Exploitation Nation

Christmas On Mars (2008)
D. Wayne Coyne & Bradley Beesley
Warner Brothers Music/DVD
1.85

This experimental, somewhat campy, Science-fiction film is a longtime labor of love for the psychedelic Rock band The Flaming Lips. The film has taken nearly a decade to produce from the script to the screen and was made on a shoestring, often in their own backyard on homemade sets. The members of the band play all the key roles, perform the music and naturally wrote, produced and directed the thing. This is art filmmaking at its most insular. But luckily it is also pretty good.

The story deals with a rag tag group of astronauts whose job has been to begin the very first stages of colonization of Mars. They are living in a space station and have apparently been there for some time. It is Christmas eve and things are tense. The gravitation devices are going bad and the converters for the air supply are also malfunctioning. The main objective for the team is to see if life can be created on Mars and thus begin a new colonization. A baby is forming in a giant mechanical uteri device with a live in mother who feeds it from a mechanical umbilical cord from her own stomach to the baby’s pod. The main character is a Major Syrtis whose job on this evening is to try to gather the troops together for a Christmas party. But he’s having trouble because he’s having some rather disturbing hallucinations involving dead babies, weird vagina monsters and other birth imagery. The guy who is supposed to play Santa for the party has flipped his lid and run out onto the surface of Mars and froze to death. Seems he was having the same hallucinations, but even worse. Then into this whole madness comes an alien who keeps his spaceship made of light inside his mouth and looks like the little alien guy on The Jetsons, but normal sized. He will play into all the manias of the people in the station in a very savior type fashion.

All in all, this ends up playing like a acid trip, Timothy Leary penned version of 2001 meets the Nativity story. You’ve got the virgin birth, the selfless acts of kindness, the starchild etc. There is quite a bit of discussion about how humans aren’t meant to live in outer space, yet by the end they seem to have dealt with it in some positive fashion. The madness seems to have come less from the act of living in space, then from the fears and frustrations of the oncoming events. I also think there is something being said about loneliness and frustration too as our lead hero spends the whole movie basically walking alone trying to talk and connect with people, hoping they will end up at a gathering that ends up being a bust. He continually blames his feelings on being in space, but when it is probably more to do with just being isolated and lonely.

This isn’t a “hardware” type sci-fi film. There is very little gadgetry or the like in the movie. Instead this is a slow moving, almost trancelike “head” film that tries to bring you along into a bizarre little world. There is a lot of really striking imagery throughout the movie from the pod the baby and mother live in, to the blown out lighting of the alien walking on the face of the planet. Then there is all the vagina imagery…

The fact this was made by a group of musicians and not filmmakers is very striking, as it is consistently interesting to look at. The pace flags and bogs down more than a few times, and the story gets a bit muddled here and there. But more often than not, this is an interesting, visually arresting achievement.

Wrestlemaniac (2006)
D. Jesse Baget
Anchor Bay
1.85

The idea of a killer Luchador wrestler movie is an inspired one. And casting Ray Misterio Sr. as the killer is a pretty solid move in the right direction as he has a solid fan base, and is menacing enough to pull off the part. Too bad so much of the rest of this movie is cookie cutter crapola that it doesn’t really rise to the idea at hand.

A group of highly obnoxious twenty-somethings (well the girls look a lot harder rode than that, so twenty-something is being generous) are in Mexico looking to go shoot a porn video. so you have the “director” easily the most obnoxious fuck in a movie in a long time (though oddly not nearly as obnoxious as some real life porn directors like Matt “I wish I was Marilyn Manson” Zane or Kid Sparkle), a fat guy “camera man” the ho’s and the stoner who owns the van. One of the ho’s is played by an ex wrestler chick, so you know she is going to be the one who makes it to the final reel. Her crazy hair and inflated lips actually made her look like a legit porn chick, but she never takes off her clothes. These dimwitted asswipes go to a deserted town, after Irwin Keyes (the scary guy from House of 1000 Corpses) tells them not to. And naturally the Ghost of the crazy Luchadore starts bumping them off.

After a reallllly painful first half hour where you want to reach into the TV and start strangling the little fuckers yourself, the movie picks up a bit. In fact the murder of the annoying “director” is satisfyingly brutal and made me laugh out loud. There is also a couple of sequences a bit later that inspire a slight bit of dread such as when the fat kid and other porno ho find the wrestlemaniac’s lair and there are dozen’s a people’s faces nailed to the walls. See since he’s a Luchador he has to unmask his opponents, but since they aren’t wearing masks he rips off their faces instead! Okay, its stupid, but it supplies some decent grue along the way. Then immediately after that is an actually a cleverly directed scene where the fat kid and the killer square off and instead of showing it, the camera goes outside the double doors and we hear the slaughter going on.  Then the other girl comes crawling out all bloodied and screaming, only to have the killer walk out and get her seconds later. It is actually a very effective moment (that they fuck up moments later by having the fat kid still be alive) that shows that these people are capable of a better movie than delivered.

After this point it is like the director just threw up his hands and decided he was just going to make a goofy horror movie and not worry about anything else. You could start a drinking game for whenever the wrestler chick has a close up of her ass. When her shorts get “accidentally” ripped off and she is forced to spend the rest of the movie in her underwear, we get even more close ups of her ass. She has a nice butt, we get it. Then she, white shirt and all, hides in a barrel full of water… I’m not sure the director even cared about the fact he was making a horror movie at this point. The scene where she hides with her legs spread wide enough to drive a truck up her cooch is just hysterical.

And yes it has a shock ending that is just silly and stupid that is supposed to allow for a sequel. I certainly hope not. To add insult to injury, there are outtakes of the fat kid comically rapping during the end credits! Dear lord, these are the kinds of movies that are getting funded! Someone put up a budget for this!

