By YASMINA KETITA
Starring Ron White, Gillian Barber and Jeff Schultz
Written and directed by Richard Martin
Summit Entertainment
Film festival season is upon us, and what better time to revisit the 1989 Canadian horror film MATINEE? Filmed in the fall of 1988 in Chilliwack, British Columbia, MATINEE (aka Midnight Matinee) mostly takes place in a small town’s local movie theatre, where a murder occurred, causing its closure. For two years, the murder remained unsolved, and the reopening of the theatre for a horror film festival stirs up controversy as well as more killings.
Written and directed by Richard Martin (son of comedian Dick Martin of TV’s Laugh-In), MATINEE features a slew of actors who have appeared in The X-Files, and to quote Randy from Scream: “Everybody’s a suspect!”. Quite often, when I bring up MATINEE, most assume I’m referring to Joe Dante’s 1993 film of the same name. When a film shares its title with others that came before it, there can be one of two outcomes: Either online search engines will yield the older film, resulting in further investigation, or the hugely successful film will diminish the awareness of the independent creatives who released their films years before. I’ve run into the latter situation more. My fellow film nerds must’ve also reiterated statements like: “No, not the Will Smith one – Bad Boys (1983) with Clancy Brown!” and “I meant Suburbia (1983) with Flea!”. MATINEE has slipped so far down into the cracks that it feels like it was buried under piles of dusty bones. While it focuses less on the murders and more on the small town drama (and for this reason, it feels more like a thriller than horror), it’s still worth watching on a cloudy autumn day..
MATINEE opens with a movie within a movie. A crowd is seated at the Paramount Theatre, watching a horror movie. In this film, a couple is getting it on in a cabin in the woods before being brutally murdered. I’m unaware if Martin intentionally paid homage to Kevin Bacon’s death in Friday the 13th, but then again, I’m willing to bet that Scream 2’s opening scene is an homage to MATINEE’s beginning and ending. While the horror film unspools on the silver screen, a man in the audience is killed, resulting in horrid screams from his girlfriend, Kelly Williams (Kerry Sandomirsky).
Two years pass, and chief of police Alan Jason’s (Ron White) only leads on what has become known as the “Massacre Theatre” case are a series of cryptic notes. Despite letters of protest, the Paramount Theatre reopens for another horror film festival and reinstates projectionist Marilyn Williams (Gillian Barber) and theatre manager Earle Gardner (Don S. Davis). Earle’s office proudly displays horror movie posters for the Canadian masterpieces Pin and Hide and Go Shriek (featured in a previous Rewind Zone column).
The murder mystery is just one component of the film. Another is the interpersonal drama between the characters and their strained relationships. The dramatic performances by Marilyn’s daughter, Sherri (played by Beatrice Boepple of A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Child), and her boyfriend, Lawrence (Jeff Schultz), cause mounting tensions between them and her mother, who is battling her own turmoil with the return of her ex-husband, Heath Harris (William A. Davis). Heath is the director of one of the horror films playing at the festival, but his personal agenda includes coercing Sherri into returning with him to California. There’s also strife between Alan and local reporter Geoff (Timothy Webber) and romantic tension between Alan and Marilyn. Further conflict erupts when Marilyn’s other daughter, Kelly, comes back after escaping the trauma of witnessing her boyfriend’s murder two years prior. When bodies start stacking up again, Alan struggles to solve the case and eliminate suspects, including the theatre’s queer-coded employee, Warren (R. Nelson Brown).
I appreciate the setting and atmosphere in an ‘80s movie, and MATINEE has that nostalgic, Canadian vibe. Interiors with wood-panelled walls and vintage Pepsi logos and beautiful British Columbia exteriors adorned with colourful fall leaves, take me back to my childhood growing up in Alberta. My movie-going experience has changed over the years, and my interest in seeing new movies in the theatre has dwindled. I’m grateful for art house theatres that program old and new artistic independent movies, and there’s something magical about actual film projectors (remember those?) and flashing bulbs on a marquee. MATINEE celebrates these elements. It’s definitely reminiscent of Popcorn (1991) and another movie that takes place during a film festival: The Last Horror Film (1982), which was shot without a permit at Cannes.
