A Halloween movie with a difference. Filmed on location in Halifax, Nova Scotia, GEORGE’S ISLAND (1989) hails from the era of quirky Canadian family films (it’s something of a companion-piece to the previous year’s OUTSIDE CHANCE OF MAXIMILIAN GLICK). A scare show it isn’t, and nor does it function as the cutesy kid flick that was advertised—a likely reason the film, according to Wikipedia “went relatively unnoticed.” If nothing else, director/co-writer Paul Donovan and co-writer/producer Maura O’Donnell deserve credit for netting three of Canada’s finest actors: Sheila McCarthy (I’VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING), Ian Bannen (BRAVEHEART) and Maury Chaykin (WHALE MUSIC).
The young George Waters (Nathaniel Moreau) is a compulsive daydreamer living in an oceanfront town with his invalid grandfather Archibald Waters (Bannen), who claims to be a former pirate captain. In the days leading up to Halloween, George’s uber-strict teacher Miss Birdwood (McCarthy) becomes fed up with his distant air, and enlists the school principle Mr. Droonfield (Chaykin) to investigate George’s homelife. This leads to George being taken away from his grandfather and placed in a foster home by Canada’s draconian social services.
Said foster home is a run by the Beanes (Brian Downey and Irene Hogan), a severely unpleasant couple who force George to stay in a cell-like basement room. Locked in the room next to George is his schoolmate Bonnie (Vickie Ridler), who becomes his companion at an outdoor Halloween festival. It’s there that the kids, costumed as ghosts, are rescued by grandpa, who’s ensconced inside a giant eyeball. They escape in a hole-filled boat they sail, with the help of the ghost pirate Blinky (Chas Lawther), to George’s Island (an actual location named after King Geoge II), where Captain Kidd’s treasure is buried.
Miss Birdwood and Mr. Droonfield follow on a raft, and end up facing down the ghosts of George’s Island. In addition to Binky, said ghosts include that of Captain Kidd (Gary Reineke), who wants to execute the humans in his midst. Archibald and George, however, succeed in dissuading him from that course of action through misdirection and outright trickery.
In the category of modern-day kid-oriented pirate pastiches (a category that includes the 1968 novel PIRATE’S ISLAND and the 1981 film YO HO HO) GEORGE’S ISLAND ranks as above average. That’s despite the fact that the fantasy pirate scenes, marked by unconvincing period detail, a once hip (but now annoying) electronic score and some attempts at Hollywood-level special effects, are lousy, and the romantic tomfoolery amid Miss Birdwood and Mr. Droonfield isn’t much more edifying.
There are, however, enough imaginative touches to make for a memorable watch. There’s an ingeniously designed eyeball enclosure seen in the Halloween party sequence, a Ray Harryhausen-like stop motion skeleton and a man’s head that, in a depiction that freaked out LOS ANGELES TIMES critic Kevin Thomas (who castigated it as “hardly appropriate entertainment for little kids”), is forcibly removed from its owner’s neck; that occurs in an early scene, and in later ones we see the head get tossed around by ghost pirates.
Ultimately, it’s not the whimsical elements that distinguish this film, but the dark, mordant edge. This being a Canadian product, the viewer is never allowed to ignore the unpleasant realities of child endangerment and government overreach that underlie the story, even though the ending (in contrast to those of most Canadian films) is an unambiguously happy one.
Vital Statistics
GEORGE’S ISLAND
Delta Films Limited
Director: Paul Donovan
Producer: Maura O’Connell
Screenplay: Maura O’Connell, Paul Donovan
Cinematography: Les Kriszan
Editing: Stephan Fanfara
Cast: Sheila McCarthy, Maury Chaykin, Nathaniel Moreau, Vicki Ridler, Gary Reineke, Ian Bannen, Brian Downey, Irene Hogan, Gary Reinke, Chas Lawther, Avery Saltzman, Gary Vermier, Scott Owen, Ken Strong, Anna Cameron, Joesph Rutten, Robyn Stevan