Category Archives: Chattanooga Film Fest

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Dangerous Visions

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More shorts? Yes!

Bathroom Spider (2025): Directed by Christine Weatherup and written by C.J. Hoke, this short finds a young bride (Ivy Strohmaier) having her heart callously broken by her husband (Logan Eller). With only her bathroom spider to confide in, he will soon find that he’s not the only one able to go through great change in a very short time. This is a very simple tale that’s told well and has quite the payoff for the audience after enduring just how rude that man has been.

Severed (2025): Megan Duffy directed, co-wrote — with Danielle Bauman — and stars in this short as Abigail, a woman who keeps finding fingers in the streets of her town. There’s been an epidemic of missing digits, whether that’s through accident, a finger cutter or a strange disease. Her partner Mark (Ben Giroux) doesn’t even want to hear about it, angered by all the sympathy that the fingerless have been getting. Yet those who look down on others often find themselves dealing with whatever they’ve been close-minded about. This is a fun, quirky and totally unexpected offering. Loved it!

A Haunting at Alma Drive (2024): “On August 1, 2023, Dalton Allen bought the house at 1310 Alma Drive. The listing said it was haunted. But it was within his budget.” What a fun take on the found footage genre, as this starts as you’d expect with one of those new homeowners discovering that his house is haunted by something that wants his Whataburger. Luckily, this doesn’t play into the cliches of those strobing and stuttering Paranormal Activity films and instead subverts them. Dalton Allen directed it, we must assume he lived to tell the tale.

Bulbber (2025): An uninvited guest at a funeral ends up being questioned by the dead man’s sister and soon they end up in a dance of grief or connection or abject terror. Who’s to say? Regardless, this short was completely unhinged in all the best of ways, at times feeling like it was about to descend into some Argento whirlpool and at others, just being about two lost souls trying to make sense of death and needing to be around it. I have so many questions and want to know more, but sometimes brief, analog moments are best undescribed. Amazing!

401 (2025): What starts as a date seemingly going well between Sue (Madison Cowmeadow) and Nancy (Lucia Towers) takes a dark turn when Sue goes to the bathroom before the check arrives and they head off to Nancy’s place. Inside there, a voice demands to know how she plans to pay for all the sins of her past and promises to give her a chance just as much as it swears that it is going to murder her. As someone who often ends up in the bathroom for long stretches of time, this frightened me.

Cease to Exist (2024): Two girls try to communicate with the ghost of Manson — get the title? — in this short directed and written by Taylor Nodrick. This looks gorgeous and reminds me of one very important lesson: If you are going to summon Charles Manson with your spirit board, just don’t. He’s totally going to stab you in the tummy. Nodrick followed Charlie’s advice: “If you’re going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy.”

Supper (2025): A dysfunctional family — that’s really putting it oh so lightly — has sat down to dinner, but really, they’re kicking out their least favorite brother through a new legal process known as familial emancipation. This leads to them arguing about who their father’s favorite child is, why brothers hate the men that their sisters are having sex with and the subject of bringing a gun to said family dinner. Nothing works out well for anyone. Directed and written byJoshua Ryan Dietz, this has a great cast, including Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone), Jeff Perry, Sam Rechner, Aleksa Palladino, Henry Samiri, Andrew Perez and Joshuah Arizmendi.

Escape(2024): Directed and written by Lorenzo Manetti, this starts in a suburban bedroom at the start of an alien invasion. This looks as good as anything you’ll see in a Hollywood blockbuster this year but it has such heart and a truly inspired twist on the end that shifts the point of view. Obviously, three minutes is long enough for what it wants to do, but man, I can’t wait to see what its filmmaker does with a big budget and more time.

It Draws Closer (2024): Directed and written by Joshua David Matthews, this was originally titled Sketch. It’s such a simple idea: a woman is sketching at night and what she draws is coming closer and closer — hence the title — the more realized that her illustration becomes. This only needs four minutes to gradually build the tension and then pay it off in the best of ways, something that many other films take 90 minutes or more to do before never being able to stick that landing. Well done!

