Monthly Archives: October 2020

2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 1: Pee-wee’s Big Adventure (1985)

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DAY 1. FAMILY TIME: Tired of seeing the same faces every day? Look at a movie instead! Rated PG or less. Ease in to it!

In the days before the internet, we could build our own cults. Amongst my family, we were obsessed with Pee-Wee Herman. Just imagine, in a time that could only be predicted by TV Guide, Pee-Wee would randomly show up in movies like Cheech & Chong’s Next Movie and Nice Dreams, where he was only known as “The Hamburger Guy.” As the 80’s began, Pee-Wee started by performing five months of the live The Pee-wee Herman Show at the Roxy Theater in LA and getting a taped special on HBO.

That special dominated my eight-year-old mind, presenting a world that at once childlike and at the other end, strangely sinister and adult. I watched it so many times that I could recite every single word and still can. The end, where Pee-Wee finally learns to fly, can often reduce me to tears.

In the five years between that special and this movie, Paul Reubens pretty much became Pee-Wee, even asking his parents to go by the names Honey and Herman Herman. His David Letterman appearances — major surprises, as we stated before — were riotous bursts of anarchy on a show that was already breaking nearly every rule of television. So when a Pee-Wee movie was announced, we lost our collective minds.

Somehow, Pee-Wee Herman is the rarest of cases of someone who became famous without losing a single ounce of his weirdness. And much like the HBO show that came before, I can still recite every word of this movie, quote it at will throughout the day and get misty-eyed just thinking of moments within it.

The story is incredibly simple: Pee-Wee’s most prized possession — his bike — has been taken by Francis. Now, he must get it back. A psychic tells our hero that his bike is in the basement of the Alamo, so we’re off to adventure.

That’s it. It’s that easy.

From wrestler Silo Sam chasing Pee-Wee around dinosaurs to his speech to Dottie (I actually gave this exact same “I’m a rebel, a loner” speech to a date once and was convinced she was going to slap me; she cried and told me it was the saddest thing she’d ever heard, somehow never seeing this movie before), dancing to “Tequilla” at a biker bar while Satan’s Helpers (look for Elvira) look on and so much more, there are so many moments in this film that simply listing them would take on the feel of Chris Farley talking to Paul McCartney.

I mean, without this film, you may not have Danny Elfman and Tim Burton making big budget movies.

To write the film, Reubens, Phil Hartman and Michael Varhol purchased the book Syd Field’s Screenplay and were as literal as possible. “It’s a 90-minute film, it’s a 90-page script,” said Ruebens. “On page 30 I lose my bike, on page 60 I find it. It’s literally exactly what they said to do in the book.” In my crazed mind, I also wish that Ruebens had followed through with his plan to remake Pollyanna with Pee-Wee in the lead.

There are so many easter eggs in this film, like the magic shop owned being named after Mario Bava, the Chiodo Brothers animating Large Marge, the Aleister Crowley head in the aforementioned magic shop, James Brolin playing Pee-Wee, the start of my crush on E.G. Daily, Professor Toru Tanaka as Francis’ butler and even the first acting role for Darla the dog, who was Queenie in The ‘Burbs and Precious in The Silence of the Lambs.

There are so many lines in this, too. I leave you with my favorite:

Simone: Do you have any dreams?

Pee-Wee Herman: Yeah, I’m all alone. I’m rolling a big doughnut and this snake wearing a vest…

PS: I have just one more ridiculous Pee-Wee story to tell. In 1989, Pee-Wee exchanged fake marriage vows with Chandi Heffner — the adopted daughter of Doris Duke, the richest little girl in the world. Chandi was a Hare Krishna devotee and sister of the third wife of billionaire Nelson Peltz and all of 35-years-old when she was adopted, as Duke believed that she was the reincarnation of her only biological child Arden, who died days after being born. Chandra and Pee-Wee were “married” by Imelda Marcos at Duke’s Honolulu mansion Shangri-La. If you think the world is not amazing and special, you’re a fool.

COME BACK TO THE DRIVE-IN ASYLUM DOUBLE FEATURE!

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Before we get started, here’s our schedule for October!

This Saturday, October 3, we’ll be live at 8 PM on the Groovy Doom Facebook page with two films — which we’ll get to in a bit.

We’re off the next week.

Then, we’re back Saturday, October 17 at 8 PM with two more movies to be named later.

Then off the next week.

And finally, we’ll be doing one movie on Halloween night at a different time, 11 PM! That’s also a surprise!

