SPECTOBER IV: MIDNIGHTS

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3: SERGIO MARTINO – THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4: SERGIO MARTINO – THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10: SERGIO MARTINO – ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11: SERGIO MARTINO – YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17: R2C – SOUTH THIRD STREET FOREVER
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18: R2C – THE SIMPSONSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24: SERGIO MARTINO – TORSO
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31: THE CURSE OF GHOUL FRIDAY

========= ALL THE COLORS OF GIALLO: SERGIO MARTINO MIDNIGHTS =========

martino-banner

All month we spotlight the five gialli the prolific Sergio Martino directed between 1971 and 1973. Ranging from Agatha Christie/Edgar Wallace-style mysteries to Polanski-esque paranoid thrillers and proto-slashers, these lurid pulp masterpieces are exquisite exercises in style and represent quintessential examples of the genre. They also feature incredible soundtracks and amazing leading ladies, most notably Edwige Fenech and Anita Strindberg, who appear side-by-side in YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY. Though Martino went on to make dozens of films in other, sensational genres, he never fully returned to giallo. Nonetheless, these are up there with the best of Bava, Argento, and early Fulci.


wardh-banner

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH
aka BLADE OF THE RIPPER
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1971.
Italy. 96 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3 – MIDNIGHT

Sergio Martino’s first giallo is also one of the genre’s most sexually dynamite works. Raven haired French beauty Edwige Fenech is Julie Wardh, an ambassador’s wife in Vienna still reeling from her sadomasochistic relationship with an intense ex-lover, Jean. As she arrives, a killer is stalking women on the streets—and Jean just happens to be in town. In the meantime, she meets George, the debonair cousin of her friend Carol, who thrives of seducing married women. Things heat up between the pair while bodies pile in the streets and Jean remains a menacing presence—and soon, the sets his sights on Julie, spinning the plot through dozens of twists.

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH is totally out-of-control, and a major genre classic: a hot mess of over-the-top stylization, kinky sex, nightmare interludes, brutal killings, suspense sequences, and, of course, a top-notch soundtrack by Nora Orlani including an insane version of “Dies Irae” that kicks in whenever Julie has flashbacks about having dirty sex with Jean. A giallo essential!


scorpion-banner

THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1971.
Italy. 91 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4 – MIDNIGHT

Bombshell Anita Strindberg anchors Martino’s most nimble and classic example of giallo tropes in THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL, which ostensibly tells the story of a woman under investigation following the mysterious explosion of her wealthy husband’s airplane. When she travels to Greece to collect her inheritance, a number of variables come into play: a vindictive mistress and her hired thug, an insurance claim investigator, a stalker-killer on the loose, and a photojournalist, Cléo (Strindberg), assigned to the story. After a number of twists and turns, the investigator and journalist become the center of the story—and the killer’s prime target.

THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL has a whole lot going for it: particularly, a simply incredible score by Bruno Nicoli that is among the best work ever done in the genre, and Martino’s best suspense sequence, in which a stealthy home invasion leads to a rooftop chase recalling Louis Feuillade’s classic LES VAMPIRES serial. THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL is pure sex, suspense, and style — a total thrillride.


colors-banner

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1972.
Italy. 95 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 – MIDNIGHT

Sergio Martino reteams with muse Edwige Fenech for a Polanski-esque paranoid nightmare about a woman, Jane, who begins to lose her mind after taking heavy meds following a miscarriage. As she grows cold toward her partner, warms up to her sexy neighbor Mary—played by Marina Malfatti from THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF HER GRAVE—who encourages her to get her act together by, er, joining a devil-worshiping sex cult. Somehow, this only makes things worse. When a phantasmic stalker gets into the mix and Jane participates in ever-more ritualistic murder orgies, things spiral further into madness.

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK is Sergio Martino’s most surreal film, featuring a number of delirious nightmare set pieces. As always, Fenech is fantastic, and as ROSEMARY’S BABY knockoffs go, this is one of the best.


vice-banner

YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1972.
Italy. 97 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 – MIDNIGHT

“I don’t feel like being involved in one of your spectacles.”

Made between ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK and TORSO, YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY is a misanthropic, brooding, manipulative and beautiful treatment of Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Black Cat.” It also has a drunk author getting J&B shipped by the crate to his house, which might be the gialloest thing ever. Fans of Sergio Martino’s earlier film THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (from which this film gets it name) might be thrown a bit by the subdued, sullen quality, but it’s part of a greater plan, a plan that includes commune freak-outs, slaughtered mistresses, gratuitous POV (on line with Martino’s next film, TORSO) and perhaps greatest of all, Edwige Fenech, of whom I can say nothing without getting the vapors. With a storyline that’ll satisfy no-loose-ends mystery fans, enough jaw-dropping cinematography and costuming to please the art crowd, and Martino’s thoughtful and visceral style (there’s also a great Bruno Nicolai score to sweeten the pot), YOUR VICE…might be Martino’s finest.


torso-banner

TORSO
aka The bodies bear traces of carnal violence
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1973
Italy. 93 min.
In English with a few previously cut scenes in subtitled Italian

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24 – MIDNIGHT

TORSO is the fifth and final giallo by under-appreciated genre master Sergio Martino. Having perfected the lurid and stylish pulp-literary whodunnit with films like THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH and THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL, here he strips the giallo formula down to its raw essentials, breaking it down into a new form of distilled carnage-by-numbers that anticipates the American slasher—which has never approached this level of bravura panache.

The plot is absurdly minimal: a masked man is killing college coeds along with anyone else who threatens to reveal his identity. The police’s only clue is a red scarf, which is probably intended as a mocking allusion to the red herring. (At one point, a character who thinks she’s identified the killer remembers he was wearing a black scarf with an abstract red pattern rather than a red scarf with an abstract black pattern—yet they look identical.) No matter the details: the film is pure sex and dismemberment, ranging from necking in cars to lesbian exhibitionists to a drug-fuelled hippie orgy, which, in one of the film’s most memorable sequences, results in someone wandering half-naked and stoned through thick fog in a dew-drenched forest before encountering the killer, clad in a leather jacket and ripped stocking mask, appearing like a swampy apparition. The film unlikely culminates in an incredibly nail-biting and grisly protracted suspense sequence that is pure edge-of-your-seat cinema.

Thanks to our friends at Blue Underground, we’re pleased to present the film in a stunning transfer made directly from the film’s original, uncut elements. We’ll show it with the English-language soundtrack, which has a minute or two of previously excised footage in subtitled Italian.


=================== MIDNIGHTS: REMIX 2 COGNITION ===================

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SOUTH THIRD STREET FOREVER: AIM FOR THE TRASH CAN
Dir. Various, Compiled by C. Spencer Yeh, 2014
USA. ?? min.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17 – MIDNIGHT

Following warm on the heels of SOUTH THIRD STREET FOREVER: APPROVED FOR ALL AUDIENCES (as seen at the Museum of Arts and Design’s NYC Makers: A MAD Biennial), a survey of custom-edited movie trailers compiled from the over-400 created since Spectacle’s scrappy beginnings, comes SOUTH THIRD STREET FOREVER: AIM FOR THE TRASH CAN. Whereas ALL AUDIENCES attempted a broad overview, strategically edited for the museum’s broad audiences, TRASH CAN kicks a 180 and lures all the nasty exploitation, howling horror, and explosive action-packed genre trailers out of the Spectacle gutter into one seamy vacation package. This hour-plus-long shitty cruise traverses all the rank detours and volatile twists and turns you might’ve missed unless you’ve spent mad N.I.S.S. (Nights In Spectacle’s Service). Spoiler alert – the calls are coming from inside the trash can and this boat never left the sewer.

Various versions of the SOUTH THIRD STREET FOREVER trailer compilations have screened at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Film Festival, the Kinomuzeum festival at Muzeum Sztuki Nowoczesnej w Warszawie. Yeh has also presented his own trailers to LAMPO at the Graham Foundation in Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art in our very own NYC.

Warning: graphic violence, sexuality, and other adult subject matter


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THE SIMPSONSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Dir. Lenora Jarrett, 2013
USA, 90 min.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18 – MIDNIGHT

“Every aired moment of The Simpsons (from Ullman through the movie and up-to-date) sped up (a lot) to fit into a 90 minute program.”

What more do you need to dohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh?



=================== THE CURSE OF GHOUL FRIDAY ===================

_Curse Ghoul Banner 1

THE CURSE OF GHOUL FRIDAY
Another Psychotic Series of Short Films Celebrating the Supernatural!
Approx. 90 min.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31 – MIDNIGHT

Like a plutonium razor blade in a vampiric apple, The Spectacle celebrates All Hallows Eve with the return of the short film series that will steal your soul: THE CURSE OF GHOUL FRIDAY!

Risk your sanity with 90 minutes of werewolves, witches and warlocks—and all their unholy pals, like hungry ghosts, murderous toys, bad acid trips, Martian invaders, necrophiliacs, ice-cream-stealing monsters, and everybody’s best friend: The Apocalypse!

Are you brave enough to let yourself be exposed to the cosmic dread that lurks beyond the veil of human consciousness? Are you tough enough to withstand a maelstrom of animation and special effects techniques? Are you strong enough to deal with an utter disregard for propriety?

Sure you are—you go to movies at The Spectacle!

Featuring works by (or inspired by) Poe, Lovecraft, Angela Carter, Christopher Nolan, Stephen King, Guillermo Del Toro, H.G. Wells, Brian De Palma, the Butthole Surfers—and not to mention that most terrifying book in history: The Bible!

