Hail horror parasites! This is Lord Battle and I apologize for not having any new content go up yesterday but I was busy finishing my summoning circle and bonding a particular creature to the Overlook grounds for a day. Easter is a day humans celebrate the resurrection of a past savior by hiding eggs for little ones to find. It's actually quite quaint and a lot of fun, especially if you are allowed onto sacred horror film grounds... But this year at the current location of the Overlook, I was busy conjuring what I assume to be a wizard who goes by the name The Ascendant. Last time our paths crossed I warned this mage that I'd bind him until he revealed some of the fabled cinema he had bragged about previously. And on the eve of resurrection I bound the living, forcing 4 films out of the wretch that would best describe his inner workings, one of which he himself had not seen, one of which had to be Cat III (a banned category of Chinese cinema the wizard boasted about having an extensive library of) and I demanded they be presented in an order that was suited for a marathon. This is a brief chronicle of what followed...
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Pieces of Talent
The opening film of a marathon should make a statement. A real eye opener. Something that gets the attention of your audience. This usually translates into something high energy and entertaining. The Ascendant definitely made a statement by starting with Joe Stauffer's indie horror Pieces of Talent.
David, a local filmmaker, becomes obsessed with Charlotte, an aspiring actress working as a waitress, and begins filming a gory masterpiece by killing members of the community.
Pieces of Talent starts like any good indie drama; bleak. I personally love indie films about poor, rebellious youth doing anything and everything to piss off their parents. Funny enough PoT features the opposite as Charlotte has her mother Mary crashing at her place, borrowing her car, and stealing her money. I couldn't have enjoyed this more but I was a bit confused as to why the Ascendant chose this film to open. I know he has a strong love for indie film but this seemed fairly run of the mill and hardly horror.
By the third act many people had been killed and it was time for the survivor girl to see who she has really been confiding in. This scenario is so tired and predictable that when it played out in a way I wasn't expecting I was sudden forced to reevaluate the whole film and what I had just experienced. But since this was the lead film in a marathon, it just knocked the wind out of me and made way for the next feature...
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Rituals
When I heard a film from the 70's titled Rituals was next, I was expecting a lost film about witches or a cult. After all The Ascendant and I are among some of the only metal enthusiast on the creature roster. But then he described the film as a Canadian Deliverance and having never seen the original, I was expecting some back woods Canadian murder/rape to go down. What I wasn't expecting was a $500 film about 5 doctors trekking to a lake in the middle of a place called the Cauldron, which is described as being located in the center of nowhere...
Still having just stepped out of Pieces of Talent I wasn't going to take this film at face value, yet the application of the word Rituals still caught me off guard and halfway through act 1 the Berkeley Blazer arrived and summed up the movie brilliantly by stating; "Rituals is a film you'd read about being discussed in a philosophy magazine". Morals aside, Rituals was a classically great film and the DVD we watched was uncut and an anamorphic transfer, which I'd highly recommend hunting down. The Ascendant imparted some wisdom stating that this Code Red copy does appear on their BigCartel every now and then.
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Pig Pen
After a brief raw fish break, we returned for the third feature, which upon my request was a film the sorcerer had not previously seen. When Jason M. Koch's film Pig Pen appeared on the screen I was elated. This film had a reputation for being a brutal microbudget indie-drama about a young skateboarder. I am a huge fan of Larry Clark's What's Up Rockers and this sounded like the horror version of it, staring one of the Overlook Theatre's favorite actors Vito Trigo!
The Ascendant explained that this film had been next on his "to-watch" list and promised that he had insurmountable faith in the film-makers, swearing it would not upset the lightly filled theatre of creatures (at this point Huntress and The Berkeley Blazer were in attendance).
Pig Pen is what I call an urban fantasy film. An urban fantasy would be like They Live or for a more on-the-nose pick, Mazes and Monsters. Basically any film that takes a big city and treats it like a forest in a fantasy film, filled with encounters ranging from forgotten/secret locations, monsters/bandits, to even treasure. Pig Pen definitely fits this mold featuring an unlucky adventurer who skates through his city and runs into all kinds of trouble. Still the worst happens at home with his mom's current boyfriend Wayne, played by the always intense Vito. Despite some harsh sound issues (the bluray has less of these) The Ascendant was safe, as the film is both satisfyingly emotional and gory.
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Ebola Syndrome
The last film of the night was of course Ebola Syndrome, the film I had not only summoned this fiend to see but a movie that would mark the Overlook Theatre's first screening of a Cat III feature. Ebola Syndrome was surprisingly quick with the violence, sex, and racism. And the Ascendant made sure to mention as the film hit the 5,10, and 20 minute marks. This tour de force does not disappoint or even get a little sleepy.
I won't go into detail about this film other than to say its stark exploitation is only accented by its expertly shot look. Seriously this film looks gorgeous! We did watch a DVD release from the wizards personal collection and I have heard many of the bootlegs circulating come from bad VHS copies... And sadly it is and has been out of print for quite sometime though, so keep your eyes peeled, you don't want to miss this one.
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Circus of the Dead
It was now 1AM, well into the day of resurrection and beyond the confines of my binding spell. The Ascendant proud of how the creatures (now joined by The Great Hornito) took to his selection, decided to show another he had brought just-in-case... This film he intro'd by merely stating Rob Zombie must have seen this before shooting 31. KillDozer often calls out Zombie as being a ripoff and a hack and I normally take up his defense as I personally feel that way about Tarantino and constantly battle KillDozer who comes to his. Yet after screening Billy Pon's Circus of the Dead, I don't think I'll be taking up arms in Zombie's name again. Circus of the Dead is everything horror fans could have wanted from Rob Zombie's 31 (except maybe the greatest hits of the 70's); violent, brutal, carnage that is as unrelenting as it is unjustified.
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Here's a map to find the films screened:
(DVD, Bluray, and Limited edition Bluray)
(Code Red uncut DVD)
(DVD & Bluray)
Ebola Syndrome
(out of print)
(DVD & Bluray pre order)
Mexican Bingo anyone?
- Lord Battle
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