You're Invited (But Your Friend Can't Come)

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Scream of the Demon Lover and Demon Rage a couple weeks back...

I missed Howard the Duck at the New Beverly last night cause I had free tickets to see The Faint with Chromeo and Spank Rock and DJ AM in some field in downtown LA.

Joysticks at Midnight on October 27th. Before that, Grindhouse Film Festival double feature on the 23rd with Bone and God Told Me To.

Not sure if I’m gonna review this months fest. Scream of the Demon Lover was the superior of the two films. The opener, Satan’s Mistress or Demon Rage was a real mess, but entertaining. Lana Wood did not show. It would have been awkward if she did.

The trailer reel was to die for. The Exorcist, The Exorcist II (both unusual teaser trailers), Fear the Devil (some weird regional shit), The Devil’s Rain, Mark of the Devil, Mark of the Devil II (wow, never seen that one), Roller Boogie (with Linda Blair), and some others I don’t recall. Awesome.

Deep Red this past Saturday at midnight

Saturday night, on my birthday, I lucked out and made it to a midnight screening of Deep Red (Profondo rosso) at the New Beverly as part of the Midnight Movies series that Amoeba is putting on. Unfortunately the print was bad and not properly set up, though this was not the projectionists fault as he explained to us that he would be basically restoring the print as he played it, whatever that means. There was a several minutes delay in between a couple of the reels, interrupting the film, but this movie was well worth the wait to see on the big screen.

The print was the Hatchet Murders version of the film, which appears to be the same cut as the nonsensical American VHS version of this movie that I first saw, but who cares, I’m there for the visuals, not the story. It was still beautiful, I assure you.

One note, when we got their my buddy asked all the men in line in front of us if this was the line to buy tickets, or just to be seated. No one answered, except for the eccentric man chatting on a cell phone who actually had a date. The rest of you who did not turn your heads, fuck y’all.

workprint vs. theatrical cut – Halloween

it’s here in detail.

Day of the Dead - the remake

I skipped out on a test screening of the new Day of the Dead today at the MGM studios. If you’ve ever been to one of those, you know they involved a hell of a lot of waiting – in line (where I’d probably fry in the heat wave), and in the theater (where I’d probably freeze my balls off due to the air conditioning). Yeah, I did not want to sit around and rot in a roomful of dudes (screening – “males only”) without any plus-ones to keep me company, because who the fuck would really go to this movie?

On the back of the form… a disclaimer… “Note: This is not a sequel to the film Dawn of the Dead (2004).”

the motive – Halloween

“It became much more about Michael and his mom in the early scenes. It’s never really said, but you get the feeling at the beginning of the movie that Michael kills to protect his mom.”

read it here – yeah..

Halloween

I’m listening to a podcast on Halloween right now. They are really getting into depth, going through each Halloween movie in order to properly prepare for ripping the remake a new one…

I saw the new Halloween on opening day at the Chinese Theater – sadly not in the main theater, but in one of the Mann Chinese Six. On the way out I was given a survey about the movie, the kind you get a test screenings. I should not have filled it out, as I paid, but I was curious. Many of the questions were about weather I saw or was a fan of the original Halloween; it’s sequels, and horror in general.

About a third of the questions were about the trailer for The Mist.

Of course I gave the new Halloween the lowest ratings possible. Man, what a boring and conflicted piece of crap that film is.

...

cinebeats.com - looks good

Toxic Zombies aka Bloodeaters (1980) screening at Grindhouse Film Festival

I’ll be quick. This movie is one of the most dull that I’ve seen at Grindhouse. It is also one of the most low budget. However, the movie is a labor of love (as I like to say) with one man acting as director, editor, producer, writer, and as the male lead. With that in mind the movie is quite an accomplishment. Charles McCrann, I wish I could congratulate him, but he was murdered on September 11th in the World Trade Center bombing.

This film has recently come out on DVD. It may be something that you readers would enjoy. For me, I’d say seeing it with an audience really helped. You could show anything to the Grindhouse crowd and it would go over well. People are there to have fun. My guess is that I would not make it through all of Toxic Zombies at home, but then again I’ve had my fill of zombie films. I’ll take this one over any of the new ones – which I continue to bash to anyone who will listen.

The FX were pretty entertaining and the blood certainly flows. The marijuana field is never shown. Creating a fake marijuana crop - not in the budget. I could do without the dude who played the retarded kid (I could do without the character at all – good for laughs from this non-pc audience), but he was spot-on compared to the 25+ yr old woman playing \the role of the little girl. She sucked. Believability: zero.

I skipped out on Man from Deep River as I said I would. Before Toxic Zombies they showed previews for Cannibal Holocaust, Cannibal Ferox, The Vampires’ Night Orgy (looks like a mess), 1974’s Cannibal Girls (looked unfunny), and Satan’s Cheerleaders.

Toxic Zombies

Grindhouse Film Festival is tomorrow at the New Beverly. They have hardly promoted this one, no flyer, the new bev site says TBA, no bulletins, but I guess the movies are Bloodeaters (aka Toxic Zombies) and The Man from Deep River.

I’m not gonna watch Man from Deep River, déjà vu… I wrote about why before when it screened fairly recently, but Toxic Zombies, playing first, should be fun.