Certainly, films like Premonition deserve to be panned for their gaping plot holes (often caused by shabby or rushed editing), cheap special effects, and questionable acting by unseasoned players. It's important to remember that such films are deliberately targeted at the less-than-critical juvenile market.
However, these failings can be explained by the fact that many U. S. producers cannot resist the temptation to cut corners and save significant expenses by filming in Canada, due to the favourable dollar exchange rate and tax credits.
As for the actors and crew, they are, if nothing else, glad to be working and every film they're involved in obviously adds to their resumés with the prospect that producers will notice them and hopefully hire them for superior quality films later on.
Plenty of famous actors began their careers as minor bit-characters in television episodes and cheesy, forgettable films, some of which subsequently became cult classics. No one forces them to participate and if such films end up being blasted by critics, well, that's just part of the business. They receive a paycheck regardless. Many actors would rather accept a minor role in a low-budget film than wait tables or sell vacuum cleaners door-to-door and can you blame them?
Furthermore, filming in Canada allows both American and overseas viewers a chance to see different locations other than the usual, overly-familiar U. S. cities and landscapes they've seen countless times before, while giving sharp-eyed Canadian viewers the opportunity to spot familiar giveaways (shown deliberately or otherwise) which clearly prove (despite the overly conspicuous placement of U. S. flags) that the screenplays are not shot south of the border. Watch carefully for those red mailboxes glimpsed in the background, railway identifiers, vehicle license plates, landmarks, and, of course, the additional, supportive role casting of Canadian actors such as Michael Ironside, Helen Shaver, etc.
Read the end-credits all the way to the bottom for extra clues.
