In Defense of LAND OF THE MINOTAUR

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In Defense of LAND OF THE MINOTAUR

SHOCK sticks up for the unloved British/Greek horror film LAND OF THE MINOTAUR.

Sometimes I feel that there are certain pictures out there that I and I alone am in love with, that are speaking exclusively to me. I say this because it seems like everyone else with a pulse is either oblivious to the following flick or has callously deemed it to be dung. The strange sliver of celluloid of which I so highly speak – and again, so effectively speaks to me – is Kostas Karagiannis’s earthy 1976 shocker THE DEVIL’S MEN, known to us schmucks on North American shores as LAND OF THE MINOTAUR.

Released in 1977 in the U.S. by exploitation house Crown International to a moderately successful box office take, LAND OF THE MINOTAUR has been pretty easy to find on home viewing formats, popping up in rough looking pan and scan VHS versions and dodgy DVD releases here and in equally ugly (but thankfully uncut) videos in the UK. Scorpion Releasing even let it loose a few years back as a split disc with Norman J. Warren’s TERROR, uncut and in widescreen under it’s the DEVIL’S MEN title with little to no fanfare. Sadly, I’ve still yet to hear anyone else champion its virtues.

So, with that, I do believe it’s time to do so.

On the outskirts of a remote, inland village in beautiful, picturesque Greece (Aris Stavrou’s photography is stark and eye-filling), something secret, insidious and palpably evil lurks, sucking every too-curious young tourist into its maw and swallowing them whole. As the ever-expanding list of the curious missing travelers increases, an eccentric local Priest (the great Donald Pleasence, a year before he ran raving ‘round Haddonfield) begins to suspect that a cult of mountain dwelling, black hooded, Minotaur worshiping Satanists have gained a stronghold, sacrificing every pretty young thing in their path to their titular stone hoof and horned, steam belching deity.

A battle of theological wits ensues between the fraught Father and the ultra-wicked village Magistrate/covert cult leader Baron Corofax (the perhaps even greater Peter Cushing in rare, full-on chin-stroking villain mode) and by the time the smoke clears and the last drop of crudely spilled virgin blood dries, only one of these admirably dedicated and faithful men will be left standing.

A British/Greek co-production, LAND OF THE MINOTAUR was indeed initially released in the UK under its original title as the sexier and bloodier THE DEVIL’S MEN and, after getting a few bits of PG-rating-ensuring blood and boob action removed, spat out stateside under its more lurid moniker. Slapped with one of the more outrageous, colorful and almost entirely misleading exploitation movie posters of the 1970’s (Half Man! Half Beast! Trapped in a Land Forgotten by Time!), the picture was wedged onto the bottom half of a Crown double bill, pulling in the pundits who were expecting an action packed genre picture, before fading into B-movie oblivion, relegated to after-hours TV showings and budget video waste bins everywhere.

I first saw LAND OF THE MINOTAUR during one of my indiscriminate Friday night teenage video rental binges in the mid 80’s, duped, just like that legion of kids in 77, by that beautiful, busy cover graphic. And though I did not get the promised epic I had hoped for, what I did get was something far darker, stranger, solemn, moody and bizarre; a picture that had a suffocating ambiance and dream-like atmosphere.

LAND OF THE MINOTAUR is a picture that demands an open mind and perhaps more importantly, an open ear. See part of the shuddery secret of the film, outside of the engaging lead turns from veteran British horror pros Cushing and Pleasence (working together here for the first time since 1960’s masterful ‘Burke and Hare’ drama THE FLESH AND THE FIENDS, another of my personal favorites), is an absolutely first rate experimental low frequency electronic score by the iconic composer/pop guru Brian Eno. The former Roxy Music mastermind coats this slowly-paced film with speaker throbbing drones, eerie synthesizer washes and pulses that render it almost meditative. It’s a case study for any serious horror movie minded music maker on how to milk unease out of imagery and the fact that this score isn’t available in any isolated form on CD or vinyl or anything is a very serious cinematic crime that will hopefully one day be rectified.

I really like LAND OF THE MINOTAUR. Make no mistake, it’s a lowbrow exploitation film but it’s one that’s filtered through a very stylized, art house sensibility. Don’t be swayed by the negative mainstream reviews and general fanboy silence. There’s something special in this one…

Here’ s a German clip from the explosive climax. So if you don’t want it spoiled…don’t watch.

And here’s the groovy, non-Eno theme song, cut from the US print (and no, it’s not the same Paul Williams you’re probably thinking of…)

Note: portions if this essay appeared in my Blood Spattered Book, from Midnight Marquee Press.

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Teaser and First Look at New ‘Ozploitation’ Flick SCARE CAMPAIGN

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Teaser and First Look at New ‘Ozploitation’ Flick SCARE CAMPAIGN

SHOCK gives you an eyeful of the new Ozploitation film SCARE CAMPAIGN.

“Ozploitation” is alive and well and spurting red stuff every which way in the new film SCARE CAMPAIGN.

The movie is written and directed by bothers Colin and Cameron Cairnes, the duo behind the ballistic Aussie shocker 100 BLOODY ACRES and stars THE VISIT’s Olivia De Jonge.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Popular TV prank show, Scare Campaign, has been entertaining audiences for the last five years with its mix of old school scares and hidden camera fun. But as we enter a new age of online TV, the producers find themselves up against a new hard-edged web series which makes their show look decidedly quaint. It’s time to up the ante, but will the team go too far this time, and are they about to prank the wrong guy?”

Now, with that, buckle in…because here’s the teaser trailer:

SCARE CAMPAIGN will be released in 2016 and is opening Australia’s Monster Fest this Thursday, November 26th.

More on the film as we get it, but in the meantime, follow the SCARE CAMPAIGN crew at their official Facebook page.

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KINKY FRANKENSTEIN! Five Sexy, Sleazy and Kinky Frankenstein Flicks!

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KINKY FRANKENSTEIN! Five Sexy, Sleazy and Kinky Frankenstein Flicks!

SHOCK strips down and looks at the kinkier side of Frankenstein on film.

Last week, to celebrate the impending release of the big-budget monster-making movie VICTOR FRANKENSTEIN, SHOCK stitched together a list of 5 Frankenstein flicks that, when it came to capturing the essence of Mary Shelley’s landmark novel, failed miserably. You can read that list HERE.

This week, we take a look at the sexier, skankier side of Frankenstein on film. Undo your belt a notch and relax…

The very nature of the Frankenstein story lends itself to kink. It’s a story of obsession, of madness; of domination, submission and narcissism; of clandestine rituals of necrophila-tinted body-snatching and flesh-sculpting. So it makes sense to see a strain of cinema that trades in the dirtier side of the tale, exploiting people’s lust for the taboo and delivering the rough stuff with spurting, sanguinary glee.

The following list is by no means definitive. Rather it is a selection of five of our favorite “Frankie Gets Freaky” flicks that really electrified our organs.

