Main Attraction (short; Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare, 2011)
I finally go the chance to see my friend (and teacher) Mario’s latest short, which played the Image+Nation LGBT film festival tonight as part of a (sadly) mostly terrible Québec queer short film program called Queerment Québec, after playing MUFF (Montreal Underground Film Festival) in May of this year. The longest of the bunch (clocking around 30 minutes) and the best one by miles, Main Attraction perpetuates Mario’s fascination with silent horror (working primarily on 8mm and 16mm, as part of the Volatile Works collective) and features, notably the talents of Rue Morgue and Dread Central scribe “Evil Andy” Mauro on special effects duty - with local cartoonist Rick Trembles as SFX assistant. Eerie, beautiful and chilling, imagine Guy Maddin making a cross-gender Grand Guignol film denouncing gentrification and you get a sense of what this is about. Filled with visual homages to classic works such as Psycho’s eye through the wall, yet having a chilling and politically-charged tone very much of its own, Main Attraction was everything I expected from one of the smartest minds I know, whose genre teachings and insight never ceases to amaze me. To learn more about the man, I recommend this in-depth interview!
Mario’s work has played the Fantasia Film Festival in the past (Uncanny in 2006, Zombie Business in 2007) and a little bird tells me this one might be likely to find its way there next summer! Not to be missed!
Lucio Fulci’s unofficial sequel to Dawn of the Dead (which was cut by Argento and renammed Zombi in Italy), Zombi 2 aka Zombie (in North America) wasn’t the life-changing experience I had anticipated but at its strongest, remains unforgettable (see the above zombie face-off with a shark; the infamous shard in the eye, the zombies rising from the ground; the disclosure of the feast near the end; or the final twist) and at its weakest, a required euro trash trip I’m glad I finally took - between two classes and on VHS, no less.
John Dunning (left) & André Link (right), founding fathers of Cinépix
It is with great sadness that we learned of John Dunning‘s passing earlier this week. A titan of Canadian independent filmmaking – his company with André Link, Cinepix, gave us Valérie, L’Initiation, Shivers, Rabid, Meatballs, My Bloody Valentine and more – Dunning had a drive and creative spark that brought Canadian cinema out of the didactic and onto the world stage. […] John’s passing is a tremendous loss to the film community and we only hope that other Canadian filmmakers and producers can learn from his example to carry on his remarkable legacy.
Via Spectacular Optical. Read Paul Corupe’s From Cinépix to Cinéplex: The Studios That Dripped Maple Sirup over here, as well. RIP John Dunning.
Just got this from my hard-workin’ VHS-crazed friends over at vhshitfest. If you’re into VHS, bottom-of-the-barrel horror and the lower depths of cinema, you might want to consider this craftily put together DVD bootleg of what looks like one of the worst films of all time. Click on the link above to learn more and/or help some guys out - it’s dirt cheap and should be a lot of fun!
The last of my unintentional “1980” triple-feature (following Humanoids from the Deep and Pinball Summer, both of the same year) took me into the mind of an incredibly disturbed, disgusting and chillingly misogynistic killer (hypnotically performed by character actor (and co-writer in this case) Joe Spinell), in the appropriately titled Maniac from cult director William Lustig (the Maniac Cop trilogy, notably) which also stars personal favorite Caroline Munro (The Spy Who Loved Me, Starcrash, Dracula A.D. 1972). Repressing some serious childhood trauma/mother issues - as most serial killer do, anyways- Maniac follows the killer on his rampage, giving us a glimpse at his psyche and offering some gripping and realistic depictions of violence, brought to vivid existence by Tom Savini - who also stars in the film as the infamous exploding head victim. Uncomfortable and atmospheric, Maniac is merciless in its execution and performance and shall linger on your mind for a while because of it.
