He is Legend - Richard Matheson Forever

RICHARD MATHESON - February 20, 1926 - June 23, 2013
 
The passing of Richard Matheson is an enormous loss. Beyond penning one of the most important works of fiction of the 20th century with his landmark novel "I Am Legend", he's also one of the most remarkable multi-crossover artists we've ever had. He wrote for WEIRD TALES, the seminal Pulp that propelled everyone from H.P. Lovecraft to Ray Bradbury to Robert Bloch into fame; then soon went into Television and most notably, alongside Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont, would serve as one The Twilight Zone's most frequent writers; and soon after would write a large bulk of AIP's most memorable Horror films in the '60s. The decades after were filled with new exploratory fiction and even a nonfiction book.

And the MOST significant of Matheson's contributions is one that's found in nearly all of his work, and it's the contribution that's had the greatest influence of all - whether he was writing a story about grandparents or vampires, children or serial killers, monsters or shrinking men, Matheson always injected a raw element of humanity to his stories and characters. Regardless of what other people thought genre fiction should be, Matheson took all the blood and grit that made Horror fun and applied real human experience to it. George Romero didn't say he ripped off "I Am Legend" when they made NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD for no reason.

If we had to credit one writer for championing serious emotional topics in genres that are widely considered to be trash, we would have to credit Richard Matheson. He is Legend.

 

OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (1981)

SOME CALL IT MADNESS! 

One of my most obsessive traits is the constant feeling that I NEED to be in the right mindset to watch a movie.  It doesn't sound like a big deal, but I've spent countless hours in pre-viewing limbo, going through stacks of everything from Criterion blu-rays to bootleg VHS tapes that I've owned for 15 years trying to figure out the perfect thing to watch, the exact right movie at the exact right time - some call it madness.

Last night, after a rabid fit of indecision, I ended up taking a break from sifting that was so relaxing that I fell asleep.  Hours later, I suddenly woke up.  It was now 3 AM and figured I'd continue my search for the perfect movie to watch - when my yet-unseen Kino-Redemption blu-ray of Jess Franco's OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES started calling my name.  Kismet!
















A couple of my Francophile pals likewise adore this one, while others (along with the rest of the human race) seem to think it's a steaming pile of crap.  I don't think anyone claims this as Franco's masterpiece, but because of its history and prominence (it was one of the first and most widely available Franco films on the home video market) it's been the false barometer by which some harshly judge the work of a truly masterful artist.  Regardless of its imperfections, I always liked OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES, and having rented the Wizard big-box a bunch in high school, I have nothing but pleasant memories of it.

That 3 AM magic was alive last night for sure, I soaked into OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES immediately and thusly became totally freaking hypnotized.  Clearly one of Franco's more "forced" productions, the film takes cues from Fulci's ZOMBI (though this amounts to no more than the zombies having live worms on their faces and raising up from out of the ground) and has a strong element of Adventure as the loose plot deals with competing parties in search of Nazi Gold.  The cheapness of the zombie make-up creates a wonderful smorgasbord of strangely artful designs, perhaps most of which is our friend above, whom at one point shows itself to be a faux zombie head literally being held up by a stick.  And obviously, I'd take these bizarre creations over any of the last decade's dreadful, over-done undead any day.

OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES is convoluted beyond belief, to the point where it's fun.  There's also an satisfying rawness to the cinematography by Max Monteillet - a thoroughly capable camera slinger who shot some of Rollin's finest films; namely LIVING DEAD GIRL and LOST IN NEW YORK.  And to an extreme degree, the blu-ray presentation from Kino-Redemption here is remarkable.  If you have even a remote sense of nostalgia for low budget films of this era, you'll no doubt be wowed by the glorious transfer this arguably-undeserving film received.  It's a definitive jobber in Franco's cannon, but that doesn't stop me from having a blast with this one. 


This is same thing people say to me when I tell them I love OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES:















And I love the actress who played Yolanda (on the right)!  She's in the film for only minutes but she's extremely funny.


OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES
Directed and written by: Jess Franco
Starring: Manuel Gélin, France Lomay

A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER (1983)

 

A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER (1983), review by Mike Hunchback

America's 1960s maverick mistress of Exploitation Doris Wishman continued making films all throughout her life.  She filmed nearly all of A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER in 1979 with Samantha Fox starring, and allegedly before it was finished the film was destroyed by an employee at the going-out-of-business lab where the film was being processed.  Over three years later, the nearly 100% re-shot version that we know today was released.  The result is an awesome hodge-podge of gore, ineptitude, and narration - LOTS of narration.  If you're familiar with Wishman's '60s output you know her penchant of filming silently (often avoiding the face of whoever's speaking), overdubbing EVERYTHING in post-production.  She was insistent that this practice was essential to the artistic integrity of her work.  No, just kidding, it was because it was much cheaper and easier to overdub ALL dialogue.  Not that it works for even one moment mind you - but it was definitely cheaper and easier.

A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER resides comfortably in my own personal "SHIT-HORROR-MIND-FUCK" category, reserved exclusively for these bizarre no-budget gems wherein the chaotic mess of elements that makes up the film is so confusing and/or unfinished that almost everything that happens is fascinating because you have no clue why the hell it's happening.  The opening exposition of A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER feels like it goes on for maybe 40 minutes, madly switching time-periods and characters while constant narration over-explains it into total freaking nonsense.  The brain-numbing spectacle of super-boring walking around and the back of the head of whoever's talking  frequently alternates to the best non-effects gore this side of Andy Milligan.  Completely confounding displays of blood splatter and hacked-at rubber limbs lovingly crash into flesh getting ripped or stabbed, the red stuff pouring out in gobs for Gorehounds everywhere to praise.  As with the best of Wishman's work, A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER is one of those movies that makes the filmmaker's utter contempt for humanity obvious to its audience.  It's as if Doris thought that anyone watching A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER didn't deserve a good movie, so fuck 'em ... and I couldn't be happier for it.




Directed by: Doris Wishman
Written by: Judy J. Kushner
Staring: Samantha Fox, Diane Cummins, Saul Meth

THE WITCHING (1993)

 

THE WITCHING (1993), review by Mike Hunchback

 - with special thanks to Horror Boobs -

The glut of movies made for the SOV market is staggering, comparable to the teenage garage band phenomenon of the mid-sixties wherein kids from all over the world banged out privately pressed two song 45s in droves so vast that we still regularly uncover new material 50-plus years later.  One of many films coming out from prevalent '90s SOV companies at the time, THE WITCHING is a surprisingly fun entry into the world of shot/released on video Horror and is notable slightly for its behind-the-camera involvement of prolific video-meister Todd Sheets.  This one stood out to me foremost because of the rather well-written screenplay, which packs in tons of wildly over-the-top expressions and tongue-in-cheek troop-rallying one-liners; all delivered from the actors of THE WITCHING with surprisingly studied bravado. 

There's a few sublime moments in THE WITCHING.  While most of the Horror elements are very simple (Halloween masks and bubble-gum-machine green slime) there's still a couple shots that have that infinitely cool, Horror-hearted,  home-made, no-budget SOV magic - the french call it "je ne sais quoi".  Most memorable being the appearance of a white-faced Demoness in the family TV room, smoke swirling around her ethereally as she cackles at our verbose heroes.  There's some exceedingly creative cursing:

"You called me dickweed for no reason!"

"I ALWAYS call you dickweed for no reason."

"Yeah, but this time you sounded like you meant it!"

But apart from that, THE WITCHING is pretty clean and largely stays within the bounds of juvenile goofiness (Grandma is so senile she thinks the long-dead family dog is alive and well, and talks cute to it as she drags it around by its leash!).  It's also not a gore-fest - but the light-hearted momentum created by the obsessive campy writing will compel most from beginning to end.

THE WITCHING (1993)
Directed and Written by: Eric Black  Matthew Jason Walsh
Starring:  Auggi Alvarez, Mike Hellman, Frank Dunlay,
Dianne O'Connell, Carol Barta, Dana Pace, Veronica Orr

MANIAC (2012)

MANIAC (2012), review by Mike Hunchback

I WISH Someone Warned Me Not To Go Out Tonite ...

Tobe Hooper, George Romero, Wes Craven, William Lustig, and so many more, did not at first choose to remain outside of the Hollywood system.  They just wanted to make movies no matter what, and their pre-filmmaking status as nobodies allowed them no choice but to do so independently.  Among their celebrated efforts are TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, DAWN OF THE DEAD, LAST HOUSE ON THE THE LEFT and MANIAC - films that Hollywood would never have made at the time of their original releases, now all remade as big budget, big studio, nation-wide A films.

Sure, there's a feeling of offensiveness to remakes in general for Horror fans.  Though the argument isn't totally solid, Carpenter's remake of THE THING being the glaring example of the potential for remakes.  So why is it these remakes bother us so much?

The remake of MANIAC is an excellent example of why.  When I was in High School, my friends and I were obsessed with William Lustig's original MANIAC.  Obsessed, seriously.  We watched it over and over, showed it to everyone we could, wrote songs about, it quoted it (and its ad campaign) constantly - it was a little more than crazy now that I think about it. 

