Based on a combination of a stolen pornographic novel and a short story account of an incident from the 1968 Detroit riots, in which a group of Black militants kidnapped a white woman. ‘Hot Summer in the City’ is an aggressive 40 page blacksploitation rape flick brought to life in horrifyingly intense detail. The Director and Writer Gail Palmer claims that at the time she wrote the film, she was unaware of what exactly ‘rape’ was, and that this film was intended to be seen more as a graphic portrayal of ‘raveshing’ shown alongside vivid social commentary on the race riots occuring around the time the film takes place.
I dont know how much I believe that, Given the fact that everyone crewing this film more or less only agreed to take part in it if they could be anonymously credited. and that most of the cast wernt exactly ‘thrilled’ about it either. But despite its unsettling and grimey feeling and premise. Theres something rough about this film that makes it kind of an engrossing watch.
The plots simple, the films set in 1967 and a young white couple who are saving themselves for marriage have just arrived home from a date. Debbie (our white blonde virgin for this film) expresses some sadness as her fathers recently passed away. However on leaving her date and heading into her home, she finds her mother in a three way with her friends dad and the neighbour. Shocked, she runs out of the house distraught, only to get cat called by a car full of black guys. When she doesnt respond to the calls, or offers of prostitution, they chase her down, bundle her into a car, rape her, and drive her back to their cabin.
Once their, she assumes the role of the cabins housewife, cooking, cleaning and pouring drinks, and the guys take turns on her throughout the runtime. The guys are plotting some kind of disturbance or riot, but things get a bit complex when the leader of the gang ‘Duke’s’ partner, turns up and finds out that him and his friends have been passing Debbie around for kicks. leading to tensions rising and BIG confrontations, especially when Duke begins to actually develop feelings for Debbie.
And…Im really struggling to find my feelings on this one, its a film that doesnt exactly paint black people in a great light, directed by a white female director who seemingly at that time didnt have a whole lot of worldly lived experiences…or if she did, she’s denying she did now.
On its face value, I kind of have to call this what it is, a racist and unpleasent film in which all Black guys are rapist thugs who do nothing but beat people, drink, act aggressive and vulgar and hump anything that moves. But its that pure unrelenting nastiness that is probably the one thing that makes it stand out the most. Its a grubby little movie, that made me feel unsettled for having watched it…it’s kind of like ‘I spit on Your Grave’ if the big twist was that the victim eventually kind of got ‘into’ the molestation.
The script only being 40 pages long, some scenes do drag quite a bit. theres an extended scene of the guys playing cards, which is a good character defining sequence, but it went on without cuts a bit longer than I personally would have liked. The first act feels elongated and a bit awkward, leading to a stubby 2nd act that doesnt really feel like it shifts up in pace and action, it rides that one tone and gear right up until we hit an even stubbier 3rd act that ends…well, it ends about as well as this film could have ended honestly.
I’ll give the film this, it gives its characters some complexities and depth, and despite the short runtime, it manages to make those characters feel more intricate than most. the pacing may be slow, but the film does have some interesting moments that pull an audience in. the tones pretty bleak, but there is a slight camp streak running through this that just adds a little light to this very dark piece. its not a particularly ‘deep’ film…but its dealing with ‘deep’ themes in a ‘sledgehammer’ way that even for the time must have been controversial. In that sense, its abhorrent. but kind of mesmorising too.
On the direction front, its minimalist. there was one camera and one camera man and Gail talked through the scenes with the cast and handled some of the lighting. Gail herself said she didnt really feel like a director was on set, but if anyone *would* have a directing credit, it’d probably be her…and that about checks out, as scenes arnt exactly eye popping. a lot of it is setting a camera up level with a table or a bed and then just guiding the cast through the scene in a mid wide, occasionally cutting to a close up. its ‘functional’.
Where the direction does step up quite a bit however, is the rape scenes themselves. Which feature slow motion (which was quite novel for the time) and some very interesting sequence building with actually quite impressive cinematography in places. onluy matched by some fairly solid editing. Including at least a couple of instances where the guys go to rape Debbie again, and they use quick cuts of the last rape to illustrate Debbies rushing thoughts as she realises whats about to happen again…Im not saying its right, but I am saying that was a pretty creative way to handle it.
I think my issue here is that the sex scenes themselves are catered to the male gaze…which is kind of irredeemable given these are rape scenes. Theses scenes arent shot to show that whats happening is a bad thing, they’re shot as if this is a deeply erotic thing to do…and its WEIRD…
Performance wise, its dry…VERY dry. The black guys on set basically had to script edit in real time because Gail wasnt very good at writing dialogue for black actors. But even with that being the case, the guys mumble through their lines, to the point I had to watch with subtitles to make out what was being said, and Debbie and her partner have almost no dialogue, but what dialogue they DID have was basically BEYOND poorly delivered. they struggled to remember their lines and regularly had to read from cue cards…but they deliver their lines like it was the first time they’d even seen them…its not great.
Bizarrely, the soundtrack for this film is a 60’s jukebox windup featuring ‘The Beach Boys’, ‘The Shangri-las’, ‘The Lovin Spoonful’ and many MANY more…Did they get the appropriate licenses for these tracks? HELL NO…and I dont think i’ve been more unsettled than seeing a woman squirm as a gang of guys run a train on her to ‘Good Vibrations’. It pops in and out of the film. But the timings on it are at least pretty okay…so that kind of works in the films favour.
‘Hot Summer in the City’ is a shocker of a picture. I can believe naivity to a point, but there are some moments in this where I cant believe anything other than they wanted to make a movie to shock, horrify and sensationalise. It’s warped and unique take is abhorrent, but at the same time, I cant say I disliked this movie. the blacksploitation elements were compelling, the 2nd-3rd act ‘love story’ elements between Duke and Debbie were surreal to say the least and some of the cine in the sex scenes were striking and really quite powerful.
This one absolutely wont be for everyone, I’d say if you didnt like ‘I Spit on your Grave’ for being too rape-centric…you REALLY wont like this one, but if Rape/Revenge films are your jam, you may actually kind of get on with this one.
Do you want a slasher movie that somehow has a film budget, but an SOV Sensibility? Well; ‘The Last Slumber Party’ is the movie for you! This, somewhat generic, late 80s slasher piece pretty much gives you the absolute barest minimums you need in order to enjoy a slasher pic. But with the added bonus of some surrealist arty horror moments thrown in for good measure!
The plots…Well; the plots about as generic as it gets really, 3 girls are looking to let their hair down by hosting a slumber party at one of the girls parents house. the father of the house happens to also be a doctor working on a psych ward, and wouldnt you believe it! One of their more ‘Out there’ patients has escaped the ward dressed in scrubs and armed with a particularly sharp scalpel! And to confuse things a bit! There are ALSO 3 horny jocks ambling about looking to crash the slumber party for good times and beers, even though the girls are on STRICT instructions to have NO beer and NO BOYS!
And what follows is about 50 minutes of girls idling around a small mansion in states of undress, while the dudebros randomly break in and out of the house to get fresh and the killer slowly makes his way to the house, picking off a few people along the way. with the remaining 20 or so minutes of the film being the main reason to check this one out. Some pretty decent kills, and artsy dream sequences that just about help pull this film up out of the dregs into something half decent and worth your time.
Dont be fooled, the script for this really isnt anything special, outside of the dream sequences, this is a heavily padded feature where we spend more time watching the girls dancing in the kitchen and wandering around the house than we get ACTUAL plot setting…maybe with some more atmospheric lighting or even a jumpscare or two things could have been a bit different. But its just a hell of a lot of walking and exposition. intersperced with an ultra low body count on the ‘slasher’ front.
The dialogue feels drawn out and overcomplicated, presumably again, to help pad the runtime. The characters are all ultra generic stereotypes of the genre…Basically if you’ve ever caught a slasher film, your likely WAY too familiar with these character tropes…and thats kind of dissapointing, because while I know these kinds of characters are a given, its really more what you do with them that makes them work to their full potential, rather than just putting the tropes in the scenario and watching it play out.
Throw in a somewhat underwhelming ending and an act structuring that just seems to get stuck at one pace for the full runtime, and youve got yourself a horror movie thats solely flying by the tone and vibes its putting out on a script level…and thats about it.
I will say, this feels a bit like a Horror comedy in places, and when its being more light hearted, it really lands the punches well. But this one kind of reminded me of ‘Nightmare Sisters’…But not as sharp or well constructed…and I didnt like ‘Nightmare Sisters’…So when im saying your the poor man to that…thats not great.
