#vhs compilation

Grail paperback achievement unlocked. Pin is one of my favourite films. A friend in Vancouver found the novel in a book shop and it arrived in the post tonight.

The Midnite Film Society dives into the pre-VHS era with a look at three Super 8 digests from the ‘60s and ‘70s.

Before the commercialisation of home video in the 1980s, one of the only ways you could watch horror flicks in your home (other than late-nite TV) was by project these condensed adaptations of classic horror films on your living room wall.

They usually ran 8-10 minutes (roughly the length of a 400ft. reel of Super 8 film) and featured select scenes from the films. Some of them were really well edited: Castle Films, owned by Universal, did a really awesome job adapting the classic Universal horror flicks into an abbreviated format (see: The Mummy). Others, like Ken Films, cut them more as ‘highlight’ reels, which were still pretty cool.

You could buy them in drugstores and camera shops, order them from the back pages of Famous Monsters of Filmland, or rent them from a local library.

While the digest era is most often associated with classic horror like Universal’s Dracula, Frankenstein and ‘50s sci-fi, many horror flicks from the ‘70s also got the Super 8 treatment. Many of them were also edited onto 400´ reels, meaning 18-19 minute cuts. The Exorcist, John Badham’s remake of Dracula, Alien, among others were released, and are all pretty wild. The one for The Exorcist quickly sets up the story and then goes straight to the gross stuff.

Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy on Super 8 (1972)

Merry Christmas! I just released another edition of the Saturday Morning Cartoon Fun Times VHS compilation. This one is overdue! The arrival of Thundercats in 1985 was the first time my love for all things Masters of the Universe was questioned. I remember the two shows playing back-to-back after school. He-Man’s economic animation did not hold a candle to this new show.

Did you collect any Thundercats stuff? My favourite toy was the full-size Sword of Omens that my godmother got me for my birthday. The cat-eye lit up with the press of a button. I only had a few of the figures, one of which was Jaga. I lent it to a friend and apparently his neighbour stole it. I did have a good collection of the mini figures, including the mini Cat’s Lair. And the Panini sticker-book was tops.

A massive six hour compilation! I’ve been sitting on a stack of Christmas tapes for some time now and put together a holiday-themed comp. It’s a mix of animation and live-action — stuff that I watched a lot as a kid.

It features A Garfield Christmas Special (1987), A Christmas Dream (1984, with Mr. T & Emmanuel Lewis, the Koopa Klaus episode of the Super Mario Bros. Show (1989), Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (1978), A Chipmunk’s Christmas (1981), Christmas on Division Street (1991, featuring the original commercials) and The Christmas Raccoons (1980). Plus a solid hour of holiday commercials from the 80s in between the segments!

After a nearly year-long hiatus, I’ve released the 13th edition of The Midnite Film Society!

This one focuses on Canadian horror, featuring one of the best creepy doll films ever made. The film in question hasn’t seen a proper HD release, was only released on DVD in the late ‘90s, and no 35mm or 16mm prints are known to exist in archives or collector circles. Someday it’ll surface. I’m happy I held onto my VHS copy.

A primer on Canadian horror

The roots of Canadian horror cinema start in 1961 with Julian Roffman’s 3D flick The Mask (no, not the Jim Carrey one, although they hold striking similarities). The genre evolved in the 1970s when filmmakers like David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman took advantage of tax production credits that existed at the time that helped expand the industry but also drew the ire of the public. The artistic and commercial merits of Cronenberg’s Shivers, for example, were debated on the floor of the House of Commons and was the focus of a Saturday Night magazine article headlined: "You Should Know How Bad This Movie Is. After All, You Paid For It."

What’s in the box?

This compilation features several trailers for celebrated Canadian horror films. The main feature, Pin, is one of my faves and arguably one of the greatest Canadian horror films: a psychosexual thriller from 1988 about a young schizophrenic man and his anatomically-correct doll. Terry O’Quinn as a cold, stern physician father. A young David Hewlett. And a creepy-ass medical study doll.