The discussion of whether or not we thought MANIAC was "so bad it was good" or funny because it was so over-the-top eventually did come up, and I remember distinctly walking with my friend Eliezer and having a discussion that went something like this:

Me:  "Do you like MANIAC because you think it's funny?"

Eliezer:  "Um, no - but I don't take it too seriously either -"

Me:  "Yeah same here.  It's just like ... I think it's good, you know?  There's something about it."

I've always been a little obsessed by that line-drawing most of us seem to do, wherein we deem certain feelings of enjoyment as legitimate and others as embarrassing.  The thing was, we liked the original MANIAC.  We just did; we saw it at the right time, we loved Joe Spinell, we loved how New York City looked in all the grimy glory we could half-remember from seeing it as kids.  And, we were Gorehounds who's appetite had rarely been whetted as it was with Lustig's MANIAC.  The tones injected into MANIAC when it was made were so stylistic (it looks more incredible as the years go on) and earnest (particularly Spinell's acting) that 15 years later kids picked up the VHS and were able to get something out of it.  We didn't want something completely, actually, mindless - we never gravitated to the post-Mondo world of actual atrocity (too boring); no, we needed something with bite, something with character, and most of all something that had a filmmaker's personal stamp on it somehow - a practice which Hollywood films have barely had for decades.

I was open to Franck Kalphoun's 2012 remake of MANIAC, hoping it would somehow do something daring and fresh with Lustig and Spinell's baby.  Unfortunately, the elements taken from the original MANIAC are simply: a weird guy who has issues with mother kills a bunch of women and owns mannequins.  The griminess and raw, celebratory violence of the original film is traded in for super-fancy, super-clean, super-serious typical drek.  On almost every level, MANIAC 2012 was awful, the performances being the only thing that I wasn't offended by.  And I don't want to spend more than one sentence discussing the film's nearly 100% point-of-view directing - let it simply be said that this drastic of a limitation isn't commonly applied to films for painfully obvious reasons.  

When Hooper, Romero, Craven, and Lustig respectively made TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, DAWN OF THE DEAD, LAST HOUSE ON THE THE LEFT and MANIAC, they were all both consciously and subconsciously angry.  As happy-go-lucky as all of these guys can be, the muck and mire of being forced to make films so independently inescapably affects the tones and limitations of their work.  Hence, all of these classic independent films' penchant for mind-numbing gore, dark-as-night tones and completely unrestrained possibility.  And really, that's what pisses off us Gorehounds - the original versions of these films were made with anger, with grit and passion - and sometimes desperation seeped into what was ending up on film.  That's why these films have a dedicated fan base, that's why they've endured.  Most of the films in the genre have not, for the same reasons the remake of MANIAC will be lumped into vague memory as so many other misguided remakes have.

MANIAC (2012)

Directed by: Franck Khalfoun  
Written by: Alexandre Aja, Grégory Levasseur, C.A. Rosenberg

With: Elijah Wood, America Olivo, Liane Balaban,

Nora Arnezeder, and Megan Duffy

ARGENTO’S DRACULA (2012)

ARGENTO’S DRACULA, review by Mike Hunchback

To All You Soft-Hearted Gorehounds Out There ...


The main thought running through my mind as I watched ARGENTO’S DRACULA was:

“You know, I bet people would like this if it weren’t a Dario Argento movie.”

Then I quickly realized:

“No … No, no one would like this movie.  Maybe no matter what.  Except for me.”

The only other film in his career it’s comparable to is of course PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, another misfire for those who for some reason think Argento needs to make another DEEP RED, SUSPIRIA, INFERNO, TENEBRE, or OPERA; or even another animal-themed Giallo.  In my world he’s done more than enough, his half-dozen-to-ten masterpieces trump many other filmmakers’ entire flimographies and bashing the guy’s movies seems like the most fruitless of fan boy activities.   So, though ARGENTO’S DRACULA  is maybe not his greatest film, it’s wildly unique in its excessive style, and basically looks like nothing else.  This, plus the almost-blind devotion to the intrinsic value of a good bloody Vampire film, without a doubt charmed this soft-hearted Gorehound.

There’s an inescapable preciousness to ARGENTO’S DRACULA, and in a way it’s the kind of preciousness that is normally woven into dramas or love stories.  Here however, the unabashed mushiness is aimed in the direction of Gothic Horror and to the small sect of us moved by this kind of open adoration ARGENTO’S DRACULA satisfies greatly.   This is a film that comes off as having no pretensions or concerns to please whatsoever.  For better or worse, this is a testament to the fictional world that Dracula lives in, a tear-stained love letter to lunch-table-loners who spend their weekends with their noses buried in a Poe anthology.  Of course this is the kind of thing that most find silly; but if you’re like me and you have a soft spot for Gothic Romance as well as no grand desire for Argento to re-establish himself as “The Suspiria Guy”, then you’ll likely marvel at the heart-on-sleeve-Horror-adoration that can be found in ARGENTO’S DRACULA.


Available at the internet's number one DVD retailer DIABOLIK DVD:

www.diabolikdvd.com


ARGENTO’S DRACULA (2012)
Directed by: Dario Argento
Written By: Dario Argento, Enrique Cerezo, 
Stefano Piani, Antonio Tentori
From Bram Stoker’s DRACULA
Starring: Rutger Hauer, Asia Argento, Thomas Kretschmann, 
Marta Gastini, Miriam Giovanelli, Unax Ugalde

Part exploration, part confession, part magic trick, all Exorcism. Jess Franco Forever.

Jesus "Jess" Franco

1930 - 2013

When I was 15 years old, I wanted to place an order for VHS dubs of some rare Exploitation films.  I had been reading Psychotronic for a while at that point, and what was once an unidentifiable urge had manifested itself in the realization that there was indeed a universe out there of bizarre cinema, the likes of which I had not yet known.  There were these mystifying ads in Psychotronic, packed densely with way-too-small text and emitting an air of actual and genuine sleaziness. 

I had seen “Evil Dead” and “Day of the Dead” about a billion times, I had made all of my friends suffer through whichever silent German Expressionist film I could get a tape of, but I still felt there was … something else out there.  Something sicker, something more.  The unsavory titles that crammed the ads full were particularly indicative of this “other world” of film.  I only knew of a director named Jess Franco through the elegant, dreamy Vampyros Lesbos and his less popular Count Dracula with Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski, but these ads seemed to have literally dozens of different Franco films. 

Curiosity had reached its breaking point and I needed to order some of these tapes … “Love Letters of a Portuguese Nun” what the fuck was this stuff?

In any case, in 1995 when you wanted something mailorder, you needed a check.  I filled out a sheet of paper with the films I wanted, got a little cash together and before leaving for school one day I asked my father for a check in exchange for the cash,  so I could get some videos. 

My father had been supportive of film fandom in the past, but after I left for school that day he opened that letter to see exactly what kinds of films I was going to be ordering - needless to say, that letter never got sent and I was scolded pretty hard when I got home.  I guess the ads in Psychotronic seem somewhat unwholesome to the uninitiated.  The memory of my defense is still clear in my mind: “This movie is by a guy who directed a Dracula movie with Christopher Lee, how 'bad' could it be!?”

As the years went by and I got old enough to make my own pilgrimages to Kim’s in the city, I saw dozens of Franco films.  Then dozens more.  My adoration for him grew - this filmmaker could hit notes of artful composition, powerful sexuality, and deep bawdy humor in the span of a minute - yet these notes were merely by-products.  Clearly Franco was a rare man who was actually using filmmaking the way a Jazz musician improvises.  There’s a part of the infrastructure of a “song”, it has the melody sometimes, there’s echoes of a familiar riff, you hear the hook now and again, but these elements are just part of that big dizzying swirl of emotion being poured out from the soul through a horn.

Part exploration, part confession, part magic trick, all Exorcism.

The feelings that are involved in my absolute love for Franco’s work are not only hard to explain, but also somehow too personal to externally identify.

Today though, a part of my feelings for Franco’s work has made itself clear.  If Franco’s uncountable contributions had to be boiled down to one singular notion, if we're to name one lone factor for which his work is valuable, it would be this -

In a world where we’re told to walk the line or fail; in a world where we can literally lose our livelihood, our comfort, and even our lives if we don’t adhere to the status quo, we are given strict guidelines for what “success” is.  The acceptable parameters of “success” are dictated around us with no room to experiment, and in desperate confusion so many of us lose the ability to ignore these suffocating lines of distraction, the daily battering rams that drive us into bleak repetition.  So many of us are so mesmerized that those among us who shout out are the “crazy ones”.
 
The thing I realized this morning, the thing I realized just now, is that when faced with of all this, despite these enormous and complicated pressures to conform; Jesus Franco Manera simply chuckled, turned his back, and made another film.  And then another film.  And then another film …  With his incredible history of ups and downs, deaths of loved ones and soul mates, studios and producers, money and no money and NO money, Franco never saw the option to give in.  I’d have to guess that that idea never even occurred to him.  He had his own terms for “success”.   His success was not born of spite, desire for recognition, for fortune - it was never about anything besides making that next film.  Finding that new place on celluloid, no matter what other people would think or say. 

