10 Canadian Horrors Far More Original Than Those From America

By Jack Kingston / June 5, 2014

The rest of the world has always viewed Canada as a nicer, duller, colder equivalent of their southern neighbours in America. Everyone knows that Canadians are so polite that they'll likely apologise to you for any offence that you've caused (literally, as a 2010 study found in showing that 90% of young Canadians would say sorry to a person that bumped into them). Canada's film industry, meanwhile, is known mostly for providing American productions with a cheaper location that can just about pass for the US and for making cheap sequels and knock-offs of already mediocre American originals. All of which would suggest that the Great White North is hardly the first place that you would go looking for imaginative and disturbing horror.

You would be wrong to jump to such a conclusion, though, because just as their music industry has traumatised generations thanks to Celine Dion, Nickelback and Justin Bieber, the best in Canadian horror is truly nightmarish. Behind the decent and dull facade of the average Canuck beats a heart of dark imagination. Directors like Vincenzo Natali and David Cronenberg bring highly individual visions to produce unique and creative horrors a million miles from the formulaic predictability south of the border. This list demonstrates just ten Canadian horrors that are true originals.