Tuesday, September 27, 2005

amateur hour - short shock video of Cub

If I run out of bandwith (sceneholocaust.com is hosting) and nothing downloads you can see the video here at Putfile. It was made for an assignment called 'camera test' in my film class.

It is silent. I added the Fear song 'Beef Bologna', but that did not work for me. I tried the Carnivore song 'Sex and Violence', but did not like that either. This video is very short.

You must PUSH PLAY to view the video. May not work in some browsers, leave a comment at the bottom if you have trouble. It is is WMV file and can be downloaded here if you need to view it outside of this page.








DID YOU PUSH PLAY right above these words?, then it should work, leave a comment if trouble...

fun facts:

The assignment was for in-camera editing. Despite lots of planning in advance, everything went wrong and the video did not meet some of the requirements. I did edit it for this internet screaning so you can't see what was wrong, but some shots ran too long and two takes of the same shot were on the tape. I decided to do shoot another video quickly because I feared that this one would land me a low grade. The next tape was of Cub in a bikini by the pool. She looked great, but the tape was unimpressive. I decided that the unedited desert tape may have been better and was glad I had not scrapped it. I screaned both to the class. Grade: unkown at this point.

The video was shot in Palm Springs near the visitor center. Initialy cub was supposed to be crawling through the dirt in the middle of nowhere, but we found all this junk and decided to go with a post-apocalyptic thing on the fly.

We had to split moments after the last shot where Cub raises her hands in front of the sun. A schizophrenic desert person was comming over the hills straight towards us. He was about 50 yards away, talking to himself, and unaware that we were there. Cub is lucky I did not make her do a scene on his matress, which was lying near the junkpile. I wanted to reshoot that last scene, but did not because this guy was comming. Cub was out of there so quickly that she did not even pass to me the headless lizard prop that she is holding in the scene. It was still in her hand when we reached the car. I gathered up my shit so quickly that I'm lucky I did not leave the tripod or the lense cap or the manual out there. The lizard heads remains in that spot. I placed it on top of the abandoned dishwasher shown in scene one. I dare anyone to go out there and grab it, that is if the crazy desert men did not stash it away somewhere. Happy hunting.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Nightmares (1983) Lee Ving

Lee Ving is not top billed in this movie. After all, other segments star Lance Henricksen (Pumpkinhead, Alien, and regrettably The Mangler 2) and Emilio Estevez. He does not even get a speaking line as the killer William Henry Glazier, who attacks and then is shot in Nightmares' first of four short horror tales.

The most I've seen Lee Ving act is in Dudes, the Penelope Spheeris movie that is not unlike her Suburbia in that it's also fictional, has punk protagonists, has Flea acting, and includes a live performance by the Vandals. Suburbia and Dudes both suck, but at least Dudes has got Lee Ving as a mean badass villain. The best Spheeris movies I've seen are the documentaries The Decline of Western Civilization and The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years. Part III reportedly blows, but maybe I'd dig it. I don't know. Spheeris did write Summer Camp Nightmare (1987), a fun movie where campers revolt and become evil Communists. Some kids in heavy metal wigs lipsinc to Fear's 'Beef Bologna' in a raunchy talent show scene that you gotta see.

Fear music is present in Nightmare's second tale. 'I Don't Care About You' opens with it's "fuck you" line noticeably absent. 'Lets' Have a War' plays as Estevez battles a Mexican teen in arcade action. People generally seem to pick this segment 'Bishop of Battle' as the favorite. Clearly most of the effects budget was spent here as an arcade is trashed and there is extensive computer animation. I was impressed. My companion Cub was not. Punk fans take note, Black Flag's 'Rise Above' can be heard I think during the scene where Emilio Estevez fights with his Dad. There is also music by X.


I bought the poster for this movie as well.

The third tale is my least favorite. I like Lance Henricksen and could get into the first few scenes about a priest who is losing his faith, but the action stuff lost me. A menacing black truck chases Henricksen on the highway. There is great effect when it emerges from the ground below, but I was disappointed that the driver's face is never revealed. We do see an upside-down cross hanging from the mirror, which I found kind of tacky, like something a satanic teen would have. Does a demon from hell really need an upside-down crucifix?

