Shock local

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This article was published 29/10/2022 (1120 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Given that much of Manitoba’s film product ends up in the horror sections of your various streaming services, it’s a good time to consider supporting your local film industry when choosing a scary movie for Halloween weekend.

As it happens, two movies are available this year, both shot in Manitoba, and both on the cheaper side of the genre. (As any horror aficionado will tell you, a low budget is never a dealbreaker for a horror movie. Some of the most influential shockers — say Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead — were shot on a dime.)

 

● Bring It On: Cheer or Die was filmed in Winnipeg just last year, shooting from late September through October. Premiering on SyFy last month (it’s currently available on DVD and for rental on sites such as Cineplex), the film is based on the Bring It On franchise, which began in 2000 starring Kirsten Dunst as a hyper-competitive poppom shaker.

The premise, it must be said, was smart. Since the teen-friendly franchise had dried up after five diminished-return sequels, why not cross-pollinate the cheerleader competition movie with a teen slasher movie?

Hence, we have Abby (Kerri Medders), a cheerleader intent on taking her squad to the regional championships with a radical plan: move into an abandoned school for an intensive overnight training session, necessary because her school’s clearly unhinged principal (Missi Pyle) has forbidden any risky stunts, as a result of a traumatic cheerleading accident 20 years earlier.

The plan does not go well. Someone dressed in the Diablo team mascot outfit is knocking off the cheerleaders one by one.

In delivering any horror goods, director Karen Lam may have been hamstrung by the strictures of cable TV. There is barely a shock to be had here. For all the edged weapons in the movie, there is certainly no edge to the horror.

Evidently, screenwriters Rebekah McKendry and Dana Schwartz were aiming for some dark comic meta subtext, evident when it emerges the killer is keeping a list of victims described according to the teen movie stereotype they best embody. And there is a bit of fun in the third act when the dwindling survivors use their cheerleading skills to fight off their single-minded adversary.

But the persistently flat direction undercuts any thrills to be had, despite the best intentions of the cast. (Local actors include Madison MacIsaac, Megan Best and Aidan Ritchie as a perpetually stoned school bus driver.)

So while it may be good material for tender-minded younger folk, for the hardened horror fan, it gets a hard hall pass.

★★ out of five

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● Toys of Terror: The title of this production from The Cartel was Evil Toys when it was being shot in Winnipeg in early 2020.

Like other horror movies Orphan: First Kill and Séance, it employs the recently demolished James M. Gilchrist House on Wellington Crescent as its spooky exterior, playing the role of a children’s hospital in the mountains (!) of upper Washington state.

It is here where a newly blended family arrive to fix the place up and flip it for maximum profit, according to the plans of entrepreneurial mom Hanna (Kyana Teresa). But Hanna keeps to herself the place’s dark history from a generation previous, in which the young residents were wiped out after a vengeful mom gifted the place with a trunkful of cursed toys. Released from the trunk, the playthings are soon playing hell with Hanna’s teen stepdaughter Alicia (Verity Marks) and the nanny Rose (Georgia Waters), while apparently possessing Alicia’s two young step-siblings.

Notably, the screenwriter of this film is comedian Dana Gould, a guy steeped in the culture of genre film (most evident in his work playing Planet of the Apes’ Dr. Zaius in a YouTube interview show). Gould’s points of reference include everything from The Shining to Trilogy of Terror and especially the oeuvre of producer Richard Band’s Puppermaster series. His choice of evil toys avoids the Victorian killer doll clichés and reflects his own gen-X roots — including a destructive muscle-bound action figure, a feral “Uncle Monkey” and a very dark Speak & Spell-type toy (“K … Kill”).

Director Nicholas Verso chose to animate the toys with stop-motion. The attendant jerky movements of the figures may seem outmoded, but on the other hand, they may provide a thrill of recognition for anyone who got too-much-candy nightmares from Rankin/Bass Christmas specials.

The film’s true unsung stars are locals behind the scenes. Production designer Gord Wilding employed a similar dark-juvenile groove in the 2018 film Incident in a Ghostland, and cinematographer Paul Suderman gets to play with shots out of The Shining — prowling creepy corridors and lonely country roads by night — to creepy effect. The movie looks great.

Toys of Terror is available on DVD and is new this month to Netflix.

★★★ out of five

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Twitter: @FreepKing