Loud (2025): This reminds me of the Ohio Players. An aspiring music producer (Shakira Barrera) records a violent event — as Travolta said, “It’s a good scream.” — she becomes haunted by its sound, trying to make it fit into the music that she’s creating. Directed by Adam Azimov, who co-wrote the script with Isaac Cravit, this is just 7 minutes long and reminds me that we need more sound-oriented horror. As you’d expect, the sound design is awesome in this and a major part of the story. Definitely hunt this one down.

Mr. Static (2024): “You didn’t watch. Time to die.” Samantha (Christina Elizabeth Smith) must watch a live video stream of household murders that are mysteriously broadcast to a CRT TV in her home. It’s the work of Mr. Static (played by Bill Watterson with the voice of Josh Petersdorf). Yet what happens when she looks away? Can she? Directed and written by Mike Williamson, I want this to be a full-length film. It really feels like there’s so much in here to expand on.

The Last Thing She Saw (2024): Directed by Anthony Cousins(Frogman) and Rebecca Daugherty and written by Brady Richards, this has a home invasion catch Emma (Bailey Bolton) and the criminals — Fritz (Nathan Tymoshuk) and Mastermind (Agatha Rae Pokrzywinski) — gouge out her eyes. Except she won’t go down easy and keeps running away, dragging her eyeballs behind her. As you can imagine, this movie is all about the gore. Lucio Fulci is somewhere laughing and so pleased, but wonders if you could please use more fast zooms? I’d love to see this in a crowded movie theater instead of virtually.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watches.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Alan at Night (2025)

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Directed and written by Jesse Swenson, Alan at Night is about what happens when Jay (Joseph Basquill) needs a new roommate after his YouTube partner leaves town. It’s only for a month, as his girlfriend Sam (Hadley Durkee) plans on moving in. That brings Alan (Chris Ash) into their lives. He’s quiet; he can’t hold his drink. When he passes out in his room, he appears to be sleepwalking, stealing shoes and eating all the mayo.

Additionally, he becomes possessed and has all-white eyes.

The truth is, I really couldn’t blame Alan for how he felt after getting pranked all the time. As always, I dislike people not asking for consent and found footage, so when Alan got his revenge, I was on his side.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.

Chattanooga Film Festival 2025 Red Eye #7: At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (1964)

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All hail David Dastmalchian! He picked the last Red Eye of the Chattanooga Film Festival, and man, he did it right! Coffin Joe! Also: How amazing is it that this movie was made in 1964? It had to scare the hell out of people.

How badass is Zé do Caixão, or as we know him, Coffin Joe?

Can you imagine the audacity to not just create this character but to become him in the midst of a country where more than 60% of the population is Catholic?

Can you even comprehend how upset people were when José Mojica Marins became the long-fingernail-wearing amoral undertaker driven to continue his bloodline by having a son with the perfect woman while murdering and ruining everyone in his wake? How did they deal with a boogeyman who filled their head with double-talk and Nietzschean statements?

As Coffin Joe would yell, “I challenge your power! I deny your existence! Nothing exists, but life.”

The first appearance of Coffin Joe is in this movie, a film in which the evil undertaker searches for his perfect woman who will bear him the child that will make him immoral. After all, his wife is infertile, so he decides to murder her with a spider. And not just on any day. On a Catholic Holy Day. And then he decides to break another Commandment, coveting Terezinha, the fiancée of his friend Antonio.

Joe and Antonio visit a gypsy who foretells that a tragedy will keep Antonio and Terezinha from being married. This causes Joe to scream at the woman about how the supernatural is a lie, then he makes her warning come true by strangling his friend before drowning him. The very next day, he starts to court Terezinha by giving her a canary. When she resists his advances, he beats her and then assaults her. She curses him and reveals that she will kill herself — one of the gravest sins in the Catholic Church — and come back to pull him into Hell. He laughs, but the next day, she has hung herself.

The police just can’t seem to figure out why all these deaths are happening in this small village, but Dr. Rodolfo does. Coffin Joe responds by tearing out his eyes with his long fingernails and setting him on fire. Problem solved. He remains unpunished and even starts to fall for another woman, Marta. On their date, he sees the gypsy who warns him that he will be punished. That night, as he walks home, the cemetery calls him, the place where all of his victims are burning. He opens the grave of Antonio and Terezinha, and they begin to open their eyes as their mouths are filled with worms and insects. Coffin Joe starts to scream, as he is trapped between life and death, finally paying for his crimes as the church bells ring at midnight.

