Sunday, July 25, 2010

Jason goes to Holehead and barely knows what day it was.

Friday, definitely Friday. I flew back from Cleveland (real life work thing) and for the second time two weeks apart went from the airplane straight home and then to Holehead to see three movies. I really need a rest (note to self: start planning for Jewfest)

Anyway, the first movie started with a short ZOMBIFICATION. Three survivors try to keep safe (or safer) from a zombie horde by reading Max Brooks' "Ultimate Zombie Survival Guide." It's a good book, but let's see how it holds up to reality.

That led into a spot-on hilarious 50's sci-fi parody DOCTOR "S" BATTLES THE SEX-CRAZED REEFER ZOMBIES. Made in Texas and shot in black and white (of course), Dr S works (or worked) for a research company that was working on a reanimation formula to fight communism. And they test the formula by sneaking it into a batch of the most devious communist plot ever--marijuana! Things go horribly wrong, and Dr S has to kill all the sex-crazed reefer zombies, if not the whole town. Oh yeah, and he's super strong/unstable from a formula he gave himself. Watching a crazed superhero in a lab coat slaughter teenagers reminds me of why I got into science in the first place. Only issue I had was with the gratuitous stock footage boobies during intermission. Not that I don't like boobies, but it was just incongruous. The rest of it played like a bit of early 50's Hays Code weirdness, like REEFER MADNESS, where kids smoke pot and commit murder, but don't swear.

By the way, DR S plays again tonight, Monday July 26th at 9:00 at the Viz Cinemas.

So from the world of 50's science the next show moved to 70's revenge (and queer lifestyles) with TICKED OFF TRANNIES WITH KNIVES (oddly enough, it did stay in Texas). A group of transgender performers (with names like Pinky La'Trimm, Tipper Summore, Emma Grashun, Rachel Slurr, and Bubbles Cliquot) are beaten and left for dead by Bubbles' sadistic boyfriend (seems he didn't like finding out his girlfriend has a penis). Well, the survivors plot their revenge, and get it beautifully in the end (pun absolutely intended). It's full of great 70's grindhouse style, with missing reels, jumpy transitions, lots of blood, and tons of political incorrectness (mostly courtesy of Rachael Slurr). In the Q&A, director Israel Luna talked about how the premiere at Tribeca was protested by GLAAD and the resulting controversy has kept it out of a lot of queer film festivals. So it's up to the horror festivals to man up (so to speak) and champion this great film.

And finally, the night ended with JIMMY TUPPER VS. THE GOATMAN OF BOWIE, MARYLAND. About 80% of it is shot in jerky hand-held home movie format (and the final bit, where it transitions away from it is jarring, incongruous, and awesome!) Jimmy Tupper is a loud, drunken loser. His friends hate him, and with good reason--he gets drunk, throws up at parties, plays with his friend's brother's rifle, and is generally an ass. His friends are no better, dumping him in the woods one night when he's passed out. The next morning he doesn't show up for work (Starbucks) and when they finally find him in the woods he's freaking out, yelling at them and screaming about a creature who dragged him through the forest. It sounds a lot like the Goatman, which is apparently a real legend of the woods around Bowie, Maryland. His friends give him shit, of course, but he's so serious he resolves to go camping and get a video of whatever dragged him. He's so serious, he even resolves to do it sober. Without giving to much away, I'll say it's like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT but with a payoff. A pretty freakin' awesome payoff.

Total Running Time: 240 minutes
My Total Minutes: 190,602

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Pretty good post. I just stumbled upon your blog and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed reading your blog posts.Thanks for all your great posts.

actress

Unknown said...

Awesome, really enjoyed reading it! Also thanks @Sophia for sharing allfilmtrailers.com