Canadian Days: Rue Morgue Night

When I was in Toronto one thing I always looked forward to was Rue Morgue Night at the Bloor Cinema. Rue Morgue is Canada's premiere horror magazine, and every month they would have a special showcase which involved showing a horror film. It was always interesting and it was a highly anticipated event. Each time I went I had to wait in a long line in the bitter cold just to get in, and I got the impression people typically waited out there for a long time just to experience a Rue Morgue Night. Also, since Rue Morgue was a horror magazine people would express themselves in all sorts of peculiar ways. You might be standing behind someone dressed as a zombie with fake blood dripping down their mouth. Or you might be standing behind someone dressed in drag. I guess in some ways going to a Rue Morgue Night was like going to a Rocky Horror Picture Show. After a hard day of work it was a good excuse for alot of people to indulge in weirdness, which I'm sure kept their sanity.

The first time I went to a Rue Morgue Night they were have a screening of "Phantasm"--the weirdest horror movie I have ever seen. And they were billing this as a special event since it was not only an established classic, but also because people would get to see it on the original grainy film. And not only did you get to see it on the original grainy film there was going to be a question and answer session with one of the actors (Reggie Bannister). When I saw this being advertised on a flyer I thought is this experience really going to out do watching it on DVD? I thought about not going because I'd seen Phantasm, and not only had I seen it but I'd seen it on superior DVD picture quality. But since I had nothing to do in Toronto that night I decided to head down to the Bloor Cinema, and experience "Phantasm" in all its original grainy quality.

When I got there and sat down in the theater they kept telling us we were in for a treat. We were going to see "Phantasm"--the established classic--on the big screen and on the original film. Somebody did mention that the film was old; it had been sitting around since the late-70s, which implied we would really be getting an authentic grainy experience. Then came the big event, what everyone had been waiting for: experiencing a grainy "Phantasm." During the movie people kept laughing because they thought the movie was funny. Somebody once said horror is close to comedy because the stuff that happens in it is just plain ridiculous. The premise of "Phantasm" is an evil alien comes to earth, who takes the form of a evil looking tall man, and turns people and corpses into evil little beings that look like the Jawas in Star Wars. The Jawa-looking-things then run around indulging in all sorts of evil stuff: stalking people, biting them, trying to kill them, freaking them out and in general creating chaos. But there is another reason why people laughed so much through out the movie. The movie is plagued by bad dialogue and sometimes bad acting. "Phantasm" is one of those movies that's good because of its cheesiness, and sometimes cheesiness can be a good thing because it can make a movie more entertaining.

The next movie I watched at Rue Morgue Night was "Fido," a Canadian zombie comedy. Before the start of the movie Rue Morgue held a zombie costume contest. Some people who had shown up looking like zombies were hand picked to come to the stage, and whoever looked the most undead won the prize. Then we watched "Fido." "Fido" took place in an alternate world, much like the universe of George Romero's zombie films, where the dead come back to life and prey upon the living by eating them. It was a worldwide epidemic, and in Canada people were able to fend off the zombies and lived in a sheltered city. Also, people learned how to domesticate the zombies. Once they put a specialized collar on them a zombie was rendered impassive, and these zombies would be kept as pets or used for domestic chores. The movie was like "Lassie" meets "Land of the Dead," or "Leave It to Beaver" meets "Land of the Dead." The entire movie was about a boy's relationship with his pet zombie. He kept telling the zombie to go fetch and to do all sorts of other ridiculous stuff. Also, all the living characters had a 1950s mentality; everyone was complacent, and everyone believed problems--especially the zombie problem--could be dealt with in a clean and efficient manner, which was hilarious considering death was a big part of the movie. Also, families were concerned with "keeping up with the Jones." If another family saw that the Jones had a zombie then they had to have a zombie so they would enjoy the prestige of having a zombie.

Anyone reading this might think "Boy, you certainly did experience alot in Canada." And I did experience alot in Canada, including Rue Morgue Night. One thing I've learned about the difference between big cities and small ones is all sorts of weirdness can come out in the big city, but not in most small cities. When I was in London sometimes when I didn't have anything to do I'd go down to Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street because I could see all sorts of weird and interesting things there. One time I saw these guys who looked like The Clash dressed in drag, and I knew there was a biker bar down there too--things I would never see in Danville. Someone from a small city may disdain such things because their not used to it, and because he or she might feel threatened by such activities. But my theory why people do these sorts of things is because it keeps their sanity. In big cities people are subjected to all sorts of stresses people in small cities don't have to worry about. Big cities are pushier, more crowded, and you often have to deal with people who want to beg you for money more, and big cities can become targets for someone to attack. In London a couple of weeks ago somebody tried to blow up a car in Piccadilly Circus--something people in small cities never have to worry about. I see how the accumulated stresses of living in a big city could cause some one to flip. After a hard week it can be a good thing to get away from reality for awhile, and as far as I'm concerned it's best for people to keep their sanity than to lose it.