect these films and restore the cultural foundation these films and many others built. There is an audience for these films. We just need a way to watch them.
12 – Prom night (1980)
We start with Prom Night, directed by Paul Lynch. While not the strongest film on this list, its history and, let’s face it, disco dance sequence are worth talking about. Starring Jamie Lee Curtis as Kimberly Hammond and Leslie Nielsen (no, this is not a comedy) as Mr. Hammond, the film follows a high-school senior prom gone horribly wrong when a masked killer stalks four teenagers who have a more than troublesome history.
Now, this is a perfect example of those tax shelter films whose sole purpose was to capitalize off the early slasher genre. Unfortunately, it seems the slasher craze was more of a savvy business move, rather than a creative one. Peter Simpson of Simcon Productions (he has more than a passive role in many of the films on this list) reportedly had never seen Halloween and was dubious of Jamie Lee Curtis and made her audition, eventually landing the part due to her dance skills. While I can’t blame Curtis for the faults of the film, the issues lie in its pacing and lack of character development. Even in high-school slashers, we want to see some form of characterization. But, and this is a big but; the disco scenes rock. Although the disco scenes don’t make a whole lot of sense when they suddenly break into what only feels like a long lost scene from Saturday Night Fever (1977), they are worth the price of admission alone.
Jamie Lee Curtis was nominated in the 1981 Genie Awards for Best Foreign Actress but ended up losing to Susan Sarandon in Atlantic City (1980). It would be Jamie Lee Curtis’s first ever film nomination.
Viewed on Plex.
11 – Ghostkeeper (1981)
Directed by Jim Makichuk, Ghostkeeper is another tax shelter film from the early eighties. But where Prom Night didn’t really explore much of the country it was based in, Ghostkeeper feels more culturally relevant to a Canadian list. While Ghostkeeper is the only tax shelter film to be shot in Alberta, the beautiful Rocky Mountains in Banff showcase a stunning backdrop for the film. In contrast to its snowy outdoors, all interior locations were shot in Deer Lodge, offering its cozy, yet isolating atmosphere.
Ghostkeeper tells the story of a trio of friends, Jenny, Marty, and Chrissy, who spend their New Year’s Eve snowmobiling in the Rocky Mountains. After getting lost in a snowstorm, they stumble on an old abandoned inn. Taking refuge in the inn, the three find that the inn is, in fact, not abandoned but has an old woman living there. As the old woman lodges the three friends, they begin to feel that something is off with the woman and the inn. One by one, the trio find out the hidden truths of what they have stumbled upon.
Many people have pointed out the similarities between Ghostkeeper and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980), sharing a similar plot structure and a snowy hotel, and while The Shining is regarded as a classic, Ghostkeeper’s spirit, although flawed, has an atmosphere that just makes you want to watch it in the dead of winter with a cup of hot chocolate. Maybe if the production wasn’t so unstable, money hadn’t run dry halfway through filming, and its pacing hadn’t droned on at a draining pace, it could have been a classic eighties ghost story that would have garnered more than a small cult following.
Viewed on Plex.
10 – Curtains (1983)
Mainly directed by Richard Ciupka but ultimately completed by producer Peter Simpson of Simcon, Curtains suffers another troubled production, plagued by fighting between Ciupka and Simpson. The tension derived from the two filmmakers is evident in the film but in ways I don’t think even they expected. While Simpson wanted a quick slash and dash horror film, reminiscent of his earlier project, Prom Night, Ciupka was less interested in cheap scares and inspired more by the Italian Slasher films (Giallo); what we get is an interesting mix between the two that ends up being a slightly elevated, but flawed piece of cult cinema.
When actress Samantha Sherwood (Samantha Eggar) commits herself to a mental institute for the sole purpose of getting into character for an upcoming film via method-acting, she learns that the director, Jonathan Stryker (John Vernon), has left her there with no sign of returning. Meanwhile, Stryker auditions five other women for the titular role behind Sherwood’s back at a remote mansion. Soon each woman is stalked and murdered by someone in an old woman’s mask.
How did that mask never turn into a mask kids wore during Halloween? It should have been immortalized by trick-or-treaters with the likes of Jason Voorhees’ hockey mask and Ghostface from Scream (1996). I mean, look at it! It’s disgusting… I love it. Curtains hasn’t been totally forgotten, with its infamous ice-skating scene that showcases its duality of originality and derivativeness from many slashers before it; it lives on as a haunting daylight murder that rivals other famous slasher kills.