2008-11-23
04:17:22
Andy Copp

Black Dragon aka Super Dragon aka Tough Guy (1974)
D. Chin Ku-Lu
BCI/NAVARRO
2.35

This is the second feature in the latest Exploitation Cinema double feature from BCI/Navarro doubled with the Bolo Yeung chop socky Chinese Hercules. I decided to wait on that one until I had some friends together because Bolo is always good for some laughs, so I went for Black Dragon instead. if you go by the box art Black Dragon stars Ron van Clief as an ass kicking machine in the Phillipeans. But in reality the movie is actually called Super Dragon and Ron is a supporting player and dubbed to boot! the actual star is one Jason Pai Paio plays Tai Lin a kind hearted farm boy who travels to the Phillipeans after his more successful brother comes back from there a rich man. He goes there hoping to become the success his much more aggressive and savy brother has become. Naturally the second he sets foot in the big city he encounters opium junkies, gambling and is pick-pocketed. The thief ends up becoming his friend, since the guy is just a homeless waif trying to make ends meet. Soon Tai Lin is working on the docks and ends up in a brawl trying to stop a worker from being beaten. His bosses are impressed with his kung fu skills and hire him on a plant boss to keep the workers in line making him sign a contract, even though he can’t read it (they make him draw an ox head since that is what his name means!). Soon he discovers why he is needed to watch over the docks when Ron Van Clief and his buddies attack the ship yard wrecking havoc. He fights them off but things aren’t quite what they seem after he has a run in with them at night and they don’t kick his ass but tell him that he is working the wrong side. Along the way he saves a virgin from the clutches of a brothel who ends up living with him and the thief and it is her that tips him off that his bosses are up to no good. It is only a matter of time before his brother shows up as part of the enemy cartel.

Super Dragon is really pretty standard 70’s Kung Fu territory. There’s no wacky supernatural angle to spice things up like in Five Deadly Venoms, or just plain bad taste weirdness like in Two Crippled Masters. It is straight ahead stuff with a kid lost in the big city who ends up butting heads with the bad guys. The Kung Fu scenes are good, even exciting, though not exceptionally violent. There is a little bit of nudity in the brothel scene and as soon as the virgin girl shows up you know she is rape bait, but it happens pretty much off screen. All in all it is a perfectly servicable, fun and well mounted action/martial arts film. The joy in these things is basically watching the martial arts played out in widescreen shots that don’t cut away, and this certainly delivers on that.

The print here is a mess frankly. It is thankfully, letterboxed, but looks to be from a video source (or at least the opening credits are) because there is some tape glitching in the first couple of minutes. After that there is scratches, splice damage, sound drop outs that eliminate entire lines of dialogue and mismatched colors from shot to shot. This is the worst I’ve seen a Kung Fu movie look since the dodgy releases from the old Xenon collections. I’m perfectly fine with these releases not being totally remastered in keeping with the “grindhouse” appeal of the films, but this is totally in bad shape. There are 70’s porn films coming out in better shape than this one. I checked out a few minutes of Chinese Hercules and thankfully it looks to be in better condition.

I was a huge fan of the BCI Welcome To The Grindhouse series. But the Exploitation Cinema series that has replaced it seems to have dropped in quality with lackluster transfers and cut films. With Satan’s Slave being the TV print, Mausoleum being a full frame print that is matted (and an R rated print that is missing footage, though its debatable if that extra footage has ever existed) and now this. They are not batting a very good average for the new line of releases. They are however adding some nice bonus extras like a commentary from Ron Van Clief during Black Dragon which is nice. The discs are dirt cheap, but some better quality control needs to happen.

Here’s the trailer. Notice they try to sell it completely on Ron Van Clief

2008-11-19
02:58:44
Andy Copp

Here’s the kind of news I love to hear around these parts. Underground filmmaker, historian, and film program curator Noel Lawrence (who also hosts the JX Williams film Archives a fascinating project unto itself) has started a new DVD label devoted to Avant Garde and Underground Cinema. Having formerly worked with the awesome and outstanding label The Other Cinema with filmmaker Craig Baldwin (director of such important works as Tribulation 99 Sonic OutlawsSpectors of the Spectrum and among others) Lawrence has spread his wings to his own label now. The company is called Provocateur Pictures and he aims to bring you the best and the brightest that Hollywood is afraid to offer. Here is whatwas said about it in the official press releas.

“(Los Angeles, CA)  2008 saw the launch of Provocateur Pictures, an independent DVD label for alternative cinema.  Founded by curator and co-founder of Other Cinema Digital, Noel Lawrence, Provocateur aims to create a space for challenging and offbeat works to thrive within an increasingly competitive media marketplace.

“When Hollywood rejects your work, I’ll screen it,” says Lawrence. “When your film is called weird or subversive, I’ll embrace it. I am interested in taking chances on the films that other distributors appreciate but decide against releasing because they are too deemed too risky. It is my belief that there is an audience for quality alternative cinema.” Providing major backbone and backup, Provocateur has enlisted Microcinema International, to distribute its film catalog both in the retail and institutional sectors. Founded in 1996, Microcinema is a leading international rights manager, exhibitor, and specialty markets distributor of the “moving image arts.”

“We are proud to be distributing Provocateur’s releases,” says Joel S. Bachar, Founder of Microcinema International. “Noel’s vision and curatorial aesthetic is in perfect sync with our distribution efforts and his acquisitions will add significant value to our repertoire of unique and diverse titles.”

They are starting off with a bang with a set of four incredibly interesting and exciting titles that sound like they should be blind buys for any underground/DIY/Indy film headcase (hey that us around here!). Covering topics as diverse as Fidel Castro, the musicianship of John Cale, experimenal horror, and finally the balls to the paint peeled walls of the New York Cinema of Transgression as curated by the legendary Jack Sargaent writer of such must read books as Deathtripping: The Cinema of Transgression, Death Cults, Suture The Arts Journal and Contra Cinema Contra. All of which should be on your book shelf RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!!

Here’s what the press release had to say about these mouthwatering upcoming DVD…

Provocateur Pictures released its first title, Rob Nilsson’s “Words For The Dying,” in September, a revealing cinema verité portrait of the former Velvet Underground musician, John Cale, in creative collaboration with Brian Eno. Director Nilsson (“Northern Lights” – Camera d’Or, Cannes, “Heat and Sunlight” – Grand Jury Prize, Sundance) follows them to Moscow, London and Wales for the recording of a new album, “Words for the Dying”, built around four Dylan Thomas poems.

2009 will see many more releases from Provocateur Pictures including:

“Experiments in Terror 3″ – The third installment in Noel Lawrence’s collection of avant-garde works that borrow tropes and footage from the horror genre.  Pounding a stake through the heart of genre convention, this shocking program expands the cinematic language of fear, breaking the chains of narrative logic and leaving only the black void of the infinite unconscious. Includes work from Mike Kuchar, J.X. Williams, Clifton Childree, Jason Bognacki, Carey Burtt, and a collaboration with Marie Losier & Guy Maddin.

“Fidel” – Saul Landau’s controversial 1969 profile of Fidel Castro.   Fidel drives around the countryside, talks to locals, philosophizes and plays baseball in this personal profile of the leader which chronicles a unique moment in Cuban history, ten years after the revolution. “The great quality of this remarkable film is that it is educational in the best possible sense. It gives you a feeling for what revolution - any revolution - is actually about, what it means in all its implications and how it affects the lives of the people. I found it completely absorbing from the start to finish. A tapestry for history” - Ralph Gleason, Rolling Stone

“New York Nihilism“ – Curated by critic and author Jack Sargeant (“Deathtripping,” “The Naked Lens”), NYN is an anthology of works from the seminal 1980s underground film movement known as The Cinema of Transgression. A mix of sex, death, hate, and power, this DVD showcases a cross-section of works from these radical underground filmmakers, most of which have never been released on video in the US outside of hard-to-find artist’s tapes. The final program is under wraps for now but let’s just say “the usual suspects” are involved.

Well, lets just say that this news gives me hope in small indie DVD labels again. So lets make god damn sure these guys survive by getting the word out. Independent cinema is not the kind of shit you go pay ten dollars to see at your local art theater when some overpaid comedian decides to do a serious movie. Independent Cinema isn’t bought and paid for by Quinton Tarrantino (though I think he has good taste in movies that he lifts from). Independent CINEMA is these kinds of works. Movies out in the cinematic battlefied, strown with broken relationships, shredded credit cards, stolen footage and sometimes time in jail. Broken hearts, broken bones, and lots of broken laws all in the name of fucking ART! THIS REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED! Because Provocateur Pictures is on the scene and making sure we are getting the stuff no one esle is gonna let us see. So giddyup friends and neighbors, exploitation and cult movie lovers and find yourselves a burrito and someone to love, because the heat is one with these guys!

ABOUT PROVOCATEUR PICTURES

Provocateur Pictures champions the practice of cinema as an art form.  We promote alternative visions from the contemporary underground as well as oddities from the archives that challenge, stimulate, inspire…provoke.

Provocateur Pictures is exclusively distributed by Microcinema International

For more info, go to: http://www.ProvocateurDVD.com

ABOUT MICROCINEMA INTERNATIONAL

Founded in 1996, Microcinema International is a leading international rights manager, exhibitor, and specialty markets distributor of the “moving image arts.” Microcinema International specializes in the acquisition, exhibition, and distribution of independently produced works of an artistic and socially-relevant nature.

Our mission is to seek out, curate, exhibit, promote, and distribute compelling works to a broad audience via existing and emerging mediums. This mission is realized through exhibition-based events, web-based platforms, educational outreach, modern marketing techniques, and digital and physical distribution.

For more info, go to: http://www.microcinema.com

We here at Exploitation Nation Welcome you all with wide Open arms. When the girls get here, we’ll have them show ya their boobs in appreciation….

2008-11-18
01:02:38

Andy Copp

Killer’s Delight aka The Sport Killer aka The Dark Ride (1979)
D. Jeremy Hoenack
Code Red/ Media Blasters
1.85

Fairly tame but well made thriller based on the Ted Bundy murders that was made while the slayings were still going on. The movie opens with a van stopping on a side of a San Francisco hillside and a man getting out carrying a nude girl. He throws the body into the air and it freeze frames on her flying corpse and the title comes up. Except it is the title The Sport Killer, not the on package title Killer’s Delight which is never really explained anywhere. The movie kicks in with another murder of a young woman who is hitchhiking with her shaggy dog. she is picked up by this same van. Cut to later and a bevy of cops led by James Luisi as Detective Vince De Carlo. Seems a man and his son found her nude corpse at the bottom of a gulch with the dog. One rather haunting shot shows the dog, still alive refusing to leave the side of his former owner’s nude corpse. As the EMT’s are taking the body away we hear the little boy who found them ask if the dog is alright. A fairly realistic touch I thought. The movie has been on seven minutes and there has been two murders already.

The film settles  into a fairly routine police procedural at this point with De Carlo bringing in San Francisco police Detective Mike (played by Martin Speer) to help him with the case since there have been murders of young women in his jurisdiction too. They hit the pavement together to tract down the killer who isn’t slowing down. The killer begins targeting girls at a local swimming pool. The disappearances there cause the cops to stake it out, but this only gets the pretty young pool attendant killed on one of the films more harrowing scenes. You really think she won’t get killed since movies tend to let this type of girl go. But not in this case. And the killer still manages to elude the cops and pick up more girls from this area, as he escalates his crimes. It becomes a cat and mouse situation, as the cops end up having to break some laws to figure out who he is, and then the heat is on.

The movie has some sleazy moments, as the opening credit shot will suggest, such as when the killer strips down two teens in his van (one with early large fake breasts) and begins to break her fingers and arm. But the kills scenes are at their most effective when we see the aftermath and the film shows them as b/w crime scene style stills. You have to remember this was 1979 before the deluge of TV true crime shows were this kind of thing was the norm. So this was a pretty groundbreaking way to present the material. And it is still striking and effective today. Once the killer’s identity is revealed and we get the standard Mommy fixation reasoning it loses its footing and becomes a bit more of a standard thriller. But a lot is to be said for the nihilistic, punch you in the nuts ending that only the 70’s could get away with.

The DVD is really nice, with a great picture. Code Red has done a terrific job restoring an obscure movie. The ultra low budget almost never shows, except maybe in the scens when they are talking to the police captain, were it is clearly not in a a police station at all. The DVD is loaded with extras, including deleted scenes with George Buck Flower. Unfortunately these scenes have no audio as the sound track for these scenes were lost over time. There is a very short interview with the director and actor John Karlen who you may remember from some Hammer films and the great Daughter of Darkness. Plus an alternate opening credit sequence using the title The Dark Ride.

Altogether it isn’t a groundbreaking film, but it is at times a tense one, and certainly well made. The camerawork and editing are consistently strong, and the acting is top notch. So for a low budget film it is first rate and well worth recommending.

2008-11-15
17:35:35

Andy Copp

RAGE (1980)
D. William A. Graham
USA Home Video (VHS O.O.P.)
1.33 Made For TV

This made for TV drama is probably out of place on a blog titled Exploitation Nation as there is really nothing very exploitative about it, though it does deal in potentially nasty material. David Soul, most known from Starsky & Hutch, plays Cal a blue collar man who is arrested one morning bright and early for rape. He quickly tried and sent to prison for 30 years in a special correctional institute for sexual offenders that specializes in therapy and treatment. He maintains his innocence of course even though he is befriended by the other inmates who are very open about being rapists. The thing is, the are RECOVERING rapists. See they are all under the care of the head doctor Borski, played by James Whitmore, who is using experimental regression therapy and other psycho-analytical therapudic techniches to get these men to confront their inner demons. In the process figuring out why they committed the crimes they did. The supporting cast of thugs and rapists are played by some outstanding actors such as Yaphett Kotto, Craig T. Nelson, Tom Noonan, and a very young Robert Davi. Naturally our lead dude eventually relents that he indeed did commit the crimes he was accused of, and in fact more than he was caught for. then the movie begins the journey into his past to see what made him the man he is today.

Rage is a liberal humanist look at how to deal with monsters. As a character study it is an interesting movie that holds together thanks to earnest and heartfelt performances fromt he pretty much the entire cast. Even TV heavy Vic Tayback throws in a few memorable scenes. But the problems are in the script in that the psycho analysis that is supposed to explain why this man hates women  and has become a rapist is pretty thin to say the least. they really screw up in one scene by giving us a flashback to his childhood trauma that is almost laughable. Where as no other moment for any character provides any flashbacks to their pain. Instead we watch and listen to them acting out what happened. and it is chillingly effective. But for the lead we instead are shown this cackling fat woman with a kids hand being pushed towards her, and instead of it being horrifying, it is just kinda lame. Maybe its years of hearing child abuse stories in hundreds of other movies but this trauma seems so mundane that it would seem to hardly register on someones radar these days.

The idea of humanizing a group of rapists for an entire movie as we see what makes them tick may seem like a bit of poor taste for a film. The movie unfortunately leaves the victims and women’s viewpoint pretty much out of it. Even the lead’s long suffering wife refuses to leave him, even after she is told the truth. The horror of rape is mentioned several times, but it is never really felt, as they all seem like pretty good guys just going through a rough spell in their lives. The movie really could have used a counter balance character of someone who was in there who really just got off on the power trip of the crime and could not be rehabilitated. But then that would fly in the face of the thesis of the movie I suppose. The therapy session scenes are kinda creepy too in that they are all touchy feely with the characters all rubbing and touching each other a little too much for comfort. I know if I was dredging up all kinds of memories abour being molested as a child, the last thing I would want is some sex offender rubbing my naked belly.

So this movie is a bizarre little curio from a period when made for TV movies tried to tackle issues and attracted very good actors as well. It is not a great movie, but it has some value. But its no I Spit On your Grave!

Death Game (1977)
D. Peter Traynor
VCI
Full Frame (Bad VHS Transfer too!)

This fairly mean spirited suspense romp predates the similar Fatal Attraction by a decade. though just because this got there first doesn’t necessarily make it the better movie. This also has a lot in common with very seventies home invasion movies like Death Weekend aka House By the Lake as well, where crazy people spend a good portion of the movie trashing someone’s house.

