Just about everybody has something to say about Aftermath, the 2nd sickest movie of all time on the list - a list I keep bringing up. This leaves only one movie on the list completely unexplored for me.
Well I got a bootleg tape of Aftermath, probably put together before the DVD came out. It's got the other two shorts that the DVD has on it, though Genesis, which comes from another source, is so grainy it is unwatchable. There are some video extras, like the making of Aftermath, which I'm sure is on the DVD, and a 'debate' between Nacho Cerdà and the director of Nekromantik. I watched it in fast forward, so can't say what they were talking about. I'm pretty sure you can get that on the DVD too. The tape has got the dirty cover (DVD has a reversible cover - clean side shown here) which has the full frontal male nudity courtesy of a male model who is the real star of this picture, playing a corpse.
Now that I look online, I see that my tape's cover is a color copy of the original vhs cover, with the "Waken Prods" logos removed and some new text, like "special edition" photoshopped badly onto the front and side. I'm not complaining, it cost me about 3 bucks at the most.
What impressed me about Aftermath is that it is eleven years old and looks like it could have been made today. It is beautifully shot and top notch. You'd expect a short like this to be cheaply made. It's not. Personally I think that the female prosthetic corpse is a little less realistic that the male prosthetic corpse, though I am not so familiar with what bodies that have gone through rigamortis really look like.
Here is a complaint that perhaps says more about me than it does the movie. Warning: I am about to get vulgar. After the mortician stabs the vagina 20 or so times, you would expect the vagina to be damaged beyond recognition, but when it is next shown, it looks the same as it did initially. Ok, listen, I know that the film makers paid attention to detail and that is why this irks me. During the making-of we are told how blood was digitally filled-in to a drain in one shot to preserve continuity.
Are these the best corpses on film ever? Probably not.
Nacho Cerdà is very likable in the documentary. He says he was inspired to make this film after watching a real life autopsy in person, and this autopsy admittedly disturbed him deeply. He claims that what he saw was more horrific than what he put in his film.
Chas Balun, famous horror magazine editor and artist (plus the 1st American distributor of the Guinea Pig movies!) has called Aftermath 'pornographic'. I disagree on the grounds that their is simply no insertion shown. Also, this is art cinema, there is no dialogue, the camera tells the story.
Some have though that Nacho Cerdà made the alien footage in the Fox special Alien Autopsy: (Fact or Fiction?) and in fact he appears on the tv special as a horror film maker. According to this link, Olaf Ittenbach, brought the world the dead alien that could bleed like a real corpse. You know, a lot of reviewers talk about how they wish they could have "these ninety minutes of my life back" after watching a movie that blew. Well, if there were any 60 minutes I wish I could have back, it would be the hour it took to watch Alien Autopsy. What's more, I swear I watched a follow up special where they admitted it was fake? Does anyone else remember this?
Last week in the TV studio they were shooting a P.S.A. on adoption. They brought a dumpster and a ton of trash into the studio to make it look like an alley. In the shoot a girl drops a newborn, actually a baby doll, into the dumpster. Everyone on was talking about how horrible killing babies (in the 1st 75 hours of life) is, but seriously, in this academic setting, you know that most of these people would think it was fine if the baby was terminated prior to birth. I would get into abortion arguments, like I did in my review for The Unborn, which is not something I'm even going to link back to now, though it's in the archives if you really want to search. It's not my fight. It is a subject I find fascinating.
In fairness, a lot of pro choicers are against partial birth abortion which accounts for the difference between a small fetus and a newborn. The full version of Dumplings includes 2 partial birth abortions. I don't know if this is a new Lion's Gate version of 3 Extremes or not, but the version I rented included the Dumplings short in 3 Extremes and a second disc that features the entire Dumplings movie. The short plays like a 'best of Dumplings' and is worth watching because it has a different ending than the feature, but after you've watched the full version you will see that the 3 Extremes version is totally butchered. Watch the full versions for more characters, more backstory (we find out that the dumpling maker (Bai Ling) was a former abortionist in China), and yes, more gruesome shots.
