Fido

Director Andrew Currie
Year 2006
Run Time 91min
Genre Comedy, Horror
Welcome to Willard, an idyllic town in a 1950s parallel universe where the sun shines every day, everybody knows their neighbour and zombies carry the mail.

Visually captivating, sly and clever, Fido follows the Robinson family, who have been hesitant to get a zombie of their own even though everyone on the block has one. All that changes when Mom (Moss) buys Fido (Connolly), and the loveable brute becomes young Timmy’s best friend. Fido is a funny, satirical and refreshing movie with an all-star cast and a standout performance by Billy Connolly as Fido.

“Currie’s zombie comedy is in a class by itself.”
— Lori Fireman, NOW Magazine

Director

Andrew Currie

Currie is a filmmaker, writer and producer whose directing credits include the shorts Persistence of Memory and Night of the Living, and the features Mile Zero, Barricade, and The Steps. He also wrote and directed the features Fido and The Invisibles and directed TV movies such as Twisteeria and Sleep Murder. He produced the feature The Delicate Art of Parking, and executive produced the features Lawrence & Holloman and Indian Road Trip, and the shorts G8 and Cloud Striker.

 

Writers

Robert Chomiak, Andrew Currie, Dennis Heaton

Cast

Carrie-Anne Moss, Billy Connolly, Dylan Baker, Henry Czerny

Producers

Blake Corbet, Mary Anne Waterhouse

Genres

Comedy, Horror

Interests

Cult & Offbeat Cinema, Social Justice & Politics

Original Language

English

The Guest

Director Nick Rodgers (Anishinaabe)
Year 2015
Run Time 5min
Genre Animation, Comedy, Horror
A trapper finds a strange wounded animal in the forest. But his new little friend quickly proves insatiable.

Director

Nick Rodgers (Anishinaabe)

Writer

Nick Rodgers (Anishinaabe)

Cast

Philippe Mathon

Genres

Animation, Comedy, Horror

Interests

BIPOC Stories, Indigenous Filmmaker

Original Language

English

Scanners

Director David Cronenberg
Year 1981
Run Time 103min
Genre Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy
After 10 seconds, the pain begins. 15 seconds, you can’t breathe. 20 seconds, you explode.

Scanners are social outcasts, the by-product of a failed experimental drug given to their mothers during pregnancy, and possess the unusual ability to read and control minds.

Security firm ConSec wants to harness these telekinetics and turn them into a powerful new weapon; however, Revok (Ironside) is hellbent on destroying ConSec and taking over the world. The only man who may be able to stop him is the stoic but equally powerful Vale (Lack).

Chaos reigns as the duo face off in a series of dramatic duels featuring some of cinema’s most jaw-dropping practical effects.

Busting heads and box-office numbers when it opened in 1981, Scanners demonstrates Cronenberg’s talent for accessible, fun and truly awesome science fiction.

Director

David Cronenberg

A Companion of the Order of Canada, Cronenberg is a legendary filmmaker and pioneer of the body horror genre. His directing credits include iconic films such as Scanners, Dead Ringers, Videodrome, and Crash, for which he won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed eXistenZ, Crimes of the Future, The Shrouds, and others. He has won over 80 awards, including the Golden Coach at Cannes, and lifetime achievement awards from TIFF and the DGC.

 

Writer

David Cronenberg

Cast

Jennifer O'Neill, Stephen Lack, Michael Ironside, Patrick McGoohan

Producers

Pierre David, Claude Héroux, Victor Solnicki

Genres

Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Interests

Classics, Cult & Offbeat Cinema

Original Language

English

Crash

Director David Cronenberg
Year 1996
Run Time 100min
Genre Drama, Horror, Romance, Thriller
2026 spotlight contributor Barry Hertz
Written and directed by David Cronenberg and based on J. G. Ballard’s 1973 novel of the same name, Crash tells the uncomfortable (and controversial) story of a group of people who are turned on by car crashes, a unique form of paraphilia.

After hitting Dr. Helen Remington (Hunter)’s vehicle in a critical car accident, film producer James Ballard (Spader), a man in an open marriage, and Remington, whose husband died in the crash, begin an unlikely affair that seems to take place exclusively in and around automobiles. While he is recovering, Ballard meets Vaughan (Koteas), a man who leads a bizarre subculture of people who fetishize car crashes, car safety tests, and traffic accidents in general. As Vaughan’s unusual cult meetings intersect with their lives, Ballard finds deeper meaning not just in his marriage, but in mankind’s increasingly intertwined and disturbing relationship to technology.

