UNÏWERÏA ZEKT

alphabet of STRANGE

2011-03-31T19:37:00.000-07:00

This list idea came from Bob Freelander.

A is for AMERICAN NIGHTMARES

A legacy of nihilism of brutality.

B is for THE BURNING MOON

The angriest film ever made!

C is for CONQUEST

Fever-dream fantasy / Chewbacca army onslaught

D is for DEADLINE

Horror screenwriters' ideas become reality. Features a scene
where a goat telepathically kills a man stuck in an
industrial construction machine.

E is for THE ENTITY

Dark and genuinely upsetting rapey ghost film.

F is not for FATAL IMAGES

This movie actually isn't very good.
I should have picked FIRST BLOOD.

G is for GREAT LAND OF SMALL

Canadian Twin Peaks-logic fantasy kiddie flick
starring Twin Peaks' Michael J. Anderson

H is for HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD

Hercules in Hell on a shoe-string budget,
the craft here is unmatched.

I is for INFERNO

A meandering, free-form nightmare-scape

J is for JOE

The only racist buddy film about hating hippies!
Chilling.

K is for KAMIKAZE '89

Ridiculous and fun. Edgar Froese soundtrack!

L is for L'ANGE

Contains some of the most authentic
dreamscapes committed to celluloid.

M is for MURDER BY PHONE

The name says it all.

N is for NATURAL ENEMIES
Jeff Kanew's debut drama about a day in the life of a man
readying to kill his family and himself.

O is for ON THE SILVER GLOBE

Zulawski's sci-fi misfire has enough bizarreness
and striking imagery to roast your mind.

P is for PIN

Goosebumpsian thriller about a schizoid kid taking Dad's
ventriloquism too seriously. Compelling creepy/weird stuff.

Q is for TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE

SOV anthology film. Delirious. Creepy. Weird. Surreal.

R is for RAISING CAIN

Nightmare-logic schizoid thriller, one of De Palma's best!
This was a close 2nd though...

S is for SLEDGEHAMMER

What else? On DVD May 10th!

T is for THE TOWER

SOV high-concept sci-fi film about a computerized building
that sucks people's life energy from its light sockets.

U is for UHF

They threw me out like a bag of moldy tangerines...

V is for THE VISITOR

Sci-Fi (?) mind-fuck. Nothing compares to the
WTF power of THE VISITOR.

W is for WHITE OF THE EYE

Donald Cammel's suburban giallo head-trip.

X is for X-FILES EPISODE: HOME

Still one of the most fucked things I've ever seen on TV.

Y is for YES - "TALES FROM TOPOGRAPHIC OCEANS"

Great, beautiful album!

Z is for THE ZODIAC KILLER

An acquired taste. But has plenty of creepy/surreal
stuff to satisfy the curious viewer.

The Lower Depths Of Horror: Ten Insane Buried Gems To Satiate Obscure Trash Lust

2010-10-24T10:42:00.001-07:00

I submitted a top ten list for my good friend's blog RUPERT PUPKIN SPEAKS on obscure horror. You can read it below or here.

In light of two screenings Severin Films is sponsoring this month - Bleeding Skull’s double-feature night at LA ‘s Cinefamily (10/23) and the Brooklyn debut of a curiosity piece in tribute to the annals of z-grade horror (by in-part yours truly), “BRAIN BLUDGEON” (10/29) - Mr. Freelander has allowed me to share some favorites in buried horror.

I have a die-hard appreciation for zero-budget, bizarro, “home-made” horror films that achieve a nightmarish visceral magic beyond their cheesy façade. The more confusing, messy, violent, sordid, delirious, or dumb they are, I’m there. And my favorites below, which are mostly discovered thanks to Bleeding Skull, are measured purely by their insanity. Most of these gems mentioned are an all-or-nothing experience. If you’re easily aroused by the Coffin Joe hell sequences, or Fulci’s CONQUEST, then chances are our tastes are simpatico.

Here’s some obscurities to brighten your Halloween.

10. IN THE WOODS - Directed by Lynn Drzick

This film is probably the least watchable in this list, but its definitely worth mentioning based purely on its stupidity. IN THE WOODS ranks high in the chronicles of best-worst dubbing genius (see MAD FOXES and THINGS), which is appealing enough to maintain interest throughout the film. Frequent unrelated mentions of gerbils and hamsters are also welcome in this EVIL DEAD inspired dud. Two fire-fighters find a horned skull in the woods, and it reanimates the spirit of a “fucking devil dog” which menaces their small town. Earning its own segment in our mash-up project, IN THE WOODS is one of ‘90s best in bone-head cinema. And here’s a little taste of WOODS from BRAIN BLUDGEON (following some bloody cat footage):

Available on DVD on Amazon here.

9. THE ABOMINATION (1986) - Directed by Bret McCormick

Cody’s mother has a tumor. She pukes up the tumor. Then Cody gets a tumor. He pukes it up too and it grows throughout the entire house becoming the... THE ABOMINATION! THE ABOMINATION possesses Cody to go on a murderous rampage to feed it fresh human meat. In a crude mixture of DEADLY SPAWN and THEY CAME FROM WITHIN, this one packs tons of gore and amazing extended nightmare sequences. In Bleeding Skull’s feature article about their hunt for a VHS copy, they describe THE ABOMBINATION’s unique delirium as such: “events are thrown together as if by chance. The final 20 minutes explode in a claustrophobic stench of wet cow intestines and humorous bloodshed. It’s psychedelic anxiety, 1980s style.” Apparently Muther Video, the film’s original distributor, has made a come-back and will be doing a one-off release with this film on DVD along with the director's previous work OZONE! ATTACK OF THE REDNECK MUTANTS.

