This was supposed to be an homage to our neighbor to the North, a general salute to all they have done for us cinematically and what it means to be a consumer of Canadian culture. At least, that’s what it was supposed to be at the beginning of the month- before the world caught fire yet again and chaos reigned. Don’t get me wrong: I’m right now in the thick of being thrilled with all of the progress we are seeing with Black Lives Matter, the toppling of racist monuments, and for good or ill, watching people of my parents generation really lose their minds over what they perceive to be “things going too far”…when in reality I feel that we are seeing long overdue corrections coming to society at large.
But no matter- Canada needs some love from us right now, and that’s just what I’m going to be giving back, specifically in thanks for their years of Canuxploitation that I took in as a youth. I jokingly have themed this month as “Blame Canada”- both because it’s catchy and because less people give notice if you start off with a “thank you” – but for good or ill Canada has made a major contribution to B-movies and fun drive in fare over the years. Many of which have gone on to be perennial favorites of mine and have become video store staples for those of us growing up in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Unfortunately, like most things, American involvement simultaneously made things both better and worse…don’t worry- I’ll explain. We are going to start this mini-history off with talk of sex, violence and taxes- something for everybody!
Let’s set the scene:
In the late 1960’s there was a wave of revolutionary cinema hitting Western Nations. It burbled up across the globe in different ways- but three common themes followed:
- Sex in films was wildly liberalized, and restrictions were lifted
- Violence in films took on a more realistic twist
- Countries that were not the United States wanted their own stories and culture shared and film industry of their own
First, the “sex” component. Many fault Sweden: in 1967 the release the Vilgot Sjöman film I Am Curious: Yellow caused a stir with its casual full-frontal nudity (male & female!) and staged scenes of intercourse. Who cares right? Well, this wasn’t the norm. When the film hit North America in 1969, it was banned in several cities, police seized film prints, obscenity lawsuits were filed…but as the old axiom goes “a dirty book is seldom dusty”- the film was a box office hit in both the US & Canada.[i] And Good news- it ended up being ruled as not being obscene. The dominoes began to fall after that: 1967, the Danes decided to legalize and legitimize pornography. Starting first with the written word and then within two years’ time, they decriminalized pictorial and audiovisual mediums. This openness spread like wildfire through Western culture. 1969: Warhol throws a brick through the glass: releasing Blue Movie– a film that depicted a couple lounging in a New York apartment talking, with ten minutes out of it’s one hour and thirty-five-minute run time containing actual unsimulated intercourse. Warhol was arrested…but the die had been cast: Porno Chic took over, bolstered by both art and celebrity support and the “Golden Age of Pornography” began (c.1969-1984).[ii]
Next, what is sex if we can’t have it served up with a side of wholesome violence? Prior to “New” Hollywood that emerged out of the film school generation of directors, the Studio System rigidly enforced the “self-created” Production Code Administration, which took the “Hays Code” that had been on the books since 1930, and turbo charged it- enforcing from the mid-thirties onward.[iii] It was only with the post-war 1950’s that the Code Office saw it’s hold weakening. Television was a large concern, but since Network TV was under even stricter rules and regulations, the movie industry was able to offer more “exotic” fare to keep audiences coming back. Couple that with a post-war world screening other countries cinema- you had films that came from Sweden, England, Italy…places that the PCA had no authority over, thus these “unsanctioned” films could spread their cosmopolitan ideals to the masses. The knockout punch was the 1952 Supreme Court decision in the Case of Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson- where the Court under Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson overturned a 1915 ruling that found films to be “business- not art” and declared films to be artistic mediums and thus were protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.[iv] This caused steady erosion to the power of the Code Office. By the mid 60’s, films that didn’t meet the standards of the Code office were released by the studios anyway.
