LE ORME
(aka FOOTPRINTS)
(aka FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON)
(aka PRIMAL IMPULSE)
dir. Luigi Bazzoni, 1975
96 mins. Italy.
In dubbed English with a few minutes of Italian.

SUNDAY, JULY 23 – DUSK at ARVERNE CINEMA
ONE NIGHT ONLY! (LE ORME will return to Spectacle in August 2023.)

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Spectacle is thrilled to partner with Rockaway Film Festival for a special outdoor presentation of Luigi Bazzoni’s surreal psychological thriller LE ORME (1975). Newly scanned in 4K from the original camera negatives by Severin Films, LE ORME will be preceded by cosmic short films by avant-garde filmmaker Jeanne Liotta who will join us in attendance.

In Luigi Bazzoni’s uniquely hallucinatory LE ORME, memories of a science fiction film seen in childhood return to haunt Alice (Florinda Bolkan, of LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN). The fragments of the film lodged in her memory concern an astronaut left behind on the moon; as Alice becomes more and more preoccupied with this vision, her life begins to spin out of control.

Shown at Spectacle in its first “Spectober” programme, LE ORME (originally reedited and rereleased in the States and Europe as PRIMAL IMPULSE) is an unsung masterpiece of 70s genre cinema, marrying the sustained ambient dread of gialli with god-tier cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (just after lensing Elizabeth Taylor in the similarly mental IDENTITK and before Bertolucci’s epic folly NOVOCENTO.) Klaus Kinski features in an extended cameo as the head of Mission Control.

“This hallucinatory Italian film resists easy classification, attempting to subjectively portray the fractured, paranoid psyche of a woman suddenly haunted by memories of a bizarre science fiction film seen in childhood. Florinda Balkan drifts through cinematographer Vittorio Storaro‘s strange, beautiful tableaux much like Monica Vitti in RED DESERT. Often mischaracterized as a giallo—I suppose simply because it’s Italian and stars Balkan—this is more of a haunting puzzle film grinding inexorably toward abject hysterics.” – Screen Slate

“Psychedelically haunting… An existentialist adventure that combines the narrative mystery of SOLARIS with the vivid visions of Argento.” – Electric Sheep Magazine

“Seek it out and unravel its mystery…One of the most unique and overlooked Italian films of the ‘70s.” – Moon In The Gutter

JEANNE LIOTTA makes films, video, moving image installations, projector performances and other media operating at a lively intersection of art, science,& natural philosophy. Her signature 16mm film of the night skies, OBSERVANDO EL CIELO (2007), has won many prizes including the prestigious Tiger Award at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, and was voted among the top ten films of the decade by The Film Society of Lincoln Center. Her films and videos have been screened around the world, including The Whitney Biennial, The New York Film Festival, SFMOMA, The Cinematheque Francais, Museo Nitsch in Naples Italy, The Wexner Center for the Arts, The Menil Collection Houston, The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver . Her works are included in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, The Vienna Film Museum, The European Media Arts Collection, Harvard and Duke Universities. Liotta is a Professor of Moving Image Arts at CU Boulder and is also on the faculty at The Bard MFA program in the Hudson Valley. She is represented by Microscope Gallery, NYC where she has had two solo exhibitions, “Break the Sky”(2018) and “The World is a Picture of The World” (2021). Her films and video works are distributed by Lightcone in Paris, France.

Renoir the painter once told his son the director about the Paris Commune: “They were insane, but they had that little flame that never goes out.” Ken McMullen’s 1871 stages those extraordinary two months not as madness but as theater, a pageant that suspended capitalist existence. Med Hondo plays Karl Marx, whispering omens to the disgraced emperor; an actress sings “The Internationale” while government troops assemble in their seats. “They’re just a bunch of stupid fucking actors,” Timothy Spall’s amoral fop protests. “They get overexcited when they dress up.” History gets made at the prop department.

The Freelance Solidarity Project was founded in 2018 by digital media workers. Now a division of the National Writers Union, it campaigns alongside editorial staff and street vendors alike to raise wages for all. Following the first screening of 1871, writer Chris Randle, a member of FSP’s steering committee, will discuss Hollywood labor strikes with Writers Guild of America member Sara David.