Like Dan O’Bannon’s zombies, THE CURSE OF GHOUL FRIDAY can’t be stopped with a bullet to the head—after all, you can’t kill something that was never alive!

With more than 20 shorts in an approximately 90 minute program, be the first kid on your block to experience unfathomable and indescribable evil; all for the low, low prices of $5—and your immortal soul!!! And it’s only at the Spectacle: BWAH-HAH-HAH-HAH!!!

TRIGGER WARNING: These are horror films, okay? It’s their job to push your buttons and freak you out with a myriad of twisted and disturbing methods! No refunds!


ALL THE COLORS OF GIALLO: SERGIO MARTINO MIDNIGHTS

martino-banner

All month we spotlight the five gialli the prolific Sergio Martino directed between 1971 and 1973. Ranging from Agatha Christie/Edgar Wallace-style mysteries to Polanski-esque paranoid thrillers and proto-slashers, these lurid pulp masterpieces are exquisite exercises in style and represent quintessential examples of the genre. They also feature incredible soundtracks and amazing leading ladies, most notably Edwige Fenech and Anita Strindberg, who appear side-by-side in YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY. Though Martino went on to make dozens of films in other, sensational genres, he never fully returned to giallo. Nonetheless, these are up there with the best of Bava, Argento, and early Fulci.


wardh-banner

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH
aka BLADE OF THE RIPPER
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1971.
Italy. 96 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3 – MIDNIGHT

Sergio Martino’s first giallo is also one of the genre’s most sexually dynamite works. Raven haired French beauty Edwige Fenech is Julie Wardh, an ambassador’s wife in Vienna still reeling from her sadomasochistic relationship with an intense ex-lover, Jean. As she arrives, a killer is stalking women on the streets—and Jean just happens to be in town. In the meantime, she meets George, the debonair cousin of her friend Carol, who thrives of seducing married women. Things heat up between the pair while bodies pile in the streets and Jean remains a menacing presence—and soon, the sets his sights on Julie, spinning the plot through dozens of twists.

THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH is totally out-of-control, and a major genre classic: a hot mess of over-the-top stylization, kinky sex, nightmare interludes, brutal killings, suspense sequences, and, of course, a top-notch soundtrack by Nora Orlani including an insane version of “Dies Irae” that kicks in whenever Julie has flashbacks about having dirty sex with Jean. A giallo essential!


scorpion-banner

THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1971.
Italy. 91 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4 – MIDNIGHT

Bombshell Anita Strindberg anchors Martino’s most nimble and classic example of giallo tropes in THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL, which ostensibly tells the story of a woman under investigation following the mysterious explosion of her wealthy husband’s airplane. When she travels to Greece to collect her inheritance, a number of variables come into play: a vindictive mistress and her hired thug, an insurance claim investigator, a stalker-killer on the loose, and a photojournalist, Cléo (Strindberg), assigned to the story. After a number of twists and turns, the investigator and journalist become the center of the story—and the killer’s prime target.

THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL has a whole lot going for it: particularly, a simply incredible score by Bruno Nicoli that is among the best work ever done in the genre, and Martino’s best suspense sequence, in which a stealthy home invasion leads to a rooftop chase recalling Louis Feuillade’s classic LES VAMPIRES serial. THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL is pure sex, suspense, and style — a total thrillride.


colors-banner

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1972.
Italy. 95 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10 – MIDNIGHT

Sergio Martino reteams with muse Edwige Fenech for a Polanski-esque paranoid nightmare about a woman, Jane, who begins to lose her mind after taking heavy meds following a miscarriage. As she grows cold toward her partner, warms up to her sexy neighbor Mary—played by Marina Malfatti from THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF HER GRAVE—who encourages her to get her act together by, er, joining a devil-worshiping sex cult. Somehow, this only makes things worse. When a phantasmic stalker gets into the mix and Jane participates in ever-more ritualistic murder orgies, things spiral further into madness.

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK is Sergio Martino’s most surreal film, featuring a number of delirious nightmare set pieces. As always, Fenech is fantastic, and as ROSEMARY’S BABY knockoffs go, this is one of the best.


vice-banner

YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1972.
Italy. 97 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11 – MIDNIGHT

“I don’t feel like being involved in one of your spectacles.”

Made between ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK and TORSO, YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY is a misanthropic, brooding, manipulative and beautiful treatment of Edgar Allen Poe’s story “The Black Cat.” It also has a drunk author getting J&B shipped by the crate to his house, which might be the gialloest thing ever. Fans of Sergio Martino’s earlier film THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH (from which this film gets it name) might be thrown a bit by the subdued, sullen quality, but it’s part of a greater plan, a plan that includes commune freak-outs, slaughtered mistresses, gratuitous POV (on line with Martino’s next film, TORSO) and perhaps greatest of all, Edwige Fenech, of whom I can say nothing without getting the vapors. With a storyline that’ll satisfy no-loose-ends mystery fans, enough jaw-dropping cinematography and costuming to please the art crowd, and Martino’s thoughtful and visceral style (there’s also a great Bruno Nicolai score to sweeten the pot), YOUR VICE…might be Martino’s finest.


torso-banner

TORSO
aka The bodies bear traces of carnal violence
Dir. Sergio Martino, 1973
Italy. 93 min.
In English with a few previously cut scenes in subtitled Italian

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24 – MIDNIGHT

TORSO is the fifth and final giallo by under-appreciated genre master Sergio Martino. Having perfected the lurid and stylish pulp-literary whodunnit with films like THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH and THE CASE OF THE SCORPION’S TAIL, here he strips the giallo formula down to its raw essentials, breaking it down into a new form of distilled carnage-by-numbers that anticipates the American slasher—which has never approached this level of bravura panache.

The plot is absurdly minimal: a masked man is killing college coeds along with anyone else who threatens to reveal his identity. The police’s only clue is a red scarf, which is probably intended as a mocking allusion to the red herring. (At one point, a character who thinks she’s identified the killer remembers he was wearing a black scarf with an abstract red pattern rather than a red scarf with an abstract black pattern—yet they look identical.) No matter the details: the film is pure sex and dismemberment, ranging from necking in cars to lesbian exhibitionists to a drug-fuelled hippie orgy, which, in one of the film’s most memorable sequences, results in someone wandering half-naked and stoned through thick fog in a dew-drenched forest before encountering the killer, clad in a leather jacket and ripped stocking mask, appearing like a swampy apparition. The film unlikely culminates in an incredibly nail-biting and grisly protracted suspense sequence that is pure edge-of-your-seat cinema.

Thanks to our friends at Blue Underground, we’re pleased to present the film in a stunning transfer made directly from the film’s original, uncut elements. We’ll show it with the English-language soundtrack, which has a minute or two of previously excised footage in subtitled Italian.

SEPTEMBER MIDNIGHTS

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5: BLACK DRAGON’S REVENGE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6: BLACK SAMURAI
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12: DON’T GO IN THE HOUSE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13: DON’T GO IN THE WOODS
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19: SUPERCHICK
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20: LAS VEGAS LADY
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26: THREE ON A MEATHOOK
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27: INVASION OF THE GIRL SNATCHERS



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THE BLACK DRAGON’S REVENGE
Dir. Chin-Ku Lu, 1975.
USA/Hong Kong. 87 min.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 – MIDNIGHT

In the 1960s, Ron van Clief was dubbed “The Black Dragon” by Bruce Lee. After Lee’s death, a whole wave of Hong Kong cinema dubbed “Brucesploitation” sought to cash in on the star’s death. Unlike many of them, THE BLACK DRAGON’S REVENGE, also known as THE DEATH OF BRUCE LEE, doesn’t feature a lookalike. Rather, van Clief is summoned on an international mission to uncover the truth behind Lee’s death. He’s joined by the Bronx’s Puerto Rican “White Dragon” Charles Bonnet.

Everything about THE BLACK DRAGON’S REVENGE is shamelessly, gloriously derivative, including the score that inexplicably rips off Ennio Morricone’s theme from THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. What puts THE BLACK DRAGON over the top is the awesome fighting by van Clief and Bonnet, both at the top of their form. (Also, uh, their hilariously stilted dialog exchanges.) The action is beautiful and brutal, particularly a scene in which Bonnet takes on a group of killers after tearing a large dart out of the side of his neck.



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BLACK SAMURAI
Dir. Al Adamson, 1977.
USA. 88 min.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6 – MIDNIGHT

ENTER THE DRAGON’s “Kicking-rhymes-like” Jim Kelly stars in this amazing attempt to cram every possible comic book conceit into a single blaxploitation kung fu occult spy movie. Kelly is Robert Sand, Agent of D.R.A.G.O.N., coerced by shady government operatives into traveling around the world in pursuit of evil warlock Janicot and his legion of henchmen (notably including several little people, some of whom know karate, and others who just wield large shotguns). He’s going to need all his kung fu skills to get through this mission–along with shotguns, supercharged trick cars, a mariachi band, decorative live snakes, and an actual JETPACK. I honestly didn’t even know jetpacks were real until I saw the Jim Kelly flying around in one, plain as day, without any apparent special effects, and looked up jetpacks on Wikipedia.

Anyway: that platonic-ideal, balls-to-the-wall, kitchen-sink exploitation movie you’ve always wanted to see but never knew how to find? It’s showing at Spectacle tonight.



