Originally titled Recycler, after the Los Angeles magazine of the same name, this has a keyboard player named Chance (Rory Cochrane) getting to tour with dub-pop band Future Pigeon and their lead singer Rocket (Beth Orton), as long as he finds his signature sound. It exists in a Molotron keyboard which gets stolen the night before the tour, which leads Chance and Ross Angeles (Ross Harris) through Los Angeles in a search to get it back.
With appearances by Beck, Hank 3, Jennifer Herrema from Royal Trux, Gregg Henry from Body Double, skateboard legend Mark Gonzales, Laura Prepon in her first role, former pro wrestler Joshua Ben-Gurion, that dog drummer Tony Maxwell, Elliot Smith and even Robosaurus, this was directed by Steve Hanft, who wrote it with Rossie Harris and Bob Stephenson. He directed Beck’s video for “Loser,” as well as Kill the Moonlight, another film about someone named Chance with a dream.
If you like ramshackle journeys through dark nights of the soul, well, good news. This is a good one to watch, if only to see Elliot Smith drive a bus.
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.
Something horrible is happening off the coast of Block Island. Birds drop out of the sky, fish wash up on shore and people are losing what’s left of their minds, like Tom, the father of Harry Lynch (Chris Sheffield). He’s becoming angrier and more forgetful by the day. His sister Audrey (Michaela McManus) has come back home just in time to see it all fall to bits.
Directed by Kevin and Matthew McManus (Cobra Kai) and originally airing on Netflix, this could be about electromagnetic hypersensitivity or plantary phenomena or UFOs or just plain something else that we can’t get our heads around. It’s frightening that this can just happen in a small town and transform people you know and love into something else.
An almost Lovecraftian film, this combines family issues, the creeping unknown and the terror that comes from never knowing the truth and just searching forever. The scariest thing is that this feels like it could happen.
The Synapse 4K UHD of this film has a special limited edition slipcover featuring new art from Joel Robinson, while supplies last, a trailer, audio commentary by the McManus Brothers, several video essays on the film’s creation and McManus family home movies. You can get it from MVD.
“In this sequel to the award-winning found-footage film NOCLIP, the two explorers return from the void in search of even more liminal spaces. They find new backrooms which lead to multiple surreal locations, plus some familiar ones.”
Directed, written by and starring Gavin Charles and Alex Conn, this Kansas City-filmed microbudget film takes viewers into Lunchland, a place of PTSD from grade school and more liminal spaces, or as Bloody Disgustingdescribed these places that are neiether here, there or anywhere, they are rich with “the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in.”
Is it the spaces or the drugs that get you to this never place? Do they exist? Where am I, anyways? Why is the liminal space always at the mall? How late does it get before it becomes early?
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 films I’ve watched.
“Amid a mysterious deadly outbreak called the ITCH. A widower and his estranged young daughter take sanctuary in a department store, only to realize the real terror is inside with them.”
Directed, written by and starring Bari Kang, this has a disease call the Itch, which makes you scratch yourself, mutilating your body until there’s not much left. Jay and his daughter Olivia don’t just need to survivor those who have this infection; the normal humans are just as deadly, as Jay’s convenience store is invaded by Henry (Douglas Stirling) , a customer, and Miguel (Patrick Michael Valley) and Gabriella (Ximena Uribe), two burglars who end up trapped inside as the world comes to an end just past the metal barricade that has been pulled down.
Kang said, “ITCH! is inspired by a true event I witnessed at my family’s discount store,which also serves as the main setting for the movie. Without revealing too much, I saw abizarre scene involving a wild customer which left a lasting impression on me. This experience compelled me to create a film around it. I grew up watching movies from the70s, 80s, and 90s. As an immigrant, I often felt like an outsider, and film became my refuge, and my work drew inspiration from that era of filmmaking. My previous films were influenced by my long-time idols, Scorsese, Tarantino and Melville. With ITCH!, I aimed to pay homage to classic horror films like Dawn of the Dead, The Mist and 28 Days Later.”
An interesting, single location take on the zombie movie, ITCH! also has plenty of commentary on the nature of grief and what it’s like to be an immigrant in today’s America.
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 films I’ve watched.
Director Hideo Gosha took journalist Shōko Ieda’s 1986 book Gokudō no Tsuma-tachi, packed with interviews with the wives and girlfriends of real yakuza, and turned it into this film. It stars Shima Iwashita as Tamaki, a woman who takes over the Awazu Family, which is part of the Domoto syndicate, while her husband is imprisoned. As a result, some family members leave the family and form their own group, the Awasu family and war is declared.
Makoto Ike (Rino Katase), her sister, finds herself in a relationship with a rival criminal who abuses her. This leads to a fight between the sisters — Makoto was promised in an arranged marriage — but by the end, she tells her to become a yakuza wife, even as she cuts her off from the family.
A women-targeted film despite all of the bloodshed — don’t get too attached to any of the yakuza husbands — this shows us how the better half views the world of Japanese crime. I may have an issue with a raped woman falling for her captor, but how many times has that trope showed up in exploitation? I’ll never understand it, but here it is again.
The 88 Films Blu-ray release of Yakuza Wives has extras including an introduction by Mark Schilling, an interview with tattoo artist Seiji Mouri, a stills gallery, trailers and new artwork by Sean Longmore. You can get it from MVD.
Man Si Sun (Cherie Chung) is an illegal immigrant who has escaped from mainland China. Kong Yuen Sang (Alex Man) is a drifter looking for fame as a kick-boxer. Directed by Clifford Choi, this drama about being an outsider in a new country is very appropriate to the time that we’re living through. It also proves that Shaw Brothers made more than just wuxia and kung fu films.
There aren’t many choices for our heroes: Die in Hong Kong while trying to make a better tomorrow or go back to China and, well, die anyways. Maybe love won’t be enough to save them.
This is an appropriately named film, as Hong Kong could very well be one of the stars. The city lures people into its arms with the promise of more and yet at times, it also chews them up and spits them out. Maybe we can’t all identify with a champion kick boxer, but we can empathize with people with a dream, those that are exhausted by life yet refuse to give in.
The 88 Films Blu-ray of Hong Kong, Hong Kong is a great release that again, reminds us that Shaw Brothers hit so many genres and even made award-winning films like this. Extras include commentary by David West, a stills gallery, a poster and a trailer. You can get it from MVD.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sharky’s Machine was on the CBS Late Movie on March 10, 1989.
Man, when I was a kid, the only movie that I think HBO had — besides The Car — seemed to be Sharky’s Machine. I never watched it back then and I totally should have, because it would have changed my life.
Based on the book by William Diehl, which was sent to the film’s director and star, Burt Reynolds, by Sidney Sheldon, this was Reynolds’s chance to move away from the funnier movies he’d been making. He told the Boston Globe, “I figured it was time to get away from Smokey. I’d been doing a lot of comedy in recent years, and people had forgotten about Deliverance.”
Reynolds wanted to make a movie like his favorite film, the noir masterwork Laura, and he wanted John Boorman to direct it. However, he was busy with Excalibur.
A bust gone wrong has moved Tom Sharky (Reynolds) from drugs to the vice squad, the worst occupation a police officer can have. Working under Frescoe (Charles Durning), our hero discovers a high-class prostitution ring that includes a thousand-dollar-a-night girl named Domino Brittain (Rachel Ward) who is connected to governor candidate Donald Hotchkins, who is owned by Victor D’Anton (Italian star Vittorio Gassman).
One evening, while conducting surveillance and falling for Domino, Sharky watches her get blasted in the face with a shotgun by the evil William “Billy Score” Scorelli. Let me tell you, if you think Henry Silva was great before, this is perhaps the best I’ve ever seen him. He’s a force of complete terror and mayhem in this and I couldn’t love him any more after the ending of this film, which features the highest free-fall stunt ever performed from a building for a commercially released film.