Serious moral depravity here, I liked Dumplings more than the shorts from Chan-wook Park and Takashi Miike. Everyone is evil, vain, or has a price. I like how in the full version the male is just as bad or worse than his former movie star wife. Leading to his eventual desire for the fountain of youth is the foreshadowing where we witness his fondness for eating fertilized hard boiled eggs, with partially developed chicks inside. What I'm saying is, don't eat those fucking things, you weirdos!
Fruit Chan, from Hong Kong, is the relative unknown among the 3 Extremes directors, but he is not unknown anymore. I must say the visually this film is gorgeous. In fact everything on the 3 Extremes discs looks amazing. The Chan-wook Park short is faster paced and flashier than his Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance. It is much like the final showdown in Oldboy, but I'd say it lacks the impact because it does not have as strong characters as did those two full length films. Takashi Miike's piece is strange and slow, reminding me of the 1964 Japanese horror anthology, Kwaidan. It is beautiful and has a ghost scene that will appeal to casual fans of Japanese horror.
Cub, you laugh now, but won't you be looking for some dumplings ten years down the road?
Oh no! Ten years down the road it will be time. Quick, let's start looking for a dumpling maker now so I can preserve the youth.
Will you say you were sorry for making fun of me when I got squeamish? It was that scene on the bus, when the guy in white pants sat in the pool of blood from the girl's abortion. How sick was that?
Ha ha. You totally got squeamish during that bus scene,the both times we watched it. I loved that part! It was great! Sorry? Cub I must have you see it again!
The version in 3 Extremes was a mess, I'm glad you made me watch the full version on Disc 2, good thinking Cub.
I knew the full length would certainly be worth watching cause there was so much being left out in the shortened version, and I knew it would be some of the juicy details, so yes I am glad we saw it. I loved this movie. Great pick!
The other day Cub and I went to sell cd's. Doing this feels pathetic in a way - like I'm desperate for a fix or something. Let me explain. I've never worked in a used cd store, but I've worked at 2 large music chainstores and even in those I've seen some pathetic sights. People bringing in old scratched up cd's that they totally got from Columbia House (12 cd's for a penny?) in 1990 and they think we are going to take this in as a return and give them $18.99!?! It can be a sad sight as these folks are usually not looking their best. Desperation. Over at the used stores they must have seen it all. People coming in with scratched cd's and dog eared booklets, but no cases or back liner notes? The explanation? A cd binder got lifted from somebody's car. How about people selling still wrapped cd's? Well, that was me, at least half the shit I was selling was unopened, but I was in the clear. For those in the know, and the best record store clerks surely are, you could tell that I got many of these discs as promos as the bar code is punched with a small circle. Often, the punch is the only marking that separates a promo from a cd that belongs in a store's inventory. Therefore, a customer buying a used promo at the store is not being shortchanged in any way and that's good for me as I get full credit for selling back a promo cd just as if it were a disc I purchased from Tower for $18.99. I've scored promos in various was over the years. In L.A., for example, there is an excess of shit and buying a full priced cd can be avoided, even if it means buying a used promo at Amoeba, which is often overflowing with promos of the latest releases, that industry types must have unloaded just as they got their copies.
I got the most promos ever - while working in school radio stations. Tip: avoid the rest of the station staff, there are surely some among them who view taking cd's from the station library as wrong. What the fuck is up that? I'll never understand. Anyway, since I was mostly selling off a bunch of obvious (to store clerks) promos I was saved from the kind of scrutiny one would feel when selling off the embarrassing cd's that they were once into. Still, I could not avoid discomfort completely - it's awkward because the clerk know I want the most for each cd regardless of what it means to me. He wants to give me the least that he can - well if he's loyal to his store he does - and we can assume that he is. Trying to act like you don't care does not work, cause you do care.
Cub went first and sold off a bunch of cd's that I gave to her. This is typical. She often sells clothes that I bought for her - that's the next part of the story - I'm getting ahead of myself. Funny thing is Cub tried to sell this rare import cd by Suede. It had been floating freely in her trunk for a couple of years and was covered with gunk on the playing side. I told her not to bother with this one, but she did anyway. I gave lots of advice. Some stuff just won't sell no matter how much you don't want it. I did not bother with trying to lose my promos for Kill Radio or El Pus. These major label records bombed bigtime. If anyone, anywhere, got promos of these, and many did, they already sold them to the store and the store did not sell the copies that they took in. Trust me. Other shit, from the past year or so that I guarantee you can't sell... Busted (I tried), Hazen Street, Amen, and Eighteen Visions.