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DON’T GO IN THE HOUSE
Dir. Joseph Ellison, 1979.
USA. 82 min.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 – MIDNIGHT

D. Boon asked, “What makes a man start fires?” Donny’s coworkers at the garbage disposal plant call him a fag and a sicko when he stands coldly transfixed as the incinerator envelops a co-worker in flames. He returns home to find his mother dead: his long-suffering guardian, who punished him as a child by holding his arms over the stove’s open flames. The curdled scars on his arms say nothing of the hideous psychological brand on his brain. His homicidal passion ignited, Donny does what any frustrated man would do: buys a flamethrower, builds a steel room, and lures women home so he can set them ablaze then arrange their charred corpses in his sitting room.

A decidedly sick ripoff of PSYCHO, DON’T GO IN THE HOUSE is perhaps less along the lines of a cheapie slasher than a film that seems to at least some extent be legitimately interested in creating a character portrait around a disturbed mind. (When Donny decides he’s been cured and changes from his working class duds into a new leisure suit, you almost want to believe he’s going to find true love at the discotheque instead of lighting a bunch of people on fire.) Consider it TAXI DRIVER with a blowtorch and the grindhouse version of a Scorsesean Catholic guilt complex. Future SOPRANOS wiseguy Dan Grimaldi turns in a memorable performance as Donny, and the film has some truly creepy moments and shocking scares.



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DON’T GO IN THE WOODS
Dir. James Bryan, 1981.
USA. 82 min.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – MIDNIGHT

Possibly a conceptual art project to make the most consummately inept slasher film ever, DON’T GO IN THE WOODS is totally riveting for its singular oddball charm. Even if the filmmakers couldn’t figure out how to load the camera correctly (as evinced by occasional flares on the side of the image), they sure-as-F knew how to unleash buckets of blood. The sort of plot-like thing is basically something to do with this giant grizzly survivalist guy running around killing a ton of people. That’s basically it.

Like Godard’s 2 OR 3 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER, there isn’t really a central protagonist, just an endless stream of campers, lovers, ornithologists, painters, roller skaters, and whatever kind of chilling and doing their thing before their guts are ripped out or their heads are smacked by swinging bear traps and stuff — under a bed of what is surely some of the most offensive use of synthesizer ever. Do we even need to tell you that this is essential bad-movie viewing?



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SUPERCHICK
Dir. Ed Forsyth, 1973.
USA, 94 min.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 – MIDNIGHT

Tara True (Joyce Jillson, better known today as Nancy Reagan’s astrologer) spends her days as a flight attendant, where she wears a wig to downplay her attractiveness, but by night she’s a free-wheeling karate-wielding lady with a different man in every town! Between water skiing, reefer parties and mocking trenchcoated perverts, one of her gentleman callers wants her to help in a bank heist.

John Carradine as a creepy sadist and Dan Haggerty as (you guessed it) a biker! Sex on a piano! All the nudity you’d expect from an early 70s Crown International film (there’s a short buy sweet Uschi Digard cameo) make this a more action-packed counterpart to the AIP Stewardesses series!



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LAS VEGAS LADY
Dir. Noel Nosseck, 1975.
USA, 87 min.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 20 – MIDNIGHT

More glitzy 70s capers with casino hostess Lucky (TV stalwart Stella Stevens) planning to rip off Circus Circus for millions in LAS VEGAS LADY!

With supporting roles by Andrew Stevens (who, a year later, played Mark in the Spectacle fave Massacre At Central High), George DiCenzo (Helter Skelter) and Frank Bonner (WKRP’s Herb Tarlek)!



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THREE ON A MEATHOOK
Dir. William Girdler, 1973.
USA, 80 min.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 – MIDNIGHT

“But I would have remembered it.” “You didn’t remember the others, Billy.”

Based loosely on the life and crimes of Ed Gein, William Girdler’s second feature (after the amazing ASYLUM OF SATAN) is a bleak, grainy look at backwoods dread and familial madness. Starting with a stock trope (four young women go backpacking in the Kentucky woods), the film hits its stride when Billy Townsend discovers the girls camping by their farmhouse and invites them to stay with his father and himself. Pa has convinced Billy he’s actually a psychotic killer and warns Billy against the women staying over, but things are not quite as they seem…

Containing gore effects by spookshow magician and H.G Lewis associate Pat Patterson, it’s a film well-saturated in deep red, and certainly those looking for some skinny-dipping nudity won’t be disappointed. Shot in the same farmhouse used in INVASION OF THE GIRL SNATCHERS (later burned to the ground by arsonists convinced it was used for Satanic rites), THREE ON A MEATHOOK contains much of the same blank-eyed stare as Frederic Friedel’s film AXE — it’s definitely one to catch for fans of 70s rural horror.

“The VHS revolution made it possible for folks my age to see fellow Louisvillian William Girdler’s indelible (blood-stained), instantaneous period piece THREE ON A MEATHOOK, which had long been the subject of rumor and speculation.  And somewhat as expected – and like many other things from the Bluegrass State – it became cause in equal parts for perverse pride and horror.” – David Grubbs



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INVASION OF THE GIRL SNATCHERS
Dir. Lee Jones, 1973.
USA, 93 min.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 – MIDNIGHT

“Nice glyphs!”

New wave parody? Secret truth about UFOs? Stoned goof? INVASION OF THE GIRL SNATCHERS is all three and more to boot. Made using some of the same sets, equipment and crew as Three On A Meathook, this film was originally titled The Hidan Of Maukbeiangjow (Hidan meaning “high place”) by Don Elkins and Carla Rueckert, two UFO researchers (see here for more info) asked by director Lee Jones (who produced SUPERVAN, GRIZZLY, and HONEY BRITCHES) to write any script they wanted so long as it had sex and violence.

With befuddled aliens, tracking devices hidden in bras, a safecracker named Freddie Fingers, body-switching, topless sorcery and more, GIRL SNATCHERS is like a zero budget MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE with metaphysical digressions, goofball puns and a lovely rural Kentucky quality that puts more self-conscious parodies to shame.


AUGUST MIDNIGHTS

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1: SPECTACLE ROULETTE
SATURDAY, AUGUST 2: ATOM AGE VAMPIRE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8: TROMA’S HORROR BOOBS
SATURDAY, AUGUST 9: THE FOREST
FRIDAY, AUGUST 15: DESPERATE TARGET
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16:
LITTLE MARINES
FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 & SATURDAY, AUGUST 23: DON’T GO IN THE WEEKEND – CANNIBAL CAMPOUT / WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29:
SCIENCE TEAM


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SPECTACLE ROULETTE
Dir. ???, 19??/20??.
????. ??? min.
In any number of languages.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 1 – MIDNIGHT

Once again it’s time to spin the chamber! What are we going to show?

Cooking shows hosted by puppets from Iceland? Italian dancefighting epics? Hologramsploitation? Hostage situation bloopers? Dog Wedding Massacre? Open heart surgery? Prison slime fights?

Well, that’s up to you.

The first 6 people to show up with a movie will be given the chance to lobby by showing 5 minutes of that film. After all 6 are shown, everyone votes and that’s what we watch!

If you want to participate, please do the following:

1. Show up at least 15 minutes BEFORE midnight with your proposed film. (Either a DVD or digital copy!)
2. Be prepared to introduce your 5 minute clip and lobby hard for your candidate.
3. COME CORRECT. Bring the craziest thing you can find, no half-steps!
4. Tell your friends!


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ATOM AGE VAMPIRE
(aka Seddok, l’erede di Satana)
Dir. Anton Giulio Majano, 1960
Italy, 87 min.
Dubbed in English

SATURDAY, AUGUST 2 – MIDNIGHT

From the annals of public domain comes a tale of shocking science gone awry, a damsel in distress, and ***SPOILER ALERT*** absolutely no vampires.

Yes, 1960’s ATOM AGE VAMPIRE – originally released in Italy as SEDDOK, L’EDREDE DI SATANA – contains no vampires whatsoever.

Instead – a beautiful singer is horribly disfigured in a car accident and opts for a very unusual treatment. Under the care of the crazed Dr. Levin, she agrees to be injected with an experimental serum designed to restore her beauty. However, during the course of the treatments, Dr. Levin falls madly in love with her and as the serum gradually fails and her beauty deteriorates in front of him – he vows to go to any length to get it back, no matter how dastardly.

Spectacle will be screening this beast from the LOONIC VIDEO VHS, the way God intended.



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TROMA HORROR BOOBS
dir. John Brennan
USA, 80 mins

Spectacle’s favorite perverts are back at it again! This time Horror Boobs have teamed up with America’s oldest independent movie studio, Troma! A union defined by an appreciation for exposed flesh on film. Their mission: to bring you the breast nude scenes from the depths the Troma catalog!

Honestly with titles like THE TOXIC AVENGER, TERROR FIRMER and SGT. KABUKI MAN NYPD, it wasn’t very hard for the HB Crew to stuff this video mix to the max! We’re talking about the bare bosoms of Michelle Bauer, Julie Strain, Debbie Rochon, Carmen Electra’s Body Double and many, many more! With guest appearances by Kevin Costner, Trey Parker, Ted Raimi, Ron Jeremy, and Lloyd Kaufman.

Come experience horror & boobs of all sizes on the big screen. Seriously what more could you ask for? Penises. Well you never know, Lloyd Kaufman is involved, and you know how he likes his penises.


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THE FOREST
Dir. Don Jones, 1982
USA. 85 min.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 9 – MIDNIGHT



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DESPERATE TARGET
Dir. George Vieira, 1980
USA, 90 min.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 16 – MIDNIGHT

Starring Christopher Mitchum

“A Russian scientist who discovers the formula for a new synthetic fuel becomes the ‘Desperate Target’ of a group of desperate men.”