As everyone thinks Domino is dead, she suddenly shows up and tells Sharky that it was her friend who got blasted in the face. Now, she could bring the entire conspiracy down if everyone could just stay alive.
Tough cop movies only wish they were a sliver as good as this movie. I mean, you’ve Bernie Casey and Brian Keith as cops, you’ve got bad guys slicing off Burt’s fingers, and you’ve a Doc Severinsen-orchestrated theme that Tarantino took for Jackie Brown.
Supposedly, when Clint Eastwood made Every Which Way but Loose, Reynolds said, “Clint, you’re getting into my territory and if it’s a success, I’m going out and make Dirty Harry Goes to Atlanta!”. When this film went into production, Eastwood sent a telegram to Reynolds saying, “You really weren’t kidding, were you?”
June 30- July 6 Puke Week!: Throwing up isn’t very funny, but making your internet friends watch a puke movie is!
The Cavalcade of Perversion is run by Lady Divine (Divine) and Mr. David (David Lochary) and it has everything you’d want to see when it comes to getting grossed out, like a Puke Eater. At the end of every show, Divien robs people, but now she’s moved on to wanting to murder them.
“Yes folks, this isn’t any cheap X-rated movie or any 5th rate porno play, this is the show you want! Lady Divine’s cavalcade of perversions, the sleaziest show on earth! Not actors, not paid impostors, but real, actual filth who have been carefully screened in order to present to you the most flagrant violation of natural law known to man! These assorted sluts, fags, dykes and pimps know no bounds! They have committed acts against God and nature, acts that by their mere existence would make any decent person recoil in disgust.”
One night, when she gets home to her daughter Cookie (Cookie Mueller) and her Weatherman Underground boyfriend Steve (Paul Swift), she learns — from Edith Massey! — that Mr. David is cheating on her with Bonnie (Mary Vivian Pearce). Divine races out to confront them, but gets assaulted by glue sniffers. Then, Bonnie joins the show.
Then, the Infant of Prague (Michael Renner Jr.) leads Divine to a church, where she has a religious experience, during which Mink Stole describes the Stations of the Cross while inserting a rosary into her. This leads to a war between Mr. David and Bonnie versus Divine and Mink, which ends with Divine being overcome by bloodlust and killing everyone in her way. She’s assaulted again, this time by a giant lobster, and like a kaiju herself, Divine battles all of Baltimore before being shot in the streets by the National Guard.
Hope you aren’t offended easily!
Inspired by Two Thousand Maniacs!, this ends with Divine seizing. her power, shouting “I’m a maniac! A maniac that cannot be cured! O Divine, I am Divine!”
Throughout the movie, Divine taunts Mr. David with the idea that he is responsible for the Manson murders. At one stage of filming, this was to end with Divine being responsible.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Dr. Phibes Rises Again was on the CBS Late Movie on January 31, 1975 and January 2, 1976.
The fact that this movie exists gives me hope. There are moments when life gets me down, when I wonder about my place in this world and if humanity is essentially horrible. Then I remember that great films like this exist and it makes me feel a lot better. You should do the same thing if you ever find yourself in an existential crisis.
Dr. Phibes is back, three years after he lay down in the darkness next to the corpse of his beloved wife. Now, however, he has learned that the secret of eternal life, held by a centuries-old man, is in Egypt. I don’t care why he’s back. I’d watch Dr. Phibes go grocery shopping!
Dr. Anton Phibes (Vincent Price) has been in suspended animation in a sarcophagus alongside his wife Victoria Regina Phibes (Caroline Munro). When the moon aligns with the planets in a way not seen for two millennia, he returns, summoning the silent Vulnavia (thus confirming to me, at least, that she’s really one of his robots as she died in the last film; furthermore, she’s played by Valli Kemp, who took over for the pregnant Virginia North) to his side.