Next we went to a vintage store where Cub tried her luck at selling off 3 bags of clothes. She did pretty well, considering how discriminating they are. This is not a Goodwill, they pay you cash for what they take. I've had interviews at this particular chain multiple times. They gave me a test, a sack of clothes, and I was to tell them which items I'd buy and which I would refuse. How did I do? "There are no right or wrong answers", I was told. Yeah right, I did not get the job. It's for the best though. Even if these stores are packed with high fashion items, they still smell like thrift shops. Gross.
I could go on forever about the details of a certain shopping day, but it's time to get on topic and continue our look at Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom, which I started to review last post. It turns out I was extremely close to the finish when stopping this tape last time. The last chapter of this movie revolves around violence and torture, all shot through a telephoto lens that is meant to represent binoculars that the elite perverts are watching this action through. Though graphic, the violent scenes were less shocking to me than all the other elements in this movie which break all taboos. Sodomy is the norm in this movie, in fact those who practice male/female sex are told they will be punished with the loss of a limb. Perhaps sodomy does not shock today, but shit-eating, that will shock Pretty much everything in this movie has ties to bodily fluids or discharge, whether described or depicted on camera. Calling it porno is absurd. It would be an unusual case for someone to get-off on this film. It's not erotic, it's a very cruel picture.
Salo is number 7 on the top ten sickest movies list that I discussed here. To quote ign.com, "By far the most heady and artsy film on the list, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom is also one of the most disturbing and (dare we say) damaging. There are very few films that, upon viewing, will have us running to the showers to try and scrub ourselves clean. This is one of those films."
Here are collected links (and a few screen shots if you click around) on Salo at opsonicindex.org.
Without getting political, though that is fun, it is easy to point out that the shit that went down at Abu Gharib is very much like this. You can see here - many naked and forced gay sex positions, a man smeared in feces, and the famous naked pyramid that is very similar to the judging of the asses in Salo. That said, Salo is real.
Can Salo make anyone think about the perversions of power? In the meantime I'll know what to say if the ruling homeowners association in my apartment complex gets on my case again. "I know what you guys do behind closed doors, you sick, disgusting fucks!"
So we are watching Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom in three installments. We don't have A.D.D. - sure it's a long movie, but that's not the reason why the tape keeps getting stopped. The other night we needed a break before bed. Cub did not want to have dreams about this movie. I was feeling a bit dirty, but then the syndicated Sex and the City came on and one of the taboo subjects they discussed: eating ass. Well that's what the first 2/3 of Salo have pretty much bean about (yeah, literally), so don't call me a pervert, it was on Sex and the City too!
So the 120 Days of Sodom are a-Ok in mainstream America today. Last night though, Cub made me stop the tape the 2nd time when a teenage boy was getting his dick burned by a candle. Will she watch the rest of the movie? I think so. It's kind of like a car crash that you can't stop looking at. This movie will require extensive commentary, so expect more in the future. It is allegedly the most rare DVD in the United States today. I'm watching a bootleg version of the Criterion edition.
On to this morning's amazing discovery from the Demonbaby blog. The Second Annual Stupid Myspace Haircuts Awards! Of course the scenester masses are a prime target, but the forgotten industrial-metal genre takes a beating as well. I worked in a gothic clothing store on Melrose for a few months and I saw some pretty bad shit, but these are the worst of the worst. Incidentally, our most hated type of customer would be the "cyber goth" or anyone doing a raver/goth crossover.
Some on the list are myspace celebrities with friends numbering in the thousands. Jeffree Star is a prime example. I've seen this frighteningly good-looking Mechanical Animals (and note the Matrix type layout one of his friends in the top 8 has - we hate that) type crossdresser wondering about Sunset Strip with a pack of short ugly troll girls in tow. Jeffree, lose the entourage and find somewhere else to wander about, Sunset is gross, but you were probably new to L.A. then.
