‘From beyond the land of ice and snow comes…’
The Hyperborean is a 2023 Canadian sci-fi comedy horror film about a whiskey magnate who summons his contentious family to sample his product: legacy casks of Scotch aged 170 years, recovered from a ghost ship in the Canadian Arctic.
Directed and co-produced by Jesse Thomas Cook (Monster Brawl; Cult Hero) from a screenplay written by Tony Burgess (Pontypool). Also produced by Samuel Scott.
The Collingwood Film Company production stars Liv Collins, Ry Barrett, Jess Vano, Jonathan Craig, Justin Bott and Tony Burgess.
Reviews:
” …Cook and Burgess once again prove themselves the natural inheritors of the Canuxploitation crown, delving deep into the outer limits of genre cinema with a fearlessness to match their unhinged humour. Yet for all its eldritch oddities and interstellar, interdimensional excursions, ultimately this is a film about a dysfunctional, damaged yet loving home, and the stories that we must tell about family in order to stay grounded, to keep an even keel and to find healing.” Projected Figures
” …while there is a monster as well as some scares and a good bit of suspense, The Hyperborean isn’t a full-on horror film and doesn’t try to be. Its focus remains on the dysfunctional characters at its centre and how they come together, or don’t, when things go off into The Twilight Zone. And while the resolution may feel a bit sappy, I found it to be a logical, if unexpected, ending that fits nicely with the rest of the film’s themes.” ★★★½ Voices from the Balcony
“The Hyperborean is an inspired character-driven flick that becomes stronger when the characters are bonded together over catastrophes. Cook and Burgess still get their laughs at the expense of “supernatural incompetence” or exaggerated buffoonery by entitled oafs, but they never take their eyes off of the emotional core driving their sci-fi yarn.” Wylie Writes
Release:
The Hyperborean is currently on the film festival circuit playing at Forest City Film Festival in Canada, Hellifax Horror Film Festival in Canada, Hamilton Film Festival in Canada, FilmQuest Festival in the US, Blood in the Snow in Canada and the Soho Horror Film Festival in London, England.
Trailer:
Cast and characters:
Liv Collins … Diana
Tony Burgess … Hollis
Jessica Vano … Lovie
Ry Barrett … Rex
Jonathan Craig … Aldous
Steve Kasan
Justin Bott … Mr Denbok
Michael Masurkevitch … Ian
Greg Collins
Justin Darmanin … Fontano
Marcia Alderson
Filming locations:
Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada
