Jumping The Tracks: Cronenberg from Crash to Eastern Promises. Part I

In the context of Canadian horror, writing a piece on David Cronenberg is never a hard choice. In fact, writing within the context of filmmaking writ large, a piece on Cronenberg is an obvious and immediate choice.

Note: I know doing something on Cronenberg for Canadian horror is close to doing something on Dario Argento for Italian horror. An admission that nothing is going on. But read on.

For fans and cinestes, Cronenberg is considered a master. His films have the thoughtfulness of Wes Craven, the political insight of George Romero, the viscera of Tobe Hooper, and at times, the black humor of Brian De Palma.

While assuming a clinical approach to his material, his films are visceral and provocative. They are a combination of speculativeness and spectacle.

Cronenberg's sensibilities have proven not only apt, but absolutely perfect at bringing to life the sterile, cold atmosphere of "The Dead Zone," the biological nightmare of "The Fly," the hallucinatory madness of "Naked Lunch," and the inspection of the sexual side to physical trauma in "Crash."

Like other auteurs, Cronenberg has produced a body of work that expressed his personal preoccupations. From "Shivers" on, we can see an evolution of thought and expression that follows a relatively common thread. Body Horror.

The parasite that drives it's host into a libidinal frenzy in "Shivers," provides a laundry list of sexual taboos that rival and surpasses even Clive Barker.

Whether it's snuff films in "Videodrome," the living dead/vampire hybrid orgy of "Rabid," (starring no less than former ivory girl and porn star, Marilyn Chambers), or Jeromy irons playing both parts as tightly wound gynecologists set in a disturbing look at how far wrong drugs, insanity, and gynecology can go in "Dead Ringers."

The progression is clear, and for fans, a great deal of fun to watch the master expand on themes, each of which a brick serving an architect with a fascinating, albeit not always audience friendly, vision.

What's so fascinating about his career, however, is that at some point, his choice of subject matter seemed to have jumped from "biology is destiny," to something he called "existentialist propaganda.

TBC

What is Canadian Horror?

What is Canadian Horror?
When a person makes a description of a film or genre by national orgins, we can usually get an idea what to expect. When we hear the French New Wave, we think jump cuts, and Godard, and auteur theory.

When someone says American New Wave, we think Robert Altman, Italian neo-realism, Roberto Rosselini, Italian post-neorealism, Federico Fellini, and so on.
With genre it’s about the same. Italian horror mean convoluted plot, dream like imagery, some debt to Hitchcock, and a lot of red. British Horror conjures up images of Dracula, or his brides, or Countess Bathory, Ingrid Pitt, Hammer films, and the like. Spanish horror = Jess Franco, Alex de Iglesia.

In my last entry, the question was, is the Final Destination series Canadian? The way to answer that question seemed to include:
What nationality is the filmmaker?
What nationality is the cast and crew?
Where was it shot?
Where was the money coming from?

Is there a combination of factors and should it be taken on a case by case basis.
When Kieslowski made Red, the Academy denied him a nomination for an oscar for best foreign film because the filmmaker was Polish, the cast and crew were French, and the money came from a number of places, and they couldn’t figure out what country the movie came from.

Polyglots like that used to never matter because when we see a movie like Contempt, we know Godard directed it, it’s a French language movie, and it fucking stars Brigitte Bardot and Michele Picoli, who are pretty French.
Does the nationality of the filmmaker matter? When Roman Polanski made Repulsion or Fearless Vampire Killers, were they Polish?

What about location? When Sergio Leone made Once Upon a Time in the West, the location was supposed to be the American west, but it was actually Italy. We think of it as an Italian movie.
But tons of movies supposedly shot in NY are actually shot in Toronto. We don’t call those Canadian.

I wonder if a films national identity isn’t just up for grabs. For example, Prom Night isn’t really claimed by anyone. It is a product of Canada’s tax shelter, slash for cash era. Ergo, it’s Canadian.

Could that be the definition then? Movies that are shot in Canada by Canadians? If it was funded by the CBC in any way.

Italy’s horror movies were usually taking the ball from the US. However, Black Christmas predated Halloween. And the movies we tend to think of most when we think of a slasher films are Prom Night, Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine, and Happy Birthday to Me.

Cronenberg has his own distinct style, but you can say the same of Ken Russel, Jess Franco, Jean Rollin, or Ruggero Deodato and none of them really ecompass, respectively, Britain, Spain, France, or Italy. Although Deodato's fear of the third world is extremely Italian.

And yet, when you see a movie like Cube, or Ginger Snaps, or even White Noise, you know you’re seeing something Canadian.

Maybe Canadian horror films have unseen commonalities. Things like tone, or pace, or theme. When put those in a movie with guys like Don Mckellar, or Sarah Polley, Kris Lemche, or David Hewlett, then you know it's Canadian. I might come back to this later. Maybe make a poll.

Final Destination 1-3: How to know when the horror movie you're watching is Canadian

When you see the names Kris Lemche and Alexz Johnson in the credits, that could be a tip off. Not as obvious as a Cronenberg film where you can expect to see Don Mckellar, Ian Holm, Sarah Polley, Callum Keith Rennie, Sandra Oh (who ruled in Last Night -an understated apocolypse movie directed by Don Mckellar with a David Cronenberg appearance-), and Robert Silverman.

