While writing about Deadgirl last week, I mentioned how much I valued 'zines while growing up. Infiltration was at the top of the list, as were a slew of punk, goth, and horror 'zines from around Toronto and Montreal whose titles I can't even remember. It made growing up in the barren winterland of Northern Ontario a slightly less isolating experience. One of the 'zines I wish I'd known about at the time was The Trash Compactor. It was a genre film fan's dream...

(more...)

• Comments (0)

September 16, 2021

Sexykiller on the loose!

Posted By Eric Veillette At 2:55 PM

It's been days since I've posted anything. The truth is I've been held captive in a subterranean lair somewhere on Queen St. W since Saturday night and didn't manage to escape until this afternoon. I also managed to get out with all the footage on my camera intact, so I think it's only fair I share this short message from Macarena Gomez.VIDEO: The Sexykiller (more...)
• Comments (1)

September 11, 2021

Boys will be Boys: Sexual Abuse in Acolytes

Posted By Eric Veillette At 12:44 PM

The theme of sexual abuse and the shame felt by the characters runs rampant throughout Acolytes. What impressed me with its inclusion in the script is that it is dealt with so carefully that it never once teeters onto exploitation territory. In a genre film, dealing with such a subject can be a tightrope balancing act. While rewriting the script, director John Hewitt drew from his own personal experiences: "I grew up a Catholic in Australia in the sixties, so I know a little bit about sexual abuse," says Hewitt. "So...

(more...)

• Comments (0)

September 10, 2021

Genre Down Under: An Email Roundtable

Posted By Eric Veillette At 4:10 PM

File under: Directors

Over the years, quite a few films shown at Midnight Madness have come from New Zealand: The Irredutable Truth about Demons, Black Sheep, Heaven, and The Ugly. Until this year, Australian output had been somewhat under-represented, but as we all know, that has changed with the inclusion of Not Quite Hollywood and Acolytes. On Monday, Festival Daily covered a roundtable discussion about Australian exploitation cinema. In attendance were Mark Hartley, Jon Hewitt, Michael and Peter Spierig and Colin Geddes."Jon Hewitt: I think the films of that era were made with an irresistible...
(more...)

• Comments (0)

Movie Theatre Memories

Posted By Eric Veillette At 7:13 AM

File under: Biography

After yesterday's second screening of Not Quite Hollywood, I once again had a chance to talk to Brian Trenchard-Smith, the dean of 'Ozsploitation'. I'm always interested in early film memories -- what you saw and how old you were -- but I'm also interested in where you saw it. At the age of four and a half, Smith's earliest film-going experience is quite unique. His father worked on an airbase in Lybia, and Brian saw a film projected outdoors on a sheet. He can't remember the film -- perhaps a western...

(more...)

• Comments (0)

September 9, 2021

Deadgirl - Urban Exploration

Posted By Eric Veillette At 7:42 AM

One of the first 'zines I truly enjoyed was Infiltration: The 'Zine About Going Places You're Not Supposed to Go. Documenting the urban exploration of various locations, Toronto was always featured prominently since it was the home of author Ninjalicious, who died in 2005. In Deadgirl, which had its second screening yesterday at the AMC, most of the action takes place in the boiler room of an abandoned psychiatric hospital. As the main characters walk through the hallowed halls of the hospital, my mind was jumping at the thought of...

(more...)

• Comments (1)

September 8, 2021

Mabrouk el Mechri talks about JCVD

Posted By Eric Veillette At 9:04 AM

As promised, here's my interview with JCVD director Mabrouk el Mechri. Beyond what I wrote yesterday, what's really fascinated me about this film is the cross-cultural duality of the Van Damme mythos, and as Mabrouk explains in this clip, the reaction he's received so far in North America is exactly the one he was seeking when he undertook the project.As a French-Canadian, the whole JCVD phenomena has had me thinking about what it meant to be a JCVD fan on our side of the pond. I remember arguing with a...

(more...)

• Comments (0)

Not Quite Hollywood - Tax Shelters from Down Under

Posted By Eric Veillette At 7:29 AM

Tonight's premiere of Not Quite Hollywood was a tremendous success. Yesterday I wrote on the Midnight Madness Facebook Group that I was happy that this year's documentary was about films, instead of the music documentaries we've seen over the last several seasons. The irony is that the fun, rebellious spirit of film-making shown in this documentary was pure rock'n'roll. And the soundtrack was killer, too.I'm sure a good chunk of people in attendance tonight have seen Mad Max, Razorback, and Dead End Drive-In. Perhaps some have even seen Fantasm, but...

(more...)

• Comments (0)

September 6, 2021

JCVD Re-Invented

Posted By Eric Veillette At 10:35 PM

JCVD was one of the highlights at Cannes. If I have my way, it will be the highlight at TIFF as well. I had an extra pass for the Friday afternoon screening of JCVD, so I paced along the rush line with the golden ticket, but I wasn't about to give it away; someone was going to have to earn it. I quizzed the lineup with some pretty generic questions about Van Damme's films from the 80s and early 90s. When nobody could bite, it dawned on me that...

(more...)

• Comments (0)