VISUAL VENGEANCE BLU-RAY RELEASE: Vampire Time Travelers (1998)/I Know What You Did in English Class (2000)

I’ve never seen any of the movies that director and writer Les Sekely has made like Night of the Living DateThe Not-So-Grim Reaper and The Alien Conspiracy: Grey Skies, but I have seen this and I totally am hunting for the rest.

This movie feels less like a narrative movie and more like someone made a Dark Brothers or Rinse Dream adult movie mainstream, giving it constant blasts of words and images and a ghost man in a closet and vampires who can move through the timestream and random muscicvideo sequences where people are encouraged to “Bite Her In the Butt.”

Most of the other reviews I’ve read for this film are either beyond angry that they endured it, wondering whether or not the humor was intentional or not, or nearly shut it off but stuck with it and still aren’t sure what they have seen.

As you can imagine, these are the movies that obsess me.

Natalie is a vampire who was killed by Buffy — yes, this is intended to be a reference — which has her call to her sister Lorelei (Jillien Weisz) from beyond the grave and demand revenge by killing Buffy’s sister Sue Anne Marie (J.J. Rodgers) and her fellow pledges to the Alpha Omega sorority. One of them is a talented guitar player — she can play “Eruption” seemingly without fingertapping and sleeps with her axe — who has The Man Who Never Calls Back (the director!) on speed dial, hoping to sign to his label and escape college. Another is a nerdy girl named Jenna (Micky Levy). There’s also another who is impossibly tall.

There’s also a Hooded Man who gets some kids to go to the Old Crenshaw Place, where Lorelei has been trapped in a coffin for five years. They’re promised porn magazines and instead of looking in the woods like every other kid in the 80s and 90s did, they find a coffin and a vampire who comes back but isn’t strong enough to bite necks any longer so she must “Bite Her In the Butt.”

Like I said, some folks are going to watch this and see the budget and that it doesn’t look like movies do today — come on, people — and dismiss it. For others, they will savor moments like when a vampire goes up in flames and says the last line from Ms. 45. “Sister!”

I found an interview with Sekely online about this movie and it notes that he also composed the movie for this and considered it his baby. Of the film, he said, “Vampire Time Travelers, in one word, is … fun. A little scary, mostly campy, and even slightly sexy … fun. (We didn’t have the budget to be serious). It’s Woody Allen meets Stephen King … meets MTV. To sum it up … You know when you have a dream, it’s a bunch of strange scenes and events, one after another, that are not connected. Well, Vampire Time Travelers is a lot like that … except the events are connected. Basically … go with it!”

I Know What You Did in English Class (2000): Directed and written by Les Sekely (Vampire Time Travelers), this is similar to that film and this quote that I used to describe that one is even more accurate: “This movie feels less like a narrative movie and more like someone made a Dark Brothers or Rinse Dream adult movie mainstream, giving it constant blasts of words and images…” If I say Party Doll-A-Go-Go and you get it, you’re a pervert, and we should be friends, and you’ll know exactly what kind of strange editing and barrage of sound effects and dumb jokes that entails.

Years ago, students destroyed the life of their teacher. Most of them got over it, but only one still feels some empathy and wonders what happened to her, perhaps because his girlfriend is also a teacher. Yes, you now get that this is not a rip-off of I Know What You Did Last Summerexcept for being close to the title.

I can see that as a movie that would anger many viewers, as it doesn’t even let up with being silly, even when it’s trying to be heartfelt. The sound effects, if anything, get louder and more repetitive, kind of like Max Headroom repeating himself. It was something in the way 90s and 00s movies could be edited and doesn’t seem to have survived until today. Yet here’s this film, rescued by Visual Vengeance, a little shot in Lakewood, OH effort about demons, classroom hijinks and the regret of growing up, mixed with male gaze rear-end shots and a Troma-like sensibility without nudity. I haven’t seen many movies like it, so you should try it at least.

Extras include commentary with director Les Sekely; interviews with Sekely, JJ Rodgers, Angelia Scott interview, Director of Photography Dennis Devine and Assistant Director Steve Jarvis; Not So Grim Reaper short; Visual Vengeance trailers; a “Stick Your Own” VHS sticker set;  I Know What You Did In English Class with commentary by director Les Sekely; a reversible sleeve featuring new I Know What You Did In English Class art and a folded mini-poster. You can get this from MVD.

