Jay Brazeau Movies

Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator, From Beyond) tackles the work of H.P. Lovecraft again for his episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series, Dreams in the Witch-House. Ezra Godden, who starred in Gordon's Dagon, plays Walter, a grad student who, naturally, rents a room at a creepy old house. Bad signs abound, from the reclusive downstairs neighbor, Masurewicz (Campbell Lane), to the gruff, mean-spirited landlord, Dombrowski (Jay Brazeau). The room itself is kind of a hole. Then there's all that mysterious late-night pounding and chanting. But, hey, the rent's cheap. One night, Walter is awakened by screaming, and runs next door to find his attractive neighbor, Frances (Chelah Horsdal), and her little boy, Danny (David and Nicholas Racz), being terrorized by a large rat, which runs into a hole in the wall. When Walter goes to complain to the uncaring landlord, crazy old Masurewicz asks him if the rat had a human face! Things get even stranger. He has vivid dreams of a witch visiting him and seducing him, but the dreams leave real physical evidence behind. Walter, who is studying string theory, begins to suspect that there is a portal to another dimension within the building. Maybe old Masurewicz isn't so crazy after all. He seems to know all about the witch, and urges Walter to get out while he still can. But Walter suspects that the witch (with help from her familiar, that ugly rat), is after Danny's innocent blood, and, having developed a romantic attraction to Frances, he's determined to keep her and the boy safe. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

An alien race who had earlier been liberated from the Goa'uld Cronus (Ron Halder) by the SG-1 must be rescued again when the vengeful Cronus goes on a rampage. This time, however, the SG-1 rescue effort is met with resistance by the aliens, who are fearful of future retribution. Meanwhile, Teal'c (Christopher Judge), whose father was killed by Cronus, launches a dangerous vendetta of his own. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This unusual Canadian addition to the Scandavian film movement Dogma 95, which emphasizes a realist style with minimal artifice, focuses on a Romanian photographer adrift in the confusing world of Vancouver. Forty-year-old Petru (Peter La Croix) manages to get a job as a night watchman in an aging shipyard. His grumpy boss (Jay Brazeau) offers him a place in a low-rent neighborhood filled with artists. One painter relishes urinating on his work while a pretty young sculptor (Gina Chiarelli) encourages the Romanian to show his photographs. Noroc was screened at the 1999 Vancouver Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Debuting over the CTV network on January 23, 1998, the hour-long Canadian drama series Cold Squad was a precursor in both style and substance to the American weekly Cold Case. The series involved the concerted efforts of a dedicated Vancouver detective unit to reopen and (hopefully) solve unsolved murder cases, some of them several decades old. Julie Stewart headed the cast as Sgt. Ali McCormick, the unofficial head of the squad. There was a great deal of personnel turnover during the series' seven seasons on the air, with a complete supporting-cast overhaul at the beginning of Season Three (see the huge cast list below). The winner of eight Gemini Awards, the 98-episode Cold Squad ended its Canadian run on June 4, 2005; it was picked up for syndication in the United States on September 15, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Popular comedienne Joan Rivers and her real-life daughter Melissa portray themselves in this made-for-television movie about their family's trials and tribulations in the 1980s. After suffering through some public blows to her career, Rivers' husband Edgar (often the butt of her jokes) committed suicide. The film shows how the mother and daughter struggled to save their already troubled relationship in the wake of the devastating death. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

John Wayne Gacy was a respected member of his suburban Illinois community -- he was an active member of several service organizations, ran his own business, and entertained children as Pogo the Clown in his spare time. But Gacy had a terrible secret, and before he was finally brought in by the police, he had raped and killed over 30 young men and buried them beneath his house. To Catch a Killer is a made-for-TV movie that examines Gacy's life and crimes, and Joe Kozenczak (Michael Riley), the cop who finally brought John Wayne Gacy (Brian Dennehy) to justice. The supporting cast includes Margot Kidder and Meg Foster. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In writer/director Anne Wheeler's Bye Bye Blues, a blue-collar family finds all sorts of unorthodox means to confront the tribulations of World War II. In Angel Square, Wheeler deals with a more contemporary subject: random street crime. Ned Beatty stars as a standard-issue husband and father in a "safe" neighborhood. Beatty's sense of security is violated when he is brutally beaten by a youth gang. The familial spirit of Bye Bye Blues is carried over into the climax of Angel Square, with Beatty's neighbors uniting to track down his assailants. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Accompanied by Richie (Stan Kirsch), Tessa (Alexandra Van Der Noot) storms down to the courthouse to argue about her recent parking tickets. Almost immediately, both Richie and Tessa are taken hostage by a gang trying to free their leader, Bryan Slade (Andrew Divoff), who has just been sentenced to life imprisonment. In his efforts to rescue his friends, Duncan (Adrian Paul) is "killed" right before the eyes of a SWAT team. To avoid being exposed as an Immortal, Duncan is forced to carry out the rest of his rescue mission in secret, aided by feisty janitor's daughter Belinda (Andrea Libman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV western stars Rick Schroder as a hotheaded cowboy who guns down the man responsible for the death of his parents. On the run from his victim's powerful father, Schroder is sheltered by old codger Wilford Brimley. Brimley seems to be operating out of friendship, but his reason for keeping Schroder alive is deliberately obscured until close to the end. Blood River was written by John Carpenter, a name usually associated with science fiction and horror. Though set in the Wild West, the film was lensed in Alberta and British Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a Manhattan police detective looks into the strange death of a peer who was ritually killed in Chinatown. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide