Ongoing Series – Page 6 – Spectacle Theater

EPHEMERA: GOING TO THE CHAPEL

Posted on May 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

EPHEMERA: GOING TO THE CHAPEL
1940-1967
Approx. 85 min., Color/B&W, USA

RETURNING IN FEBRUARY 2017!!
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 23 – 7:30PM

Our monthly EPHEMERA program aims to present educational films from the post-war era without the usual ironic framing, letting the films’ genuine charm and dated sensibilities shine through on their own.

June’s series, GOING TO THE CHAPEL, walks you up to the altar and beyond. From getting serious about dating, to picking the proper mate, to dealing with domestic squabbles, these films aimed to teach a generation relationship skills and entice them into domesticity. With marriage an important social and civic institution and major part of the U.S. economy, these films were intended to encourage, reassure, and most importantly, prepare young couples for the realities of marriage.

GOING TO THE CHAPEL spans a narrow slip of time from the end of the 1940s, after two world wars and economic slumps cast doubt on the entire institution of marriage, to the post-war boom of the early 1950s, when the marriage rate skyrocketed to the point of a housing shortage for new couples. It’s no surprise then that the films range from neorealist case studies to perky sales pitches.

Today, the median age for marriage is at an all-time high, and the U.S. marriage rate is at an all-time low. In the 1950s, the median age was at an all-time low and marriage rates soared. This generation has the luxury of getting to know potential spouses well before marriage – earlier generations went straight from parental homes to their own households, barely getting a chance to know themselves outside their nuclear family. GOING TO THE CHAPEL showcases the well-intended attempts to patch the gap and warn against rushing into freedom and sex, taking a pragmatic look and optimistic jump into dating and marriage.

Special thanks to the Internet Archive, Rick Prelinger and everyone at the Prelinger Archive.

Rick Prelinger began collecting “ephemeral films”— educational, industrial, amateur, advertising, or otherwise sponsored—in 1982, amassing over 60,000 on physical film before his collection was acquired by the Library of Congress in 2002. Since then, the Prelinger Archive has grown and diversified: it exists in physical library form in San Francisco and is gradually being ported online to the Internet Archive (http://archive.org), where 6,462 of its films are currently hosted (as of this writing).

The contents of the Prelinger Archive’s vary in accord with humanity. Historic newsreels, mid-century automobile infomercials, psychological experiments, medical procedurals, big oil advertisements, military recruitment videos, political propagandas, personal home videos, celebrity exposes, amateur narratives, scientific studies, war bulletins, instructional films, special interest op-eds, safety lessons, hobby guides, travel destination profiles and private industry productions all sit comfortably together in one marginalized category.

HOW MUCH AFFECTION?
Crawley Films, Ltd.,1958

IS THIS LOVE?
Crawley Films, Ltd., 1957

HOW DO YOU KNOW IT’S LOVE?
Coronet Films,1950

CHOOSING FOR HAPPINESS
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

ARE YOU READY FOR MARRIAGE?
Coronet Films, 1950

GOING STEADY?
Coronet Films, 1951

IT TAKES ALL KINDS
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

SOCIAL-SEX ATTITUDES IN ADOLESCENCE
Crawley Films, Ltd., 1953

WHEN SHOULD I MARRY?
McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1957

ENGAGEMENT PARTY
Sterling-Movies USA, 1956

GOOD GROOMING FOR GIRLS
Cheseborough-Ponds, ca. 1940s

TOMORROW ALWAYS COMES
Lamont-Clemens, Inc., 1941

CONSUMING WOMEN
Jam Handy Organization, 1967

DAYS OF OUR YEARS
Dudley Pictures Corporation, 1955

BRIDE AND GROOM
NBC Television, 1954

MARRIAGE PSA
ABC Television, 1964

UNIVERSAL NEWSREEL: PALISADES PARK, ZIPPY WEDDING
Universal City Studios, ca. 1940s

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1940

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1944

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1942

HOME MOVIE
Unknown, 1955

MARRIAGE TODAY
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

THIS CHARMING COUPLE
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

WHO’S RIGHT
Affiliated Film Producers, 1954

WHO’S BOSS?
Affiliated Film Producers, 1950

Runtime: approx. 85 min.

JUNE MIDNIGHTS

Posted on May 22, 2014December 23, 2019 by spectacletheater

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

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.

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?

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.”

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!

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

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

Posted on April 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

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

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.

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.

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.

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!!!!

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!

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!

STARTS WITH DAD

Posted on April 22, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

STARTS WITH DAD RETURNS!

TUESDAY, MAY 6 – 8:00 PM

Yes! Join us once again at Spectacle for another round of…well, whatever you made!

Starts With Dad is a loose group with two goals: shoot something, show something. No need to be a filmmaker, an artist, or an actor. It’s all about the impulse to create, no matter how unprofessional.

The theme is a bit different this time. We need a compelling enough hook to draw in outsiders and grow our numbers, so this month will be “Ripped From the Headlines.”

The rule is simple: find a news article from the months of March or April, open your film on the headline, your film must follow from there.

