Castle Freaks, Grandmasters, Slumber Parties, and Medical Deviates

I saw 7 Grandmasters at the Hollywood Theater last weekend. It was amazing. The Kung Fu is top notch. Not a whole lot of cinematic trickery necessary with artists of this caliber. See this movie. It is incredible.



Also saw Stuart Gordon's Castle Freak at home on DVD over the weekend. I loved Re-Animator and From Beyond. I also remember really enjoying Dolls when it came out. After that I sort of lost track of Gordon's work until I checked out Dagon a while ago, which I thought was a pretty decent Lovecraft flick.

I knew about Castle Freak, but the title never really grabbed me. I got the DVD for three bucks and it was totally worth it. I love Jeffrey Combs theatrical acting, especially when combined with Barbara Crampton's style, who kind of came up in television soap operas.

Gordon's movies are strange. They kind of come off very theatrical and sort of chintzy at first, but then after a while I find myself really into it. They play with super classical themes and do a good job hitting nerves. The monster in this is pretty great. The castrated beast walks around naked most of the time, exposing a sizeable sack, but no meat. It's a disconcerting sight.



Finally, I just watched Slumber Party Massacre III for the first time and I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. I wrote the franchise off after the second one. Part two had a rock star slasher with a drill on his guitar and I hated it. I never really got into those late 80's rocker/metal/horror movies like Trick Or Treat and Rockula. I was very disappointed that SPM2 was one of them.

The third one is the 90's reboot and the girls wear high-waisted pants and frizzy hair. Like part one, this film was written and directed by women and there's definitely a nascent feminist subtext. In this one the slasher is an example of the dreamy golden boy gone wrong, rather than the mad male psyche unleashed of the first installment. Strangely the franchise was renamed Cheerleader Massacre after this one.



Lastly, here's an amazing trailer for Doctor Butcher M.D. (aka Zombie Holocaust) that Mike sent me. Enjoy!

Nightmare City - or - City of the Walking Dead

I just saw this Umberto Lenzi film which was pretty unbelievable. These days it's known as Nightmare City but it used to be better known as City of the Walking Dead. This is the first zombie film with fast moving living dead. Watching this film was like being on a powerful narcotic. I just couldn't believe what I was seeing, especially a scene where zombies attack a television studio during the taping of some crazy spandex laden workout show. Here's the incredible trailer:

David Lynch Commercials

Friday the 13th (AGAIN!!!)

I watched the new Friday the 13th film and I really loved it. I wasn't partial to the Texas Chainsaw remake, mainly because there was no way to top the original. When I heard about the Friday reboot, it actually sounded good to me because the Friday movies really aren't that great. They're fun and I love them, but they're not cinematic masterpieces, like Chainsaw. The mythos is what's so fun about the Friday movies. I figured if they got the tone right, had some good kills and a decent Jason, then the movie would be all right. But it exceeded my expectations. I watched it twice.

Production Has Begun On Overdose In The Hospital Of Love

The first Saturday of June was the first shooting day for my new project entitled OVERDOSE IN THE HOSPITAL OF LOVE. I would like to release it as a four or five episode season for public access television. But there is a possibility it might work better as a self-contained feature. Might work as both. I will not know until I cut it all together. The cast is amazing and there is a great energy on the set. I have noticed that these things usually pay off.

The tone is really strange. It's sort of funny, but it isn't funny at all, but it isn't trying to be funny, so it's not like it's setting out to do something and then not delivering. That doesn't work. Creating a strange tone is something I want to do. I like incongruity. I like getting jarred and shaken around. I like rollercoasters. I like a little feeling of danger. The crass generalization I am about to make is that American audiences want the Jungle Cruise, not Space Mountain. Shit, I don't even know if those rides still exist!

American audiences are very sensitive to tone in this sense: if the lighting, editing, photography, sound, and acting don't stray too far from the aesthetic of the standard Hollywood movie, the audience will swallow all sorts of ridiculous poo. If any of those elements deviate from the formulaic traditions, then the American audience is quick to dismiss. Even if there is treasure to be found. It's funny how it works. Kind of like a bratty teenager who thinks he knows everything but doesn't realize he is merely reacting to his environment. Wisdom and reason is gained through experience. The bratty teen thinks he has wisdom just because he is beginning to acquire experience. He doesn't know he's got the job of sorting it all out ahead of him.

So, two more shooting days. Then post-production editing, green screen, mattes and effects. There is much left to do. This is an exciting stage.

Russ Thorn: Winner Best Slasher

Slumber Party Massacre is my favorite slasher movie ever, hands down. It has all of the classic elements of the slice and dice genre, yet they are presented in a refreshing and subversive way. It is a fun and playful movie and it's got something to say and it says it in a lively and succinct fashion.





I think it's notable that SPM was written and directed by women. This is especially unique in the slasher film pantheon. This lends the film a perspective unlike any other in the slasher film. It gives a different vibration to the nudity and gore standards. When the protagonist, Trish, undresses in her bedroom, there is a sort of poignancy to the scene. Her body is in a state of transformation. She senses the power of her sex, yet she is new to it. This subtext gives the nudity purpose. It develops the character, as well as allowing the audience to really connect with the character. It makes us care. I also love the phone repair woman. Instead of some burly hunk, the handyman's a hot blonde. And the boys aren't intimidated by her competency. They find it attractive. One of them hits on her mercilessly, but in a humorous, not an uncomfortably sleazy kind of way. The movie respects its characters, male and female. There's also the locker room shower scene which is fascinating. The camera glides past the girls showering in stalls after P.E. There is ample flesh on display, but the women are mainly seen from behind with the frame ending at the waist. The camera pauses curiously, and then glides down to reveal a bare naked ass. And then it stays there. It's as if to say, "Here it is! This is what you wanted to see now, isn't it?" It's a very funny moment that says a lot. It could have come off as sleazy or as an indictment of the audience that goes to the movies to see such films, but instead it's funny and thoughtful.