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LITTLE MARINES
Dir. A.J. Hixon, 1991
USA, 87 min.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 – MIDNIGHT

Awkwardly shot like a pervert peaking on these kids in the woods, A.J. Hixon’s LITTLE MARINES is the story of three turds that go camping. It’s not really an adventure film since it is mostly just a series of mishaps and fuck-ups and offers no resolutions to these kids problems. Most famous for its really long shaving scene featured at the Found Footage Film Festival, LITTLE MARINES has many more precious moments including bizarre flashbacks to their friend who died of cancer, a cool dude that tries to give them a handful of joints, a not so cool dude that is probably a child molester, a bully that has a gun, and a moment when the fatty admits that his father never said he loved him and the fatty’s friends say nothing. Its what you can expect from good ol’ Christian entertainment.

For this screening, the Spectacle will be screening the VHS tape that features the original music they probably couldn’t get the rights to when it came out on DVD!


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Spectacle & Alternative Cinema present:
DON’T GO IN THE WEEKEND!

CANNIBAL CAMPOUT – FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 – MIDNIGHT
WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE – SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 – MIDNIGHT

GHASTLY SHOT ON VIDEO GORE (AND A LITTLE BIT OF SINGING) DEEP IN THE WOODS! NO ONE IS SAFE! DON’T SAY WE DIDN’T WARN YOU!!!!

Alternative Cinema/Camp Motion Pictures website: alternativecinema.com

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CANNIBAL CAMPOUT
dir. Tom Fisher/Jon McBride, 1988
89 mins, USA
In English

FRIDAY, AUGUST 22 – MIDNIGHT

CANNIBAL CAMPOUT (1988) is the tender and terrifying tale of a band of man-eating maniacs. Desperate to survive, the deranged orphans honor a deathbed promise to dearly departed mother never to eat junk food again. Instead, they work up frenzied appetites that will only be satisfied by the taste of young flesh. When Amy and her college friends arrive for a fun-filled weekend of camping in the desolate wilderness, they quickly learn the horrors of being on the wrong end of the food chain. Only brutal murder, torture and mutilation await as one by one they are stalked and terrorized by this brood of bloodthirsty mountain dwellers who will stop at nothing to appease their hunger for sliced, diced and barbecued camper.

“I love this movie…perhaps it’s the completely tasteless ending that was so sickening that I couldn’t help but enjoy it enormously”. – DeadLantern.com

“…the grossest scenes this side of H.G. Lewis… will probably repulse even the staunchest vidiot.” – Fangoria Magazine

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WOODCHIPPER MASSACRE
dir. Jon McBride, 1989
90 mins, USA
In English.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 23 – MIDNIGHT

It’s The Brady Kids meets the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in this heartwarming, stomach-churning tale of a not so typical American family that unexpectedly finds itself caught up in a web of death, deceit and dismemberment. And what better way for this trio of demented siblings to discard of fresh human remains than turn it into garden variety mulch…by way of the biggest woodchipper ever to chop’n’grind a grown man into ground meat. In this family, blood really is thicker than water.


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SCIENCE TEAM
Dir. Drew Bolduc, 2014
82 min, USA

FRIDAY, AUGUST 29 – MIDNIGHT

Way back in October of 2011 at the first annual Spectacle Shriek Show, we played host to a film called THE TAINT directed by Drew Bolduc & Dan Nelson. THE TAINT polarized not only the audience at the event but mired many of the Spectacle programmers in weeks of lengthy email chains leaving the film right on the tip of everyone’s brain long after the screening was over. Now, Bolduc has returned to the directors chair for SCIENCE TEAM and we couldn’t be more excited.

SCIENCE TEAM is a completely independent sci-fi feature length motion picture produced and shot in Richmond, Virginia. The film was partially funded by crowd-sourcing through Indiegogo and is a great example of how high-quality films can be created with a micro-budget.

When Chip returns home to visit his beloved mother, he finds himself caught in the middle of an interstellar war between a telepathic space alien and a bureaucratic government organization bent on incinerating all alien life. Chip must fight to survive this ego-shattering drama of epic proportions.

JULY MIDNIGHTS

FRIDAY, JULY 11: ATOM AGE VAMPIRE
SATURDAY, JULY 12: THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF
FRIDAY, JULY 18: MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE
SATURDAY, JULY 19: PICK-UP
FRIDAY, JULY 25: BLOOD MANIA
SATURDAY, JULY 26: MAZES & MONSTERS



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ATOM AGE VAMPIRE (Seddok, l’erede di Satana)
Dir. Anton Giulio Majano, 1960
Italy, 87 min.
Dubbed in English.

FRIDAY, JULY 11 – MIDNIGHT

When singer Jeanette is horribly disfigured in a car accident, deranged scientist Dr. Levin uses miraculous healing agent Derma 28 to restore her beauty, falling in love with her during the process.

Having previously studied the effects of radiation on living tissue at Hiroshima, Dr. Levin originally developed Derma 25, an imperfect and mutative formula, before refining it to the rejuvenating Derma 28 . As the supply of Derma 28 runs out and Jeanette’s treatment begins to fail, Dr. Levin realizes he must kill to create more. Injecting himself with Derma 25, he mutates into the horrible creature called ‘Seddok’ by the Japanese refugees among whom he culls his victims, gathering glands to keep his obsession beautiful.

ATOM AGE VAMPIRE doesn’t  have a literal vampire, but it does feature typical French horror fixations on fading beauty, treatments born of brutality that only temporarily hold aging at bay, and villains pondering the nature of their own evil and the world around them (metaphorical vampires, that is).



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THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF (Gritos en la noche)
Dir. Jess Franco, 1962
Spain/France, 90 min.
Dubbed in English.

SATURDAY, JULY 12 – MIDNIGHT

Franco’s eleventh film (of at least 200), and his first proper horror film, demonstrates Franco’s love of traditional mad scientist tropes, mixing a bit of Eyes Without A Face and Frankenstein into one of the undisputed peaks of Franco’s career.

Howard Vernon is at his best as Dr. Orlof, who abducts beautiful women in order to transplant their skin onto his disfigured daughter’s face, we get plenty of Franco’s classic tropes: mirrors, nightclubs, deformed assistants (in this case, a shambling beast named Morpho) secret laboratories and (of course) a Franco cameo as a barroom piano player, it’s a film that satisfies on both the Expressionist-inspired classic horror level while giving hints of Jess’s more explicit material to come.

With Spanish horror legend Diana Lorys in a dual role as both a ballerina in love with a detective on Orlof’s trail (played by Conrado San Martín) and Orlof’s daughter Melissa, it’s a treat for fans of black and white 60s horror and an excellent introduction to Franco’s work.



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MAGIC OF THE UNIVERSE (Salamamgkero / The Magician / Monster of the Universe)
Dir. Tata Estaban, 1986/1988
Philippines, 84 min.
Dubbed in English.

FRIDAY, JULY 18 – MIDNIGHT

BELIEVE in MAGIC.  A wizard accidentally loses his daughter to an unimaginable evil.  He risks hat and wand to make things right.  Cast of tens includes humans and puppets.



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PICK-UP
Dir. Bernard Hirschenson
USA, 80 min.

SATURDAY, JULY 19 – MIDNIGHT

Trigger Warning: Church molestation, (implied) rape/murder.

“It’s sure gonna be a bad trip. I can feel it.”

Chuck is delivering a mobile home through Florida when he stops and picks up Carol and Maureen. Despite Maureen’s reservations, they board, only to get stuck in the Everglades, where they wander through the swamp, come across characters out of a Firesign Theater album, are visited by gods and clowns and, through a series of flashbacks, discover the plans fate has for them.

A definite rural Florida freakout and at times close to a drive-in Fellini film, PICK-UP was the only movie made by the majority of the cast (including all the main actors) and moves with the logic of a hash dream, combining tarot readings, modular synth and Indian percussion songs, a *lot* of nudity and a constantly shifting vibe moving between bucolic hippie love-in and exploitation dread.

PICK-UP covers a lot of ground during its 80 minutes and offers something for every midnight movie fan.



BLOOD MANIA

BLOOD MANIA
Dir. Robert Vincent O’Neill, 1970
USA, 88 min.

FRIDAY, JULY 25 – MIDNIGHT

“What am I gonna do with all that money?” “Well, you don’t have your own yacht.”

From the director who brought us Wonder Women (and would later bring us the Angel series), Robert Vincent O’Neill, comes a “who gets the inheritance?” thriller with all sorts of lurid 70s touches.

Blood Mania stars Maria De Aragon (Greedo from Star Wars) as Victoria Waters, who spends this film impatiently waiting for her sick husband to die and leave her his fortune while sneaking around having amyl parties with his doctor, who is also after daughter Gail (Vicki Peters of The Manson Massacre and ’72 Playmate), who might actually be getting the fortune after all, when a secret blackmail threat throws everything awry.

O’Neill takes this premise and loads it with the sort of drug-damaged dreamy quality seen in his film The Psycho Lover – from Victoria’s topless painting freakouts to poolside seductions to smeary-lens nightgown stalkings. It’s a perfect example of the Crown Films strategy of sleazed-up Peyton Place, and with a great score, a nice lawyer cameo by Alex Rocco and plenty of twists and turns, it’s not the gorefest the title promises, but absolutely delivers on the mania.


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MAZES & MONSTERS
Dir. Steven Hilliard Stern
USA, 120 min.

SATURDAY, JULY 26 – MIDNIGHT

In the 1980s, America was under attack. The forces of evil were constantly looking to infiltrate our youth through Communism, rock music, and – perhaps most insidiously – tabletop role playing games.