Don't forget Mia Kirshner (Exotica, dir: Atom Egoyan) or Torri Higginson (The English Patient, Stargate Atlantis -costarring with David Hewlett from...that's right "Cube." It's like a Canadian mafia.

My point is, where there's a Canuck a Maple leaf production can't be far behind.

When I saw Final Destination 3 I just thought, Canadian. Let's see if the trilogy is.

FINAL DESTINATION 1-3: The concept is the same. A group of teens cheat death when one of their numbers has a vision of impending tragedy. Crisis is averted but death has a list and he returns for them one by one. Tony Todd makes appearances.

So, is the Final Destination Trilogy Canadian? The three things to look for is, who's the cast and crew, where was it shot, and where did the money come from?

There are movies, polygluts, that can involve three different countries (or more). Godard's "Contempt" made a little dig toward that.

Final Destination was directed by James Wong IV (orgins unknown).

The only Canadians in the film is Devon Sawa, Brendan Fehr, Chad Donella, Christine Chatelain, Barbara Tyson.

It was shot in British Columbia (all over the place). But where did the money come from?

Hard Line Pictures, New Line Pictures, and the team of Warren Zide (Michigan) and Craig Perry who seems to be country-less. The crew are all American.

Okay, I'll accept that. It's pretty much American. Maybe the franchise moved north for...

Final Destination 2:

David R Ellis (dir) is American.

Canadian Actors: A.J. Cook, Keegan Connor Tracy (the chick who died by airbag), Lynda Boyd, James Kirk, David Paetkau, Sarah Carter, Shaun Sipos and the list goes on. Way more Canadians here.

Location: No surprise, British Columbia.

Point of Interest: All of the news anchors featured in the movie are actual news anchors at local Vancouver-area stations (the film was shot in Vancouver).

Is the money Canadian? No.

Final Destination 3:

James Wong IV reclaims the helm as director.

Who are the Canadians? Kris Lemche (who rules, and check this out...'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead' ). You read that right. Also: Sam Easton, Alexz Johnson, Jesse Moss,
Gina Holden, Chelan Simmons, Maggie Ma, Crystal Lowe, Amanda Crew, and Patrick Gallagher.

Those are the actors.

The distributor for Canada is Alliance says nothing.

Could this just be a case of america making movies on the cheap in Canada and hiring local talent? No, I don't buy that.

There's going to be a Final Destination 4. In the meantime, I'm going to start going into what makes Canadian horror distinctly Canadian.

More Katherine Isabelle

Here are some addendums to Katherine Isabelle's profile:

The 2004 thriller "Show Me, " is available.

IMDB - When two squeegee kids descend upon Sarah and her luxury sedan, the fuse is lit on a tense cat and mouse tale of captors and captives. Sarah is forced to continue her trip to an isolated cottage where the twisted trio bait and entice one another in a reckless search for truth. Show Me plunges us into a maze of mystery, desire, memory and self sacrifice.

So more of a thriller. actually. Go to http://moses8456.blogxpress.net/2008/08/27/show-me-get-it-online-immediately/ for more information.

Katherine Isabelle

Katherine Isabelle - Born 11/10/81

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Aliases - Katharine Isobel, Katherine Isobel, Kate Murray, Katharine Isobel Murray, and Katie Murray.

Seen in: Disturbing Behavior (1998)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004)

Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning (2004)

"The Englishman's Boy" (2008) TV mini-series



In the states, and pretty much everywhere Katherine Isabelle is best known for her role as the older Fitzgerald sister, Ginger.



It's easily one of the best werewolf movies I've ever seen, and if you compare it to the ill-conceived "Cursed," then it's a fucking masterpiece.



Katherine is one of those actresses that seems to take to genre fiction like a duck to water. Either that, or she got trapped in the horror/genre ghetto.



Following Ginger Snaps (and it's sequels) her roles in larger films like Insomnia were small.



Katherine Isabelle was quoted as saying:



"You do these Canadian independent movies, you build up a name, and then you've gotta do shitty TV episodes just to pay your bills. It's hard to build your career when you keep on having to backtrack to do crappy things to pay for what you're doing. So it's kind of a weird situation. "



And that about it sums it up.



But from a fans perspective, of course, she'll always be huge. That is huge like Adrienne Barbeau. Which is fine. Things could be worse than signing autographs at horror/comicon conventions.



She may build inroads into the US film industry, sort of the way Asia Argento did. But that's way up in the air.



Recently, Katherine Isabelle was nominated for a Gemini for her work in the mini-series The Englishman's Boy.



I'm a huge fan of Ginger Snaps and so my first blog goes to the girl who played lycanthrope, homicidal Ginger Fitzgerald.




















Ginger: I get this ache... And I, I thought it was for sex, but it's to tear everything to fucking pieces.

For more information on Katherine Isabelle go to:

http://www.geocities.com/womenofhorror/ginger.html

and be sure to Visit the other Country with hell for a basement on Facebook at

http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=72384990095