In the clip above we get the first look at Russ Thorn, mass murderer of five just escaped from the state hospital, my nomination for best slasher ever. He is cut from a completely different cloth than any other bloodlusty cinematic psycho. This guy has a face. He's not some faceless unknown. And check out that big, long penis, I mean mechanical drill...

Also, this is a slasher that runs. I love the shot at the end of the clip where Russ is running to the van after killing the girl in the gym. He is panicking and afraid of getting caught. Screen slashers usually are usually depicted as shadows or monsters. This guy is just a man - a freaked out guy suffering from mental illness, not some faceless monster.



One of the things I love about SPM is the tone. It's kinda off. The first thing you get in the clip above is a ridiculous bait and switch. The drill busts through the door, but it's only the mulleted handy woman. No worries! I like how the women in the film use tools for the tasks for which they were designed. Russ is the one who sticks his bit in all the wrong places.

Apparently, the screenplay was written as a total parody of slasher movie, but the producers wanted a straight ahead slasher film. I actually think that's a good thing. Some people don't like inconsistency in films. I am fascinated by it. I think if the film went down the road of straight horror or straight parody, it wouldn't be nearly as interesting. The incredible super cinematic finish wouldn't pack such a punch.



Here we have the horny guys spying on the undressed girls. Funny thing is, the guys are totally likable and not complete sleazeballs. You can't blame them. Later on Val's little sister Courtney thumbs through a Playgirl. The picture presents body curiosity as a natural thing, nothing to be ashamed of - rarity in the world of the slasher pic.



Robin Stille, also known as Robin Rochelle, plays Val, the new girl in SPM. She also appeared in Sorority Babes In The Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama. Sadly she killed herself in 1996 at the age of 34. I always really liked her in this movie. She's got sort of a tragic sadness thing going on. Maybe that wasn't acting.



The clip above is just loaded with goodies. The girls actually invite the horny guys inside to hang out and when Russ shows up, the boys do their best to help out. The scene where one of them gets stabbed to death while Trish watches a horror movie on television is classic metafilmmaking. And this was fourteen years before Scream. This clip also has my favorite slasher scene ever. I love it when Jackie eats the dead pizza guy's pizza.



The clash between the SoCal locales and the gothic organ music creates such a wonderful atmosphere. I wanted to move to Los Angeles so bad after seeing this movie.

Russ, the slasher, has what the greatest screen slashers always have and that's a unique physical vocabulary. He has a certain way of moving which is all his own. I think Michael Villella, the fellow who played Russ, does a fantastic job. He looks bugged out and crazy. He takes it a little over the top, but not too much. He takes it right over the edge and then back again. I've worked with severely mentally ill people and this depiction of a sick slasher really comes off more like the real thing than anything else I've ever seen in a movie. Check out the scene where he looks at himself in the mirror. I've seen that many times.



Man I love that ending. I love how the girls really bond together to fight the foe and how smart they are about it. The whole finish starting where Coach Jana pulls the blanket off the killer is just magic. When Trish runs out in slow motion and stabs him in the back, you get the true feel of the horror of the situation. You see that she is very disturbed about doing such a thing, but she must in order to survive. And then, at the end, it is great how his huge drill is castrated by Val, and then he's symbolically castrated again when Russ gets his hand cut off. Then finally, Russ is penetrated deeply by Val's huge machete. The shot where we see Val wielding the machete and then the lightning strikes - so hot. So surreal.

The last shots of the movie show each young woman reacting to the horror they had experienced. This is something you don't see too often - the aftermath. Slumber Party Massacre is simply a great movie on many levels. It is very human with likable characters and a slasher that's a man, not a monster.

Reproduction!

This is one of my favorite things ever...

Hobo With A Shotgun (+ TRAILERS)

I found Hobo With A Shotgun, the 2007 winner of SXSW's exploitation trailer contest. These Canadian guys made it. When Grindhouse screened in Canada and the US, this trailer played with the double feature in select theaters.



Jason Eisener, John Davies and Rob Cotterill made the trailer and they did a bang up job. When I went to see Grindhouse, one of my favorite things was the phony trailers. Seems like the filmmakers had a lot of fun and they also managed to capture the vibe of those wonderful movies. That's not an easy thing to do. These trailers from Grindhouse really show those guys know what they're doing. It's a homework assignment not everyone can get done correctly.

Here are some amazing grindhouse trailers from the 70's which have real movies attached to them. They are for: Trouble Man, Hit Man, Invasion of the Blood Farmers, and Blacula.



Now here are the fake trailers from the 2007 Grindhouse features by Rodriguez and Tarantino. My personal favorite is Eli Roth's for Thanksgiving. I love his ridiculously deep throated announcements. Rob Zombie did Werewolf Women From The SS, Edgar Wright did Don't, and Robert Rodriguez, of course, did Machete which is being made into a feature length film. How PoMo is that!



Now here are some more real grindhouse trailers for Nights of Terror, Last House On The Left, Torso, Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls, House By The Cemetary, The Crazies, Street Fighter, I Drink Your Blood, I Eat Your Skin, Tombs of the Living Dead, and Maniac.

If one manages pulling off watching these incredible films without an ironic eye, they will find wild and wonderful treasures beyond belief!