Event Details

A double dose of Canadian horror excellence.

About THE OCCUPANT OF THE ROOM

A schoolteacher’s late-night arrival at a hotel in the Alps without a reservation leaves him with no option but to accept the room of a missing hotel guest — leading to a sleepless night full of strange and uncanny occurrences. The narrative debut of Kier-La Janisse, director of the SXSW award-winning documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, and author of the pioneering horror memoir House of Psychotic Women, is based on the classic chiller of the same name by Algernon Blackwood.

DCP courtesy of Severin Films

About GHOSTKEEPER

During a New Year’s Eve snowmobiling trip, Jenny (Rabid’s Riva Spier), her boyfriend Marty (The Grey Fox’s Murray Ord), and their friend Chrissy (Sheri McFadden) veer off path to explore a patch of private property. Stranded by a heavy snowfall, they stumble upon an abandoned hotel and seek refuge for the night. But before long, they meet a menacing woman (Rad’s Georgie Collins) who shares the building with her knife-wielding son (The High Country’s Bill Grove) and a mysterious creature who feeds on human flesh. As the visiting trio comes under attack, they struggle to make a safe escape – and maintain their grip on reality.

Featuring haunting performances from the entire cast and a typically atmospheric score by Paul Zaza (My Bloody Valentine), Jim Makichuk’s Ghostkeeper is an essential entry in the New Year’s Eve horror canon and a dread-inducing descent into wintery isolation and madness. Long regarded as the Canadian answer to Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, this slasher staple is a Canuxploitation classic and one of the enduring highlights of the tax shelter era.

Newly scanned and restored in 4K from the only known complete 35mm print by Canadian International Pictures.