APRIL MOVIE THON DAY 11: Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)

April 11:Heavy Metal Movies — Pick a movie from Mike McPadden’s great book. RIP. List here.

The year was 1992. Kevin Eastman, who, along with Peter Laird, helped turn four turtles and some ooze into a global empire, decided he needed a new sandbox. And not just any sandbox, but the glossy, psychedelic and often scantily-clad pages of Heavy Metal. He may have grown up on a steady diet of Jack Kirby, but it was the French import Métal Hurlant that really blew his mind. The Richard Corben art looked like it was airbrushed in another dimension, plus it was European, it was cool, and it was for grown-ups.

When the magazine went up for sale, Eastman saw it as the final piece of the puzzle. He’d started Tundra Publishing to make comics for adults, and Heavy Metal was already sitting on newsstands across the country, waiting for those same readers. It was a match made in a weird, sci-fi heaven. His plan? Use the mag to bridge the gap between comic shops and the mainstream newsstands. He wanted to serialize high-end European hardcovers and bring them to the masses. 

While he eventually sold the brand, he did a lot with it, including this film, which was based on his comic The Melting Pot, which he created with Simon Bisley and Eric Talbot. In November of 2007, a new 170-page version of the story was published as a special edition of Heavy Metal, which was the springboard for this series.

Even better, not only was Eastman living a comic book lover’s dream life, but he was also married to Julie Strain, the B-movie queen and Penthouse Pet of the Year, who ended up being the animated star (and literal body model) of this movie.

The Arakacians once ruled the galaxy thanks to a rift where space and time itself leaked. They used this fluid to become immortal rulers of everything, until they were defeated. The key to this well of sorts is a green crystal (Is it the Loc-Nar? Maybe…), but anyone who finds the fountain goes absolutely out of their head.

Tyler (Michael Ironside) is a miner who touches the key and unlocks knowledge of how to get to the elixir by killing the Edenites of F.A.K.K.² (Federation-Assigned Ketogenic Killzone), a world where those touched by the fluids live. He destroys most of the world and takes a teacher, Kerrie, to be his slave, which sends her sister Julie (Julie Strain) on a blood-soaked quest for revenge.

This isn’t the original 1981 Heavy Metal, which is a movie I can watch at any and every time, but it tries its damnedest. It even has a ritual in which Julie bathes, just like Taarna, serving as a direct visual bridge to the segment we all remember from the first film.

And hey, if the plot doesn’t grab you, the audio will. Billy Idol shows up as a mysterious character named Odin, and the soundtrack is a time capsule of turn-of-the-millennium industrial and hard rock, featuring voices and tracks from Sascha Konietzko and Tim Skold of KMFDM, as well as Monster Magnet, Pantera and System of a Down.

You can watch this on Tubi.

VISUAL VENGEANCE ON TUBI: I Know What You Did in English Class (2000)

Directed and written by Les Sekely (Vampire Time Travelers), this is similar to that film and this quote that I used to describe that one is even more accurate: “This movie feels less like a narrative movie and more like someone made a Dark Brothers or Rinse Dream adult movie mainstream, giving it constant blasts of words and images…” If I say Party Doll-A-Go-Go and you get it, you’re a pervert, and we should be friends, and you’ll know exactly what kind of strange editing and barrage of sound effects and dumb jokes that entails.

Years ago, students destroyed the life of their teacher. Most of them got over it, but only one still feels some empathy and wonders what happened to her, perhaps because his girlfriend is also a teacher. Yes, you now get that this is not a rip-off of I Know What You Did Last Summerexcept for being close to the title.

I can see that as a movie that would anger many viewers, as it doesn’t even let up with being silly, even when it’s trying to be heartfelt. The sound effects, if anything, get louder and more repetitive, kind of like Max Headroom repeating himself. It was something in the way 90s and 00s movies could be edited and doesn’t seem to have survived until today. Yet here’s this film, rescued by Visual Vengeance, a little shot in Lakewood, OH effort about demons, classroom hijinks and the regret of growing up, mixed with male gaze rear-end shots and a Troma-like sensibility without nudity. I haven’t seen many movies like it, so you should try it at least.

