Smash Cut

Okay, so it starts the day after Halloween, but so what? If you live in the Pennsylvania/New Jersey (more specifically Philadelphia) vicinity, and you’ve got the stamina and cast-iron buttcheeks to do it, the crazed gents at Exhumed Films will be showcasing an unnamed, surprise schedule of horror pics to pack into a full 24-hour period. The madness begins on Saturday, November 1 at noon and ends the next day (Nov. 2) at the same time. Since doors open at 11am on the 1st, I guess that might even make it 25 hours! (Not to mention that Daylight Saving Time kicks in during the movies at 2am on the 2nd, so an extra hour of flicks will be earned.) Some of the Exhumed guys also do time as Diabolik DVD, and you can bet that they’ll have a table set up featuring some gleefully obscure cinema for your home-viewing pleasure that you can browse before the marathon, or in-between shows.

The series takes place at Philly’s International House, and the price is $20. That’s right, twenty bucks for 24 hours of cinemaniacal offerings from around the world! That’s a bit over 80 cents a movie! I’ve survived a 12-hour marathon that Exhumed did some years back, and trust me, it’s not as easy as it sounds. But you’ll feel like a true battle-hardened gladiator afterwards, and guaranteed you’re going to see some movies that aren’t readily available on VHS or DVD.

Exhumed won’t divulge the list of films, but one of the outfit’s co-honchos, Harry Guerro, has a rather stunning personal collection of 16mm and 35mm prints, and many of the films are rare treasures at that. Suffice to say that they’ll mix up fan favorites with relatively obscure works, and a good night/good day will be had by all. Most of the stuff will probably be from the ’70s an ’80s, so I think it’s safe to assume that you won’t be running into any current multiplex offerings.

You can read more about the Horror-thon here, and get directions to the International House too. These Exhumed guys always try to program hard-to-see pics, so if you have the time and energy (and $20), go check out the series and give them some post-Halloween genre love!

About 18 years ago, French director Alain Robak unleashed a vicious little horror pic called Baby Blood on an unsuspecting genre viewership and ended up with a cult favorite. The movie — in a nasty, putrid nutshell — was about a young woman who turned into a flesh-chomping killer after a strange critter entered her body and took over the fetus developing in her womb, thus demanding an ever-increasing supply of blood from its mother host to feed it.

Now, a new team of filmmakers has created a sequel. Robak isn’t connected, but Baby Blood star Emmanuelle Escourrou, who played the young mother Yanka in the original, reprises her role in the gory follow-up and co-wrote the script as well. Entitled Lady Blood, the pic begins many years later, with Yanka recovered from her trauma: she’s a happily married mother of a healthy young daughter, and she also holds a rewarding job as a police chief. But, naturally, weird occurrences begin to unsettle the calm normalcy of her world, and her investigations into a local mob begin to uncover a series of messy killings…ones that mirror the savage acts she committed while under the mysterious creature’s influence in the past.

Judging from the blood-soaked teaser, Lady Blood looks to be even more shot-on-the-cheap than its predecessor, but there certainly seems to be no shortage of energy, style, or le sang.

You can also visit the official website to keep yourself on-track with future distribution possibilities.

Bless you, Anthology Film Archives! Once again, you’re gracing New Yorkers with a cinematic treasure.

If you’ve never seen The Devils, the scandalous 1971 dramatization of a real-life atrocities committed by power-hungry religious zealots in 17th century France, then, well…you’ve missed out on a tremendous example of great film art: a movie that’s narratively engrossing, photographically stunning, and genuinely shocking and upsetting all at once.

Starring the late, great Oliver Reed as the target of the church, along with Vanessa Redgrave as a nun with simmering carnal inclinations, The Devils was directed by the British visionary/madman Ken Russell, a talent who was much revered during the ’60s and ’70s, with movies like Tommy and Women in Love under his belt, but has since become somewhat forgotten, like a lot of terrific filmmakers of that period.

However, thanks to the programmers at Anthology — who were eagle-eyed enough to note that Russell would be in NYC directing Keith Carradine in the play “Mindgame” at the SoHo Playhouse at the end of October — the Devils helmer will be appearing at Anthology on Oct. 31 at 11:55pm (hey, it’ll still officially be Halloween!) to introduce a one-time-only screening of his notorious masterpiece, and perhaps even do a Q&A afterwards.

I can’t stress highly enough the degree to which a presentation of The Devils is truly a Capital-Letter Event. First off, this movie isn’t available in the U.S. on DVD. It was supposed to be released this past May, and this cover art:

had already been designed. But for whatever reason, the wimps (uh, sorry, execs) at Warner Bros. decided to pull it.

With no plans to ever allow it on the streets, mind you.

Also, this movie’s been cut tons of times, and the rare VHS tapes that Warner Bros. did release many a moon ago are not widescreen.

The caveat with the Anthology screening is that, because the running time is listed as 103 min., I assume it’s the cut version that’s being shown. (The full-length version should clock in at around 111 min.) Nevertheless, it’ll be projected in its full widescreen glory, and that’s something that needs to be seen regardless of scene deletions. When Russell was at the top of his game, as he was with The Devils, he created some truly unforgettable images and sequences, and this movie is packed with them.