In the moments preceding a critical shootout in Francis Lawrence’s Constantine (2005), John Constantine, the film’s gruff, chain-smoking protagonist, offers an appropriate summation of the attitude towards the foreigner in post-9/11 America. With his holy shotgun in hand, he bursts into a hospital waiting room filled with half-breed demons. “Hi, my name’s John,” he announces, looking across the room of mostly dark-skinned faces. “You are in violation of the balance. Leave immediately or I will deport you. All of you…go to Hell.” He takes aim with his shotgun and opens fire, blasting his way through the demon bodies as his method of sufficiently deporting them back to their hellish origins. John’s words reflect a common attitude about the foreigner; one that prefers they “go back to where they came from.” His actions reflect the consequences for the foreigner if they disobey - a refusal to form relations, violence, rejection, and ultimately annihilation. The horrific events of the September 11th attacks on New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania have endowed Americans with a false sense of legitimacy for malicious articulations of anti-foreign sentiment such as this. During the weeks and months after 9/11, hate crimes and assaults against foreigners (specifically Middle Easterners) increased in the United States. In the aftermath of this drastic change in American culture, a sub-genre of the popular horror film emerged - the post-9/11 horror film - as a reflection of the fear and anxiety projected upon foreigners by an American population consumed by post-9/11 hysteria. The films of this sub-genre exhibit the traditional codes and conventions of the popular horror film, yet they are distinct from contemporary horror in three key areas: (1) they emphasize arbitrary acts of violence, (2) the monstrous element is positioned as foreign, and (3) they employ specific imagery evocative of the 9/11 tragedy.[…]
This is what I like to see in my time table! Beyond happy about this, because:
It fits PERFECTLY (no holes) in my schedule.
I can take it since it’s not a 103 class and who gives a fuck if they “Recommend You Take 101, 102, 103, then BXE”. And if there’s any problem, refer the the point below:
I know the teacher. His name is Kris Woofter and he’s the greatest. He taught two courses at the Miskatonic Institute (Reality Horror & The Haunted House) and they were two of the best ones.
Hopefully I can build a kick-ass schedule like last semester. I have an allocated class on Friday already (Eastern Religions and the Arts) but hopefully I can keep my Mondays free.
Prom Night IV: Deliver Us from Evil (Clay Boris, 1992)
This…was just awful. Throwing any pretense of being a Prom Night sequel out the window and making it a story about an evil priest, this film is one of the laziest slashers (and half-assed critique of the Catholic Church) I have ever seen on screen. I can’t believe this had a small theatrical run. That said…Joy Tanner (pictured, right) was all sorts of hot and the film had its…moments.
Prom Night III: The Last Kiss (Ron Oliver & Peter R. Simpson, 1990)
Banana split killing! This could have been so much worse. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, this third installment of the Prom Night franchise is surprisingly decent. This direct-to-video sequel to Hello Mary Lou (now interpreted by a very attractive Courtney Taylor) is quite great at ripping off Nightmare on Elm Street imagery, while trying too hard be a John Hughes film. You can only imagine how it fails on every conceivable level, but regardless, it has some good ol’ fun moments to offer. If only I could say as much about IV: Deliver Us from Evil…Now why this film needed two directors to handle the job is beyond me….
Adam Abouaccar as Mr. Beast & Tasha Taylor as the Final Girl, on the set of the Mr. Beast fake trailer redux, day 2! Major efficiency, a pork’s heart drenched in syrup, hallway chases and a tiny bathroom! Fun times! I’m exhausted! Sleep!
Teaser! Adam Abouaccar & Jo Derkson on the set of the Mr. Beast Fake Trailer Redux, earlier today! Proper set dec, make-up and effects! Cats! Splatter!
![John Dunning (left) & André Link (right), founding fathers of Cinépix
It is with great sadness that we learned of John Dunning‘s passing earlier this week. A titan of Canadian independent filmmaking – his company with André Link, Cinepix, gave us Valérie, L’Initiation, Shivers, Rabid, Meatballs, My Bloody Valentine and more – Dunning had a drive and creative spark that brought Canadian cinema out of the didactic and onto the world stage. […] John’s passing is a tremendous loss to the film community and we only hope that other Canadian filmmakers and producers can learn from his example to carry on his remarkable legacy.
Via Spectacular Optical. Read Paul Corupe’s From Cinépix to Cinéplex: The Studios That Dripped Maple Sirup over here, as well. RIP John Dunning.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ls5mviQE5I1qzyw6so1_1280.jpg)
