Kids of the Round Table (1995)
Boy Finds Excalibur
A Canadian children’s film that does a modest, amusing job of updating the Arthurian legends to the modern day as Merlin appears to a young boy and gives him Excalibur
Canadian Cinema
Dead Fire (1996)
Space Station Action
Action film set aboard a space station that houses cryogenically frozen survivors of a devastated Earth as C. Thomas Howell tries to stop a mad Matt Frewer
2103: The Deadly Wake (1996)
Futuristic Ship Voyage
Low-budget SF film about a ship at sea carrying a cargo of convicts, toxic waste, a deadly virus and a killer android
Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996)
Happiness Drug Comedy
A film spun off from the popular Canadian comedy troupe Kids in the Hall. The loose plot concerns a happiness drug but is mostly there to feature the regulars playing multiple character
Downdraft (1996)
Amok AI/Nuclear Threat/Action
Modest and conceptually packed B-budget action film in which a motley team are sent to break into a bunker that has been hijacked by a scientist who is threatening to fire nuclear missiles
Kissed (1996)
Necrophilia
Controversially charged Canadian film in which Molly Parker plays a mortuary assistant who develops an obsession with having sex with corpses. Played with more taste than synopsis would lead you to think
Night of the Flood (1996)
End of the World Dance Film
The novelty of a dance film about the end of the world in a giant flood
Crash (1996)
Sexual Fetishism with Car Crashes
David Cronenberg tackles J.G. Ballard’s controversial novel, creating a fascinatingly perverse work that ventures into a world where people become sexually aroused by car crashes
Frankenstein and Me (1996)
Genre Fan Childhood
A charming Coming of Age story about kids who think they have discovered the Frankenstein monster. Comes packed with numerous genre homages and quotes
Cat Swallows Parakeet and Speaks (1996)
Arty Surrealism
Baffling and pretentious Canadian-made surrealist film with Scheherazade (from Arabian Nights) in a psychiatric asylum making up stories all derived from tabloid headlines
Hemoglobin (1997)
Family Secrets/Monsters
Dan O’Bannon scripted film that is uncreditedly based on an H.P. Lovecraft story about family horrors and creatures lurking beneath the graveyard. Aka Bleeders
Hostile Intent (1997)
Backwoods Brutality
An oddity that seems to start as a film about IT espionage and then becomes a survival horror with a paintball team on a corporate retreat being hunted through the woods
The Hanging Garden (1997)
Gay Man's Childhood/Ghosts
A Canadian film about a gay man returning home and revisiting his childhood after ten years away that ends up in a weird series of parallel realities
Habitat (1997)
Human-Plant Mutations
Baffling mix of teen drama and eco-SF film set in an ozone depleted future with Tcheky Karyo engaged in a series of human-plant mutations that transform him into a swarm of insects
Pippi Longstocking (1997)
Anarchic Girl/Animation
A likeable animated adaptation of Astrid Lindgren’s popular children’s character from the Canadian company Nelvana
Bram Stoker’s Shadowbuilder (1997)
Shadow Demon
One of several films that came out after the success of Bram Stoker’s Dracula claiming Stoker’s above their title despite slim or no connection. That said, this is a modestly effective film about a demon that exists in the shadows
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
Kitsch Surrealism
Another of Guy Maddin’s surreal kitsch films all delivered in deadpan prose, this boasts more of a name cast than usual for Maddin
Cube (1997)
Mysterious Labyrinth
An excellent conceptual SF film, a directorial debut for Vincenzo Natali with six people trapped in a labyrinth of identical rooms some of which contain death traps where they must solve the puzzle to find the way out
Twist of Fate (1998)
Psycho-Thriller
A convoluted courtroom thriller where District Attorney Mädchen Amick is forced to team up with serial killer Chris Mulkey
Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms (1998)
Undead Super-Soldiers/Action
The first of two cheap Universal Soldier sequels made in Canada with Matt Battaglia inheriting Jean-Claude Van Damme’s role
Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business (1998)
