15 Top Canuxploitation Movies

Canada may have been late to the game with its horror output, but the country more than made up for it by producing some of the genre’s finest films.  Their titles need little introduction, as it’s a legacy that stretches from Black Christmas all the way up to more recently released films like Pontypool and Hobo With a Shotgun.  In between, the likes of Rituals, Prom Night, Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine, The Changeling, Ginger Snaps, and the first decade of David Cronenberg’s filmography all hailed from the Great White North, each a part of the distinct Canuxploitation tradition  (with many being homegrown under the auspices of a tax shelter, much to the government’s dismay in some cases). 

But these films—having been enshrined into the canon (or at least well on their way there)—don’t really require another round of praise.  Instead, I’m more interested in digging beneath the surface of the Canadian B-movie soil, which has yielded a truly weird and fantastic crop over the years.  Many are the result of filmmaking luminaries working to find the voice that would deliver later classics, while others are offbeat riffs on familiar subgenres and themes.  Consider this a list of essential B-sides that work in concert with the country’s Greatest Hits to create a vital oeuvre full of body horror, backwoods psychos, gore-soaked slashers, and whatever the hell Things is. 

Brett Gallman is a member of the Online Film Critics Society.  He was raised in and around video stores and hasn’t stopped talking about horror movies ever since.  You can find him on Twitter @brettgallman.

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