Trailer:

8. DON’T PANIC (1989) - Directed by Rubin Galindo Jr.

Now this is top tier goof-ball cinema! This will be shown on 35mm (WTF?) as part of the Bleeding Skull night we are presenting this Saturday (10/23) in LA at Cinefamily. Here’s the description from Cinefamily’s event calendar, followed by a RIDICULOUS date sequence from DON’T PANIC.

Ouija boards! Boozed-up moms! A grown man in cartoon pajamas! In Don't Panic, goofball cinema at its most exquisite, strange things happen to a young man. Most of it involves an Ouija board, some gore, and a Satanic (sort of) force. The young man fights evil, falls in love and wears some ultra-cool bedclothes. He also sings the theme song. This film needs to be seen with a crowd, so you have someone you trust at your side to turn to and mutter "WTF?!" to when necessary -- probably every three minutes. If you don’t have fun during Don’t Panic, maybe you need to talk to a Religious Leader of your choice about why there’s no more fun in your life. Just, whatever you do, don’t -- don’t -- oh, forget about it.

DON’T PANIC was available on DVD on this super essential “Horror From South Of The Border” box set, which you still can find used on some e-tailers. Each film is TOTALLY worth your time.

7. THE LAST SLUMBER PARTY (1986) - Directed by Stephen Tyler

I’ll let Bleeding Skull describe this one. From their review:

“The Last Slumber Party is a landmark in American trash filmmaking, a completely disconnected 72 minutes that I could have easily watched for six hours. Magically terrible cut-n-paste sound and photography; outrageous dialogue; gaudy, ultra scummy 80s house interiors; a soundtrack comprised of FIRSTRYKE and white noise synth blurps, usually overlapping one another; multiple endings that make zero sense....I have pages of this stuff....one of the most surreal, hilarious, and unbelievably perfect 80s trash films of all time.”

Also, this amazing kill scene:

This one is available on DVD on a two-fer with TERROR AT TENKILLER. Its totally worth $6.56 from Deep Discount DVD!

6. SLEDGEHAMMER (1982) - Directed by David A. Prior

WTF was that? Is this art? Or just a trashy shot-on-video horror film from the man that brought us KILLER WORKOUT? And what the hell did that kid say? I love this fucking movie.

It’s definitely more Kenneth Anger than BOARDINGHOUSE or 555. Most of the film (67%) is in slow-motion with an accompanying Casio drone. The spirit of a murdered kid haunts the now teen party house as a transformed maniacal giant wielding a sledgehammer. The film does have a clunky mid-section which prevents it from taking a higher place on this list, however the last third is pure avant-horror bliss.

Unavailable on DVD.

5. A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER (1983) - Directed by Doris Wishman

Seriously, get obsessed with Doris Wishman... NOW!

Showing alongside DON’T PANIC as part of Bleeding Skull’s double-feature night at Cinefamily, Doris Wishman’s A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER is surreal fever-dream bliss. From the Cinefamily event calendar:

This Doris Wishman gorefest isn’t so much an exercise in necessity as it is a boon to all mankind! After a peeved lab worker destroyed forty percent of her original negative, Doris was forced to compensate, and A Night To Dismember was born. ‘80s porn star Samantha Fox returns home after a stint in a mental institution, and from there, erratic violence and dreamy visuals bounce around 4-track-cassette-tape aesthetics, while the docu-styled lens of a spastic Super-8 camera whirs on. Hairstyles change constantly. Soundtrack cues comprised of Jazzercise schlock, public domain spooks, and wailing rock overlap in triplicate. Dialogue and sound effects are supplied by Doris's mouth, crackling vinyl, and gloriously hideous post-dubbing -- and there's even some psychedelic sex and random nudity! A Night To Dismember is the bizarro, out-to-lunch experience that trumps ‘most any other in its genre -- and it just might change your life.

DVD out of print from Elite Entertainment.

4. THINGS (1989) - Directed by Andrew Jordan

Now its really, really hard to tell if this film is just a big joke or what hell is going on. Either way, its definitely brilliant. In Canuxploitation’s review (the definitive online guide for Canadian genre films) said THINGS is “one of Canadian film's most extreme exercises in tastelessness...pointless, bleak, and claustrophobic—yet somehow watchable.” I’d have to agree, but its also undoubtedly hilarious. The dubbing is so bad, its as if the crew gave up trying to deliver an honest film, and decided to drunkenly riff their failed production in the ADR room. Some real B-movie magic here.

You can order THINGS from the film’s website here: http://www.things1989.com/.

3. OGROFF aka THE MAD MUTILATOR

This is the most disturbing backyard horror film ever made and certainly the greatest horror film I’ve seen from France - not quite sure what it would take to top this. ITS PURE MADNESS. Shot on Super 8 and including a total of 5 lines of dialog, OGROFF is kill after kill, low-fi nightmarish repetition, and is a severely calculated, cruel, hallucinatory hate-piece. This film will stay with you. In you. This is definitely something Max Renn would program for Civic TV.

2. TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE (1988) - Directed by Chester Novell Turner

Chester Turner is easily the most mysterious auteur to emerge from the ‘80s camcorder horror underground, shocking unsuspecting video renters with his notorious and demented debut feature BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL. Buried deeper in obscurity, Turner's second foray into home-made horror TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE stars Shirley Jones as a bereaved mom who entertains her invisible ghost son with three spooky stories - rednecks fighting over sandwiches, a dead body dressed up as a clown, and lastly, her own. Perhaps the single weirdest thing (coming from a long, long list) about QUADEAD is its poignant, surprisingly personal ending.

We will be screening this film along with BRAIN BLUDGEON in Brooklyn on Oct 26th at reRun Theater at midnight, and its FREE!

Also, TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE is FINALLY getting a DVD release as part of the BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL DVD Rotten Cotton is release. Release date is TBA.

1. THE BURNING MOON (1992) - Directed by Olaf Ittenbach

This is the Holy Grail my friend. THE BURNING MOON may be the ANGRIEST horror film ever made. The film centers on two horrific bedtimes stories that a delinquent, junkie brother (played by director Olaf Ittenbach) reads to his 6 year old sister. These morbid stories focus on a serial killing blind date and a murderous, psychotic, rapist priest.

Upon my first viewing, I was delighted to know that the film actually includes an image of a burning moon. After Ittenbach's character returns home from a brutal gang fight he is beaten by his father. Pissed and broken, he heads upstairs to his room where he shoots heroin. He approaches his window and steps out to a landing and stares at the moon. And of course, it BURNS. Queue intense music and "ARRRHHH!!!" This is what inspires him to make a visit to his little sister's room for some hardcore reading.

Beyond its innovative visceral violence and lo-tech aesthetic it's actually a good film - there is some insane craftsmanship behind its DYI façade - including a TEN MINUTE decent to hell sequence realized as a basement in Germany. If you have a palate for fucked, low-budget nihilism a la THE LAST HOUSE ON DEAD END STREET, COMBAT SHOCK, NEKROMANTIK, etc Ittenbach's persistent warped vision will be your new best friend.

Unavailable on DVD in the US.

That’s it!

If you’re in LA come down on Saturday (10/23) and check out DON’T PANIC and A NIGHT TO DISMEMBER at Cinefamily. If you’re in NYC next Friday (10/29) come check out BRAIN BLUDGEON and TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE at the brand-new reRun Theater in Brooklyn (it’s free!).

BRAIN BLUDGEON featured on FilmDrunk.com

2010-10-23T22:36:00.000-07:00

Vince from FilmDrunk was kind enough to push "Brain Bludgeon", with the first of two exclusive clips, on his unsuspecting readership. This clip, which is below, mostly features the Ouija-board possessed "Michael" from the stooopid "Don't Panic" (1988). Michael is goddamn relentless in his name-calling, falling and running into things throughout the duration of the film. This had to be documented.

You can read his post here, or below.

For today’s Friday Free for All, Evan from Severin sent us this fun little clip from his project Brain Bludgeon. Evan watches more bizarre, forgotten, low-budget films than anyone I know (times 1000), and Brain Bludgeon is his compilation of some the best stuff. If you live in Brooklyn, you’ll be able to see it yourself next Friday whilst getting drunk at the ReRun Gastropub.

Sewn together from hundreds of forgotten horror films, BRAIN BLUDGEON is a transcendental fusion of trash exposing the willing to everything curious, bizarre, hilarious and awful about no-budget genre films. Hot penny torture, exploding 3d skulls, brutal “de-fetusing”, raping zombies, and much more collide in this blissfully IQ-withering amalgamation of exploitation hell.

Meanwhile, today’s clip is rated awesome for gratuitous:

Awesome mullet perms
Casual use of gay slurs
INCREDIBLE acting
REAL baboons
Baboon dong
Excessive squibs

Did I say “gratuitous, excessive squibs?” I did indeed. They’re gratextuissive.

BRAIN BLUDGEON and TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE

2010-10-22T16:01:00.000-07:00

I am very excited to announce that a six month obsessive, obscure horror themed mash-up project I've been working on with my good friend Shal Ngo, will finally have its debut at the reRun Theater in Brooklyn on Oct 29th, 2010.

"Brain Bludgeon" is sewn together from hundreds of forgotten horror films - a transcendental fusion of trash exposing the willing to everything curious, bizarre, hilarious and awful about no-budget genre films. Hot penny torture, exploding 3d skulls, brutal “de-fetusing”, raping zombies, and much more collide in this blissfully IQ-withering amalgamation of exploitation hell.

And what better way to celebrate Halloween this year, than an in-theater experience along with friends to enjoy some of the most visceral, insane, and stoopid horror movies of all time!?

Ever since my exposure to fantastic horror finds from both BleedingSkull.com and some choice bizarro programming selections at Cinefamily, I felt like I had to collage these discoveries in a brief, but comprehensive video piece. I HAD TO DO THIS. Its both equally an archival passion project and ejaculatory, hilarity piece. What began as a hobby, quickly devolved into an depraved obsession. So, I began to research more comparable films, and boy did we find some good ones. And as we get closer to the date, I will unveil some of these findings here.

Also inclusive of this evening, we are showing the standalone shot-on-video oddity, "Tales From The Quadead Zone" by Chester Novell Turner.