Also, the last guy mentioned, whose hair is compared to the Magic Coral Garden, I've seen him too. Who could forget a haircut like that, though it was only one color when I used to see it. That always impressed me, it is completely original. I guess it really is fantastical material, not for the real world.
Back to The 1st Annual - many of the winners have since quit myspace - will those in round two follow their lead? Everyone from Boston knows Jasper, I wonder how he took to being on this list. He is after all a self-described "muppet" so we can assume this did not get to him. I like his 2-tone Cruella Devilled hair, myself.
So over in the 2nd Annual we've got supposed lawyers for some of the winners ordering the 'cease and desists' in the blog's comments section. If I were Demonbaby I would not worry about it. It's the free press! Besides, what has Demonbaby got to lose? With all due respect, I don't think it is a money-making operation. Are they going to sue for the money in these kids' Amazon.com account?
Soon: More discussion of Salo...
Non-horror: kids in the UK look like this too? At least they are enthusiastic. This video uses some terminology that is like nails on a chalk board to me.
Watched/watching some Italian horrors. Specters (Spettri) from 1987 and Joe D'Amato's Anthropophagous: The Beast, finally in it's uncut form.
Saw a movie that was truly the pits, the German Legion of the Dead, from Olaf Ittenbach, a man Uwe Boll calls "a German splatter freak". Poor Ittenbach has already had to deal with a 2005 movie called Legion of the Dead coming out and his movie was only released in 2001. Bad karma for working with Uwe Boll (FX on BloodRayne) whose previous movie stole the name Alone in the Dark from a 1982 slasher. Yeah, I know it's the video game name, but don't defend fellow German, Uwe Boll.
Anyway, Ittenbach's movie sucks real bad. It's just like From Dusk Till Dawn, just what the world needed in 2001, more 90's retreads. It's the dialogue, I really hated it, and I'm not the only one - imdb comments.
I got the DVD of the Nick Millard, aka Nick Phillips, 3 movie set. Satan's Black Wedding appears to be the best and most disturbing, though I'm only part way through it. The campy Criminally Insane is better known and though I loved it, the movie comes off as extremely amateur even though the film looks great on DVD. Shot of the cleaver raised up, shots of still cleaver touching red paint covered face, shot of the cleaver raised up, etc... To be be fair they used real Hollywood effects blood, that's just the way fake blood looked in 1975. Yes I watched some of the extras. Can you believe it? I wanted to see how Priscilla Alden looks today. The answer is, she looks healthier than she did in Criminally Insane.
The third movie included was the selling point for me, Crazy Fat Ethel 2. Unfortunately it is unwatchable. I knew it would be shot on tape footage of Priscilla Alden and clips from Criminally Insane. Well immediately after watching Criminally Insane this would be a total bore. Actually, Death Nurse 2, I have this on tape, is also shot on video Pricilla Alden killing footage with Criminally Insane clips added. Also unwatchable.
Useless trivia: Death Nurse is said to be the 1st shot on video movie, ahead of Blood Cult. I learned this on the imdb. Priscilla Alden should really work the convention circuit.
Fields they have eyes
Woods they have ears
- from "Warrior" by Public Image Lmt.
The Hills Have Eyes, the remake, from Alexandre Aja, director of the over hyped Haute tension. This movie was a good time, though I though Hills Have Eyes was already remade as Wrong Turn in 2003. I'll take brainless slaughter like Wrong Turn over ambitious horror that falls flat on it's face. Failure is rarely pretty. That's why I approve of junk like Hills Have Eyes or even House of Wax. These movies aim so low that they can't miss the mark.
I must say the The Hills Have Eyes remake was a lot more violent than the original. Personally I prefer the 1985 Craven sequel, The Hills Have Eyes Part II, to the original, as it shows all the best clips from Part I, and adds some new great action with the return of Michael Berryman reaping havoc. Of course everything I like about the thrown together Part II was everything I hated about Crazy Fat Ethel 2.
Note: I think that Hills Have Eyes Part II is referenced in Aja's remake. Did anyone see the school bus in the crater among the abandoned cars? Could be a coincidence. I hope not.