Undead Super-Soldiers/Action
he second of two cheap video-released sequels to the Jean-Claude Van Damme film. This has the novelty of featuring Burt Reynolds as the bad guy
Reaper (1998)
Psycho-Thriller
Chris Sarandon is a writer who becomes embroiled in solving a series of murder that mimic his own books. An okay set-up that rarely moves beyond the unfolding of cliches
Extraordinary Visitor (1998)
Divine Visitor Comedy
Quirkily appealing Canadian fish out of water comedy where John the Baptist is sent to present-day Newfoundland just before the turn of the millennium to prevent the End of the World
Big and Hairy (1998)
Bigfoot Joins the School Basketball Team
Kid’s film that comes with a rather slight gimmick in which a Bigfoot is befriended and persuaded to join the high school basketball team
The Red Violin (1998)
Stories of a Cursed Violin
A reasonable arthouse hit, this tells the story of a cursed violin through five different periods of history
The Minion (1998)
Body-Hopping Demon
Low-budget action film with Dolph Lundgren as a modern-day Knights Templar tasked with preventing The Devil returning to Earth at the millennium
Last Night (1998)
The End of the World
Excellent Canadian-made End of the World film where actor/director Don McKellar eschews lavish big-budget spectacle for a wry, often haunting series of characters studies about how people meet the end
Felicia’s Journey (1999)
Psycho-Thriller
Fine studied Atom Egoyan thriller in which Elaine Cassidy, a teenage runaway from Ireland, is offered a home and befriended by Bob Hoskins who is a serial killer who targets runaways
Someone is Watching (1999)
Stalker Psycho-Thriller/Child's Sinister Invisible Companion
Okay psycho-thriller where Stefanie Powers is stalked in her new apartment while her son develops a mysterious imaginary companion
eXistenZ (1999)
Virtual Reality
David Cronenberg tackles Virtual Reality themes in an interestingly mind-bending work. Cronenberg has some interesting takes but this ended up being overshadowed by the phenomenon that was The Matrix the same year
Eternal Revenge (1999)
Woman Takes Revenge on Men
A bland Canadian police procedural with detective Alexandra Paul investigating a woman who is killing the men who bullied and harassed her
Top of the Food Chain (1999)
Alien Invasion Spoof
Canadian-made parody of a cheesy 1950s SF film that emerges more wittily amusingly than most Deliberately Bad SF Films
A Twist of Faith (1999)
Catholic Serial Killer Thriller
Dull serial killer thriller with Andrew McCarthy tracking a killer that has a Catholic fixation
Revelation (1999)
The Anti-Christ in Virtual Reality
The second in a series of Biblical End Times films from Canada’s faith-based Cloud Ten Pictures, this offers the peculiarity of the Anti-Christ appearing in Virtual Reality
Roswell: The Aliens Attack (1999)
The Roswell Incident/Alien Visitors
Alien invasion film set around the so-called Roswell Incident. Faux science-fiction written by cliche the entire way
Artificial Lies (1999)
Psycho-Thriller
Psycho-thriller in which Daphne Zuniga is a woman accused of the murder of her psychiatrist and may or may not have been faking her mental illness
Dreamtrips (1999)
Virtual Reality Dreamscapes
A Virtual Reality film that came out the same year as The Matrix and prefigures the dreamscape themes of Inception. Despite the possibilities, this has a dreary pace that very nearly approaches falling asleep
Christina’s House (1999)
Psycho-Thriller
Modest film with Allison Lange being stalked by one of the men in her life. A film that vies between false jumps and moments of reasonable atmosphere
Dangerous Attraction (1999)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
A passable psycho-sexual thriller that copies Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct with Andrea Roth caught between two men, one of who seems to be stalking her
Stuff (1999)
Resurrection Ring/Black Comedy
Canadian-made black comedy about a ring that can revive the dead
The Divine Ryans (1999)
Family Saga/Father's Ghost/Surreal Dreams
Canadian family saga told through the eyes of a young boy growing up amid a strange extended Newfoundland family. Featuring a number of fantastical elements.