Turner is easily the most mysterious auteur to emerge from the ‘80s camcorder horror underground, shocking unsuspecting video renters with his notorious and demented debut feature BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL. Buried deeper in obscurity, Turner's second foray into home-made horror TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE stars Shirley Jones as a bereaved mom who entertains her invisible ghost son with two spooky stories - rednecks fighting over sandwiches and a dead body dressed up as a clown. Perhaps the single weirdest thing (coming from a long, long list) about QUADEAD is its poignant, surprisingly personal ending in what Bleeding Skull calls "the greatest shot-on-video trash film of all time... creepy, hysterical, surreal, and well beyond explanation!"

Vince Mancini over at FilmDrunk.com was kind enough to push the event for us with an exclusive clip, here.

THE BURNING MOON, Olaf Ittenbach, 1992

2010-07-05T14:35:00.000-07:00

My favorite horror films are usually completely nonsensical. The more confusing, messy, violent and delirious they are, the better. From Fulci's masterful "The Beyond," to the "Coffin Joe" series, to the shot-on-video hall of famer "Sledgehammer," each are prime examples of hallucinatory nightmare-scapes.

"Sledgehammer" (1983)

I usually find myself defenseless on the losing side of an Argento vs. Fulci argument as I prefer Lucio's films overall for their maddening nonsense. Basically, I'd rather get repeatedly mindfucked by the pillaging antics of the Chewbacca army in Fulci's lesser known "Conquest" than observe Argento stumbling to end one of his gialli films. Admittedly, I love Argento's style and especially "Suspiria," but when it comes to a whodunit scenario Argento fumbles to deliver something climatic (i.e. "Opera.") Argento's journey to to the reveal is fun, but on the whole I'd rather be completely dumbfounded by Fulci's absurdity. A pointless argument that really boils down to taste, but I included it as it helps to explain these types of films by extracting the things I enjoy about Fulci's films and the like.

"Conquest" (1983)

Perhaps the culmination of these unique genre films are not wholly what the filmmaker intended, which only adds to the madness (and YOU the viewer must allow it to do so!) Maybe technical ineptitude seeps in here and there. Or perhaps the filmmaker has an educated affection for Luis Buñuel's "The Exterminating Angel" or the "Coffin Joe" films...whatever it is, the mystery behind the director's unfocused delirium is what makes these gems compelling. There is an added sense of discovery as a viewer to experience something that abandons convention and now exists as an forgotten, eccentric piece of hell - maybe this is what Harmony Korine was after with his deliberate VHS feature "Trash Humpers."

For me, these types films are mostly an all-or-nothing experience. If you can harmonize with the aforementioned, you can experience a new horror all together - a psychedelic fever-dream that descends into an abominable waking nightmare. Now, enter the Holy Grail of shot-on-video nightmarish delirium and let's pretend we found this tape unmarked and buried in a ditch:

Its actually an extreme DISSERVICE to the film to post this butchered clip of the film. This YouTube user failed to upload this scene in its shocking entirety. This unmatched descent-to-hell sequence is actually around 9 1/2 minutes long. Please seek this film out for the sole reason to watch this scene not only its entirety but its jaw-dropping context. I've shown it to many people, and the result is the same. Gasping and heart holding.

To draw a parallel between this and one of my favorite surreal trash artists: Ittenach's unending vision of hell echoes the brilliant payoffs in José Mojica Marins' "Coffin Joe" series.

"This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse" (1967)

"The Burning Moon" may be the ANGRIEST horror film ever made. The film centers on two horrific bedtimes stories that a delinquent, junkie brother (played by director Olaf Ittenbach) reads to his 6 year old sister. These morbid stories focus on a serial killing blind date and a murderous, psychotic, rapist priest.

Upon my first viewing, I was delighted to know that the film actually includes an image of a burning moon. After Ittenbach's character returns home from a brutal gang fight he is beaten by his father. Pissed and broken, he heads upstairs to his room where he shoots heroin. He approaches his window and steps out to a (deck? fire escape? i dunno) and stares at the moon. And of course, it BURNS. Queue intense music and "ARRRHHH!!!" This is what inspires him to make a visit to his little sister's room for some hardcore reading.

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!11

Beyond its innovative visceral violence and lo-tech aesthetic it's actually a good film - there is some insane craftsmanship behind its DYI façade. If you have a palate for low-budget nihilism a la "The Last House On Dead End Street," "Combat Shock," or "The Death King," Ittenbach's persistent warped vision will be your new best friend.

"The Last House On Dead End Street" (1977)

"Combat Shock" aka "American Nightmares" (1984)

"Der Todesking" aka "The Death King" (1990)

I discovered "The Burning Moon" while searching around online. I came across this YouTube video title "The Brutal Murder of an Autistic Farmer." I laughed so hard until I cried - then I watched the clip.

As you can see the non-stop brutality of this clip is coupled with a sad, melancholic score which only adds to its subversiveness. Fulci also seems to use this bizarre mixture of the horrific imagery and an empathetic score. This may not be the best example below, but you can see traces of that in "The Beyond".

I'd rather not spoil more of "The Burning Moon" has it holds more insane surprises. However, if you're not convinced to seek this out, then I've included some more tantalizing stills from the film aka the ultimate "movie night" movie.

