Monthly Archives: October 2022

SLASHER MONTH: The Vineyard (1989)

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Winemaker Dr. Elson Po (James Hong, who directed this with William Rice, and wrote the movie with Douglas Kondo and  James Marlowe)  is growing old, so he takes young people and uses their blood to make wine. He gets a great idea to make a movie about the wine, but that’s just a scam so that he can get some gorgeous young folks to visit and die.

There are some fun moments in this, like the dying people buried in Po’s garden, him ordering the death of his wife’s young lover and a moment where he rapidly ages while making love. No problem — he heads down to the basement for a fresh bottle of that age-defying wine.

Jezebel, one of the main women in this, is played by Playboy March 1982 Playmate of the Month Karen Lorre, who was also in Dangerously Close. I love that all these young American women take one look at Po and say, “He’s so…interesting!” Yes!  He’s going to smash you like a human grape into his favorite chablis! Run!

You can watch this on Tubi.

The Murder Podcast (2021) and interview with director William Bagley

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Chad (Andrew McDermott) and Eddie (Cooper Bucha) want to be podcasters but no one wants to listen to a show all about ramen. A murder happens in their town and they decide to solve it with their show, except that people keep getting knocked off and they find themselves in the middle of all of it.

When they find some coins on the desk of the sheriff (Levi Burdick) that match ones at the murder site, they think they’ve found their man. Except then they watch a witch exterminate the sheriff — and she even gets the deputy (Luke Michael Williams) — before starting to chase our heroes once they take the coin.

Director and writer William Bagley does a good job balancing horror and comedy in this, as well as creating two fun leads who win you over and make you want to see them succeed, even if they’ve stoner dumb enough to anger their hometown’s law enforcement and urban legend all at the same time.

B&S About Movies: I know that true crime and podcasts about it are huge. Was that the genesis of the idea behind your movie?

William Bagley:  I had gone to Maine to work on a documentary with a friend. And while we were there, we met a dude who had just come from St. Louis and he was telling me how he heard this thing where they put coins on witches’ graves to keep their spirits at bay. That sounds like a really cool idea for a horror movie! Back home, I researched it and couldn’t find anything about it. I found one page on a website and that was all. I don’t really know if it’s true or not, but I was like, “That’s a really cool idea.”

It kind of melded with this other idea I’ve been working on about a news anchor journalist solving crimes. That wasn’t really going anywhere. And my wife had been listening to every single true crime podcast on the face of the planet and telling me all about them.

That’s when I hit on the perfect idea: podcasters.

She’s obsessed with true crime. It’s compelling sometimes, but not really my forte.

B&S: How did you go from true crime to the supernatural in the same story?

William: I just like supernatural stuff. I think it’s more fun. So instead of someone just being like, oh, legit murdered, I got to turn into something crazy. I was like, “I’m gonna be able to do cool supernatural stuff in the horror scenes.”

B&S: Are you a fan of horror movies?

William: I’ve grown into way more of a fan as I’ve gotten older. When I was in high school, horror movies used to just terrify me but I still would have fun watching them with other people. But I never watched it by myself up until probably the last few years. I definitely tend to like the more fun horror. Not necessarily like horror comedies, but when it’s super depressing, it’s usually not my thing. I don’t like it when everything’s just really sad and scary. There at least needs to be some kind of levity.

B&S: How did you work across both genres in your film? Balancing horror and comedy isn’t always easy.

William: I think the main thing was I told the actors was “Your characters and what they do is going to be where the comedy comes from. Your character doesn’t think anything that they’re doing is funny. They’re not making jokes. They’re not necessarily having fun. They’re acting very silly, but to them, that’s how they would actually act in this situation.”

I think that’s a good way to blend the hard stuff. Because, you know, if you see something really scary you’re gonna be like, “Oh, no, no, no, no, no!” (laughs) You’ll say something super like over the top. That’s kind of where I was trying to pull from. I was taking the comedy seriously.

You want the characters to believe the world that they’re in, even though we all know that’s really silly.

B&S: I really liked the shift from the real to the unreal.

William: In some of the reviews, there are some who like the third act and some who don’t.

B&S: That’s the great part of independent film, right? You didn’t have to deal with any notes.

William: When we were filming it, I had some mild anxiety. It just felt like. “Are we getting the right stuff? Is this coming across?” I didn’t really know, because I was also the editor on the film. We weren’t cutting it while we were shooting it because I was directing. Once it wrapped and I started cutting and putting it together, like actually seeing it come together, it was the coolest thing. It worked! We did a good job!

B&S: Did you start as an editor?

William: Yes. I’ve done a bunch of shorts for other people/ I used to work at a TV station as an editor. . I actually love editing and when I’m directing, I’m directing for the edit and can shoot fast because I can just say, “We’re not going to use that.”

