Chainsaw Cherry – A One Shot Story

I simply don’t spend enough time roaming around the city (anymore). This city, Toronto, still feels ‘new’ to me. Partially because I am quite oblivious too much of its heritage and partially because I am not from here, therefor I’ve missed much of its recent history. When time permits I do some research into locations I’d like to investigate before I go out for a walk, other times this happens afterwards. Cued by social media, popular culture, books or museum visits, this city and parts therein appear in places one wouldn’t expect. Well, that ‘one’ being me.

So it happened that one day I decided to check out this ‘Cherry Beach’ location, downtown Toronto. For one, I am still amazed a landlocked city like this actually has beaches (thank you, Lake Ontario), for the other it was surprising to find it so desolate on a beautiful day like that one. Located at the end of Cherry Street on Toronto’s Port Lands and formerly known as Clarke Beach Park, the beach is a dog park, a hotspot for water sports and a popular hangout for swimming – hence the lifeguard station. In the summer months you can find food trucks here as well.

As you can see, all I found though was a deserted lakeside beach with a somewhat decrepit looking structure and a rickety pier. Lovely scene for a picture, so there you have it. Or so I thought. Because as serene as the scene looked once I inspected the negatives, upon some digging I discovered a rather interesting but dark backstory.

Firstly, the site was a filming location of the film Silent Hill: Revelation 3D, a flick I vaguely remember watching but didn’t leave a lasting impression, nor could I have spotted this location in that film. It also appeared in episode 7 of the last season of The Boys, and that one I do remember vividly.

Sidenote: Toronto is host to many a movie set throughout the year and I have simply walked into a few by accident. One’s interest gets piqued when, on a summer day, the street suddenly transforms in a 1960s cityscape in mid-winter, heaps of snow included, wouldn’t it.

Then I remembered I had seen this location in a news broadcast, years ago. At that time it sounded like another film was being produced here, only to find out it was not a staged scenario when two men wielding chainsaws were approaching beach-goers with -by the looks of it- malicious intent. As far as I can remember and research, nothing terrible happened, but the article is still up for reads here. Scary stuff! What at first glance looked to be an idyllic scene turned out to have a larger, somewhat gruesome story to tell. Toronto remains full of surprises…

Thanks for reading!

…just get closer on sneakerzoom.ca

Share this post: