‘I wanted to shoot at a coffee shop here and they were thrilled. I wanted to shoot at a coffee shop in Toronto and they wanted thousands of dollars,’ says director
Kyle Popovich wants to make Barrie another Hollywood North.
Popovich recently directed and filmed his new short film, titled Brain Freezer, in the city, which he has called home for most of his life.
The film, described as a chilling story about Sophie, a supernatural girl who lures predatory men into her home through dating apps. It stars Penetanguishene native Emma Charlebois and Vaughan’s Jordan Kaminski, and was filmed in one day in June in his grandmother’s Painswick-area garage and living room.
“The Barrie location was very important to me, and is very important to my company. Ontario Creates, which I have been working with, gives a 10 per cent regional bonus to studios that are outside of Toronto. It’s really important, I think, to be inspired that you don’t have to be in Toronto to start a film company,” Popovich said.
After attending Vancouver Film School and living out west for more than a decade, Popovich returned to Ontario, eventually making his way back to Barrie in 2022.
With film work being scarce, the 33-year-old Innisdale Secondary School graduate started by directing a play last year for Theatre by the Bay, but has recently moved from backstage to behind the camera to film Brain Freezer, which he describes as a “psychological slasher.”
Barrie filmmaker Kyle Popovich.| Image supplied
“Independent film, horrors, is pretty much the genre you can do that fans will show up. You don’t really need star actors. You can come up with a good idea and that can take you as far as you need to go,” he said. “There’s no blood and gore, no nudity — only the upchucking of a Slushie.
“However, I can come up with an intense way of not being gory or graphic I think may be a future of horror that gets it back to being family friendly,” Popovich added.
With the Ontario Create program encouraging the industry to spread its wings geographically, Popovich said he believes it is an exciting time for local creators to collaborate, not only with one another, but with the government, as he has done with Ontario Creates.
“Barrie has been expanding. There is economic growth here … and visually, the Barrie lakeshore is absolutely gorgeous. I have been able to shoot it several times for music videos and people often think it’s Toronto,” he said.
“I think that’s a good start, not for comparing ourselves, but showing we can have the same culture visually.”
The only thing really missing in the city, compared to Toronto, is simply the film community, said Popovich, adding producing in Barrie is more of a community affair, rather than a business arrangement, as it is in Toronto.
“Everything is really set up similarly. Everything you want from the big city, you can get in Barrie. I would argue it’s actually easier. It’s a lot less steps that you have to hurdle through to get productions made,” he said.
“I wanted to shoot at a coffee shop here and they were thrilled. I wanted to shoot at a coffee shop in Toronto, and they wanted thousands of dollars.”
Popovich hopes to launch a local meet-up group, where people can get together, talk about film and get to know other locals in the industry.
“There are at least 200 people here who are in need of work,” he said.
Brain Freezer is set to premiere at the Eyesore Cinema on Bloor Street West in Toronto on Oct. 4.
Popovich has also submitted the film to the Barrie Film Festival, and is hopeful it will be accepted, so that local audiences can also see it.
Emma Charlebois and Jordan Kaminski star in Brain Freezer, a short film shot in June 2025 in Barrie. | Image supplied