…Maybe third time’s the charm
First, it was superheroes, the most maligned of recent cultural trends. Second, we assembled musicals. Now, in what is our third attempt to $ell out, Spectacle is unleashing GIMMICKVISION just in time for the tail end of summer. Beat the August heat with a crash course in forgotten cinema gimmicks– from ROLLERCOASTER’s Sensurround to THE ANGRY RED PLANET’s creatively economic CineMagic and the subliminal unpredictability of Psychorama in MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING. Spectacle is thrilled to celebrate the absurd ways producers tried getting butts in seats with unpredictable results.
ROLLERCOASTER
dir. James Goldstone, 1977
United States. 119 min.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 3 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 15 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, AUGUST 21 – 7:30 PM
George Segal is Harry Calder, a safety inspector dripping with 70s cool who’s swept into a vicious cat-and-mouse game with a bomber targeting amusement park rides. Released in the shadow of STAR WARS, ROLLERCOASTER wasn’t just another picture chasing the decade’s disaster movie craze, but one of the last films released in Universal’s ambitious audio production process known as Sensurround. Utilizing a sound mix that would accentuate extended low-frequency bass during key scenes, the coaster sequences establish an audiovisual immersion that needs to be seen (and heard) to be believed.
Shooting on location at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Kings Dominion, and the now-defunct Ocean View Amusement Park, ROLLERCOASTER is a unique Hitchcockian thriller and essential artifact for both seekers of the next New Hollywood reassessment and theme park historians.
THE ANGRY RED PLANET
dir. Ib Melchior, 1959
United States. 83 min.
In English
SUNDAY, AUGUST 10 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, AUGUST 29 – 7:30 PM
Well? Shall we go out and claim the planet in the name of Brooklyn?
THE ANGRY RED PLANET is a delightfully strange late-50s creature feature with a production budget of 200K and only nine days of filming. With constraints like that, the team had no choice but to improvise by adapting hand-drawn animation to live-action footage. Such is the CineMagic that brings this surreal and very red depiction of Mars to life, a Mars that also happens to be the residence of our picture’s monster: a behemoth rat/bat/spider/crab hybrid. A formidable, otherworldly quest alongside character actor greats Gerald Mohr and Jack Kruschen.
a stimulating experience in suspense and intrigue
—Samuel D. Burns, Motion Picture Daily
director/screenwriter Ib Melchior brings a surprisingly light, deft touch
—Bruce Eder, AllMovie
MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING
(aka TERROR IN THE HAUNTED HOUSE)
Dir. Harold Daniels, 1958
United States, 76 min
FRIDAY, AUGUST 8 – 5 PM
SATURDAY, AUGUST 16 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 27 – 7:30 PM
Also co-starring Gerald Mohr, MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING is a psychological horror centered around a newlywed couple. Sheila Tierney (Cathy O’Donnell) is perpetually haunted by a recurring dream in a mansion, so Philip (Gerald Mohr), upstanding gentleman that he is, decides to move them into said mansion in order to “pick her brain”. What separates it from other couples torn apart by haunted house movies is its use of the precon process, better known for its more marketable term, Psychorama. Frantic editing that’s as paranoid-inducing as it is inspirational, MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING remains a true unsung hero in mind-bending cinema.