I got my tapes today that I previously thought were never going to show. Man does media mail take a long time to get across the country - where were my tapes over the past month, being transported on the back of a donkey? The metal head vendor sent the package 25 days after I won. I believe him now. Up until a few days ago I was sure that these were not sent period and I reported him to ebay and wrote some nasty feedback. Then I remembered how slow media mail can be - let's discuss the issues...
My main complaint is that the seller wrote "US Postal Service First Class Mail® Estimated delivery 2-3 days" and then sent it through cheaper media mail. This has happened to me a bunch of times and is straight up dishonest. The seller saves a couple of dollars when they charge for the better service and then send it media mail. As a result the package ships up to 23 times slower than advertised, earning the seller a good chance at being submitted negative feedback. Is it worth it for them? I guess so, if the the buyer has a"all's well that ends well" attitude and gives the seller "A+++" feedback regardless of obscene delays. Maybe these slightly dishonest sellers don't deserve the "F-", but how about a "C---". No one wants to seem like a bastard, but from now on, how about taking a stand. Positive feedback is not a right.
I admit, I've been a puss in the past, not wanting to give another horror fan a bad rating. Well fuck that.
One thing that stops buyers from giving negative feedback is that the sellers often wait until they have received feedback before giving their feedback to the buyer. Sometimes they even explicitly mention this, to suggest, "fuck with me and I'll fuck with you". Well, this is ridiculous, feedback should be given to the buyer based on when they pay. The seller is already protected because they don't ship until getting paid. They should leave the buyer feedback based on when they got paid alone, not based on reciprocity.
Still, suppose you leave a douche seller some deserved bad feedback and then they get you back with some nonsense just for revenge. So what? As a buyer does your feedback matter? The buyer, not so much the seller, chooses who does business with who and that's how it stays. Negative feedback hurts the seller more. No doubt. Don't be intimated. Leave the feedback that should be left.
One more thing, before the horror review. Yup, more ebay. When I want to win on ebay and I really want to win, I bid during the last minute. Sometimes this is just not possible, due to work or school or dates with Cub. Then I decided what my maximum bid is, place it, and hope I get if for as little an amount as possible. Often, very often, when I win, the amount I'm paying is suspiciously close to my maximum. Suppose a box of tapes is going for $25. I'll be away from the computer until the auction is over so I plug in my maximum, say $50. I'll leave the computer winning the auction at around $26. When I get back the computer and find that I've won, I'm likely to be throwing down $49.98 for the tapes. It could be legit, someone could have gone up to $49 and not broke $50, but this happens so often that I figure buyers are getting fucked with by corrupt sellers once again. I asked a friend who is a full time seller. She assured me the sellers DO NOT know what their bidder's maximum bids are. Well thank God for that! So sellers ARE NOT logging in under a different name and bidding up to just below my maximum (after all they would not want to bid so high as to win their own item!) every time. All is well and it's an honest world... or is it?
Listen to what my seller friend told me:
The seller isnt shown what your maximum bid is. For a seller to bid on his/her own auction is called "shill" bidding and it is forbidden on Ebay. I know, 'cause I thought about doing it myself a long time ago, ahhaha! But I didn't ever do it 'cause I would be too chicken I that I would get caught (oh yeah, and its wrong! ;D ).
Anyway, most likely you are just getting bid up at the last minute by some other buyer. BUT it is technically possible for a seller to shill bid you.
The only way you could really tell is probably one of 3 ways:
1) check the bid history on the item. See if there are any "bid retractions". This would show that someone could have put in enough money to see how much YOU were willing to pay, and then canceled their OWN bid. Then they could bid again right UNDER your maximum bid.
2)This would be the pain in the ass way...Go to their feedback page. Click on the items they have sold, and check the bid histories there. Do you see a lot of the SAME bidders bidding (but not winning) in their other auctions? I.e. Is the seller using the same screen name to shill bid on his/her other auctions.
3)This way is probably waaaay too much trouble. Its the same as ..2 really, only check to see if there are Ebay name changes. If a Ebay member changes their name (maybe to avoid people noticing their shill bidding) then there will be a white circle icon next to their Ebay ID.
See, it's possible - and I'm not just paranoid, I know it has happened to me - and probably you!