B&S: Who are your influences?

William: Edgar Wright, which you can tell when you see the movie. I was also inspired by the first Lord of the Rings in the way they treated the ring. That was how I wanted to treat the coin and its presence.

I also really love Matthew Vaughn. I think The Kingsman is a great movie. He does a really good job of mixing in comedy with other genres.

B&S: What’s next?

William: I have two scripts I’m working on. One is called Lumberjack Samurai. It’s awesome.  It’s gonna be significantly more expensive than The Murder Podcast. So it’s probably going to take longer to make. We’re trying to figure out how to finance that thing right now. And then I have another smaller script that I wrote with the guy who actually plays the witch in the movie, Scott Hawkins. It’s significantly smaller and we may be able to do that in a couple of months. It’s interesting because Lumberjack Samurai may be more serious than The Murder Podcast.

B&S: Where do you live?

William: Atlanta, GA. I work in the film industry here, which means we were able to pull a lot of favors and get a lot of gear and stuff like that. I’ve been doing it for a long time. We were like, “Hey, can I borrow your grip truck? Is that cool?”

B&S: Where can people find The Murder Podcast?

William: www.murderpodcastmovie.com. That’s where we’ll have all the links to the streaming services we’re going to be on. You can rent the movie from Vimeo. I know we’re going to be on Amazon and Tubi soon.

If you happen to live in Springfield, Missouri or in Laredo and Corpus Christi Texas, the Alamo Drafthouse is screening the movie in late October, early November. And then hopefully we’re gonna have a screening here in Atlanta.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 25: Gorilla At Large (1954)

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25. A Horror Film That Prominently Features A Gorilla Costume.

Cameron Mitchell, Anne Bancroft, Lee J. Cobb, Raymond Burr, Lee Marvin and Warren Stevens. What a cast! Throw in George Barrows as Goliath, the titular gorilla and man, we have a movie. Wait — it’s in 3D? How much do you want to give us, Panoramic Productions?

The carnival has come to town and its big selling point is watching the giant gorilla Goliath get cock teased by Laverne, a trapeze artist (Bancroft). Yet the owner, Cyrus Miller (Burr) thinks the act is growing old. So carnival barker Joey (Cameron Mitchell) puts on a gorilla costume and they change it up, with a new ending where the beast really does get the girl. This upsets Goliath’s trainer Kovacs (Peter Whitney) and Joey’s fiancee Audrey (Charlotte Austin), who doesn’t want him near another woman.

Of course, murders ensue, a hall of mirrors and a rollercoaster make for amazing set pieces and the ending is a genuine surprise. When this aired on TV in the 80s, the giveaway glasses smelled like bananas, which is what I want all movies to have the whiff of.

2022 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 25: The Rules of Attraction (2002)

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25. CRAIG’S TWIST: When that iffy roommate situation goes sour in a dangerous way.

Written and directed by Roger Avary and based on Bret Easton Ellis’ book, this movie makes me not regret at all that I went to art school instead of college and that I was not forced to suffer through roommates. Although man, my first roommates worked at Arthur Treacher’s, always smelled like fish, didn’t have beds and one of them used to cry about his girlfriend while listening to “Don’t Worry Baby” by the Beach Boys, infusing in me a lifelong hatred of Mike Love. Well done, asshole.

Lauren Hynde (Shannyn Sossamon), Paul Denton (Ian Somerhalder) and Sean Bateman (James Van Der Beek) are students at Camden College, a place where an end of the world party leads to sex for all of them and not always the way they want it. Lauren gets taken by a townie while a film student records it. Paul gets beaten by a jock who is closeted. Sean ends up sleeping with a girl he really doesn’t want. But oh, before all that, Paul wanted Sean and wrote him letters, which he thought were from Lauren, who also likes him. Except that a geeky lunchlady girl — that’s Theresa Wayman, who was in the band Warpaint with Sossamon — sent Sean those letters and she kills herself and things spiral out of lovelorn control from there and then we get a scene where Lauren gives Eric Stoltz a blowjob while he listens to classic music because he’s married and doesn’t sleep with students. Sure, whatever, she says, taking out her gum.

This movie reminds me of a time in my life where all this music existed yet I was too busy working sixty to ninety hours a week and stuck in a marriage that was crushing me. Such is life, right?

Anyways, it has everyone from Jessica Biel, Kate Bosworth and Faye Dunaway to Fred Savage, Swoosie Kurtz and Paul Williams in it and for that — mostly for Paul Williams — I agreed with this film. What didn’t make it in was Casper Van Dien as Sean’s brother Patrick. That guy. The one with the nice business cards.