Viewed on Shudder
9 – Scanners (1981)
And here we are, our first David Cronenberg entry to the list. Dominating much of the 1980s Canadian horror scene was Toronto-born David Cronenberg, who, at the time of Scanners, had already directed six feature films. But it was Scanners that thrust him into the horror master we see today.
Cameron Vale (Stephen Lack), a man with apparent psychic powers, is brought to Dr. Paul Ruth (Patrick McGoohan), who tells him about a secret war between “scanners” and “non-scanners,” all purported by one man. Dr. Ruth helps train Vale to track down the dangerous scanner and stop him.
If you ever needed a film to give you an “oh my god” moment, Scanners is the film you’re looking for. Since Scanners, there have been over forty years of special effects, and nothing I have seen comes close to the head explosion. You know it’s going to happen as Cronenberg ramps up the intensity and suspense. Then, BOOM! A slow-motion head explosion that has your mouth agape, wondering if you’ve just been subjected to a snuff film, all thanks to make-up artists Dick Smith and Chris Walas. They did this by filling up a prosthetic head with animal liver and guts then firing a double barrel shotgun off-screen. Unfortunately, other than the infamous head explosion, the film winds down to a slow pace; however, that didn’t slow down the box office numbers in 1981, when it more than doubled its budget.
Viewed on Criterion Channel
8 – Terror Train (1980)
Welcome back, Jamie Lee Curtis; we missed you since Prom Night! Curtis stars in what starts as a typical slasher flick, then transforms into a killer game of guess who. Directed by Roger Spottiswoode in his directorial debut and written by Thomas Y. Drake, the film follows Alana (Jamie Lee Curtis), her five friends, and dozens of other college students who take a party train to celebrate New Year’s Eve (strangely the second New Year’s horror film on this list). That is, until a masked killer begins murdering the passengers.
In contrast to Curtains, there is no real mystery as to why the killer’s Groucho Marx mask never took off. The mask was marketed prominently after 20th Century Fox picked up distribution and allocated five million dollars to its marketing budget. While the film is often panned in retrospect, it’s a strange set-up and the who-dun-it quality keeps you invested until the end when the killer is revealed. But, above all, the most interesting aspect of Terror Train is David Copperfield’s character (yes, the magician). Surprisingly, his performance stands out alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and pulls his weight throughout the film. At first his presence feels like a gimmick, plopped into place for the sheer marketability of a famous magician, but somehow, maybe through Copperfield’s greatest magic trick of all time, he becomes integral to the plot and adds an additional layer of mystery and intrigue to the film.
Although not the most inventive slasher, its pacing, characters and inventive train setting set Terror Train apart as a more memorable entry than other cookie-cutter slashers from that era.
Viewed on Plex
7 – Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II (1987)
It’s a little jarring to have a sequel to a horror film higher than the original, but in this case the difference in quality and storytelling is vast. Alongside Ghostkeeper, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is another one of the few films produced in Alberta, with Edmonton being the city of choice, featuring the West Edmonton Mall and Westmouth Junior High School. Directed by Bruce Pittman and written by Ron Oliver, with a brand new cast starring Lisa Schrage, Michael Ironside, and Wendy Lyon, Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II mixes up the formula with a ghost story simultaneously acting as a slasher. It’s refreshing for the franchise to shake things up after its slower predecessor.
Having died thirty years previous, prom queen Mary Lou Maloney’s vengeful spirit seeks revenge on the school and its prom night. It’s a simple premise that takes unexpected and bizarre turns that embraces its camp. Having Jim Doyle as special effects designer was a big get for the film which relied heavily on its practical effects including breathing walls and surreal dream-like imagery. What feels heavily inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), is actually a style that Doyle had developed when designing Freddy Krueger’s knife glove on A Nightmare on Elm Street a few years prior.
Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II is a fun addition to the list that requires no prior viewing of its predecessor, and that’s for a simple reason. Originally titled The Haunting of Hamilton High, the film was renamed and brought into the Prom Night universe when Peter Simpson of Simcom rebranded the film, bridging the two Prom Nights together.
Viewed on Private Copy