The Kiss was directed by Pen Densham and it is your typical 80's fair. "Fuck You Felix!" is a line uttered by a supporting character as she bats a puppet cat-monster that has be a real murdering bastard throughout the movie. Yes, it is one of the lamest one-liners that I've ever heard. There's a lot of lame dialogue and plot elements here, but the movie is professionally made, with good FX, and novel deaths. Most fans genre fans will enjoy picking it to pieces, so with that said, watch it. The star, Joanna Pacula, is absolutely gorgeous. Let's see what Cub has to say.
You say the Polish star, Joanna Pacula, is prettier than Nastassja Kinski?! This is major, coming from Cub who loves Kinski so very much. Is it really true, is Pacula sooo beautiful? So is this more proof that Polish girls, like yourself, are number 1?
I know it is tough choice because I have always loved and still do love Kinski, however, I do think that Joanna Pacula is a tad bit prettier (although it is damn close between the two of them). Pacula is gorgeous. She is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. So yes, cub, I guess that goes to prove that Polish women are the best! Viva la Polska!!!
What was with the end - total bullshit. -Spoiler- Alien snake creature is in the pool. Girl gets pulled out just before snake creature is about to go down her throat. Snake slithers in the burning water. Girl falls back in pool with as audience groans at stupidity. Pool explodes. Where is girl? Father looks frantically, she has vanished. Oh, there she is... off camera she got out of the pool again and is safe. Yay.
The end was totally crazy and it simply did not flow. One second you see her in the pool and it gets blown up (she should have been thrown in the air), the next second she is being shielded by her friend. How does that happen?
There must be an alternate ending to this that has a final shot showing that the creature has transferred into her... right Cub?
I agree with you that the creature should have been in her at the end, for The Kiss II*. Cub you are also Polish, we will have a beautiful Polish family (Buns says he's Polish too!)
*I feel the need to clarify, The Kiss II does not exist!
On the subject of the riot I wrote about in the last post, people are still sounding off about it across the web. One kid has a plan to raise money for the businesses destroyed by punk rioters. He cares about the public perception of punk and wants to right the wrongs. I'd say that's a lost cause, but I think it's great that someone would want to help out some of the small businesses that took hard hits. Driving out of there I saw one bridal shop that got it bad and I felt that they did not deserve the wrath of the mob, but does this mean that punks will be raising money to restore Jack in the Box and Carl's Jr? That would be bizarre, but how can one say, we raised this money for this business and not that one. I really don't think punks should be donating to Jack in the Box or any meat-serving restaurant, but who cares what I think? I'm not giving my money to anyone.
news: Vegan horror filmmaker Scott Goldberg had a $3000 camera stolen on location during the filming of All I Want for Christmas. He is looking for donations and it looks like he's received quite a few. In semi-related news, a friend of mine had $2500 camera stolen from his car in Parking Lot E at OCC. I guess you could donate to him too.
the review:
Well, it's been a few weeks since I saw Bad Dreams, but I think I can remember the basics. Bad Dreams stars the unique looking, strangely attractive, Jennifer Rubin, who also played a role in A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors a year before. The experience must have been deja vu for her as both movies take place in hospitals and both involve a burnt killer coming back from the dead to kill. I don't remember Rubin in Nightmare 3, but I'll take other reviewers' words for it, that Bad Dreams is a major rip-off of The Nightmare series in many entertaining ways and everybody ought to see it. There is no DVD yet.
scrambled thoughts:
I'm sorry, so many of the details of the novel deaths already have escaped me, but I do remember there being a great deal of gore.
The chubby short chick from Valley Girl, Elizabeth Daily, plays one of the unlucky hospital residents.
Bad Dreams opens with a well done sixties or seventies flashback - one montage was probably watched by Jim Van Bebber before he made his Manson Family.
Rubin's character was a young member a religious cult where everyone committed suicide by fire. She survived and remained in a coma until the eighties. Harris, the burned leader, is coming back for her and kills off everyone in her therapy group. That's the setup.
There is a lot of horror comedy in here, but most of my laughing was unintentional. The movie looks great, despite the awful fashion of the time period. The script sucks. Still, this one is nonstop entertainment.