Have a look…

HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN (1970)

As Hammer Studios changed guards and tried to re-invent themselves for a more explicitly inclined decade, HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN was their bid to both re-boot their Frankenstein franchise and continue their (mostly unsuccessful) grooming of actor Ralph Bates as their “new” Peter Cushing. HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN is essentially a campy, cruel and naughtier version of CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and, as such, has long received a bum rap from Hammer and Frankenstein fans alike. But there’s so much to savor in this Jimmy Sangster-directed sleaze opera, especially when viewing it as the black comedy it most certainly is. Bates’ spoiled, arrogant and sociopathic Baron sleeps around, kills without conscience and, when his homicidal, blasphemous experiments flunk out, he just kind of shrugs it all off. Dirty, rough and tons of  fun.

LADY FRANKENSTEIN (1971)

Roger Corman threw some dough at this Italian exploitation gem (released via his New World imprint) that rarely gets the dues it deserves. Directed by Mel Welles, a regular Corman actor who most will remember for his turn as Mushnick in Corman’s LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, this beautifully designed, ultra-Gothic horror gem stars Joseph Cotton as the good Baron who leaves his lab and life’s work to his buxom daughter Tania Frankenstein, played by the great Sara Bay aka Rosalba Neri (THE DEVIL’S WEDDING NIGHT). BLOODY PIT OF HORROR legend Mickey Hargitay also shows up in this lively, erotic, leering and atmospheric flick (with a great score by Allesandro Allesandroni) that ultimately serves as a showcase for Neri’s ample attributes and earthy sexuality. And dig that wild final sex scene!

FLESH FOR FRANKENSTEIN (aka ANDY WARHOL’S FRANKENSTEIN, 1973)

Director Paul Morrissey (with help from Italian legend Antonio Margheriti, though the jury is still out as to how much help) helmed this operatically sexual and perverse 3D trash masterpiece whose campy, lurid leer pumps up against rich production design, gorgeous photography and a sumptuous Claudio Gizzi score. Udo Kier gives his signature performance as the humorless (and therefore hilarious) necrophiliac Baron Frankenstein, who fist-fucks his female creation while making a superman creature and pontificating loudly to his perverted assistant (Arno Juerging). The Warhol connection came from the film getting Andy’s blessing, seeing as both Morrissey and cast member Joe Dallessandro (who is fantastically wooden – in every sense – as a seemingly lost Brooklyn stud) were borrowed from his “Factory”; otherwise this Carlo Ponti production is pure Eurotrash gold. A must see in 3D, with Kier’s spleen dripping onto your lap and male and female parts thrusting from the screen.

FRANKENSTEIN: ITALIAN STYLE (1975)

Jenny Tamburi, the lovely lass from many an Italian sexploitation flick (and so memorable in Rino Di Silverstro’s WOMEN IN CELL BLOCK 7) is the sexiest thing about this ultra-tacky and sleazy sex comedy/horror flick. In it, the good Baron builds a beast with, you guessed it, a really big penis. And when the monster gets loose…he really gets LOOSE! Absolutely an attempt to capture the absurd humor of Mel Brooks’ YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, FRANKENSTEIN: ITALIAN STYLE is shot in color, with a goofy looking monster that looks like late-period Elvis crossed with Karloff and plenty of goofy, kinky sex and female nudity. Interestingly, the film’s German title is CASSANOVA FRANKENSTEIN, which is the name of Geoffrey Rush’s villain from the film MYSTERY MEN.

FUCKENSTEIN (2012)

Conceptual punk/porn Princess and entrepreneur Joanna Angel is, er, behind this colorfully titled XXX flick, a harder-than-core porno that is rendered in black and white and boasts – for porn – handsome costume design. Of course, said costumes don’t stay on long as Baron Frankenstein (adult actor James Deen) builds a stud-monster to double-penetrate his insatiable wife (Angel). Plenty of penetration of all sorts ensues, though viewers may quickly lose interest. Then suddenly get interested again. Then once more lose interest. Then regain that interest and…well, it’s a porno. You get it.

Honorable Mention: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1075)

No nudity to speak of, but this ribald musical, the ultimate cult film, is a send up Hammer’s Frankenstein films (especially during its dynamic creations scene) by way of 50’s drive-in culture. It’s the Frankenstein mythos represented as a gender-bending, rock and roll romp and , despite its pop-culture over-saturation, it’s still a cheeky,  imaginative and important kinky delight.

Feel free to fill in the spaces below with YOUR favorite “Kinky Frankenstein” flicks!

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Contest! Win a Copy of Monstermatt Patterson’s BRIDE OF HA-HA HORROR Jokebook!

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Contest! Win a Copy of Monstermatt Patterson’s BRIDE OF HA-HA HORROR Jokebook!

Win a copy of the world’s best/worst horror joke book, BRIDE OF HA-HA HORROR!

Artist and writer Monstermatt Patterson is the Dark Overlord of awful horror-centric jokes and pitiful puns. And that’s why we love him…

BRIDE OF HA-HA HORROR is Patterson’s follow-up to his groan-inducing first collection of forehead smacking horror movie-oriented puns and lowbrow jokes, HA-HA HORROR and, like that book, the follow-up is designed to make you the life (death) of the party.

Of course, there’s the risk that instead of slayin’ them…they’ll slay YOU after you unload Patterson’s torrent of terrible (and therefore awesome) gags.

SHOCK wants to throw a copy of BRIDE OF HA-HA HORROR at you. Ready? Duck!

To win, email chris.alexander@shocktillyoudrop.com with the words MAKE ‘EM LAUGH! in the header.

The (un)lucky winner will be chosen at random.

And to hang out with the talented and witty master of bad jokes (and great art!) drop by his official Facebook page today!

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Think of the Children! Examining ‘Pre-Code’ Horror and its Influence on Cinema

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Think of the Children! Examining ‘Pre-Code’ Horror and its Influence on Cinema

SHOCK riffs on the horrors of early ‘Hays Code’ Hollywood and examines their effect on contemporary films.

“I wish to join the Legion of Decency, which condemns vile and unwholesome moving pictures. I unite with all who protest against them as a grave menace to youth, to home life, to country and to religion. I condemn absolutely those salacious motion pictures which, with other degrading agencies, are corrupting public morals and promoting a sex mania in our land… Considering these evils, I hereby promise to remain away from all motion pictures except those which do not offend decency and Christian morality.”
—Catholic Legion of Decency pledge

Pre-Code cinema is a term used to refer to films made after 1930 and before 1934 when the infamous Motion Picture Production Code or Hays Code (named after Will H. Hays then-president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America) was implemented. The Code was a set of puritanical moral guidelines used to dictate the values which Hollywood and its films were meant to extol. The government was realizing that despite their initial beliefs, films (which at that point were just beginning to use sound) were here to stay and were becoming the predominant form of social entertainment. Films delighted, scared and intrigued their audiences and the government wanted to ensure that the correct morals and beliefs were being shown on screen. The Code was drafted in 1930 but not enforced until 1934 the four year period in-between offered up bevvy of scandalous and sensational films everything from graphic horror films to bloody gangster films to pseudo-feminist women led films. These pre-Code films, as they became known, were emblematic of the social decay and “unhealthy” attitudes which were exactly what the government feared. These four years which constitute the pre-Code era were a time when studios pushed the limits, testing what would be acceptable and what would get axed. Depictions of violence, trauma, and sexuality were rampant during this time and horror films were no exception. Some of the most bizarre, gruesome and nihilistic horror films were made in this time in the face of the on-coming conservatism which was about the hit the film industry.