Phibes plans on taking his wife’s body with him to Egypt, where the River of Life promises her resurrection. As he emerges from his tomb, his house has been demolished and the safe that contained the map to the river lies empty. That’s because the map has been stolen by Darius Biederbeck, a man who is hundreds of years old thanks to a special elixir. He may also be every bit Phibes’ equal.
Darius is played by Robert Quarry, who American International Pictures was grooming to be Price’s replacement. There were tensions between the two on set, including a moment where Quarry was singing in his dressing room and challenged Price by saying, “You didn’t know I could sing, did you?” Ever the wit, Vincent Price replied, “Well, I knew you couldn’t act.” Quarry would have already played Count Yorga in two films for AIP and would go on to appear in The Deathmaster, where he played the hippie vampire Khorda; however, the AIP style had already fallen out of fashion. He’s also in numerous Fred Olen Ray films, such as Evil Toons, where he provides the uncredited voice of the demon.
Biederbeck wants eternal life for himself and his lover Diana (Fiona Lewis, Tintorera…Tiger Shark). Phibes and Vulnavia are on his trail, immediately entering his home, murdering his butler and stealing back the map. Everyone connected with Biederbeck comes to an ill end — Phibes places one inside a giant bottle and throws him overboard. That murder brings Inspector Trout back on the case, as he instantly recognizes that only one man could do something like that.
The rest of the film’s murders are based on Egyptian mythology versus Biblical plagues. Hawks and scorpions, rather than his weapons, along with gusts of wind and bursts of sand. Phibes has also brought an army of clockwork men with him the desert to do his bidding.
Phibes finally exchanges Diana’s life for the key to the River of Life. As he floats the coffin containing his wife down the water, he beckons Vulnavia to join them. As his lover tries to comfort him, Biederbeck begs Phibes to take him with them. He begins to rapidly age and dies as Phibes loudly sings “Over the Rainbow,” which might be the best ending of any movie ever made.
There were plans for many more of these films, and the fact that they were never made saddens me to this day. I’ve heard that a third film would Phibes fighting Nazis. I’ve also heard that it’d be about the key to Olympus. Or Phibes is Dr. Vesalius’ son. Or Victoria Phibes herself coming back, just as sinister as her husband. There have been titles thrown around like Phibes Resurrectus, The Seven Fates of Dr. Phibes and The Brides of Dr. Phibes. There was even a thought of Count Yorga facing off with Dr. Phibes, a fact which delights me to no end.
There was also a pitch for a TV series and what appeared to be an animated version, with Jack Kirby himself providing the pitch artwork.
Other ideas included Dr. Phibes in the Holy Land, The Son of Dr. Phibes (which would have pitted the doctor and his son against ecological terrorists), Phibes Resurrectus (which would have David Carradine as Phibes battling against Paul Williams, Orson Welles, Roddy McDowall, John Carradine and Donald Pleasence. The mind boggles at the thought, let me tell you!), a 1981 Dr. Phibes film where the WormwooInstitutete would have destroyed his wife’s body and then their strange members, including transvestite twins obsessed with economics and nuclear weaponry, fail to match wits with Phibes) And finally, Phibes was almost a role for Peter Sellers in a Pink Panther film where he’d also play Clouseau and Fu Manchu. You can learn more about these at the Vincent Price Exhibit site.
There was also a story in 2013 that Johnny Depp was going to star in a Tim Burton directed remake. That obviously Burton-directed film fits into the same Satanic themes as the original. However, you can add in a few new wrinkles. One of the Eleven Satanic Rules of the Earth states, “When walking in open territory, bother no one. If someone bothers you, ask him to stop. If he does not stop, destroy him.” All Phibes wished to do was take his wife to Egypt and bring her back to life. Once Biederbeck stole from him, his fate was sealed.
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