Final word: A great resource for gems like "The Burning Moon" is www.BleedingSkull.com - bookmark it now!

UNÏWERÏA ZEKT

2010-01-24T23:44:00.000-08:00

Early 2008: I was living in San Francisco frantically trying to finish a short film I had began the previous Summer called "UNÏWERÏA ZEKT". While shooting the final few shots needed to wrap, the record button on the '80s VHS camera shorted out from some moisture in the air while filming too close to the ocean on Stinson Beach. The next day I needed to be on a plane to move to New York City. This film remains unfinished for almost three years now, and that is a sadness.

"UNÏWERÏA ZEKT" (2006-?)

I had been itching to make a film ever since moving to San Francisco in early 2006, and resenting the stagnant lax lifestyle I had adapted from working at a record store. As much I love the magnificent scenery of San Francisco, and this film is a testament to its surrounding oddity and beauty, its too easy to become one of the many apathetic arty types.

I began working on this project upon dropping out of film school. In a rather rebellious mindset, I decided to conceptualize a zealous science fiction film I could make with little money and minimal dependance on friends, which would solely rely on extraordinary locations to create a fantastical constructed reality. At the time I was excited by otherworldly, avant cinema -- Andrzej Zulawski's "On The Silver Globe", Philippe Garrel's "The Inner Scar", Stan Brakhage's "Stellar", Lucio Fulci's insane "Conquest", Patrick Bokanowski's "L'Ange", Werner Herzog's "Heart Of Glass", and most importantly Kenneth Anger's "Lucifer Rising".

"On The Silver Globe" (1987)

"The Inner Scar" (1972)

"Stellar" (1993)

"Conquest" (1983)

"L'Ange" (1982)

"Heart Of Glass" (1976)

One very stoned evening I was viewing "Lucifer Rising" on glorious VHS, (this was before the beautifully restored Fantoma disc existed), and fell in love with the desaturated flat look of the poor video transfer. I had thought, what if Anger intended for his film to look this way? With this in mind, I purchased a used VHS camera on ebay for $100 and began to sketch out a simple story.

Lucifer Rising (1972)

A second influence for this project came from revisiting a Super Nintendo favorite: "Out Of This World" (one of the greatest artistic achievements of the '90s). I loved the story: a botched experiment haphazardly transports a scientist to a barren, alien world where he must solve puzzles and fight lumpy humanoids while in pursuit of a way back to Earth. The game's melancholic ending is stunning as well -- the scientist never returns to earth, but rides out into the horizon on a pterodactyl-like creature. This was one of the first video games to adapt a cinematic feel with astounding low-fi cut-scenes and an ominous, brooding soundtrack.

Out Of This World (1991)

The thunderous, celestial music of Magma, a prog-rock outfit from the planet Kobaïa, would supply the final source of inspiration needed to execute this project. Extremely adventurous and imaginative, the musical force of Magma is unparalleled. I can not properly articulate how much of a proud affect this band has on me.

Magma is a high-concept group complete with a fictional backstory about their fleeting of Earth to settle on the planet Kobaïa, where they discover the spiritual plight of the Kobaïans as well as their cultural native "Zeuhl" music. Magma's "Zeuhl" sound is blend of symphonic prog-rock and fusion with heavy John Coltrane and Frank Zappa worship. I would recommend their track "De Futura" (the album version) or their "Kohntarkosz" album which I believe is their masterpiece. Magma Christian Vander, drummer and Magma helmer, even constructed the fictitious language the lyrics are sung in. Below is a from Wikipedia, about their most famous release "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh...

MDK is story of the prophet 'Nebehr Güdahtt' who delivers to the people of the Earth this insight: If they want to be saved from thmeselves, they must morally cleanse themselves to worship of the Kobaïan supreme being, 'Kreuhn Kohrmahn', by learning sacred "Zeuhl Wortz" music (already wildly popular on Kobaïa, of course). In response to this blatant cultural imperialism the people of the Earth initially march against Güdahtt, but slowly like any true believer Güdahtt attracts enough of a base of adherents to survive, to sing the Kobaian music.

Magma's music is visceral, painting a cultural portrait of a alien world. The title of my film, "UNÏWERÏA ZEKT", is a Kobaïan reference taken from scripture featured on their "Udu Wudu" album. I also sampled the opening chant from their song "Stoah" for the opening few shots, and it also can heard in the trailer (bottom of post).

Magma

Magma - "Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh"
Play this clip while you're reading onward!

Filming began with friends Chad as the cosmic traveller and Jaan as the native druid. We rented a car and drove up to the very top of Mount Tamalpais (just north of the Golden Gate Bridge). I intended to shoot languid, wide masters of the traveller wandering through vast rolling hills. To my initial dismay, dense fog crept in blanketing the sky and dimming visibility to about 40 feet.

You couldn't hear anything. The wind was loud and cold. Disregarding my notes, we embraced the unearthly landscape. We hiked about a mile inward with camera equipment and costumes to escape telephone pole lines and roads. We shot beautiful wides of the traveller walking through clouds of fog. Hiking further through the fog, we discovered a perfect grassy hill (pictured below) to shoot the standoff between the traveller's first encounter with a life form -- the native druid.