The ‘Pre-Code’ era began almost in tandem with the Great Depression in the United States. Movies became popular entertainment because of their ability to provide escapism for audiences who were facing desperate times. Horror films in particular played up elements of the fantastic to help cut through the darkness of the stories of the films allowing the audience to engage with something shocking and more terrifying than everyday life. German Expressionism which had first made an impact on the horror genre with Robert Wiene’s THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1919) was in part brought to America by Carl Laemmle a native German who swiftly rose through the ranks of Universal Studios who was instrumental in establishing the Universal Monsters. These films not only focused on the heightened atmosphere of monsters mainly from literature such as DRACULA (1931) and FRANKENSTEIN (1931) but making stars out of their monsters (Lugosi, Karloff) creating a proven track record that audiences continued to pay to see.

Universal, however, was not the only studio to get in on the horror game. MGM would make the iconic pre-Code horror film Tod Browning’s FREAKS (1932) which was banned in certain parts of America due to the content of the film and because the film featured people who performed in sideshows rather than loading prosthetics on actors. Paramount found tawdry success with Rouben Mamoulian’s DR. JECKYL AND MR. HYDE (1931) which dealt with taboo sexuality and the studio proceeded to produce a string of iconic pre-Code horror films such as ISLAND OF LOST SOULS (1932) and MURDERS AT THE ZOO (1933). These films were notable, in part, because of their political incorrectness and because they conflated man with animal – the idea that society had been bred into us and was inherently unnatural. In fact, much of what the Hays Code would attempt to do is breed the ideal society. Pre-code films rejected those notions in an attempt to showcase the reality of fear. Pre-Code horror films showcased violence, prejudice, rape and a multitude of other taboos. The Hays Code was replaced by the MPAA rating system in 1968 after the Code became untenable to enforce with the increasing amount of films being produced every year.

The lasting influence of the pre-Code horror films can be seen in American horror when the country was in crisis. In the early 1970s when America was careening towards the end of the Vietnam War and was attempting to comprehend the violence of the Charles Manson murders and the instability of the government exemplified by Richard Nixon, horror films reacted by creating dizzying, morbid visions of the American Dream gone terribly wrong with films such as THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT (1972), THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE (1974) and HALLOWEEN (1978) among others. A similar trend would emerge in America and internationally in the wake of the September 11th attacks with the so-called “Torture Porn” trend with films such as HOSTEL (2005) and A SERBIAN FILM (2010) as well as the films of New French Extremity like IRREVERSIBLE (2002), HIGH TENSION (2003), and MARTYRS (2008).

Pre-Code films were an anticipatory reaction to the moralizing that films faced for decades following the 1934 implementation. While some films made during the Hays Code period such as Jacques Tourneur’s CAT PEOPLE (1942) offered a restrained subversion of those morals, pre-Code horror films are still shocking to this day. They depict anger and dissatisfaction with life which was more relevant to audiences than the beatific sanitization of the American Dream. The morals preached through the Hays Code were never attainable. They were idealized dreams of what the government wanted their citizens to be, pre-Code films depicted and offered a blueprint for the, occasionally, terrifying reality that Americans faced.

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Documentary On HEAVY METAL Director Launches KickStarter Campaign

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Documentary On HEAVY METAL Director Launches KickStarter Campaign

New film about Canadian animator and director of cult adult animation hit HEAVY METAL seeks funding.

The first time I saw the nude female form it was ludicrously exaggerated, writhing in the running time of what would eventually be one the most famous adult animated, dark fantasy films of all time: 1981’s Ivan Reitman produced anthology HEAVY METAL. It’s no wonder I’m so messed-up.

The film was, of course, based on stories within (and the legacy of) famed X-rated magazine HEAVY METAL, itself a licensed U.S. version of the French erotic/horror/fantasy comic magazine METAL HURLANT.

The berserk, ultra-gory, wildly sexual and unapologetically ludicrous film was a Canadian production but employed scores of animators from all over the world, featured voice work from virtually all of the cast members of beloved Canuck comedy series SCTV and sported a legendary hard rock soundtrack featuring BLACK SABBATH, BLUE OYSTER CULT, NAZARETH and more. It’s an unforgettable film and is, when it’s not being silly, often quite disturbing (remember the Dan O’Bannon-penned sequence where the green ‘Loc-Nar’ alien turns the WW2 fighter pilots into skeletal zombies? Yikes!).

The film was directed by the maverick British/Canadian animator Gerald Potterton, an Oscar nominated filmmaker who has worked with Buster Keaton. John Candy, Ringo Starr and Vincent Price among many, many other legendary talents.

The man has been animating for almost 70 years and has led many lives, packed with many adventures.

Indeed, Potterton’s life IS cinema and now, filmmaker Laurie Gordon – a longtime friend and fan – has begun work on a documentary about the man entitled THE FLYING ANIMATOR (its title stemming from Potterton’s other life as a rabid aviation enthusiast).

I’ve had the honor of spending some time with Potterton in Toronto, where myself and filmmaker Chris Walsh (THE SHUTTERBUG MAN) screened a 35mm print of HEAVY METAL and had the director with us for a pre-show dinner and amazing Q&A. The HEAVY METAL stories alone would make for a remarkable movie but truthfully, HM is only a footnote in a remarkable life spent making daring, beautiful and bizarre art.

To check out Gordon’s KickStarter campaign to get the finishing funds for THE FLYING ANIMATOR watch the video below. And, for thrills, below that check out the trailer for the still badass-as-all-get-out HEAVY METAL!

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Exclusive Photos From Michael Berryman Gore Western KILL OR BE KILLED

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Exclusive Photos From Michael Berryman Gore Western KILL OR BE KILLED

 

  SHOCK gets its spurs on exclusive shots from new splatter western KILL OR BE KILLED.

 

First BONE TOMAHAWK locked horror great Sid Haig in a showy cameo and now another red western drags a genre vet into a lawless land. Formerly titled RED ON YELLA, KILL A FELLA (I title I wayyyy prefer), directors Duane Graves and Justin Meeks’ new splatterific western opus KILL OR BE KILLED, stars horror icon Michael Berryman as well as THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE vet Edwin Neal. The film has just locked a DVD and VOD release date from RLJ Entertainment of March 1st, 2016.