The soundtrack is pretty good as well — “Six Different Ways” by The Cure, The Rapture, “Colours” by Donovan, “L’ami Cauette (My Pal Peanut)” by Serge Gainsbourg, Love and Rockets, The Go-Go’s, “Rise” By PIL, Harry Nilsson, and Erasure — but it does not have Glenn Danzig redoing “To Sir With Love” for Less Than Zero, so that Bret Easton Ellis movie has my heart.

SLASHER MONTH: Bonehill Road (2017)

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Emily (Eli DeGeer) and Edith Stevens (Ana Rojas-Plumberg) go from one bad moment to another in this.

Terrified and alone, they are stranded in the woods, hunted by a werewolf. When they find shelter in a nearby home, things only get worse. They must work together to get out alive as a family of werewolves close in for the kill.

I kind of love the perils of these characters, where things just keep getting worse for them throughout the movie. Even finding three women inside the house of Coen Anders (Douglas Epps) — including Linnea Quigley — and having Edith’s father Rhett (Gary Kent) heading off to save them might not be enough to protect them.

Some people might be put off by the fact that this movie is advertised as a werewolf story and that’s only part of it. As for me, I was excited because I really had no idea where things were spinning out of control to next. It’s always a treat to watch one of Todd Sheets’ movies, because you know you’re getting some wild ideas, practical effects and a creative force who truly cares about entertaining his audience.

2022 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 25: Single White Female (1992)

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EDITOR’S NOTE: I like to do a new movie I’ve never written about for every Scarecrow Challenge, but I wanted to share this film — today’s challenge is CRAIG’S TWIST: When that iffy roommate situation goes sour in a dangerous way. — because my friend Em Fear is presenting a musical version of Single White Female on November 10 at 8 PM at Bottle Rocket Social Hall in Pittsburgh. 

I saw this movie on a teenage date, in a theater filled with other young people and I remember that when the scene came up when Allison (Bridget Fonda) accidentally watched Hedra (Jennifer Jason Leigh) masturbating on her bed, everyone was laughing at the awkward nature of this scene. But I think about this moment a lot. And not for prurient reasons. It’s because Allison is discovering not only that the person who has taken over life is taking over even her own bed, it’s that Hedra is more secure in her own sexuality and womanhood when she takes over Allison’s persona than Allison herself is.

Director Barbet Schroeder worked in the thriller genre quite often, which is the western way of saying that he made gialli that didn’t have as much sex or style. Single White Female is the exception.

Allison has just left her philandering boyfriend and is looking for a roommate when Hedra arrives. She lost her twin in the womb and as such, she’s been seeking her twin ever since. Allison seems to be that person until her lover comes back, which leads to Hedy acting out by launching a dog to its doom (which nearly makes this a slasher; why do slasher killers always take out innocent dogs? Talk about cheap heat…).

There’s an astounding moment in this film when after Hedy gets a makeover to look exactly like Allison, she tricks her way into going down on Allison’s boyfriend. He tries to stop her when he realizes that she isn’t who she thought she was, but then she does what very few female villains do: she assaults him, robbing him of his agency and when he complains, she penetrates his eye and brain with her stiletto heel. Somewhere, Fulci is clapping like a wildman.

I always thought that it was strange that to show how off-kilter Hedy is, they show her dancing at The Vault and participating in BDSM. Oh, she must be insane if she likes pleasure!

Other than that, this movie moves toward an interesting conclusion with a tacked-on square up reel that test audiences demanded. Ah well.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 24: The Invisible Maniac (1990)

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24. A Horror Film About an Invisible Killer.

Director and writer Rif Coogan is really Adam Rifkin and this movie is goofy in a great way. Dornwinkle (Noel Peters) is a scientist that specializes in molecular reconstruction. As a kid, his mother was told that he has the potential for madness but if she raises him correctly, it’ll be OK. Instead, she raises him to have a major issue about women because sex is wrong. Of course, that goes horribly and he kills four people moments into the movie when his fellow scientists make fun of his latest experiment. He escapes and hides out as a substitute high school physics teacher with the name of Dr. Kevin Smith.

Between the students harassing him and the principal trying to seduce him, Dornwinkle explodes in a rage, drowning people in fish tanks, throwing a radio into the shower to kill another and even using a sandwich as a murder weapon. A janitor ends up getting his invisibility secret and the two have a unseen person battle for the ages. Also: as you can imagine, nearly non-stop nudity.

The Invisible Maniac also had a major role for Shannon Wilsey, better known as the adult star Savannah. She was debating going mainstream, but she was upset at the film’s premiere, unsure whether the audience was laughing with or at her. She decided to go full time into pornography after that. She was also in Sorority House Massacre II the same year as this, along with co-star Melissa Moore.