Director

David Cronenberg

A Companion of the Order of Canada, Cronenberg is a legendary filmmaker and pioneer of the body horror genre. His directing credits include iconic films such as Scanners, Dead Ringers, Videodrome, and Crash, for which he won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. He also directed eXistenZ, Crimes of the Future, The Shrouds, and others. He has won over 80 awards, including the Golden Coach at Cannes, and lifetime achievement awards from TIFF and the DGC.

 

Writer

David Cronenberg

Cast

James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Deborah Unger

Producers

David Cronenberg, Robert Lantos, Jeremy Thomas

Genres

Drama, Horror, Romance, Thriller

Interest

Cult & Offbeat Cinema

Original Language

English

Splice

Director Vincenzo Natali
Year 2009
Run Time 104min
Genre Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) are married scientists who defy legal and ethical boundaries by splicing together human and animal DNA to create a new organism. 

Director

Vincenzo Natali

Writers

Vincenzo Natali, Antoinette Terry Bryant, Doug Taylor

Cast

Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac

Producer

Steven Hoban

Genres

Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Original Languages

English, French

Violation

Directors Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli
Year 2020
Run Time 107min
Genre Horror

A woman on the brink of divorce is suddenly betrayed by her sister and brother-in-law, setting her on the warpath towards a violent revenge.

Directors

Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

Writers

Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

Cast

Jesse LaVercombe, Anna Maguire, Madeleine Sims-Fewer

Producers

Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

Genre

Horror

Interests

Family Relationships, Female Filmmaker, Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

Top of the Food Chain

Director John Paizs
Year 1999
Run Time 99min
Genre Horror

The residents of a secluded Canadian town are being mysteriously and gruesomely devoured. Starring Campbell Scott.

Director

John Paizs

Since filming the widely-praised Crime Wave in his native Winnipeg, Paizs has directed Top of the Food Chain and Marker, and has worked on such TV series as Kids in the Hall, The Adventures of Shirley Holmes and John Woo’s Once a Thief. He is currently writing and illustrating a graphic novel and working as the director in residence at the Canadian Film Centre.

Writers

Philip Bedard, Larry Lalonde

Cast

Lorry Ayers, Robert Bockstael, Campbell Scott

Producers

Suzanne Berger, Jana Edelbaum

Genre

Horror

Original Language

English

The Witch

Director Robert Eggers
Year 2015
Run Time 92min
Genre Horror

As a New England family attempts to resettle their farm in the 1700s, an evil presence haunts the forest. This terrifying film won the Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Director

Robert Eggers

Writer

Robert Eggers

Cast

Anya Taylor-Joy

Producers

Rodrigo Teixeira, Jodi Redmond, Lars Knudsen, Daniel Bekerman, Jay Van Hoy

Genre

Horror

Interest

Strong Female Leads

Original Language

English

The Wild Hunt

Director Alexandre Franchi
Year 2009
Run Time 96min
Genre Horror

A medieval re-enactment game turns into a Shakespearean tragedy when a non-player crashes the event in order to win back his girlfriend.

Director

Alexandre Franchi

Writers

Alexandre Franchi, Mark Antony Krupa

Cast

Kaniehtiio Horn (Mohawk)

Producers

Alexandre Franchi, Karen Murphy

Genre

Horror

Interest

Cult & Offbeat Cinema

Original Language

English

Les affamés (Ravenous)

Director Robin Aubert
Year 2017
Run Time 104min
Genre Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller

In the bleak aftermath of an outbreak of zombies in rural Quebec, Bonin (Marc-André Grondin) struggles to survive along with the rapidly dwindling remaining population. When he encounters a group hiding in a house that is in the path of an invading horde of the undead, he must decide whether or not to save them, as doing so would put him and his companions in danger.

Les affamés is a brilliant and fresh take on the zombie genre, maintaining a tense atmosphere with exceptional moments of horror. It won the Best Canadian Feature prize at TIFF in 2017 and swept the Jutra Awards (now the Prix Iris) with ten wins, including Best Film and Best Direction.

“Robin Aubert's idiosyncratic and nuanced drama breathes fresh life into the zombie apocalypse subgenre.” - John Leydon, Variety

Director

Robin Aubert

Aubert is a filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. He has starred in many critical and box office hits, such as De père en flic, Guibord s’en va-t-en guerre, Jeune Juliette, Mon cirque à moi, and Une colonie, for which he won a Prix Iris for Best Supporting Actor. He has also directed numerous films, including Saints-Martyrs-des Damnés, À l'origine d'un cri, and Les Affamés, which won Best Canadian Feature Film at TIFF and ten Prix Iris.

 

Writer

Robin Aubert

Cast

Charlotte St-Martin, Marc-André Grondin, Monia Chokri, Micheline Lanctôt

Producers

C.S. Roy, Stéphanie Morissette

Genres

Action/Adventure, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Thriller

Original Language

French