This is just the start of how strange these movies would become. If you liked the last ten minutes of this, just get ready. It gets really good from here.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles, as well as updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: House of Ashes (2024)

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Meat Friend, a short that director and co-writer (with Steve Johanson) Izzy Lee made, is one of the best short films I’ve seen, so I was excited about this feature.

Mia (Fayna Sanchez) has lost her husband and her baby, which has led to her being jailed in her home, as she lives in a state where miscarriage is murder. Under house arrest, she moves in with her new boyfriend, Marc (Vincent Stalba), and tries to get through things with her sanity intact.

But ah, that Bava lighting clues us in that this is in no way paradise. And Marc isn’t a dream partner, either.

So what happened with her husband Adam (Mason Conrad), who was found in their animal clinic with a syringe in his neck, a death that caused her to lose the baby and be arrested for his murder, until it was learned that Adam had killed himself? Marc soon loses it over her memories of Adam, demanding she destroy everything with a memory of him attached and then drugging her despite her being on probation. To make things worse, her probation officer (Lee Boxleitner) continually calls her a murderer, and social media personality Lexi ShokToks (Laura Dromerick) is stalking her, hoping to push her into creating viral content.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where this film no longer feels entirely horror. Yes, the ghosts are from the fantastic, but the lack of body autonomy for women isn’t just speculative fiction. This adds a darkness to this film that haunts every frame.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: In the Mouth (2025)

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I know that you don’t have to love every protagonist in every film, but I somehow found myself watching multiple films at the Chattanooga Film Festival, where each lead made me want to rage-quit the movie. That’s not fair to the filmmaker or the film, so I stuck it out each time. This would be one of those times.

Merl (Colin Burgess) never leaves his house. His home is also enormous and challenging to comprehend. So yes, you can see why he needs to bring on a roommate — the second CFF movie where someone got a roommate and it ruined their life — to make his rent.

That new friend is Larry (Paul Rothery), who has just escaped from jail and is constantly being watched by his criminal associates.

Director and writer Cory Santilli has agoraphobia, and this has many moments that prove this, as Merl can’t leave this place even when he’s months behind on paying the landlady. One reason he never leaves? There’s a giant version of his head sticking out of the front yard.

It’s a quirky film that just didn’t resonate with me, but you may find something to love here. Most of the other reviews I’ve checked online have been overwhelmingly positive, so I think I need to give this another watch.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Inertia: Re-Making The Crow (2001)/James O’Barr’s The Crow (1998)

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Inertia: Re-Making The Crow (2001): Directed by David Ullman along with Matt Jackson, who in their teen years decided to take an obsession over the film The Crow and recreate it with a version closer to James O’Barr’s original graphic novel. Shot on video and in black and white, this took four years and drove Ullman’s family insane.

The original pitch for this doc was wide in its scope: “I’d like Inertia to be both an examination of how we created our movie and an exploration of the comic from which it came. Using behind-the-scenes footage, photographs, and interviews, the documentary will illustrate the process by which two 14-year-olds successfully adapted a comic of such breadth, texture, and intensity; the challenges their limited resources presented; and the creativity used to overcome them, ultimately showing how passion can overcome adversity.

Additionally, an underlying study of O’Barr’s piece and a character study of the young filmmaker for whom this project became an obsession should be included. The picture should play like Hearts of Darkness meets Looking For Richard.”

The original documentary was attacked for copyright reasons, but over the years, it has played several film festivals and is more than just about the comic book or the movie. It’s about how two young men from Ohio matured as artists and made something together that would inform the rest of their lives.

You can get this movie on VHS from Lunchmeat VHS.

James O’Barr’s The Crow (1998): Created by David Ullman and Matt Jackson over four years, throughout their high school years, this is what SOV is all about: obsessive devotion. When their friends didn’t show up, when their family didn’t understand, they kept making this movie.

On Ullman’s site, he has this quote: “There’s this aura to the book. When you look at it, you feel something. There is blood on the page, and you can sense that. It’s very affecting. I think they captured that beautifully in the Miramax film, and it was our intention at first to make a hybrid of the existing movie and the comic book. But the more serious we became about the project in general, the more we wanted to really delve into the book, explore its themes and characters, create something more of our own.”