Author Rona Jaffe recognized these dangers and wrote “Mazes & Monsters”, a book about a group of troubled teens obsessed with pretending to be wizards and warriors and the one friend who took that obsession TOO FAR. The book was soon made into a television movie, where a young actor named Tom Hanks showed the world just how easily RPGs could blur the lines between fantasy and reality – with deadly results!

Join us for a fun filled and educational night featuring trivia, prizes, and commentary from a real life “Dungeon Master”!

Felony Comics Crime Spree (THE SADIST & NEW DRUG CITY)

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SATURDAY, JUNE 21 – ONE NIGHT ONLY! NO CHANCE FOR PAROLE!
10PM – THE SADIST / MIDNIGHT – NEW DRUG CITY

Negative Pleasure, in conjunction with Spectacle Theater, is proud to present the Felony Comics Crime Spree. From the fevered minds of Alex Degen (Area CC), Lale Westvind (Hot Dog Beach), Pete Toms (On Hiatus), Benjamin Urkowitz (Real Rap Comics), Karissa Sakumoto (Crawdads) and Benjamin Marra (Blades & Lazers), under the stern supervision of warden-in-chief Harris Smith (Jeans Comics), Felony Comics #1 is a shocking glimpse into the scum-drenched underworld of devious lawbreakers and indefatigable detectives.

Seething from the moral gray area that is Brooklyn, New York, Negative Pleasure issues you a summons to be an accomplice in our inaugural crime spree, celebrating the launch of our first issue with screenings of two of our most insidious cinematic crime bibles, The Sadist (1963) and New Drug City (aka Narcotrafico, 1985).



THE SADIST
(aka: Sweet Baby Charlie, Profile of Terror)
Dir. James Landis, 1963
USA, 92 min.
In English

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 – 10:00 PM

After their car suffers a bum fuel pump on the way to see an LA Dodgers game, Doris (an attractive young lady), Ed (a school teacher), and Carl (a nebbish family man) pull into a seemingly abandoned junk yard. They discover a residence with a freshly set dinner table and no one to eat it and the fear sets in – something is clearly wrong. Not soon after they run into Charles Tibbs, a wall of a man armed with a .45 and and creepy giggle who is flanked by his nearly silent partner, Judy. The two have managed to stay one step ahead of the law with a trail of bodies in their wake and have no intention of getting caught now.

With a small cast and only a few locations, THE SADIST is uncompromising in its menace. Made for an estimated $33,000, and loosely based on real-life murderer Charles Starkweather (which also served as the inspiration for NATURAL BORN KILLERS and BADLANDS), the film was the American debut of cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond (The Deer Hunter, Close Encounters of the Third Kind) and serves as a cold reminder that sometimes the scariest monsters are human.



NEW DRUG CITY
(aka: Narcotrafico)
Dir. Raúl de Anda Jr, 1985
Mexico, 90 min.
Dubbed in English

SATURDAY, JUNE 21 – MIDNIGHT

It’s the Feds vs. the Cartel as both sides of the law race through the desert to snag a hidden dope stash in New Drug City. Originally released in 1985 as Narcotrafico, New Drug City was retitled to cash in on the popularity of the popular Wesley Snipes/Judd Nelson crime flick New Jack City for its American dubbed VHS release by Magnum Video. Pure exploitation through and through, New Drug City features a bargain basement Crockett and Tubbs trading awkward, vaguely homoerotic banter as they blast their way through Mexico’s badlands, leaving behind a trail of the prerequisite blood, bullets, bodies and babes. Directed by Raul de Anda Jr. and starring his brother, Rodolfo de Anda, both legends of Mexican action cinema.

JUNE MIDNIGHTS

FRIDAY, JUNE 6: The Franco Files: LILIAN THE PERVERTED VIRGIN
SATURDAY, JUNE 7: AMERICAN COMMANDOS

FRIDAY, JUNE 13: MESSIAH OF EVIL
SATURDAY, JUNE 14: DEATH DRUG

FRIDAY, JUNE 20: SURVIVE
SATURDAY, JUNE 21: NEW DRUG CITY

FRIDAY, JUNE 27: DIGITAL MAN
SATURDAY, JUNE 28: SPECIAL SILENCERS


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The Franco Files Presents:
LILIAN THE PERVERTED VIRGIN (Lilian la virgen pervertida)
Dir. Jess Franco (as Cliford Braun), 1984
Spain, 79 min.

FRIDAY, JUNE 6 – MIDNIGHT

It’s fitting that as soon as Spain lifted the ban on pornography, Jess was the first through the hardcore gate with Lilian, The Perverted Virgin.

It’s the 13th of the 19 films he’d do with Golden Productions, so Lina Romay and Antonio Mayans are there of course, but the star here is Katja Bienert, who plays Lilian, found on the beach by Mario (Mayans), who listens to her tell the story of her abduction and torture at the hands of two wealthy perverts (Romay, naturally, and Emilio Linder). Betrayal, manipulation, wigged-out drug scenes, Jess as a drunk police official (again), freaky stage acts — it’s got everything you’d hope for in a Franco film.

With an excellent score by Pablo Villa and some excellent cinematography by Juan Soler, it’s an excellent introduction to Franco’s 80s classics.

WARNING: Hardcore pornography, including bondage.


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AMERICAN COMMANDOS
Dir. Bobby A. Suarez, 1989
Philippines, 89 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, JUNE 7 – MIDNIGHT

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault

Envelop yourself in our patented FUZZ-O-VISION VHS tape technology!

What’s deadlier than an American Hunter? An AMERICAN COMMANDO(S). Christopher Mitchum, our second or third favorite action star-turned-California politician, returns as an American commando in this high-stakes Southeast Asian shoot-’em-up directed by the legendary Bobby A. Suarez (AMERICAN COMMANDOS).

At the outset, as a gas station attendant in the outskirts of Philippines, Dean Mitchell (Mitchum) bravely kills a bunch of druggie scum by flipping over their car with bullets. Nice! But the problem with killing doper thugs with guns is they have doper thug friends with guns. When these human vermin exterminate Mitchell’s wife and child, they tell him they’ve settled the score – but really, they’ve only upped the stakes. Mitchell is a Vietnam vet, and, reuniting with his fellow war buddies, he traces the group to Saigon before going – that is, returning – deep into the dark heart of the jungle. And once there, he learns that the truth of who is behind the drug killings is far more criminal than he could have imagined.

AMERICAN COMMANDOS is a bleak, brute force actioner relieved only by non-stop moments of extreme unintentional humor, usually in the form of meaningless, blank expressions of loss, anguish, and victimhood. It’s the American right’s most constipated attempt to reconcile (or circumvent) the lessons of Vietnam. As the Bond-esque end credits song states: “He lost everything he had / He came close to going mad / He’s so good / But he is also bad.”

Mm. Anyway: explosions, Filipino-Italo soundtrack, righteous fist shaking toward an absentee God, rocket-firing motorcycle, and squibs galore. What’s not to like?


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MESSIAH OF EVIL
Willard Huyck & Gloria Katz, 1973.
90 min. USA.

FRIDAY, JUNE 13 – MIDNIGHT

Like H.P. Lovecraft’s “Shadow Over Innsmouth” transposed to the west coast, MESSIAH OF EVIL operates on the same kind of eerie dream logic as CARNIVAL OF SOULS and NIGHT TIDE. A young woman travels to a costal SoCal town in search of her father, a reclusive artist, only to find the entire area completely deserted. In his studio she locates a series of distressed audio recordings describing a literal and figurative darkness falling on Point Dune, whose residents only come out at night to stand by seaside fires, staring at the moon while anticipating the arrival of an arcane evil—and feeding on any outsider who strays through. After languishing unseen for decades, MESSIAH OF EVIL is now appreciated as a classic of the genre. It’s the rare film that manages to have it both ways between measured artiness and exploitation excess, creepy suggestiveness and explicit gore. Husband and wife Huyck and Katz went on to write AMERICAN GRAFFITI and the first two Indiana Jones movies, and art director Jack Fisk has since worked almost exclusively on career-spanning collaborations with David Lynch and Terrence Malick.



DEATH DRUG
Dir. Oscar Williams. 1978
USA, 73 min.

SATURDAY, JUNE 14 – MIDNIGHT

1978’s Death Drug (AKA Wack Attack) is more than just a simple drugsploitation movie – it’s a look inside the delusional mind of its star, Miami Vice’s Philip Michael Thomas. Convinced that he would one day win the “EGOT” (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), and driven mad with jealousy over co-star Don Johnson’s hit albumHeartbeat, PMT decided to re-release the film eight years later as a vehicle to plug his own album, Living the Book of My Life. The result is a fascinating trainwreck and a study in pure, unbridled hubris.

Jesse Thomas (PMT) is a young plumber and budding musician with his whole life ahead of him. That is, until a smooth-talking drug dealer convinces him to switch out his “burn-out weed” for “the stick with the kick” – angel dust. Jesse slides into a series of hallucinigenic nightmares as his life crumbles around him, all set to the funky soundtrack of the legendary Gap Band. Things are further complicated when the movie attempts to insert the mindblowingly bizarre music video for PMT’s 1986 single, “Just the Way I Planned It”, into the middle of the film and awkwardly work it into the narrative.

It’s a spectacle which needs to be seen to be believed – complete with trivia, prizes, and the world’s most renowned Philip Michael Thomas expert on hand to provide relevant background and annotations. In the words of PMT himself, “We hope you enjoy the dramatization.”