We don’t want to burn anyone out (and real life — like weddings, new houses, getting Drive-In Asylum the zine to print and so much more are happening), but we love the show and will be trying to stick to two shows a month.

Thanks for listening. Now let’s talk about this week! Two of Mario Bava’s films — Baron Blood and A Bay of Blood — and two of our favorite films!

What can you drink during this one? Good question.

Seeing Red (taken from the official Kraken site)

  • 2 oz. Kraken rum
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  • 3 oz. pineapple juice
  • Splash of grenadine
  1. Fill a glass with crushed ice.
  2. Add ingredients to glass except grenadine and stir.
  3. Add a splash of grenadine on top. Serve.

You can watch this on Shudder and Tubi.

You can sip on this during the movie.

Bay of Breeze (AKA Thirst of the Death Nerve)

  • 2 oz. cranberry juice
  • 2 oz. pineapple juice
  • 1 1/2 oz. vodka
  • 1/2 oz. lime juice
  1. Combine ingredients over ice. Stir and serve.

You can watch this on Shudder and YouTube.

See you on Saturday!

Slasher Month: The Red Right Hand (2001)

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As I write this, Boston’s iconic, trendsetting alternative rock station, WFNX 101.7 FM, is no more.

When the station went on the air in 1947 as WLYN, it broadcast a programming palate of simulcasting its sister AM station with the same callsign on AM 1360, then originated its own programming at night after the AM went off the air at sundown (an AM-FM combo broadcast standard until the mid-70s). Upon the convergence-birth of Los Angeles’ alternative rock station KROQ (the home of Rodney Bingenheimer; his career chronicled in The Mayor of the Sunset Strip) and MTV in the early ’80s, the station came to drop its variety-ethnic programming in 1981 and began experimenting with new wave music in the evenings.

By 1982, WLYN became known as “Y-102,” one of the first full-time new-wave rock stations in the country; a station sale in 1983 resulted in the format remaining, but birthing a new set of call letters — WFNX — until another station sale in 2012 to Clear Channel Communications (now iHeartMedia) resulted in an automated format flip to an “Adult Hits” and a new set of call letters: WBWL (a common practice — live to automation — in these digital times).

The first song WFNX played under its new, full-time alt-rock format was the Cure’s “Let’s Go to Bed.” In August of 1991, with buzz on the group in full effect, DJ Kurt St. Thomas gave the then commercially unknown Nirvana their world broadcast premiere of their new album, Nevermind, from start to finish — and we all know how that album turned out.

At that point, WFNX became a trendsetter of the alt-rock community, giving the first national airplay to the top-selling bands The Darkness, Franz Ferdinand, Florence and the Machine, Hawthorne Heights, and Jet, just to name a few. When the station when off the air in 2012, they went off with the song that started it all: the Cure’s “Let’s Go to Bed.” Nirvana’s first major, mainstream concert appearance beyond the college-rock club scene was for WFNX’s annual anniversary party in August 28, 1991.

To call St. Thomas — as do Beatles historians with New York DJ Murray the K as “The Fifth Beatle” — the “fourth Nirvana member” (or fifth, if you count the late addition of Pat Smear of the Germs as a second guitarist during the In Utero years), is no understatement.

VHS image courtesy of sweesus-smasher/Paul Zamerelli of VHS Collector.com

By 1996 Kurt St. Thomas transitioned into filmmaking. Along with fellow WFNX DJ Mike Gioscia, they made the 1999 black and white film noir Captive Audience. The film dealt with the odd, symbiotic relationship between an overnight DJ and a gun-toting intruder at the station. Winning several international and domestic film awards, St. Thomas and Gioscia were encouraged to shoot a more adventurous feature production.

Recruiting John Doe of X (Border Radio) as their star, The Red Right Hand is a horror film that begins in 1963 as it follows five high school friends forced to relive a terrifying secret at their 15th high school reunion in 1978. Also released to video under the titles Above and Below and Jon’s Good Wife, the original title was taken from a Nick Cave song. 

As with most of the Troma Entertainment catalog, don’t let the logos from The Asylum deter you from spinning the DVD, as the studio only distributed the film; they were not involved in its production.

Is it “The Creepiest movie since Rosemary Baby!” as the DVD box claims? No. And The Asylum marketing department has a lot of balls making us thing we’re getting a film that matches the majesty of Roman Polanski. However, St. Thomas and Mike Gioscia have crafted a solid mystery drama rife with blackmail, murder, private demons, and rattling bones: all the plot points you expect in a noir.