Though it goes against our deeply ingrained idea of “success”, I’d like to offer a personal opinion that I will hold dearly for the rest of my time here, and that is that there is no artist more successful than Jesus Franco Manera.  And even more gloriously, to emulate his success means to permanently enter the terrorizing, blissful, un-ending battle of being true to yourself.  No matter what, always.

SAVORY, DELICIOUS ... LUNCHMEAT

As popular a topic as “the death of print” may be, there’s still noteworthy on-paper contributions to Horror Fandom being made.  As a complete devotee to seminal rags like UncleBob Martin-era FANGORIA, Michael J. Weldon’s Psychotronic, and Chas Balun’s DEEP RED, I’m beyond picky with Horror and Exploitation related film magazines.  More than picky I’m perhaps disheartened, as most of the major mags are largely filled with what might as well be bought and sold ad space for what is ultimately mindless major studio garbage (in contrast, certainly a nod goes to many of the folks at Rue Morgue, who do a wonderful job).

A lot of folks buy the lie that innovation is no longer financially viable, and so it’s thrilling to see the voracious VHS virus that is LUNCHMEAT innovate the hell out of the stale contemporary magazine market.  It’s layout, style, mission, writing, and humor are completely its own, and Editor Josh Schafer seemingly without strain puts to rest the notion that watering down material makes for a better read.  It’s fun, original and genuinely fresh.

Instead of trying to ape the antics of other movie mags, LUNCHMEAT has created its own personal style of zine-like worship and research style.  They mostly cover VHS unavailable on DVD (a world that is indeed endless despite popular misconceptions), and related  phenomena.  Instead of covering "hot new" films (which as we all know are few and far between), LUNCHMEAT creates the subtext that they’re moving back through time, scouring the trash for tapes; coming up with mind-bending absurdities like “HAWK JONES”, a 1986 violent action film wherein the entire cast is children pretending to be adults!  And, though many titles are joked about and poked fun at, LUNCHMEAT is still a truly upbeat endeavor - there’s an unbelievably heartfelt respect for so many of these films, and movies that are laughed off by most within the scene are discussed here for their historical importance and positive traits.  The excellent review of Penelope Spheeris’ oft-overlooked “DUDES” (issue 6 also features a great interview with highly talented but also-oft-overlooked actor Daniel Roebuck ) is high point.  Schafer writes:

“This film, while arguably a little uneven at times, is an absolutely unique entry in genre film and the voracious Videovore would do themselves good to implement this one into their VCR’s diet.  Not only because of the bright cast’s chemistry and consistently entertaining performances, but Spheeris’ ability to meld the aspects of a road movie, an off-beat buddy comedy and a classic revenge flick all into one is truly something special.  The laughs are abundant, the action’s exciting and the idea of a pair of once-passive  punks realizing that life’s about creating your own adventure makes DUDES a fulfilling and enjoyable ride.”

Well put!  I didn’t know anybody out there felt the same way I did about Spheeris’ DUDES.  Get your hands on Issue #6 and give these guys as much of your dough as you can -  Long live LUNCHMEAT!

 

-Mike Hunchback

DEATH WALTZ RISING!

Even among the many sub-sects of record buyers, the Soundtrack Aficionado has for years been somewhat of a black sheep. Though there have been moments of hipness; in the 90’s labels like DAGORED and CRIPPLED DICK HOT WAX repackaged some painfully rare, mostly Italian, soundtrack cuts in the forms of high quality reissues and extremely cool compilations. Labels like these gave instant context for the inexperienced listener, and now composers like Bruno Nicolai and Piero Piccioni are familiar to a wide range of music fans of many different types.

Before that, there were labels like Cerberus Records with their legendary Ennio Morricone Film Score Society series, an unbelievably classy endeavor that issued some of the most astounding and rare soundtracks of the day, with the obvious overtone that it was completely a labor of love. Similarly labels like Cinema Records went above and beyond to contribute their fantastic Bernard Herrmann and Max Steiner records to the pantheon of essential soundtrack platters.

In recent years “the Soundtrack” has gained perhaps more traction than ever - plenty of music fans are aware of John Carpenter and Goblin, and thusly these artists are finally getting the respect they deserve. Though no one has yet offered that next major advance in soundtrack LP fandom - that is until Death Waltz Recording Co.’s deluxe edition of Fabio Frizzi’s score to Lucio Fulci’s “Zombi” hit record stores this year.

Death Waltz seems to be conscious of this record-buyer-meets-soundtrack-aficionado division, though it’s by no means a cash-in or a throwback. This is new territory they’re treading - all the titles are legitimately licensed, complete with text for the release by the composer. All the titles are pressed on high quality vinyl and remastered to excellence. Their releases also feel extremely fresh because they sport covers (delightfully uniform in their framing) designed by artists working currently that have personal affection for the subject matter. The result is covers cool enough to inspire many a casual record buyer to simply pick them up out of curiosity. And, as anyone can see by just glancing at their website, Death Waltz seems to be working significantly harder than any label in recent memory - by early next year Death Waltz will have released over a dozen soundtracks; each with a limited edition version.

 A very happy Mike Hunchback with the recently-arrived Halloween II and Halloween III Soundtrack LPs!

Label founder Spencer Hickman was kind enough to take the time to answer some questions for us:
   

How did your personal fascination of film soundtracks begin?

When I was 8, in the same year my dad bought me The Muppets album and Star Wars. I was obsessed with Star Wars and we went to see it like 13 times at the Gaumont in Birmingham, the soundtrack was this amazing double vinyl with a big fold out poster of the Rebels attacking the Death Star; it wasn't a still from the film but a beautifully rendered poster, I used to stare at the poster on my floor while I relived the film through my stereo. Those two albums right there are where it all started.


Death Waltz has also so far offered a varied array of material - brooding, dark, electronic scores from Carpenter and Howarth's "Escape from New York" and Fabio Frizzi's "Zombi" to the more modern scores of “Let the Right One In” and “Donnie Darko”- did you originally foresee Death Waltz as being so all-encompassing?

Yeah totally. I love music, why limit yourself? I was chatting to my friend Manish that writes for The Quietus and he said what he loved about the label was that we were doing new soundtracks and that people always moan that there is nothing new that’s classic anymore; which obviously is rubbish, there’s tons of new stuff I want to do. I always thought that if we make sure the quality of the package was good enough then people would trust us on titles that maybe they didn't know.


Were there any soundtracks that you had hoped to release that for one reason or another you won't be able to?

Texas Chainsaw Massacre - I know a few people have tried but there are so many rights issues that it's never going to happen.


With the unbelievably high level of quality that the label has been offering, it seems that your excellent reputation could garnish future soundtrack licensing beyond what you were capable of in the beginning. Any dream projects?

Oh wow thanks. We are already beyond what I had envisaged, I want the label to grow organically and I don’t want to only release horror movies soundtracks. Which is why I changed our tagline to 'the art of soundtracks'. I love movies and not just horror, I want us to become the label that composers come to and say 'I want DW to release this score'; I do want to start offering CD's too when licenses allow.

Would you ever release something that wasn’t a film soundtrack?

Tricky one, I'm not sure we could, maybe as an offshoot? I have an idea that I want to release a re-edit 12” featuring 4 tracks and have people in mind, but even then I'm not sure DW could release it.


You’ve recently announced the next batch of titles that Death Waltz will release - The Living Dead At The Manchester Morgue, Prince Of Darkness, Halloween II, Halloween III, They Live - anything else in the pipeline at the moment?

Yes, but not that I can talk about, you never know whose reading!


Does Death Waltz have an official US distributor?

At the moment our UK distributor ships to Forced Exposure, but Light In The Attic are going to be carrying them direct from September 1st.


And will you continue to offer subscriptions? How will that work for someone within the US like myself?

Yes we are carrying on with the sub, it upping to 200 due to the demand. Open to one and all no matter where you are. One thing I love about shipping releases is seeing where they are going; Russia, Turkey, etc., there is no discrimination at DW, haha!

GIALLO FEVER's GRANDE FINALE is TODAY!

TODAY at ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES catch the last two Gialli of MALASTRANA FILMS' incredible GIALLO FEVER series!

TODAY, SUNDAY Sept. 30

A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY - 6:30

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE - 8:45


More info at:

www.anthologyfilmarchives.org

http://malastranafilmseries.startlogic.com/GIALLO_FEVER/Giallo_Fever.html

GIALLO FEVER!

GIALLO FEVER, curated and organized by the wonderful folks over at Malastrana Films, is a mind-melting 10 day / 10 film trip though what is perhaps the best representation Giallo films have ever had in New York City.  All but one of the films will screen from 35mm (the other being screened in 16mm); and in order to provide the highest level of visual quality, many of the film prints were painstakingly sought out.  The result is not only a superb selection of titles, but also a series of stunning and immaculate clarity.  Some of these showings will likely be the only chance many will have to see these on film.  So, seriously - don‘t miss this!

Giallo is one of those sub-genres that many a film fanatic has become obsessed with.  It's easy to understand why; Gialli are typically so extreme in the flashiest ways that they’re irresistible just in terms of sheer aesthetics; though more than a few Gialli are storytelling powerhouses in disguise as genre film - and though there are a few of those in this series, Lucio Fulci’s DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING (1972) is particularly significant.  