You can watch this on Tubi.

ARROW 4K UHD RELEASE: Red Planet (2000)

Mankind has been terraforming Mars, knowing the Earth won’t be livable for long. Yes, pre-Elon Musk, this was a movie. 

When the air levels start to go wrong, Mars-1 is sent to investigate. The team includes Mission Commander Kate Bowman (Carrie-Anne Moss), co-pilot Ted Santen (Benjamin Bratt), science officer Bud Chantilas (Terence Stamp), mechanical systems engineer Robby Gallagher (Val Kilmer), bioengineer Quinn Burchenal (Tom Sizemore) and terraforming expert Chip Pettengill (Simon Baker). 

On the surface, things start to fall apart. As the group runs out of oxygen, Chantilas is critically injured, Petengill pushes Santen off a cliff, and their robot AMEE is damaged and begins to take them out one by one. But as they learn that they can breathe Mars’ air, perhaps they can find something that can save Earth.

While Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer had been friends, much like the antics on Mars, they soon came to blows. Kilmer was mad that the production had paid for Sizemore’s elliptical machine to be shipped to the set, and he screamed, “I’m making ten million on this. You’re only making two!” Then Sizemore threw a weight at him. Things were so bad that body doubles were used for many of their scenes together. Kilmer reportedly refused to say Sizemore’s character’s name, saying instead, “Hey, you!” Eventually, they fought, and Sizemore would later file a restraining order against Kilmer.

Directed by Antony Hoffman and written by Chuck Pfarrer and Jonathan Lemkin, this film — along with The SaintThe Island of Dr. Moreau and a few others — started the idea that Kilmer was box office poison.

The Arrow 4K UHD release of this film includes extras such as interviews with visual effects supervisor Jeffrey A. Okun and helmet and suit designer Steve Johnson; a brand-new visual retrospective with film critic Heath Holland; deleted scenes; and a trailer. It comes inside a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Griffin with an illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mark A. Altman. You can get it from MVD.

The Gift (2000)

Annie Wilson (Cate Blanchett) is psychic. While supernatural films can’t always be giallo, psychic abilities are generally alright, as seen by the inclusion of Fulci’s film of the same name. There are so many rules. Anyway, she mainly uses her powers to help people who have a rougher life than she and her three children, like Buddy (Giovanni Ribisi) and Valerie (Hilary Swank), whose abusive husband Donnie (Keanu Reeves) has threatened Annie’s life after she advises Valerie to leave him. 

Jessica King (Katie Holmes) has disappeared. The fiancée of school principal Wayne Collins (Greg Kinnear), she comes to Annie in a vision, telling her that she’s in a pond on Donnie’s property. The dream or message or whatever you believe is true, as Donnie is soon arrested. That night, Buddy, who has been upset about this murder, keeps trying to connect to Annie, who is overwhelmed by the body being found. He goes home and ties his father to a chair, setting him on fire in return for abusing him as a child.

The visions continue, as Annie believes Donnie is innocent and loved Jessica, with whom he was having an affair. She asks prosecutor David Duncan (Gary Cole) to reopen the case; he refuses, and she reminds him that she knows that he also had an affair with Jessica. This feels like Rome in the 70s, not Georgia; it’s just missing fashion, black gloves, and a better soundtrack. Actually, the Christopher Young score is good, but maybe some Morricone?

So who did it? Can Annie’s powers save her life and find the real killer? Written by Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Epperson before Sling Blade, Thornton based this on his mother’s real psychic abilities. It’s directed by Sam Raimi, who knows a little bit about suspense. Of course, Annie drives the car that is in every one of Raimi’s films, a Delta 88 Oldsmobile.