2022 Scarecrow Psychotronic Challenge Day 24: Crimson Peak (2015)

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24. HOLEY SHEET!: Ddddid I just ssssee a ghost?

Director and co-writer Guillermo del Toro said that this was “a very set-oriented, classical but at the same time modern take on the ghost story. I think people are getting used to horror subjects done as found footage or B-value budgets. I wanted this to feel like a throwback.”

He succeeded as this feels so close to the gothic Italian films I love, as well as parts of Hammer along the way, as heiress and author Edith Cushing (Mia Wasikowska) continually is visited by spirits who carry warnings of Crimson Peak, even in her childhood.

As she becomes an adult, she falls in love with English baronet Sir Thomas Sharpe (Tom Hiddleston), an inventor who is trying to revive the fortunes of his family’s clay mine. Her father thinks something is wrong with Thomas and his sister Lucille (Jessica Chastain), so he pays them to leave the country, but not before Mr. Cushing is murdered. Sharpe takes her to England and his home, located above the clay mines, a place where the red dirt and snow combine to make a bloody canvas for a foreboding home. Meanwhile, Edith leaves behind Dr. Alan McMichael (Charlie Hunnam), who follows her to England to save her from the Sharpes.

Working with writers Matthew Robbins and an uncredited Lucinda Coxon, del Toro aims for a big movie here and succeeds. I watch this at least twice a year and am always so pleased with its scope and substance. The story of doomed romance and a deranged family is one that I return to for comfort, marveling at the colors and tones of this, wishing that more filmmakers would find inspiration in films like The Haunting. Nothing compares to seeing this on a real movie screen, just sitting in the dark savoring each moment yet I try to recapture that feeling with each watch.

SLASHER MONTH: The Wizard of Gore (1970)

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I have seen too many slashers because I also watched this last year.

This movie is a miracle, because so much went wrong. The actor playing the monstrous Montag the Magnificent walked off the set following a confrontation with Fred Sandy and crew member Ray Sager had to take over the role. And as for the effects, they were basically two dead sheep soaked in PineSol. I can’t even imagine how much everything stunk, like the smell of an adult bookstore before they started making couples friendly places. Handling all those sheep organs was director Herschell Gordon Lewis’ son Robert.

Yes, it’s amazing that a movie with such primitive effects and non-trained actors works so well, but that’s just the weirdness that are the films of Lewis, movies that seem to exist inside vacuums of non-action punctuated by blasts of nausea-imbuing viscera.

Every night, Montag takes the stage and has long-winded speeches about the nature of reality before murdering a woman in front of an audience, then showing that it was all a trick. Then, the same woman dies the same way later that night. Reporters Sherry Carson (Judy Cler) and Greg (Phil Laurenson), along with her boyfriend Jack (Wayne Ratay), know that Montag is behind all of this. They just need to prove it.

The end of this movie breaks from what we expect and goes full psychotic. As they sit on the couch, Jack peels off his own face and reveals Montag before shoving his hands into the stomach of Sherry, who laughs in his face and disputes the illusions and the very nature of Montag’s reality, sending the entire movie back to the very beginning of this movie, creating a loop of reality as Sherry turns to her man and says, “You know what I think? I think he’s a phony.”

This movie was still playing drive-ins twelve years after it was made on several five movie bills. It was known as House of Torture but there had to be maniacs yelling at the screen, astounded to see a movie they had seen many times before. Man, what a magic time.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 23: G-Men from Hell (2000)

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23. A Horror Movie Based On an Indie Comic Book (EC Comics Adaptions Don’t Count).

Directed by Christopher Coppola and written by Robert Cooper, Richard L. Albert and Nicholas Johnson, this movie was based on Mike Allred’s Grafik Muzik. It stars William Forsythe as Dean Crept and Tate Donovan as Mike Mattress, two dead FBI agents who have no idea of morality that are working on buying their way into heaven.

Along the way, they investigate Greydon (Barry Newman) and Gloria Lake (Vanessa Angel), a married couple who both hire them to investigate one another, deal with an investigation by police officers Lt. Langdon (Gary Busey) and Detective Dalton (Zach Galligan) and steal a crystal from Satan (Robert Goulet). They may have also killed a police informant who may have killed our detectives named Buster (Bobcat Goldthwait), who is resurrected by a mad scientist (David Huddleston) and oh yeah, there’s also a superhero named Cheetah Man (Gregory Sporleder), Paul Rodriguez is a demonic gossip and Kari Wuhrer plays their secretary.

It looks really strange, like a 60s TV adventure series made in 2000 which is exactly what it is. I had no idea this movie even existed and yet here it is, packing so many actors into one weird little movie.