Lethal Target (1999)
Erotica/Alien Infection
Conceptually odd mix of an erotic film and a standard copy of Alien. This come with the peculiarity of steamy encounters sitting alongside chestburster scenes
Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)
Adult Animation/Space Opera
Sequel to the animated Heavy Metal that failed to attract the same cult audience that its predecessor did. Telling only one story instead of several, it only offers a routine space opera adventure
Xchange (2000)
Body-Swapping Future
A modest and surprisingly well thought out SF film set in a future where swapping bodies is commonplace only for a man to find his original body has been stolen
Red Team (2000)
Rogue FBI Serial Killer-Hunting Team
Serial killer thriller about an FBI team who realise they are hunting a killer who targets other serial killers
Left Behind (2000)
Christian Anti-Christ Film
Adaptation of the best-selling Christian book series about the Biblical End of the World. There is a mini-industry of these films and, if one can stomach the preachiness, this is not entirely bad
Tribulation (2000)
Christian End Times/Anti-Christ Dystopia
The third in a series of Biblical End Times films withGary Busey as a decent cop who wakes up in a future ruled by the Anti-Christ. The heavy-handed slinging of Bible verses makes this hard-going for anyone who is not a believer, while the conspiratorial tone frequently verges on nuttiness
The Hound of the Baskervilles (2000)
Sherlock Holmes Film/Ghostly Dog Mystery
Another adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes quasi-supernatural mystery. This is also one of the worst ever thanks to the wildly over-acted, scenery chewing performance from Matt Frewer, badly miscast as Holmes
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Teenage Girl Werewolves
Witty, wryly sarcastic modern take on the werewolf film where two teenage sister become affected – sort of like a remake of I Was a Teenage Werewolf by way of Ghost World. Two sequels followed.
Believe (2000)
Children's Ghost Story
A children’s ghost story that is written with uncommon depth and care and directed with reasonable effect
Murder Scene (2000)
Clairvoyance Thriller
Thriller where student Nicole Eggert begins to have clairvoyant visions leading her to an abducted girl
Mercy (2000)
Psycho-Sexual Thriller
One of the better copies of Basic Instinct with detective Ellen Barkin being tempted as she investigates a serial killer who is targeting women who were involved with a lesbian call girl
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
Inuit Legend and Culture
A strong and powerful depiction of historic Inuit culture in the Arctic Circle, which has been shot and acted by Inuit people. Included here because of some Magical Realist elements.
Barbie in The Nutcracker (2001)
Animation/Barbie Enacts Fairytale
The first in a long series of animated films based on Mattel’s girl’s doll Barbie. This casts Barbie as a lead in an adaptation of The Nutcracker ballet
Ignition (2001)
Action Thriller
An action film set against the backdrop of a new Moon mission where Bill Pullman plays a US marshal assigned to protect judge Lena Olin whose life is under threat
Frozen With Fear (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
A psycho-thriller featuring Bo Derek as an agoraphobic wife dealing with the shock of seeing her husband murdered only to then find that his body has disappeared
Snowbound (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Psycho-thriller with Erika Eleniak and Monika Schnarre trapped in a snowbound cabin
Jesus Christ, Vampire Hunter (2001)
Gonzo Comedy
This is one of the great wacky titles of all time. The film has its deliberately ridiculous amusements but soon fails to provide an interesting enough show to live up to its title
Zebra Lounge (2001)
Psychopathic Swingers
An erotic thriller where a couple are stalked by psychopathic couple after venturing into the swingers scene, this comes with a ridiculously high-handed condemnatory moralism
The Void (2001)
Miniature Black Hole
Film where scientists creates an an atom-sized black hole that has the potential to destroy the Earth
Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell (2001)
Evil Wish-Granting Djinn
The Wishmaster series was a franchise based around a series of novelty effects wherein a malevolent djinn turned wishes against the wisher. This third entry is the utter nadir of the series
Watchtower (2001)
Psycho-Thriller