Segment four? By far the best, with great characters and some gross stuff involving a giant rat. A few of the effects misfire, but they are still fun to see.

imdb.com bio fact about Lee Ving: Lee's tattoo on his right arm "Lee James Jude"(possibly real name) which is what he goes by when credited on the movie "Nightmares".

In a Citizine
interview, Derf Scratch says Lee Ving's real name is Lee James Jude Capalero.

Unfortunately Lee Ving (along with some other cool actors - Roddy Pipper and Reggie Bannister) will be in Sin-Jin Smyth, a stupid looking horror movie with a star who I can only say fronts a band responsible for some of the lamest trends in 90's metal. Now those douche bags are washed up and he's gonna act. Fuck this. Yeah, I did not put that guys name down cause I get enough idiots coming to the site already from looking up the stupidest shit on the search engines.



Were you excited to see Lee Ving in a movie? No doubt it brought back memories of our date to a Fear show on Sunset Strip.

It was great to see Lee Ving in a movie, except for the fact that we hardly got to see him at all. He had a tiny role and you had to look closely to make sure it was even him. What a rip! Hmm.... memories with cub at Fear show (that was a nice night!)

Were you touched by the final shot of the rat in what the movie called 'Chapter 4'. I saw you even imitate the rat's roar of sorrow.

I did feel sorry for the Big Rat. All she wanted was her baby. RRRRAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRR!!!!! Come on cub, don't try to deny it.... I saw a tear in your eye. Big boys do cry ;)

The last chapter reminded me a lot of the last segment in the anthology Cat's Eye (1985). They both had hateable parents (the do-it-yourself father in this one and the cat hating mother in Cat's Eye), both had a sweet little girl, and both had a creature living in the walls. What do you think?

I can see what you mean when you speak of the similarities, however I had not really made that connection when I was watching the movie. But good job cub! Sharp eye.

Sunday, September 18, 2005

vault of punk horror?

So there is a written Vault of Punk Horror in the works and it's got a bit of controversy attached to it. A look at editor Gabriel Llanas's blog (punk parent) will tell you what is up.

The main problem is that coeditor David Agranoff is in jail for refusing to take part in a grand jury. What's this? Well Agranoff is not charged with a crime, a jury is merely meeting to interrogate some people in order to figure out whether or not someone out there should be charged for a crime. They are gathering the dirt, to charge someone with something. Agranoff is a long time animal rights activist, they figure someone he knows must be up to know good, upsetting the system, you know, maybe they could be put away.

I found this story by following some links on the Rue Morgue message board. Coincidentally I've met Agranoff a couple of times, maybe over five years ago. The last time I saw him was at the Hellfest in Syracuse when Earth Crisis played their last show. If you must know, Earth Crisis was pretty fun to watch, but nearly every other band sucked. There was very little punk-based hardcore booked at the Hellfests back then. Trustkill bands were blowing up that particular year and it was just never ending metal hardcore, 90s style, not much black metal in the mix yet.

I had no idea Agranoff was a horror fan, but he's been at it writing for some time. Me, I've only been watching these horror movies seriously for the past four or so years, but man have I made up for lost time. It seems like the only thing I can do right is collect these tapes. Today I attempted to film some horror and it was a disaster. The shit has to be scrapped. Too bad, because we went way out into the desert for the assignment. I have a project due for one of my film classes tomorrow and will have to reshoot something in the morning to hand in. The plan is just to have Cub pose by the pool in a bikini and shoot that from a bunch of angles. That's not a joke. I'm totally serious.

Here is Agranoff's
website. What's my take. Well I think this grand jury shit is completely fucked. Here is what I mean, but in someone else's more eloquent words.

The 9th Circuit Court has ruled against San Diego animal liberation activists David Agranoff and Danae Kelley, denying their appeal. The activists have maintained that the grand jury is acting in bad faith and is not actually investigating a crime, but harassing activists.