 

And SHOCK has some exclusive photos to share right now…

Here’s KILL OR BE KILLED’s official synopsis:

“Claude “Sweet Tooth” Barbee and his gang of cutthroat outlaws – the most wanted men in Texas – are on a desperate ride across five hundred miles of badlands to recover a fortune in hidden loot from their most daring robbery. But Barbee and his crew aren’t the only coldblooded killers riding the range. With a large “dead or alive” cash bounty on their heads, the outlaws are being picked off one by one. What began as a hard journey driven by greed becomes a feverish race to survive in what the Austin Chronicle calls ‘a spaghetti Western chock-full of grit and blood’.”

KILL OR BE KILLED also stars co-director Meeks, Paul McCarthy-Boyington, Arianne Margot, Luce Rains,Greg Kelly, Bridger Zadina, Deon Lucas, Karrie Cox and Larry Grant Harbin.

Have a look at these exclusive shots:

 

 

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Exclusive Interview: Maverick Canadian Filmmaker Larry Kent Talks SHE WHO MUST BURN

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Exclusive Interview: Maverick Canadian Filmmaker Larry Kent Talks SHE WHO MUST BURN

SHOCK catches up with Canadian indie cinema pioneer Larry Kent to discuss his first horror film, SHE WHO MUST BURN.

Larry Kent has been making movies and pissing people off since 1962.

He is Canada’s original independent filmmaker, an idiosyncratic provocateur whose early classics like THE BITTER ASH (1963) were chopped up, banned, lost, condemned, and even, in the case of HIGH (1969), the target of police raids. Kent’s late career renaissance began in the 2000s, with overdue career retrospectives in cinematheques across Canada and the release of 2005’s THE HAMSTER CAGE, a darkly hilarious and distressing family dysfunction ensemble that was a minor festival smash.

More recently, a teaching gig at Vancouver Film School connected Kent with a group of rising multi-hyphenate west coast talents, including filmmakers/actors Andrew Moxham, Shane Twerdun, and Andrew Dunbar (the team behind this year’s exceptional WHITE RAVEN, who became the core of Kent’s new cast & crew collective. Together they made EXLEY (2011), an improvised Kafkaesque nightmare about one man’s humiliating odyssey to scrape up $1000 for a cross-country flight to visit his dying mom.

Now at the spritely age of 82 (!), Larry Kent has yet again pounced and pummeled the polite reputation of Canadian cinema by making the most ferocious film of his career, the painful, bloody, incendiary SHE WHO MUST BURN. Emotional and intentionally baiting, soaked in classic genre tropes, it’s a horror-siege-witchhunt with no punches withheld, as Kent pits a hypocritical triumvirate of religious fanatics in a brutal assault on a women’s health counselor (played by Sarah Smyth) determined to provide support to marginalized women in their neglected community, no matter the cost.

The film was co-written with Shane Twerdun, who played the title role in EXLEY and stars in SHE WHO MUST BURN as dangerous evangelist Jeremiah Baarker, the de facto leader of the Baarker clan after his patriarch father Abraham is jailed for an abortion clinic double homicide. Jeremiah and his sister Rebecca (Missy Cross, who contributes some gorgeous folk-country, old time religion to the score) both flirt the edge of caricature in their roles as homicidal, deluded lunatics breeding toxicity among their congregation. Rebecca speaks in tongues, receives visions from a vengeful god, and drags her ineffectual husband Caleb (co-producer Andrew Dunbar) to commit an act of irreparable violence that begets ever worse.

The film opens with a brewing storm – the worst in decades – as we enter this unnamed American small town where economic opportunities are minimal to nil. The main employer is a coal factory knowingly putting workers’ lives at risk by shunning the extreme weather warnings. The factory’s constant pump of pollutants into the groundwater is also the cause for a localized spike in stillborn babies (the most recent belonging to Rebecca Baarker, which we witness in a particularly chilling sequence). An outsider, Angela (Sarah Smyth) has made her home here and is determined to hold on to her counseling practice, despite the loss of state funding and being threatened on a daily basis by anti-abortion rallies outside her house, which she shares with her partner, the town’s Deputy Sheriff Mac (Andrew Moxham, editor of EXLEY and director of WHITE RAVEN).

Things start off pretty bad and take a plunge for the worse when Jeremiah rapes and assaults his wife Margaret (Jewel Staite), who flees to Angela for help to escape the clutches of her husband. From here things slide down, down, down as the Baarkers attempt to make the film live up to its title.

Kent’s film is spitting, spewing, punching angry, not offering the slightest wiggle room in its damning stance on extreme pro-lifers and the modern Christian Right (a nuanced look at the abortion debate, this ain’t!). Kent makes his point very clear: when we combine ruthless capitalism, indifferent government oversight, no social safety net, narrow economic options, and a fear mongering, manipulative and hostile church leadership, what we get is the destruction of women and families and a population that mistakes blind hate for community action.

SHE WHO MUST BURN won the inauguralBarry Convex Award for Best Canadian Feature at the 2015 Fantasia International Film Festival (“That really was wonderful!” says Kent) and it’s easy to see why. Rarely does Canadian cinema swing with bare knuckles quite like this. SHE WHO MUST BURN just concluded its American debut at Another Hole in the Head Film Festival in San Francisco, and plays next weekend at Toronto’s Blood in the Snow Film Festival at 2:00 PM on Sunday, November 29th (Kent will be in attendance). The screening will be followed at 4:00 PM by the World Premiere of Andrew Moxham’s WHITE RAVEN, made by many of the SHE WHO MUST BURN cast & crew (sans Kent). In my opinion, these are the two best – certainly the most gut-punching – films of the festival.

SHOCK speaks to the wonderfully cheery and off-the-cuff Larry Kent from his home in Montreal, as he reflects on SHE WHO MUST BURN and complains regularly about memory loss (“I’m 82 years old! I can’t remember yesterday!”).

SHOCK: How did you end up making such a ferociously angry movie at this point in your career?

KENT: I don’t know. The word “angry” kind of surprises me. I just thought I made a thriller, that’s all. You’re about the fourth or fifth critic that has said that. I didn’t realize that I was angry at all.

SHOCK: Oh come on. You must be a very calm man, then, Larry.

KENT: Fuck you! I’m okay, how are you doin’, you prick?

SHOCK: It’s usually the young guy making the violent, brutal, ferocious movie and then softening with age. But as for you…

KENT: …more violent and more brutal as I get older! I love the idea that it’s angry, because I’m really pissed off at everything that’s been said about taking away a woman’s right to choose. It pisses me off, and I thought, nobody’s really talking about it in a “what the fuck is this about?” way.

SHOCK: That’s what I find so compelling about the movie. It follows a particular mindset to its ultimate, terrible conclusion. It just says: “This is horrible. Look at this.”

KENT: That’s absolutely true. To me, why would you deny a woman their right to health because you don’t agree with abortion? I mean, the whole abortion issue is just terrible, and it happens in BC too, where they have… what do you call it? Where a man of my age can marry a fourteen-year-old as his 35th wife.

SHOCK: Oh, you mean the Polygamists in Bountiful, BC?