Though some of the directors who helmed these features have been regulated strictly to the “genius” column, (Argento, and most certainly Bava) others have at times contributed to what could perhaps be described as sheer hackery (of which this series has none).  But, one of these directors exceeds any kind of categorization.  Directing more films than any other director in this series, Lucio Fulci also has as varied a filmography as any of his contemporaries. Not all of Fulci’s films represent his finest work, but over a dozen of them indeed do.  Among those classics is DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING.  While on the surface Fulci’s films are known for their over-the-top, extravagant gore, his most dedicated fans sense a unique humanity beneath the cruelty.  Genre films can surprise with craftsmanship, narrative and originality; and though DUCKLING has these elements it’s a far rarer notion that makes it so special, and that is the rather personal, compassionate tone that's intertwined into a horrific story of child abuse and small-town mob mentality.  So many of Fulci's cinematic efforts are incredible pieces of work - his Zombie films are regarded more and more highly as time passes, and that's something that’s happened on little more than just the merit of the films themselves.  His finer Westerns linger just below Leone's; his sexy psychedelia, crime, raw horror, thriller, historical, etc. films are often concise and sober offerings to popular cinema.  But DUCKLING has that Fulci spirit maybe more than any other.  Fulci sees the world as a rather pessimistic realist: there’s violence, rape, war and crime - factors that are truly abhorrent to him, and thus these factors should be represented in a fashion that amplifies their horror.  Chains rip flesh, faces are torn apart, heads are chopped off, children are drowned - yet in all of its gruesome glory none of this endorses such wholesale brutality.  One senses a secret degree of pain on the part of the filmmaker, [spoiler alert next sentence!] and the insanely sadistic, senseless murder of the town Witch (played to perfection by Giallo regular Florinda Bolkan) is maybe Fulci’s most emotive death scene.  For all of its bloodiness, for all of its sadism, there’s an unbelievable feeling of sensitivity here - greatly highlighted by the music of composer Riz Ortolani and vocalist Ornella Vanoni.  In a way it’s practically a metaphor for Fulci’s long-standing subtext - the innocent are helpless in a powerfully cruel and brutal world, where fighting back is useless; and dying with rigid, stony dignity is the best one can do - and as ugly as it is, there‘s something somehow beautiful about it.

One of the series' most important entries is certainly Mario Bava's BLOOD AND BLACK LACE.  Not only is it THE archetypical Giallo, it's also a delightfully nasty precursor to the body count or "Slasher" film.  Soaked in unbelievably lurid technicolor, this is perhaps the most essential of the GIALLO FEVER series to see on film.  It’s influence on Gialli to come (as well as just Horror) is immeasurable, and it’s effect on Argento’s work will be apparent to viewers even totally unfamiliar to Bava’s filmography.  Bava's other entry in the series is the original Italian version of THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (like many of these films, a different cut was released here in the US, with a different title; THE EVIL EYE), which in stark contrast to BLOOD AND BLACK LACE displays Bava’s incredible talent for black and white cinematography.  GIRL … is superbly playful, and uses its frightening setting to surprise the viewer with some very unexpected jokes.

 
Dario Argento is no doubt the most known filmmaker to the audience for this series, and BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE and DEEP RED are certainly two of his most beloved films.  These will be a treat in 35mm, DEEP RED being one of his most ambitious films for color and design, and BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE sorely lacking a proper screening.  And to further stun the typical desensitized fanboy, Malastrana rounds out this program with even more extremely elusive Gialli; Pupi Avati's HOUSE OF THE LAUGHING WINDOWS and Elio Perti's A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY.  And, apart from their rarity, the quality of these two stands up quite nicely to the famous counterparts on the bill.  And it doesn't stop there - There's also Fulci's erotic thriller PERVERSION STORY, the utter depravity of Sergio Martino's THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (1971) and the sexy retro sleaze of Massimo Dallamano's WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (1972) ... None of the films in this series will disappoint.

We here at the Freedom School commend Malastrana Films, and Yunsun and Alessio in particular, for their above and beyond programming.  Scroll down foe links to Malastrana Films, Anthology Film Archives, and showtimes ... GIALLO FEVER starts today … GET IT!

MALASTRANA FILMS:

http://malastranafilmseries.startlogic.com/GIALLO_FEVER!/Giallo_Fever.html

ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES:

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/39659

 SHOWTIMES:

• Dario Argento
  BIRD WITH CRYSTAL PLUMAGE - TONY MUSANTE IN PERSON!
  September 20 at 7:00 PM
  
• Mario Bava
  THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH aka THE EVIL EYE
  September 20 at 9:30 PM
  
• Pupi Avati
  THE HOUSE OF THE LAUGHING WINDOWS
  September 21 at 7:00 PM
  September 24 at 6:45 PM
  September 29 at 4:45 PM
  
• Lucio Fulci
  DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING
  September 21 at 9:30 PM
  September 27 at 7:00 PM
  
• Sergio Martino
  THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH
  September 22 at 4:15 PM
  September 28 at 9:30 PM
  
• Dario Argento
  DEEP RED
  September 22 at 6:30 PM
  September 28 at 7:00 PM
  
• Massimo Dallamano
  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?
  September 22 at 9:30 PM
  September 25 at 9:00 PM
  
• Elio Petri
  A QUIET PLACE IN THE COUNTRY
  September 23 at 4:30 PM
  September 27 at 9:15 PM
  September 30 at 6:30 PM
  
• Mario Bava
  THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH aka THE EVIL EYE
  September 23 at 6:45 PM
  September 29 at 7:15 PM
  
• Lucio Fulci
  PERVERSION STORY aka ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER
  September 23 at 8:45 PM
  September 29 at 9:15 PM
  
• Dario Argento
  BIRD WITH CRYSTAL PLUMAGE
  September 24 at 9:15 PM
  
• Mario Bava
  BLOOD AND BLACK LACE
  September 25 at 7:00 PM
  September 30 at 8:45 PM

Fear For Your Ears!

HEY SOUNDTRACK LOVERS! I'll be spinning a myriad of delicious Italian Soundtrack treats TOMORROW NIGHT to celebrate the beginning of this year's most astounding film series, GIALLO FEVER - details below!

Giallo Opening Party! at Mangiami 9.20.12

Bar/Restaurant
Sep. 20th 9:30PM til You Drop Dead
--DJ Mike Hunchback spins the wicked soundtracks of Giallo films.
--No cover! Enjoy Prosecco and beer on your dime.

Mangiami Bar/Restaurant
9 Stanton St.
(between Bowery & Chrystie St)
New York, NY 10002

3 X JEFF LIEBERMAN at ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES this weekend!

Jeff Lieberman's finest films hit the screen twice each this coming weekend at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10003 (anthologyfilmarchives.org). Director (along with some friends) will appear daily for Q&A, check schedule for details.



1976's SQUIRM had life on drive-in screens as well as hard-tops, before its Orion VHS release cemented it in the American gore-hound consciousness forever. The man behind the camera was Mr. Jeff Lieberman, and with some talented help (not least of which was make-up maestro Rick Baker, providing so many of the film's great gross-outs) he made his debut feature quite a memorable outing. SQUIRM is one of those rare and funny films that while piling on the horror-film cliches still manages to actually break out of that mold - something Lieberman seems be very good at. It's a movie about killer worms, somehow mutated by a lightning storm, that slowly and slimily begin to take over a small town; the town wallflower and her nerdy city boyfriend being the only ones who seem to be able to stop it. SQUIRM also showcases Lieberman's ability to make a solid film, as hokey as the plot gets, it never loses steam, continuing with increasing speed towards a weird and bloody crescendo. One gets the feeling the director himself was getting excited to see everything and everyone in the film completely covered in writhing worms.



Like the other Lieberman films in Anthology's series, JUST BEFORE DAWN (1981) is a sort of "antithetical" cult classic. While so many of the films under that banner have an element of cheese that elevates them, these Lieberman films are just actually well made, low-budget films. And, if you're going to see any slasher film on the big screen this summer, why not make it a good one? JUST BEFORE DAWN, like SQUIRM, has several elements that unfold to reveal the average Horror template, but its deviation from staying within those lines, matched with its powerfully filthy, sweaty, cheap-early-80's-film-stock look, result in "a slasher film to remember". JUST BEFORE DAWN is laced with rather genuine, raw thrills - it's a film about sick hillbilly killers chasing teens around in the middle of the woods, and appropriately the movie feels delightfully twisted. Scores of films with similar plots have been birthed since, and the genre for some reason seems to have forgotten not only the true value of "grittiness", but what actual "grit" looks like. JUST BEFORE DAWN could serve as a singular, all-encompassing lesson on how to not fuck-up a slasher film.



Often when a director works in the realm of genre films, it can be assumed that he or she has a personal project looming in the back of his mind; working long and hard on other more salable fare in order to one day get the chance to make that bizarre, personal film he dreams of. BLUE SUNSHINE (1978) may not by definition belong within that category, but it certainly feels like that type of film. Its wildly fun plot, some sort of experienced-acid-head's daydream meets Sci-Fi Noir, is unique to say the least - a group of young men take a form of LSD in college only to find out that 10 years later it turns them into bald, psychopathic killers. We're thrown into the spiral of paranoia rather quickly, and though the answers drip slowly towards us piecemeal, BLUE SUNSHINE manages to fully envelop us in its rays - it's easy to sink into the film's subversive acid-logic. BLUE SUNSHINE may be Lieberman's creative best, a glowing, turquoise diamond in the often shitty sea of horror and exploitation.