Info about Anthology and The Devils screening, including its location, can be found here. A trailer, which pretty much shows how confused Warner Bros. was about this movie even back in ‘71 (”The Devils is not…a film for everyone.” Hey, that’ll get ‘em into theaters!), can be seen here. And this is one of the scenes that got censors in a tizzy back then, and — who knows — may still be responsible for keeping this classic out of our homes.

That’s the total running time of the trailer for Broken Path. Revenge? Masked killers? Underestimated heroes with deadly secret pasts? An unsuspecting wife? Yup, it’s all in there! Gotta love it.

Okay, full confession: I know some of the guys who made this, so to an extent this is “shameless promotion.” But the short film that I’m highlighting is about a year old, so it’s not like I’m pimping it for cash or to create an explosion of recognition. I just like the thing, and think my friends did a good job. And it’s almost Halloween, so why not share the joy of flesh-munching zombies, right? Especially when the gift is only about four minutes long?

Zero Hour was entered in a competition back in 2007 called Brooklyn Film Racing which challenged contestants to shoot, score and edit an under-four-minute short within a twelve-hour period. That’s right, twelve hours. If you’ve ever made your own shorts or movies, you know that that’s no easy task.

However, not only did my buddies step up to the race, but they delivered a 3 min. 50 sec. piece with time to spare and won the contest for that year, as evidenced here.

Film Racing seems to be sprouting up everywhere now, so if you wanna take part in the contest, go to the official website and find out if entries are being taken from your hometown.

And, without further rambling on my part, here’s Zero Hour:

‘Nuff said, I guess…

Coming soon to a theater near you, because…no one demanded it!

If the basic idea of yet another pointless remake soiling up our screens wasn’t off-putting enough, check out this obnoxious footage featuring a couple of the new crop of teeny-bopper pin-up stars for 2009’s Friday the 13th. The clip also features the latest trailer.

This newest incarnation of Jason Voorhees is helmed by director Marcus Nispel. If that name seems to ring a bell with you, it might be because you’re already familiar with his previous stinky reboot, 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Hey, way to keep that streak going there, Mr. Nispel!

Sure, Isaac Hayes is hard to top, but have you ever heard the soul master’s original theme song for the 1971 blaxploitation hit Shaft performed by…ukeleles?

Well, here’s your chance:

The ensemble doing the deed here is The Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, an eight man-and-woman band that does some toe-tapping covers of movie themes and other music, from Tchaikovsky to Nirvana. Covers can often be cheap imitations or lame jokes, but I have to admit that I think the Ukelele Orchestra really puts enough of a personalized spin to make their interpretations fun instead of teeth-gnashingly cutesy.

Here’s another clip, one in which the group performs Ennio Morricone’s unforgettable theme for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The official website for the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain features show dates, performer bios, MP3s and more. Check it out!

Yes folks, the passing of another legend of the grindhouse and grungy American cinema classics.

This time, it’s Rudy Ray Moore, who was perhaps more popularly known by his alter-ego, the tongue-twisting, ass-kicking, lady-killing pimp, Dolemite. Moore died this past Sunday in Akron, Ohio, at the age of 81, from complications of diabetes.

He co-wrote, produced, set decorated, and starred in that aforementioned 1975 cult blaxsploitation smash, which was based on a persona he created for his 1970 comedy album, Eat Out More Often, after he heard a rhymed toast by a homeless man about an urban hero of that name. Dolemite’s probably Moore’s most well-known character, and even at recent stand-up performances he’d sell backscratchers signed, “Rudy Ray Moore, a.k.a. ‘Dolemite’.” I know because…I bought one some years ago at Maxwell’s in Hoboken after his gig there!

Moore’s self-described “king of the party records” status and rude and crude delivery made him more of an underground favorite, but his rhyming style has definitely canonized him an early hip-hop innovator.

Check out the trailer for Dolemite over here and see if you don’t find yourself quoting half of his lines from it ten hours from now. The official Rudy Ray Moore/Dolemite website is here.

Gearing up for a U.S. release sometime in early 2009 is a new, multiple-narrative, dystopian sci-fi/superhero mash-up that sounds like a promising blend of Dark City’s noir-ish alternate universe and V for Vendetta’s anarchist tendencies, with a dash of The Golden Compass’s stabs against organized religion mixed in for good measure.

Franklyn stars Ryan Phillippe and the ever-lovely Eva Green in a tale that criss-crosses four characters in parallel worlds — contemporary London and the steampunk-styled, church-run metropolis of Meanwhile City — until a single act of violence brings everyone’s fates together. This new genre-bending adventure was written and directed by Gerald McMorrow.

The production had some problems at first — the initial cast featuring Ewan McGregor, John Hurt and Paul Bettany was strangely ejected in favor of “younger” thesps like Phillippe (only Green was carried over to the revamped line-up) — but advance footage seems to suggest that Franklyn will have enough visual razzle-dazzle to make casting choices kind of secondary.

To whet your appetite for the film, here’s its trailer: