He had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity. (Isaiah 53:2-3).

“Now I was assigned to The Unknown, to a star known as the horror man of films, a man who literally made the lights tremble on the marquee—Mr. Lon Chaney.  Here was the most tense, exciting individual I’d ever met, a man mesmerized into this part.  Between pictures when you met him on the lot you saw a grave, mild-mannered man with laughing black eyes who seldom laughed, but when he did, his laughter was irresistible.  When he worked, it was as if God were working, he had such profound concentration.  It was then I became aware for the first time of the difference between standing in front of a camera, and acting.  Lon Chaney’s concentration, the complete absorption he gave to his character, filled all of us with such awe we never even considered addressing him with the usual pleasantries until he became aware of and addressed us.  He was armless in this picture—his arms strapped to his sides—and he learned to eat, even to hold a cigarette using his feet and toes.  He was in a world of his own, a world in which he’d had those arms amputated for love of a gypsy girl who abhors men’s arms.  And when he returns to the circus, he finds her—me—in the arms of the strong man!  Mr. Chaney could have unstrapped his arms between scenes.  He did not.  He kept them strapped one day for five hours, enduring such numbness, such torture, that when we got to the scene, he was able to convey not just realism but such emotional agony that it was shocking … it was fascinating."—Joan Crawford, from her autobiography A Portrait Of Joan (Doubleday & Company, Inc.  Garden City, New York.  1962, p. 30.)

Continue Reading "2008 SFSFF13—REVIEW of The Unknown"...

[My thanks to regular Twitch reader and Film Junkies head honcho Justin Decloux for the following review of Frank Hennenlotter’s Bad Biology]

After a 15 years hiatus, granddaddy exploitation director Frank Hennelotter is back to bring us a sexually centred package that promises to be filled with all the laughs and shock we’d expect from the man who brought us the out-there masterpieces “Basket Case” and “Frankenhooker”. Will we be covered in goo? Gag uncontrollably? Tell all our friends that we we’ve been scared for life?

Not quite.

Continue Reading "FANTASIA:  BAD BIOLOGY Review"...

Admitting to being “strangely jittery” because Browning’s “masterpiece” The Unknown is not his own movie, Guy Maddin rationalized that maybe it was because he would be translating the print’s French intertitles “on the fly.”

“Actually, I have to confess,” he qualified, “What you’re getting tonight isn’t even a translation of the French intertitles.  It’s an untranslation.  I want to mention this because it’s just the original English intertitles being read by me while you’re translating the French ones.  Every now and then—if you have a little French, or even if you don’t—you’ll notice that there’s way more words on the intertitles than I’m saying.  I just want you to be confident that I’m not doing my own editing.  Anyway, that’s another matter.

“While I have a huge and friendly audience, I’m really tempted to preach to the converted because, well, there’s no risk in it.  Please allow me to say a few kind words on behalf of melodrama.  Melodrama—outside of the enchanted walls of the Castro Theatre these past three days, as it has been for a long time—is often greeted with cringes or derision; but, really good melodrama, I think, is as fine an art form as there is.  Let me say why.

Continue Reading "2008 SFSFF13—Guy Maddin In Defense of Melodrama"...

The Twitch website (yes, this one) got its highest spike in traffic last year when word got out that we were hosting the trailer for Noboru Iguchi’s “Kataude Mashin Gâru” (The Machine Girl). And very much rightly so because it was one of the most outrageous trailers in ages.

And as a good trailer should, it sure whetted the appetite for the main course…

I finally caught up with the movie itself at the Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival, and it was a definite audience-pleaser. While it didn’t dislodge “[°Rec]” from first place it scored a very respectable 8.1 out of ten.
That should answer the question whether or not this movie delivers on the promises made in that yucky trailer: it does.

So what is it about?
Well, it’s an exploitation revenge flick of the highest (or rather lowest) order, with gore flying around by the bucket loads.

There Will Be Blood!


Read on after the break…

Continue Reading "FANTASIA: THE MACHINE GIRL Review"...

Yes, this does look like rather a lot of fun.  The full theatrical trailer for Australian cult film documentary Not Quite Hollywood, which tracks the Oz-sploitation films of the late seventies and early eighties, has just arrived and it is an absolute blast.  Sure, they’ve got a who’s who of talking heads explaining why these films matter but the film makers are also smart enough to know that it’s the films themselves that are the real attraction and there’s loads of the good stuff in there.  And by good stuff I mean car chases, explosions, kung fu, cheap monster effects and more!

You can find the new trailer plus the original effort below the break in the Twitch Player.

Continue Reading "More Australian Cult Goodness!  A Second Trailer For NOT QUITE HOLLYWOOD!"...

From the recent NIFFF 2008, I have already posted clips of Xavier Gens talking Vanikoro, La Horde, Snow, Vinyan, Martyrs and more. In this latest edition we cover a wide range of topics including a very funny bit with Xavier pondering making a romantic comedy, er um, why he might not ever be greenlit to make one. It really is amazing to see how passionate and vivid he talks about his TIFF Midnight Madness experience last year with Frontière(s); he definitely seems quite genuinely moved by his experience there.