I'm not going to win any writing jobs with this review, so sorry, Cub Speaks will be better...
Cub, how come you did not recognize the screaming-into-a-pillow group therapy technique? Are you sure you are qualified to help people in need as a therapist?
The scream into pillow technique did seem effective. See you learn something each day, even while watching disturbing films. I will incorporate the technique with my clients.
Everyone called this the Nightmare on Elm Street rip-off of the century. What do you think?
It was a rip off of Nightmare on Elm street, but not as good. Nothing can beat Freddy (I love Robert!)
When Guns n' Roses' 'Sweet Child O' Mine' played over the end credits, you did a little dance in the bed, should we record your dances on video and put them in Cub Speaks?
You should certainly record those dances for safe keeping cub. I can never do them exactly the same when you ask me to repeat them.
Still waiting for Cub to get back to me for the Bad Dreams review.
This weekend there was a riot at a punk show I attended in San Bernardino. Unfortunately I don't have that many pictures of what went down - I took a few and they are blurry. What's worse is that just about all the pictures I've seen are on the shitty side, including news photos. I've seen a bunch of video bits of the action on you tube and only one is really watchable. Here it is, showing damage done to Jack in the Box, which along with a Carl's Jr, probably got smashed up the most. I did not see this happen as I had followed fleeing punks down another street. The mass exodus from the area was caused by threats of police violence and use of pepper spray to clear the area near the parking lot. As a result many (myself included) were kept away from our cars for about three hours and had to roam the San Bernardino streets. Wandering punks were everywhere, filling up every business that was open in order just to have somewhere to go. Most everyone I talked to was in a worse situation that I was, and was missing friends or had possibly been abandoned by friends who could not find them and had been told to leave the scene.
The reason people were separated stems from people fleeing out of different exists of the Pavilion when the tear gas hit the crowd. The choice to gas the crowd was one of the biggest mistakes in my opinion as it started stampedes and people did get stomped. Fortunately, a friend of mine knew that something was about to go down and we followed him over towards the exit so we were some of the first people out the door. Broken Bones was finishing up 'Decapitated' when the crowd suddenly surged towards the exits.
I had gone outside, near the parking lot stage, to see the fighting that was going down in between the Varukers and Broken Bones sets, but there were far too many people watching these fights for me to see a thing. I know what happened from accounts online from the Final Conflict singer. After two very injured people were evacuated, punk continued to throw beer bottles at the handful of cops present. I must say that I agree with the account that blames the punks, because no one should be hit with flying beer bottles. I do not think the cops should have retaliated with tear gas, not just because of all the kids and innocents who were gassed, but also because with a move like that, like it or not, the violence would surely escalate.
As I was in the back stage area, watching people funnel out the exit doors, I knew that there would be a riot because the show was obviously not going to continue and the three headlining bands had not yet played. The very low helicopter overhead barking orders only excited the angry punks. I might mention that the crowd was very drunk, not just those of age either, their was shitloads of drinking in the parking lot.
Anyway, we were herded in a couple of directions, and ended up being some of the last to leave, but I only saw the beginnings of the destruction in what became the ground zero area. At the end of the night, driving out of there, we drove past the wrecked-up stuff. Jack in the Box and Carl's Jr were totally smashed and as were a handful of other business down that street, though those seemed to suffer mostly from smashed windows and it looked like less people had actually been inside those buildings.
There is a website someone sent me a link to with pictures of one very injured person - warning, graphic, this is not a horror movie. To see the pics on this guys site, click the icon in the bottom left corner of the view and then click 'British Invasion 2K6 Riot Pictures'.
my awful pictures - clickable thumbs
This pic just to show you how big the show was. It's The Varukers playing on this massive stage.
This blurry picture shows a crowd around a pit, which is not the dance floor, but a fight. My friend was holding me up to take this picture. No doubt a lot a people on the edges taking shots at those fighting. I'm sure that it was ugly like that. 
People squeezing out the back doors.
Here are news pics:
from all I've read, the only fire was a dumspter fire
displaced punks
saw stuff like this a lot
More pics and opinions and links to galleries at the British Invasion 2K6 myspace page, where people, even me, all have something to say about the evening.
