Tuesday, September 29, 2009
By: BC
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As we did last year, Bloody-Disgusting will be co-hosting screenings every Thursday at Cinefamily (formerly the Silent Movie Theatre) in Los Angeles, with BC on hand to introduce the films and maybe give away some DVDs. This year's theme is slashers, and let me tell you - this lineup is PHENOMENAL. For example, it's awesome enough that we'll be showing the original My Bloody Valentine UNCUT... but director George Mihalka will be there as well! So check after the break for the full Slasher lineup, and check Cinefamily's website for info on all the other horror movie screenings happening almost every night in October!
Don't look in the closet, don't wander off on your own, AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T HAVE SEX IN THE BACK SEAT OF YOUR CAR!!!! It's slasher time, and we at the Cinefamily have a real soft spot for this gore-drenched, bone-crunching, eyeball-bursting sub-genre. We’re diving head-first into the bloodbath of golden age hacking/slashing -- from the classic to the ultra-rare, to the never seen one-and-only Bigfoot slasher pic, we'll be serving films like severed heads on a splattered silver platter all month. You can run, you can hide, but you can't escape these little stabs of happiness.
(All double/triple features are $10 for the night)
10/8 @ 8pm / Sleepaway Camp
New Jersey's answer to Friday The 13th, Robert Hiltzik's 1983 bid for the slasher pantheon is a triumph of bad taste. Infamous for its gloriously repugnant shocker ending, Sleepaway Camp walks that fine line between genre staple and camp classic. The dialogue is silly, the performances are questionable, and the horror elements are less than first-rate, yet the film still manages to satisfy. Maybe it's the way Hiltzik perfectly captures the vaguely hostile setting of summer camp and uses it for an ideal backdrop for a killer, or maybe it's just the joy of seeing grade-Z actors running around in athletic shorts. Who knows -- who cares?! The bottom line is that Sleepaway Camp is a blast, a fact supported by its status as a sequel-generating cult phenomenon. But, do us a favor -- if you know the surprise ending, don't tell the uninformed. We want to see the looks on their faces when "Angela" reveals her secret on the big screen.
Sleepaway Camp Dir. Robert Hiltzik, 1983, 35mm, 88 min.
Followed by RETURN TO SLEEPAWAY CAMP (DVD)
10/15 @ 8pm, 10pm, Midnight / High School Hell Triple Feature!
Slumber Party Massacre
It may come as some surprise that the quintessential slasher film of the 80’s—a genre often labeled as misogynistic—was created by women. Written by Rita Mae Brown and directed by Amy Holden Jones, Slumber Party Massacre employs nearly every pleasure associated with the sub-genre, including teenage tomfoolery, drug use, lingering nudity and gleeful gory violence. But beneath the surface lurks a strong current of feminism, as well as a not-so-subtle hint of lesbianism. The female protagonists and titular slumber partiers seem far more interested in each other than the immature boys that plague them, and when the phallic drill-wielding psychopath starts to wreak bloody havoc, the girls generally manage to put up a better fight than the chickenshit guys. None of this really matters, though, because in the end it’s just a fun, solid slasher film that’s appropriate for any gender or sexual orientation.
Dir. Amy Holden Jones, 1982, 35mm, 77 min.
Graduation Day
The slasher film for fitness enthusiasts! Have you grown restless with all those slasher films where people just sit around waiting to be gutted? Well, relief is here in the form of Graduation Day, a film which features so much running you'll feel you've completed a 10k just having watched it. The story centers around the death of a high school track star and the subsequent murders of other jocks at the school leading up to Graduation Day. There's a lot to enjoy here, not the least of which is director Herb Freed's penchant for inexplicable quick-cut editing and a supporting cast of inexplicably abusive older men. Plenty of cheat scares and red herrings abound, but once the killer dons a fencing mask and gear, you are literally off to the races. Featuring music and a live performance from pop band Felony (barely known at the time). Come get your diploma -- in terror!
Dir. Herb Freed, 1981, 35mm, 85 min.
The Redeemer: Son of Satan!
OK, so this one's a bit of cheat. Not strictly a slasher movie; it's got more of that weirdo, obscure 70s arthouse-meets-grindhouse, "Nightmare USA" vibe that's been a fascination for us here at Cinefamily. So while, yes, a masked killer does stalk and snuff his victims one at a bloody time, it also opens with a little boy emerging from a lake who possesses three thumbs. Set at the world's least populated high school reunion, the film's six attendees are greeted by a maniac who appears in a different menacing and grotesque persona for each bizarre kill (a clown, a marionette, a Grim Reaper). Those that make it through to the end of this evening with us will be treated to this confounding, nightmare-inducing gem.
Dir. Constantine S. Gochis, 1979, 35mm, 84 min.
10/22 @ 8pm, 10pm, Midnight / Holiday Horror!
My Bloody Valentine (uncut version!)