"UNÏWERÏA ZEKT"

Shooting "UNÏWERÏA ZEKT"

Some weeks after reviewing the Mount Tam footage, Chad and I regrouped and travelled to Treasure Island -- a half condemned manmade island built off of the bay bridge in between Oakland and San Francisco. Originally built for the World's Fair HQ in the late '30s, it was quickly reshaped into a naval base during WWII. In 1997, the naval base shut down mysteriously leaving many of the once functional barracks, fueling stations, and military facilities abandoned. The island has been the target of much controversy as some claim that unlawful chemical testing took place during its military occupancy. The SF Bay Guardian reported that the island's air is contaminated with asbestos, radium, and plutonium. People shouldn't be allowed to live on Treasure Island, but they do. And I did.

In a frantic attempt to escape Los Angeles, I moved in with a friend who "lived in San Francisco" and I stayed on Treasure Island for 9 months. The view from my window was of a condemned townhouse structure with signs that warned of its contaminants which could cause cancer and/or birth defects (!). On occasion we would break into the abandoned police station only to find the desks, chairs, file cabinets and its contents not moved or tampered with since its condemnation. For some reason, its inhabitants left with no hesitation.

The island was accessible by bus via the bay bridge, and very often during this commute my peripheral would catch crude facial sores of the natives. I recall one episode on the bus where a man stood and began to scream about his spider infestation, frightening the passengers with his bite ridden arms. Treasure Island sits as an ominous ghost town in the middle of the bay.

Treasure Island, California

Treasure Island was a perfect location for this project and the flat VHS look was great, distorting the already brittle abandoned structures. The traveller arrives in an earth-like town which appears to have been abruptly deserted. I planned on shooting a sequence where the traveller would be hunted down by an ambiguous black shape -- a homage to "Out Of This World", too bad we've never shot that!

"UNÏWERÏA ZEKT"

Shooting on Treasure Island

Unexpectedly, this film grew into a cosmic travelogue of sorts. While searching for final locations for this film, a friend mentioned Battery Rathbone, a former gun turret used during WWII just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. As soon I a saw a photograph, I knew instantly it had to be used as a teleporter. Heading towards Rathbone, before filming the teleportation sequence, we stopped along the way to shoot a beautiful master of the ocean.

"UNÏWERÏA ZEKT"

Battery Rathbone

We then headed down to Stinson beach to film the final shots. This of course is when my camera shorted out. Th film was suppose to end with the traveller laying beside a large shelter he built using washed up wood from the ocean. My close friend Gabe had created the model shelter and traveller (pictured below), which we were never able to shoot using the VHS camera. However, before the camera's malfunction we did manage to get some great shots of the ocean and the traveller descending a large rocky cliff.

Digital Camera Stills of Model Traveller and Dwelling

A year later, I programmed my own film to play at the 2009 TromaDance Film Festival in Park City, UT which takes place during Sundance in January. I was eager to see the film projected on a large screen, thats why! In preparation for this event, I flew back to Minneapolis in December of 2008 to record the score for the film with my friend Joe. Guitars, synthesizers, flutes, screaming, wind, water, rain, and thunder. Upon returning to New York City, I quickly edited a rough 30 min cut of the film.

The film played to a capacity crowd of the wrong people. Within minutes of the presentation, people were screaming "Get this Pink Floyd shit off the screen!", "I'll never get this ten minutes of my life back!", etc. Then things got really heated as audience members began to violently argue with each other during the rest of the film's duration -- I guess a few people were trying to enjoy it.

When the presentation was over, Tromadance's co-curator Jonathan had to rush out into the chaos to calm the aggravated crowd. I couldn't be present during that experience and hid in the projection booth, because at the time it was too much of a heartbreak -- although it was my fault to selfishly program my own film for a puke and fart audience.

My future colleague David, who was present at the screening told me that he was actually impressed with the enraged response praising the ability of the film to provoke such a reaction. David equated the experience to what it could have been like to attend Alejandro Jodorowsky's premiere of his first feature, "Fando Y Li s" in Alcapulco, which broke out in a full scale riot. Looking back now, in preparation for future projects, it was a truly valuable experience to have gone through. I'm proud to have captured some impressive shots and managed to only spend about $300 on this project.

Below is a trailer of sorts I use in my reel. Hopefully, someday I can actually finish a definitive cut of "UNÏWERÏA ZEKT" I'm content with. In the meantime, enjoy:

Please view in full screen

The Making Of Faggot's "The Cleaner"

2010-01-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

In a hotel room

In Hollywood

My friend said to me,

"Put your legs over your head!"

Summer 2008: I returned to home to Minneapolis to shoot a music video set inside a man's filthy asshole. The band was Faggot. The budget under $100. For the first time you can see the Making Of Documentary (link at the bottom).

Locals heroes of Minneapolis, Faggot is much than just a provocative name stirring up controversy with their Satanic AIDS float appearance during the Gay Pride Parade and their legendary performances where dildos are welcomed in yielding orifices and dicks are used as guitar picks. Faggot is also an aggressive personal statement from singer Tim Carroll (who can explain it best below).

Faggot's style can't be compartmentalized into a specific genre as they blend elements of punk and metal. I would say they are a savage mixture of Hawkwind and The Murder Junkies. Faggot possess the unique ability to inspire audiences to rub their dicks on things, I can't really explain it, but they unlock an uninhibited sexual energy in their audience like I've never seen before. Above all, they aren't just a poop and dick band. There is a certain wit to Faggot's trash antics that is not only insanely creative but very fucking funny.

