April 2: Forgotten Heroes — Share a superhero movie that no one knows but you.

Rem Lazar is not a comic book but man, he’s a hero and one that has obsessed me since I first saw him as part of the Found Footage Festival.

Director and writer Scott Zakarin may have gone on to create one of the first web series called The Spot, but I always thought that Rem Lazar was either a Christian kid video or something from one of those alien planets that was sent to our world and would always seem like we would never understand it. You know, like it was from Canada.

Ashley (Courtney Kernaghan) and Zack (Jonathan Goch) have the same imaginary friend, superhero Rem Lazar and they paint a mannequin to look just like him. And by just look like him, it looks like the deranged dreams of children left alone for too long.

Those fantasies come true and Rem Lazar (Jack Mulcahy, who was Frank in the first two Porky’s movies) comes to magical life — no hat like Frosty needed — and he’ll go away in a day unless they find his Quixotic Medallion. This will involve battling the frightening CGI video effect known as Vorock, who is played by Zakarin. Yet all they must do to best him is tell him how much they love him. Also: they must sing. Sing a lot.

This was also part of a list of movies that the essential Scarecrow Video was attempting to keep alive after the death of VHS. Nick Prueher of the Found Footage Festival said, “We first saw Creating Rem Lezar on VHS in a stranger’s living room in Denver at about 3 in the morning — ideal viewing conditions for this wonderfully strange artifact from the 80s. We thought it was religious at first — either that or Canadian — because something just seemed off. But it turns out it’s neither! It’s just a wholly original kids movie with catchy songs that are still in our heads years later.”

Now the Found Footage guys are part of re-releasing this movie in high definition for its 35th anniversary. It also has a 30-minute documentary on the making of this oddity with interviews from Mulcahy, Zakarin and composer Mark Mulé. It’s exclusively available on the Found Footage Festival web store.

If I am left to my own devices for long enough, I end up singing songs from this movie. After all, “When I’m dreaming, I’m dreaming of a dream.” You can’t argue with that kind of thinking.