On every other front, its the bare minimum…the directions flat, predictable and kind of lifeless, barring the arty moments where it does get a *bit* of a bump in quality…But not enough to really fully win me over. Cast directions fairly flat and lifeless too, this is the kind of movie where you can tell the cast and film makers were excited to say ‘Fuck’ on screen, because the cast deliver their ‘F-bombs’ with a pointedness that can only come from someone being a bit *Too* excited to swear on screen…their physical presences are limited purely to scripted instructions and their dialogue deliveries are largely D.O.A.
The cine is largely bland, mostly locked off shots in mid or close up. theres no dynamics in the setup for this one, and while I will say its pretty decent on the B-roll, there are moments where they clearly forgot to shoot coverage, because the edit will just flat out hard cut away from some scenes with no transitionary shot creating a very jarring experience. Compositions and lighting are uninspired. theres maybe a half dozen half decent shots in this thing…But otherwise its very utilitatrian in its approach, which felt a bit clinical to me…Not helped at all by the fact that the killer for the film isnt really particularly engaging or interesting to shoot, its a guy in a surgical mask…they never reveal what he looks like under it, and given large chunks of the film take place in the hospital, it just kind of all blurs together.
Performances, as mentioned are flat, even the kills lack any kind of siginificant animation or ‘Depth’ to them…people just die in this film and noone really gives it any kind of attention. they just move on, theres no mourning, no sense that we should even really care these characters are gone, and that combined with the fact that the characters themselves just arnt given that much depth or characterization, leaves the whole thing feeling quite underwhelming.
Oh! and the soundtracks kind of D.O.A as well, a handful of tracks largely at the beginning and end of the film. and very little in the way of incidental music. Most of the film plays out to dead air or ‘on set’ audio…its quite dissapointing.
‘The Last Slumber Party’ has its moments, and it doesnt really do anything so horrendously that I could call it ‘Bad’ inherently…but it didnt do anything to really wow me or win me over either. It’s a true neutral. Definitely not main feature fodder, but it could play well as an appitizer, or the middle part of a triple feature bill…clocking in at just over 70 minutes. if your looking for a slasher and your in a hurry, this’ll give you everything you need in compressed form…but not everything you want…nor everything at a breathable pace.
I’d wanted to pick up ‘Children of the Damned’ for a couple of years, ever since catching ‘Village of the Damned’ a while ago and wondering how they’d handle a sequel to that film. Being honest, it feels almost like it writes itself, given the last film ends with the children being blown to pieces and the ‘alien’ element of the kids seemingly freed into a coporial form to escape the village and explore the wider world. It could have prompted an interesting sequel dealing with rebirth, revenge and an aliens view on the darker side of humanity.
But ‘Children of the Damned’ isnt really that…in fact, its kind of forgettable…Or at the very least doesnt seem to pack the atmospheric punch that ‘Village’ had in spades.
So the films kind of more of a sideways sequel to ‘Village’ than anything else. essentially the film doesnt really acknowledge the last film in any capacity, a lot of the ‘origin’ plot points have been airlocked, and barring a single line from one of the children about how they’ve ‘Died before’ Im pretty sure this thing has just lifted the idea of ‘psychic killer alien children’ from ‘Village’ and implanted it into this films world.
The plot opens with a group of scientists testing the mental agility of some children, one of the kids ‘Paul’ isnt just significantly quicker at completing the puzzles, he’s able to solve puzzles that the other kids cant even comprehend. On seeing Pauls genius, the staff really want more information about his circumstance. But his mothers cagey on details around Paul, his father or his birth. and after a bizarre accident befalls Pauls Mother, she confides in them that she was a virgin at the time of Pauls birth, there was no father, and shes known since the birth that something wasnt quite right with him.
The scientists continue their testing, visitng various embassys where similar stories and children emerge. All the while Paul is under the care of his distant aunt, who doesnt really know much about whats going on. She takes Paul being a kid for granted. and when the scientists become keen to take Paul in for further observations. He hypnotises his aunt, travels to each of the embassys to collect the other ‘gifted’ children and the lot of them hold up in an abandoned cathedral. All the while the scientists slowly begin to piece together that Paul and the other kids are somehow all linked together, that they have mind control powers, and that they may not even be of this earth! And when word spreads about the supernatural children, the embassys work quickly to mobalize a military response to the children, considering them a threat to humanity. Even though our scientists seem confident that isnt really the case.
Essentially, this felt like a bit of a letdown after ‘Village’ on pretty much every level.
The script doesnt command the same level of atmosphere as ‘Village’ the first entry felt like a bit of a hybrid of a Nigel Neil script crossed with ‘The Twilight Zone’ there was a real sense of atmosphere, forboding…the unknown!. This film feels more like a moral tale, that underplays the unknown and plays things almost like a 50s ‘atom age’ picture. The first film had genuinely unpleasent moments of horror. This film? the kids barely get to use their supernatural powers, and when they do, its mainly hypnosis or telecommunication. Which sucks. its dull!
This could have been a pretty easy win. Set the film in a smaller rural village, have the spirits of the children from the last film ‘possess’ the bodies of random children from this smaller, less developed village and have them slowly hypnotise and manipulate this small community into paranoid brutalists murdering each other because they dont know whos ‘possessed’ and who isnt. Instead? we get a plodding thriller with horror elements thats essentially an anti-nuclear war picture. that doesnt have the courage of its convictions to BE an anti nuclear war film till the last 20-30 minutes or so.
The pacing is slow and plodding, this is a dialogue heavy film that feels like it has to spoon feed you every. single. plot detail, not matter how big or small…its dragging its heels for the most part and as such a LOT of the more interesting or unique moments that made the first film so engaging…are just missing from this. Put it this way, this is the kind of movie where you can just…flat out leave for 10 minutes, and if you come back, you either wont have missed anything, or one of the characters will do you a 3 minute long recap of everything thats just happened. At that point, I kind of wonder what the point of engaging with the media is.
The characters are all pretty dull, the children in the last film had a unique look and identity, as a hive mind it meant there was a lot of opportunity to play that up and create an unsettling look and feel…But here? thats relegated, all the kids purposfully look different (for the cold war messaging) and they really dont play that much on the supernatural element, the ‘eye glowing’ effects that felt fairly regular in the first, get wheeled out a couple of times MAX in this one. and we dont really get any kind of set pieces apart from the VERY VERY end of the film. and thats not caused by the children.
I will say they handle the act structuring fairly well, the film does have a few fun moments in the plotting and the ending is fairly bombastic…But it kind of lacks the power of the originals ending. that film ended with a defeated ‘bittersweet’ sacrifice. This films ending is trigger by some berk accidentally dropping a screwdriver onto a wire, that completes a circuit by mistake…it feels less refined as a work is what im saying.
Direction wise, its kind of unremarkable too. Not bad by any stretch, but it feels smaller, everythings handled in close ups or mid wides, we’ve shifted from a countryside village to a city…and that location change really harms the films looks and feels. the grungy city vibe helps make things feel more ‘cop drama’ esq…but the village location helped add to the sense of helplessness, the feeling that all of this was happening beyond the realms of city community and safety. As such, this film looks and feels more like a kitchen sink drama, than a supernatural scifi horror sequel. and its just kind of beige for it.
Theres some interesting scene setups dotted throughout, and given this is a studio pic, I wasnt really expecting anything to be inherently BAD int he direction…but it is kind of just ‘going through the motions’ for lack of a better descriptive.
The cines much the same, theres some nice lighting moments here and there, the edits tight enough, special effects are a bit lacking…but shots are well composed for the most part…theres just…no sense of adventurousness…the first film had TONS of interesting or unique moments that really helped lift it up. this? this just feels like some guys filming what they think will work…its ‘safe’, and overly ‘safe’ at that.
throw in a kind of unremarkable soundtrack to boot, and you have a really quite dissapointing follow up. I cannot stress how much potential, and how easy it would have been to have made a sequel to that original film that managed to keep the atmosphere and build on the lore…and they seem to have shelved that idea in favour of cramming ‘The Children’ into a shelved 50’s cold war thriller script whether they fitted in or not.
Would I rewatch this one again? maybe?…I guess? Like I say, it wasnt BAD inherently or anything…But if I want that kind of ‘quatermass and the pit’ style sci-fi horror…This film isnt the one to provide it. I’d say if you saw ‘Village’ and liked it, maybe check this one out…but temper your expectations…if you havent seen ‘village’ your not missing out.
