Uncategorized – Page 120 – Spectacle Theater

THE PIRATES OF BUBUAN with MAMMY WATER

Posted on July 19, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

THE PIRATES OF BUBUAN
Shōhei Imamura, 1972. 47 min.
Japan/Philippines. In Japanese with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7 – 8:00 PM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28 – 8:00 PM

Presented in partnership with Icarus Films, a distributor of innovative and provocative documentary films from independent producers around the world.

In this gripping and poignant work of ethnography-cum-adventure-mystery, Imamura decides to visit the islands of the Sulu archipelago in the southwest Philippines, ostensibly out of curiosity to “see how people live on its sea.” In exploring islands ranging from populations of over 300,000 to others barely inhabited, he becomes enmeshed in religious and class conflicts between the politically and economically dominant Muslim Tausug people of the larger islands and the “godless” indigenous maritime Badjao, who are subject to discrimination and impoverishment despite their fishing activities driving the larger economy.

And yet above all, Imamura becomes intrigued by whispers of piracy, which he initially dismisses as overly romantic. Yet fascination grows as Imamura hears more of the Pirate King Asaali and his savage band of thirty-some men living on the previously-uninhabited island of Bubuan. Intrigued by the fear Asaali inspires among the city folk and sea-dwellers alike, and burning to investigate the way fear of piracy aggravates local class distinctions, Imamura and his crew set out on an intrepid mission to confront Asaali head-on.

Equally rich in anthropological insight, earnest reportage, stranger-than-fiction thrills, and moments of cerebral self-reflexivity, THE PIRATES OF BUBUAN packs a feature-length wallop and sends the imagination reeling.

Proceded by:

MAMMY WATER
Jean Rouch, 1956. 18 min.
France/Ghana. In French with English subtitles.

In the coastal village of Shama, at the foot of the Pra River in Ghana, expert teams of fisherman known as “surf boys” thrust into the ocean on large canoes and homemade sailboats, where they hone their catch for hours or days on end. Their fortunes are thought to be at the behest of water spirits, “Mammy Water,” and a bad catch must be addressed with a festive, ritualistic offering. In the course of the film, Rouch documents one such festival and the ensuing return to the sea.

STAY TUNED: An Evening with SMASH TV

Posted on July 18, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

WEDNESDAY, JULY 24 – 7:30 PM (Memorex) – 10:00 PM (Skinemax)

Join us on Wednesday, July 24th as Smash TV hijacks the Spectacle Theater for a night of AV insanity. We’ll be showing both Memorex and Skinemax, as well as debuting two new hour+ video mixtapes of our favorite videos after each.

A nostalgic night dedicated to the art of the edit: music videos, mashups, hilarity, terror, insanity, and more! If early 80s MTV and early 2000s Adult Swim had a baby, it would look something like SMASH TV.

Join us for this insane 5 hour marathon. If you’re an 80s kid that grew up glued to the TV set and have a sense of adventure, then STAY TUNED.

7:30 PM – Memorex is the advertising industry’s collective wet dream. A 50 minute VJ odyssey and a tribute to an entire generation who grew up with only a TV and a VCR for a babysitter.

Sourced from over forty hours of 80s commercials pulled from warped VHS tapes, Memorex is a deep exploration of nostalgia and the cultural values of an era of excess. It’s a re-contextualization of ads – cultural detritus, the lowest of the low – into something altogether more profound, humorous, and at times, even beautiful.

Digging up long forgotten memories for a generation who spent their formative years glued to the boob tube, Memorex is a veritable nostalgia nuke for children of the 80s. Endless beach parties,Saturday morning cartoons, claymation everything, sleek cars, sexy babes, toys you forgot existed, station idents, primitive computer animation, all your favorite sugary cereal mascots, and so much more. An ode to the hyper consumerism and sleek veneer of a simpler time.

10:00 PM – Skinemax is Koyaanisqatsi for a generation raised on late night television and B-movie VHS tapes. It’s long form entertainment for short attention spans. An hour long VJ odyssey, it will move your body and warp your mind.

A nostalgic look back at a half remembered childhood growing up in the 80s and early 90s, Skinemax takes a close look at the culture of that era. The images that motivated, delighted, and terrified us on the silver screen, set to propulsive modern music that pines for a simpler time.