Check 'em out!

• Jeff Lieberman
  SQUIRM - FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
  August 17 at 7:00 PM
  August 18 at 9:15 PM
• Jeff Lieberman
  BLUE SUNSHINE - FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
  August 17 at 9:15 PM
  August 19 at 6:30 PM
  
• Jeff Lieberman
  JUST BEFORE DAWN - FILMMAKER IN PERSON!
  August 18 at 7:00 PM
  August 19 at 8:30 PM

Oh, Lina ...

Lina Romay
June 23rd, 1954 - February, 15th 2012

I'm sorry for the informal, emotionally loose post - but the sudden passing of the incredible Lina Romay is weighing heavily on my mind. Lina began her career with Jess Franco in 1972 and was in most of his films (he would direct over 150 after '72) from that point on. They began a partnership professionally as well as romantically, and with Romay by his side Franco accelerated his artistic ambitions to a level that I personally believe no other filmmaker has achieved. To the most open-minded of viewers, many of his films have unique and lasting impact; and not for any repeatedly formulaic reason either. These films are anarchistic; at times purposefully and at times because there was simply no time or money. The disregard for convention is perhaps one of the strongest elements in most of his best work, and it took a little while for that to fully develop. By the late 60's Franco was itching for nothing but total freedom in filmmaking; and he casually tossed aside the possibility for success and money to embark of a lifelong journey of artistic exploration - and splendid debauchery. This wasn't the move of someone who wanted to make a name for himself as an "Auteur", or as an avant garde filmmaker; and nor was it the move of someone who would go on to make only pornography. Franco's most passionate work work lies in an area of its own, quite far from those other worlds. And as any dedicated fan of his work will tell you, this incredible achievement was aided immeasurably by Lina Romay. Her own visions were also unrestrained and wild, and her willingness to lose herself physically and mentally in these films is unmatched in cinema. Lina Romay was one of a kind. The suddenness of her passing makes it hard to comprehend, and we here at Freedom School send our love to Jess Franco and to the memory of one of the screen's brightest, sexiest, and special stars. Goodbye Lina.

TERRIBLE FEELINGS

Perhaps some of you have already heard about the band TERRIBLE FEELINGS. I wanted to share some (particularly extreme) thoughts on the group after seeing them when Night Birds was in Europe because I simply couldn’t stop thinking about how great they were. When I got home (now weeks ago) I wrote what you see below. I honestly read it back to myself and laughed - it didn’t seem possible that I could be accurate, so I decided to wait a bit and re-read it, thinking my perspective might change from such an extremity. Well, it didn’t! Read the following and check this band out online. I have 2 of their three 7”s here at Co-Op 87 if anybody needs the real thing …


From the UK to Germany to France and back and more - Night Birds’ 2011 European tour was laced with cool new bands. For some reason though, the band I heard about the most was a new Swedish group - TERRIBLE FEELINGS. “Angst-ridden power-pop”, “gloomy; with great energy”, “weird, not like anything else” … it seemed like people couldn’t pin down an exact (or even helpful) description for the band, and after hearing how great they were so many times, I honestly wasn’t even sure I was going to like them. Being wrong was never more delightful. Night Birds’ last gig in Europe was in Bremen, Germany with none other than Terrible Feelings. As they hung out before the show, shot the shit with the other Night Birds, and set up they all seemed perfectly sweet and well-mannered.

Then, about to get into their set, they started to test their gear a bit … Generally, I’m not into too many guitar sounds I hear live. I don’t think of myself as a snob, but I really do lean strongly to the side of treble-soaked reverberating wackiness over anything that’s bound to come out of a Marshall stack. So, when Anton of Terrible Feelings started filling the room with his wildly echoing double Music Man amp set up, I almost dropped my drink.

THEN, they actually started playing.

It was like someone set a wild animal loose in the room. Individually, the band were trapped in their own worlds of manic but perfect performance - the rhythm section of Andy and Willy pounding away a solid foundation in an educated Garage rock fashion, leaving space above for Anton (who quite seriously is one of the greatest guitar players I’ve ever seen) to weave rabid, reverberated lines of melancholy psychedelic surf-pop all around it. And Manuela - dear God! A possessed vocalist of the highest order, at once magnetically sexual and legitimately terrifying, she can crawl and slide with the best of them. I couldn’t help but think of early prime-era Debbie Harry or Iggy. And if you’re lucky enough to catch her eye, you can see the hot-orange glow of Hell in her gaze. This is a band without fear, and everyone in the room was wrapped around their little finger for it.

Some bands can ensnare an audience with antics. Some with politics, and some with cute outfits. Rare today is the group that actually mesmerizes an audience with the base elements of pure, white-hot Rock N’ Roll - which to me means the perfect blend of one thick stream sheer unbridled live ferocity and another of naturally brilliant song writing craft. And that’s what Terrible Feelings are, Rock N’ Roll; in the truest sense of the term. Meaning that while Terrible Feelings are instantly classic and widely appealing in their energy and ability in the way that the true greats of music were, they’re also totally (shockingly) fresh. The rather drastic comparisons that come to mind are band like the RAMONES - blending their obsessions with junk culture with primitive performance and marrying love of Glam and misfit-rock to the wide-eyed simplicity of 50’s and 60’s AM top 40. Or NIRVANA, who took all that the Ramones showed them, threw in the heaviness of Black Sabbath; filtered it through inescapable familiarity with the best music on the 1980’s underground from Scratch Acid to the Wipers to the Pixies and laced it with the pained scrawlings of a suicidal teenager’s notebooks for lyrics.

TERRIBLE FEELINGS’ music displays knowledge of every worthwhile shred of music that preceded it and basically sounds like none of it. Fucking rare.

I too will offer a confounding personal description of a band that I’d actually feel comfortable calling “THE NEXT BIG THING” (a phrase that’s really become antiquated beyond belief, but still - if there’s any justice or hope left in this cold, cruel world TERRIBLE FEELINGS will end up rich and famous beyond belief). To these fairly dumb American ears I hear kinship to the tough, fuzzy genius of SHOCKING BLUE’s first LP but with keen understanding of any decent counter-culture aural fad of the 90‘s and 00‘s … or perhaps the earnest pop genius of the first two BLONDIE LPs being ground though a pre-heroin STOOGES meat grinder. Take all of that diarrhea-of-the-keyboard nonsense I just said and put it next to this - hopefully most of you are familiar with the HIPSVILLE 29 B.C. compilation series, and it’s the first thing I thought of when I heard Terrible Feelings. Painfully REAL music, with equal amounts of strength and somberness, played by young people who seem as if they would die if weren’t for being able to hammer out these crude dollops of heartfelt, honest Rock N’ Roll. It’s “the real deal”. No shit, no joke, no fuckin’ around.

As a sincerely neurotic and clinically anxious pessimist I’d also like to bring up the unbelievable lyrical content that Terrible Feelings manages to bring to the already musically-flawless table:

“Don’t have childish visions
You won’t achieve a thing
There’s no meaning”

“Deny yourself fulfillment dreams
And you will live happily”

“Where do good dreams go?
I haven’t seen them for a long, long time
To my unborn child
There is nothing to enjoy in life.”

These are lyrics of stark naked sincerity, with one foot firmly planted in the cement of teenaged frustration and the other in the tar of adult intelligence. The words of Terrible Feelings songs are akin to the kind of things those of us with an unshakeable affinity for despair repeat to ourselves in our heads over and over and over again; unable to break the dark spell of gloom cast by being able to see the world as it actually is. In a way that I can easily compare to Nirvana and Leonard Cohen, Terrible Feelings have lyrics that you’ll actually want to read along with as you listen to their records. For those of us who live in the dark, Terrible Feelings will mean a whole lot.

HENENLOTTER RETROSPECTIVE AT ANTHOLOGY!

FRANK HENENLOTTER RETROSPECTIVE
Uncut, uncensored, unhinged - Director in person!

November 4-6 at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, NY, NY 10003

“I always felt that I made exploitation films. Exploitation films have an attitude more than anything – an attitude that you don’t find with mainstream Hollywood productions. They’re a little ruder, a little raunchier, they deal with material people don’t usually touch on, whether it’s sex or drugs or rock and roll. They’re what I grew up on.” –Frank Henenlotter

Anthology is thrilled to unleash a wild and bloody batch of Frank Henenlotter’s classic films, all uncut, uncensored, and completely unhinged. Henenlotter is one of those mythic directors that people immersed in Exploitation and Horror culture absolutely worship. His knowledge of genre and classic films is scholarly, he’s been one of the primary behind-the-scenes brains at Something Weird Video since their breakout, and his films are both celebrations of American Exploitation cinema and legitimate extensions of it. It’s a tough line to toe indeed, but being an obsessive 42nd St. moviegoer from the time he was a teen was the perfect classroom for Henenlotter – he endlessly soaked up celluloid scum until he had no choice but to make his own vile offering to the cruel gods of ‘the Deuce’ in the form of his first feature film, BASKET CASE.