Both star in the film, with Ullman as Eric Draven and Jackson as Top Dollar. The sets were in the family bedroom. Over four years, they learned how to take a comic book, transform it into a script and storyboard, and then create art from it.

I get it. I saw The Crow so many times in the theater, I listened to the soundtrack over and over, and there are even Halloween party photos somewhere of me as a chubby Crow, carrying my guitar and a gun. 1994 was a big time for this movie. Here’s to two filmmakers who pushed for this and made it a reality on a budget that’s so much less than Hollywood would ever attempt.

You can watch this on YouTube thanks to Lunchmeat VHS.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles, and updating my Letterboxd list of watched films.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: CFF Salutes Your Shorts

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It’s the first block of shorts, so with no further ado — let’s get into it!

Cat and Fish (2025): In this animated short by director and writer Nilram Ranjbar, a fish goes to a much better, larger body of water, all thanks to the sun and an unexpected friend: a cat. What charming animation in this, creating a near 3D version of string to match the colors and tones.

Damned (2025): Directed by Lukas Anderson, who co-wrote this short with Elio Andres, Jesse (Cole Kelley) breaks his house arrest — with just two weeks left on his sentence — as his parole officer tries to track him down with his ankle monitor. The police aren’t the only ones looking for him, as a demon (C.P. Walker) wants back the soul of the father. Or maybe it’s all about something more. This is a nice short, one that maybe needs the last line to tie it all up nice with a bow, but that’s fine. It’s working with a really truncated time in an attempt to share a much larger story. It feels like a full-length film could come from this.

Don’t Look (2025): Directed and written by John Wyatt, this starts with a young boy named Eli waking up to find monsters under his bed. Little does he know that it wasn’t his imagination. Maybe he shouldn’t go back to sleep. Well, not like he’s getting a chance — spoiler warning — as he definitely isn’t alone. A really quick film and one where I’d love to have seen perhaps something extra added, a twist or something that makes this story stand out.

Sin Eater (2025): Director and writer Corey Simpson tells the story of Minerva, who is trying to clean out the home of her dead grandmother when a stranger shows up to tell her that she must take on the burden her grandmother owned, the Sin Eater. Much like “The Sins of the Fathers” episode of Night Gallery, this shows how the pains of sin must be passed on to a new generation. What helps make this even better are the strobing Bava-style lighting, music that shoots for an Italian film feel at times and great sound design. It feels dark and gauzy, like those tapes you used to bootleg from the video store and then wondered, “What am I watching?” Trust me. That’s a good thing.

Lola (2025): Tessie’s grandmother, Lola, has been diagnosed with dementia. Tessie can’t handle it so she’s created a machine that tries to save the memories before an AI named Mena destroys it. Directed by Grace Hanna, who wrote it with Derek Manansala and Duke Yang, this has one memory — a night of karaoke singing — being recreated so that one perfect memory can be saved. Yet Tessie doesn’t realize that in her struggle to keep the past, she’s forgetting the time she has in the here and now. My father had dementia and days were struggles, as he forgot who he was and even who I was at times. No machine could keep him either, no matter how hard you’d try. Sometimes, you think you’d get through and then you’d realize he hadn’t been paying attention. It’s so frightening to lose someone before they’re gone and this movie does a great job of capturing that feeling. All we can do is enjoy the short window that we have together, no matter how conscious we may be of it. Memory is, as they say, fleeting.

The Bohannons – Night Construction (2025): A stop motion animation from Chattanooga’s The Skeleton Key Workshop, this shows the sun setting for the day and the moon and the night sky being put together. Directed and written by Matt Eslinger, you have to admire the guts of this band to have a bio that says this: “The Bohannons are one of Chattanooga’s finest exports, who make heavy rock ’n’ roll that’s equal parts Motörhead and Neil Young, with lead guitar chops that rival both.” I can report that this video and song kick ass.

Til Death Do Us Part (2025): Directed by Bronwyn Blanks-Blundell and Alexander Protich, this finds Doctor Frigg in her lab, trying to bring her one true love back to life. Slamming her fist on the desk, a tape recorder is activated, bringing something else back to life: her voice from the past, a transmission that may give her the information that she needs to move on. This is a nice short, one that uses its animation, music and sound design well.