Seymore Cassell plays an approaching middle age business man whose family is called away when his son has to have emergency surgery. This leaves him alone in his house on his birthday. That evening two young pretty blonde girls arrive on his doorstep in the rain, played by Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp. The girls claim they missed their ride and are lost and need to use the phone. They end up having to wait, and since he is bored, and a bit lonely he oblidges them. Before long they are making themselves at home and things are pretty groovy. They seem like good gals. But when he finds them naked in his hot tub, they waste no time seducing him into a threesome. Well not really seducing him, more like pouncing on the dude. The next morning he wakes up thinking they should be gone, but instead finds they have entrenched themselves in his home and basically have no plans to leave. They inform him that Jackson (Sondra Locke) is seventeen and Donna (Colleen Camp) is only fifteen and that if he calls the cops he will go to jail for statutory rape. Then they begin the cat and mouse game of tormenting him. Beginning psychologically, but upping the stakes to hitting him with mace, tying him up and killing his cat.  It’s all out war on the old man by the end.

Basically this is one man’s descent into hell for committing the sin of infidelity. But unlike say Fatal Attraction where the Michael Douglas character has a chance to make a reasonable decision not to do what he does, George (Seymore Cassell) really doesn’t here. Sure he could have said no I suppose. But it all happens so fast that the movie really kind of shows how something could happen when it shouldn’t have. The movie clearly stacks the deck in George’s favor by not only doing this, but by making the girls instantly unlikable from the moment he wakes up the next morning. Their behavior at the breaksfast table is supposed to be grating to George, but it also is disgusting to the viewer as well. As the movie progresses, you steadily wait for them to get their commupance, not so much because of what they are doing to George but because of how they are acting period.

The acting in this film is surprisingly good. I’ve never been a fan of Sandra Locke. I’ve always thought she was freakish looking and frankly a bad actress (and don’t get me started on her only directing attempt Ratboy, holy shit that movie sucks!). But here she plays a convincing psycho bitch maybe a little too convincingly. Colleen Camp plays the stuck in adolesence, sexually stunted, psycho of the two with Daddy issues and is equally as good (not to mention has a great set of…ah…talents). Seymore Cassell, whom we are all used to seeing in Cop or Mafia roles these days is good as the put upon hero, but its weird to see him play a victim after years of him kicking ass and being a tough guy.

Technically the movie is all over the place. The lighting is particularly good, with great use of colored lighting, especially greens and blues. The editing is a bit wacky with some shots moving so fast it is hard to decern what is going on, but then the craptastic transfer could account for that too. The worst part of this is the craptacular score and music. The theme song “Good Old Dad” will have you comtemplating petitioning to get rid of Father’s Day just so there’s never a chance it will ever be played again. But the porno music during the sex scene is hysterical. Thankfully during the final third or so the music begins to fit the movie, unliek the rest which is just goofy.

And then there is the ending. I wont say what it is, except that I used to write endings liek this to my stories in Junior high school because i thought it was ironic. Then I got older and realized it wasn’t ironic, it was stupid. I never thought in a million years I would see an actual movie use this as a plot device (that wasn’t a comedy anyway, at least not in a Robert Hiltzik movie. If this was Sleepaway Camp I could see this making sense).

Overall this is fairly satisfying stuff that is held together by strong perfromances. It doesn’t really go anywhere that other movies of that time period hadn’t already had gone, and the ending is a cop out and a half that needs to be seen to be believed. But as a time waster, you can do a lot worse. The VCI DVD is simply a port of a VHS double featured with some straight to tape 90’s actioneer called Murder Rap which I have not watched yet.

Here’s a clip

And Here’s that damn “Good Old Dad” Song during the Opening Credits.

Here is Always Somewhere Else (2007)
D. Rene Daalder
Cult Epics
Full Frame

This documentary from cult film Dutch immigrant cult film director Rene Daalder (Massacre At Central High, Population 1) tells the enigmatic story of his friend, Artist Bas Jan Ader. Also a Dutch immigrant to California during the 60’s they both followed similar paths with one glaring exception. Ader’s final act of artistic expression led to his mysterious death in 1975. As an act of performance art Bas Jan Ader set across the sea to Europe in the world’s smallest sail boat. Called a “walnut shell” by a neighbor it was barely big enough to hold one man. The boat made it to the destination. But Adar was not on baord. He had been lost at sea. This final act of artistic fatality has grown to legendary status creating various myth. Daalder has set out to sift through them to find the man behind them, and possibly what became of his fellow countryman.

He interviews everyone from Bas Jan Ader’s long suffering wife (the scenes of them sifting through the room full of his things that she has kept is very toughing), and his brother, to various Seamen who talk about the lure of the sea.  Whe also get to experience Bas Jan Ader’s artistic work, which seems to be as family member says based in an affair with failure. His most famous photographic work were self portraits of him in depressed states or crying that sent a notion of a man in a state of remorse of desperation. Then he discovered the medium of film. It was here that he found his most epic battle yet. The battle between man and nature. Most specifically the force of gravity. In his first film he climbed atop his one story house with a kitchen chair and sat on the roof and simply waited a moment for gravity to take effect. Before long he was tumbling down the roof and onto the ground. This would become the theme of his films, The battle between him and the fall to the ground and that moment when he would give into the invisible force that would inevitibly pull him to the ground. The “failure” to beat this natural force would be the focus of his work for the remaindure of his life. Until he would give into it completely when he went to sea

This documentary also follows the life of Rene Daalder and his concurrent rise as a filmmaker durinf this same time period. We see film clips of his early work, interviews, and even a very enlightening look at Massacre At Central High where he points out that the main vehicle for killing in that film was inspired by Bas Jan Ader. That the deaths in that movie were all based in gravity.

All in all this is a beautiful, intelligent, touching and sad portrait of a man trying to find peace through art and only finding it in a fool hardy act that destroyed him. The artworld took years to embrace the man as a legend for this act, but as per usual it took the extreme for the artist to find his way.