KILLING
(斬)
dir. Tsukamoto Shin’ya, 2018
80 mins. Japan.
In Japanese with English subtitles.

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FRIDAY JULY 7 – 10 PM 
SATURDAY JULY 22 – MIDNIGHT 
MONDAY JULY 24 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY JULY 26 – 10 PM

Spectacle invites you to cool off this summer with a special New York City engagement of KILLING, the most recent masterpiece by Japanese filmmaker Tsukamoto Shin’ya.

Set in the 19th century, KILLING concerns a wandering swordsman named Sawamura (played by the filmmaker) who recruits a young farmer named Tsuzuki (Sôsuke Ikematsu) for an anticipated trip to Edo, with intention to help topple the crumbling Tokugawa shogunate. Sawamura’s would-be disciple is eager to learn the ways of the ronin to the point of neglecting less-exciting chores on the farm, but finds himself paralyzed when a pack of roving outlaws impose themselves on his village. What follows is a dense meditation on the preventability (or inevitability) of violence in the moment of decision, described by Tsukamoto as a “scream” of a film in response to the state of the world.

Far less pulpy than Tsukamoto’s genre riffs A SNAKE IN JUNE or BULLET BALLET, KILLING juxtaposes the natural beauty of the Japanese countryside with the hideousness of human nature. Fans of Michael Mann’s action painting with lightweight digital cameras in MIAMI VICE and PUBLIC ENEMIES will find much to learn in the brief, unforgettable battle sequences choreographed by Tsukamoto – pointed rebuttals to the kind of gratuitous massacres of consequence-free death and violence that make up so much genre cinema today.

While KILLING enjoyed success on the festival circuit in 2018, the film never received a traditional theatrical run in the United States, playing only a handful of times in New York City (first at Japan Society, last fall at BAM as part of a full Tsukamoto retrospective.)

“KILLING’s few fight sequences have the same gnashing energy as Tsukamoto’s city-punk classics TETSUO: THE IRON MAN and TOKYO FIST, but deployed to more judicious ends: blood is drawn as a last resort, there’s no glory in felling your opponent, and Sawamura and Tsuzuki’s blades are so fine they appear almost translucent, ethereal, out of focus. Tsukamoto’s signature camera language gives tactile proportion to the older samurai’s swiftness with the blade, while his would-be student’s trembling inability to fight becomes a core—you could even say fatal—insufficiency, recalling the psychosexual mania of DUEL IN THE SUN or THE LEFT-HANDED GUN.” – Daryl Jade Williams, Cinema Scope

“It wouldn’t be a Tsukamoto film without entangled brutality and sexuality, frustrations taken out in furtive masturbation, physical assault as lust, and other attacks on the flesh. Handheld camerawork avoids the stuffiness plaguing most period pieces, pulling viewers out of history and into the story’s present-tense. The film gets literally darker with each slice of the sword, its emphasis of futility a long way from TETSUO’s full-blown nihilism. The film ends on a perfect note of horror asking, with a kill completed, what exactly died?” – Danielle Burgos, Screen Slate

Following the wildly successful runs of Korean creature features, SPACE MONSTER WANGMAGWI and PULGASARI, earlier this year, Spectacle Theater now sets course due South, across the East China Sea, to discover what cinematic monstrosities the island of Taiwan has in store.

Though much less prolific than the neighboring film industry in Hong Kong, Taiwanese cinema exploded onto the global scene in the early 1980s with the emergence of the New Taiwanese Cinema movement. This crop of ambitious and talented young filmmakers— including Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chen Kunhou, and Chang Yi— sought to use cinema as a means of speaking honestly and openly about the issues affecting post-industrial Taiwanese society, crafting realistic and socially-relevant stories that resonated deeply with modern audiences.

But as Taoist philosophy suggests, just as every light has its dark and as every up has its down, for every TAIPEI STORY or CITY OF SADNESS, there must be a movie about a centuries-old zombie-fighting herbal deity or a semi-feral superpowered female ninja. And since our love of East Asian prestige cinema is only outmatched by our love of homegrown fantasy-horror schlock, Spectacle Theater is thrilled to present IT CAME FROM TAIWAN!, featuring two completely deranged, creature-heavy cuts from the stranger side of Taiwanese cinema.

