Manitoba actress Madison MacIsaac in Elevator Game.
Spooky season is upon us. While getting lost in a corn maze or braving a haunted house is a wonderful way to spend October, sometimes a night in with a movie or a show and a big bowl of freshly popped popcorn is the comfiest fall activity.
If you are looking for a spine-chilling supernatural ghost story or a mind-bending psychological thriller to get your adrenaline running, you’ll want to check out these Made-in-Manitoba Films.
All Fun and Games (2023)
Synopsis: A group of Salem teens discover a cursed knife that unleashes a demon that forces them to play gruesome, deadly versions of childhood games where there can be no winners, only survivors.
Filming Locations: Select Locations in Manitoba
Trailer:
Starring: Natalia Dyer, Asa Butterfield, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Matthew Lupu, Summer H. Howell, Keishon Joseph. Also starring FTM’s own Sydney Sabiston.
Directors: Ari Costa & Eren Celeboglu
Writers: J.J. Braider, Eren Celeboglu & Ari Costa
Cinematographer: Ricardo Diaz
Dark Harvest (2023)
Synopsis: In a small Midwestern town, a deadly annual ritual unfolds when the mythical nightmare, Sawtooth Jack, rises from the cornfields and challenges the town’s teenage boys in a bloody battle of survival.
Synopsis: Beth, a volunteer watchperson of an isolated northern city, battles a plague of depression that transforms the few remaining residents into empty, zombie-like automatons.
Filming Locations: Select Locations in Manitoba
Trailer:
Starring: Niamh Carolan, Jeremy Walmsley, Solange Sookram, John B. Lowe, Darcy Fehr, Onalee Ames
Director: John Barnard
Writers: John Barnard, Carrie-May Siggins
Cinematographer: Markus Henkel
Blood (2023)
Synopsis: Jess, a separated mother and nurse, moves with her daughter and young son Owen back into her old farmhouse. Shortly after settling in, Owen is bitten by the dog, resulting in a mysterious infection from the bite.
Synopsis: Supernatural horror, based on the eponymous online phenomenon, a ritual conducted in an elevator, in which players attempt to travel to another dimension using a set of rules that can be found online.
Filming Locations: Select Locations in Manitoba
Trailer:
Starring: Gino Anania, Megan Best, Alec Carlos, Madison MacIsaac, Nazariy Demkowicz, Liam Stewart-Kanigan, Verity Marks.
Director: Rebekah McKendry
Writers: David Ian McKendry & Travis Seppala
Cinematographer: Brad Crawford
Bed Rest (2022)
Bed Rest (2022)
Synopsis: A pregnant woman on bed rest begins to wonder if her house is haunted or if it’s all in her head.
Filming Locations: Select Locations in Manitoba
Trailer:
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Guy Burnet, Edie Inksetter, Erik Athavale, Kristen Sawatzky, Paul Essiembre, Marina Stephenson Kerr.
Director: Lori Evans Taylor
Writer: Lori Evans Taylor
Cinematographer: Jean-Philippe Bernier
Orphan: First Kill (2022)
Synopsis: After orchestrating a brilliant escape from an Estonian psychiatric facility, Esther travels to America by impersonating the missing daughter of a wealthy family.
Filming Locations: Select Locations in Manitoba
Trailer:
Starring: Isabelle Fuhrman, Julia Stiles, Rossif Sutherland, Lauren Cochrane, Dave Brown, Kristen Sawatzky, Gwendolyn Collins.
Director: William Brent Bell
Writers: David Coggeshall, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Alex Mace
Cinematographer: Karim Hussain
Bring It On: Cheer or Die (2022)
Synopsis: When a cheer squad practices their routines on Halloween weekend in an abandoned school, they are picked off one by one by an unknown killer.
Filming Locations: Select Locations in Manitoba
Trailer:
Starring: Kerri Medders, Alten Wilmot, Sierra Holder, Madison MacIsaac, Alec Carlos, Gino Anania.
Director: Karen Lam
Writers: Alyson Fouse, Rebekah McKendry, Dana Schwartz
Cinematographer: Adam Swica
Toys of Terror (2020)
Synopsis: Just before Christmas, young Zoe, her brother Franklin and their family move into a secluded mansion with a dark past. While the adults focus on renovating the place, the bored kids find a toy chest hidden in the attic and are delighted when the toys inside magically come to life. But bizarre events soon begin to take place – events that threaten the family’s lives. As the special day dawns with gifts piled under the tree, the body count rises, and the blood starts to flow.
Synopsis: A group of college students gets lost in a storm during their snowmobiling trip and takes shelter in an abandoned sanitarium which, unbeknown to them, is home to deformed cannibals.
Filming Locations: Select Locations in Manitoba
Trailer:
Starring: Sean Skene, Jenny Pudavick, Dan Skene, Blane Cypurda.
