After working as a set designer and visual effects artist for the likes of Luigi Cozzi and Ruggero Deodato in the 1980s, Alvaro Passeri directed a series of uniquely bizarre sci-fi-horror-creature-features around the turn of the millennium. His films were the inverse of the popular genre blockbusters of the period – never scaling his ambitions to meet his budget, Passeri developed a distinct style based on rubbery body horror and a permanently canted fish-eye lens.
While he is best known for the video rental staple Creatures from the Abyss (aka Plankton), Alvaro Passeri remains an indefatigably resourceful artist, maintaining an active YouTube presence featuring tutorials centered on homebrew animatronics and effects creation (a few of which will screen as intros in this series).
Spectacle is proud to present two of his lesser-known features – last screened at Spectacle in 2021 as a one night double-feature. Stay tuned for two more from Passeri this December.
THE MUMMY THEME PARK
dir. Alvaro Passeri, 2000
Italy. 86 min.
In English.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5 – 10PM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 -10PM
“It would not be too bold to declare this film the Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula of Italian mummy movies.” -Senseless Cinema
A garish amalgam of Westworld and The Mummy, Passeri’s 2000 masterpiece addresses the controversial practice of planting microchips in mummies in order to staff fantasy theme parks. Transcending its influences, the film boasts a uniquely queasy visual style crafted from greasy animatronics and a painfully saturated color palette. The plot concerns two dimwitted American journalists caught in the meltdown of the titular Mummy Theme Park – this, of course, is of secondary significance beside the exercise in discount worldmaking achieved through Passeri’s fabric-store scenography and a script rife with non-sequiturs.
FLIGHT TO HELL
dir. Alvaro Passeri, 2003
Italy. 85 min.
In English.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12 – 10PM
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16 – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 – 7:30PM
The obnoxious inhabitants of a flying casino face an infestation of parasitic bugs in Passeri’s follow-up to Mummy Theme Park. Abandoning Mummy’s near-exclusive reliance on practical effects, Flight shows Passeri experimenting with digital animation – his trademark visual style translates surprisingly well to the medium, offering a unique take on the sub-ILM polygonal creations which were rife among direct-to-video horror offerings in the early 2000s.
As per the DVD box:
Don screams out as a horrific monster is about to eat him alive! But then he wakes up. It’s only a dream! That day he boards his private plane, a flying casino, that caters to the needs of fantastically rich clients who want to play for high stakes at high altitudes. But then the plane is engulfed in a strange thick fog that seeps into the cabin. The evil mist transforms the passengers and crew one by one into monstrous half human, half insect creatures with a ravenous appetite for human flesh. Don realizes that it is his nightmare come true – it is his FLIGHT TO HELL!