Modest psycho-thriller about the psychological games between a psychopathic lighthouse keeper (a fine Tom Berenger) and his young assistant
Cypher (2002)
Brainwashing Reality Bender
Vincenzo Natali’s second film, a cool and superbly disquiet thriller about corporate brainwashing and espionage that comes with a series of Philip K. Dick-ian reality bending twists
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)
Dracula Ballet Adaptation
Guy Maddin’s reinterpretation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as a ballet and silent movie is an extraordinarily creative work while remaining far more faithful to the original story than many other film versions do
Matthew Blackheart (2002)
Monster Hunter
Film about a monster hunter from the 1940s thawed out in the present-day. This appears to have been made as a tv pilot
Cube2: Hypercube (2002)
Mysterious Hyper-Dimensional Labyrinth
The first sequel to Vincenzo Natali’s fine conceptual puzzlebox film. This expands out on the idea, having a cube that bends through time and space, and has a certain fascination if not as much as the original did
The Case of the Whitechapel Vampire (2002)
Sherlock Holmes Mystery
One of a series of cheap Canadian-made made Sherlock Holmes tv movies featuring a wildly overacting Matt Frewer who makes possibly the worst screen Holmes ever
Heart of America: Home Room (2002)
School Shooting
One thing you don’t associate with Uwe Boll is a concern for social issues. Made in the aftermath of Columbine, this is an early Boll film that is a surprisingly solid attempt to address the scourge of US school shootings
Barbie as Rapunzel (2002)
Animation/Barbie Enacts Fairytale
The second of the animated Barbie films, this casts her as the title character in the popular Brothers Grimm fairytale, which has been considerably embellished. This suffers the glassy plasticity of the early Mainframe films
Wishmaster: The Prophecy Fulfilled (2002)
Evil Wish-Granting Djinn
The fourth and final of the Wishmaster films, which by this point had become cheap and tattily made affairs that are pale shadows of the original
Lathe of Heaven (2002)
Man Whose Dreams Change the World When He Wakes
This was the second film adaptation of conceptually ingenious Ursula Le Guin novel about a man whose dreams change reality around him whenever he wakes up
Spider (2002)
Inside a Mentally Ill Man's Mind
David Cronenberg film that subjectively takes place in the mind of mentally ill Ralph Fiennes, a bewildering film with no easy handholds
Left Behind II: Tribulation Force (2002)
Christian Anti-Christ Film
The second of the Kirk Cameron Biblical End Times films. On one hand, these are quite competently made B movies; on the other the fundamentalist message is unpalatable
Nemesis Game (2003)
Enigmatic Game/Reality Bender
Frustratingly enigmatic film where student Carly Pope is drawn into a game of mysterious clues where people are being killed
Nothing (2003)
Two Characters in a Blank White Void
Quirky and wittily clever film from Vincenzo Natali, director of Cube, where two characters wish themselves into a blank white void filled with literally nothing
Cowards Bend the Knee, or The Blue Hands (2003)
Surreal Silent Movie Melodrama
Another of the surreal films from Guy Maddin, involving incest, strange love triangles and transplanted hands, all shot of which has been shot as a silent movie
House of the Dead (2003)
Zombies/Videogame Adaptation
The first of Uwe Boll’s videogame adaptations and the beginning of his bad director reputation. This is a zombie film by the numbers but it was at the forefront of zombie film revival of the 2000s
Barbie of Swan Lake (2003)
Animation/Barbie Enacts Fairytale
The third animated film based on the popular girl’s doll Barbie. This places Barbie into Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake in an okay telling, if one that suffers from the usual limited animation of Mainframe’s early films
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
Kitsch Surrealism
The best budgeted of Guy Maddin’s films, a renaissance of his familiar kitsch surrealism and silent movie homages
The Triplets of Belleville (2003)
Gonzo Animation
Splendidly original and completely off the wall work of stylised animation from Sylvain Chomet
Barbie Fairytopia (2004)
Animation/Land of Fairies
The previous Barbie animated films had adapted various fairytales but this casts her as a fairy in a magical kingdom – simplistic, but one of the most colourfully animated of Mainframe’s Barbie films