Meeet (2025): Six eccentric characters are starving in a bomb shelter. When one of them seemingly dies — maybe — the rest decides to eat her corpse. But just a little bit, right? Yet what happens next, well, it proves that writers — while being liars — often write their own justice. Directed by Laama Almadani and written by Yemi Eniolorunda, this makes one wonder about just how you would go through eating someone. We’ve all debated it, but the actual butchering and cooking seems like too much. And what wine do you serve with it? And even worse, if someone is so stoned that you can just into them and serve their body, which wakes them because it smells so good that they eat it themselves, could you finish your meal? What a great short, put together so simply. Loved it!

CHECK PLEASE (2024): I am a veteran of the wars of fighting for the check. The director, Shane Chung, is too. He said, “As a kid, I witnessed firsthand the quickness with which friends can turn on each other whenever my parents took me to dinner with their pals. It was all smiles until it came time to pay for the bill – then the fangs came out. “I got it!” “Don’t be ridiculous, it’s my treat!” “You can get me next time!” It got so serious for no reason. Arguing, subterfuge… it was killing with kindness taken to another level. I wondered how far someone could take fighting to pay for the bill. Inspired by my love of goofy slapstick action comedies like Drunken Master and Everything Everywhere All At Once, I thought: what if they literally fought each other? I challenged myself to write a ten-minute long action scene where two Korean-Americans fought each other with chopsticks, grill coverings, and credit cards… and CHECK PLEASE was born.”

Starring Richard Yan and Sukwon Jeong, this is a simple story but is so perfect. It gets across what it means to be a man — paying the bill — as well as the director’s attempts at getting across the feeling of assimilating to a new culture. It’s also filled with great action. I laughed really hard throughout and found joy here.

Baking and Entering (2025): Directed and written by Lance Harbour, Cole Keisling, Andrew Lacy, Zach Legaux and Brooklynne Scivally, this has Hugh, a pie baker in a food truck, dealing with a grizzly bear. Perhaps he should be happy to have a customer. This is a cute animated short that has a sweet ending and gives the viewer a nice moral, all in a short running time. I love the bear — his face when the metal window keeps closing is so endearing.

Feed (2025): Directed and written by Kara McLeland, this has Rachel and Nick having a party guest over, almost lamenting that over the past year how their lives have changed because of the Harbor Initiative. Gone are the days of concerts and going out, instead they stay home — because a space alien baby is part of their lives. That child never sleeps on certain nights of the full moon and must feed differently on Thursday and no one can keep up on the message boards, but now they’re eating fingers and destroying relationships. Maybe this dinner party isn’t just for our married couple. I love this, a tension-packed short that rightly takes it time to drop the hammer on you.

We Need to Talk About Balloons (2025): Dani’s mom is a social media influencer using her daughter for her mom brand, but Dani would rather be Dani the Destroyer, a magician. But why would a magician be called a destroyer? Directed by Jennifer Bonior and co-written with Dycee Wildman, this shows that you shouldn’t try and run a child’s life, much less tell her that she has to move on from doing balloon popping magic, unless you want to be a stain on the wall of a glittery balloon shop.

The Lily and the Scorpion (2025): Outlaws The Lily and The Scorpion are on the run after a bank job gone wrong. These partners are losing trust in one another and it’s like everything is falling to pieces. Directed and written by Charlie Netto, this has two female outlaws in the west, which is a story not often told. But what happens when one of them wants to go straight and end the outlaw life? This could so easily be a full-length movie with the storytelling in it. I loved this — an exploration of freedom, for a little while, until one needs to be safe.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watches.

Chattanooga Film Festival 2025 Red Eye #5: Get Crazy (1983)

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Allan Arkush based most of his early films on his real life. Rock ‘n Roll High School is pretty much about going to New Jersey’s Fort Lee High School. And this film is all about his experiences working at The Fillmore East as an usher, stage crew member and in the psychedelic light show Joe’s Lights, which got him on stage with everyone from The Who, Grateful Dead and Santana to the Allman Brothers and Fleetwood Mac.

I have no idea what experiences helped shape Heartbeeps, Caddyshack II and Deathsport, which he helped finish.