JULY MIDNIGHTS!

Posted on July 7, 2013December 19, 2019 by spectacletheater

See also our July J.R. BOOKWALTER Midnight Series!

SATURDAY JULY 13th

TNT JACKSON
Dir: Cirio H. Santiago, 1974.
72 min. USA.

A staple of the early 70s drive-in circuit, TNT JACKSON was schlock producer kingpin Roger Corman’s attempt to cash in on the blaxsploitation craze and remains a fitting example of the kung fu craze muscling its way into every 70s genre.

Martial arts expert Diana ‘TNT’ Jackson travels to Hong Kong to search for her brother’s killer. She soon discovers an underworld heroin smuggling operation that may lead her to the murderer. Will she karate chop her way through an army of henchmen and come face-to-face with her brother’s assailant?

Starring afro-haired ass-kicker Jean Bell (the first African American Playmate) in a script originally written by legendary character actor Dick Miller (before Corman had it rewritten), the film makes zero attempts at production values and plot imagination (essentially the same setup as SISTER STREET FIGHTER) but does features a criminal amount of funky 70s wardrobes, cheesy kung-fu ‘whooshes’, and a completely illogical topless fight scene that ranks at the top of exploitation’s most gratuitous, trashy moments.

If Pam Grier is too expensive, then you best call TNT Jackson!

SATURDAY JULY 20th

HATCHET FOR THE HONEYMOON (Il rosso segno della follia)
Dir. Mario Bava (1970)
88 min.
English dub (no subtitles)

Mario Bava was never one to stick to the rules, even rules he invented himself. Often overlooked due to the lack of murder mystery elements (the killer is revealed at the beginning of the film),Hatchet For The Honeymoon sidesteps giallo tropes in place of dark satire on Italian high society and supernatural elements, all among the backdrop of Bava’s trademark visual style. Stephen Forsyth’s portrayal of a wealthy bridal shop owner driven to murder has since been compared regularly to Christian Bale’s performance in American Psycho — while it may not be the gorehound’s favorite Bava film, it’s perfectly suited for fans of urbane sharp-dressed psychopaths as well as baroque late 60s set pieces. Newly remastered in high-definition from the 35mm print, the film has never looked better, as Bava is both director and cinematographer and the film shows his trademark use of color and symbolism in every frame.

SATURDAY JULY 27th

MANDATORY MIDNIGHTS (aka MIND CURFEW)

presents

KILLER WORKOUT
David A. Prior, 1987
USA 85 min.
English

Feeling left out? Can’t find common ground with your kids during those long, awkward dinners of meatloaf and self-loathing? Criminally unversed in the works of David A. Prior? Missing all those CANDY SNATCHERS references around the water cooler? Be honest, would you even be able to recognize an INTREPIDOS PUNK if you saw one?

Feeling woozy, it’s getting dark, this is the end…

NOT QUITE.

The Spectacle Presents MANDATORY MIDNIGHTS (aka Turkish Netflix)! Fall in love for the first time or all over again with the best of Spectacle Midnights! Every month The Spectacle is showcasing one of our beloved midnight classics like ROCK N ROLL HOTEL, KILLER WORKOUT, HOLOGRAM MAN and so many MORE!!! Don’t yawn your way through another screening of Rocky Horror, half heartedly throwing rice and lip syncing through tears of boredom. Come get kicked in the chest by the AMERICAN HUNTER and lose a quart of blood to a BLOODSUCKER FROM OUTER SPACE!

You haven’t seen a Spectacle Midnight until you’ve seen it twice! Come Get Weird and Stay Weird at MANDATORY MIDNIGHTS!

THIS MONTH…

Summer is here and it’s time to feel the burn with KILLER WORKOUT.

The 1980s will always be remembered more or less for two major contributions toward the betterment of humankind: the slasher film and aerobic exercise-AND NOW MANDATORY MIDNIGHTS HAS BOTH. It took the genius of prolific, high-octane filmmaker David A. Prior(Sledgehammer, Deadly Prey) to make it happen! KILLER WORKOUT is a one stop, high impact cardio assault sure to turn your flabby midnight grey matter into a chiseled mental six pack.