"The questions [the grand jury is asking] seem to be focused on activists, their affiliations and a lecture. In my assessment, they are attempting to gather intelligence on dissenters, and are not really investigating any crime. In a grand jury setting, people are forced to relinquish their Constitutional rights and are not allowed to have an attorney present…We aren’t surprised about the 9th Circuit’s decision given that they are still a part of a government which is exercising more and more control over its citizens; the same government that invaded Iraq illegally and has held prisoners in Guantanamo Bay for years without charges. I’m grateful for citizens like David and Danae who are willing to fight to defend the First Amendment", said Erin Dean, a San Diego resident.

That text from
here, but there is more controversy. Apparently the web provider for Vault of Punk Horror has problems with Agranoff and has dropped the sight. I'd like to know what these problems are, no doubt they are political in nature. You can imagine that Agranoff would get under the skin of right wingers, that's obvious, but the story could be more complicated. Two punks can have two radically different philosophies. Not all of them are cookie cutter liberals with a standard set of beliefs, sometimes there is conflict, as there should be in a world of free thinkers.

I hope he gets out of jail soon.

As for punk rock, I had a shitty experience at the Angry Samoans show this weekend, so I'm not too psyched on punk right now. The guy who messed with me was not a punk rocker, just a party dude who could have been at any bar, but still, it reminded me that punk is extremely mainstream here in Orange County, and your average Joe Fuckface is into it, flashing devil horns and drinking a brew.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

the war to settle the score

The Groovy Age of Horror blog is feuding with some right wing blog that in a post celebrates a bunch of old racist comic book artwork. (See the racist post - scroll all the way to the right, this conservative blog is all fucked up in the layout)

I think the Groovy Age would with agree with me that those issues should not be banned or destroyed, nor does it make one a racist to argue that the issues have some artistic value, however, praising the hateful sentiments expressed there is just plain ugly. I dislike political correctness, and am for allowing offensive ideas to be interpreted in different ways, but overt racism is something that should not be tolerated.

Controversy is fun, but I would never want to end up on the side of stupidity and hate.

Unrelated: I did a bit more research on the filmmaker Michael and Roberta Findlay. I discussed them in my recent
review of Blood Sisters. The second movie these two made was called Satan's Bed and stars the then unknown Yoko Ono getting brutalized and repeatedly raped. Looks like you can get it from Something Weird. I learned what I now know from this article here at Lowcut Magazine.

News: Who asked for this? From the makers of the horribly unfunny Decampitated comes Mangler Reborn. The
trailer opens with quoted praise from someone who considers the first Mangler a "classic." Why would I believe anything that guy has to say? Reggie Bannister stars, which raises the question, what is wrong with a world where Mangler 3 can get funding, but the final Phantasm movie has yet to be made? Death to 90's horror franchises.

So perhaps I will never get around to writing about my vacation and giving you reviews of each roadside haunted house I wasted money on. Here are some are some glimpses of what you are going to miss out on since I'm not writing that post.


from a haunted house on Mackinac Island, fuck off, Rawhead Rex, this guy is cooler


in Wisconsin Dells, typical bloodshed, but wait...


why is that tree so happy? It's the scariest thing I saw on that whole trip...

Taking flash pictures in the dark made me momentarily blind over and over again. I walked head on in to walls more times than I can count. Thanks for reading.

Friday, September 09, 2005

King Buzzo talks shit

This is just the kind of news we like to discover here at bloodbath horror blog. A story that is nothing but nasty. I'll just quote the whole article from chartattack.com, written by Keith Carman from June 13th.

the headline:
Fantomas Guitarist Hates Rob Zombie Movies

With all of the hoopla surrounding Rob Zombie's forthcoming flick The Devil's Rejects, we here at ChartAttack thought it might be a great idea to get an opinion from one of the music world's most intense film addicts around, Fantomas guitarist Buzz "King Buzzo" Osborne.