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SURVIVE (w/ DEVIL MOON)
Dir. Liam Makrogiannis, 2014
USA, 90 min.
In English

FRIDAY, JUNE 20 – MIDNIGHT
ONE NIGHT ONLY! ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE!

Global terrorists defile New York’s water supply with a deadly dose of mind melting bacterium, mutating the population into undead murdering machines hellbent on non-stop brutal carnage. Can eight strangers band together to survive the endless hordes of the bloodthirsty dead?
Will they be able to survive each other?

WILL ANYONE SURVIVE?

Spectacle, Horror Boobs, and King of the Witches join forces once again to bring you a cinematic event you won’t experience anywhere else! 15 year Liam Makrogiannis presents his feature length NYC splatterfest – SURVIVE! A labor of love conceived when he was just 13, SURVIVE, follows a ragtag team of misfits (including Philly’s youngest F/X wizard and director of SLAUGHTER TALES – Johnny Dickie) as they fight against the end of the world. Featuring appearances from Nik Taneris, Evan Makrogiannis, Josh Schafer of Lunchmeat VHS Fanzine, Matt D of Horror Boobs, and the world’s uncle – Lloyd Kaufman.

This screening of SURVIVE will be paired with Liam’s short film – DEVIL MOON – with the filmmakers and special guests in attendance for a Q&A.

Special VHS release from HBV & KOTW will also be available!


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DIGITAL MAN
Dir. Philip J. Roth, 1995
Nevada. 91 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, JUNE 27 – MIDNIGHT

Hot on the heels of 2013’s sold-out screenings of Richard J. Pepin’s Hologram Man, Spectacle offers up this late-night cyberwar curio fielded from the pixelated precipice between Atari and The Matrix. Starring an Altmanesque corps of noteworthy surnames, Philip Roth’s Digital Man concerns a glitch in national security so cruel, it’d be divine if it weren’t so damn digital: a time-traveling supercyborg touches down in the small-town Southwest just in time to hijack an apocalypse’s worth of nuclear launch codes.

Fresh off a realm too insane in its violence and punishment for mere humans  to enter, the Digital Man must be stopped – and it’s up to a motley crue of wisecracking heavyweights (some military experts, some shotgun-toting salt of the earth) to take him out, analog style. Tons and tons and tons and tons of fireball explosions (replete with slo-mo backflips and brutal, spaghetti-worthy shootouts) ensue, culminating in one night you can’t merely “attend” while on your laptop.

Digital Man is a very entertaining movie, with good acting, excellent photography and outstanding F/X. It does suffer from a mediocre script however. A very good, overall effort from a bunch of actors who fall  into the category of “where have I seen them before?” A rating of 8 out of 10 was given. – VCRanger, IMDB

lets get down to brass tax where can we get this movie someone upload cmon it cant be ilegal look at it buying it would be a magor crime – Jamie Mcfayden, YouTube

I’ve seen Digital man almost a decade ago when it came to video. My dad rented me this movie to watch over the weekend since he was leaving with my mom. I loved it so much that I’ve watched it five or six times in 48 hours !!! – thebigmovieguy, IMDB

Don’t just settle for T2 ,experience this equal ,yet lower budget Sci-Fi action outing,with martial arts giant Matthias Hues in the lead. – “A Customer”, Amazon

I rented this when it came out on video. I remember thinking the special effects and costumes were pretty cool back then. And in the early-to-mid-1990s computer animation was a novelty, so that added to the movie’s appeal. (And back then CGI looked cooler with those smooth surfaces.) – felicity4711, YouTube


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SPECIAL SILENCERS
Dir. Arizal. 1982
Indonesia, 86 min.
In Indonesian dubbed into English with Dutch subtitles.

SATURDAY, JUNE 28 – MIDNIGHT

NOTE: SINCE PROGRAMMING THIS SCREENING WE LEARNED OF THE PASSING OF THE LATE MASTER INDONESIAN ACTION FILMMAKER ARIZAL. THEREFORE, THIS IS AN ARIZAL TRIBUTE SCREENING. RIP ARIZAL. LONG LIVE ARIZAL.

~!+    \ m /    EXPLODING CARS IN HEAVEN    \ m /    +!~

Magic, Mystism, and Mutilation! Spectacle heralds the return of its favorite mononymous Indonesian auteur, ARIZAL, the Monet of cars spewing fire from their trunks while barrelling nose-first, upside-down into other exploding vehicles while Anglo heroes arc through the flames like star-spangled ropes of jism raining down bullets from a musclebike. SPECIAL SILENCERS is his most out-there film: a blend of hardcore action and gory jungle horror that’s not to be missed.

When a power-hungry magician decides to assassinate the beloved village mayor, he’s not content to simply dispatch a knife-wielding killer; rather, he slips the mayor one of his “Special Silencers,” a small tablet which causes an orgiastic gaggle of tree branches to burst forth from its victim’s stomach with a torrent of blood and entrails streaming from its surcles. It’s up to rebel cop Barry Prima and the deadly Eva Arnaz to stop him before his insidious political plot takes root. It’s like John Carpenter’s THE THING starring RAMBO meets I guess that boring-ass Radiohead song “Treefingers” as covered by Cliff Burton-era Metallica drenched in blood. Multiplied by a factor of Adventure!

This isn’t so much an “action-horror” hybrid as a brute-force action extravaganza in which gnarled tree branches periodically explode out of people’s stomachs in spectacularly violent ways. We’re not going out on a limb by saying it’s an unforgettable experience, and one you won’t find anywhere else!

MAY MIDNIGHTS

FRIDAY, MAY 2: DORIANA GREY

FRIDAY, MAY 9: HANNAH, QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES
SATURDAY, MAY 10: THE MANIPULATOR

SATURDAY, MAY 17: SCREAMPLAY

FRIDAY, MAY 23: THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY
SATURDAY, MAY 24: DEMON QUEEN



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The Franco Files Presents:
DORIANA GREY (Die Marquise von Sade)
Dir. Jesus Franco, 1976
Germany, 75 min.
In German with English subtitles

Franco’s ongoing collaboration with Lina Romay (which continued until her death in 2012) was in full spring by the time we reach 1976’s DORIANA GREY, but her uninhibited (read: nude) performance reaches new heights in this dual role as both wealthy recluse Doriana Grey and her nymphomaniacal twin sister, currently in a mental asylum. A journalist (Monica Swain) visits Doriana in order to interview her, discovering that while Doriana is an elderly woman she never seems to age, that her twin sister feels pleasure for her, and her sexual partners end up dead.

Those of you expecting strong ties to either Wilde or Sade are probably going to be disappointed, but Franco’s sense of melancholy even during his most explicit scenes will find a lot to love: it’s a good companion piece to FEMALE VAMPIRE. The contrast between the subtly suggestive Doriana and her completely lust-mad sister makes this one of Lina’s best performances, and the beautiful mansion locations give both Franco and cinematographer Peter Baumgartner plenty to work with. Add to this an excellent score by Walter Baumgartner and it’s a Franco film well worth seeing both by newcomers and hardcore fans alike, and a perfect start to our Franco Files series, highlighting some of the master’s lesser-seen works.



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HANNAH, QUEEN OF THE VAMPIRES (La tumba de la isla maldita)
Dir. Ray Danton and Julio Salvador, 1973
Spain/USA, 85 min.
In English

FRIDAY, MAY 9 – MIDNIGHT

Professor Bolton, while investigating a sealed tomb alleged to contain the body of a vampire, is crushed to death, and his son Chris (played by Andrew Prine of SIMON KING OF THE WITCHES/THE CENTERFOLD GIRLS) comes to the island to investigate his father’s death. He meets fellow historian Peter (played by the everpresent Mark Damon) and a schoolteacher who warns him against opening the tomb (played by Patty Shepherd, of The Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman). Chris ignores this advice, and attempting to lift the tomb off his father’s body he opens the lid, freeing Hannah the vampire queen (Teresa Gimpera, best known from SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE) from her tomb, beginning a spree of seduction and destruction across the land. As offers of help recede, Chris finds fewer and fewer people willing to him him kill Hannah — will he be able to stop her? Presented here in the most complete edition available (the video from a Spanish tv production with all gore intact and the audio is from the original English edition, not a dub), and unlike many Mill Creek editions, this one is completely in color. Fans of brooding rural horror, Prine’s moustache and she-wolves should definitely make it out for this one.


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THE MANIPULATOR
Dir. Yabo Yablonsky
USA, 85 min.

SATURDAY, MAY 10 – MIDNIGHT

“We all change. But that’s just the way it goes.”

Certain performances are for the ages. They transcend the actor and place the role into an realm of their own. They cut against the actor as we know them, they are a slap in the face to our assumptions, they are the films that make us uncomfortable with who we think we are and who we want to be. Consider Andy Griffith in A Voice In The Crowd. Consider Ernest Borgnine in Marty. That’s exactly what you’ll get from Mickey Rooney in THE MANIPULATOR, as intense a delivery as David Hess or Roger Watkins in a film that is about as weird as they come.

Perhaps best considered a role-reversed SUNSET BOULEVARD or a twist on the screen-queens-gone-bad roles of 70s Elizabeth Taylor or Joan Crawford circa STRAIGHT-JACKET Mickey Rooney tears into the role of B.J. Lang like a freight train, screaming his demented paranoid soliloquies over synth bloops and echoplex for days. In honor of his recent passing, Spectacle is proud to present what I (Darren) consider Mickey Rooney’s true magnum opus: THE MANIPULATOR.


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THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY
Another Series of Short Films Celebrating the Supernatural!
Approx. 80 min.