After a freak tanning bed accident kills her sister, Rhonda decides to open Rhonda’s Workout- a fresh and fun aerobics studio where the buff get buffer and the beautiful get beautiful-er…that is until they start getting dead! There’s a killer loose and it’s up to a grizzled, world weary Detective (David James Campbell) to stop the maniac before Rhonda’s out of customers. What follows is a game of cat and mouse with more twists than a Zumba class, and an ending that you won’t ever forget!

KILLER WORKOUT is more insane and high energy than P90x and it’s got the infectious throbbing soundtrack and pelvises to ensure you’ll never look at your Bowflex the same way again. This is the ultimate oiled up, tanned, toned, aerobic slasher film with a message: hitting the gym can be hazardous to your health.

Come get RIIIIPPPPEEEDD at THE SPECTACLE, only at MIDNIGHT!

THE MAN OF THE YEAR

Posted on July 6, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

THE MAN OF THE YEAR
Dir. Jose Henrique Fonseca, 2003
Brazil. 116 min.
In Portuguese with English subtitles.
Special thanks to Film Movement

FRIDAY, JULY 12th – 10PM
SATURDAY, JULY 20th – 10PM
SUNDAY, JULY 28th – 7:30PM

Produced (and neglected) in the same wave of favela-flavored arthouse hits as City of God, Carandiru and Lower City, Jose Henrique Fonseca’s The Man Of The Year might trump them all. Barbedly honest and based on a novel by Patricia Melo, Fonseca’s film is a ripping yarn, closer in spirit to the slum noirs and queasy moralities of the American 1950s. Murilo Benicio stars as Maiquel, an easygoing slacker in Rio de Janeiro whose entire life hinges on one banal twist: his decision to bleach his hair. Emboldened by his friends but still something of a blank slate, Maiquel is propelled towards his longtime crush (a spicy, life-loving hairdresser) with newfound gusto.

But when his dye-job provokes a local thug to chide Maiquel in front of his date, the situation spirals into a direct confrontation of classes. When Maiquel kills the man – in a mix of self-defense, pent-up rage and scared-shitlessness – he’s received by the city’s fatcats and police as a stone cold hero. Soon enough, they start asking him for “favors”. What follows is an odyssey sequenced as tightly as a Swiss watch, but never predictable or browbeating – a steady plunge into wealth and fame for Maiquel and his crew, with Faustian repercussions.

Drenched in color and anchored by unforgettable performances The Man Of The Year goes down like a perfect summer thriller. But Fonseca’s brutally funny inquiry also plugs disquietingly into the price of success – indeed of neoliberal economics in total, in keeping with works like Polanski’s Chinatown and Li Yang’s Blind Shaft. This summer, Spectacle and Film Movement are thrilled to present an unsung classic in a special 10th anniversary release. ‘Before you’re born, maybe God decides how to fuck your life!’

TRIGGER WARNING: This film includes images of murder, spousal abuse, drug abuse and alcoholism.

Fonseca employs interior monologue and Breno Silveira’s impressive visuals to create a convincing dream-like expressionism, describing a world where arbitrary violence and the absence of judicial retribution have stoked a pervasive, godless malaise, wherein all moral, ethical or religious boundaries have dissolved. – Time Out London

Brilliantly shot and filled with an iconoclastic sense of humor, Jose Henrique Fonseca’s O Homem do Ano is the first feature film by a very talented young Brazilian director. Following the story of a man who becomes a killer in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, The Man of the Year depicts, in a very original manner, a society in convulsion. – Walter Salles

Imagine if the kids of City of God lived beyond the age of fifteen and became everyday citizens. Now imagine if Quentin Tarantino was Brazilian. The result might be Man of the Year, the debut feature from director José Henrique Fonseca, that opens with so much ballsy attitude and stylish verve that you could be forgiven for thinking you were about to watch not only the man, but one of the films of the year. – Jamie Russell, BBC

Fritz Lang’s DIE NIBELUNGEN

Posted on July 4, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

DIE NIBELUNGEN
Dir. Fritz Lang, 1924
Germany. 280 minutes.
Presented in a new HD restoration

Special thanks to Jason Leaf & Kino Lorber

THE ENTIRE NIBELUNGEN SCREENS SUNDAY, JULY 28! SIEGFRIED BEGINS AT 1:00 PM FOLLOWED BY KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE AT 4:00 PM! DON’T MISS OUT!