Ginger Snaps Back: The Begining (2004)
Teenage Girl Werewolves
Third of the Ginger Snaps films, a prequel set during the pioneer era with Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle again as sisters taking refuge at a fort under attack by werewolves. The scene-setting and atmosphere of foreboding is superlative
Ginger Snaps: Unleashed (2004)
Teenage Girl Werewolf
The first of two sequels to the Canadian werewolf film. This takes place with the surviving sister placed in a rehab facility and is the best of the trilogy, even better than the first film was in its writing and characters
Cube Zero (2004)
Mysterious Labyrinth
This was the third of the Cube films but has nothing new to add to the mix except a focus on the technicians monitoring the operation and the addition of gore effects
Barbie as The Princess and the Pauper (2004)
Animation/Barbie Fairytale
Here the Barbie films turn to Mark Twain’s classic (non-fantasy) tale of rags and riches and spins it as a fairytale This has the same blank, plastic style of the early Barbie films and is otherwise bland
Eternal (2004)
Elizabeth Bathory in the Present-Day/Erotic Horror
A film about Elizabeth Bathory living in the present day, this comes with the suggestion of erotic allure but disappointingly proves to be a pose without much substance
The Final Cut (2004)
The Editing of Memory
Fine and underrated Sf film set in a future where memory recording devices are commonplace with Robin Williams as a man whose job is to edit these for funeral services
11: 11 (2004)
Psychic Killings/End of the World Prophecies
This Canadian film is a mishmash of hauntings, psychic powers, ghost hunters, possibly imaginary friends and End of the World prophecies that fails to make the slightest sense
Alone in the Dark (2005)
Videogame Adaptation/Monsters
Uwe Boll gained a reputation as the world’s worst director on the basis of his videogame adaptations. Prize exhibit was Alone in the Dark, which abandons the game and is a series of action scenes without explanatory rationale
How William Shatner Changed the World (2005)
Documentary About the Influence of Star Trek in the Real World
Beyond the attention-grabbing title, this is a documentary about the influence that Star Trek has had in the real world. A not uninteresting concept wrecked by Shatner’s condescending attitude to interview subjects
Swarmed (2005)
Killer Wasps
A formula Syfy Channel killer bug film wherein a new experimental insecticide creates a horde of deadly genetically tinkered wasps that run amok through a small town
Left Behind: World at War (2005)
Christian Anti-Christ Film
The third of the Left Behind films with Kirk Cameron facing the Biblical End of the World and the Antichrist. This travels well down into bad movie territory
Neil (2005)
Astral Projection Experiments
Film that assembles interesting a number of SF elements and twists but is killed by its delivery as a pretentious indie film
Beowulf & Grendel (2005)
Epic Legend
An interesting and worthwhile attempt to retell the epic legend of Beowulf but to give it grounding as an historical work. Filmed in Iceland with an international cast
Severed (2005)
Zombie Film
A Canadian entry made soon into the zombie movie revival of the mid-00s and before the copycats started to become tediously familiar and the genre turned to self-parody. This delivers a solid rehash of the essentials – IMHO a better job that Zack Snyder did in Dawn of the Dead
White Noise (2005)
Communications from the Dead
Ghost story about so-called Electronic Voice Phenomenon with Michael Keaton as a widower being contacted from beyond by his late wife. A film that achieves some quite reasonable spooky effect
BloodRayne (2005)
Videogame Adaptation/Vampire War
Another Uwe Boll’s videogame adaptation, this feels slung together from vampire film and sword and sorcery cliches. Among the badly mismatched casting, the most eyebrow raising is Ben Kingsley as the vampire villain
The Stranger Game (2006)
Psycho Nanny
Routine psycho-thriller where Mimi Rogers’ home is invaded by psycho babysitter David Orth
Fido (2006)
Domesticated Zombies Comedy
Charmingly droll film that posits an alternate version of the 1950s where zombies have been domesticated. This has a perfect sense of mood and admirable deadpan playing by all involved
The House Next Door (2006)
Parasitic House
A largely routine haunted house film where Lara Flynn Boyle plays a wife who becomes certain that the house next door is parasitic and preys upon people’s minds