FRIDAY, MAY 23 – MIDNIGHT

Like a severed hand with a gypsy curse, THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY: Another Series of Short Films Celebrating the Supernatural! will crawl through nightmare swamps to get you!

It’s the follow-up to April’s sacrilegious smash-hit, GHOUL FRIDAY, and like all good horror sequels, THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY doubles the mayhem and the stupidity!

With more than 20 shorts in an approximately 80 minute program, be the first kid on your block to experience unfathomable and indescribable evil; all for the low, low prices of $5—and your immortal soul!!!

Attend tonight’s show and you will witness the End of the World many, many times over: Flying saucers, the cannibalistic undead, hellish relics, killer robots, homicidal maniacs from beyond space and time, rabbits, hungry monsters, ancient demon-gods, vicious aliens, mad and horny doctors, murderous mutants and various Lovecraftian beasties all do their part to destroy civilization and devour humanity! Even God, the greatest serial killer EVER, makes an appearance! And y’know what? He’s bringing His two sons along…

Unspeakable satanic ceremonies? All the kids are doing it! Undead, unholy, supernatural, hilarious, nightmarish, sacrilegious, absurdist, magical—it’s all here!

Like Dan O’Bannon’s zombies, THE REVENGE OF GHOUL FRIDAY can’t be stopped with a bullet to the head—after all, you can’t kill something that was never alive!

Stay tuned for BENEATH THE VALLEY OF THE SON OF GHOUL FRIDAY!!!!


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Troma Entertainment Presents:
SCREAMPLAY
Dir. Rufus Butler Seder, 1985
USA, 90 min.

SATURDAY, MAY 17 – MIDNIGHT

The Troma Team is proud to present SCREAMPLAY, the story of aspiring screenwriter Edgar Allen (Rufus B. Seder) as he arrives in Hollywood carrying his most valuable possessions: a battered suitcase and a typewriter. Edgar Allen’s best attribute is his wild imagination. He imagines scenes so vividly for the murder mystery he is writing that they seem to come to life…and they do! As mysterious murders pile up, and Edgar Allen must confront aging actresses, rock stars, and the police in the bleak setting of broken dreams in Hollywood.

As the line between reality and imagination becomes more blurred, Edgar Allen convinced the only way to be a real writer is to suffer, is driven slowly mad. With an appearance by legendary writer, director and actor George Kuchar as Martin, SCREAMPLAY is the gritty suspensefest that takes Hollywood by the throat and strangles it… but always with style and art!


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Massacre Video presents:
DEMON QUEEN
Dir. Donald Farmer, 1986
USA, 55 min.

SATURDAY, MAY 24 – MIDNIGHT

Jesse (Dennis Stewart), a seedy, low level dope pusher and his bitchy, strung-out girlfriend Wendy (Patti Valliere) are in deep. They owe six grand to a coke dealer naned Izzie (Ric Foster). But when his henchman Bone (Cliff Dance) comes to collect, a mysterious lady comes out of nowhere and lays waste to the goon. When Jesse awakens he finds the crony dead, his throat ripped to shreds and his guardian angel, Lucinda (Mary Fanaro) in need of shelter. Jesse feels the need to repay the woman who saved his life, but soon finds out that a place to stay is the least of what Lucinda is after. (Spoiler alert: She also needs human flesh, and lots of it.) Spectacle and Masscare (who first presented this at our second annual Shriek Show) are thrilled to team up and screen this rare SOV nugget!

Massacre Video was started in 2008 by Louis C. Justin as a small internet retail store specializing in low-budget and hard to find horror/cult/exploitation DVDs and magazines. In 2009, MV purchased the rights to the independent shot-on-video film 555 and planed on releasing it on to DVD for the very first time. Since then Massacre has churned out releases of JUNK FILMS, OROZCO: THE EMBALMER, and most recently the deeply twisted VOYAGE TO AGATIS. Look for more releases in the near future and check out massacrevideo.com for more details, to order these films, and more!

HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN

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HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN
Dir. Curtis Harrington, 1970 (TV).
USA. 73 min.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5 – MIDNIGHT

[Warning: the available DVD-rip that we will be presenting is transferred from a tape copy and is, well… very ‘nostalgic’ looking.]

“For some inexplicable reason, this tele-feature is but rarely accorded the respect it merits. In point of fact, it is a most accomplished, gripping, and well acted affair, from the days when a “Made for TV” movie, could still boast performers, writing, and technical credentials of the first water.

The story is an intense, psychological study of a young man suffering from hysterical blindness following the death of his professor father in a fire. Set in a large, shadowy, Victorian house, this very Gothic story hinges on the sibling rivalry between the young man and his spinster sister, both of whom blame themselves, in different ways, for their father’s demise. Eventually, the young man’s sanity begins to give way, in the face of a series of inexplicable hauntings, which may, or may not be supernatural. Only the denouement will tell.

With its pronounced subtext of repressed, family guilt, the film has literary antecedents in the work of Shirley Jackson, Walter De La Mare, and Nathanial Hawthorne.

Starring a cast of major (big screen) movie and stage actors, this film has everything that is conspicuously absent in current television: an excellent musical score, evocative photography, muted lighting, accomplished art direction, an interesting premise and script, intelligent dialogue (gasp!) and a very good sense of pacing.

Add to that a baseline story that improves on the novel upon which it was based (yes I read it) and you have a viewing experience very different from the “Made for TV’s” of today, which are—I’m told, since I don’t watch them—an endless stream of tedious, politically correct, AIDS, Anorexia, and spouse abuse victim propaganda studies—I believe the catch phrase is “victim of the week” stories.

All in all, “How Awful About Allan” serves as a sad reminder of what was still artistically possible in the world of commercial television, in the not too distant past.”

-Guest summary by ‘BrentCarleton’, IMDb member since December 2003

 

APRIL MIDNIGHTS

FRIDAY, APRIL 4: LADY FRANKENSTEIN
SATURDAY, APRIL 5: HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN

FRIDAY, APRIL 11: LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI
SATURDAY, APRIL 12: AMERICAN HUNTER

FRIDAY, APRIL 18: GHOUL FRIDAY
SATURDAY, APRIL 19: ARGOMAN

FRIDAY, APRIL 25: WEREWOLF IN A GIRLS’ DORMITORY
SATURDAY, APRIL 26: NINJA VENGEANCE



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LADY FRANKENSTEIN (AKA La Figlia di Frankenstein)
Dir. Mel Welles, 1971
Italy, 94 min.

FRIDAY, APRIL 4 – MIDNIGHT

LADY FRANKENSTEIN (Mel Welles, 1971) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

Dr. Frankenstein (Joseph Cotten) obviously raised his daughter Tania Frankenstein (Rosalba Neri under the name Sarah Bey) right, as she’s taking over the family business in this take on the classic tale with extra grave robbing, extra nudity and nice performances from Franco fave Paul Muller and the always crazy Mickey Hargitay! Director Mel Welles provides gothic style to spare: secret doors, gloomy castles, mad science, romantic liasons, and of course The Monster, who (of course) gets loose and goes on a killing rampage. What really sets this film apart from either Universal or Hammer takes on this theme is Neri in one of her greatest performances, turning from coquettish to nightmarish on a dime, always calling the shots and pulling the strings. Spectacle is delighted to show the longest available copy, completely uncensored. Fans of 70s Italian period horror will find a lot to love here.



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HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN
Dir. Curtis Harrington, 1970 (TV).
USA. 73 min.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5 – MIDNIGHT

[Warning: the available DVD-rip that we will be presenting is transferred from a tape copy and is, well… very ‘nostalgic’ looking.]

“For some inexplicable reason, this tele-feature is but rarely accorded the respect it merits. In point of fact, it is a most accomplished, gripping, and well acted affair, from the days when a “Made for TV” movie, could still boast performers, writing, and technical credentials of the first water.

The story is an intense, psychological study of a young man suffering from hysterical blindness following the death of his professor father in a fire. Set in a large, shadowy, Victorian house, this very Gothic story hinges on the sibling rivalry between the young man and his spinster sister, both of whom blame themselves, in different ways, for their father’s demise. Eventually, the young man’s sanity begins to give way, in the face of a series of inexplicable hauntings, which may, or may not be supernatural. Only the denouement will tell.

With its pronounced subtext of repressed, family guilt, the film has literary antecedents in the work of Shirley Jackson, Walter De La Mare, and Nathanial Hawthorne.

Starring a cast of major (big screen) movie and stage actors, this film has everything that is conspicuously absent in current television: an excellent musical score, evocative photography, muted lighting, accomplished art direction, an interesting premise and script, intelligent dialogue (gasp!) and a very good sense of pacing.

Add to that a baseline story that improves on the novel upon which it was based (yes I read it) and you have a viewing experience very different from the “Made for TV’s” of today, which are—I’m told, since I don’t watch them—an endless stream of tedious, politically correct, AIDS, Anorexia, and spouse abuse victim propaganda studies—I believe the catch phrase is “victim of the week” stories.

All in all, “How Awful About Allan” serves as a sad reminder of what was still artistically possible in the world of commercial television, in the not too distant past.”

-Guest summary by ‘BrentCarleton’, IMDb member since December 2003



samuraiheader LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI
Dir. Kinji Fukasaku, 1983
Japan, 136 min.
In Japanese with English subtitles

FRIDAY, APRIL 11 – MIDNIGHT

“At long last, our dream of vengeance shall come true.”