BRAIN DAMAGE (1988, 84 minutes, 35mm-to-video.)

Considered by many hardcore Henenlotter fans to be his finest, BRAIN DAMAGE is a wild yetcohesive patchwork of addiction-fueled mania, set in the disgusting glory oflate-80s NYC. Brian meets Aylmer, a mysterious, ancient, snake-like (ok, phallic) parasitic creature that lives off of brain juice, which it consumes by poking a fang into the host’s spine. The reward (or bait) that Aylmer offers for his meals is an overpowering color-soaked mind-trip that proves to be quite addictive. Gory, goopy, and hilarious, BRAIN DAMAGE is also somehow personal and touching. It’s perhaps the best example of Henenlotter’s extraordinary ability to make us sympathize with characters who are insurmountably separated from society by deformity and dementia. Featuring spectacularly funny (and uncredited) voice work from none other than John Zacharley! Drastically cut in its original theatrical release, BRAIN DAMAGE will be theatrically screenedhere totally uncut for the first time. – Friday, November 4 at 7:00 and Sunday, November 6 at 4:30.

FRANKENHOOKER - (1990, 85 minutes, 35mm.)

Easily Henenlotter’s most comedic film, FRANKENHOOKER still packs a wallop of 42nd St. sleaze, coated in bright purple slime. It’s the weird tale of Jeffery Franken (played by the hilarious James Lorinz of STREET TRASH and PUNCH THE CLOCK), a med school drop out who tragically loses his bride-to-be in a remote-control lawnmower accident. His love for her runs so deep, however, that he devises a way to get her back – and with a better body this time. Traveling from suburban New Jersey into Manhattan to find specimens for his fiancée’s reanimation, he crosses paths with tough guy pimp Zorro, and the downward spiral of fun andfreakiness goes full speed from there on out. It’s Henenlotter’s twist on BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, and his version has a lot more prostitutes than James Whale’s. Not to mention “Supercrack”… –Friday, November 4 at 9:30 and Saturday, November 5 at 9:30.

BASKET CASE - (1982, 91 minutes, 35mm-to-video.)

The cult classic that started it all, painstakingly restored this year to its intended specifications and now completely remastered. Duane Bradley has a relationship with his twin brother that most people would consider odd – after all, Duane was born with his brother Belial growing out of his right ribcage. Yes, it’s disgusting – that’s what their father thought too, so he hired some unscrupulous doctors to sever the boys’ ties. Henenlotter’s debut is the most bizarre tale of brotherly love ever committed to film, and a brilliant, low-budget time capsule of Times Square and NYC in all its early-80s scum and glory – seeing the streets as they were then is worth the price of admission alone. Due to painfully scarce prints, BASKET CASE hasn’t been screened theatrically (possibly at all) since its 80s stint as a real-deal NYC Midnight Movie. We won’t tell you what’s in the basket though…you’ll have to see for yourself. –Saturday, November 5 at 4:45 and Sunday, November 6 at 6:30.

BASKET CASE 2 - (1990, 90 minutes, 35mm-to-video.)

Sequels can be tricky business. Duplicating the original film’s storyline almost never works, but departing from its style isn’t a solution either. Henenlotter pulls off the impossible here with a wildly original follow up that maintains thefirst film’s strong characters. Kevin Van Hentenryck returns as Duane Bradley, still toting around his big ol’ basket. This time he escapes the confines of the concrete jungle for a nice relaxing stay with Granny Ruth, perfectly played by legendary jazz vocalist Annie Ross, of Lambert, Hendricks & Ross. Granny Ruth has a soft spot for nature’s special ones, and she knows that other folks don’t share her point of view. So she’s worked hard to secretly operate a safe haven for freaks – lots of freaks – and lovingly takes Duane and Belial under her wing. But, as outsiders get wind of who might be hiding out at Granny Ruth’s, the boys’ sibling rivalry kicks into high gear again and the real freakshow begins.
–Saturday, November 5 at 7:00 and Sunday, November 6 at 8:30.

Credits: Organized by Mike Hunchback; special thanks to Frank Henenlotter, Joe Bob Briggs, James Glickenhaus, and Nadia Rawlings.

AMERICA LOVES ITS VILLAINS: The Boyd Rice Documentary Experience

ICONOCLAST: The Boyd Rice Documentary
Only current NY screenings: August 20th & 21st, 7 pm
at Anthology Film Archives, 32 2nd Ave, NYC 10003

"America loves its Villains ..."

You’ll hear Boyd Rice say that a couple times over the course of Larry Wessel’s epic (4 hour) new documentary “ICONOCLAST” - a title which works in description of both Rice and the documentary itself. It’s almost like “Freakonomics” for the Goth / Industrial / Noise set, and it’s a very welcome banner to see hanging. I can’t think of a film that has better debunked the myth of the “evil” intentions and attitudes of this sect of society, and if hilarious anecdotes about Anton LaVey’s penchant for electronic whoopee cushions - or simply “fart machines” - doesn’t debunk it for you, then I‘m not sure anything ever will.


Boyd Rice's ouerve has various specific categories. His knowledge of many various areas of American pop and unpop culture is at the level of scholarly. He's considered to be one of the most seminal names in the Noise genre, he was part of the defining stages of Industrial Culture, he did enormous things for Exotica music and Tiki culture, he's written material in the "Answer Me!" zine, "Apocalypse Culture" Book; and his own books, both fiction and nonfiction. He and his friend Jim Morton literally wrote THE book on strange films, "Incredibly Strange Films", which would strongly influence coming generations to deviate from their local shopping mall multiplex's menu of pandering crap. The list goes on quite a long time. From teen years to my "adulthood", I'd heard the name Boyd Rice in association with so, so many fascinating things. Often these things seemed to fit into a kind of mold to me - it was as if the cool people that were 10 - 20 years older than I had found these magical connections between Charles Manson, old cartoons, H.G. Lewis, flea-markets, and weird records. They made fanzines and films, wrote books, recorded amazing records ... Some of the content featured was totally shocking to me - pictures of actual deaths/accidents, writing that championed the crimes of serial killers, and of course wildly offensive humor. At first it was hard to understand. I think it was because (in some ways at least) I was a 'good person'. I couldn't conceive of someone genuinely celebrating this kind of thing. I understood sarcasm, but this stuff was WAY more extreme than that. As I grew more, I increasingly became enraged by what I saw as injustice and stupidity around me. I began to have feelings that I couldn't exorcise with simple sarcasm. I was getting to the point of needing cathartic release, and I didn't know it yet. Seriously folks, if it wasn't for films like "The Defilers" and zines like "Answer Me!" I'm sure I would've went Columbine. So, sometime in my 20's, I started to "get it". And with that came a lot of knowledge and power. Part of what was so attractive about this (at times) extremely alienating culture was that so many people involved in it, unlike most people in most scenes, didn't appear to be total assholes. Or more accurately, these assholes seemed a whole lot more like me. In other words, breakfast cereal and mass murder were fine to talk about in the same breath.

As I became more exposed to this world, Boyd Rice seemed to be near the top of it. At once he was someone who had wonderful, honest and courageous taste; as well as someone who spoke freely about his thoughts and feelings AND accepted the same from others he widely and intensely disagreed with. Cumulatively, ignoring one's personal beliefs at the same time as refusing to accept another's seems like the new American Pastime - and it's through this unfortunate window that ICONOCLAST will look most poignant.

The opening image of “Iconoclast” is that of a woman’s vagina. A knife sits on her belly, the “NON” (Rice's Noise outfit) logo is scarred onto her pelvis, and she’s bleeding (not profusely by any means) from several fresh slices on her inner thighs and stomach. It’s clearly a confronting image. One that certain viewers might find distasteful; and therefore attribute an unwholesome, sexist, nihilistic, or even “evil” nature to the people involved with creating this image. It’s a rather brilliant choice on Wessel’s part, the next sequence is the “exorcism of homosexuality” of some poor woman who apparently did time as a lesbian. The preacher tells her “What those girls did to you - now, that’s not your fault. You can still accept Jesus into your life”. All of this before the speaking in tongues begins and another preacher demands that she “smell the bible” … The set up couldn’t be better, the audience’s nose is rubbed directly in an issue that I’ve always felt was widely ignored: if we as individuals all have these values that we say we do; if we all hold this particular morality and believe in our own freedom and civil rights, then by these standards WHO is the REAL “bad guy” here? Which of these situations is actually "wrong", or "unwholesome", or “evil”? People liking kinky sex and cutting themselves up might not exactly be an activity for Sunday School, but it’s really an individual’s choice if he or she would like to do something like that. It simply doesn't have anything to do with anyone else; unlike the idea that God would want those who spread his words of love, acceptance, and forgiveness to not only CARE about other people’s sex lives, but actually engage in the repulsive acts that one will witness in ICONOCLAST’S opening sequence. Those actions, to me, are a great example for "evil". The confrontation of the film’s opening forces the viewer to make a logical conclusion of whom they think the “bad guy” really is. It’s a hell of a morality barometer, and it draws a very obvious line as to what’s right and what’s wrong. The intensity of imagery and art does not support actual wrong action. It can indicate it, exploit it, expose it, embrace it - but as “wrong” as a viewer finds this imagery to be it’s only ever because of his or her own interpretation.