Long assailed by shoddy prints and jarring, beyond-incomplete edits, Fritz Lang’s Die Nibelungen is an undersung silent masterpiece, on par with the biggest and most bombastic works of the 1920s. For sheer scale, its only competition might be Gance’s Napoleon, DeMille’s Cleopatra or, indeed, Lang’s own subsequent Metropolis. But whereas that film – which, like both halves of Die Nibelungen, was co-written by Lang’s wife Thea Von Harbou – took a forward creative hurtle in imagining the nuts and bolts of an industrialized dystopia, Die Nibelungen is unabashedly Teutonic, equal parts pastoral daydream and hellish, demon-populated wasteland. Its images weave a snarling, vicious tangle of beauty and cruelty, with subtle flavors of hatred coloring its human drama via Lang’s flair for lovingly crafted overacting.

Die Nibelungen is presented in the exquisite remaster released last year by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung from all available negatives, with the full score originally composed by Gottfried Huppertz. Your stupid job, your skyrocking debt, your lingering text messages – abandon them for five hours and treat yourself to a classic adventure story, a film whose sweep and venom see the summer blockbusters of Nolan, Snyder and Abrams arriving out the other end of a paper shredder. Spectacle and Kino are thrilled to present Die Nibelungen this July, because there’s “epic” and then there’s epic.

PART I: SIEGFRIED
Dir. Fritz Lang, 1924
Germany. 149 minutes.

SUNDAY, JULY 7TH – 7pm
SUNDAY, JULY 14TH – 7pm
SUNDAY, JULY 28TH – 1pm

Siegfried, the first half, concerns its nominal hero (Paul Richter), an often shirtless young prince who, in Lang’s wildly overgrown concrete forests, learns how to forge his own iron. Broadsword in hand, Siegfried handily slays the dragon Fafnir and bathes in its blood, a signature sequence that sees our hero battling a 60-foot monster operated by nearly a dozen special effects artists, cocked and loaded with a real flamethrower in its skull! The battle with Fafnir begins a serpentine spree of conquest that sees him quickly rising to the top ranks of the savage metalsmith mutants of the mountain, the Nibelungen.

Of the two episodes, Siegfried is the more phantasmagoric – his travels take him from one jaw-dropping vista to another, ultimately joining the elites of Burgundy, where he begins a torturous love affair with the princess Kriemhild (Margarete Schön.) Lang’s first film in this massive gold-plated diptych ultimately becomes a story a pack of crazy-eyed romantics; Siegfried makes for a surprisingly dark-sided hero, equally propelled by a romantic desire and a bottomless thirst for power. The ensuing love triangle between him, Kriemhild and her warrior-princess sister-in-law Brünhild (Hanna Ralph) steers the second episode’s course forever.

PART II: KRIEMHILD’S REVENGE
Dir. Fritz Lang, 1925
Germany. 131 minutes.

SATURDAY, JULY 13TH – 7pm
THURSDAY, JULY 25TH – 7pm
SUNDAY, JULY 28TH – 4pm

Kriemhild’s Revenge, the ominously titled second half, dwindles whatever fanciful spirit remains down to a nub in its slow march into catastrophe. Kriemhild uses the gold of Siegfried’s Nibelungen comrades as a bargaining chip to keep her own kingdom in check; soon a messenger arrives with a marriage proposal for her – from Atilla The Hun. Kriemhild travels east, and bears the famous death-mongerer a son – but even this is revealed as a mere gesture, part of her overall scheme to exact vengeance on her brother’s in-laws. Piling up dusty corpses on the steps of impossibly grand castles, Kriemhild teases the Hun and Burgundian empires into a bitter, sprawling deathmatch.

The insanity of Brünhild and the superhuman power of Siegfried meld into Kriemhild’s tunnelvision in a flash. For neither the first nor the last time in his career, Lang inverts a character’s deep well of personal pain into a force of blind, corrosive fury leaving none unspared. The director’s obsessiveness – stadium-sized ornamentalism, uncanny double-exposed sunflares, etc – apparently carried into the night of Die Nibelungen’s premiere, when taxis delivered fresh-printed reels direct from his edit station to Germany’s biggest movie theater. It is indeed easy to imagine Lang reworking the film forever; every shot shimmers with perfection.