KENT: They sell wives. I mean, I thought slavery would be absolutely verboten. But it’s not. These guys are terrible, just terrible.

SHOCK: My takeaway message from SHE WHO MUST BURN is that if you’re stuck in a situation with people of this mindset, just get out while you’ve got the chance. Angela’s (Sarah Smyth) failing was thinking she could stay and make a difference.

KENT: That’s absolutely correct. Well, she was committed. She was committed to the women there. And there was only one answer for her. Shane (playing Jeremiah Baarker) had one answer (the title of the movie), that’s it. And he did it.

SHOCK: You’ve worked with a similar team on a few projects now, and they have made other projects without you. But there is a continual creative overlap. Can you tell me how you first met this group of actors and filmmakers, and how that team came to be?

KENT: Meeting those guys was not only fortuitous, but it was very simple. I was invited to go teach at Vancouver Film School. I was then introduced to Shane and Andrew Moxham, who were at the school while I was there. Andrew Dunbar came and went – he wasn’t as tied to the school as those two. And while teaching, they were a great, great help to me, and when I did EXLEY (2011), they were very involved in it. Andrew Moxham was the editor. It was a totally improvised movie, and Shane was the lead, which he did marvelously. This relationship has continued, even today. The problem with SHE WHO MUST BURN really lay in finding a crew for shooting and editing and everything else while we had Moxham and Andrew and Shane as actors. I’ve also worked with Missy Cross very much. She was at the school when I was teaching. I’ve always thought that she had terrific talent.

SHOCK: Yeah, Missy’s amazing. I worked with her on a few projects a few years ago. She also did some incredible music for SHE WHO MUST BURN, with the folk-country blues of her band Wooden Horsemen. Beautiful stuff, it fits gorgeously in the movie.

KENT: Oh, yeah. They did really good music. Composer Alex Hauka was also great. And of course, Missy has another woman she does music with, Brittany Willacy (as The Cross Legged Willies). We had everything going, but we didn’t have a cameraman.

SHOCK: Your DOP Stirling Bancroft’s work is superb. He’s a great guy. I worked with him on the Bruce Sweeney film EXCITED (2009).

KENT: He had just been in New York doing something, and my editor suggested him. He’s a partner with the editor, Elad Tzadok, and it’s through him I got Stirling, and that was a great find. Stirling is terrific. That’s one thing I’ve got to say about BC, they have really good cameramen. Every film I’ve ever worked on in Vancouver, I’ve had great cameramen. I had Doug McKay in when WHEN TOMORROW DIES (1965), and I had Dick Bellamy on  THE BITTER ASH (1963) and SWEET SUBSTITUTE (1964). And Vince Arvidson on EXLEY (2011). He was really terrific. Every cameraman I’ve ever had in Vancouver has been fabulous.

SHOCK: Your last film EXLEY (which also premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival) was entirely improvised. Obviously, you had the general framework for the story in place, and then improvised the scenes as you went. But SHE WHO MUST BURN certainly feels a lot tighter.

KENT: This film is scripted. Completely scripted.

SHOCK: I assumed so. How did EXLEY develop?

KENT: Bill Marchant (actor, director, and professor at Vancouver Film School) wrote an outline of 14 pages and asked me to make a film. Shane was there and what we did is we took the whole film and broke it up into scenes. And then we asked all the actors to come in and see us, and we talked with them – this conversation was a week or two before the shoot. We didn’t get them to improvise [at that time], because I think in improvisation, you’ve got to go to the first take. The first improvisation is certainly the best. But we told them exactly what was going to happen and what we wanted from the scene, so they understood what the character was. Then when we shot, we did every scene with the actors improvising. The film was usually shot within two or three takes, each scene.

SHOCK: So the with SHE WHO MUST BURN, you and Shane wrote it together?

KENT: I wrote a story, and then we got together and we worked on the script. We knew all the actors, there wasn’t an actor we didn’t know. Which is a great help. I even got one of my early, early actresses into the film, Patricia Dahlquist. She played the nurse, which is fun. She’s been in every film that I’ve made in British Columbia; she was in THE BITTER ASH, SWEET SUBSTITUTE, WHEN TOMORROW DIES, all along the line. And then she was the mother in THE HAMSTER CAGE.

SHOCK: It’s a wonderful and fascinating career trajectory for you, over the last 5-6 years, to have this core group together with so many overlapping projects.

KENT: Absolutely. And they’re great guys. And I really, really like the article that you wrote because I really agree with it. I thought Moxham did a terrific film.

SHOCK: For the Blood in the Snow festival-goers, it’s going to be a heavy Sunday afternoon. WHITE RAVEN is going to feel like a nice, bright, uplifting twist after SHE WHO MUST BURN.

KENT: (BURSTS OUT LAUGHING) I’m sure Andrew Moxham is going to be upset at that. A nice, uplifting film is not what he thinks he made.

SHOCK: Another project made by the same crew is a 2014 remake of your first film HASTINGS STREET (1962), which sat on the shelf for 45 years, before sound was added and post-production finished in 2007 (well-known Vancouver actor Nicholas Lea voiced the lead role played by Alan Scarfe, star of THE BITTER ASH). Was the same crew involved in the restoration of that film and did that lead to their remake?

KENT: No, that was done with another crew. But they really liked the movie, and they thought it could be made again, and I think they were not incorrect. I think they did a really good job, but it’s so difficult to get an independent film shown. I think it’s getting a little better with the output of Netflix and all of the streaming options. But getting an independent film seen is so difficult. I like HASTINGS STREET. I really think it’s worth seeing.

SHOCK: But you weren’t involved with that production, aside from the fact that they were remaking your work?

KENT: No, I try to be hands off on their projects. They’re very talented! Why do they need me?

SHOCK: Because you make great movies together! SHE WHO MUST BURN being a perfect example.

KENT: Did you like the film?

SHOCK: Yeah, I love it. It’s an intense film. I felt… hurt at the end of it. I felt pained.

KENT: That’s good! That’s great!

The world needs people like Larry to keep us on edge, to keep the creative juices flowing, to remind us that age is no excuse for inaction. If you’re in Toronto, don’t miss SHE WHO MUST BURN at the Blood in the Snow Film Festival, screening 2:00 PM on Sunday, November 29th, with Larry Kent, Andrew Moxham, Shane Twerdun and possibly more cast & crew members present to answer your questions and possibly offend a few people.

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New Trailer and Artwork For Natalie Dormer Creeper THE FOREST

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New Trailer and Artwork For Natalie Dormer Creeper THE FOREST

SHOCK previously reported on the eerie new Natalie Dormer-starring horror film THE FOREST and then shared the first official teaser poster; now we’re sharing with you the alternate teaser poster and the chilling new trailer…

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Rising with terrifying grandeur at the base of Mt. Fuji in Japan, the legendary real-life Aokigahara Forest is the suspense-filled setting of the supernatural thriller.  A young American woman, Sara (Natalie Dormer of  GAME OF THRONES and THE HUNGER GAMES), journeys there in search of her twin sister, who has mysteriously disappeared. In the company of expatriate Aiden (Taylor Kinney), Sara enters the forest having been well warned to ‘stay on the path’. Determined to discover the truth about her sister’s fate, Sara will have to face the angry and tormented souls of the dead that prey on anyone who dares come near them. These malevolent spirits lying in wait for Sara at every turn will plunge her into a frightening darkness from which she must fight to save herself.”