In this interview we talk about:

* TIFF Midnight Madness Experience with Frontière(s)
* On Lady Blood & Helping Upcoming French Filmmakers
* His Secret Project with a Director from Spain
* Being on the Jury at NIFFF 2008
* Latest on Karina Testa - Yasmie from Frontière(s)
* Joking on Making a Romantic Comedy

Video interview after the link bump.

Continue Reading "NIFFF 2008 - More with Xavier Gens"...

Dead Channels has extended San Francisco’s heatwave by going weekly with their White Hot & Warped Wednesdays Film Series.  Here’s the new schedule.  All screenings at 7:30; but, the bar opens up at 7:00!  All screenings at the Hypnodrome Theatre, 575 10th Street, San Francisco; 415-377-4202.

July 9, 2008—Byron Mabe’s She Freak (aka Asylum of the Insane, 1967).  Written by David Friedman.  “Behind the tents and tinsel of a monster midway, something barbaric occurs on the Alley of Nightmares!” Claire Brennen is a waitress who leaves the greasy-spoon diner business for the excitement of the carnival, but quickly discovers that she actually despises freaks and human oddities.  Uh-oh!  Join us in a Shock-Box to witness Tod Browning’s 1932 classic Freaks get dragged across the sawdust floor of a 42nd Street grindhouse. 

Continue Reading "DEAD CHANNELS—Whiter, Hotter & Even MORE Warped; But Still On Wednesdays!"...

The Post Apocalypse is upon us in the upcoming film La Horde, as a zombie wave is spreading across the world devouring humanity while at the top of a skyscraper in France cops and gang members are battling it out. Can you say gun play meets end of the world meets zombies meets Die Hard 1? I think so, but lets have producer of the film Xavier Gens tell us more about La Horde! Video clip after the link bump.

Continue Reading "NIFFF 2008 - Xavier Gens Talks La Horde (2009)"...

After the link bump we have Italian filmmaker Francesco Barilli introducing his film, The Perfume of the Lady at NIFFF tonight. The occasion was so rare I couldn’t pass up the chance to film it for Twitch audiences that otherwise wouldn’t be able to experience this.

Continue Reading "NIFFF 2008 - Perfume of the Lady in Black Intro"...

Dead Channels continues its 2008 two-month summer film series White Hot & Warped Wednesdays, venued at the Hypnodrome Theatre, 575 10th Street, San Francisco, by declaring Wednesday, July 2, 2008 as International Zombie Night by hosting the Bay Area premiere of Omar Ali Khan’s Zibahkhana (Hell’s Ground), the gory, global film festival favorite from Pakistan.  Brace yourself for a night of action packed mayhem, villainy, and chucky Fulci-esque exotica in this unique hybrid.  Twitch—of course—has been all over this for years.  Todd reported on it in early August 2006 and then followed through in April 2007 when the film began to get good buzz on the festival circuit.  Michael Wells dispatched to Twitch from the 2007 New York Asian Film Festival, offering his reaction to Hell’s Ground and a report on the Q&A with director Khan.  Kurt Halfyard caught Hell’s Ground at last year’s Fantasia Film Festival and wrote that “something that should feel old-hat is born again surprisingly fresh.” Omar Ali Khan gives Hell’s Ground a “rich and welcome exoticism to world audiences while giving teens from Karachi a film to call their own.” Most recently, Todd gave a thumbs up to the extras on the recently-released DVD.

But wait, there’s more!  On July 16, 2008, Tommy Wiseau’s The Room is coming to San Francisco fresh from its four-year engagement in Los Angeles.  The management and staff of Dead Channels guarantee that this screening will be one of the strangest viewing experiences you will ever have!  Amazingly, Twitch hasn’t had its eye on this one but its cult cachet—as graphed out by Wikipedia—certainly makes it sound worthwhile viewing.  Reportedly, “it’s so bad it’s actually painfully funny to watch.”

“But we believe that it’s not actually ‘bad’,” Bruce Fletcher qualifies, “at least in a negative way.  Rather, The Room is an unforgettable work of hypnotic brilliance.  It’s what might happen if the late Stanley Kubrick had set out to make the last-word on ‘BadFilm’.  Wiseau’s amazing movie is so inherently wrong on so many levels that viewing it unleashes an undeniable subliminal power—and might actually be an astounding work of cinematic art.  We’re not kidding, you’ll be pondering, laughing about (and quoting) The Room for weeks.”

Mahalo Daily interviews Wiseau.  Nihar Patel does the honors for NPR.  Elina Shatkin for LAist.  With his usual comic flair, Matt Singer does a good job of situating The Room‘s L.A. context at Termite Art.  ”The Room is a beautiful lesson in how to make the worst movie imaginable,” writes Nick Knittel for Speakeasy.  “Take terrible actors, give them a cringe-worthy script, and throw in an idea of filmmaking that must have been lifted from a Wishbone episode, and you get something that approaches the instant-schlock classic of this movie.” Jonathan Kiefer dubs Wiseau “the Orson Welles of crap”, explaining, “Sometimes the cream rises to the top.  Other times, crap floats.” Okaaaaaay.  I guess this is one I’m just going to have to see for myself.  Thanks, Bruce???