FILM AS A SUBVERSIVE ART: JUNE 2013

Posted on June 23, 2013July 23, 2015 by spectacletheater

TWO PROGRAMS from ‘THE ATTACK ON GOD’.
MONDAY, JUNE 24TH – 7:30PM & 10PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

Can film make revolution? What use is it if it can’t? Film critic Amos Vogel’s seminal work, Film As A Subversive Art, published in 1974, is both an argument for and a catalogue of cinema that refuses, rebels and repulses. Film “designed to eradicate the reactionary values of an establishment that had proven its bankruptcy.”

Vogel died in April 2012. In his honor, Spectacle Theater and The New Inquiry will be hosting a series of talks and screenings, taking selections of many of the near-impossible to see films from his book. June’s screening will feature banned blasphemies, comic crucifixions, and other atheistic anarchy.

THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET

Posted on May 30, 2013December 22, 2019 by spectacletheater

THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET
Dir. György Szomjas, 1976.
Hungary. 95 min.
In Hungarian with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, JUNE 7 – 10:00 PM
THURSDAY, JUNE 20 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, JUNE 23 – 10:00 PM

György Szomjas brings exquisite style and pacing to this elegiac gallows western about a betyár — a brand of 19th century highwayman popular in contemporary Hungarian balladry — set amid the Great Hungarian Plain in 1937. It follows the path of a brooding, aging outlaw newly escaped from prison whose personal revenge quest dovetails with the interests of the landless herdsman who oppose the state’s building a canal through the fields on which they work their trade. He becomes an unlikely hero to unwashed vagabond workers while facing down a mutually-admiring adversary in the form of a forthright squire who had captured him before. Meanwhile, an opportunistic youngster attempts to work both sides to his benefit. As ditches are dug for canals and corpses alike, the state puts increasing pressure on the wistful squire, who realizes the social order is changing and his fortunes are in decline; and yet he remains dutifully attached to his mission.

Along with Szomjas’s follow-up ROSSZEMBEREK, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET is probably the only example of a “Goulash Western.” Though carefully paced and supposedly based on historical documents, it aims squarely for populist appeal. The autumnal palette, period imagery, and sudden outbursts of hysterical grotesquery recall Andrzej Żuławski’s THE DEVILS. Yet most of all it brings to mind the unlikely grouping of Woody Guthrie, Miklós Jancsó, and Akira Kuroswawa — or maybe Béla Tarr meets Sergio Leone. Whatever the comparisons, THE WIND IS WHISTLING UNDER THEIR FEET is a stirring, forgotten gem in classic Spectacle tradition and not to be missed.

MAY MIDNIGHTS

Posted on April 23, 2013December 29, 2017 by spectacletheater

Friday May 3: SPECTACLE MANDATORY MIDNIGHTS presents INTREPIDOS PUNKS
Saturday May 4: EQUINOX
Friday May 10: WEEKEND NERD-A-THON presents ASSAULT OF THE PARY NERDS
Saturday May 11: WEEKEND NERD-A-THON and TROMA ENTERTAINMENT present BRIDE OF KILLER NERD
Friday May 17: DEVILHELM
Saturday May 18: SPLATTERDAYS presents BLOOD FEAST 2: ALL YOU CAN EAT
Friday May 24: ACT OF VENGEANCE
Saturday May 25: SPECTACLE MIDNIGHTS presents SPECTACLE ROULETTE
Friday May 31: REFLECTIONS OF EVIL

FRIDAY MAY 3

SPECTACLE MANDATORY MIDNIGHTS presents

INTREPIDOS PUNKS
Francisco Guerrero, 198?
92 min. Mexico. In Spanish with all-new subtitles.

Don’t miss our showings of the sequel LA VENGANZA DE LOS PUNKS all month!

ENCORE SCREENING added SATURDAY, MAY 18 at 7:30 PM! Catch the entire INTREPIDOS saga back-to-back!