Remember, there is a 7 minute limit. Keep in mind that it’s up to 7 minutes so if you have 20 brilliant seconds, Dad will still be proud.

You can glean further info, find out how to participate (or, you know, just show up with your film!), and see previous Starts With Dad films at www.startswithdad.tumblr.com.

You will find human tissue obsessed housewives, deicidal squirrels, claymation testicles, jump rope gurus, blatant plagiarism, and lots else besides.

WORLD CINEMA FANTASTIQUE: THE DEVIL’S SWORD

Posted on April 13, 2014December 24, 2019 by spectacletheater

THE DEVIL’S SWORD
Dir. Ratno Timoer, 1984
Indonesia, 101 min.
In English

FRIDAY, MAY 2 – 10:00 PM
SUNDAY, MAY 18 – 5:00 PM
SATURDAY, MAY 24 – 10:00 PM

Presented by Mondo Macabro

From the heyday of Indonesian fantasy cinema, The Devil’s Sword is a classic example of the mind-bending weirdness that brews in homegrown cinemas around the world. With little money and a lot of heart, they shot for the moon but ended up somewhere deep among the stars.

Starring local legend Barry Prima (whose role as Jakka Sambung in THE WARRIOR – an Indonesian Robin Hood – created a celebrity personality whom is often mistaken for a real hero), THE DEVIL’S SWORD concerns an ancient sword whose holder is granted immeasurable power. When the evil Crocodile Queen lures a young prince-to-be to obtain the sword for her, Prima steps in to thwart the evil Queen and defeat her army of half-crocodile men and evil warlocks!

Magic, flying guillotines, and all sorts of mystical malarkey is on display here and achieved for zero budget. And it shows. Grade A absurdity for 1/5 of the price of anywhere else in the world.

World Cinema Fantastique is a monthly screening of crazy fantastic films from around the world.

HOW AWFUL ABOUT ALLAN

Posted on April 2, 2014December 23, 2019 by spectacletheater

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

IN A GLASS CAGE

Posted on March 31, 2014December 23, 2019 by spectacletheater

TRAS EL CRISTAL
aka IN A GLASS CAGE
Dir. Agustí Villaronga, 1986.
Spain. 111 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, APRIL 5 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, APRIL 8 – 10:00 PM
FRIDAY, APRIL 11 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23 – 10:00 PM

IN A GLASS CAGE is projected in pristine 1080p High Definition courtesy of Cult Epics‘ 2011 Blu-ray restoration.

[Trigger Warning: Sustained, recurring scenes of torture and sexual abuse—frequently involving children—presented in harsh, unsparing tones with a palpable, fascist historical context.]

A deeply unnerving film situated in the middle of a variety of genre film lineages, Agustí Villaronga‘s IN A GLASS CAGE blends morose, art-house chamber drama with psychologically-challenging giallo horror and unflinching exploitation film brutality into a force of will that will likely plant itself in your mind forever.

The narrative is historically-weighted yet mostly hedged in back-story. Death-camp Nazi doctor Klaus (Günter Meisner) flees to Spain after the Holocaust, where the emotional toll of his systemic, compulsive physical and sexual abuse of children during and after the war leaves him suicidal. A botched attempt lands him immobilized in an iron lung, cared for by his tormented wife Griselda (Marisa Paredes) and innocent young daughter Rena (Gisela Echevarria). Soon, a strange and aggressive man (David Sust) arrives and takes control of Klaus’ care… at the elder man’s insistence.

Inspired by the notorious, prolific 15th century child-killer Gilles de Rais, Villaronga immediately tapped Günter Meisner (multiple-time Adolf Hitler, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory) for the role of Klaus, but the actor refused, disgusted with the content of the film. Eventually, he relented, claiming—apocryphally—that he could not get the script out of his mind. Meisner himself had been in a Nazi death camp as a youth.

This marked the first film for Catalan writer/director Agustí Villaronga, who would go on direct Black Bread (2010), winner of numerous Gaudí and Goya awards and the first Catalan-language film to be shortlisted for the Oscars.

Poster designed by Preston Spurlock.

A huge thanks to Nico B. from Cult Epics.

This is the first film in a regular series at Spectacle co-presented by Cult Epics and Kim’s Video.

Cult Epics is a DVD/BD/VOD label that specializes in Cult, Horror, Art House, and Erotica films. It has released the work of directors such as Fernando Arrabal, Rene Daalder, Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast), Agustí Villaronga (In A Glass Cage), Abel Ferrara (The Driller Killer), Radley Metzger’s Erotic Masterpieces “Score,” “The Lickerish Quartet” and “Camille 2000” and the majority of Tinto Brass’ directorial outings. The label is also home to the “Bettie Page” films and Nico B’s feature debut “Bettie Page Dark Angel” for fans of the legendary 1950’s pin-up icon, as well as various collections of Vintage erotic short films. Other classics include “Slogan” featuring Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin and Jean Genet’s “Un Chant D’Amour.”