Cross-published on The Evening Class.

Poor Aki’s having the worst first day ever at her new school.  As if it’s not bad enough that she gets pushed into the swimming pool as a prank, there’s a new virus circulating among the student body and the doctor who comes to inoculate them against it is a raving madman.  A raving madman who likes to experiment with viruses, no less, and one who pumps the entire school full of a virus of his own design that transforms them into bloodthirsty maniacs.  Things would be looking grim indeed if not for the fact that pool water neutralizes the virus and Aki was actually kidnapped years earlier and trained as a secret assassin by the same mad doctor.  It’s time for Aki to kick some ass but not before stripping down for some lesbian loving with her new found best friend.

Continue Reading "GIRLS REBEL FORCE OF COMPETITIVE SWIMMERS Review"...

Many of you out there probably lament that you cannot attend Weird Wednesday which happens at the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz in Austin, Texas. Have no fear for this week, as I have the introduction the host Lars did for Jess Franco’s women in prison classic, 99 Women. Click ahead for a full video of his introduction and get a small taste of why this film series is so legendary and addictive.

99 Women is a really loving ode to women prisons and Rosalba Neri in thigh highs, that Franco helmed in a year he made around only 9 other films. The film is capped by one of the most eccentric and outright oddly brilliant prison ward performances in the history of cinema in the form of Mercedes McCambridge as Thelma Diaz.

Continue Reading "99 Women - Lars Weird Wednesday Intro"...

Thrills, action, dragons, space aliens, frights, zombies, laughing windows, martial arts delights, time travel, vampires, killer rednecks and nuns, comedy and more, awaits you at the 8th edition of the Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (NIFFF). The festival northwest of the swiss alps, kicks off on July 1st with the opening night film, The Substitute from Ole Bornedal. The festival runs through the 6th, with the latest from Hideo Nakata closing it out, L Change The World. The lineup this year boasts a strong and diverse selection of fantastic and genre feature and short films from around the world and an impressive retrospective section that features a look back at Italian horror/gialli, films of Nobuo Nakagawa and the works of Jess Franco & Erwin C. Dietrich. With this type of exciting lineup with several world and regional premieres, the most hard pressed question will be how to see them all with each time slot packed to the brim with exciting choices of what to see (a PDF program guide is available here). Perhaps Nacho Vigalondo, whose film Timecrimes plays, can provide festival guests a time machine to go back and see what they missed.

Highlights include: The Substitute by Ole Bornedal, Ashes of Time Redux by Wong Kar Wai, Chasseurs de Dragons by Guillaume Ivernel & Arthur Qwarck, Tokyo! by Bong Joon Ho & Léos Carax & Michel Gondry, Adrift in Tokyo by Miki Satoshi, Doomsday by Neil Marshall, Sparrow by Johnnie To, Timecrimes by Nacho Vigalondo, and many more…

International Competition
* Astropia by Gunnar B. Gudmundsson
* Dance of the Dead by Gregg Bishop
* Diary of the Dead by George A. Romero
* Eskalofrio by Isidro Ortiz
* Let the Right One in by Tomas Alfredson
* Manhunt (Rovdyr) by Patrik Syversen
* Shadows by Milcho Manchevski
* Sleep Dealer by Alex Rivera
* Sukiyaki Western Django by Takashi Miike
* The Cottage by Paul Andrew Williams
* The Devil’s Game by In-Ho Yun
* Tokyo! by Bong Joon Ho & Léos Carax & Michel Gondry France

Continue reading for full festival lineup.

Continue Reading "NIFFF 2008 Program Announced - Substitute, Ashes of Time Redux, Tokyo!, Sparrow and More!"...

Back in April we pointed the way to a trailer for upcoming Nazi-sploitation film Blitzkrieg: Escape From Stalag 69 and today the producers have passed along an exclusive clip from the film for us to share.  And yes, this is absolutely every bit the tasteless, low budget film that you think it probably will be.  Which could be either a good or bad thing, depending on your tastes.  Very definitely not safe for work.  You’ll find the clip below the break in the Twitch Player.

Continue Reading "Once Again, Something To Offend Everybody.  An Exclusive Clip From BLITZKRIEG: ESCAPE FROM STALAG 69"...

IndieFest’s 5th Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival is well under way for the next two weeks.  I’ve already written up Machine Girl, Exte: Hair Extensions, and Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer; over at the SF Bay Guardian, Cheryl Eddy’s wiped the regurgitated fly goop off herself after watching Circulation and Homeworld; and Dennis Harvey—having been chased by zombies around the block and back—remains nonplussed and offers a wry travel guide at SF360.

And because Holehead08 just can’t have too many cool Japanese flicks at the festival, they’ve added a new Closing Night Film: the West Coast Premiere of Yoshihiro Nishimura’s Tokyo Gore Police, screening Sunday, June 22, 2008, 8:00PM at the Brava Theater.

Continue Reading "HOLEHEAD08—Tokyo Gore Police Added As Closing Night Film!"...