This dvd includes a second dvd with Bas jan Aders bittersweet films. There is also a Q&A session from the premiere of the film  at the Egyptian theater and a video documentarion of Ader’s art exihibit from 2008.

Wet Wilderness (1976)
D. Lee Cooper & Robert Thomas
After Hours Cinema
1.85 (Enhanced for 16×9)

Once upon a time there was this weirdo crossbreeding of horror, gore and porno. Not the crass frat boy styled bullshit that you see nowadays where they know that most porn consumers are into gore and titties. But weirdo honest to god attempts to tell fucked up stories that crossed the line into horror territory. How weird it must of been to the all night masturbators to being wacking off in their seats to suddenly be faced with scenes of a woman with a machete in her crotch or a dude hacked to death with a hatchet. But this movie offered both in an attempt, though maybe wrongheaded, to be an actual movie. Porn had tried detective stories with the Johnny Wadd movies, many comedies and some dramas and even The Devil In Miss Jones hit on supernatural themes, so why not try a gore porn (technically this is not the first one to do it either. The first is a real oddity called Hardgore (1975) that is far more gory and fucked up than this one).

The story, what little of it there is, finds a single mom, her son and daughter and their hippie chick friend camping in the woods. When the daughter and hippie chick wander off for some lesbian hyjinx (man the hippie girls hairy armpits are a fright!) a muscle bound, machete weilding maniac in a yellow ski mask appears. He makes them suck on his sex muscle, then makes them make it with each other before checking the hippie for oil in the fudge tunnel. The daughter runs off during this destraction and the maniac stabs the little hippie chick in the hairy pubis with the machete complete with nasty splash of blood on her tummy.

Before long he catches up with the family and is forcing them to play incestuous reindeer games with brother and sister while he violates the Mom who keeps looking offscreen for directions. Numerous times. Somehow in the midst of the (not very) confusion Sis makes a break for it again. She seems to make a habit of leaving people in a lurch. Its her lot in life I suppose. So Mom and Son are forced to make the beast with two backs by the Masked Maniac with the word LOVE stenciled across his forhead in marker.  Sis finds a Black Man tied to a tree in the forest to which he replies “Cut me down! That maniac tied me up here three days ago!” Then his ropes accidentally fall off on their own. Before she can untie them both. Naturally the maniac, with Mom in tow, catches them and makes the black fella and Sis make some friction too. The cutaways to Mom looking shocked and sad are shot at night, even though the rest of the scene is during the daytime. Eventually Mom gets her some sexual chocolate too before it all ends badly for the poor brother who waited three days for this. I won’t spoil the surprise (not really) ending.

This nasty little number has built up a decent cult following thanks to really shitty bootlegs that have traveled the underground circuit for years. When I say shitty, I mean like fifth generation, full of static shitty. But the  movie’s goofball charm still played through, Part of that charm is the weirdo one take appeal of the action. If anyone has seen the skits on Mad TV making fun of the Dolemite movies where it looks like everything is one take, even if actors blow their ques, the camera zooms in wrong, etc. This is exactly like that. The action is clearly staged but it feels like the actors are trying it for the first time and are not quite sure what they are doing. The repetitive nature of the sex scenes grinds the movie after while so the brief running time is a blessing. But the weirdest attribute to the film is the completely stolen soundtrack. Wet Wilderness was scored completely with music from Psycho and Jaws, and some other Hollywood favorites. This was not an unusual practice for pornos as the films usually flew under the radar of the studios and were thought of as kinda disposable. It is certain no one thought that thirty years on these films would be rediscovered on a home viewing format and collected as cult films.

But here comes the pain. After Hours DVD of Wet Wilderness has some serious issues. So much that it has already brewed a small shitstorm in the cult film collecting community about changing films for release on DVD. So lets get the obvious out of the way first. That wacky stolen score that makes WetWilderness so fun? Its gone. But lets be realistic for a second, it was never gonna make it onto a legitimatly released DVD in the first place. Universal would never license their music from two of their most beloved Box Office hits to some skanky and horribly offensive porno roughie because fans demand it stay intact. It is a trade off. Do you want the film on DVD but with new music, or do you not want the movie at all (well the old bootlegs I guess). But with that comes another caveat. The movie is more than just rescored. It is entirely redubbed too. Since they were obviously working from a film print of the film (and a damn nice one too I might add) there is no way to seperate the dialogue tracks from the music track, so it appears to put in new music they had to record new voices too. This will undoubtedly piss off a LOT of purists out there. I can understand why it would. But once again it comes back to the question of wanting it on DVD or not at all. I will say the new music fits the movie really well, actually better than the original stolen music. The original music was goofy, making it funny and reminding you of those other movies. This new music-concrete score is much more menacing and vibrant. The movie is still goofy, but it gives it a bit more edge. Now the new voice dubbing is not as successful. The original had some hillbilly sounding redneck who could have just jumped ship from Deliverance. Now we get a voice that seems deep and somewhat processed and frankly a little too sofisticated for this movie.To everyone’s credit the kept the dialogue word for word intact.