The Code was abandoned entirely, and the MPAA film ratings were born- right around the time that a new generation of filmmakers were ready to take Hollywood by storm. Filmmakers like Arthur Penn, who’s 1967 Bonnie and Clyde with Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway took audiences by storm with their violent outing as the bank robbing couple- not shying away from brutal violence and ultimately the couple’s bullet riddled demise was portrayed with graphic realism. In Cold Blood, Night of the Living Dead, The Wild Bunch: all hit the scene and were noted for their originality, brutality, and graphic violence. Art films, character studies, foreign inspired works and B-Movies flourished. Directors like Coppola, Scorsese, DePalma, Beatty, Eastwood, Penn, Altman, Peckinpah, Milius, Pollack, Lucas, Spielberg and more all came into there own during this time, stretching their storytelling muscles and attempting to work out their art on screen using studio cash…at least until films like Jaws & Star Wars became blockbusters and brought stronger studio oversight back into the picture to try and make sure that became the norm. The floodgates were opened, harsh censorship was sidelined, and new art flowed.
Last, but not least, as Western Culture was going through this newfound cinematic openness, various countries were aware that they also wanted to capture their art and culture on the silver screen in stories that would resonate with their fellow countrymen, and they didn’t want to let America and the culture of Hollywood be the final say when it came to film. Essentially, our slightly more advanced fellow former British colonial nations began to put some of their more progressive socialism to good use for the support of the arts and culture. Australia was a little late to the party, getting government funding to promote film and establish the Australian Film, Television and Radio School in the early 1970’s- but it was our neighbors to the North in Canada that decided to take bolder action.
1967, the Canadian government in support of the country’s burgeoning film industry, founded the Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC), and allocated a yearly amount of $10 million to support Canadian films. By the 1970’s, that budget had increased to over $25 million annually, and the Canadian government funded a few films that were “well received” but not anything to get too excited over- Goin’ Down the Road (1970), The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974), & Lies My Father Told Me (1975). Still, wanting to sweeten the pot, Canada had already had a law on the books from the mid-1950’s that would give a Capital Cost Allowance tax credit of 60 percent to feature films that would be deemed as being “certifiably Canadian”- which was accomplished by having a two thirds Canadian Crew & talent, as well as having more than 75 percent of the of the technical services for the film performed in the country; in short they could defer paying taxes on the film until profits actually were made. In 1974 the Canadian government updated the tax credit to allow for up to %100 deferment on a “Certifiably Canadian” film.[v]
Enter a little picture we have been talking about earlier this month called Shivers in 1975 and what you have on your hands is a scrappy little horror film that had used government funding to create it by way of the CFDC, but no incentive to pay back the money it borrowed if the film didn’t become a hit thanks to ample tax credits offered by the Canadian Government. Of course, that wasn’t a problem – Shivers was a smash. Drawn to free money and no taxes like hungry sharks smelling blood in the open water, peddlers of schlock who couldn’t get their low budget B or Z grade films made in Hollywood were coming out of the woodwork to put together Canadian crews to get their films made. Get a Canadian or American Director, one or two average to middling American stars, and then pretend wherever you are filming is just set in America…even though we will never mention it. Stick to the two-thirds rule and before you know it you are cranking out some good “bad” movies like donuts at a Tim Hortons®. Informally dubbed Hollywood North they cranked out the following:
- Death Weekend (1976) – A wealthy couple is terrorized by a gang at a remote lake house.
- Rabid (1977) Cronenberg on a skin graft that turns a young woman into a rabies spreading vamp
- The Brood (1979) – Cronenberg on anger induced parthenogenetically murder children
- The Changeling (1980)- Haunted by a spirit, a man uncovers a decades old mystery
- Prom Night (1980) – A killer stalks teenagers responsible for a student’s death years prior
- Terror Train (1980) – A Killer stalks a New Years Eve Party on a moving train
- Happy Birthday to Me (1981) – At a private school, students begin to turn up dead
- My Bloody Valentine (1981) – A town legend comes true as a killer returns and resumes his work
- Scanners (1981) – Psychics with telekinetic abilities battle for the future
- Deadly Eyes (1982) – giant killer rats (dachshunds in costume) terrorize Toronto. SOOOO GOOD!