That said — Get Crazy lives in the exact heart of everything I love: hijinks movies, huge casts, rock and roll and cult films. It’s pretty much, well, everything.

This movie takes place on one night, December 31, 1982, as the Saturn Theater is getting ready for its annual New Year’s Eve blowout when its owner Max Wolfe (Allen Garfield, who sadly died of COVID-19) has a heart attack when arguing with concert promoter Colin Beverly (Ed Begley Jr.), leaving his stage manager Neil Allen (Daniel Stern) in charge, along with past stage manager Willy Loman (Gail Edwards). Man’s nephew Sammy (Mile Chapin) is trying to find his uncle so that he can get the rights to the club and sell them while everyone else tries to put on one last show.

This is a movie packed with familiar faces, like Bobby Sherman and Fabian as Beverly’s goons, who continually try to destroy the building and ruin the show. Seriously, there are so many people to get into, like Stacey Nelkin (Ellie Grimbridge!), Anne Bjorn (The Sword and the Sorcerer), Robert Picardo, Franklyn Ajaye, Dan Frischman (Arvid!), Denise Galik (Don’t Answer the Phone), Jackie Joseph (Mrs. Futterman!) and Linnea Quigley.

At this point, you may be saying, “Where are Clint Howard, Dick Miller, Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov?” They’re here. Of course they’re here.

I haven’t even gotten into the bands in this!

Nada (Lori Eastside from Kid Creole and the Coconuts) has a 15-member girl group that plays New Wave, garage rock, bubble gum and when Lee Ving jumps on stage, punk rock. Beyond Ving, Fear members Derf Scratch and Philo Cramer also appear.

King Blues is, well, the King of the Blues. He’s played by Bill Henderson (who was also Blind Lemon Yankovic and the cop in Clue, which also features Ving as Mr. Boddy).

Auden (Lou Reed!) is Bob Dylan, hiding from his fans, driving in a cab all night trying to write a song.

Reggie Wanker (Malcolm McDowell) is Mick Jagger, bedding groupies the whole show before he has a moment of mystic revelation. His drummer, Toad, is John Densmore of The Doors.

Captain Cloud (the Turtles’ Howard Kaylan) and the Rainbow Telegraph have a van just like Merry Pranksters and drugs just as powerful.

I mean, how can I not love a film that has a theme song by Sparks? Come on!

This was directed at the same time that Arkush did Bette Midler’s cover of “Beast of Burden,” complete with an appearance by Stacy Nelkin.

Anyways — forgive the fanboyishness nature of this. Actually. don’t. We should all love movies this much and feel this strongly about them.

I got to interview Allan Arkush about this movie:

B&S ABOUT MOVIES: So how does it feel finally having Get Crazy get released 37 years after it was — for all intents and purposes — a lost movie?

ALLAN ARKUSH: It feels good on two levels. Naturally I couldn’t be happier that the movie will be available looking better and sounding better than it ever has. But in many ways equally rewarding was reassembling some of the original editorial team from Get Crazy and Rock ‘n’ Roll High School to make all of the extras. Kent Beyda and I go back to 1978 and he cut the extra The After Party, but he did more than edited it, using all 60 hours of interviews he wrote it and gave it shape. He also had edited the two 1983 videos. Mark Helfrich from RNRHS cut “Not Gonna Take It No More 2021” from the iPhone footage “Nada 2021″ gave us and I couldn’t be happier about that. The extras were a way for all of us to tell the whole saga of Get Crazy. Tara Donovan, one of my AFI students, working for a year producing it for nothing. Ed Stasium, The Ramones producer did the score and our original music Editor Ken Karman came back to spread his magic. And so many more…No Dogs In Space and almost all the cast and crew. What a joy. But let’s go back to the beginning.

I worked at the Fillmore East as an usher and then on the stage crew and working the lights for psychedelic shows. I was living in that environment — which was very exciting — and going to NYU film school at the same time and realizing that you could do so many of the things in your life that you’d like to do. And making a living from it!

So after making Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, I thought that it’d be good to do the next part of my life and tell the story of working in rock ‘n roll. Danny Opatoshu and I got together to write the script and it ended up becoming a real memoir of the events of my life as well as an actual plotline.

