| FEATURE By Angela Espinoza, Arts Reviewer Suck is a Canadian comedy film about an indie band called The Winners travelling across Canada and the U.S. as they rise to fame — that and their bass player, Jennifer (Jessica Paré), has been turned into a vampire. One by one, lead singer Joey Winner (Director & Writer Rob Stefaniuk), guitarist Tyler (Paul Anthony), and drummer Sam (Mike Lobel) turn into vampires, with loyal French- Canadian roadie Hugo (Chris Ratz) always standing by their sides. Hot on their trail are professional vampire hunter, Eddie Van Helsing (Malcolm McDowell) and a mysterious bartender (Alice Cooper) as The Winners make stops at Rockin’ Roger’s (Henry Rollins) radio show and their pal Victor’s (Iggy Pop) recording studio. Additional roles and cameos include Rush’s Alex Lifeson as an American border guard, Moby as Beef, a Buffalo, NY Goth singer, Dave Foley as sleazy manager Jeff, Calico Cooper as a barmaid, and several others. Filmed in Toronto over twenty days and described best as “Rockula (1990) — only good”, Suck has won audience awards for Best Feature at New Port Beach Film Festival, Whistler Film Festival, Calgary Underground Film Festival, and silver place at the Fantasia Film Festival. Rolling Stone Magazine has even said, “Suck has the potential to become a cult classic,” which I full- heartedly agree with. So with all that in mind, you’re thinking this is a pretty huge film, right? Q&A with Paul Anthony At the screening I attended, Vancouver actor Paul Anthony held a ten-minute Q&A session for the audience. Q: “How did you get all those guys to be involved?” A: “Once Iggy got involved, the rest followed.” Anthony explained that one of the producers had ties to Iggy Pop and asked Pop if he wouldn’t mind appearing in Suck. With all the other names involved, it got to the point where Alice Cooper “wanted to be in the movie”. The part of the 12 mysterious bartender was written specifically for him later on. Q: “How were you able to afford all the music?” A: “A lot of it was help from the cast.” Suck features a soundtrack that contains both original music and classic rock tracks by The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, and several of the cast mates, amongst others. Anthony stated that the budget was originally around $1.5 million, but after the musicians got involved, the budget was not only raised to $3.5 million, but they were able to use the tracks for fractions of their regular cost. Q: “What was it like working with Malcolm McDowell, Iggy Pop, etc.?” A: “F***ing great!” To each of these questions, that was Anthony’s general response. One of his stories included Henry Rollins telling them not to look Iggy Pop in the eye. So obviously, Anthony was terrified of meeting with Pop; Anthony ended the story by jokingly saying, “Maybe he just didn’t like Henry Rollins”, to which the crowd laughed. The highlight of the event, and it seems Anthony’s filming schedule, was when Malcolm McDowell was listing his favourite “Kids in the Hall” sketches. Dave Foley, who played a part in forming “Kids in the Hall” and Nicole de Boer (‘Joey’s girlfriend, Susan’), who had a recurring character, then began to act out the skits for McDowell. Anthony received a wild ovation from us, of course. Q: “What was it like playing suspended over a crowd?” Near the end of the film, during one of The Winners’ performances, Tyler (now a vampire) begins flying as he’s playing guitar. A: “I was up there almost the whole day... like twelve hours. But they seemed to be into listening to the same song over and over [laughter]. I didn’t even care how bad my balls hurt, it was that awesome.” Q: “How did you get the young Malcolm McDowell footage? Did you get to meet young Malcolm?” A: “I wish I could’ve met the young Malcolm McDowell. Malcolm himself got the footage for cheap!” During Suck, we get a look into Eddie Van Helsing’s past. Apparently, the queen vampire (Dimitri Coats) killed the lover of Van Helsing, Danielle (Barbara Mamabolo), for which he vowed vengeance. The scene splices together clips from McDowell’s 1973 film O Lucky Man! and modern clips of his would- be love interest performing in front of his stand-in (similar to Weezer’s music video for “Buddy Holly”). McDowell seemed to have loved the project, since he even recorded an intro for Anthony for this event and the few others like it. Q: “[Distraught] Wait, is this the only showing here?” A: “Well, Alliance Atlantis bought rights to the theatrical release at TIFF (2009’s Toronto International Film rock albums (e.g. four of the members — dressed accordingly — walk over a crossway Abbey Road-style) and contains various pop culture references to movies and the current music scene. Suck also features stop- motion transitions, such as marking a paper map with ink and fake blood, and mocking the use of scale models for the ‘miniature effect’, which was used in film as a shortcut around necessary shots — the technique has since been replaced by CGI. Suck is hilarious as a comedy and gory as a horror. Its multiple lighting effects and filters, along with occasional music cues, offer some of the more subtle humour. One of the more intentional cheese factors comes from the original songs, making Suck almost an anti-musical. Obviously it’s not perfect, and it’s still a shock to me when I think of all the big celebrities involved U & K: all you need to know is that it doesn't An in-depth look at a Canadian cult masterpiece Festival). They kept saying they were going to release it and we waited for a year. It’s got one-hundred-and-three American showings, including Asia and Europe [applause], but when we asked about Canada they said, ‘No’.” Unfortunately, the showing this article is about may be the only one that happens in Vancouver. Suck has played at several festivals, and may continue to do so, but as of last week it’s only on DVD % and Blu-ray in Canada. fs “The best price in town ey is at HMV [laughter], I’m not supporting it I’m just saying it’s the best price.” - Anthony So how is it? Suck is a film reminiscent of the early 90s Canadian ‘rock & roll road movies’ by Bruce McDonald (Roadkill (1989), Highway 61 (1991), and Hard Core Logo (1996)), but with vampires. Amongst other ; things, the character of Hugo -= - is a nice touch for what is essentially a love letter to Canada’s rock scene. ee The film is layered with inside jokes towards classic with it, but that’s what makes Suck the perfect candidate for a modern day cult classic. Some parts of it are cheesy, such as the stop motion, and a few of the jokes are old, but the film is nonetheless a brilliant labour of love that is absolutely necessary to own. If I were Rob Stefaniuk, I’d be incredibly proud to say Suck was my movie.