Now for the other issue with this disc, and it is an ongoing issue with many discs from After Hours Cinema’s classic Adult movies line. The aspect ratio. Most of these old porn films were shot on 16mm (this one certainly was) which is an aspect ratio of 1:33 or full frame as regular folks know it. Meaning that it should take up a regular square TV screen. These releases are LTBX but weren’t shot in a ratio that called for that. So that means to achieve the matting (black bars at top and bottom) that image is covered up. Which is something us who have argued FOR ltbxing have argued about for years, but I digress… So what you get is tops of heads are cut off, chins are cut off in close ups etc. In Wet Wilderness that nasty shot of the Hippie Girl with the machete in her groin and blood on her crotch? Most of it is underneith the bottom matting so you can’t see it. I compared it to my old bootleg and there is quite a bit of picture missing. Also the shot were the maniac first appears the girls making out are almost completely below the picture and the top of his head is above the picture. So why do this then if picture is being lost? Because they are reformatting the picture so it will fill the entire screen fo those who have the new fangled Widescreen TV’s which displace the images at approximately 1:78 or 16×9 in the video world. So on a widescreen TV you souldn’t see the black bars, but you are aslo loosing major picture so it will fit on your whole TV. Just like before ltbxing back in the day on square TV’s was cropping off the sides to make the whole picture fit. Its the same thing, just now the top and bottom are being lost, and not the sides. Now this isn’t the case on all movies. Just ones that are 1:33 and cropped/matted to this new ratio.

After Hours has done the right thing on a few of their discs and given the option of a full screen and 16×9 edition of a film in the same package. I’m sure that is expensive and cost prohibitive to do. I’m thankful they did in on Hideout in the Sun and Sexual Freedom In Denmark both outstanding packages. But they need to consider that these films are primarily being bought by cult film collectors (I really cannot see some urban masterbator buying Wet Wilderness to whack off too) and these guys are fanatical about these kinds of details. On various message boards there is already people crying foul of this release because of this issue. After Hours really needs to rethink their stance on matting these films. Original Aspect Ratio is important to the collectors.

Otherwise the picture looks great. The print they used has some speckling and dirt here and there, with the occassional scratch. But compared to what we’ve put up with until now this is a revelation. It isn’t perfect, but in my opinion it looks damn good. And compared to my bootleg theres a couple of shots extra here. Nothing of consequence, just some transitional footage of the forest, river and such, but for completists its there.

Also in the package is another porno sickie called Come Deadly which I have yet to watch, but will soon. Also included is very good liner notes and a fold out poster of the outstanding cover art.

2008-11-06
01:42:12
Andy Copp

Un Chant D’ Amour aka The Song Of Love (1950) ***1/2
D. Jean Genet
Cult Epics
Full Frame B/W

Jean Genet is a counter culture hero for his outre’ writings that blasted through the glass ceiling of acceptable topics dealing with homosexuality, crime and poverty. Such books as Our Lady Of Flowers, The Balcony and Querelle (later made into a film by Werner Rainer Fasbinder) were hot stuff in their time, in fact down right scandalous. But are now widely considered classics. But his one and only foray into cinema was a shocking film that started life as a bit of porn for gay collectors that eventually became an underground legend, got people incarcerated and was considered lost for years. Now thanks to this restoration from Cult Epics you can see why this film was considered so scocking in 1950.

shot completely silent, and presented that way on the DVD, the disc opens with an introduction by film historian Jonas Mekes who was New York’s premiere authority on the truly independent and avant garde cinema in the 50’s and 60’s. Mekes was among the first to see Un Chant D’ Amore in France and was wowed by its in your face visuals and stunning lyricism. Here, he tells the story of how he smuggled the print into the United States by cutting it into pieces small enough to fit into various pockets and literally carrying it through customs on his person. The film contained enough sexual content to gaurentee a federal obscenity conviction if nabbed on the way into the United States. But Mekes believed in the film to the degree that he risked showing it anyway one on US soil. he showed it in New York and was indeed arrested for obscenity for this film and Jack Smith’s queer oriented but brilliant Flamming Creatures which had a seperate screening. Mekes got off for the Genet film but got a conviction for Flamming Creatures. But Un Chant D’ Amore rightfull took its place along side Kenneth Anger’s Fireworks and Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet as personalized, underground gay cinema masterpieces. then the film was basically unseen for years.

The film itself tells the story of two men in prison. It begins with disembodied shots of an arm swinging a wreath of flowers from a jail cell window. The window next door has an arm haning out of it also who is tring to catch the flowers to no avail. Inside the swinginer’s cell is the young man of the story. Young, well built, with a tattoo on his arm (rare and dangerous in the time this was made)  he is the quintisential boy toy. He dances to himself to music we cannot hear, sexually swaying to the beat. Beyond the wall is the other cellmate who has his face plastered to the wall listening to the other boy. He is clearly obsessing over him, wanting him. A quick flash of his naked erection banging against the wall spells this out blatantly. He sticks a piece of straw through a hole in the wall symbolically trying to fuck the boy. The man blows cigarette smoke through the straw but is not rewarded with a blow back. Later he smashes food into the same hole, but is left to masturabate frustrated.

A guard is walking the halls looking into cells watching whats going on. It seems that this jail is filled with dancing gay boys as he spies several men doing just that. One black boy feverishly dancing with his cock out to some African tribal beat only he can hear. But the Guard is taken with our Boy toy hero just like everyone else. He see’s the sexual tension going on between the two prisoners and gets turned on himself.

Then we finally start getting flashbacks of their history between tablaux of the gaurd and man naked and tangled together. It seems the Boy and Man were lovers of some sort and were arrested together for being gay and put into this prison. Of course the ultimate irony being that everyone here seems to be gay as well. Especially the Gaurd who cannot handle these new found feelings, which explode into violence.

The movie is still somewhat shocking today for those who are not used to seeing male nudity. There are dicks sticking out everywhere in this movie, some of them -gasp!- erect! But this is pretty damn far from pornography as there is much more going on her than a simple attempt to arouse the veiwer. There is themes of unrequited love, loneliness, and suppression of desires all jutting out like the many penises in the film. It isn’t terribly subtle, but it is striking and sometimes beautiful all the same.