We ended up meeting with a few companies and one of them said, “We love this, but you need to set it in the present day.” We changed some stuff around and then before we started shooting, they wanted it to be a broader comedy like Porky’s or Airplane! 

Danny said, “I’m gone,” so we got in more writers, we made the changes and that’s the version that you watched. But when the movie was done, the people who ran the company didn’t like it. They didn’t think there was a market for it. So they dumped it and took a tax loss, then they went under and their library got sold, then got sold again and then it got lost.

They put out the VHS — which was in the thousands and it’s not even in stereo — and that was it.

When it came time to release a DVD, no one could find the negative. The sound elements — because it moved around so much — and all the sales and the paperwork were gone for like thirty years. Thirty years!

I would get calls every couple of years with people from independent distribution companies asking, “What can you remember about where you recorded the audio?” People would say to me, “God, I love your movie, where is it?” And I said, “I don’t know.” I honestly did not. Finally, someone said to me, “Let my company find this movie for you and let’s get it out there.”

They found out that it was at MGM. Wow, MGM had bought the library that had it and now that everything was getting ready to be streamed, they went through their vaults and organized things. So we tried to buy it from MGM and they didn’t want to sell it. And that’s where I decided to call MGM and speak to the people in charge myself and I heard from their Legal Department of Business Affairs and they said, “We’re not interested.”

So that was the end of that.

Then I got a call from Frank Tarzi at Kino Lorber a year later and he said, “We want to put this out, so don’t say anything.” And Kino Lorber negotiated for over a year and then when they said yes, Frank asked if I wanted to do a commentary. I thought to myself that this movie is really my life story, my autobiography and this has been a really long trek. Frank Tarzi has been a big supporter. I called my friends who edited the original film, asked them if they wanted to be involved and they were on board. I called Danny next and said, we can tell our story back to everyone. This gave us the chance to tell the whole thing our way and it really gave us an opportunity to close the circle.

We got a small — very small — budget to make this but hey — I worked for Roger Corman! I’m used to that! So we put together a home movie — using Zoom, because this was made during the pandemic — and it’s amongst people who should really get together and talk more often.

B&S: I’ve always loved Get Crazy because it feels like a story about a great time in someone’s life. It’s my favorite kind of movie — a hijinx movie. It’s the kind of movie where all you need is that quick line: one night at a concert hall…and hijinks ensue.

ALLAN: How did you see it first?

B&S: I know that I rented it at some point and then I had a bootleg. Sorry.

ALLAN: It’s OK. I did too! And I still have the original VHS, because those were the only ways to have my movie.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watches.

Chattanooga Film Festival 2025 Red Eye #4: The Girl Most Likely To…(1973) and Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971)

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The Girl Most Likely To…(1973):  My acting career pretty much begins with an appearance as Sergeant-Major Morris in The Monkey’s Paw and ends with my role as Dr. Green from this story. No, I was not in the movie. I was in a stage play version and the kiss that gave me a fatal heart attack was the first kiss I ever had from a non-family member girl. She said I tasted like a chili dog. A much cuter blonde girl offered to give me lessons after the play (and some mints).

Inspired by The Second Face, this was written by Joan Rivers and Agnes Gallin It was directed by Lee Phillips, who starred in Peyton Place and also made The Stranger Within and The Spell. It was the ABC Movie of the Week, first airing on November 6, 1973.

It’s also Stockard Channing’s first movie and she’s Miriam Knight, an intelligent young lady who is overlooked because of, well, her looks. Her roommate grows jealous when Miriam gets the lead in a stage play, so she sneak attacks her with roses. Miriam’s allergies send her running from the stage and into an accident which changes her looks and life forever.

Once the bandages come off her face, she’s a totally new girl. One who is now willing to do whatever it takes to get revenge — murderous revenge — on everyone who has ever wronged her.

The Girl Most Likely To… has a great cast, such as Ed Asner, Jim Backus, Joe Flynn from McHale’s Navy, Chuck McCann (a voice of a ton of animated characters), comedy magician Carl Ballantine, Fred Grandy from The Love Boat, CHiPs star Larry Wilcox, future director Dennis Dugan (who, before directing a LOT of Adam Sandler movies, such as Just Go with It, acted in films, such as 1980’s The Howling) and the man who would be Captain America and Yor Hunter from the Future, Reb Brown.