“I found this VHS in a box of tapes someone left on the sidewalk.
I was surprised it was a cool movie.”
Anonymous, the internet

“It’s 99.9% certain that this is the most gleefully assaultive display of a misappropriated cultural movement in history, which is by no means a criticism. […] This film isn’t recommended… it’s MANDATORY.”
Destroy All Movies!!! The Complete Guide to Punks on Film

“It wouldn’t be entirely beyond the pale to say that my entire life has been leading up to the moment I first heard of, then tracked down and watched this overwhelmingly fantastic slice of punk rock exploitation. […] Intrepidos Punks is a colossal juggernaut, a true giant striding across the landscape of sleazy movies. If you have not seen it, you will notice there’s probably a little hole in your soul. A hole shaped exactly like a busty blonde in a chainmail bikini, sporting gigantic hair and a grenade launcher. Let Intrepidos Punks plug that hole and finally make you complete.”
Teleport City

Intrepidos Punks is about a sexy apocalyptic biker gang led by a ruthless luchadore pushing drugs, racing choppers and killing the police who are helpless to stop them. And partying. Featuring the song “Intrepidos Punks” along with an unabashed rip-off of “Sweet Emotion” that improves significantly upon the original.

SATURDAY MAY 4

EQUINOX
Jack Woods, 1970.
80 min. USA.

In August of 2012, Spectacle played host for the New York premiere of a shot-on-video horror anthology called SLAUGHTER TALES. The film was helmed in nearly every department by a then 15 year old from Philadelphia who goes by Johnny Dickie. Dickie wrote, directed, starred in, and provided a veritable cornucopia of practical special effects. With only a few locations and a long shooting schedule, SLAUGHTER TALES was a homegrown labor of love from a young filmmaker with an obvious appreciation of that slice of horror. While certainly not perfect, the film had it’s heart and head in the right place…usually removed from the body and covered in stage blood.

Though SLAUGHTER TALES likely won’t be relegated to the classic status of a film as mighty as EQUINOX (Sorry, Johnny!), it’s comforting to know that the idea that if you love movies, you can still get together with your friends and make something that lies somewhere between pet project and a sleeper cult hit to be discovered years later.

In 1965 a young Dennis Muren had a choice to make. He was 17 and could use the money his grandfather had set aside for him to either go to college or do something sensible and make a feature length genre defining, effects pioneering film. Having made the right choice, Muren and friends David Allen and Mark McGee set about making their vision come to life and over the course of the next two and a half years THE EQUINOX…A JOURNEY INTO THE SUPERNATURAL was born. Among their support group was none other than Forrest J. Ackerman (famed/revered/beloved editor of FAMOUS MONSTERS – who would also lend his voice to the film in an uncredited cameo!) who helped the gang to snag Fritz Leiber in the role of Dr. Waterman. Muren and Allen headed up the technical side and dove headfirst into the special effects. Monsters abounded, winged demons poured out the ether, and giants stomped around the screen with terrifying voracity. And all reportedly to the tune of less than $7,000!

With the film completed, Muren set out to show it to the world but that proved to be difficult. Initially trying for a TV release, Muren ended up shopping it around Hollywood. The premise and eye popping special effects grabbed the attention of Jack H. Harris. Harris had been the man who picked up THE BLOB (and later DARK STAR, SCHLOCK, FEAR OF A BLOB PLANET, DINOSAURUS, 4D MAN, etc). He shortened the title to EQUINOX and hired Jack Woods to beef up the run-time. Rehiring the original actors and casting himself as in the role of Asmodeus, Woods (with Ed Begley Jr on ass’t camera duties) retooled the creature feature and soon 35mm prints were stuck! The film was unleashed on the world and in the coming years would help mold the very essence of the “cabin in the woods” subgenre. Without EQUINOX arguably, there would be no EVIL DEAD series.

In the wake of EQUINOX many of it’s creators would flourish. Dennis Muren continued down the path of effects work and would soon have a wheelbarrow full of Acdemy Awards for his efforts on films like the STAR WARS trilogy, ET, JURASSIC PARK, DRAGONSLAYER, CAPTAIN EO, and more recently SUPER 8. David Allen also pretty much changed the game in terms of effects while working on films like WILLOW, HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS and became responsible for all things good in the world of Full Moon features with work on DOLLS, OBLIVION, and the PUPPET MASTER films to name a few. While this is Jack Woods only directing credit, he would end up with a lengthy sound department resume with titles like PHANTASM II and the STAR TREK franchise.