2024 was almost certainly an ‘event’ year for me personally, one where I kind of put my hobbies and enjoyments on hold for 12 months in order to do a bit of ‘personal growth and development’. It was one of those years where 10 years progress was done in 12 months, and Im hoping (FINALLY) after 2 years of life changing significant events, that i’ll be able to (FINALLY) settle back into the nice, comfortable life I was leading pretty much right up to the start of 2023…How likely that is to happen however has yet to be seen ultimately.
Im sure many folks are bored BEYOND death about me talking about me and my partner buying our first house this year. I fully promise that the next couple of blogs on this site will basically be the end of it. But that has kind of been my year. 4-6 months of paperwork and trying to keep the momentum up, followed by 4-6 months of heavy renovation work, moving, re-moving, re-re-moving and finally unpacking and getting set up. And even now, as of Jan 4th 2025 we’re still not FULLY done…We’re basically just unpacked and set up enough that we can start to lead a normal day to day life without feeling like we’re on a building site or living out of boxes. But we still have a bit of a journey to go.
I mention this because its had a detrimental impact on my movie watching this year on multiple levels. For one, its meant i’ve had to make all my youtube content up front (basically all the videos you watched this year, barring collabs were written, recorded, edited and uploaded between December 2023 and April 2024, With the last video going up around July time). So I’ve kind of been out of the loop this year on that front. But the other knock on is that during the actual process of home buying and DIY-ing, i’ve been WAY too busy and consumed with getting the place habitable to even THINK of cracking open new movies. Meaning my year in film basically reads:
January – June: A few New movies mixed in with some firm favourites
July – November: Barely ANY movie watching, and if there was any it was nostalgia heavy favourites to try and keep my brain on side.
December: A rushed mixture of trying to cram in as many new movies as I could on top of as many christmas movies as I could, While ALSO doing MEGA late christmas planning because I ran out of time and money.
Its been. A. Year. But certainly a rewarding and enriching one!
And now its 2025! And im ready to let the rubber ACTUALLY hit the road, im delighted to be back and keen to get started on making new videos, hanging on streams with folks and getting back into the swing of things. But before I can really TRUELY get started…Its become a bit of an annual tradition round these parts to look back over the last 12 months and spotlight the films that I caught for the first time last year and shine a light on them to highlight just how awesome they really were!
This years list was a little easier than most years, as there wasnt *as* many to choose from, but I still had a good time shortlisting 20 films out of the many new titles I did watch and then whittling them down to a top 10. As always, these films are in no particular order. These are just 10 films I caught for the first time last year, that I think you’ll really get a kick out of if you choose to check them out! So without further ado!
Pufnstuff:
Prior to 2024 I had only a very limited knowledge of the works of Sid and Marty Krofft. Other than show titles, I hadnt really seen any of their work and had you asked me my opinion on them before last year, I’d have probably just written them off as wannabes who jumped on the psychedelic movement of the 60s and then spent the rest of their careers riding the coat-tails of Jim Henson.
But then this year, I saw Pufnstuf. And well, i’ve never really quite been the same since.
This, VIVID. Offering landed at just the right moment when I needed some surrealist hyper colourful silliness without the sneer, and it quickly won me over without much of a fight.
The plot of ‘Pufnstuf’ in and of itself is a bit surreal telling the tale of a lad who finds a magic talking flute and moments later a fully functional talking boat that takes him to a strange island full of felt folk who are just happy to have new visitors. This is all short lived however when the film introduces Witchipoo, a local witch to the island whos spotted the magic flute and wants it to allow her to do exceptional magic AND to show off at the annual Witches convention.
The relentless happiness, and bizarre imagery this film conjures up across its runtime left my jaw firmly on the floor at multiple points, and when I showed the folks on my discord page the movie, they too were equally beside themselves with laughter and confusion as to what the hell they were actually even watching…But in a good way, not a confused ‘call the police way’.
With solid direction, fun and interesting characters, the BIZARRE plot, vivid and creative script and set choices, a superb cast and memorable music numbers. ‘Pufnstuf’ may actually be one of the few films on this list that I could really solidly recommend to just about anyone with even a passing interest in surreal and strange cinema. Put it this way, Im not ranking these films on this list. But if I were, ‘pufnstuf’ would be a top 3 contender no doubt about it.
Hey Folks! It’s intermission time mixtape!:
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with boutique labels over the last decade or so, when I first got into active collecting back at the turn of the 2010s, it was ‘Arrow Video’ that acted as a gateway to strange and surreal cinema and opened up a whole world of film to me. Around 2018/2019 however, I began to notice that more and more ‘mainstream’ titles were entering their release schedules and the types of films that had previously been the backbone of the company (The Beast Within, City of the Living Dead, Inferno etc…) were increasingly becoming rarer to see on the slate, eventually sometime around 2019, Vinegar Syndrome made their international shipping options MUCH more palatable, and I became a devout Vyn-Sin connoisseur. For a good 4-5 years I bought pretty much anything they’d put out, I went through their back catalogue and tried to mop up as much as I could.
And while I CERTAINLY wont be throwing stones here, they’re good people. I have to say that, while those 4-5 years were good…by the end of last year, I was kind of tapped out.
I’d basically bought everything I was interested in, the stuff I didnt already own, but wanted, was skyrocketing in price due to VS’s ‘once they’re gone, they’re gone’ way of distributing films. They too have slowly been releasing more and more ‘upper end’ studio pictures (show girls, roadhouse, The Tenant) and that combined with there just, not being as many titles released that im fully interested in owning, and the fact that they seem insistent now in releasing the majority of their titles in 4k (at 4k prices) has meant i’ve spent a lot of the year drumming my fingers with Vinegar syndrome, hoping that their next month of releases has maybe ONE film i’d actually be interested in, and could afford once it hit sale prices…and then being somewhat disappointed when that didnt happen…2024 in that regard has been a bit of a washout.
But, while Vinegar Syndrome have kind of been off my radar this year, AGFA (American Genre Film Archive) have, for the last 3-4 years now, slowly been warming up to becoming my new favourite boutique label. The organisation, which heavily promotes the preservation and proliferation of VERY deep cut productions, has been on a bit of a roll in recent years with barely a month going by where they havent released SOMETHING that i’ve absolutely fallen in love with.
In recent years, they’ve tackled the works of Barry J. Gillis, re-released two Ed Wood classics, astounded with movies like ‘Final Flesh’ and ‘Video Diary of a Lost Girl’ and slowly, but surely, their library has basically become my film collection.
Probably the most exciting news to come from them over recent years has been their increasing closeness with ‘Something Weird Video’ a similar preservation company that started in the late 80s and ran through most of the 90s, 00’s and 10’s before becoming an archive and resource streaming service as of 2025. Something weird is responsible for saving a frankly obscene number of movies from falling quite literally into non existence. Films like ‘She Freak’, ‘Bat Pussy’ and ‘The Curious Dr. Hump’ would either only exist in incredibly rough prints, or not exist at all if it wasn’t for the work of ‘Something Weird’. And 2024 would see the release of what I frankly considered a ‘grail’ offering up until now.
‘Hey Folks! It’s Intermission time’ was a series of curated compilations from ‘Something Weird’ totalling 6 volumes of cinema intermission trailers, usually the stuff trying to convince you to go spend money at the snack bar, or general notes from the theater themselves, either welcoming you to the theater, offering friendly advise of services the cinema offered, telling you of upcoming events, or trying to help raise money for charity.
They’re quirky, interesting little remnants of a by-gone age. With most screens in the UK at least now having highly polished, mass distributed pre film screens. I find it fascinating to see just how home grown and unique a lot of these little trails, that were widely seen as disposable, ended up being.
Which brings me to the ‘Hey Folks! Its Intermission Time Mixtape’ the main feature on a set released this year from AGFA that upscales, restores and re-releases all 6 volumes of Something Weirds original compilation series. But also offers a unique remix of some of the more memorable and interesting intermission trails, turning it into a mind melting 70-80 minutes of psychedelic and trippy re-editing that I feel offers an entirely new viewing experience to these decades old stings. AGFA have been doing remixes like this for likely coming up to a decade at this point, their ‘Horror trailer show’ and ‘Cult of AGFA’ releases, not to mention their ‘Special Christmas Special’ all showcase some superb editing and its clear they have a talented and creatively minded team fronting these ventures.