Last minute find - video footage of the mob beating up neo nazis - well this is a good a look at it as most people got.
More horror posts soon - and Fangoria Los Angeles is soon, anybody going?
I thought for a minute that I'd found a copy of the Ghosthouse sequel, Witchcraft, in one on my unwatched tape stashes, but it turns out to be a different movie of the same name from the same year from Rob Spera, the director of Leprechaun in the Hood. This was somewhat of a disappointment.
I think I got burned on ebay by some shitty metalhead from Long Island and you will hear more about this in the next few weeks. I've actually got a lot to say about ebay and did some research on how sellers can rip you off - expect a breakdown of this shit.
The remainder of the post will be a press release I got by e-mail about Herschell Gordon Lewis.
CLEARWATER, FL (March 1, 2006) - FILM STATE 51 INTERNATIONAL, in association with legendary film director HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS, today announced two new live-action feature film projects: HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS'S GRIM FAIRY TALES and BACK IN BLOOD: REVENGE OF THE GORE-CRAZED MANIACS.
"Film State 51 is honored to have the opportunity to work with the 'Godfather of Gore'. Mr. Lewis is a cinematic pioneer and horror legend, whose work is more relevant than ever before," said Andrew Allan, president and producer, Film State 51. "His film legacy continues to grow - in both popularity and notoriety - and the world is on the verge of a major Herschell Gordon Lewis renaissance."
HERSCHELL GORDON LEWIS'S GRIM FAIRY TALES marks a return to directing by Lewis, the innovator of the modern horror film, with an all-new fractured fairy tale of a TV game show where if you give a wrong answer, you may lose your head! Or a limb! "This will be my crowning cinematic achievement! We have a great production team in place, and a story that'll spray the big screens with blood," says Lewis, adding wryly, "Stage blood, of course."
Packed with Lewis's signature scenes of cinematic gore and outrageous humor, GRIM FAIRY TALES will entertain horror and comedy fans alike. Mr. Lewis has written the script and will direct, with Film State 51 partners Andrew Allan and Andy Lalino serving as producers, and award-winning Tom Linkiewicz as editor.
BACK IN BLOOD: REVENGE OF THE GORE-CRAZED MANIACS is an all-new feature film based on characters created by Herschell Gordon Lewis. The deranged maniacs from his most infamous horror masterpieces: Fuad Ramses (BLOOD FEAST), Montag the Magnificent (THE WIZARD OF GORE), Adam Sorg (COLOR ME BLOOD RED), and Rodney & Granny Pringle (THE GRUESOME TWOSOME) join forces in a diabolical plot of world domination. They're back from the grave - together for the first time ever in the same movie! "BACK IN BLOOD will be a dream come true for my fans," adds Lewis. "To see my beloved super-villains teamed up in such an ingenious story pleases me to no end. It'll be a wonderfully horrific addition to the legacy." Film State 51's award-winning filmmakers/producers Andy Lalino and Andrew Allan have authored the screenplay, and will produce and direct, with Tom Linkiewicz serving as editor.
Both projects are expected to commence production in 2006. "There are at least five different HGL projects in the works between Film State 51 and other production companies," says Lalino. "But what sets our projects apart is that they offer our audience the only HGL-related feature films which aren't remakes - the storylines are new and refreshingly original." Film State 51's Tom Linkiewicz adds: "As devotees of the genre ourselves, we know what horror fans around the world have been longing for, and we believe these films give them every reason to get very excited."
Herschell Gordon Lewis is affectionately known as the "Godfather of Gore" for pioneering the modern horror film with his 1963 release BLOOD FEAST. It was the first film in history to depict overtly violent and gory scenes, and was an immediate success. HGL horror classics TWO-THOUSAND MANIACS!, COLOR ME BLOOD RED, and THE WIZARD OF GORE soon followed, furthering Lewis's reputation as a Master of Horror.
Famous horror icons Hannibal Lecter, Michael Myers, Freddy Krueger, and Jason Voorhees all owe their cinema stature to the films of Herschell Gordon Lewis, a visionary who single-handedly set the rules for the modern horror movie.
from Film State 51
