There are many reasons to like Canada. I enjoy the accent of the Canadian. Oftentimes, Canadians are quite pleasant. William Shatner is Canadian as is Michael J. Fox. None of these facts are new to anybody, though. I watched a 1990 Canadian horror anthology film that I purchased at a Half Price Books Warehouse sale just five days ago. The name of this film is “With Friends Like These.” This anthology film is comprised of three stories. It is always a good idea in an anthology film to save the best story for last, as was the case in “Creepshow.”
I have seen several horror anthology films in my illustrious lifetime including Creepshow, Creepshow 2, Nightmares, and Tales From the Darkside: the Movie. “With Friends Like These” ranks a bit below these four films, but that does not make it a drag to watch. It feels like either an above-average student film, or a made for tv, or perhaps, made for cable film. I doubt it had much of a theatrical release. It was filmed in and around Montreal, a city I very much enjoyed back in 1996.
The first tale is the weakest. It is about a man who purchases a fancy car with money from his and his fiancee’s bank account. She allows him to use $1500, but he spends $5000 of it, almost draining their savings. The car talks. Unfortunately, it does not have the awesome voice of William Daniels. That is all I will say about this one.
The second story is the best one. This one is about a man who lives in a very dirty apartment. He does not keep his kitchen, or any other part of his apartment clean. He is a slob. In his refrigerator, we see a disgusting, moldy mess of old, spilled food, or what looks like it used to be food. After the introduction of the character and his circumstances, there is a scene in which the man opens up his refrigerator door and there is some kind of creature living inside of it. This creature is composed of only a torso and a head. The torso talks. It has a decent voice, but again, he is no William Daniels. I believe the creature in the refrigerator is played by Russell Yvan. His name is given in the credits as “Creature.” This is the only creature in the film, so I am going with that. The concept of this second story is very interesting—a man’s fridge is so moldy and gross that all of the yucky stuff inside it turns into said mold creature. The creature and the man become pals and the creature gives the man dating advice. I think, all men, at some point need a moldy, green torso living in their refrigerator to give them dating advice. It just makes good sense. The mold creature depends on the coldness of the fridge to survive so when the power goes out in the man’s apartment, the man has to run out to the store to buy ice to keep the creature alive. Chaos does not ensue, thankfully, as this is a fairly straight-forward entry in the triad of tales within this film. Other things happen in this tale, however, I will not provide spoilers just in case any readers of this collection of letters and words happens to be fortunate enough, as I was, to find a vhs copy of this film.
The third story in this triumvirate is fairly decent, though nothing about it is surprising. It is apparent that the filmmakers thought they were delivering a surprising twist ending, however, they slip in a few insert shots too many which spoil the surprise. This tale is about a woman who uses the services of a dating agency to find the perfect man for her. It is cool to see some early 90’s technology in action, such as those old, light brown, clunky desktop computers all businesses had back then. It may have been more interesting to watch a documentary about twenty year old technology, however, we see, instead this tale of the woman who is matched up with what the dating services' computers determine is her perfect man. The savvy reader of this fine review will likely figure out the big twist in this story shortly after the “perfect man” is introduced. The performance of Christopher McCabe as the “perfect man” is good as is the performance of Nathalie Gauthier as the woman searching for her ideal mate. Of the three stories in this anthology, this one relies most on the surprise ending element, however, it is the least surprising. The performances of the leads, however, make it better than it might have been.
The most annoying part of “With Friends Like These” is the horrible in-between stories narration that Norman Fell, tv’s Mr. Roper from Three’s Company was given to read. It is not his fault. The lines he reads as we see various people getting onto and off of a city bus are very bad. The word “relationship” is said, I guarantee, over twenty times during these in between stories connecting scenes. I think the point of the narration is that you never know what you are really getting into when you enter into any given friendship or “relationship” with somebody. The problem is that this point is made using the same words, just rearranged four different times throughout the film, in between the stories. Even though it is always pleasing to hear to sound of Norman Fell’s voice, he is also no William Daniels.
So, why should anyone seek out this film? Just for fun, I suppose. If you are curious about low-budget horror anthology films from the early 90’s, this is just the film for you. I am glad I found it at Half Price Books and am proud to include it in my obscure vhs tape collection. The tape is orange! I think it is my first orange tape! I would love to know more about this film, however, there is very little information about it online. This is one of those movies in which it would be fun to listen to the director or some of the actors involved talk about it on a commentary track. Well, I feel that way about most low-budget films from 1970-1990, but because of the fact that this one is more obscure than normal, my zeal to learn more about it is of greater intensity. Wow! Greater intensity! Indeed.
It would be way too easy to dismiss “With Friends Like These” as a cheap, low-budget film with terrible acting. The acting in this film is pretty good, considering the fact that many of the actors in this film do not appear to have had much film experience. Perhaps they were stage actors in Canada. It is definitely a low-budget project, but for being such, it does provide 81 minutes of entertainment. With movies like these…there will always be something new and interesting to discover.
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