Director: Declan O’Brien
Writers: Declan O’Brien & Alan B. McElroy
Cinematographer: Michael Marshall
Run (2020)
Synopsis: A homeschooled teenager begins to suspect her mother is keeping a dark secret from her.
Synopsis: Chucky returns to terrorize his human victim, Nica. Meanwhile, the killer doll has some scores to settle with his old enemies, with the help of his former wife.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Fiona Dourif, Michael Therriault, Jennifer Tilly
Synopsis: Driving cross-country, Ray and his wife and daughter stop at a highway rest area where his daughter falls and breaks her arm. After a frantic rush to the hospital and a clash with the check-in nurse, Ray is finally able to get her to a doctor. While the wife and daughter go downstairs for an MRI, Ray, exhausted, passes out in a chair in the lobby. Upon waking up, they have no record or knowledge of Ray’s family ever being checked in.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg, Selkirk, Matlock
Starring: Sam Worthington, Lily rabe, Stephen Tobolowsky
Synopsis: At the prestigious Fairfield Academy, an elite boarding school for girls, six friends jokingly engage in a late-night ritual, calling forth the spirit of a dead former student who reportedly haunts their halls. Before morning, one of the girls is dead, leaving the others wondering what they may have awakened.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Suki Waterhouse, Madisen Beaty, Inanna Sarkis, Stephanie Sy
Synopsis: Three best friends attending a heavy-metal show cross paths with sadistic killers after they travel to a secluded country home for an afterparty.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Alexandra Daddario, Amy Forsyth, Johnny Knoxville
Synopsis: A timid and socially alienated 17-year-old high school student’s life is turned upside down when she switches places with her sinister mirror image.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: India Eisley, Mira Sorvino, Jason Isaacs
Synopsis: When his wife is killed in a seemingly random incident Harry, prompted by mysterious visions, journeys to discover the true circumstances surrounding her murder.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: John Turturro, James Remar, Deborah Kara Unger
Synopsis: A stoner metalhead named Todd Smith, his crushee Jenny, his best friend Curtis, and the geeky Hannah, search their high school for a mayhem-causing Satanic spell book while being opposed by Atticus, the evil guidance counselor.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Alex house, Billy Turnbull, Maggie Castle
Creators: Craig David Wallace, Charles Picco, Anthony Leo
Synopsis: Ten years after an apocalyptic event left the world haunted by ghosts, Roni receives a threatening message from beyond the grave. Joining forces with a mysterious classmate, Kirk, Roni descends into a shadow world that blurs the bounds of the living and the dead-and begins a desperate race against time to stop a cunning killer.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Bella Thorne, Richard Harmon, Dermot Mulroney
Synopsis: Set in the small town of Devil’s Gate, North Dakota, the film examines the disappearance of a local woman and her young son. Schull plays an FBI agent who helps the local sheriff search for answers. Partnering with a deputy, they track down the missing woman’s husband and find that nothing is as it seems.
Synopsis: A horror-thriller centered on a woman living with “face-blindness” after surviving a serial killer’s attack. As she lives with her condition, one in which facial features change each time she loses sight of them, the killer closes in.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Julian McMahon, Sarah Wayne Callies
Director: Julien Magnat
Writer(s): Julien Magnat, Kelly Smith, Agnés Caffin
Synopsis: Following the franchise’s cult classic roots, this new anthology featuring Tony Todd and Lynn Whitfield will scare and thrill with its horrifying twists and social commentary.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Tony Todd, London Brown, Cooper Huckabee
Synopsis: When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlor where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner’s clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to crossover.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Teulon, Winnipeg
Starring: Virginia Madsen, Kyle Gallner, Martin Donovan
Synopsis: After a young mother murders her family in her own house, a detective attempts to investigate the mysterious case, only to discover that the house is cursed by a vengeful ghost. Now targeted by the demonic spirits, the detective must do anything to protect herself and her family from harm.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Andrea Riseborough, Demián Bichir, John Cho
Synopsis: Survivors of a nuclear attack are grouped together for days in the basement of their apartment building, where fear and dwindling supplies wear away at their dynamic.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Winnipeg
Starring: Lauren German, Michael Biehn, Milo Ventimiglia
Synopsis: A fur trapper leaves his wife and daughter behind to kill a rogue wolf in the remote wilderness, but they soon become increasingly worried when a severely injured man shows up to disrupt their peaceful existence.
Filming Locations in Manitoba: Libau, Seven Sisters, Nopiming, Birds Hill
Starring: Devon Sawa, Camille Sullivan, Summer H. Howell
FTM is a member of the Province of Manitoba’s sector council program funded through the Department of Economic Development and Training. FTM builds a highly skilled and adaptable film industry workforce to support the activities of Manitoba production companies. FTM collaborates and partners with members of the film and television industry to identify training needs to support workforce development output.