After all, Osborne has a vested interest in horror films. Both Fantomas and his other band The Melvins have honoured horror in some format, although Fantomas' (the band are completed by drummer Dave Lombardo, bassist Trevor Dunn and vocalist Mike Patton) latest effort Suspended Animation is more about cartoons than killing.

Little did we know that Osborne hates Rob Zombie though — with unbridled passion that borders on discomfort to endure.

"He's a total fucking asshole," grumbles Osborne. "A complete prick whether you believe it or not. I don't have appreciation for his talentless plagiarism. We did a tour with him and it soured me on the whole experience."

Finding issue with most horror-based bands, Osborne makes no bones about his feelings.

"[My fascination with horror] just isn't all-encompassing like The Misfits or Rob Zombie, where they rip off every element of everything about horror films. Those bands are a bastardization of Alice Cooper. I have no interest in fakes like Rob Zombie. There's no mistake why his name is 'Rob.'

"You want to do something more with it," he continues. "I like the overt stuff but you want to see how many people get what you're trying to do instead of shoving it down their throat. Unlike those guys, we don't steal our whole shtick from horror."

That's all fine and dandy in regards to the filmmakers, but just what is it about House Of 1,000 Corpses that Osborne hates? Well, he feels that the film is nothing more than a regurgitation of older, more original ideas.

"That is exactly what I don't like about him. His movie was great for the first 15 minutes, but it was total bullshit. If I'd never seen the movies he was ripping off, I might have cared. It's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 30 years later. Who gives a shit? It's no good. I shouldn't talk about him anymore, 'cause no press is worse than bad press. I'm gonna stop talking."

See the article
here.


Buzz Osborne, at left

It's not the first time Buzzo has took a shot at Rob. Said on stage once before - "Were you guys as surprised as I was to find out Rob Zombie was gay?"

Hey man, that's not even PC.

Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Blood Sisters (1987) Roberta Findlay

Roberta Findlay is one of horror's most prolific female directors. Unfortunately her work seems to be disliked by all. As for all the pornos she shot, I know nothing. Pornos, it seams are rarely written about or analyzed or I just don't know where to go to find that info. I'm not kidding.

Roberta Findlay and her husband, Michael Findlay, wrote and directed the bulk of the movie that became Snuff when a simulated snuff killing was tacked onto the end of it to turn the movie into an urban legend. Michael Findlay's best known horror film was the awful Shriek of the Mutilated from 1974. Tragically, he was... well, I'll just post from the
short bio on the imdb.

Horror film maker Michael Findlay was killed in a helicopter accident on the roof of the (then) Pan Am Building in New York city. On his way to John F Kennedy airport to connect with a Paris-bound flight, Findlay was planning to demonstrate his new 3-D camera to potential backers in France. Findlay and three other passengers were about to board the helicopter when its landing support collapsed. The helicopter fell onto one side and its spinning rotor blades decapitated Findlay and killed three other passengers. A woman on the street below was also killed when she was hit by a detached rotor blade from the helicopter.

That's a disturbing story and a bit more than I needed to know, but that is the most prominent information about Michael Findlay on the internet! I don't know if the camera, used in his 3-D porno, Funk, is still used today. Imaging getting your hands on one of those! I'm in the market for a camera myself for one of my film classes. Unfortunately we are working with the lowly video medium.

After the death of her husband in 1977, Roberta Findlay continued to direct movies for twelve more years, finishing her career with a handful of horror films in the late eighties. Blood Sisters is one of those last movies. Apparently a couple of these titles are available on DVD with interviews and full commentary from Findlay where she tells crazy stories and rips on the horror genre and her fans in general. I'm not usually one to give a shit about special features, but the reviews I've read of these discs have been very positive and I am intrigued.