‘Hey Folks’ is another fantastic entry in this style of presentation. And Frankly this was likely my ‘Bluray of the year’ honestly. Given thats a year that ALSO included another grail of mine ‘The Dragon Lives Again’ FINALLY getting a correct aspect ratio release for the first time ever. Thats an incredible feat. a set I personally think is an essential, if you havent checked out ‘Hey Folks! Its Intermission time’ absolutely take some time to fix that! Its a great set, and it makes an even greater gift!
Last House on Dead End Street:
An unexpected entry on my list this year, I came so close to NOT seeing this film, its actually quite bizarre. So, I had heard of ‘Last House on Dead End Street’ over the years as being a particularly gruesome picture that, most notably, Vinegar Syndrome had been working on remastering for a number of years. I figured i’d likely check it out when they put out the cleaned up version, until one night while doing some research for ‘The After Dark Collection: Volume 2’ (Coming 2025) I landed on a reddit thread discussing Vinegar Syndromes ‘Adult’ movie releases, and found out that *apparently* hidden in the menus for their release of ‘Corruption’ was a ‘grindhouse’ style HD scan of ‘Last House on Dead End Street’ and just by chance, I had only recently VIEWED my copy of ‘Corruption’…So! I popped it into my player, messed around with it for a bit, and *boom* I had a copy of ‘Last House on Dead End Street’ in my hands.
And I really wasnt disappointed with this one. as billed, its a particularly unpleasant, seedy and graphic depiction of psychopathy, and the rawness in the performances and actions (given its about making snuff films) left a long lasting impression on me. Reading in to the behind the scenes on it only made me despair even harder as I read of the struggles the writer/director had to even GET the film out to the public. Not to mention the fact that, by the time it actually DID get a wider showing, he had NO idea it was even happening. Its…got a BTS thats somehow even crazier than the film itself honestly.
I think if this DID have a wider release in good quality, it would likely be held in a much higher and respected regard. As it stands, all I can personally say is. It is NOT for the squeamish, but if you enjoy films like ‘Bloodsucking Freaks’ or ‘The Sinful Dwarf’ you will almost certainly love ‘Last House on Dead End Street’.
Hundreds of Beavers:
At the complete opposite side of the spectrum from ‘Last House on Dead End Steet’ we have the indie darling of the year, and a personal favourite of this years movie crop ‘Hundreds of Beavers’. A film that got recommended to me AT LEAST a dozen times within the first couple months of it doing the indie circuit. So much so that ‘friend of the show’ Triv of Trivial Theater, managed to cop a screener, and essentially pulled me out of the reno work to make it clear that this WASNT something I should sit out on. And damnit if she was absolutely right.
The plot follows a fur trapper attempting to collect ‘hundreds of beavers’ to sell the pelts of in order to win the heart and hand of a merchants daughter, the whole film is shot and framed like a kind of hybrid between Fleisher era animation and a ‘Loony Tunes’ short. With PLENTY of references back to Buster Keaton, The Stooges, The Marx Bros and many more silent movie icons.
Its clearly a labour of love, it looks fantastic, astoundingly so given the budget, its brimming with creative slapstick ideas, and barring a couple of moments that are a *smidge* (and I mean a *smidge*) more ‘adult’ oriented, this could easily be a family movie. I’ve kind of made it my mission this year whenever anyones asked me for recent film recommendations to send them over to this one.
Its got a good heart, a good soul. And I like that its playful and not afraid to be self aware without trying to be openly controversial. I had a real good time with this one, and could happily recommend it.
Xanadu:
If theres 2 things that ‘Xanadu’ is known for, its the frankly stonking soundtrack by ‘ELO’, and its for being the butt of pretty much every late night comedy show from 1987 till about 2003. ‘Xanadu’ was and still kind of is seen widely as a laughing stock of a movie. But this year, someone I very much respect, Frank Conniff made a lengthy twitter/bluesky post essentially admitting that, after years of using it as the aforementioned butt of several jokes through the 90s, he still hadn’t actually *seen* ‘Xanadu’ and recently decided to change that…And to his shock and horror it actually wasn’t a cringe worthy terrible musical, it was maybe a bit overlong, but he actually really liked it. Issuing something of a public apology for dunking on it for all these years.
Well; that was enough interest raised for me to go out and grab a bluray copy of the movie to see ‘whats what’. And What WAS what is that ‘Xanadu’ IS in fact a quite fun little 80s musical. Is it ‘Grease’ memorable? Absolutely not. But its a charming and warm little musical about never giving up on your dream and realising that you don’t have to be young to still go after what you really want in life.
Obviously, the ELO soundtrack IS what makes the movie fantastic, but it cant be overstated just how good Gene Kelly is in this, playing a weary property developer who yearns to return to a simpler life playing in a big band, when life was less complicated and he had something to strive for.
The film does get a little tangled up in trying to make Olivia Newton John the personification of ‘your dreams’. But I find that musicals largely trade on vibe, and a few mixed metaphors and some 2nd act pacing issues arnt going to come between me and this campy and funky little movie having a fun time.
‘Xanadu’ wont be for everyone, I know that. But I honestly would say, if you do enjoy musical cinema and have been put off by years of people dunking on this one, without ACTUALLY having watched this. I’d say give it a go, you may be genuinely surprised…At the very worst, you’ll have still listened to a pretty awesome ELO score.
Cecil B. Demented:
The Number of John Waters films I have yet to watch is slowly becoming a dwindling pool. I had seen almost all of his earlier works, but his later works are a little scattershot to come by in the UK. I had been hoping to wait for ‘Cecil B. Demented’ to get a proper Bluray release in the UK. But Criterion have now been quiet for a couple of years on that front, and it looks like Kino Lobar are picking up the slack on 90s ‘Waters’ movies…So I threw in the towel on waiting this year and just decided to hit it up on Tubi. And I absolutely loved it.
Im less enamoured with Waters ‘studio’ era. Basically everything after ‘Hairspray’ to me feels a bit forced and self referential. Cry Baby didnt really move me, Serial Mom is a much loved fan favourite, but left me cold. And Pecker just felt too safe for me. But Cecil B. Demented has a rogue twinkle in its eye that suggests to me theirs life in the old dog yet.
A film largely attacking BOTH the mainstream studio system and ‘puritan’ indie film makers who go WELL above taste and decency for their art. I feel like this was a return to form for Waters work, that would continue into his next production ‘A Dirty Shame’.
What we have here is a film that pushes the boundaries of studio cinema more than his previous studio works, but doesnt go AS far as his early films (Female Trouble, Pink Flamingos, Multiple Maniacs’ and it manages to hit a nice compromise of being a clear, concise and well structured picture, that equally has a tenacious ‘daring’ quality to it. The feeling of the old Waters pictures where anything could happen, and sometimes it actually DOES!
I really enjoyed seeing this one for the first time this year, I would highly recommend it to any Waters fans who maybe jumped off at ‘Polyester’ or felt like he lost his bite a bit post ‘Hairspray’ as I really do think this and ‘Dirty Shame’ were steps in the right direction. And with rumblings that a new John Waters film could be just around the corner. I sincerely hope it continues on this trend!
Oh…and on the off chance someone from Criterion is reading this, don’t leave us hanging, PLEASE for the love of GOD release ‘Desperate Living’. You cant just release all of John waters early work and leave out the film bridging ‘Female Trouble’ to ‘Polyester’ I NEED more high definition Mink Stole rants in my life thank you very much!
Batman 1966:
I imagine some will be surprised that, until this year i’d never seen the 1966 ‘Batman’ movie. Indeed, I myself felt some shame at having not gotten to it sooner, given that I love the original TV series and had a great respect for Adam West.
But sometimes, things just don’t line up properly, sometimes there just isnt a good bat-time or a solid enough bat-place to fit a movie in. But this year, I made it a point (having been invited to talk about it on ‘Friend of the show’ Jon Norths podcast) to FINALLY crack it open. And I had an absolute blast with it.
Honestly, I don’t have a lot to say about it, its a feature length take on the TV series, it feels like a long TV episode with a slightly bigger budget and thats about it. It absolutely should have done EXACTLY what it did do, it looks great, sounds great and the extra funds really help take things to the next level. Having all the classic villains from the TV series appear as the baddies in the theatrical outing is a great ‘raising of the stakes’ and the 60s campy silliness is still here in full force delivering an end product that hilarious, charming and just an utter delight to sit through. If you’ve never seen ‘Batman ‘66’ this is a great starting point, and if you enjoyed the TV series, but havent seen the film. You really need to fix that.