Kim’s Video is an NYC institution famous for its long-standing downtown presence as a premiere destination for your media fix. Among thousands of other titles, the store carries the entire line of Cult Epics DVDs and Blu-rays. The current incarnation is located at 124 1st Ave (between 7th/8th St.) in the East Village.

KINETIC CINEMA: DOLPHIN DANCE PROJECT

Posted on March 25, 2014December 23, 2019 by spectacletheater

KINETIC CINEMA: DOLPHIN DANCE PROJECT
Chisa Hidaka & Benjamin Harley, Various years
USA, ca. 90 min.

ONE NIGHT ONLY!
THURSDAY, APRIL 10 – 7:30 PM

On April 10, Chisa Hidaka and Benjamin Harley will present a night of films from the Dolphin Dance Project and the works of art that inspired the project. The Dolphin Dance Project is a series of underwater dance films created by the collaboration of human dancers with Atlantic spotted dolphins. Ben and Chisa’s influences range from contact improvisation to underwater base jumping films, all of which will be shown at the screening. www.dolphin-dance.org

BIOS:
Inquiry and discovery are the themes that tie together the varied experiences of Chisa Hidaka, MD, Founder and Director of Dolphin Dance Project. Chisa has a 20+ year history in the NYC downtown dance scene and also has experience as a dance educator and musculoskeletal research scientist. Through the Dolphin Dance project, Chisa also brings together her dance and science expertise. She brings to bear her extensive training in improvised dance to interact with wild dolphins through aesthetic choices that are respectful of the dolphins participation as equal partners in the creative process.

Benjamin Harley (producer, co-founder) studied anthropology, philosophy, and theatre at Yale University. After a global career in business development and strategy consulting for the telecommunications and media industries, he settled in New York City and fell in love with dance. Practicing contact improvisation for the last 10 years, he met Dr. Hidaka, and their conversations about her far-reaching insight into the potential for connecting with dolphins through dance inspired him to join her in establishing the Dolphin Dance Project.

ABOUT KINETIC CINEMA
Kinetic Cinema, is a regular screening series of Pentacle’s Movement Media curated by invited guest artists who create evenings of films and videos that have been influential to their own work as artists. When artists are asked to reflect upon how the use of movement in film and media arts has influenced their own art, a plethora of new ideas, material, and avenues of exploration emerge. From cutting edge motion capture animation to Michael Jackson music videos, from Gene Kelly musicals to Kenneth Anger films, Kinetic Cinema is dedicated to the recognition and appreciation for “moving” pictures. We have presented these evenings at Collective: Unconscious, Chez Bushwick, IRT, Launchpad, Green Space, Uniondocs, CRS, 3rd Ward, Fort Useless and The Tank in New York City, as well as at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.

For more info on the current Kinetic Cinema season please visit our website and our blog, movetheframe.com.

ABOUT PENTACLE’S MOVEMENT MEDIA
Pentacle’s Movement Media provides services, strategies, and opportunities for dance artists to make dance works for screen and use media to promote and enhance their artistic pursuits. The core activities of Movement Media are screenings, consulting services, workshops, and interactive media publications (blogs, social networking, online videos, etc). These services address a growing need for dance artists to engage with Media, particularly online and on new media platforms, in order to reach audiences, grow artistically, and stay relevant in today’s media-rich world.

Funding Credits
Pentacle’s Movement Media programming is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

KINETIC CINEMA is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

APRIL MIDNIGHTS

Posted on March 23, 2014December 23, 2019 by spectacletheater

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

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.

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.]

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.

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

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.

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.

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
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 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
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.

THE FUTURE WEIRD: REMOTE CONTROL

Posted on March 4, 2014December 23, 2019 by spectacletheater

ONE NIGHT ONLY!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26 – 8:00 PM

Nearly ten years ago, the US military went public with its efforts to hack into the bodies of insects. The goal was to take control of their movements from a remote source; to fly anthropodan bodies as chemical sensors and concealed cameras; to literally weaponize the fly on the wall. News reports that followed confirmed private fears such surveillance technologies were getting dangerously close to unbearable occult practices. Sophisticated and often cruel, possession is the cutting-edge of military research.

Of course, REMOTE CONTROL has long concerned witches and bitches – those women who see, take, and sell things they cannot grasp. Whether they wield it, or are used by it, such technology is deployed without regard for reciprocity or consent. Shrouded in secrecy and activated by sympathetic thinking and emotional manipulation, REMOTE CONTROL promises the loss of individual agency, as well as the thrilling ability to inhabit another’s body. From the excitement surrounding the technical apparatus to the far more sinister compulsion to repurpose the humanoid, we invite you to contemplate “the human of use of human beings” this month as The Future Weird presents REMOTE CONTROL.

REMOTE CONTROL features the work of
Shola Amoo
Fyzal Boulifa
Elaine Castillo
Zina Saro Wiwa
and Lab Rats

REMOTE CONTROL

1. a system for controlling something, such as a machine, from a distance, by using electrical or radio signals.

2. the movement of a body caused by thought or willpower without the application of a physical force.