The name My Bloody Valentine evokes various things, like the recent 3-D remake or the ‘90s shoegazer band. But what it all too seldom communicates is what a great friggin' slasher movie the 1981 film version is. First of all, it has an iconic slasher in "Harry Warden," its gas-masked, pick-axe-wielding miner. Secondly, the working-class characters are a cut above the usual teen victims; you actually find yourself giving a shit about them. And, the stalk n' slash finale takes place in a mineshaft! C'mon! There are many great kills, which sadly were themselves brutally hacked by the MPAA, but are finally shown here in this rare uncut 35mm screening! Of all the slasher knock-offs of the early ‘80s, this was the most deserving of a franchise, but alas, it was not to be. Best viewed with a heart-shaped box of chocolates by your side. Director George Mihalka will be in person for a Q & A!
Dir. George Mihalka, 1981, 35mm, 90 min.
April Fools Day
Depending on your frame of reference, this 1986 gem is either late for the party or ahead of its time. Sharing much of the same post-modern sensibility that would make Wes Craven's Scream a hit ten years later, April Fools Day explores the tropes of the slasher genre without descending into spoof. Your mileage may vary on the whodunit aspect of the plot, but the film is a pretty classy affair for a horror film of the era, and the cast is stocked with great ‘80s B-listers like Deborah "Valley Girl" Foreman, Amy "Friday The 13th Pt. 2" Steel, and the guy who played Biff in Back To The Future. Good fun to the last twist.
Dir. Fred Walton, 1986, 35mm, 89 min.
Don’t Open 'Til Christmas
You want to see Santa Claus get killed, right? Well, this movie really targets your demographic. In an alternate-universe London conveniently overpopulated by street corner Santas, one man finds it his duty to thin the herd -- so you get to see all manner of Santacide in this sleazy British slasher. We’re only showing it on VHS, but c’mon, this is the one Christmas horror movie you haven’t seen ten times, and it’s a blast. Besides, you'll have already watched two prints tonight! Let’s do this!
Dir. Edmund Purdom, 1984, VHS, 86 min.
10/29 @ 8pm, 10pm, Midnight / Slasherpalooza! A Night of Gonzo Slasher Films.
Chopping Mall
In this ridiculous hybrid of Friday The 13th, Dawn of the Dead and Short Circuit, four pairs of teens who work in the local shopping mall plan an after-hours booze-n-sex party. Their fun is soon interrupted by the mall's malfunctioning "high-tech" robot security guards, who attempt to slice the kids into sashimi using lasers, claw arms and assault rifles. The spoofy premise is well-served by thumbs-up doses of nudity, screaming, slit throats, outdated technology and nerdy filmic in-jokes (the mall's sporting goods store is called "Peckinpah's"). An early effort by wildly prolific trash king Jim Wynorski (Deathstalker II, The Bare Wench Project III, Ghoulies IV), the script features such timeless bon mots as "I'm sorry for getting hysterical --I guess I'm just not used to being chased around a mall in the middle of the night by killer robots."
Dir. Jim Wynorski, 1986, 35mm, 77 min.
Shakma
Remember hearing about the California man whose pet chimp went ape and ripped off his face and testicles? Did it make you flinch, covering your own parts in sympathy? Get ready to flinch once again, for Shakma will swipe at your jewels in a blood-thirsty rage. Christopher Atkins (the deeply tanned star of The Blue Lagoon) and his friends hang out after-hours in their med school building playing (what else?) a D&D-like role playing game run by game master (or as he pronounces it, “Gay Master”) Roddy McDowall, and proceed to have their throats ripped out by an angered, psychotic lab test baboon who hunts them down one by one. The real stars of the film are the production’s animal handlers, who managed to not get themselves or the filmmakers killed while their baboon actor forcefully hurled itself at doors, windows, its co-stars or anything else in its path, screaming bloody murder all the while in a truly terrifying electric rage.
Dirs. Tom Logan & Hugh Parks, 1990, 35mm, 101 min.
Night of the Demon (brand-new HD transfer!)
Night Of The Demon breaks major slasher conventions by introducing one of the most unusual and allusive psycho killers of all time -- BIGFOOT! Who is Bigfoot, and why is he doing these terrible things? Our furry friend has gone completely homicidal, leaving a trail of dead girl scouts, castrated bikers and raped teenagers in his wake. This Z-grade doozy packs a bloody whallop -- this is one of the most absurd and comically gory movies we've ever seen. The audiene reaction to this film is gonna be half the fun. DO NOT MISS IT. Director James C. Wasson and producer James B. Hall will be here in person!
Dir. James C. Wasson, 1980, HDCAM, 97 min.
Read 7 User Comments
Why can't this occur in South Florida?! |
Been trying to set something up like this in Orlando for years. None of the theaters around here could give a fuck. |
They're actually gonna show that peice of shit Return to Sleepaway? What an insult. If anything, show Sleepaway 2. |
Tex I really need you guys to try and set something up in Denver or Colorado Springs I'm trying but need help. |
Have you got any poster art for these events? Would like to post it for what's out there on the Graveyard show. www.graveyardshow.com |
@madhorror - unfortunately no, just what's on the cinefamily site. |
Show the 1983 slasher flick Curtains! Especially since it's one of the last slashers not on DVD yet and it's one of the best! Go figure. |
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