Beetlejuice:
Another one im sure will surprise some people, but again. Sometimes things don’t align when you think they *should* have, and instead align at the strangest times. I had seen the beetlejuice TV series MANY moons ago. But I’d just never got around to the movie. But, with ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’ going down a storm at the box office, my partner was horrified to learn i’d not seen the original and made me watch it pretty much as soon as she found out.
And it was great fun! Barring a slightly rushed ending I thought this was another creative powerhouse, delivering surreal visuals and fantastic performances one after another after another. I came away very pleasantly surprised, and while im sure the vast majority of you have already seen ‘Beetlejuice’ as someone who hadnt, it really endeared me to the concept…Though, it did make me wonder why their was such pressure for a sequel for all those years, given the film ends pretty conclusively…I dunno!, in either case I really enjoyed this one. Its probably the most well known film I saw for the first time this year and i’m going to have to try and dig out the sequel relatively soon!
Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl:
One of the more unexpected offerings of the year, I had no idea that Aardman had been working on a new ‘Wallace & Gromit’ film, letalone that it was another ‘feature’ outing for the pair, but! On Christmas day, the BBC released ‘Vengence Most Fowl’ a sequel to ‘The Wrong Trousers’ that sees that rogue criminal ‘Feathers McGraw’ trying once again to steal precious gems, AND trying to get revenge on the popular pair who put him away!
Meanwhile Wallace is back in debt, and, as a way to try and get out of it, has built the worlds first ‘Smart Gnome’ a little gardening fellow who’ll do any job, no matter how big or small. It all goes wrong as you can imagine! But it was a nice idea while it lasted!
I LOVED this special, it was probably my second favourite broadcast of the day (outside of the Gavin & Stacy finale) While I don’t *quite* think they match or surpass the complexity of animation seen in ‘The Wrong Trousers’ The film is still genuinely funny has the warmth and familiarity that makes the ‘Wallace & Gromit’ films so enjoyable and was a definite improvement over their last outing 2008s ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’.
The comedy was superb, with several gut busting laughs throughout, the animation is still superb and the character have some nice set pieces that tie the whole thing together, including some excellent celebrity voice cameos from Peter Kay, Reese Shearsmith and Diane Morgan. A christmas highlight. If your looking for laughs and something a bit light hearted, you cant go wrong with this.
Singing in the Rain:
With only 2 hours to go before the year officially ended, I had watched 299 films, and to finish the year off AND claim my 300th film watch, I decided to take a look at a film that ‘Siskel & Ebert’ literally COULD NOT shut up about through most of their ‘Holiday Gift Guide’ specials.
‘Singing in the Rain’ has often been cited as ‘the greatest musical ever made’ I honestly wouldn’t go that far. But what you have here is a genuinely sincere, surprisingly self aware for 1952 and warm ‘smile’ of a movie that documents the cinematic shift from silent era productions to ‘talkies’ in 1929.
Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds are a tour d’force here, without them the film would have fallen flat I feel, with them, its a match made in heaven. And even though Kellys behaviour off screen was horrific to say the least. It cant be denied that this film oozes charm and joy, and I defy anyone to watch this without cracking *at least* a smirk once or twice throughout.
With some astounding and colourful visuals on hand, a whole host of iconic and culturally significant musical numbers and some of the most complex and tightest dance routines you’ll likely ever see. ‘Singing in the rain’ was a fabulous way to see the old year out and ring the new one in. I’ll almost certainly try and poach a physical media copy at my next convenience and if you havent got around to this one yet, all I can say is, it definitely needs bumping up your list. A great script, razor cine and direction, killer performances and a bloody ASTOUNDING score.
I also only realised the next day after watching this, that as of 2025 all works from 1929 (when this film was set) are now in the public domain. Making it a particularly poigniant watch!
And! That was my top 10 of 2024! Not a particularly controversial list…But then, they rarely are! I hope you decide to look into some of these as I had an absolute blast watching them, and as i ease back into more regular ‘new film’ watching. I can only hope that this year is as kind to me with astounding features as I hope it will be for you.
So We have a bit of an oddity here today. Way back in Season 4 I ended up doing a collaboration with a fellow youtuber Raymond Smith. Ray was in the process of doing a month on “Terminator” Knock off movies and we decided it would be pretty cool if he ended his series of Terminator movies and I ended my 4th Season with a cross over collaboration. The first one I’d ever done non the less!
It was huge fun working with Raymond and I really hope we get the chance to work together again in the future 🙂 He’s a fun reviewer and his channels heaving with movie reviews of every possible shape and size! I highly recommend checking him out some time (You can head straight to his youtube channel by clicking Here)
Unfortunately due to copyright issues half of our collaboration was removed from youtube by a company called “Lasso Entertainment”. Naturally this was most heinous and simply would not stand. So while I’ve been backlogging my reviews over on Breach.tv I decided it was time to dust this one off and give it a proper home on this site. Breach arnt quite as anal about upholding the whims and wishes of companies who have little or nothing to do with the movies we talk about and actually seems to understand what “Fair Use” is…so they’re an ace company in my books! anyway; before this turns into a mini rant; I hope you enjoy this not as often seen review! You can get to it by either clicking the link below the picture or by clicking the picture itself!Oh! and before I forget! you can check out the second part of this review for the other film we collaborated on 1989’s “Lady Terminator” By clicking Here
(So…since around 2013 I have had in mind a series of Lecture “Talks” charting the history of alternative, cult and “Bad” cinema. How through awareness of these often overlooked films that filmmakers and in particular student filmmakers can learn about the pitfalls of film making and in doing so can apply this knowledge to their own work. This year I have decided to publish these talks in a series of volumes with recommended viewings per session. Each of these in an academic context would pool clips for reference and would typically end with a screening of a film reflective of the talk in question. I will try to replicate these as best I can below for reference. Please also bear in mind that a lot of this would be spoken to film students within an educational environment and while not verbatim the below is going to read a lot less like an essay and much more like a script. So here is part 1 , it wont be entirely reflective of the rest of the series but that’s largely because it covers Bad and cult cinema from the 1890’s to 1939. Thank you.)
I want to open with a question just to get a feel for the room. How many people here when trying to justify a film idea to a tutor or lecturer would reference a known terrible movie as the reason why your film should get made?
… (The Assumption would be not many)
Alright…and how many people here when trying to pitch a film idea to your lecturer or tutor would include references to films currently in the cinema or films that have high critical acclaim? Say from magazines like Sight and sound or empire…y’know…good stuff?
…(The Assumption would be quite a few)
Okay. And would you say it was fair to say that if you watch good films, award winning films, that you will learn from those films how to make good movies. Great ones even?
…(The Assumption would be a mixed response as a few people would realize this is probably a trap)
But then…How do you know what exactly quantifies a bad movie?…I only ask because having been to universities and colleges multiple times to work with students on their films to help gain a better understanding of their work, I see the same thing time and time again. Students get so wrapped up in the visuals, the look, the feel of the film. the idea that they want it to be the best it can possibly be. How they strive for perfection and how they’ll sink hundreds (And in one students case who I worked with thousands) of pounds into 4 and 8k cameras, professional actors, the purest of the pure audio recording equipment, just to try and get the cleanest and best possible image. that they don’t stop to consider exactly whether the idea they’re pursuing is even a good one.
You can make a film out of anything. I firmly believe that. Any item, location, person. There’s a film there. A story something to be discovered. But how you approach that discovery can be the make or break of a films success. Modern mainstream cinema is two things. Diverse and homogenised. We are currently living in a time where there has never been more choice in what to watch and yet at the same time everything more or less looks the same. We have entered a period of cinema history where every film that comes out is polished to within an inch of it’s life. has sharp contrasting colours, is mainly shot in front of green screens and the emphasis has been levied on a “Fix it in post” culture wherein by filming things wide, flat and in the mutest of colour profiles the entire film can be both physically and emotionally constructed in the edit. It’s processed film making. And outside of the fringe film-makers. The people who are literally one man bands or who manage tiny indie productions. People who can rarely score a local cinema screening letalone a national one for there independent release. The industry seems to feel that this processed method is the best way to make movies that make money and keep costs down.