This is a comedy, but man, it’s a really dark one. How was my school allowed to put this play on?

Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971): Mooch is a new girl in town, fresh off the bus to Hollywood, wanting to be a star. We’ve seen it all before, but have we seen it with Mooch being played by Higgins the Dog, whose 14 year career in Hollywood had him on Petticoat Junction and playing the original Benji. His daughter Benjean took over the role of Benji and trainer Frank Inn loved this dog so much that he had his ashes buried with him. He also wrote this poem when Higgins died:

My Gift to Jesus
by Frank Inn

I wish someone had given little Jesus
a dog as loyal and loving as mine
to sleep by His manger and gaze in His eyes
and adore Him for being divine.

As our Lord grew to manhood His own faithful dog
would have followed Him all through the day
while He preached to the crowds and made the sick well
and knelt in the garden to pray.

It is sad to remember that Christ went away
to face death alone and apart
with no tender dog following close behind
to comfort His masters heart.

And when Jesus rose on that Easter morn
how happy He would have been
as His dog kissed His hand and barked its delight
for the one who died for all men.

Well the Lord has a dog now, I just sent Him mine…
My old pal so dear to me
And I smile through my tears on this first day alone
knowing they’re in eternity.

A movie narrated by not just Richard Burton but also Zsa Zsa Gabor, this is everything I love about 1970s Hollywood. How else can you explain a movie where a dog meets Vincent Price at the Brown Derby, goes to Dino’s and the Playboy Club with Phyliss Diller, runs into Ricky Ricardo’s Jerry Hausner, James Darren, Jill St. John and Jim Backus and his wife Henny. All narrated, again, by Zsa Zsa, who is basically unintelligble.

Meanwhile, the theme song plaintively warbles about Mooch’s adventures. It sounds like the “went to see the movie, went to see the show” drive-in commerical for the snack bar.

It was directed by Richard Erdman, who was in a ton of movies and also played Leonard on Community. He also directed The Brothers O’Toole, which was the first movie produced by Sunn’s Charles Sellier Jr. Speaking of Backus, he wrote this with Jerry Devine.

Some facts: This was Edward G. Robinson’s final movie. Higgins’ various costumes were provided by Frederick’s of Hollywood. The theme song is sung by Sonny Curtis, who wrote “I Fought the Law” and would follow this by singing the theme to Benji. Man, Sonny Curtis! He was in the Crickets and stayed in the band when Buddy Holly died. He also sang “Love Is All Around,” the theme for The Mary Tyler Moore Show.

This is a movie for kids and yet Mooch becomes a stripper with Zza Zsa saying, “Keep it on. Keep it on!”

Higgins was so well trained that he learned a new trick every week.

NOTE: I said this was Edward G. Robinson’s first movie when it’s really his last. Thanks to Kris Erickson for finding the typo!

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watches.

CHATTANOOGA FILM FESTIVAL 2025: The Spirit of Halloweentown (2024)

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In 1998, the Disney Channel Original Movie Halloweentown was filmed in St. Helens, Oregon. Since then, it has seen 50,000 visitors every October, even 25 years later. Yet, just like the town in the series of Disney films—Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge, Halloweentown High and Return to Halloweentown—the locals believe that there are real hauntings. And beyond that, like any small town, there’s plenty of gossip to listen to.

Directed by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb, this film feels like a real-life Waiting for Guffman. A zombie dance is choreographed by a girl who had to drop out of dance and wants to reconnect with her father. A newcomer to the town has bought a favorite restaurant, the Klondike Tavern, and his social media mistake causes his entire staff to mutiny. A woman claims to the town council that she is being attacked in her dreams and that the town is becoming possessed by demons. A team of paranormal investigators is also investigating the hauntings they claim are real.

This film never makes fun of its subjects, instead allowing them to tell their stories. I absolutely loved this and have been raving about it to everyone I can, as it’s a perfect non-spooky way to get yourself ready for the Halloween season. Here’s hoping it finds a streaming home soon so more people can enjoy this fun hangout in a town that has embraced its history as a spooky location.

You can watch this and many other films at CFF by buying a pass on their website. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting reviews and articles and updating my Letterboxd list of watches.