Spectacle Midnights are humbled and honored to present this film (a favorite around the Goth Bodega) with the kind permission of Jack H. Harris and featuring a very special video intro from Mr. Dennis Muren himself (!!!) to cap off what will undoubtedly be an unforgettable evening.

FRIDAY MAY 10

WEEKEND NERD-A-THON presents

In case you weren’t aware The Spectacle has its share of NERDS, but rather than try and rehabilitate ourselves into cool, well groomed, productive members of society, we’ve said “whatever, let’s party…Nerd Style!”

The Spectacle’s WEEKEND NERDATHON. Midnights May 10th and 11th!

BE THERE and BE SQUARE!

First up…

ASSAULT OF THE PARTY NERDS
Dir. Richard Gabai, 1989.
USA. 82 min.

Now, I don’t know a lot about mathematical beauty, but here’s an elegantly simple cinematic equation so perfect it might make your calculator cry:

NERDS + PARTY = AWESOME MOVIE.

It’s true, and here’s a perfect example:

1989’s bare bones masterpiece, ASSAULT OF THE PARTY NERDS.

Writer-director Richard Gabai (Nightmare Sisters) stars as Richard Spencer, president of Lambda Alpha Eta, a fraternity consisting of him and three other guys , all prime examples of the genus NERDUS EXTREMUS. These Lamda brothers have spent the last 4 years on the couch in front of the tube, but now graduation time is around the corner and these full time geeks intend to RAGE against the dying of the light. How? By throwing the “greatest party in the history of the school, if not the world.” Now it’s just a matter of finding a way to bankroll the apocalyptic blowout and keeping the jacked up jocks from wringing their pencil-necks long enough to make NERD HISTORY!

Executive produced by prolific schlockmeister David DeCoteau (Sorority Babes and the Slime Ball Bowl a Rama) and featuring unforgettably kooky performances by Michelle Bauer (Cafe Flesh) and Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead), Assault of the party nerds takes B movie minimalism to new heights and standards of good taste to a new low.

2 locations, 5 days of shooting, a fast, funny script, nerds, jocks, tons of beer and one hell of a party! It all adds up to one essential NERDSTERPIECE!

With a killer soundtrack by Gabai’s own power pop outfit, The Checks, these nerds are sure to get the party started!

Part of The Spectacle’s WEEKEND NERDATHON! Only at MIDNIGHT. MAY 10th!

SATURDAY MAY 11

WEEKEND NERD-A-THON and TROMA ENTERTAINMENT present

BRIDE OF KILLER NERD
Dir. Mark Steven Bosko, Wayne Alan Harold, 1992
USA. 75 min.

The Spectacle’s WEEKEND NERDATHON continues with a view into the dark side of Nerdom!

Just when you thought nerd rage couldn’t get anymore twisted or revolting, The Spectacle and Troma Entertainment present BRIDE OF KILLER NERD, a seriously sick sequel that proves two nerds are better than one when it comes to revenge, especially when they’re in love.

Harold Kunkle is living a low key, quietly desperate existence in the wake of his revenge fueled killing spree (see Killer Nerd for more details). Angst ridden and contemplating suicide, Harold meets Thelma, another desperate nerd-soul who’s reached the end of her rope. These two love-nerds have finally found someone to live for, but will they live happily ever after? Come on, what do you think? After a nasty prank, this really odd couple does what nerds do best when pushed too far, they get revenge!

Toby Radloff, American’s Genuine Nerd is back in a powerfully understated performance this time around, but the film belongs to Heidi Lohr in an absolutely chilling performance as the BRIDE OF KILLER NERD.
This Ohio(bleaksville) shot sequel to the original cult SOV masterpiece has it all: pitch black comedy, SPLATTER, dark glimpses into nerd psychology and SKA. Pretty scary, right?! A truly disturbing and vicious ride that gives the original a run for its money.

It’s shorter, it’s sicker, it’s only at MIDNIGHT! Part of The Spectacle’s WEEKEND NERDATHON!

NERD! NERD! NERD! NERD!