Theres a reasonable chance that the people sat here tonight are predominantly producing films based on this processed diet. That is to say, your scope of the film making landscape extends to films that have played nationally in cinemas and maybe one or two “Safe” out there films like “Baby Driver”, “Mandy” or “The Neon Demon”. That’s fine. Im not going to judge you…but you should all be ashamed of yourselves…Im joking…im not joking. it’s clearly a safer option to assemble your film in post over running the risk of trying something new and it potentially going wrong on set. I can practically hear some of you right now thinking “It’s all well and good telling us that…but it’s my degree thats on the line with these productions” and thats fine. I get that. what I do need to say though is that, making mistakes is useful. it teaches us not to do them again, it also makes us think about the processes we do in filmmaking completely differently and may even lead to a new and even better idea than we had previously.
I love bad films. I love cult films. the two arnt strictly the same thing. you can have cult movies that are absolutely astoundingly good. And you can have bad movies that even I wont touch with a ten foot pole. As a film student many years ago I found myself a bit adrift to my peers. They were obsessed with perfection and terrified of failure. Unless it was HD they didn’t want to know. If it was older than 12 months without attaining “Classic!” status they pretty much weren’t interested. Myself? Well I and my flatmate at the time who also studied film wanted schlock. We wanted awfulness. We watched some of the worst movies ever made during our time at university, purposefully and with intent to learn. At the time we saw students on the verge of bankruptcy if not a full mental breakdowns due to the stress of striving for that perfection. This wasn’t what film making should be about. Film making should be a fun experience. A beneficial experience. Something that while stressful to organize should be relaxing to shoot.
When I made my films lecturers were always curious about my references and sources as they were always typically for terrible films. I would always tell them that the best way to describe what I was doing was that while other students were desperately trying to climb an endless ladder spewing money and energy in the process in search of a film they’d probably be unlikely to obtain; I’d pulled out my shovel and I was digging down to see how deep the ladder was buried. And I had a blast doing that. Naturally when digging you tend to find odd things and some were very useful…not everything…but some things were…and one of the gateways to help me get a foothold on what I affectionately call good/bad cinema? Was Mystery Science Theatre.
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 or MST3K for short was a series that ran from 1988 until 1999 in the US before being cancelled until 2015 when Netflix revived it. it’s still running to this day and if you want to dip your toe into the ocean of utter trash that’s been released over the years. This would probably be your gentlest way. The series which originally aired on public access television straight out of Minnesota has a very simple premise. A janitor for a generic company who’s pretty easy going, is kidnapped by his bosses and blasted into space aboard a ship fitted with a cinema of which he becomes an unwilling test subject in an attempt to weaponised bad movies to break the will of the people of earth over which the bosses would rule as overlords. Stay with me…the janitor however is able to remove some of the parts from the ships projector. The ones that let him play, stop or fast forward the movie. And with those parts he builds himself several robot friends who help him keep his sanity by poking fun at the films and acting as a bit of a make shift family. Much to the annoyance of the bosses.
Still with me? it sounds ridiculous but I assure you it’s one of the best ways to get a foot hold on the world of bad movies if your new to these things. The original run covered films dating back as far as the 1930’s and as recent as the 1990’s. the current series has films as recent as 2016. The writers are fantastically sharp, the jokes are funny and the films are indeed some of the worst ever produced (As a reference point I highly recommend: “Rocket Attack U.S.A”, “Manos: The Hands of Fate”, “Hobgoblins” and “Cry Wilderness” if you want a good starting point on these) theres over 200 films covered by these guys and they’re a really great resource for learning about terrible film makers like Coleman Francis, Bill Rebane and Sam Newfield. But I digress.
Why should you care about bad movies? Well. My reasoning is that if you only watch good movies you’ll only learn how to make movies that conform to whatever the societal construct of “Good” at the time actually is. And in effect you wont actually be making a good film you’ll actually be making a bland but visually nice and appropriate for the time film. I want to help you break that mold. By watching bad and underappreaciated movies not only will you balance your film diet but it’s hoped that you’ll learn something ultimately much more important. How to avoid the pitfalls of trying to make a good film and ending up with a bad…or worse. Bland film. by seeing and understanding how a film maker can go so wrong even if it was intended as their shining masterpiece you should *In Theory* be able to recognise when you yourself are going or are about to go down a very dangerous path to mediocrity and failure. consider me your guide on this journey. My word isn’t gospel and there will be people who will disagree with me about what I will say through this series. So do bear in mind that these are my own observations and opinions and if you don’t agree with me. that’s absolutely fine. I will hang around after the screening to chat about anything you want to question or discuss.
The first distinction we need to draw here is what makes a film “Bad” and what makes a film “Cult” over this series I’ll be talking about both films interchangeably so getting the definitions from my perspective here right is pretty crucial as I don’t want to mislead any of you at any point. A Cult film isn’t necessarily a bad film. All cult really means ultimately is that it appeals to a niche audience. Typically cult films are good. They just don’t tend to follow the modern constraints of mainstream appeal and as a result a much smaller audience appreciate them. cult films can also be enjoyably bad…that is to say so bad they’re entertaining. We’ve all seen a film where an actors hammed a performance, or a cameras cut at just the wrong time or held too long on a shot and it can be funny. Good/bad movies are a cornerstone of cult cinema and as a result they often go hand in hand with just obscure but good cult movies. Bad movies by contrast are not necessarily always cult. Sometimes a bad movie can just be bad. as in. not even enjoyably bad.
Sometimes bad films can be entertainingly bad but still not be cult due simply to just how few people have actually hear or seen them. it means that just because a film is enjoyably bad doesn’t necessarily make it cult and just because a film is often viewed as a cult film doesn’t necessarily mean your automatically going to be viewing something made for 20p and shot in someones back garden. I know this sounds overly vague and not helping matters, all of what I’ve just told you is on a sliding fluid scale. That is to say a film that could be seen as bad for a number of years can ascertain cult status by building up a following over a long period of time. Equally films that were seen as cult in their time can over time just become bad movies. And to throw another curve ball into the mix if a cult film becomes popular enough it can transcend its own cult status and become a mainstream classic. But we’ll get round to examples of all of these in good time. For now it’s just safest for me to say that if I say a movie is a bad movie. Its bad. if I say it’s cult I’ll clarify what I mean by that if needed and so on.
So In order to understand what im on about and to kick all of this off we’ll need to take a trip back to 1920’s to what is widely regarded as the first “Proper” cult film. A film that at one point or another has been in all 3 catagories we’ve talked about. And that film was F.W Murnau’s “Nosforatu: The Symphony of the night”. Before Nosforatu, silent film cinema…and to be fair…cinema in general was in a period of distinct infancy. There were classics in there own right released but in what might come as a bit of a shock to some of you at least 75% of films produced between 1895 and 1936 are missing…AT LEAST. That number is very likely to be higher due simply to the fact that there wasn’t really a comprehensive list of films made around this time and that the records we do have are often riddled with inaccuracies and duplications. As a result while it’s probably fair to say their were bad films during this time. The fact that they either no longer exist or are presumed to no longer exist and that their isn’t really any records of reviews of these films to back them up kind of make them a moot point. Bad films in this period however can kind of be a bit more forgiven. The craft of film making was literally just beginning with a lot of it’s influence carried across from theatre. The earliest films were usually quite literally just recorded stage shows or recordings of life at that time. And the actual full feature films that were produced were often just adaptations of these stage recordings utilizing actual locations instead of sets. They were still directed as theatre productions and it was rare to see films utilize shot setups, or advanced direction/cinematography.
Nosforatu in the modern day is widely regarded as a legendary classic that bought the Bram stoker novel Dracula to the big screen for the first time. However on it’s actual release it was widely regarded as an absolutely interminable boring watch. Critics at the time complained the film was way too long and soon after it’s release a lawsuit from the stoker estate effectively saw the film banned and copies of the film set by court order to be destroyed. Luckily for Nosforatu by the time of the court injunction prints of the film had already been sent to several countries worldwide and when the film hit france…while the critics of the time still disliked the film. it was tremendously well received by the French surrealist movement and members of the counter culture. Who held it up as an icon of what would develop into the German expressionist movement. As a result Nosforatu is widely regarded as being the first “Cult” film. it found it’s niche audience and because of this it was able to survive the court destruction order. With fans across the world producing dozens and dozens of copies and hiding them in the hope of preserving it’s legacy.
