Canadian Horror Films - 13 Eerie, 5ive and 7 Days

Canadian Horror Films

13 Eerie – Six forensic undergrads, vying for a trainee position with the FBI, embark on a scientific expedition to a remote island that was once used as illegal biological testing grounds for life-term prisoners. Now, the mutilated cadavers of these convicts have come back to life and are savagely hunting them down one by one. Six forensic undergrads, Megan, Daniel, Josh, Patrick, Kate and Rob are assigned to complete a scientific field exam on a deserted island known as Eerie Strait, where life-term prisoners were once held and corpses lay dead. With cameras set up, Professor Tomkins dispatches them into pairs to examine corpses in different areas as part of staged numbers, restricting the pairs from interacting, only allowing their use of walkie talkies to report back to him. Unfortunately these have been accidentally damaged. He also monitors their activities from a surveillance cabin. Shortly, Larry, an ex-con who transported the group, warns partners, Megan and Kate, about finding the unexpected corpse of a skinhead female in a jumpsuit which soon comes alive in their working area. Rob spots the zombie in the woods and tries to warn his partner, Daniel, who dismisses it. Due to the earlier damage, all of the walkie talkies lose battery life and communication is broken. While in the woods alone, the zombie pursues Kate and cannibalizes parts of her. Josh and Patrick hear her screams and see a figure’s movements in the woods, suspecting there is a problem. As Larry tries to inform an initially skeptical Tomkins, who is upset with Larry for inadvertently destroying much of the equipment, Megan finds Kate injured, carrying her back to the student cabin before she dies. Rob, believing something is up, leaves Daniel to go out on his own. As Kate revives as a zombie and Rob approaches her as one after being bitten to death by the tattoo zombie and thug zombie, Megan is forced to gruesomely kill the two of them. The remaining crew splits up and searches for the missing others and Daniel finds Megan. Back at the main cabin, as the zombies attack, Tomkins shoots the skinhead zombie that is outside and inside where Larry botches the Molotov cocktail, the thug zombie is able to pull Larry underneath the cabin to bite him to death. Tomkins tells Megan and Daniel to hide in a school bus. Chased by the zombies, Josh and Patrick seek safety in a prison bus, honking the horn that alerts the others to their location. Leaving the school bus, Megan and Daniel see zombie Larry coming after them. Megan accidentally fires a shot that injures Daniel, but she shoots Larry dead. They are found and they join Josh and Patrick on the prison bus. The zombies attack the bus and they crash the tattoo zombie into a nearby cabin, resulting in Patrick’s death. The thug zombie comes after them and it shot down. They drive away, but the bus starts to smoke and it tips over a branch and crashes, though Megan, Daniel and Josh who sustains a knee injury, all survive. Not long after, the tattoo zombie catches up to them and Megan shoots it, but runs out of bullets. As she is about to be bitten, Josh saves her, driving an arrow through the zombie’s head.

The next day Tomkins finds them. Captain Veneziano drives by and they have him pull over. Megan, Daniel and Josh get into the car as Tomkins attacks Veneziano, who is pressured to admit the island was used for conducting biological experiments on prisoners sentenced to death row and turned into a death camp when the testing went wrong years ago. The tattoo zombie approaches from behind and Tomkins sacrficies Veneziano to save his own life. He attempts to drive with his students, only to realize the keys are clenched between the teeth of the zombie. The final scene shows Megan, Daniel, Josh and Tomkins looking terrified about their fates.

5150 Elm’s Way – Elm’s Way is a calm street in a small town. When Yannick falls from his bike, he knocks on the door of the Beaulieu residence, to call a cab home. Entering the house, Yannick hears a man screaming upstairs. When he finally encounters the source of the screams he realizes that Beaulieu has wounded the man and was holding him hostage. Beaulieu then locks down Yannick in fear of him calling the police. Over time, he learns Beaulieu is a righteous psychopath and fanatical chess player who kills drug dealers, pedophiles and other bad people for a better world. Weeks pass and Yannick remains a prisoner, though is otherwise not mistreated by Beaulieu. He tries to escape, but is recaptured by Beaulieu’s daughter Michelle, who breaks his leg. As he has done nothing wrong, Beaulieu doesn’t want to kill Yannick and eventually agrees to let him go if he wins a game of chess against him. Beaulieu has never lost a game in his life so far. They play chess constantly, but Yannick never wins, though he rattles Beaulieu by once managing to a draw. After Beaulieu’s wife and daughter finally stand up to Beaulieu, they free Yannick. But Yannick has gone mad sitting locked in the room playing chess games against Beaulieu and doesn’t leave, believing that the only option to stop Beaulieu is to win against him. In the final showdown the two play a chess game in the cellar, where Beaulieu has conserved all of his victims and placed them as pieces on a giant chessboard. During the game, Beaulieu’s little stepdaughter enters the cellar and witnesses her dead mother placed as a piece on the chessboard. She is then shot accidentally by Beaulieu, which renders him catatonic. The police arrive, free Yannick and arrest Beaulieu. Four months later, Yannick is still madly obsessed with the interrupted chess game, so thoroughly consumed by the thought of the final position that he alienates himself from his girlfriend.

5ive Girls – Five wayward teenage girls are sent to a reformatory and discover they possess unique powers to battle the ancient demon, Legion, which hold thrall over the sinister institution. The story takes place at St. Mark’s, a Catholic boarding school for girls. One day, a young student, Elizabeth, is studying in a classroom on the third floor when, without warning, she is attacked by unseen evil forces. One of St. Mark’s priest, Father Drake attempts to save Elizabeth from the apparently demonic aggressor, but he quickly proves to be powerless against it and the girl vanishes without a trace. The school is immediately shut down and all of the students are removed from campus by worried families. Five years later, the school reopens. A harsh headmistress, Miss Pearce, rules the girls with an iron fist. Father Drake remains at the school as a teacher, but because of Elizabeth’s disappearance, he has become a drunkard and was found by Miss Pearce at a bar. Five troubled and unwanted girls are left by their families at the school: Alex, Mara, Cecilia (who is blind), Leah and Connie. The girls are strictly forbidden to go to the third floor (the site of Elizabeth’s disappearance). Cecilia and Mara enter the third floor, prompting Miss Pearce to punish the responsible party. Alex takes the blame and is severely beaten with a ruler.

Alex begins to have visions of Elizabeth being possessed by a demon. Other strange things begin to happen, revealing all five girls possess supernatural gifts. Connie is a “conduit”, or a magnet for spiritual activity. Leah can pass through objects (though not doors or walls), Cecilia has “second sight” or what the viewer could interpret as ESP, Mara can heal recent wounds (she heals Alex after her beating) and Alex has telekinesis.

It is revealed that Miss Pearce has brought the girls to the school for a very specific reason and is seen conjuring them to a pentagram on the third floor, after which Connie appears to be possessed. Connie attempts to drown Leah and the demon passes into her while Connie falls dead. The possessed Leah (who can now pass through doors) goes to confront Father Drake, at which time the name of the demon is revealed: Legion. They argue, Father Drake attempts to exorcise her and Leah uses her newfound demon powers to stab him with gold crucifixes. Alex, Mara and Cecilia have been reading Elizabeth’s journal, which appeared after Connie’s possession, and have learned enough about Legion to know that they need to escape. They split up to search for the others, Mara finding Father Drake, Alex finding Connie and Cecilia running into the demon.

After a prolonged fight where Cecilia is severely bloodied and Leah’s head is smashed in with a book, Legion moves on to Cecilia and grants her “first sight”. Terrified, Mara and Alex try to flee, but Ms. Pearce locks them in and breaks Mara’s healing hand. It is revealed that Miss Pearce is Elizabeth’s sister, and is trying to save her from Legion. Mara and Alex the hole up in the bedroom and use Connie’s spell book to create a protective circle. Cecilia/Legion finds them and while she cannot initially penetrate the circle uses her own blood to cover over the lines and then possesses Mara.

Miss Pearce is in another part of the building, chanting. Elizabeth’s body slowly begins to appear before vanishing again. Mara is chasing Alex, who gets stabbed in the stomach. Miss Pearce begs Legion to let Elizabeth go, but is told that they only have four girls and the deal was for five. Alex then uses her own powers of telekinesis to force Legion out of Mara and into Miss Pearce before ramming the demon’s head through a crucifix. Mara and Alex collapse and presumably several hours later, Mara awakes and heals herself, but is unable to heal Alex in time. She begins to leave and encounters Virgil (a man in monkish robes, who appears to be a type of groundskeeper and is seen briefly throughout the movie). Elizabeth comes running down the stairs, whole and alive and greets him as father (cue Mara’s exit). He is happy and excited, until a bloody Miss Pearce grabs him by the throat and transfers Legion to him. Elizabeth screams and cries as the film ends.

7 Days – To avenge the murder of his young daughter a man forces the killer to undergo unspeakable punishments, in this edge-of-your-seat thriller. Bruno Hamel is a thirty eight year old surgeon. He lives in Drummondville with his wife Sylvie, and their eight year old daughter Jasmine. Like many happy people, he is leading an uneventful life until a beautiful afternoon, when his daughter is raped and murdered. From then on, the world of the Hamel family collapses. When the murderer is arrested, a terrible project germinates in Bruno’s darkened mind. He plans to capture the “monster” and make him pay for his crime. The day the murderer appears in Court, Hamel, who had prepared his plan in great detail, kidnaps the monster and later sends the police a brief message stating that the rapist and murderer of his daughter was going to be tortured for 7 days and then executed. Once this task is accomplished, he will then give himself up.

The ordinary life of surgeon Bruno Hamel is destroyed when his daughter Jasmine is raped and murdered in a park. Upon learning that the police apprehended the prime suspect, laborer Anthony Lemaire, Hamel plans to take revenge. He abducts Lemaire while he is being brought to his trial by drugging the officer driving the transport vehicle and brings him to a secluded cabin. Using a remote-controlled computer to conceal his location, Hamel calls the police to inform them that he plans to murder Lemaire in seven days, the seventh day being Jasmine’s birthday. After killing him, Hamel will give himself up to the police. Police detective Mercure leads the investigation to discover Hamel’s whereabouts. Mercure himself suffered a personal tragedy when his wife was killed during a grocery store robbery. Though Mercure acknowledges that the imprisonment of his wife’s killer has not made his life more bearable, he becomes determined to stop Hamel before he commits murder. Over the course of seven days, Hamel brutally tortures Lemaire. Initially frightened and in incredible pain, Lemaire starts to accept his fate and mocks Hamel for not enjoying himself as he inflicts painful injuries on him. Lemaire eventually admits to raping and murdering Jasmine, along with three other girls. Hamel contacts a news station to have the families of Lemaire’s victims informed about his captive’s confession. When the mother of one of Lemaire’s victims disapproves of his actions, Hamel kidnaps her and forces her to see Lemaire. By the seventh day, the police locate Hamel’s cabin. Hamel gives himself up and lets Lemaire live. As the police lead him away, a reporter asks him if he still believes vengeance is right. Hamel responds with a “No.” However, when asked if he regrets what has done, he gives the same answer.