Gramercy Pictures releases THE FOREST in theaters nationwide on Friday, January 8th, 2016.

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Trailer: THE ORPHANAGE Director J.A. Bayona’s Haunting New Film A MONSTER CALLS

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Trailer: THE ORPHANAGE Director J.A. Bayona’s Haunting New Film A MONSTER CALLS

Revered filmmaker reveals trailer for new film A MONSTER CALLS.

Director Juan Antonio Bayona proved himself a master of  meticulously detailed atmosphere with both the Guillermo del Toro produced ghost story THE ORPHANAGE and the harrowing, based-on-fact survivalist drama THE IMPOSSIBLE. Now, the filmmaker brings his talents to A MONSTER CALLS, the big-screen adaptation of writer Patrick Ness’ same named novel.

Lewis MacDougall, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell, Liam Neeson and Sigourney Weaver star in this “visually spectacular” dark drama about 12-year-old Conor (MacDougall) and his attempts to deal with his mother’s (Felicity Jones) illness and the bullying of his classmates by escaping into a fantastical world of monsters and fairy tales that explore courage, loss, and faith.

While not a gory, adult-oriented horror film, A MONSTER CALLS looks like the ideal point of entry for younger audiences looking for both a parable about their own lives and an escape into a richly designed landscape of strange beasts and special effects.

If you aren’t buying any of this, we suggest you have a look at the absolutely beautiful trailer below:

A MONSTER CALLS will be released via Focus Features in October 2016.

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Secretly Scary: 1962’s DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

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Secretly Scary: 1962’s DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES

Author Lee Gambin’s SECRETLY SCARY is a celebration of movies that were not marketed as horror films but contain hidden horrors ripe for discovery and discussion.

“You know what I’d like to do? I’d like to go to a nice place and have a drink.” – Kirsten Clay

With a tagline reading: “In it’s own terrifying way it is a love story”, Blake Edwards’s harrowing exploration into the disastrous effects of alcoholism DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES is a devastating character study that reads like a monster movie in that it presents its two leads as desperate loners isolated by their overwhelming addiction. This heartbreaking and bleak doomed romance is written, directed and performed with such bloodletting sensitivity, stark awareness and revelatory sophistication that it is thoroughly gripping and determinedly unsettling. The film sets itself up as a hangover from the romantic comedies of the fifties starring the likes of Rock Hudson and Doris Day, but is painted with such sinister undertones that that entire mood is completely destroyed and swept away as we are swiftly introduced to two characters who hold each other captive as accountable crutches, with a half empty bottle of booze in each hand.

Joe Clay (Jack Lemmon) is in public relations (but considers himself more so a corporate pimp), and he is the kind of guy that is in charge of other people’s happiness and never really considers his own. He is also an alcoholic, but not truly aware of how severe his drinking is. On a job he meets a pretty secretary named Kirsten (Lee Remick) who doesn’t touch alcohol, but is “nuts about chocolate”. After a couple of failed attempts, he finally convinces Kirsten to go on a date with him, and it is here that he buys her a chocolate-flavored drink that she takes a liking to. Joe, like many alcoholics, is desperate to find a devoted drinking partner and sees potential in Kirsten – here the film jets off like a vampire movie, in that the original undead (the established boozer) initiates his “victim” and in turn inducts them into the world of vampirism (alcoholism).

Drinking is the backbone of Joe and Kirsten’s relationship, and the film details this in a mesmerizing and perpetually engaging manner – this is a horror film where addiction, dependence, alienation, sadness, overwhelming loneliness and disconnection all permeate the delicate human condition and where the true monsters emerge from the frail desire to be loved, accepted, warranted and desired.

When Joe first visits Kirsten’s apartment, armed with bags of booze, he takes on the building’s cockroach problem with bug sprays which infuriates her neighbours. The angry tenants (like angry villagers in a classic Universal horror film) collect along the bannisters of the stairwell shouting out their complaints about the smell of the bug spray which sends Kirsten and Joe into a laughing frenzy and into each other’s arms. This incredible moment summarises their ill-fated love affair with astounding subversive intelligence, it suggests that Joe Clay’s drunken feeble attempt to tend to a cockroach infestation instantly ostracizes he and Kirsten, and soon enough as their alcoholism transforms them into hopeless wrecks, their own personal bugs (bought on from the liquor) will control them, torment them and ultimately destroy them.

“They are not long the days of wine and roses…” whispers Kirsten (reciting a poem) as she watches the empty bottle of whiskey she and Joe have shared on a San Francisco pier descend into the watery depths: a profound condensation of her and Joe’s own personal descent into the depths of uncontrollable alcoholism.

After they are married, Joe and Kirsten have a baby which adds a strain to Joe’s alcoholism and helps lead to Kirsten’s reach out to the bottle. In one of the most confronting scenes of the film, Joe returns home after a night working/drinking and he lashes out at Kirsten, screaming at her and demanding that he wants to be allowed to drink – but more importantly, that he wants to drink with his wife. What makes it even more monstrous is that before this violent outburst occurs, we are witness to a bumbling Jack Lemmon as Joe Clay crashing into a glass door, having a rose stem get caught in the elevator and coming across as the clown audiences were so used to seeing. But as the scene progresses and the confrontation with his wife gets painfully ugly and scary, it is scarring and horrific. Lemmon, primarily known to cinema audiences for his comedic roles fuelled with jittery neurosis, emerges himself in a warts and all dramatic schizoid which is both difficult and relentlessly depressing to watch. Lemmon is purely spectacular.

The music by Henry Mancini drives the horror home, it seeps in and fouls the atmosphere heightening the distress and torment. The image of a crying, drunk Joe Clay looking over his restless baby in her crib is a depressing image of a man rendered alone if his wife, the convert-to-be, doesn’t drink with him. The closing moment of this scene has Kirsten comfort the shambolic Joe as she downs a glass of bourbon. This is her descent into monstrousness and her transformation from demure, quiet, mousy beauty to ravaged and addled harpy who terrorizes Joe later in the film – screaming at him “I’m a woman! Can’t you hear me?!” in a desperate plea to be looked upon with respect and admiration. She also turns alcoholism into something that is an essential attribute to the makings of a man – she yells at the weary eyed Joe who (by the closing moments of the film) has been going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, “I want someone who has the guts to have a drink!”

Lee Remick is phenomenal in a role that undergoes such a dramatic transformation – her early moments as the tea-totalling meek secretary cement her as a likeable working class girl, and when she hits the booze in order to keep her man, Remick unleashes a powerhouse of a performance that truly frightens the horses. She delivers an electric counterpart to Jack Lemmon’s frenzied imp locked in the grips of liquor’s curse.