- Class of 1984 (1982) – A good hearted teacher in an inner-city high school clashes with a gang
- Curtains (1983) – Actresses auditioning for a role are menaced by a masked killer
- Spasms (1983) – A man deals with a psychic link to a killer snake
- Videodrome (1983) – Cronenberg on Bodily transmogrification through signals of sex & Violence
- Def-Con 4 (1985) – A good old post-apocalyptic adventure to stop a nuclear detonation
& MORE!
Eventually though, like all good things that get abused, repercussions followed. Low grade films that were cranked out did make some money, but it was considered to be a cultural embarrassment for Canadian critics, citing the inclusion of low budget American directors dumping their cheap wares on their neighbors and having them pay for it. Worse, Americans who were coming in with investors were looking for ways to lower the quality and budgets of the projects even further, which caused much legal wrangling from hired attorneys looking for loopholes in the Canadian tax code to pocket even more cash. Wanting to stem the flood, but not completely turn off the water- the Canadian government reduced the Capital Cost Allowance in 1982 to only being for a 50 percent Credit, below the original 1954 amount.[vi] This did put a damper on the mad rush to create Canadian films, but it didn’t stop cheap low budget horror and science fiction films from continuing to be made in Canada, a fact that we here at the LSCE are most grateful for. So please, belated as it is- please join us in enjoying some fine examples of some Canadian films, solid, interesting, disturbing B-films that we can proudly “blame” Canada for, and simultaneously thank them for the entertainment. Take it easy out there folks.
~ Mgmt.
[i] Just as a sidebar- I hate to side with Roger Ebert on this one, but I have seen the film and it’s a slog for people not of the generation to get through…a thoroughly boring picture, yet- culturally significant. Oodles of Parody titles exist for it, spoofed on episodes of “The Simpsons,” “The Partridge Family,” & “That Girl.” Hell, in the final season of “Mad Men,” Don Draper talks about seeing it in the theatre- it was a cultural touchstone that has very much been forgotten.
Giddens, Gary. Still Curious. 2003. https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/260-still-curious (Retrieved June 14, 2020).
[ii] Not an exceptionally long period of time, but long enough to see the rise and “almost” mainstream acceptance of Pornography as a serious medium- real movies made to tell stories and also show explicit scenes. Deep Throat, Behind the Green Door, & The Devil in Miss Jones are all considered to be classics that debuted during this time. Several factors led to the end of this age- returning the burgeoning art back into a strictly tawdry endeavor, including lowering of quality by way of mass-produced video tapes, rampant drug abuse, and organized crime involvement. Look…you want to get a good feel for it? Go out and watch Boogie Nights (1997) or better yet- HBO’s The Deuce.
Pasasonen, Susanna; Saarenmaa, Laura (July 19, 2007). The Golden Age of Porn: Nostalgia and History in Cinema. https://susannapaasonen.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/01pornification23-32.pdf (Retrieved June 15, 2020).
[iii] Yet one more thing I can blame on my Catholic Ancestors- you see a bunch of the clergy and busybody laymen got together and began to form campaigns to picket and boycott theaters that would release pre-code films, and threatened to do the same to films that did not fall into their very strict worldview. No sex, to blasphemy, no positive outcomes for sinners/villains and no political speech that was deemed “inflammatory.” Afraid to lose a portion of viewers during the Great Depression, as well as wanting to avoid government interference, Hollywood acquiesced. By 1934 the Production Code Administration was founded and placed under a zealot- Joseph I. Breen, himself a Catholic and a man who made it his mission to edit ANYTHING that offended his sensibilities.
Gregory D. Black (1996). Hollywood Censored: Morality Codes, Catholics, and the Movies. Cambridge University Press. Pg 198-199
[iv] Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson, 343 U.S. 495 (1952).
[v] Cooper, Kristal (October 2012). Tax Shelter Terror: How The Canadian Government Created a Whole New Generation of Fright Flicks. Toronto Film Scene.
https://web.archive.org/web/20160420114910/http://thetfs.ca/article/tax-shelter-terror-how-the-canadian-government-helped-create-some-of-your-favourite-slasher-flicks/ (Retrieved June 15, 2020)
[vi] ibid.