If SAMURAI REINCARNATION left you wanting more, you’re in luck, as Kinji Fukasaku, Hiroyuki Sanada and Sonny Chiba reunite for LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI. Based on the novel Nansô Satomi Hakken-den by Kyokutei Bakin, the film takes off in different directions (we don’t actually have eight samurai, more of a rag-tag crew) but provides action aplenty as eight crystals from the corpse of a princess lead to eight fighters who join forces to defeat an evil witch-queen. Gorgeous fight scenes, sugary English power ballads, flying centipedes, haunted temples, bathing in blood, zombie fighters and more, more, more! If you’re looking for a serious docudrama about feudal Japan you’re out of luck (sorry IMDB reviewers) but for anyone who enjoys high adventure on a grand scale, LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI is an extravaganza of action, effects, costumes and stunts sure to satisfy the midnight crew.



AmericanHunter_Banner AMERICAN HUNTER
(aka Lethal Hunter)
Dir. Arizal, 1988.
Indonesia. 92 min.
In Indonesian dubbed into English with Japanese subtitles.

SATURDAY, APRIL 12 – MIDNIGHT

Starring Christopher Mitchum, son of Robert Mitchum and 2012 Republican candidate for California Congressional District 24’s United States House of Representatives seat.

Christopher Mitchum returns for what might be the purest expression of mysterious Indonesian action director Arizal’s shoot-’em-up aesthetic as Jake Carver, an “agent” whose self-described occupation is to “fight bad guys.” In AMERICAN HUNTER, Carver battles a multifariously evil organization over a piece of microfilm to unspecified ends. Highlights include a jeep driving off the side of one skyscraper into the window of another, a three-way motorcycle/pick-up truck/train chase, a baby being run over by a car crashing through the side of a supermarket yet miraculously surviving, an eight minute helicopter chase, an awkwardly clothed shower sex scene, one house explosion, one castle explosion, dozens of car explosions, male bondage and electrocution, and a fist fight inside a dungeon full of what appears to be cardboard boxes overflowing with shredded paper. Bill “Super Foot” Wallace stars as the bad guy whose nefariousness is conveyed through his variously keeping pet falcons and monkeys on his shoulder, and Peter O’Brien drops in for an unlikely hench villain turn as a businessman who gets the shit kicked out of him then has his legs run over then crashes through a brick wall on the hood of a car. Approximately ten of the 92 action-packed minutes have been described.



ghoulfriday_banner GHOUL FRIDAY
A Series of Short Films Celebrating the Supernatural!
Dir. Various
Approx. 90 min.

FRIDAY, APRIL 18 – MIDNIGHT

On this day a gazillion years ago, after the Romans pulled some Takeshi Miike-style ultraviolence on Him, the Baby Jeebuz was ressursusitated and came back as Zombie Jesus, Undead Son of God! (Or something along those lines; the story’s open to interpretation…)

Spectacle presents a soul-stealing selection of seldom-seen supernatural shorts to shatter your sanity and send shivers down your spine. Not to mention deliver some laughs, too! In a 90 minute program, highlighting 22 films—from 4 seconds to 14 minutes in length—ranging from bittersweet to surreal to side-splitting, these movies unleash fiends, ghosts, vampires, psychos, spirits, sorcerers, hobgoblins, yokai, demigods, mutants, madmen and a host of other creepy-crawly critters!

In tonight’s shorts, along with a slew of hungry zombies, Cthulhu will be there, joined by ferocious feline phantasms, a singing frog, Count Dracula, an eel girl, a tell-tale heart, even Death herself! And you just might learn the secret history of the world, courtesy of the stone heads of Easter Island…

And zombies, lots of zombies. In his excellent 2011 textbook War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film, Marc Di Paolo of Oklahoma City University writes, “One of the appeals of the zombie… is that they give angry Americans something to shoot at…. Since the pleasure provided by killing a zombie [sic] is escapist and regressive, it offers little hope of any real solution to such abstract problems.”

But what Professor Di Paolo misses is that the lack of a “real solution” adds to the delicious frisson that the hordes of the flesh-eating dead are truly unstoppable and will always win, thus granting us the sweet release of that unexplored dimension of the afterlife.

An international mix of films, made in a blood-splattered kaleidoscope of styles, GHOUL FRIDAY features many unknown, unseen and uncanny short films, and a couple you might know all too well—from your nightmares! Bwah-hah-hah-HAH! Tonight’s show has adaptations of masters like Poe and Lovecraft, while also showcasing some of the best contemporary artists fascinated with the macabre and unholy. There’s even Slenderman, the new meme-monsters stalking the kids!



argoman-banner ARGOMAN
aka THE FANTASTIC ARGOMAN
aka ARGOMAN THE FANTASTIC SUPERMAN
aka THE INCREDIBLE PARIS INCIDENT
Dir. Sergio Grieco (as “Terence Hathaway”), 1967
Italy, 92 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, APRIL 19 – MIDNIGHT

ARGOMAN (Sergio Grieco as “Terence Hathaway”, 1967) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

This April, Spectacle is pleased to unleash one of its long-hidden midnight treasures: ARGOMAN THE FANTASTIC SUPERMAN. The batshit cousin of swingin’ sixties psych-thriller DANGER: DIABOLIK, and a likely inspiration for AUSTIN POWERS, ARGOMAN is so awesomely weird and hilarious that it is truly unclear whether the film is intended as parody. Like Diabolik, Argoman is a cross between superhero and supervillain and 100% superstud — a Batman-style Playboy vigilante, real name “Sir Reginald Hoover,” who lives in a high tech-pad decked with leopard-print everything and an endless supply of supergadgets and suspended sex beds at his disposal. He is also totally psychic, and one of his best moves is extending his palm really intensely and thinking “kill each other!” really hard until his opponents, such as the Chinese army, kill each other. And solving problems by cleverly levitating objects into new positions. He is also really great at psyching out giant cardboard robots and killing them, too.

In this, the first of one adventures, Argoman comes up against the vaguely amphibious and diabolical Jenabell, alias The Queen of the World, infiltrating to heart to enter her secret lair — or is it the other way around? Due to ARGOMAN’s excellent screenplay, you will be guessing until the very final moments, abetted by one of the great Italian lounge-cheese soundtracks. Indeed, ARGOMAN is the best superhero since Val Kilmer.

FREE ADMISSION FOR ANYONE WHO COMES WEARING AT LEAST 60% SPANDEX!



werewolf-dormitory-banner WEREWOLF IN A GIRLS DORMITORY
(aka: LYCANTHROPUS)
Dir. Paolo Heusch, 1961
Italy, 83 min.

FRIDAY, APRIL 25 – MIDNIGHT

“Mary has a marvelous ability for always being in trouble.”

Spectacle Midnights are about to give going back to college the old college try. There’s a ghoul in school and it’s a wonder anyone can even get a quality education amidst all the blackmail, seduction, and carnage.

A new professor, with a murky past, arrives at school for troubled girls outside of a quiet little town besieged by wolf attacks. On his first night there, a young girl is savagely torn apart just outside of the school. With the mile long suspect list growing ever shorter as the stack of bodies grows taller, the film – penned by the legendary scribe Ernesto Gastaldi (The Long Hair of Death, The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock, Torso, My Name is Nobody, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, The Case of the Bloody Iris, etc.) this film keeps you guessing til the end. Featuring a snappy theme song and a soundtrack peppered with bassoons and flutes and presented UNCUT with footage TOO SHOCKING FOR SIXTIES CENSORS!

“I saw. You’re a beast not a man my dear so go to the Devil.

I haven’t done anything.
I haven’t done anything.”



ninja-vengeance-banner NINJA VENGEANCE
Dir. Karl Armstrong, 1992
USA, 87 min.
Screening directly from glorious VHS! Feel the fuzz!

SATURDAY, APRIL 26 – MIDNIGHT

[Trigger Warnings: Racial slurs and violence]

What’s so funny about fists, love, and understanding? In NINJA VENGEANCE: everything. Part anglicized martial arts extravaganza, part ineptly intentioned racesploitation picture, NINJA VENGEANCE is like a mix between THE INTRUDER and SAMURAI COP, and every bit as glorious as that tease suggests.

Chris is a young stud from Wyoming breezing through the small Texas town of Maynard on his way to “a seminar” when his bike (“one‘uh those foreign jobs”) breaks down. The local racists look kindly upon Chris’s aryan disposition, but when he encounters the entire police force in Klan outfits murdering the town’s educated young black man, he unleashes his righteous ninja fury on them, and they get super pissed and put him in jail. As if bars could hold a ninja trained on the beaches of Wyoming, and who packs throwing stars, ninja rope, and how-to paperbacks called “Ninja” and “Jujitsu” when he travels! Is it too much to hope that the movie might climax with two white people, one of them in a sheriff’s outfit, karate fighting in front if a giant burning cross? NO.

NINJA VENGEANCE reflects everything that is wonderful and terrible about the early 90’s obsession with shopping mall-style karate, and also what happens when a bunch of karate champions from Texas try to make a movie about racism. (Uh, let alone a bunch of a karate champions from Texas trying to make a movie, period.) The result, while undeniably earnest and progressive in its intentions, is also flagrantly backwards in execution. Like, if you’re going to make an anti-racist movie, you might not want to give characters names like “Mike’s white friend” and “Mike’s black friend,” to say nothing of the problematic westernization of martial arts. As an added bonus, the film has a punchdance-worthy power rock theme song by the same Brad Rushing who is also credited as second unit director of photography. A very talented bunch, and a shame that somehow pretty much no one involved in this movie went on to do any others ever.

Tonight’s screening will be presented from VHS, the way god fuckin intended.