The idea to shoot a Faggot music video originated from the brain of Lloyd Kaufman -- by far the man's best idea. He sat next to me slack jawed and boner popped after a screening of Poultrygeist: Night Of The Chicken Dead where I had booked Faggot to perform following the film. He turned to me and yelled, "This is actually very disturbing!" The hoon-yack mid-western theater had been transformed into an grimy B.O. underground house show in seconds. Beer and weed smoke materialized and audience members were humping each other naked in the aisles. Hilarious that a screening of "Fool's Gold" would be showing next. Morning came as Lloyd called me after nurturing a hangover and insisted that we return to Minneapolis to make a music video.

Faggot's catchy number "The Cleaner" was the obvious choice to shoot not because it was their strongest, because it was their most visceral. Based on a true account of Faggot's Tim Carroll, the story begins with Carroll in Los Angeles and his introduction to some hot Aussie game by Bob Dole's secretary. High on the meth, Carroll is instructed to sprawl out on the hotel room bed and raise his legs above his head. An unnamed man then began to "clean him out" via analingus. The following morning, Carroll was informed that the unnamed man was known in the local gay community as "The Cleaner".

Local genius Mike Etoll (I can't recommend his work enough: "The Blood Of Mutingo", his nod to The Shining beer commercial, and his incredible stunt on the WCCO Morning News), helped to conceptualize Carroll's debauchery into a rock video set inside the singer's anus where the band would set the stage. And of course there would be naked chicks as well. Faggot's Jason Wade and myself would produce, Lloyd and I would direct. Etoll would manage the effects including the design of the large scale model asshole and tongue (!). These beautiful props were made by Etoll from items found around his house (you'd have to know Etoll for that to make sense).

It was decided by Wade that we would shoot the video on Super 8, which looked great.

With an overwhelming amount of support from the local community, we were able to make this video for under $100! Rental houses donated lighting equipment, Kodak donated film (!), people donated props, friends and family volunteered their time, and even the workspace was provided by a close friend of Etoll's.

At 6 A.M. pre-production began as the band along with supporting casts of dancers and freaks decorated themselves with mustard, peanuts, chocolate pudding, cottage cheese, paint, a ton of glitter and blood. Myself and some volunteers applied the final touches to the rectal set we built the previous night. You too can make your own anal set with large sheets of plastic painted various hues of pink coated with dollar store buckets of hair gel, poop smears and a sculpted polyp or two.

It was the biggest smelly mess I've ever seen. A throng of bodies. An orgy of blood, baby ruths, cottage cheese, pudding and mustard.

The most educational bit of this whole experience I would pass on to the aspiring is how we built the rundown Hollywood hotel room set, which I think looked perfect. A thrift store painting, night stand, lamp, telephone, and for the bed we used a piece of cardboard on two sawhorses -- added an old blanket and a couple of pillows to it and it looked great. The bed had a false bottom so that Carroll could be placed through the bed and puppet legs (hilarious!), dick, and butt could be used for the analingus scenes.

*Not a real dick. Hollywood hotel room set.

*Graphic analingus on false bottom bed, fake dick and legs.

I could go on and on about how fucking awesome this day was, but its better to watch the special Making Of documentary Mike Etoll put together. The link is below password protected because of nudity. I guess I'll say there is a content warning as the video does include graphic analingus, scale butthole models, real penises, real penises used as drums sticks, the gasmask (a real scrotum stretched over bass player Saira Huff's face, bloody boobs, baby ruths, poopy drums, the Toxic Avenger's real penis unmasked, rectal blood fletching, green vomit etc etc. Oh yeah, and this 90 pound girl almost died during the filming.

A special note: During my time at Troma, there was a moment when this video was going to receive an official release as part of a Faggot DVD, which would have included the video, the below behind the scenes doc, killer live footage and their self titled CD. The whole project imploded when Troma's other half turned off Lloyd's enthusiasm proclaiming "LLOYD!! Nobody wants to see a puppet asshole being licked!!" (I beg to differ), and Troma's then distribution company refused to touch this content as it teetered on the pornographic edge. Gay.

The Making Of "The Cleaner" vimeo link.
Link!
password: thecleaner

Right now the I don't have a host for the music video itself, but stay tuned I'll post it soon. For now, enjoy some great B/W production stills by Sean Douglas...

Birden Of Dreams: The Story Of Birdemic

2010-01-23T16:24:00.000-08:00

Sundance Film Festival, January 2009: It was impossible to ignore the menacing crawl of an ’80s Nissan Quest daily descending through the thronged roadway of Park City, Utah’s Main Street. Seasoned with frozen blood, a crudely fashioned bird, and the malevolent screeching of fowl from the stereo, I assumed the van was part of another tired PETA outcry which is popular at such events. To the astonishment of my colleague Bobby Hacker and I, the stunt was revealed as a clever ploy to market a new film suitably titled Birdemic: Shock And Terror.

The abrupt halting of the vessel before me was my introduction to Birdemic’s mastermind, James Nguyen. An impassioned early 40s Vietnamese-American filmmaker, Nguyen was energetically hopping around persisting, “come see my movie!” “come see my movie!” No, Birdemic was not a documentary concerning the current plight of birds in their natural habitats. Further inspection revealed an apparent similarity between Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece: The Birds, (including a puzzling cameo appearance by Tippi Hedren!) Nguyen handed us a glossed handbill advertising the screening at a Main St. bar, which included a foreboding visual of a “platoon” of avian aggressors ambushing a small town and “many people died.” Contact with that damned leaflet marked my decent into a yearlong submissive addiction where withdrawal would have rendered my remains unsuitable to sustain human life.