Today Nosforatu is held up as an example of a classic of the silent era. Widely adored by critics and still shown at screenings around the world. It’s an impressive film. the critics of the time were absolutely right, it’s a very long and quite boring film in honesty…im not a fan. But I’d be hard pressed to deny that it was highly revolutionary for it’s time and that had this film not survived the world would be a significantly poorer place for it. heres a clip:
Now; considering how badly this film was reviewed. Even in light of it’s reevaluation. You’d be hard pressed to deny the menace and atmosphere created in that sequence. The striking shadowy shots in the long hallway shot, the fear expressed by Hutter even the colour tinting sets a tone and feel within the film. it’s a beautiful set of shots in an incredibly early example of genuine tension building cinema. And had the film not had the re-evaluation, the slow building of a cult audience. It most likely wouldn’t exist today and as a result a massive amount of films would either not exist or be fundamentally different as a result. The main point im trying to make here is, even films that are considered bad may have moments within them that are actually quite brilliant. and that what makes a film bad today may make it a masterpiece tomorrow. It’s important to keep an open mind with cinema and not to rely too heavily on the promotion of a film to sell you the premise. It was important in the 1920’s and it’s absolutely critical in the 21st century.
Through the 1920’s the german expressionist movement would proceed to dominate the European markets with similarly cultish movies such as “Faust”, “Metropolis” and “The Man Who Laughs” and it’s influence would dictate the style, look and direction of cinema through the decade. While I certainly wouldn’t say “The World Adopted german expressionism” it’s fair to say that young directors and producers around that time were heavily influenced by their styles and stories. In the US in particular these films “Flare” would be adapted quite heavily within horror and science fiction and this would be Crystalised by one studio in particular.
Universal Studios was fairly in it’s infancy at this time having been created in 1912, they quickly tried to establish themselves as the “Horror Studio” in 1923 they released their first “Proper” horror film an adaptation of “The Hunchback of Notre dame” followed up roughly 2 years later with an adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera” which was only just over a decade past it’s publication date at this time (Which is a bit weird to think about really). The success of these films would lead universal at the turn of the 1930’s to set in motion plans for a series of films which would change everything. While “The Hunchback” and “The Phantom” are considered universal horror films. it was the “Universal monster movies” series that would cement and secure universal as a major studio power. The 5 films they would release through the 1930’s and early 1940’s (Plus the dozens of sequels to these films they would release from the 1930’s to the 1950’s) set the standard for monster movies that would act as the “High bar of horror and sci-fi” right the way through to the mid 1960’s. films like Dracula, Frankenstein, the invisible man, the wolfman each bought something new and previously unseen to screens. These were at the time however considered “The Mainstream” audiences would flock to see these movies in the same way that audiences go to see the new marvel movie or the latest block busters today.
But while Universal was capitalising on the success of these new monsters, rival company MGM silently released a horror movie which in my opinion; blows all of the universal horror films clean out of the water. A film so shocking that it had to be withdrawn from it’s initial release and shortened to 65 minutes from it’s original 90 minute runtime just for how powerful it was in effecting audiences. This film is the one we will be watching in full tonight. Tod Brownings “Freaks” has been described as “existing in a subgenre of one” and it’s fair to say that you will most likely never see a film quite like this again. The big selling point of this film at the time (And…sort of today as well really) was that the cast was more or less entirely made up of heavily deformed, disabled or afflicted actors. The plot: a horrifically cruel hearted tale of a trapeze artist known as Cleopatra who seduces and marries a dwarf called Hanz who secretly owns a large fortune, with the aim of killing Hanz with the help of a strongman called Hercules. Im not going to say anymore than this until the film is over. but even in the 21st century I would consider this film fairly shocking still.
Unsurprisingly the film garnered incredibly negative reception in both its cut and uncut form from audiences and critics alike. It more or less killed the career of Tod Browning the man who bought us the Universal “Dracula” amongst other horror gems at the time and was the only MGM film ever to be pulled completely from release before completing it’s domestic engagements. We’re quite privileged really to be able to even view this film tonight. MGM effectively disowned it, selling the rights to the film in 1947 to an exploitation film director who proceeded to run the film through the 1960s, 70’s and 80’s at various midnight movie screenings. The film was banned in the UK for 30 years due to being too exploitative. And im only referring to the cut version here…the original 90 minute cut at this time is considered lost…so lord knows what wider audiences would have made of that version in contrast.
The film never received a VHS release in this country. And a DVD release was quietly shuffled out in the early 2010’s with a couple of extra features explaining why a third of the film is missing. There is no Bluray of this film available. Though it Is currently in my top 5 films I would love to see get a full remastering. It’s not a perfect movie. but I very much doubt you will ever see any kind of film from this period look and feel the way this one does. But that’s enough Hyperbole for now. lets get started:
Now; Im not expecting everyone to have loved that film. Quite a few people will be offended by that film. but that’s good. Its okay to be offended by films. its okay to think this film was rubbish. Im hoping that after this you will all go out…maybe to a pub or coffee shop, or even just on the ride home, and talk about what you’ve just seen. Explain why you thought it was offensive, why you thought it was rubbish. Or if you thought it was brilliant like I do that you talk about why you thought it was brilliant.
Theres plenty to take away from this film. the ending in and of itself at the time would have been seen as utterly horrific but by modern standards has almost a streak of black comedy running through it. the idea that Cleopatra ultimately ends up becoming the one thing that terrifies her the most. The one thing she spends most of the film ridiculing is satisfying but at the same time quite a harsh contrast to a film that does have a lot of merriment about it. it could be argued that the title “Freaks” is an offensive title given the castings. But I would argue that the film is actually an act of wordplay. With the afflicted cast in this picture actually showing more humanity about them than non afflicted members who in many ways are the “Real” Freaks of the feature. Indeed Hanz and his fellow performers have depth, character detail and actually run a spectrum of complex emotions that really is very unusual for the time in cinema of this era. it acts to shine a light on decency and humanity. It would be easy to dismiss this film as exploitation on a surface level. But even digging remotely deeper below the surface unveils a quite complex script and Brownings direction only enhances some of these elements without being overly handholdy.
If you want an example of genuine exploitation 6 years later in 1938 Sam Newfield would release “The Terror of Tiny Town” which was basically a western script that no studio wanted that was eventually picked up purely because Sam and his writing partner Fred Myton repitched the fill with the exact same plot but suggested that it be filmed with an all dwarf cast. With mini Shetland ponies standing in for full size horses and scaled down sets. That’s a real film. im not making that up and it’s one of the most genuinely offensive exploitation films ever made.
The difference seemingly here was the scripts way of relating to the cast in “Freaks” and “A terror in tiny town” with the formers script being adapted from a short which puts the disabled cast in such a light that portrays them as human. That actually gives them human qualities and doesn’t try necessarily to portray them as weird, evil or one dimensional. And the latter instead doing the opposite. Taking a generic script and turning it into a film purely through it being a spectacle to see the disabled cast members act in the film. in many ways turning it into a sideshow (Which is ironic given the former is more endearing to the cast and is LITERALLY set in a sideshow)
Freaks was a film ahead of it’s time. Had it been made 10 years later it probably would exist in full to this day and would also probably have had much less of an impact. Through the rest of the 30’s horror and science fiction would be released in the dozens year on year and would gradually become a staple of the film industry it was around this time that the idea of a “cult audience” was initially developed, As films that didn’t necessarily do as well as they could have (produced by the likes of RKO and other smaller film companies) would attain small but reliable followings. The decade would see the release of fantasy movies like “King kong” scifi movies like the “Flash Gordon” B-pictures and towards the end of the decade horror would be firmly run into the ground with films like “The Phantom Creeps” illustrating exactly why “Just because Hollywood could, doesn’t necessarily mean is should” but in the 1940’s B-movie and cult cinema would continue even further down the rabbit hole. And in the next session we will be taking a look at the gradual collapse of some aspects of the film industry and the seeds being sowed for the rise of a new genre of film making and film makers.
All of the films I have spoken about today I would highly recommend you seek out, they’re all worth watching. Even if I haven’t been particularly favourable about them, because at best they’ll challenged your pre-existing thoughts on how cinema should behave and at worst you’ll waste 90 minutes of your time and probably laugh at least a couple of times at the absurdity of them in the process. As always im happy to answer any questions or offer additional recommendations should you wish to explore this era further. And I hope to see you all again soon. Thank you.