“Iconoclast” appeals to two different audiences. The Cult of Boyd will be thrilled, much of the information offered here is fresh, as Rice’s life story hasn’t been a very accessible one. The other audience, the audience who doesn’t know of Boyd Rice or his art, will be treated to an explicitly unique experience regarding someone who is completely, totally and gloriously, a truly underground entity.

I spoke to both Larry and Boyd recently about ICONOCLAST, their artistic processes; and of course, some incredibly strange films ...



Interview with ICONOCLAST director Larry Wessel -

Mike Hunchback: What was your first inspiration to make a documentary on Boyd Rice and how did Iconoclast go from just an idea to an actual project?

Larry Wessel: On November 16, 1997 I attended a show at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles headlined by Death in June with NON/Boyd Rice as the opening act. Before entering the club, I encountered a very strange scene taking place on the sidewalk that night. There were a few protestors there who had somehow successfully gotten the management of the El Rey to ban NON/Boyd Rice from performing. When Boyd emerged from backstage during Death in June's set, I followed him outside to the front of the theatre and introduced myself. He said that he already knew who I was and that he was a big fan of Taurobolium, my Tijuana bullfight documentary and that Anton LaVey (another big fan of Taurobolium) had screened it for him at The Church of Satan. Incidentally I was told this story over and over again by various people who we're lucky enough to have an audience with Anton LaVey that he would require them on their first meeting to spend 2 hours watching Taurobolium with him! Boyd and I kept in touch with each other after that show. In 2000, I traveled to Colorado to shoot Boyd for a documentary I was doing about obsessed collectors. Boyd was a collector of Scopitone movies and obscure girl group records and I interviewed him about the obscure objects of his desire. It was during a dinner we were having at the bizarre restaurant/amusement park Casa Bonita that I pitched him on doing a documentary on his life. He didn’t seem very interested in doing this at the time. He suggested that I do a documentary about The Partridge Family Temple instead. On June 24, 2002 Death in June did a show at the Key Club in West Hollywood and I shot the entire concert. Two years later, Death in June and NON/Boyd Rice returned to the Key Club for another show. A few weeks prior to this return engagement, I received an email from Boyd. Boyd said that he was a big fan of all of my documentaries and ended the email message with, "What about doing a documentary about ME?". So I guess that I must've planted a seed when I had suggested this idea to him 4 years prior to this! I responded that I would love to do a documentary about him. he then informed me that it would be his last tour with Death in June and that it might be my last opportunity to interview Douglas P. Wearing his strange Death in June mask, Douglas gave me a very humorous and informative interview. The final show at the Key Club was made very strange by the presence of protestors once again. They were carrying picket signs. One of the signs had "STOP NAZI MUSIC" scrawled on it. Another read, "BOYD RICE IS A NAZI THROUGH AND THROUGH". I filmed Boyd confronting the protestors outside of the show and found it extremely odd that they didn't even recognize the man they we're protesting! This was the beginning of an odyssey that would end 6 years later with the red carpet world premiere of Iconoclast at Quentin Tarantino's New Beverly Cinema in Hollywood on August 17, 2010.

MH: Was anyone particularly difficult to pin down for an interview?

LW: Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys) and Mark Pauline (Survival Research Laboratories) would not answer my email inquiries. I had a pleasant telephone chat with Genesis P-Orridge (Throbbing Gristle) up until he told me that "there is no way that I would be in a documentary about Boyd Rice". I asked Gen why and he told me that he didn't have to give me an explanation. He said that "Boyd knows why". I asked Boyd about why he thought that Gen didn't want to participate in ICONOCLAST and Boyd was simply mystified. When I called RE/Search's V. Vale after he didn't return any of my emails, we talked on the phone for close to 4 hours. Vale said that the only way he would be in ICONOCLAST is if Boyd provided a signed affidavit that he was not in or affiliated with any white supremacist or neo-nazi groups.

MH: As a viewer I noticed some great reoccurring themes in ICONOCLAST. Did you have a direction in mind when you began filming, or perhaps when you began editing? Or were these occurrences totally natural?

LW: The process for making one of my documentaries always begins with shooting miles and miles of footage with everything unfolding naturally. No preconceptions or battle plan at all. I never dictate the content. I prefer that my subject matter and the audience for my documentaries think for themselves. In the case of Iconoclast, I ended up with 200 plus hours of interviews with Boyd Rice and approx. 40 or so other people! It is during the editing process that my films take shape. This is when I find the narrative structure, a natural beginning, middle and end and where I can begin to have fun with the content and infuse it with many levels of meaning.

MH: I don't think anyone interested in seeing a Boyd Rice documentary would be upset about the film's length, but did you have any reservations when you arrived at the 4 hour mark?

LW: I have always been very comfortable with the unusual length of ICONOCLAST. So far nobody who has seen ICONOCLAST has complained about it's length. On the contrary, people keep telling me that ICONOCLAST is so fast paced, so fun and exciting that they are left wanting to see more!

MH: Is there anything in particular that it hurt to leave out?

LW: There was an entertaining section on cult leader Uriel and her Unarius Academy in El Cajon that Boyd was fascinated by and would frequently visit that I felt a little sad about removing.

MH: Are you working on another documentary at the moment?

LW: Yes. As a matter of fact I am in the process of editing 4 more documentaries, all which have already completed shooting. The first one (mentioned previously) I began shooting it in the year 2000 and is about obsessed collectors. The second one is a documentary about the amazing artist from Albuquerque, Beth Moore-Love. Number three is a sequel to ULTRAMEGALOPOLIS, my documentary about Los Angeles. And the forth one is all about New York City and my adventures there.




Interview with Boyd Rice, subject of ICONOCLAST -


Mike Hunchback: Any reservation to having a documentary made on you?

Boyd Rice: No, no.

MH: And how did you meet Larry?

BR: I knew of him through Anton LaVey and other mutual friends and he’s sort of showed up one night when I was playing at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles and we immediately hit it off. He had some sort of very favorable, lucky night because of being with me. He got to hang out with some sexy young girl, and he was saying “Boyd, you bring me luck, you bring me luck!”

MH: The thing I noticed perhaps most about ICONOCLAST was that you seem to have evolved into a very appropriate person. The image a lot of people have of you is that of a antagonist or a disrupter, but there’s so much of the film where we see you being quite courteous and quite polite. I really like the stuff near the end of them film where you’re speaking with Bob Larson and you're both laughing, even though you guys clearly disagree about a lot of things. It just didn’t seem to affect you that someone thought so differently.

BR: It never has, it never has. I was friends with Jello Biafra for over a decade and I never saw eye to eye with his politics, but it didn’t matter. I was apolitical and I didn’t care what anybody else thought. I kind of had that Thomas Jefferson thing where he says that “A man can believe in whatever he wants to so long as it doesn’t break my leg or pick my pocket”. I really don’t care. That’s sort of always been my attitude. There was a time when I disagreed far more severely with Bob Larson, I saw him as being emblematic of something that was baleful of Western Civilization.

MH: Is there anybody that you would’ve liked to see in ICONOCLAST that didn’t make it in? I heard Jello was hard to get a hold of.

BR: I thought that Larry did get a hold of Jello and he just said ‘I absolutely don’t wanna be a part of this”. Because early on, when Larry was saying ‘who should I interview for this?’ I said ‘Well, you really need to interview Jello Biafra’ and you need to interview Vale from Re/Search, you need to get some of these people … it’ll be more interesting if it’s like me being on Bob Larson’s radio show. There’s some people who are saying horrible things about me that will make it a lot more fun. Unfortunately, all those people, those dissenting voices, refused to be part of it. It’s not like they were excluded or disinvited or anything. We asked as many people as we could think of and some just said ‘no, forget about it’.

MH: That brings me to something we had talked about in email, the Village Voice review. Right off they mention Bob Larson being in the film, but quickly the piece begins to be about how no one interviewed in ICONOCLAST questioned you, or disagreed with you. It didn’t seem that way to me, and you were also saying how you didn’t feel that this was the case …

BR: (laughs) Yeah, I don’t think it was … I mean who could you get who is in greater disagreement with me than Bob Larson? The film starts with Bob Larson, Bob Larson is in the middle, and the film essentially ends with Bob Larson. It’s like you were saying earlier, you think I’m a mellower person, and I’m happier and I’m more civil and relaxed, and realistically that’s the person I’ve always been and that’s why I’ve been around for 33 years. Because I’m civil, and I’m polite and people really, really like me. There’s this perception out there that ‘Boyd is this guy that nobody likes’. I think the absolute adverse is true, everybody likes me except for a handful of malcontents. And I think even those malcontents once they see this movie will have a hard time reconciling their feelings against me towards what they see on the screen, because I’m obviously not what they imagine I am. And you know, that’s a good thing! (laughs)

MH: Some of my favorite material you’ve ever done is your material in “Answer Me!”. I expected to see a little bit about that in the documentary but it didn’t get covered. I was wondering if you could tell me a bit about the beginning of your collaboration with them.