The film plays with horror movie tropes in a thought out manner – for example, when Joe and Kirsten slip during their few days of sobriety and decide to sneakily drink, they get completely sloshed while an aggressive storm complete with thunder and lightning crashes outside. When Joe ventures out into the storm in order to creep into Kirsten’s father’s greenhouse to find his hidden stash of booze, he turns into a maniacal monster hell bent on finding his poison. The magnificent dance between light and shadow made all the more grim with the stark black and white photography and the transition from Joe Clay as a gleeful drunk suddenly turning into a desperate wailing lunatic pushes the film into monster-movie terrain. The startling image of Joe’s trembling dirt stained hand reaching out of the bottle is much like any celluloid aberration clutching at the throat of a hapless victim. Following this creepy sequence we have a completely trashed Kristen being dragged by the scruff of her neck by her father and forced into a shower of freezing cold water, moments before lashing out at her daughter who frets for her mother’s sanity and safety. This is truly horrifying and confronting cinema de morne and much like any werewolf film or Jekyll and Hyde outing, DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES successfully paints a picture of duality, monstrous transition and the power of dismay, despair and the fragility of will power. The sequences where Joe is detoxing and painfully undergoing a cold turkey treatment are nightmarish and startling – they are truly akin to scenes involving torture and mental and emotional anguish in horror movies to come throughout the decade including Roman Polanski’s REPULSION (1965).

JP Millner’s story was originally filmed as a teleplay starring Piper Laurie (CARRIE, RUBY) as Kirsten and Cliff Robertson as Joe Clay, while the Blake Edwards film became a feature presentation at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings throughout the sixties. The organisation of AA itself would feature as a salvation point for the character of Joe Clay, but prove to be meaningless to the lost cause that Kirsten becomes. The true tragedy here is that the hardened alcoholic cautiously heads towards a path of sobriety, while the woman he introduced to the horrors of the bottle becomes a screeching mess, lost in a well of loneliness and depressing addiction.

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TV Recap: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL Episode 507, ‘Flicker’

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TV Recap: AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL Episode 507, ‘Flicker’

SHOCK recaps last night’s chilling episode of AMERICAN HORROR STORY: HOTEL.

Remodeling has begun on the Hotel Cortez. The construction guys are alarmed that they found a steel wall hiding something that wasn’t on any blueprints. Will doesn’t care and instructs them to tear into it. Behind it the construction workers find a long-abandoned hallway that smells like death. Something moves in the background. In a second, the men are set upon by two severely malnourished vampires. Who are these vampires? How did they get there? 

To find out, we must go back to 1925. The Countess was a movie extra, desperate to leave her mark on the world by becoming a star. She is flattered when the film’s star, Rudolph Valentino, invited her back to his house that night. He is married, but the rumor mill claims he is in the middle of a divorce. The Countess arrives at his home, completely in awe of Valentino. Before they dine, they dance a seductive tango when Valentino’s wife, Natacha Rambova, comes down the stairs. They both calm the Countess, promising that their “divorce” was at the behest of the studio. The Countess is taken with both of them. The tango continues with all three, and before long they end up in bed together.

A few months later, the Countess attends the swanky opening party of the Hotel Cortez with an actress friend of hers. She has been carrying on with the Valentinos in private, and her friend is dying to know who her new beau is. Mr. March makes a toast to his new hotel, and catches the Countess’ eye. A man bursts in with a newspaper, screaming that Valentino is dead, and the Countess runs from the room. Her world is falling apart, as she was truly in love with both Rudolph and Natacha, and she prepares to fling herself out the window. Before she can, March grabs her from behind and promises never to let go.

Shortly thereafter, the Countess marries March in a simple ceremony in the hotel lobby. She only married him because she needed to be taken care of, but she admits she was attracted to his dark side. They have rough, choking sex, and one night she walks in on him carving up a hobo. Rather than be horrified, she is turned on. The Countess encourages him to kill wealthier victims, so that she may get their jewels – then they both win. And one more thing: next time, she wants to watch.

Months go by. The Countess shows up to Valentino’s crypt every day, dressed in black veils, to deliver a single red rose. (A mysterious “woman in black” used to do the same at the real Valentino’s crypt.) This time, Natacha is there to greet her. The Countess is offended that she hasn’t heard from her former lover since Valentino’s death, but she has a bigger surprise: Valentino isn’t really dead. Rudolph steps out from the shadows to reveal himself to the shocked Countess, and tell his tale.

While touring the country to promote his final film, The Son of the Sheik, he noticed a strange man eyeballing him. He was not part of the press, and he never said a word to Valentino; he just watched him from afar. Valentino began to think he was losing his mind. But the man finally revealed himself to Valentino. This was German director F.W. Murnau. While researching his masterpiece, Nosferatu, he went to the Carpathian mountains where he discovered the “blood disorder” – in the middle of an insane orgy, naturally. Murnau had been watching Valentino and wanted to bestow this gift of immortality to him. Valentino accepts. When he returned returned home, his studio reported he was ill, bringing Natacha to his bedside. He bestowed upon her the “gift” and faked his own death. Buried in his tomb is his stunt double. Now, Valentino and Natacha want to give the Countess this gift and travel the world together. She agrees.

But unfortunately, March was watching from afar.

On the day that Rudolph and Natacha were to meet the Countess at the train station, March showed up at their house with a couple of goons, who beat the pair unconscious. When they wake, they find they are in a room at the Hotel Cortez. The window has been bricked up. Out in the hallway, they discover every other room in the hall has been bricked up. And the end of the hall? Hidden behind a thick sheet of metal, behind more bricks and drywall. March has sealed the vampires in the hotel.

So it was Rudolph and Natacha who attacked the construction workers. They then attack a real estate agent, but they are still hungry and weak. Across the hall are three big Thunder From Down Under performers. After drinking them all down, they finally feel sated. Dressed in sleek new clothes, with a healthy glow, they stroll out the front door of the hotel, with Iris watching them curiously. 

The Countess and March have an arrangement: monthly dinner dates. This solution seems to be a happy compromise between the two – but the Countess doesn’t know about her sire. She requested their dinner a week early because she has an announcement: she and Will are getting married. He fakes support and enthusiasm, but asks that when she murder him, to do it off property. How uncomfortable would it be if they kept running in to each other for all eternity? She suggests that she might not kill this one, and tells him that she never loved him, which she has never kept secret. This enrages March and he takes great pleasure in telling her what happened to her first love.

Elsewhere, John has checked himself into the West Los Angeles Health Center, a public psych ward. Alex wants to put him into a nicer, private hospital, but John is fine here. It turns out that he is fine here because this is all a ruse. He had gone back to the department to do some more work on the Ten Commandment Killer. John tried to find out from his partner who the suspect was they had in custody. When Hahn doesn’t answer, John tries to beat the information out of him. In the melee, he sees West Los Angeles Health Center in one of the files.