FRIDAY MAY 17

DEVILHELM
Dir. Craig Rahtz/Hibachi Chicken Films, 1999.
USA. 96 min.
English.

“When the Dark Elves, driven by hatred and greed, steal an evil relic known as the Devilhelm, chaos threatens the peaceful valley. Only three ninja have the power and courage to stop this evil, and protect the earth from the ravaging powers of the Devilhelm.”

“Intense martial combat combines with supernatural wizardry to make Devilhelm an unforgettable adventure.”

Made over the course of three years in the woods of southwestern Ohio in the late 90s, Devilhelm is a virtually unknown exemplar of autodidactic backyard moviemaking. Unconventional energy and invention is firmly on display, from the ambitious makeup and sets, to the primitive computer graphics and original soundtrack; most importantly, Devilhelm rides that right line of irreverence and sincerity that we all love when we hear the phrase “shot-on-video.”
‪Ninja stars are thrown, riddles are spoken, the re‬ ‪d stuff sprays freely, ‬ ‪and some pagan raver vomits up a ____.‬

Originally released on VHS mostly to family and friends, Spectacle Theater is excited to reintroduce Devilhelm into the audience and dialogue where it belongs.

SATURDAY MAY 18

SPLATTERDAYS presents

BLOOD FEAST 2: ALL YOU CAN EAT
Dir. Herschell Gordon Lewis, 2002
USA, 92 min.

Fuad Ramses III is a caterer and is hoping to get a fresh start in Miami, by reopening the now defunct catering company once owned by his grandfather Fuad Ramses.

Things are going smoothly, and the residents of the neighborhood are impressed with his culinary aptitude, so much so, that he attracts the attention of the local socialite Mrs Lamply, who eventually hires Fuad to cater the wedding for her daughter, who is engaged to the town sheriff.

But, as he begins preparing for the big party, he discovers an ancient Egyptian statue of Ishtar which possesses Fuad, and commands him to use some pretty unconventional ingredients for the catering of the wedding; namely the wedding party!

As members of the brides attache continue to mysteriously disappear, the sheriff/groom grows suspicious of Fuad, but can’t seem to prove anything, and is considered just paranoid and jealous by his friends and coworkers who are all getting fat off of Fuad’s excellent cooking.

With the guests disappearing, and the wedding day fast approaching, can the sheriff stop Fuad’s possessed murder madness before the big day?!

NO, EVERYONE IS SLAUGHTERED, SERVED, AND EATEN!!

FRIDAY MAY 24

ACT OF VENGEANCE (aka RAPE SQUAD)
Dir. Bob Kelljan
USA, 90 min.
English

Act of Vengeance is a 70s vengeance saga that sits alongside Coffy and Death Wish while delivering plenty of action and some grimy grindhouse moments. A man in an orange jumpsuit and a hockey mask has been stalking and tormenting women — you’ll never hear “Jingle Bells” the same way again. After Linda fails to find any help after her attack from useless yokels and the incompetent police, she vows vengeance, and collects a team of other victims to help hunt down attackers and other scum. Plenty of sticking it to the man, plenty of creepy POV voyeurism, Charlie’s Angels style training montages, a pimp gets a serious beatdown in a scene Tarantino probably ripped off at some point, enough skin for the midnight crowd — this is pretty much a given.

SATURDAY MAY 25

SPECTACLE MIDNIGHTS presents

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

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!

FRIDAY MAY 31

REFLECTIONS OF EVIL
Dir. Damon Packard, 2002
USA. 138 min

Obese, verging on diabetic, Bob (played by director Damon Packard) sells watches and over-consumes in a paranoid post 9/11 southern California landscape as the ghost of his sister, a victim of PCP overdose, desperately searches for him.
Beaming right into your third eye and sticking with you long after viewing like a bad acid nightmare, this tour de force by Packard makes a profound statement of American culture that no other director has dared show.

“It was shocking, intriguing, scary and subversive bad taste from beginning to end. But moments of humour and pathos shine through to keep you glued. Your “Mom” and the elderly couple in the cozy-bubble burb residence were just great. Seriously spot on!
— Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull)

“Nothing short of genius.”
— Henry Rollins

“This guy is really sick, no I mean he is really sick…I’ve got kids in the house!”
— Sylvester Stallone