By Chris Webster on June 17, 2016

Kevin Smith’s Canada-set Yoga Hosers opens in September, and while the monsterpalooza isn’t a Canadian production the film’s appreciation for all things True North got me thinking about some of my favorite home-grown creature features.

As you’ll see in this primer, David Cronenberg is not the only Canadian filmmaker who’s contributed to the country’s sick and twisted genre fare over the years. In fact, from giant brains to heavy metal demon slayers, Canada has a rich tradition of weird, wild and often woefully underappreciated monster movies that are worth looking out for.

The Pit

Probably the weirdest film on an already weird list is 1981’s The Pit, a film that plays like a sadistic afterschool special about a creepy 12-year-old boy named Jaime who discovers four troglodytes (or “tra-la-logs”) living in a mysterious pit in the woods. At the behest of his only friend, his teddy bear, he begins feeding the monsters whoever he feels has mistreated him.

Originally titled “Teddy”, the film was supposed to be an exploration of the troubled inner life of an autistic child until director Lew Lehman saw potential for a more traditional horror film. The results remain one of the strangest Canadian entries into the horror genre.

The Gate

Yet another movie involving a pit, The Gate needs no introduction. A Canadian/US co-production shot entirely in Ontario, the film is about two friends who unwittingly release a batch of trouble-making, pint-sized demons from a hole in a suburban backyard. With their parents out of town, it’s up to them and their older sister to defeat the evil threat.

The film, which gave the world Stephen Dorff, was successful enough to spawn a sequel three years later (also filmed in Canada). To this day it remains an 80’s staple and a remake has been in development hell for many, many years.

Jack Brooks Monster Slayer

It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost ten years since Canadian director Jon Knautz burst onto the indie horror scene with Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer, a horror/comedy hybrid with old-school sensibilities and a ton of inventive monsters to boot.

Full of practical make-up and man-in-suit effects, the film is about regular guy Jack Brooks who finds himself confronting old demons when professors and students in his night class start turning into ancient monsters.

Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare

Starring Jon Mikl Thor, real-life metal musician and subject of the acclaimed documentary “I am Thor”, Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare is one of the most legendary Canadian productions of all time. Taking a page from Evil Dead, Thor and his band, The Tritonz, travel to a secluded farmhouse recording studio where band members start getting picked off one-by-one by the most wonderfully campy foam demons imaginable.

While it’s a borderline disaster, the straight-to-video cheapie is bizarre enough and features enough great Thor music to have gained a massive cult following of the years and a sequel, Intercessor: Another Rock ‘N’ Roll Nightmare was even produced in 2005.

The Thaw

Despite Val Kilmer toplining this parasite shocker from 2009, The Thaw remains a little seen Canadian export. A thinly veiled commentary on the potential dangers of global warming, the film follows a group of ecology students who unearth a prehistoric parasite from the carcass of a Woolly Mammoth.

While mostly generated in a computer, the wormy parasites are no less a squirm inducing creation. There are also a couple of genuinely violent moments that elevate the experience overall. For some reason director Mark A. Lewis has yet to direct a follow-up film which is too bad as the director showed promise with this one.

WolfCop

Lowell Dean’s WolfCop is something of revelation. A hilarious tongue-in-cheek play on the hardboiled cop genre, the film is colored by 80’s nostalgia and some of the best werewolf transformations this side of American Werewolf in London. Like the panels of some lost indie comic book come to life, this outrageously high-concept Canuxploitation masterwork is a must see.

The best news? They’re already filming the sequel.

Splice

Hugely divisive when it was initially released, I’d like to think Vincenzo Natali’s Splice has gained a bit more credibility with horror fans over the years. Something of a morality play about the responsibility of a creator to its creation, it is also an anxious meditation on parenthood, which I think accounts for why certain moments in the film drew gasps from audiences expecting a more generic monster movie.

Splice stars Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley as two genetic engineers who successfully create a human-animal hybrid for medical purposes. But as “Dren” grows, it quickly becomes clear that they may not be able to control their creation. Produced in partnership with Guillermo del Toro and shepherded into theatres by Hollywood heavyweight Joel Silver, Splice none-the-less failed to ignite the box office.

Ginger Snaps

Produced by Steve Hoban’s Copperheart Entertainment, Ginger Snaps might arguably be the most successful Canadian horror franchise due to the boom in DVD in the year it was released. It’s hard to imagine now, but a werewolf flick with two teen girls at the center was, at the time, something new and the film struck a chord with young audiences who connected with its .

The darkly irreverent film spawned a sequel and a prequel and there continues to be rumblings of more Ginger Snaps in the future.

Decoys

In the wake of Ginger Snaps’ success Canada *almost* got itself behind the teen horror boom by pushing the sci-fi horror flick Decoys through production pretty quickly. Sort of a “Species for teens” flick, Decoys concerns an alien organism that hides in human form and seduces its victims.

The film’s monsters were mostly tentacles bursting from the chests of naked college girls, which seems like a recipe for success, but what the makers of Decoys failed to  glean from Ginger Snaps was the basic human conflict at the centre of that film. As a result, Decoys is something of an empty experience.

Things

Video Nasty fans are no doubt familiar with Andrew Jordan’s Things, Canada’s most notorious entry into the VHS trash cinema era. A brief journey through the firm’s IMDB reviews reveal a lot about the experience of watching it. It’s not for everyone, clearly, but Things is representative of a certain cinematic underbelly that I’m not sure exists anymore and, from that, a legion of fans have sprung up around the film.

Things is about a man who makes his wife undergo a procedure to have children. She does, but instead of children they’re, well, things. Stupendously amateurish and shot mostly on 8mm it’s an experience unlike any other. Recently re-released on Severin’s short-lived Intervision revival, it has found something of a new life. Watch at own risk.

Monster Brawl

Only in Canada would eight of the world’s most public domain monsters fight-to-the-death in a secret wrestling tournament. This horror goof-em’-up is not for everyone, but it’s worthy of mention due to Brendan Uegama’s impressive cinematography, the practical visual effects on display and the overall production design.

For the initiated, Monster Brawl director Jesse Thomas Cook went on to direct one of Canada’s ickiest horror films, Septic Man.

End of the Line

Canadian filmmaker Maurice Devereaux took home Fantastic Fest’s Next Wave Special Jury Award in 2007 for his unsettling vision of Armageddon cults and the monsters they worship in the underground subway systems of Montreal. As with many Canadian genre films, End of the Line is a low budget affair, but a film that fans of particularly Japanese cinema will appreciate, I think as it has a similar surreal quality complimenting the aesthetic.

Luckily, End of the Line is easy to find as it was picked up for distribution in most territories and can be found on DVD or Blu-ray.