Now that he is here, he knocks out the single security guard in charge of the criminal unit and goes to room 153. Using stolen keys, he opens the door to find a young girl standing there, motionless. She introduces herself as Wren, and she and John seem to be having two separate conversations. She “doesn’t want to feed anymore,” and John, thinking she was at the scene of the crime and in shock, insists that she doesn’t have to be scared, that he will protect her from the man who did these horrible things. Of course, we know that it was Wren who did those “horrible things.” She was there for all the murders, and says she wasn’t forced to do anything, but promises to take him to the man’s house if he gets her out of there. She repeats that she is tired of “this” and the “feeding” and basically of all the vampire stuff – without being oblique enough for John to pick up on what is going on. John bonds with her by telling her about the trouble with his own daughter. This warms Wren up enough to tell him about her creepy father, who used to tell her that he “couldn’t wait for her to grow up.” The things he said, and the way he said it made her stomach hurt. One day (in 1986) he went into the Hotel Cortez and left her in the hot car. She was ready to die, but suddenly the glass shatters and the Countess is there. We see this in flashbacks; John thinks her dad is the killer, but Wren assures him he died long ago.

John and Wren sneak out of the hospital. Now he wants to be taken to the killer. “We need to go home, to the Hotel Cortez,” Wren insists. John promises to kill the man if need be. Wren really likes John. “I hate to see it end.” She runs into the street and is flattened by a big rig.

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Remember When Dennis Hopper Was on Letterman Talking BLUE VELVET (And TEXAS CHAINSAW 2)?

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Remember When Dennis Hopper Was on Letterman Talking BLUE VELVET (And TEXAS CHAINSAW 2)?

Flashing back to a vintage Letterman interview with the late, great Dennis Hopper discussing Lynch’s BLUE VELVET.

I’m really having fun with these “Remember When”  blasts, SHOCK’s ongoing series in which I dig through the dense, often treacherous YouTube jungle in search of vintage clips featuring mainstream pop culture outlets discussing horror and dark fantasy film culture…usually negatively.

It’s partially an exercise in nostalgic self-indulgence, but it’s also fascinating to map the lifespan of a film, from common perceptions upon release to the way we see the picture now. Horror films need at least a decade to become what they will become. If a picture can find its cult and endure beyond that initial ten-year window, then it’s immortal. More contemporary critics should consider this when they decimate a new genre film…

Speaking of immortal, we lost actor, director and iconoclast Dennis Hopper in 2010 and, though sad, it wasn’t exactly a tragedy. Hopper’s intense, chemically-drenched lifestyle in his 1960’s/70’s heyday is the stuff of legend and should have rightly wiped him out 30 years earlier. But in 1985/86, the man had a virtual professional rebirth, getting clean and sober and starring in three coal-black motion pictures that were diverse, bizarre and unforgettable: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE PART 2,  RIVER’S EDGE…and David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET.

And although CHAINSAW and EDGE gave Hopper meaty roles, with ample room to amplify and explore his own storied strangeness while etching rich characters on-screen, it was his work as the deranged, perverted and completely dangerous Frank Booth in Lynch’s thundering surrealist psychodramatic noir that really put him back on the map.

It put Lynch back on the map too, after the crushing defeat that was 1984’s DUNE. BLUE VELVET put the weirdness that Lynch was experimenting with in his early short films, his 1978 industrial-strength shocker ERASERHEAD and the steampunk-tinted melancholy of his Mel Brooks-produced THE ELEPHANT MAN, into sharp, sickening focus and truly defined the style that he would exploit over the next three decades making movies and art.

And in the eye of BLUE VELVET’s storm is Hopper, whose lethal Frank sucks on the titular fabric while huffing gas through a ventilator and sexually assaulting the woman (Isabella Rossellini) he is obsessed with. Simply put, it’s the ultimate Hopper performance in the ultimate David Lynch joint.

So with that, let’s dial back the clock to 1986. The show was NBC’s Late Night With David Letterman. Letterman was at his peak of popularity and in the prime of his celebrated edge. No one was funnier, weirder and cooler than 80’s Letterman. Well, except 80’s Dennis Hopper…

In this amazing clip, Hopper and Letterman – who is obviously in awe of Hopper’s performance – get into great detail discussing his turn as Frank Booth in BLUE VELVET, revealing some great insight into how Hopper helped bring that character to life. He also discusses his work in RIVER’S EDGE and even touches on CHAINSAW 2.

It’s a great interview. And will make you want to watch BLUE VELVET again immediately, something I plan to do as soon as I press ‘publish’.

Enjoy…

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SyFy Channel Greenlights Horror Anthology Series, Channel Zero

Horror Movies, Horror News, Horror Reviews | Anything Horror

SyFy Channel Greenlights Horror Anthology Series, Channel Zero

According to Variety.com, the SyFy Channel has given the greenlight to a horror anthology series, CHANNEL ZERO. The series will feature a different story each season, and will begin with CHANNEL ZERO: CANDLE COVE, based on the story written by Kris Straub. [CANDLE COVE] is based on a man’s obsessive recollections of a mysterious children’s television program from the 1980’s, … Continue reading →

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Filmmaker Paul Hough Unleashes Terrifying New YouTube Channel

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Filmmaker Paul Hough Unleashes Terrifying New YouTube Channel

Filmmaker Paul Hough launches terrifying viral video channel.

Writer/Director Paul Hough (THE HUMAN RACE, son of THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE director John Hough) has just announced his latest project…

DON’T TURN AROUND is a terrifying new YouTube channel launched by the filmmaker and his collaborators in a bid to create original, terrifying short horror films and bursts of audio/video strangeness.

“One of the unique things we’re going to do is create horror videos to go viral,” says Hough.

“Videos that aren’t real, but that people will think are. We will not only give birth to Creepypastas but place these videos innocuously across the internet. Only those watching DON’T TURN AROUND will be in on it and know the truth.”

You can watch DON’T TURN AROUND’s first video, DADDA below and the latest viddy, THE VAN below that…

For more on DTA go to the official site.

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NECA’s Life-Size Facehugger & Egg: What Every Horror Fan Needs!!

Horror Movies, Horror News, Horror Reviews | Anything Horror

NECA’s Life-Size Facehugger & Egg: What Every Horror Fan Needs!!

With Christmas quickly approaching I know my family often has trouble finding great horror-themed gifts for me. This year, though, their shopping is done before it began. NECA has announced that they will be making a life size Xenomorph Egg that a life size Facehugger can fit inside. YES!! This is a must have in my list. Unfortunately, … Continue reading →

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Trailer Drops for the Possession Tale, Anguish

Horror Movies, Horror News, Horror Reviews | Anything Horror

Trailer Drops for the Possession Tale, Anguish

I think it is pretty safe to say that I’ve made more than a few jabs about how stale the zombie sub-genre has gotten, and about how overused and annoying most found footage films have become. These two sub-genres need some new blood for sure. But what about the possession sub-genre? This horror trope has been … Continue reading →

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