The disc is super nice, though the pciture has some damage here and there, that is to be expected from something this rare. As stated before, there is no soundtrack, so you may want to find some music of your own to play along (just kidding!). There is a commentary by fan Kenneth Anger that is nearly worthless (and I love Kenneth Anger!) since for whatever reason he had almost nothing to say about the film. For a half hour movie filled with gay themes you would have though Anger would be brimming with stories, but alass, not so much. Disc two has two documenataries about Jean Genet, both of which basically just let the man ramble on for about an hour or so and will be of interest to those who are fans of his work, but anyone else they are kind of tough going. I found the first one to be the better of the two for what it is worth. There is also a nice booklet of photos that comes with the package.

Cult Epics scores with another classic.

Here is a compilation of scenes from someone on you Tube that calls themselves DeadDemented. This is set to the music of Anna Varney (this music and compilation does not appear on this DVD.)

2008-11-05
22:39:55
Andy Copp

I got tangled up and didn’t get to post the final entries into my Halloween horror challenge. So here they are in one long diatribe.

On Thursday October 30th 2008 I watched:

BLOOD SCARAB (2008) **
D. Donald Glut
Frontline Films
DV

This extremely softcore, nudy vampire romp is a genteel horror comedy that wears its history on its sleeve. Lots of Hammer and Universal references abound as we dive into the tale of Elizabeth Bathory, now married to the one and only Count Dracula, the both of them living in the outskirts of Las Angeles, and doing the blood drinking dance. Renfield is around too taking care of them and chasing and eating bugs to an almost sexualized degree. But one fateful night Dracula is left out too long because Renfield is off chasing bugs and doesn’t make it back to his coffin in time thusly turning to dust. This leaves Renfield to care for only Bathory who has a lust for power as well as blood. See she wants to be able to walk in the sunlight and she figures out that an ancient Mummy will alllow her to do so. So Renfield finds a way to get said Mummy for a ritual to raise the goddess and make it all happen. Along the way there are plenty of models who take off their clothes for no real good reasons at all and are seduced by the vamiress. Here she bites them on the breast instead of the neck for the added erotic frission. But it never reall registers as very erotic. One babe has such huge unrealistic breasts that it is distracting. All the girls who get naked look like they stepped out of the L.A. nude modeling agency catalogue and only one of them shows any real acting ability. Monique Parent plays Bathory with her teeth clenched hard, hoping her tense body language will cary the role. She does okay for a while, but its a one demensional performance (not that the res tof the movie cries out for anything else).

But one thing this movie has going for it is that it looks great. The digital photography is slick and well done, showing that a great deal of care was put into making this look like a professional production. There are also some decent digital effects that while always looking exactly like CGI, it is professionally done and somewhat impressive.  Overall the movie has a certain amount of panache that pulls it along. It never quite works as an erotic movie, even though it is filled to the rafters with naked women. It is never quite funny enough to be a good comedy. And is definitely not scary even though it uses all horror iconography.  But there is still a low budget charm that comes across from the enthusiasm put forth.

Friday October 31

WEREWOLVES ON WHEELS (1971) ***
D. Michael Levesque
Dark Sky/MPI
1.85

This classic drive in movie is one I’ve meant to watch for years and just finally got around to to it this Halloween. I’m glad to say it lived up to the hype. A group of rowdy bikers burn through the desert and find it when they encounter a group of Satanists who put the hocus pocus on the leader of the pack and his old lady. But the gang whip the asses of the Satanists and high tail it out of there thinking ass is well and good. WRONG! Each night while they camp under the stars something is murdering their ranks in flesh tearing, bloody detail. At first they think it is an animal. All of them except acid head biker Tarot who sees that somethign witchy is going down. Before it is all over and done with you WILL see werewolves riding motorcycles!

This is a movie that delivers exactly what it promises. There’s the lurid, biker melodrama. Tons of interludes consisting of bad 60’s acid music and bikers on the road. There’s naked biker mama’s dacing and juggling their boobies in the camera. There’s Satanic panic in the crowd as the hooded devil monks do their dirty business killing a cat and dipping bread in its blood. There’s biker fisticuffs that would make William Shatner proud. And then there is the great Werewolves of the finale, that do exactly what the title suggests they do. They just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. And they really should…

DARK CORNERS (2006) **1/2
D. Ray Gower
Lions Gate
1.85

Thora Birch plays two roles in this very David Lynch inspired directorial debut that has a lot on its mind, but still stumbles a little too much to be called great. Birch plays a young woman who is trying to have a child but cannot conceive. She is about to undergo invetro insemination and this has her all stressed out. She keeps dreaming about a woman that looks just like her but with black hair (also played by Birch) who is being stalked and tormented by a hooded killer with filed down teeth. Meanwhile in the real world someone is gutting woman and leaving their bodies to be found. But it seems that the mystery woman in her dreams actually has a real life and is dreaming of the other woman too. So which one is real? Which one is in danger? The blond Thora starts seeing a hypno-therapist to try and rid herself of the nightmares but things only get worse and the Invetro doesn’t go as planned.

The movie gets points for good acting and characters you care about. The production design is outstanding (you can practically smell the nasty bathroom). But it loses points for a killer who is painfully obvious and a twist, that, though creative, leaves many things unravelled and loose. I’m all for ambaguity, but there is all kinds of questions and loose ends that seemingly don’t make much sense once this is all wrapped up.

There is some surprisingly nasty gore effects that caught me off gaurd however and at least one creep you out and keep you that way scene. So the movie is certainly worth a watch. Think of it as John Hughs’ She’s Having A Baby meets Jacob’s Ladder, meets Seven.

And those are the final movies I watched as part of my Halloween Horror challenge. Watch this space to see what I come up with next!