Terrors from the Lobby!

I happened across the booth of one of my favourite shops in Toronto, the Hollywood Canteen, while wandering through the otherwise disappointing SuperFan ComicCon back in May.

Since I'm in the middle of researching and writing my new book, The Great Fright North, I'm on the lookout for anything to do with Canadian pop culture horrors. So when I came across a few stacks of lobby cards, I dove right in--and wasn't disappointed!

The films of David Cronenberg were well-represented, as were a few other Canuck classics. Here's a sample of what I found:

Dead Ringers (1988)

The Amityville Horror (1979)

This is actually an American film, which was written by Canadian scribe Sandor Stern, and stars Canadian actress Margot Kidder.

Shivers (1975)

What's really interesting about the Shivers lobby cards is that they have been modified--by hand--to cover up the original title, They Came From Within. The text segment "If you feel nothing can shock you..." masks the first part of the title, while "Shivers" covers up the rest. (You can still see the original title as part of the production credits at the bottom.)

These films likely had five lobby cards apiece, so of course now I will be on the lookout for the ones that I don't have...