WOLF DEVIL WOMAN
(雪山狼女)
Dir. Pearl Chang Ling, 1982
Taiwan. 85 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles.

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WEDNESDAY, JULY 5 – 10PM
THURSDAY JULY 13 – 10:00PM 
SUNDAY JULY 16 – 5PM

After her parents are slaughtered by the villainous Red Devil, a young girl is rescued from certain death and raised by the legendary White Wolf of a Thousand Years deep in the snowy wilderness. Twenty years later, now more monster than man, she must learn to harness her ninja-like animal instincts to take down the Red Devil and reclaim her humanity in the process.

The inimitable Pearl Chang pulled quadruple duty as director, writer, producer, and star of this loose adaptation of Baifa Monu Zhuan (白髮魔女傳) aka Romance of the White-Haired Maiden. Chang pulled no punches for her debut feature, mashing together hopping vampires, gorilla ninjas, wire fu stunt work, and voodoo magic effects in this psychedelic masterpiece of lupine lunacy.

Content warning: This film contains brief depictions of animal cruelty.

GINSENG KING aka THREE-HEAD MONSTER
(三頭魔王)
Dir. Wang Chu-chin, 1988
Taiwan. 86 min. In Mandarin with English subtitles.

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FRIDAY, JULY 7 – 5PM
MONDAY JULY 10 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, JULY 14 – 10PM
TUESDAY, JULY 25 – 7:30PM

Cynthia Khan (IN THE LINE OF DUTY series) stars in this tale of a young boy who encounters a thousand-year-old anthropomorphic ginseng root known as the Ginseng King. The herbal deity is highly sought after for its legendary healing abilities— rumored to be powerful enough to even raise the dead— putting the boy at odds with the hordes of demons, wizards, hopping vampires, and zombies of the Nazi persuasion, all seeking to capture the knobby necromancer for their own gain.

The film is a truly one-of-a kind work: A family-friendly, fairytale-adjacent kaiju flick that features some of the most batshit character design ever put to film. The Ginseng King’s look is worth the price of admission alone, with its bulging eyes and mane of roots that falls somewhere between the thing hanging out behind the Winkie’s dumpster and a partially melted wax statue of Marty Feldman. Needs to be seen to be believed

The success of HALLOWEEN (1978) was a formative moment for the modern slasher movie. Between 1978 and 1984, over 100 slasher movies were produced, many by major Hollywood studios, ushering in the slashers’ Golden Age.

By the end of 1984, audiences were fatigued with the genre, and the televised trailer for SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT was the final nail in the slasher coffin. The grizzly commercial depicted a man dressed as Santa going on a killing spree, and parents turned out in droves to protest the movie, eventually forcing the studio to pull the film from theaters.

The critical reception of SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT had a chilling effect on most major studios’ appetite for slasher films; but the rise of VHS brought life back to the genre. 1984 to 1994 became the slashers’ Silver Age, defined by gory low-fi masterpieces not suitable for public consumption.

This summer, Spectacle invites you to experience six underrated movies over two months from the Golden and Silver Age of Slasher. These films are tailor-made for horror superfans who find themselves intrigued by art that inspires opposition and public outrage.

THE ZERO BOYS
Dir. Nico Mastorakis, 1986
United States. 89 min.
In English.

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 11 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, AUGUST 17 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 26 – 10 PM

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A group of weekend warriors head to the woods to celebrate their latest victory and find themselves in a real-life survival situation.

Using the FRIDAY THE 13TH: PART 3 (1983) locations and featuring an early soundtrack by Hans Zimmer and Stanley Myers. THE ZERO BOYS is an excellent mix of 80’s action, survival and slasher movie. If you ever wondered how the victims of a slasher movie would fare with Uzis, then you don’t want to miss THE ZERO BOYS.