BR: I went out to Musso and Frank’s [editor's note everyone should visit this amazing historical landmark at least once] in Hollywood for a meal … Jim and Debbie Goad were living right around the corner from Musso and Frank’s. I went out with them, Coop and his wife, and Adam Parfrey who does Feral House, we all went out to have dinner at Musso and Frank’s. And I think Russ Meyer was there with a babe in the corner booth. He was always there, back in the days that you could still smoke cigars in Musso and Frank’s, and he was always smoking a cigar. So, I met them then and they really took to me, they kind of expected me to be like y’know … [it was as if they were thinking] ‘Oh, this is just some guy who does noise music, why do you want us to meet him?’. But we realized there was some sort of overlap or interface between our world views. He had me do that thing where I gave the definition for those words or something ['Rice Ain't Nice', Answer Me! #3], so I did that, then they decided to do the rape issue of the magazine and I gave him that piece ['RAPE: Revolt Against Penis Envy' Answer Me! #4]. And that’s another of these things that I expected people to want to tar and feather me for … but people just said ‘ Wow, I love your article on Rape!”. Crispin Glover even told me he took that out of the magazine and had it bound! And read that to every girl who came to his house … I said ‘Really? What kind of reaction do you get?’ and he said [Crispin Glover voice] ‘Really good, really really good’ …Strange!

MH: (laughs) That’s great … changing gears just a little, have you had any personal discoveries of film in the recent years? And would you ever go back to the style of writing you did on “Incredibly Strange Films”?

BR: Yeah, yeah. That area is kind of vast and bottomless, so I’m discovering new stuff all the time. My friend Jim Morton who wrote the Incredibly Strange Films book with me recently spent a lot of time in Berlin and he’s discovered these East German films that are absolutely mind-blowing. Like, East German Beach Party movies, Disaster movies, Science Fiction movies. Especially now with DVD, a lot of obscure stuff is coming out that it would have been impossible to release 20 years back … it’s just like, everything is coming back again. And it’s stuff you’ve forgotten about, and it’s stuff you never even knew about, so I’m seeing new stuff all the time.


MH: For a while you weren’t using the internet much, but now you seem to be more frequent. Do you mind being on there these days, or does it serve its purpose for you?

BR: The internet is the triumph of communication over content; of information over knowledge. It's the opiate of the masses in a far more profound way than religion ever was. And, it’s a mixed blessing, it’s a double edged blade. I sort of need to do it for business purposes, because I’m doing stuff with people all over the world and it’s really the most convenient way to communicate with them. It still drives me crazy a bit … and I can’t be on there in some social networking fashion, I can’t put up with that. I don’t even like looking at the things people write, even the positive things sometimes drive me crazy. There’s a lot of stuff on there I’d rather not know about. My girlfriend sort of convinced me I need to be on there for business reasons, and you know it’s working really well lately, like this interview with you.

MH: Do you think the internet has changed much about the realms of culture you enjoy? Films for instance - do you think that the way that people talk about or discuss these movies has changed? Is there a different kind of appreciation now, and is it better or worse?

BR: Well, I’m not sure what you mean, but I think part of the charm to me of those movies we documented in the Incredibly Strange Films book was that you sort of had to be an insider. You had to sort of know about these things, and they rarely played in movie theatres; if they were on television at all you’d have to scan the TV Guide and watch them at three in the morning, and you‘re sort of watching these rarefied movies at a time when you knew everybody else in the city is asleep. So it made it seem special, it made it seem like something that was your own personal possession. And it seems like now it’s this proliferation of media where people don’t really have to try so hard, so I don’t know if these movies are as special to them as they were to me when I was 16 years old. You can just go on the internet and see them live streaming, and it makes other suggestions and you can see something similar … y’know, I don’t know if it’s bastardized the experience for everybody else or not … I still like if “Manos: Hands of Fate” is on TV. I just watched “A Bucket of Blood” again -

MH: (totally interrupts) Oh it’s so good, goddamn it’s great …

BR: This coffee table art book is coming out from Outre Press in Australia, and it’s of my collection of thrift store paintings. Martin Macintosh who owns Outre Gallery also has thrift store paintings. I wrote an intro to that and I mention “Bucket of Blood”, and how that represented this weird, beatnik ideal of ‘the artist as the free spirit!’ He just sent me the intro and he uses a photo of “Bucket of Blood”, and it was the same night “Bucket of Blood” was on television …

MH: I actually had the pleasure of seeing it on film at Anthology not long ago. There was an amazing retrospective of Corman films, with a bunch of the Corman Poe films, “Bucket of Blood”, and they even played “The Intruder”. To see that on film was unbelievable. You guys have a great home in showing “ICONOCLAST” at Anthology, they really are the coolest in NY I think.

BR: Wow, yeah. I’m excited about it, very excited.


MH: One of my favorite people in the film is Adam Parfrey. He comes off great in the documentary and seems like a wonderful guy. Can you tell me a little about your friendship with him? It seems like you guys get along very well in real life …

BR: Yeah well I met him, strangely enough, at a film screening in San Francisco many, many years ago, and he kind of approached me and said ‘Hey, I’m going to put out this book, called APOCALYPSE CULTURE, it’s gonna come out on Grove Press. I’d like you to write something for it.’ He gave me his prospectus and I went home and looked at it and it was just absolutely over the top. And I just thought ‘there’s no way anybody’s going to publish this book, not even Grove Press!’. But, he kept in touch with me, and every time he sent me the updated outlines for the book it became more and more cohesive, so I did something for it. And you know, it came out and at the time there was nobody in San Francisco I could talk to about the sort of things that were in “Apocalypse Culture”, none of my friends wanted to hear it. So I sort of began a long phone friendship with Adam. He was in New York, I was in San Francisco and this was in the days when long distance calls were really, really cost-prohibitive. But we spent hours on the phone talking about this stuff, and I suspect he had nobody in NY to really discuss this stuff with either, so it was like we’d get off the phone and we’d sort of recharged our batteries. Afterward we probably both thought 'Well gee, I’m not so crazy after all, there’s this other guy who sees very much eye to eye with me'. So yeah, we’ve been friends for … it’s gotta be 25 years or something. And he’s coming out with a book called “Feral Man in a Feral Land” and it’s essentially an oral biography of his life and experiences in publishing, and I’ve done a bunch of stuff for that.

MH: Speaking of “Apocalypse Culture” … it makes me think about the time period it came out in, about things like “Answer Me!”, and about a lot of really interesting visual art and music that were going on at the time … It seemed like there was a very intense uprising of that kind of extremely strong imagery and topics, often confrontational. I’ve had a couple of my friends tell me things like “The first time I read “Answer Me!” I was physically shaking”, or that it was “the biggest breath of fresh air we could have had at the time in the 90‘s“. Do you think there was something specific about that time that made that kind of art and talking about those kinds of things more appropriate?

BR: Things like "Apocalypse Culture" and "Answer Me!" were sort of a response to the times. They were a by-product of their times while still being one giant step ahead of them. If you're too young to remember the mid 80's, it was a very apocalyptic time: there was a lot of gang violence, drive-by shootings, the AIDS epidemic was just going full throttle, and the world seemed to be going to shit. Yet everyone was still talking about peace, love, and harmony. We were sort of the odd men out. We were the voices in the wilderness. People who were essentially asking "what if everyone's basic assumption is wrong?". And it seemed to be. My new book "Twilight Man" is about this period. It's an autobiographical novel due out in a month or so on Heartworm Press. It details some of the ugliness and violence I experienced on an almost nightly basis as an alarm agent working the graveyard shift. By the time I left San Francisco, my favorite film character was Travis Bickle. That more or less laid the foundation for my mindset during the late eighties and the decade of the nineties.

MH: Is there anything fresh or challenging coming out now that’s interested you lately?

BR: I like Cold Cave, if you’re familiar with them. I like this band that’s also on the same label, the Liars.

MH: Though I haven’t read Lisa Carver’s book myself, I keep hearing about some of its contents regarding an abusive relationship between you two. I’d love to hear what you have to say on the subject and also give you a chance to defend yourself against any rumors.

BR: I think Lisa got maybe one sentence in the film and that was one too many. I recently debunked her lies about me in an interview you can find on WFMUs BEWARE THE BLOG. It was good to finally defend myself after all these years and get the truth out there, but really it all seemed so sad and boring. After all this was like 16 years ago or something that these charges were literally laughed out of court. Lisa admitted in an interview that she wrote her book in order to destroy my life and career ... words of a spurned woman. I've undergone a few decades of false accusations about a great many things and if I cared enough to defend myself against them all it would be a full time job. Those who choose to believe such things are going to do so no matter what you say. Luckily, I don't really care. As you saw in the film, I live a great life and I'm very happy.


This one was for Amber! Visit Larry Wessel’s website here: http://wesselmania.net

Visit Boyd Rice’s website here: http://boydrice.com

Visit Anthology Film Archives here for the most happening revival screenings in New York: http://anthologyfilmarchives.org

Very, very special thanks to Boyd and Larry for being so accessible.


And everyone check out ICONOCLAST tomorrow and Sunday at Anthology Film Archives!