Pull the Trigger I Dare You!

The weekend quickly approaches and an animated smile makes its way across my lips, I am a very jubilant woman because I have just been invited to a set visit for a local production. One of my wonderful friends who works for a buzzing local website called me up to give me the details and off I went, I take two buses and finally arrive down into mysterious Griffintown. Despite the loud and obnoxious traffic that has suddenly surrounded me, Griffintown still hasn’t been fully developed; it looks shadowy and a little creepy, which gets me even more excited because I am a gargantuan fan of horror films, and of course action films. I am pleased to announce that the set I am visiting is in fact a locally produced action flick with homage to the genre films of the 70’s. Sound like something you would see is it not? Fuck yeah it is! Memorize the title or write it down because this is one flick you are going to want to see: Billy Trigger.

Once I arrive to the creepy yet sexy location, I am brought to the press area and we sit and wait for the cast and crew to arrive and then let the interviews and conversations begin, I see a few familiar faces which goes to show you that the film industry here in Montreal is not as vast as people might think, you can picture it like a family and every production is similar to a Family reunion.

Billy Trigger is an action genre film about a badass motherfucker called Trigger; he is a professional hitman, who gets involved with some bad decision-making. Fred Williamson (The Hammer) plays Pops, the man behind it all who is making Trigger’s life a living hell. Fred has been involved with film since before I was even born! He is professional, witty and very suave. During the interviews he mentioned how everyone behind this particular production has been so passionate, which created an unbelievable harmony on set, especially because the people involved with this feature are hungry for more action films to be made here in Montreal. We had a conversation about why Hollywood doesn’t care about older action flicks and how they can inspire the new wave of action films and action filmmakers. Williamson says they are not “smart enough” to do so and I could not agree more.

Directing this feature is Montreal’s own Christian Viel and local internet personality John Fallon (Arrow in the Head, which is affiliated with joblo.com) wrote the script and is starring as Trigger. Fallon expresses his love for action films and he also mentions how Trigger’s action scenes are depicted as close to reality as they can get. The fight scenes are parallel to those of the 70’s action flicks: gritty, closer to reality and the stunts are done by the actors. Andy Bradshaw helped produce the film, acted in the film and was the stunt choreographer, this guy has a vast knowledge of the world of stunts and explains to the press that “ slow is smooth, smooth is fast” and that each fight scene mixes and matches different fighting styles, which is very exciting and modern.

All in all, I was given just enough information about the film to intensely peak my interest and I am now one curious woman. Montreal will soon be going through a new wave of cinema, especially with all the new and anxious filmmakers floating around, and these filmmakers need to realize that the action film is coming back hard and fast and with a fuck load of retaliation. Hold on to your triggers folks because here we go!

-Andrea Boulet
@AndreaMtl