CUTTING CLASS
Dir. Rospo Pallenberg, 1989
United States. 91 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, AUGUST 8 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 19 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 24 – 10 PM

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When Brian’s released from an institution, it’s not long before the murders begin again. It’s up to Paula and her boyfriend to work out if Brian’s up to his old tricks or if someone’s trying to frame him.

Many A-list actors started their careers in slasher movies. Tom Hanks was in HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE (1980), Johnny Depp played the lovable boyfriend in A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984), and Kevin Bacon in FRIDAY THE 13TH (1980). For Brad Pitt, it was CUTTING CLASS, a bizarre hybrid of high school comedy and slasher film. This late 80’s genre entry is visually stunning with incredible costume design and a killer color pallet. Don’t miss your chance to rediscover this peculiar slasher, oozing with 80s charm.

BLOOD BEAT
Dir. Fabrice-Ange Zaphiratos, 1983
United States. 87 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 13 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 25 – 10 PM

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A young couple attends Christmas in rural Wisconsin where the spirit of a samurai warrior starts killing them off one by one.

By 1983, supernatural slasher movies were nothing new. THE BOOGEYMAN (1980), BLOODY BIRTHDAY (1981), and SUPERSTITION (1982) had already shocked audiences, but none of these films could prepare them for the insanity of BLOOD BEAT. With a title referring to the accelerated heart rate while high, it was, unsurprisingly, written under the influence. Crammed with wacky visuals, telekinetic battles, and a killer samurai, BLOOD BEAT is the definition of a movie intended to be enjoyed with an audience.

SILENT MADNESS
Dir. Simon Nuchtern. 1984
United States. 93 mins.
In English.

MONDAY, JULY 3 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 14 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JULY 22 – 10 PM

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SATURDAY, JULY 8 – 7:30 PM in 3D! (This event is $10)

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A computer error causes a killer to be released. Believing the killer will return to the scene of his crimes, Dr. Joan Gilmore goes undercover as a sorority sister to try and stop a second massacre.

The early 1980s saw a short-lived revival of 3D movies. Two slasher movies entered the third dimension during this period: FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 (1982), shot by HE KNOWS YOU’RE ALONE (1980) cinematographer Gerald Feil, and SILENT MADNESS. Feil would use what he learned on FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3 to shoot SILENT MADNESS. Despite having a budget less than one-fourth the size of the F13 sequel, SILENT MADNESS holds its own with impressive special effects and a high body count.

For one night only, Spectacle presents Vinegar Syndrome’s restored version of SILENT MADNESS in Anaglyph 3D! (3D glasses are included with the price of admission)

SWEET SIXTEEN
dir. Jim Sotos. 1983
United States. 90 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, JULY 8 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, JULY 15 – MIDNIGHT
FRIDAY, JULY 28 – 5 PM
MONDAY, JULY 31 – 10 PM

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When Melissa moves to a small town in Texas, it doesn’t take long for the boys to start noticing her. When those same boys turn up dead, the sheriff and his daughter must track down the killer before they strike again.

Somewhat of an oddity during the Golden Age, SWEET SIXTEEN focuses heavily on its murder mystery elements rather than being an all-out gore-fest. This change of pace is complimented by the strong performances of Bo Hopkins and Dana Kimmel as they guide us through the horrors of small-town America and deliver a twist you won’t see coming.

THE PREY
dir. Edwin Brown. 1983
United States. 80 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, JULY 8 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, JULY 10 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, JULY 28 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, JULY 29 – MIDNIGHT

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Summer, 1979. Three couples go on an idyllic camping trip to the Rocky Mountains. However, they soon realise someone else is in the woods watching them, stalking them, trying to make them the prey…

THE PREY was shot in the beautiful Idyllwild–Pine Cove over a ten-day period. Unfortunately, due to budgetary restrictions, some scenes were left unfinished. To compensate for the running time, director Edwin Brown decide to intercut wildlife stock footage with his movie. The resulting film feels like a cross between a National Geographic documentary and THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977).

There are three versions of THE PREY in circulation. The original US theatrical cut, the international cut containing 20 minutes of flashback scenes added by the producers without the director’s approval, and a composite cut of both. For this series, Spectacle will be showing Arrow Videos’ restored version of the US theatrical cut.