St. Thomas would later work at the KROQ, the L.A. rock station responsible for birthing WFNX; while there, he came to produce the long-running specialty show “Jonesy Jukebox” for Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols (The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle). He and John Doe are currently in post-production stages on their latest effort — and St. Thomas third feature film overall — D.O.A: The Movie, with co-star Lucinda Jenney, who we last saw in Rob Zombie’s 3 from Hell. A noir homage, it concerns Frank Bigelow (John Doe), a Florida private detective hired to follow the ne’er-do-well husband of a St. Augustine socialite. The spiraling double-crosses ensue.

Even though The Asylum made the VHS and DVD widely available in the marketplace — I’ve seen it numerous times on rental and retail shelves, cut-out bins and second hand stores — they’ve opted not to offer it as an online stream. There’s not even an online trailer or clips to share. But if you Google it, you’ll readily find VHS and DVD copies in the online marketplace.

About the Author: You can learn more about the writings of R.D Francis on Facebook. He also writes for B&S About Movies.

We’ve since done a “John Doe Week” tribute in December! You can visit this recap/round up for those film reviews.

SLASHER MONTH: Berserker (1987)

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We’ve had every holiday and nearly every kind of killer by 1987, so why not bring a Norseman in to wipe out campers? It can happen, right? They say it’s a wild bear, but we all know it’s the Berserker, right? The kind of killer that can never rest, that can only subsist on human flesh and will never die. Yeah. Berserker!

Just like all the finest slashers, a wizened elder — in this case, Pappy Nyquist (George “Buck’”Flowers) — tries to warn these kids. Yet before you can say Ragnarok, they’re all ransacking one another in the woods and that can never go well.

You have to love the gumption of the film’s producers to just outright steal the art from Pink Floyd’s The Wall to sell this.

This is a movie that really demands more Vikings and doesn’t deliver. It’s close — so close — to giving you the unholy face painted body destroying epic that you want it to be. It’s oh-so-close and fun at times, but what it could be overshadows what it is.

You can get this from Vinegar Syndrome or watch it on Tubi.

SLASHER MONTH: To All a Goodnight (1980)

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What is it about Christmas that engenders just as many slashers as Halloween? Is it the ennui? The dread? The hatred of being forced to be nice and needing the release that only violence can deliver?

While this film borrows liberally from Black Christmas, it does have David Hess as a director, which was my primary reason for tracking it down. If you’re used to seeing him in films like Last House on the Left and the Italian remix House on the End of the Park, this is your opportunity to see what he would do on the other side of the lens.

Two years ago at the Calvin Finishing School For Girls, a student was killed when she was accidentally pushed over a balcony. Now, as the school empties for the holiday break, five of the girls decide to not go home and have a weekend alone with their boyfriends. But by the end of the first night, one of their classmates is dead.

The girls convince Nancy (Jennifer Runyon, who ended up in another seasonal slasher, Silent Night, Bloody Night 2: Revival) to drug their house mother so that they can all go to an airstrip and party with the guys outside their private plane. How rich are these dudes? This leads to, of course, more murder. And oh yeah — Deep Throat star Harry Reems as their pilot.

Unlike the aforementioned Black Christmas, the killer is revealed in this movie and it’s very Mrs. Vorhees. There’s a second twist as well to liven things up, as if things need any more color after the airplane itself is used to kill two of the teenagers.

This was written by Alex Rebar, who B&S About Movies’ eagle-eyed readers will spot as Steve West, The Incredible Melting Man. Kiva Laurence, who plays the housemother Mrs. Jensen, would go on to appear in the Americanized giallo Schizoid the same year.

This film is incredibly dark and the VHS format did not help that at all. Today’s blu ray transfers have helped, but that fact has kept it from being included in the discussion of best slashers. It doesn’t belong there, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not worth watching.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge is here!

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I’ve been waiting all year to get to the 2020 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge.

Want to see what we watched in 2018 and 2019? Just click on the links.

Starting tomorrow, we’re ready, willing and able to attack 31 movies. We’re ready to learn. We’re ready to teach. We’re ready to escape the hell that is this country with some weird movies and no small amount of substances!

Here are this year’s rules:

We’re also doing an entire month of slashers when we’re not doing the challenge. Last year, we hit 60 slashers. This year? Who can say! Check out our slashtastic Letterboxd list to see where we’ve been and stay tuned all month to see where we’re going.