THE IMPORTANT CINEMA CLUB’S SUPER SCARY MOVIE CHALLENGE DAY 27: Ginger Snaps (2000)

27. A Horror Film That’s a Metaphor for Puberty

Directed by John Fawcett and written by Karen Walton, from a story they jointly developed, Ginger Snaps is the most puberty-referencing horror that I can think of. Brigitte and Ginger Fitzgerald (Emily Perkins and Katharine Isabelle) are death-obsessed teenagers who promise to run away before they turn 16. One night, Ginger’s period attracts a werewolf, which is soon run over by drug dealer Sam (Kris Lemche). As her wounds heal, she refuses to go to the hospital and starts to grow angry, beating up her bully, Trina (Danielle Hampton), and aggressively having sex with classmate Jason (Jesse Moss). Even when she gets a silver piercing, her wolf side keeps getting stronger.

When Ginger kills Trina accidentally, her sister helps her hide the body, but is shocked to learn that she’s killed a counselor and a janitor. However, the cure of monksblood has been created by Sam and is successful at turning Jason back into a human. However, is the bond between sisters stronger than the need to be human?

I’ve watched this several times and am always struck by how different it is than so many wolf movies, which are so often white men dealing with being infected. Fawcett would go on to create Orphan Black.

The strong performances by Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins are a major highlight of Ginger Snaps. Their chemistry is palpable, and their dedication to their roles is evident. It’s fascinating to learn that they auditioned on the same day, were born in the same hospital, attended the same schools, and were hired through the same talent agency. It’s almost as if they were destined to be in this film.

By the way, the PA voice that pages the Raimi brothers? That’s Lucy Lawless.

Sizzlin’ Summer of Side-Splitters 2025: The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (2000)

Aug 11-17 Whoopi Goldberg Week: She’s become a corny tv lady these days, but let’s not forget that at her peak Whoopi was one of the funniest people alive.

Man, the 2000s TV remakes and reimaginings always start dark.

Rocky the Flying Squirrel and Bullwinkle J. Moose have had a sad life since their show was canceled in 1964. All the trees in Frostbite Falls have been cut down. Their narrator lives with his mother. Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), Boris Badenov (Jason Alexander) and Natasha Fatale (Rene Russo) aren’t dangerous. And Rocky can’t fly.

Then the bad guys escape the unreal world and make it to Hollywood, becoming live action, and working with Minnie Mogul (Janeane Garofalo) to operate Really Bad Television, a cable TV network that is brainwashing people into voting for Fearless Leader for President. FBI Director Cappy von Trapment (Randy Quaid) assigns Agent Karen Sympathy (Piper Perabo) to bring Rocky (June Foray) and Bullwinkle (Keith Scott) into our world and save us.

The bad guys have Computer-Degenerating Imagery that traps cartoon characters online, but our heroes have help from Martin and Lewis (Keenan and Kel). Rocky learns to fly again and you get all sorts of people showing up in this: David Alan Grier, Carl Reiner, Jonathan Winters, Phil Proctor, Jeffrey Ross, Doug Jones, Billy Crystal and Whoopi Goldberg as a judge.

Boris and Natasha: The Movie, Dudley Do-Right and Mr. Peabody & Sherman all had movies. None of them did well. That said, Boris and Natasha has Dave Thomas and Sally Kellerman as the villains, along with John Candy, Andrea Thomas and Sid Haig. It’s directed by Charles Martin Smith, who also helmed Trick or Treat.

I appreciate that they keep making these boomer movies, but no one would ever see them. Then again, this movie is 25 years old, so I am the old person now.

Sizzlin’ Summer of Side-Splitters 2025: Acne (2000)

July 14-20  Vanity Project Week: “…it might be said that the specific remedy for vanity is laughter, and that the one failing that is essentially laughter is vanity.” Are these products of passionate and industrious independent filmmakers OR outrageous glimpses into the inner workings of self-obsessed maniacs??

Directed, written by and starring Rusty Nails, this starts with siblings Franny (Tracey Hayes) and Zoe (Nails) drinking tap water that causes giant zits to form on the tops of their heads. And if they don’t keep eating junk food, they become zombies. And oh yeah, those zits are constantly spraying people and making even more potential zombies, all because big business and the military-industrial complex spiked the town’s water.

The thing is, the kids are really alright. Sure, they have zit heads, but all they want to do is go to the mall or bowling. They didn’t ask for this.

