Today is National Canadian Film Day. To celebrate, North Bay’s local horror film festival, Bay of Blood, is presenting a screening of David Cronenberg’s classic, The Brood. Cindy Hinds, who played Candice Carveth in the film, will be on site to open the show and meet with fans.
Tonight’s screening also celebrates the film’s 45th anniversary.
“It doesn’t seem real,” Hinds said of such a milestone. “I can remember it like it was yesterday,” even though at the time she was working with Cronenberg, she was only seven years old. Released in 1979, The Brood struck nerves with its depictions of marital breakdowns, questionable forms of therapy, and as the film’s tension build, the director saves the worst for last.
Since its release, the film remains a favourite amongst horror and sci-fi fans, garnering an almost cult-like following in the decades since it lit the silver screens. The movie has been kept alive on multiple DVD and Blu-Ray pressings, including a deluxe edition released by Criterion. That edition also contained interviews with star Art Hindle and Hinds as well.
After The Brood, Hinds worked with Cronenberg again, appearing with Christopher Walken in 1983’s The Dead Zone, a supra-natural creep show based on Stephen King’s novel of the same name. Before The Dead Zone, she also appeared in another Canadian production, the horror film Deadline.
“I only had Megan Follows to compete with,” for roles, Hinds joked, “there wasn’t anybody except me and Megan. She had Anne of Green Gables, and I was doing all of the horror movies. It was kind of bizarre how it became a typecasting thing. I did The Littlest Hobo and stuff like that, but the majority of my bigger roles have been horror.”
After those big roles, Hinds stepped away from the camera’s eye, but is still very involved in the arts scene, and has maintained her ties with North Bay. She’s a Canadore grad, and after some time away, she has returned to live in the Gateway City.
Hinds was a great help to Toronto’s Blood in the Snow film festival when it was it its early years, and since returning to town has also been involved behind the scenes with the Bay of Blood Festival, which returns for a second year over the weekend of May 17th to 19th. She believes in supporting independent filmmakers “and I’m a huge supporter of any indie artist. I lean towards film because that’s my background.”
See: New film festival brings the scares to North Bay this week
Clayton Windatt, who helps to produce the Bay of Blood Festival along with Sébastien Godin and Stevie Lyons, is eager for tonight’s show. He also reflected on the greater meaning of the day and appreciates that National Canadian Film Day highlights the work of so many Canadian directors, actors, and crews.
“It emphasizes to people that Canadian film means something and stands out,” Windatt said, and he would like to see more productions “be put front and centre” for audiences.
National Canadian Film Day events run throughout cities in Canada, and Cineplex is a major supporter of the cause. Tonight’s screening of The Brood takes place at the Cineplex in North Bay, at 300 Lakeshore Drive. The show is at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free.
David Briggs is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of BayToday, a publication of Village Media. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.
