I’ve got a few things to say this week about the “death” of cinema, but first I want to pay my respects and talk about The Candyman, Tony Todd.
Todd passed away on Wednesday, Nov. 6. When I first heard the news, it was truly upsetting to me. As a longtime devoted fan of horror movies, I have to say there was nobody scarier to me than The Candyman. Todd’s visceral performance in the original 1992 horror classic terrified and unsettled a young Tyson in ways that Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger never did.
I remember when I was a young teen I spent many a night, often times on a dare from friends or my brother, gamely attempting to summon The Candyman by saying his name five times into a bathroom mirror, only to chicken out and decide against finishing it.
With that said, Todd wasn’t just The Candyman. He had a long career filled with tons of varied non-horror roles, and his onscreen presence was captivating in every single film and tv show he appeared in. Rest In Peace, Tony Todd. You were a legend of the screen and by all accounts, a consummate professional in the film and television industry.
Now, back to the “death” of cinema.
With the recent announcement that the Landmark Theatre in Campbell River will be closing in January, leaving the Gate House Theatre in Port McNeill the only place to see movies on a big screen in the North Island, I definitely felt a little bit saddened, but then I quickly realized it’s ultimately just business and the market will always dictate what works and what doesn’t.
While movie theatres are indeed closing across Canada, I firmly believe first-run movies will always be available for people to see on a big screen. There will just be less companies and less locations. In other words, you'll have to take a longer drive to find the closest movie theatre to see the film you're interested in.
If you're wondering why this is happening, it's thanks to the rise of numerous at home streaming services. Movie theatres now seem to only really be profiting these days off of generic Marvel and DC films, as well as random horror films that generate "good buzz" like Longlegs and the Terrifier 3 recently did.
The reality is, streaming has caused an overly saturated market to drastically shrink. There's really only room right now for one or two first-run theatre companies to be able to operate, which is why a lot of them are closing. It's no different than what happened to movie rental stores and retailers like HMV that used to populate every mall across the country. When the market began to shrink due to the effects of streaming, the vast majority of companies pulled out of the industry.
Despite the market continuing to shrink, you can still find movie rental stores around. They're all independently owned now (no more Rogers Video, Blockbuster, etc.) and are very scarce, but they do in fact still exist. Also, while HMV closed its 102 locations in Canada back in 2017, you can still purchase physical media here at Sunrise Records stores, whose website says they are now the leading Canadian retailer of music, film, games, and pop culture items.
Bottom line, while I do feel sorry for the youth who can't drive and want to experience non-superhero films in an actual theatre, at the same time, I grew up in Port Hardy, a 4,000 population town in the middle of nowhere, and I still managed to cultivate a love for cinema despite being a kid stuck in a bit of a cinematic wasteland.
Tyson Whitney is an award-winning journalist who was born and raised in Port Hardy. His family has lived in Port Hardy for more than 40 years. He graduated with a degree in writing from Vancouver Island University in 2008. Email: editor@northislandgazette.com