I kind of love the one tough girl who keeps busting her boyfriend’s balls about him going bald. That’s the kind of playful banter that makes me marry someone.

Oh yeah — the movie.

It’s a 50s science-gone-wrong movie that somehow has disgusting moments of exploding zits and eating anything greasy, but has such a goofy and sweet heart that it feels like it struggles to find an audience. It’s too gross for normal people, not twisted enough for gore hounds. And man, the music is pretty great, but I was also the right age in the 90s to know most of it.

You can download this from the Internet Archive.

Sizzlin’ Summer of Side-Splitters 2025: Mr. Accident (2000)

July 14-20  Vanity Project Week: “…it might be said that the specific remedy for vanity is laughter, and that the one failing that is essentially laughter is vanity.” Are these products of passionate and industrious independent filmmakers OR outrageous glimpses into the inner workings of self-obsessed maniacs??

After being kicked out of art school. Greg Pead co-wrote, co-produced, edited and directed at his first film, Coaltown, “with the assistance of the Australian Film Institute.: It explores the social and political history of coal mining and was nothing like the rest of his films, of which he took on the name Yahoo Serious.

His first film, Young Einstein, was a $25 million dollar worldwide success on a $5 million dollar budget. Now, you can scoff at the idea that Einstein invented beer bubbles, rock music and surfing before dating Marie Curie, but it wasn’t a bad film. It did OK in the U.S., enough that his next film, Reckless Kelly, was released here and bombed. It did well enough in his native land of Australia for Mr. Accident to come out seven years later.

Directed, co-written, produced by and starring Serious, this movie has him playing Roger Crumpkin, who works in an egg factory and has learned that his boss is putting nicotine in the eggs. He also is in love with the UFO-loving Sunday Valentine (Helen Dallimore), who has found a rock shaped like a VW hubcap that she is sure came from another world. There’s also Roger’s roommate Lyndon (Grant Piro) and boss Duxton Chevalier (David Field), who is the evilldoer in this and yes, once dated Sunday and wants her back.

Serious’ films are very slapstick and surreal, but there are moments where it feels like the joke won’t land and then it doesn’t. They’re strange, however, and kind of endearing, even if they feel way more dated than 25 years old. It is kind of amazing that at one point, however, he was a hot item and able to take a movie all the way around the world before being nearly forgotten everywhere but where he came from.

Sadly, today Serious is 71, was kicked out of his apartment and hasn’t made a movie since this one. He’s pretty much faded away with random sightings being covered in Australia’s newspapers. His website is still up, but looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2003. He also tried to sue Yahoo in 2000 because they took his name. He lost that.

You can watch this on YouTube.

APRIL MOVIE THON 4: I Know What You Did in English Class (2000)

April 5: Visual Vengeance Day — Write about a movie released by Visual Vengeance. Here’s a list to help you find a movie.

Directed and written by Les Sekely (Vampire Time Travelers), this is similar to that film and this quote that I used to describe that one is even more accurate: “This movie feels less like a narrative movie and more like someone made a Dark Brothers or Rinse Dream adult movie mainstream, giving it constant blasts of words and images…” If I say Party Doll-A-Go-Go and you get it, you’re a pervert, and we should be friends, and you’ll know exactly what kind of strange editing and barrage of sound effects and dumb jokes that entails.

Years ago, students destroyed the life of their teacher. Most of them got over it, but only one still feels some empathy and wonders what happened to her, perhaps because his girlfriend is also a teacher. Yes, you now get that this is not a rip-off of I Know What You Did Last Summerexcept for being close to the title.

I can see that as a movie that would anger many viewers, as it doesn’t even let up with being silly, even when it’s trying to be heartfelt. The sound effects, if anything, get louder and more repetitive, kind of like Max Headroom repeating himself. It was something in the way 90s and 00s movies could be edited and doesn’t seem to have survived until today. Yet here’s this film, rescued by Visual Vengeance, a little shot in Lakewood, OH effort about demons, classroom hijinks and the regret of growing up, mixed with male gaze rear-end shots and a Troma-like sensibility without nudity. I haven’t seen many movies like it, so you should try it at least.

You can watch this on Tubi.