![\"\"](\"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/01\/Phobia_1981__poster.jpg\" "\\"Phobia_1981__poster\\"")
<\/a>Awful film. Cool poster, eh?<\/p><\/div>\n
Everything above is, of course, meant to be a lead-in to the next CanCon film review, Phobia <\/a><\/strong>[M<\/a>] (1980).<\/p>\n Regarded by some as John Huston\u2019s worst film, it\u2019s what I call a mortgage movie \u2013 a lackluster, poorly developed project accepted by an A-level director because it helped offset mortgage costs.<\/p>\n Shot in Toronto, it stars Paul Michael Glaser as a head shrink whose patients start dying in giallo-like fashion. Special thanks to James for facilitating a VHS source \u2013 being a tax shelter film directed by an Oscar-winning director that did make some money and was released internationally, it\u2019s still \u00a0nowhere <\/em>to be found on DVD because no one cares.<\/p>\n That\u2019s something I hope will be corrected if and when the Starlight channel<\/a> debuts. Its mandate is to present new Canadian films, but being realistic, there\u2019s only so much new content at any given time in Canuckle land, so the airwaves will have to be filled with additional CanCon product, including older Quebec films rarely seen outside of the province, more recent films which have either been released on DVD and \/ or fell out of circulation, and maybe that giant catalogue of titles owned by Alliance which the company utterly failed to exploit on video and online venues.<\/p>\n With EOne\u2019s purchase of Alliance Films<\/a> official and the latter\u2019s brand name now dead, EOne can perhaps find new venues to fully exploit the huge catalogue of never-seen-again titles which Alliance failed to touch, even on their own specialty channels. The company seemed hell-bent on acquiring libraries and just sitting on them because it felt good, but it frustrated filmmakers to no end when their efforts to get older work on disc went nowhere.<\/p>\n Witness Darrell Wasyk’s<\/a> weird situation in proposing to release his award-winning H <\/strong>(1990) outside<\/em> of Canada, and making it available as an import<\/em>. Maybe he’ll have better luck with EOne, who could (read: should) set up a new line of native special editions, revisiting acclaimed Canadian films we’ve been denied due to Alliance Apathy.<\/p>\n Maybe the erection of Starlight might also get some of those dentists and podiatrists who own tax shelter films to re-negotiate broadcast rights, since a chunk of tax shelter films (those good, bad, and some enjoyably wretched) have never seen a home video release, and if you’ve got a qualified work caked in dust, why not make some money? The last thing we want to see is another rehash of Littlest Hobo<\/strong> reruns (although I’m betting that evil series will be on Starlight’s first broadcast schedule).<\/p>\n Remember how The Grey Fox <\/strong>enjoyed a 30th anniversary screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in November of 2010, and there was talk of a DVD release? Still hasn\u2019t happened<\/em>, which is proof of how even a critically acclaimed classic can\u2019t find sympathetic, interested parties to get through the rights nightmare. Wouldn\u2019t be surprised if it appears on a U.S. label by 2020 which you & I can import.<\/p>\n Harumph.<\/p>\n Coming Friday:<\/em> A long review of Hammer House of Horror<\/strong> (1980), nicely remastered on DVD by Synapse; and Steel Magnolias<\/strong> (1989) on Blu via Twilight Time.<\/p>\n Coming next week:<\/em> an interview podcast with Fernnado Velazquez, composer of the current box office hit Mama<\/strong>.<\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n .<\/span><\/p>\n Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor Yes, another installment of CanCon 101, featuring John Huston’s much-maligned tax shelter film Phobia (1980), shot in Toronto, and available nowhere. Also: short Editor’s Blog with nods to EOne’s recent purchase of Alliance Films, and the Canadian film channel Starlight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6,5],"tags":[1809,408,1810,557,1789,1811],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-23r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7901"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nKQEK.com <\/strong>( Main Site<\/a> \/ Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"