I've got Blood Sisters on tape, no extras, no documentaries, just a bad slasher that I did not enjoy watching. Sorority girls spend the night in an abandoned whorehouse where a fat hooker and her client were shot 13 years earlier. Of course there are all sorts of scares. Some are just gags set up by the fraternity boys, others are more serious, there is a killer in the house, and a number of ghosts. The appearances by the ghosts are just about as goofy as the plastic toys and spiders that the frat boys left behind. One by the girls are picked off by a psycho as they wander through this house, never crossing each other's paths, on the endless scavenger hunt. The script is the problem. It's just not very tight, original, or engaging in any way.


generic box, generic titile...

Unrelated links!

Groovy Age of Horror tipped me off to this must see flickr gallery of movie posters.

The strange blog dirtpoet gives a
negative review to The Zodiac Killer, directed by Ulli Lommel and featuring an appearance by David Hess.

a new controversial device:
The "Rapex" device is inserted into the vagina by a woman who feels she is at risk of rape, and if she is attacked, small burr-like teeth will attach themselves to the tip of the rapist's erect penis, explained inventor Sonette Ehlers.

As he withdraws and becomes flaccid, it is only possible to remove the device by surgery, Ehlers said ahead of a launch and demonstration at Kleinmond near Cape Town.
(
article 1)

I'm all for it, here is one reason why: It also reduces the chances of a woman falling pregnant or contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases from the attacker by acting in the same way as a female condom. (
article 2)

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Curtains (1983)

I've got one vhs copy of Curtains, but I'm supposed to have two copies. Why? Well one time a batch of movies I won on ebay arrived with two tapes missing. Curtains and Iced. A duplicate of Curtains I can do without, but I wanted Iced, since it's made by a Jeff Kwitny who directed the bizarre Beyond the Door III. I demanded that the 2 missing tapes be sent. They never were.

The initial box took two and a half months to arrive, the longest I have ever waited for something I won on ebay. The seller took down his feedback page, which if you ask me, should not be allowed. He whined like a bitch about family problems and having to close up his ebay shop. Good. Known as tallasainchic, this man C. Patterson is no longer on ebay. If he comes back, I'll post his e-mail address so we can all sent hate mail.

Curtains is a respected Canadian slasher that is well put together despite being known for having lots of production problems and having been shelved for three years. The first reel, taking place in an insane asylum, is a little slow. Things don't really get rolling until after the first killing and it's the appearance of two props that really makes the movie work. One is a miserable looking doll, the other, a rubber mask of an old hag. The slow motion shot where the masked killer attacks on ice skates on a pond in the forest will never be forgotten.


Curtains - this box cover image is the same as the one on this poster, which shows the upper part of the old hag mask and the dolly

Directed by Richard Ciupka as 'Jonathan Stryker', which is also the name of the filmmaker character in this movie.



Cub, your moment of genius was recognizing the lead actress in this movie (Samantha Eggar) as the actress who played the Mom in David Cronenberg's The Brood. How did you make that connection?

I knew that she looked very familiar because she has a distinctive look ( I think it was the eyes and mouth) and then it just came to me that she had to be the mom in the Brood. It was also around the same time period so I figure I had to be right. Damn I'm good!

Cub I think this movie wins for most effective use of a creepy doll. Something that has been done dozens of times. Would you agree? I think it's cause the doll is sad looking.

I totally agree with you 100%. It was due to the fact that the doll was sad looking and that it was standing in the middle of thestreet while it was pouring outside with it's back turned to us. That was a unique take on things that worked for the movie.

Off-topic question: Cub your mission to be photographed in a spread with Asia Argento only resulted in you getting tons of pathetic voice mails from a sleazy producer asking you to hang out in Malibu. How do you feel about this set back?

HA. I can't believe you are posting this. I guess it just goes to remind all the people out there that if an individual does not call you back there is no need for you to have to try and contact them 5 times (let alone a second time). Sorry boys and girls, your rationalization of "oh, maybe they lost my number" or "perhaps they never received any of the messages I left" is simply not true, and you are just kiddingyourself if you think that there is a chance. You would think that one would get the point after trying to call a girl the second time around with no luck... but that just goes to prove that some of us out there really have no clue. (I can ramble on and on about this sort of thing, cub.... so I will stop now).