Well… to say this season had been a turbulent one behind the scenes would be a bit of an understatement. effectively as of April 2019 this has been the last full season that I have been able to produce. I have mentioned quite a few times that I’ve had to step back from making reviews at this time due to personal reasons. These are predominenetly down to the health of my Partner who has unfortunately been on a decline since September 2018. As a result of that coupled with an incredibly unfortunate run in which I basically went from November to February jumping from illness to illness it effctively forced my hand in what time I was able to dedicate to actually making these.
Production pretty much completely ground to a halt in the first week of December when I spent the majority of my time either running my partners house or taking her to the hospital and because of this it led to several rushed releases that were exaserbated further by youtubes copyright strike system meaning it could be days before I had the time to actually go and fix things.
I was given a brief reprieve in early March 2019 when my partner seemed to be showing signs of recovery, this lasted for about a week and a half before it all came crashing down again but in that time I was able to have the freedom to actually get back to maintaining my site, clearing up my youtube channel and updating all my links across my social media platforms. it also gave me the time to archive all of my work properly and even start working on some new material.
Now I cant sit here and tell you that Season 6 is going to be imminantly out. The reality is that Im working in dribs and drabs as and when time can allow and it may be the case that only 1 season gets made this year. but as of April 2019 I have recorded 2 new episodes (But havent edited them) I have written 2 new scripts ready to record and ive put plans in place for another 3 reviews and a couple of themed months I’d like to get in to. I dont know when these will make it up to youtube but I just wanted to reassure anyone who cares that things are still being worked on. Though I’ll do another full update on that when im in a better place to be able to talk about timescales.
In the meantime here is season 5! a season I went into with no idea what I was letting myself in for! seriously when I sat doown to write my notes for “Kiss meet the phantom of the park” I couldnt have dreamed that I’d be sat in front of my computer on December 23rd desperately trying to edit together a copy of Jack Frost ready for a next day upload, all the while keeping in touch with various relatives and doctors. I dont tend to work like that nor did I honestly enjoy the experience.
Thats not to say I hate this season. I loved working with Alex Kay on my review of “Stingray“, I loved speaking to the team behind “Witches Night out” and “The Gift of Winter” and this season marks the end of my “Teenage mutant ninja Turtles Quadrilogy ” Something I was very proud to have achieved. It was my biggest season in terms of stepping up my game and it was also the first season to not feature the official “Fourscore 2” theme, a decision I made basically as I wanted to try and move away from relying on Copyrighted material when it was unessicary.
So here’s to season 5! Arguably one of the most stressful seasons (and I sat a degree in film production) I’ve ever produced and I think some of my best work. Please enjoy and hopefully I’ll have more news for you soon!
Rounding off both Season 5 and 2018; here we have Jack Frost. A film thats been on my radar more or less since it came out due largely to it’s prominence in several Nerdy “Forbidden Planet” esq stores that used to populate the market stalls and highstreets where I lived in the early 2000’s. the Holographic Box art that came with the VHS of this movie was very unusual for the time and because of that I’d always wanted to check it out (Even though I knew deep down that if they had to stress a gimmick like this this hard it probably wouldnt be very good.)
The reality is, this films quite enjoyable. its by no means a regualar watch, nor is it anything groundbreaking. But I can easily see myself watching this again this Christmas and it was good enough that I’d certainly be interested in picking up the sequel.
If you are interested in picking this one up Vinegar Syndrome are the current distributors for it and they’ve done a cracking job with the Bluray version, if you like your “Troma” movies or anything by “Full moon” I think you’d probably quite dig this one.
This review was intended to make it up to youtube on the 24th of December however due to ongoing issues in personal life involving my partner I was unfortunately at the hospital all through the day this was set to go live and I was unable to schedule it in advance due to repeated copyright strikes. As a result I had to re-edit this review on the fly between trips to the hospital to try and get it up before the year out. as a result this one came out on the 31st but does wish people a merry christmas and a happy new year (Well…at least I got the last part right).
(Personally…while the original poster was striking and got my attention. I think the new artwork for it (Pictured above) looks much more fitting)
I count myself exceedingly lucky that I have been able to see a film like “The WNUF Halloween Special” these kinds of films typically fall through the cracks of cinema history and I cannot stress enough how hard it is to find films like these, especially when you live in the UK.
The WNUF halloween special is no exception. as it stood up until recently the only way to get your hands on a copy of this film if you were UK based and wernt lucky enough to swipe up a copy of this when they were first selling them on DVD and VHS was to spend a frankly extortionate amount importing a very pricy NTSC only VHS or Region 1 DVD from the states, then forking out again for a player to play said expensive Tape/Disc and due to the cultish nature of this movie if you didnt pick a copy up during the initial US sales drive, there was literally no other way to get your hands on this film.
Well…there was illegal torrenting. Which unfortunately was the route I had to take in order to see this simply due to the complications listed above. While it probably wont bring much comfort to the Director/Producer. Chris. I would be honoured to help dub and distribute this tape across european terratories. PAL users have been neglected of a film like this for too long and if I can help from my little dubbing station here in the UK then please get in touch. I’d love to try and help you out in spreading this frankly amazing piece of cinema.
There is no European release of this film. and with a Sequel coming up on the horizon hopefully in a couple of years. I really hope that this one gets the worldwide release it really quite frankly deserves.
(This bloody poster…jesus its gorgeously done. Serious Kudos to whoever designed it. They’re a Master of the craft clearly)
This one can be chalked up to another “I didnt know what I was buying, BUT LOOK AT THAT TITLE!!!” style escapade. Theres a goodwillesq Charity shop that I frequent when Im running low on titles to review (I say “Shop” its really more of a thrift wearhouse) It was on route to a local dump and I have to assume at this point that quite a lot of the stuff that ended up in said Charity shop only did so because it was a shorter distance and often less fuss than dealing with the people who ran the dump.
I’d visit them at the end of every month and in amongst maze like arrangements of vomit and food stained sofas, broken kitchen appliences and Childrens toys that looked like they’d been tied to a tree and abandoned for the best part of 40 years I’d find the “DVD section”… I put it in quotes because realistically it was a book case full of DVD’s, pc games and anything else that could fit in a DVD bookcase.
While usually made up of TV series (Believe me if you’ve ever wondered where the biggest collection of “24” and “Midsummer murders” boxsets were held up you need go no further than this place. Nestled in amongst the TV trash and the mainstream titles that time had forgot (14 Copies of “Percy Jackson and the lightning thief” says it wasnt the most popular movie in the world) you’d find the good stuff. Films like “let’s ruin Dads day”, “Santa and the three bears” and the grail for me? “Hollywood DVD” releases and “DVD multipack” sets. The former a cheapo label that mainly deals with knock off copycat movies or the kinds of low budget affairs from the 80’s and 90’s that would make a prisoner on death row beg for the end. And the latter 9 times out of 10 being bundled in groups of 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 50 and very very rarely 100 and paired with a DVD player during the early days of the formats release.
Sadly, in both of these labels cases they’re sadly on the way out. improper storage, mass binnings and the general idea that these are worthless discs has rendered large swathes of them either scratched beyond repair or succumb to the deadly sickness that is “Discrot” (Basically when DVD’s were first being manufactured they used a plastic coating on the “read” side to protect the discs from damage not realising that that same plastic coating degrades when damaged and slowly turns into an acid that eats the disc.
Due to there prevelence you’ll always find these discs knocking around at CEX or in charity shops though I highly reccommend you check the silver side before you buy. They were manufactured cheap and sold cheaper with the understanding they were there to showcase how crisp DVD could look on a budget.
I dont visit that Charity emporium very often these days…I think there was a change in management a short while ago as I went on 3 seperate occasions over a 6 month period and all of the “Good stuff” was gone…replaced with actual proper mainstream titles that were legitimately good, there were even blurays thrown into the mix! and while I dont exactly need to find any more films to fill in my collection (I literally have stacks and boxes of tapes/dvds in my room right now). I cant help but feel a bit sad that a ritual that I did for years has been taken out of my hands…I’d clear them out of all the films they didnt want because noone in the general public would ever dream of buying “Cyborg 3” well…not unless they were genuinely mad.
This was one of the films I picked up in my final proper haul from that place and while I dont have anything to add that my review doesnt cover here…just bear in mind that when I pulled this out of a festering stack of “Little britain” DVD’s, just for a split second, I’d found my “Good stuff” for the day…and it made the trawling all worth while.
TYTD Reviews 