A dazed retreat to our lodge with the internet at hand led to a revelation of the unimaginable. Operating with only meager threads of information available from the handbill, we were able to uncover the eccentricities of this subject and infer a shockingly accurate back-story. Our quest began on Nguyen’s IMDB page, which lists his three feature films (Julie And Jack, Replica, and Birdemic: Shock And Terror), declares him “The Master Of Romantic Thrillers”, and confirms his avid Hitchcock admiration. We then clicked through to Nguyen’s production company website “Moviehead Pictures”, where we viewed the unforgettable Birdemic teaser trailer. Viewing of which was beyond words and cannot be purged from the human mind nor recounted without a present visual reference. Compiling further evidence from other sources, it was concluded that Nguyen’s genuine passion for Hitchcock’s work propelled his determination, without either financial nor mental inhibition, to salute The Birds and obtain his desired Hollywood director lifestyle. It was agreed that our presence at Nguyen’s debut exhibition was absolutely mandatory. Neglect to do so would be shameful error beyond regret.

Our afternoon arrival at the exhibition was greeted by Nguyen himself and his bird-like reproduction cheerfully fixed in hand which no doubt flawlessly rang of a celebrated Hitchcock publicity photo. His excitement and warmth was intoxicating, influencing Hacker and I to participate in a series of photographs with Nguyen and his fowl appendage.

Appreciative of the attendance of the few occupying moviegoers, Nguyen insisted upon purchasing drinks for the viewers and lead Hacker and I to a table with an appropriate view of the projector screen. The lights dimmed and the film began.

It is a combination of bewilderment and awe that hinders my ability to articulate the presentation. It serves no justice to the work to verbalize an experience so uniquely visceral. However, it can be deduced that I have witnessed the most singular cinematic vision of a man embracing his limitations. Relative to the artistic manner of a single painter painting, or a poet writing, Nguyen embraces the bare essential tools needed to execute a film’s production and transmit his pure, undiluted vision; free from allegiance to anyone contrary to the common filmmaking process. In the times of Hitchcock, with cumbersome equipment and the necessity of dedicated crew members, editors, writers, producers, executive producers, script supervisors, cinematographers, and key grips, the magic of cinema was established as a collaborative process. Certain film equipment and personnel have been deemed extraneous due to recent advances in technology. Because of this, Nguyen is able to act as a one-man crew authoring his sole romantic and thrilling vision. After spending time with Nguyen, one can conclude that even the characters in Birdemic are pure extensions of Nguyen’s own ambitions, desires, and feelings – if possible, he would have performed as the main characters himself. To conclude with the sentiment where the greater part of all films produced are actualized by the means of artistic collaboration means that Birdemic is the purest, sole vision of a single man realized.

The negative effect of a more achievable filmmaking process is an over-saturated market of indie films allowing the undisciplined to create and generating the assumption that “anyone can make a film”, which embitters me. However, Nguyen’s existence is proof we are exponentially better off to living the digital age as fifteen years ago it would have been impossible for Nguyen to create Birdemic due to monetary and technological restraints. Nguyen is truly a rarity among the league of low-budget/post-film school filmmakers in that his ambition and discipline are unmatched. He does it all from creating the film, editing the film, scoring the film, compositing computer generated birds, driving from San Jose, CA to Sundance, rigorously promoting the film in a bloody bird van, sleeping in the van in freezing temperatures, renting a theater on Main St., showing the film, and at the end of the day walking away with a distribution deal are rare accomplishments only the earnest and determined can savor.

I have no shame in over-zealously boasting about my introduction of Birdemic to Severin Films. However, I am overly humbled that David Gregory, John Cregan and Carl Daft deemed the film an important enough work of independent art to crown it as Severin Films’ first contemporary acquisition.

Originally posted on Severin-Films.com.

HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD

2010-01-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

Italian horror maestro Mario Bava was an unbelievably skilled craftsman. One of Bava's greatest stylistic achievements is Hercules In The Haunted World (1964), his first color film following the unforgettable gothic chiller Black Sunday. On an extremely low budget, Bava was able to actualize ominous atmospheres and fantastical scenery using the barest of elements and filmiest of scripts in the most tired sub-genre: the Italian "Sword & Sandal" film. Bava succeeds in creating several different compelling worlds, including a stark view into the realm of Hades, only using a few pillars, fake trees, stones, painted backdrops, a smoke machine, and a lavish lighting scheme.

Hercules In The Haunted World's efficient economy of the set design and special effects are an art onto itself. There is a charm to this style of genre filmmaking which seems long-gone today with the integration of CG effects and digital cameras. I know its a tired gripe, but I believe there is merit for an aspiring filmmaker to learn from the expert genre craftsman of cinema's golden age. So many contemporary indie genre films seem to suffer from creativity in execution and most importantly -- style.

Bava applies his minimalistic craft work into completely selling a sequence where our heroes cross a bubbling pit of lava with use of hand and rope. All you need is some lights, foam, miniatures, and clever cut-aways.

Luke Walter is SLEDGEHAMMER

2010-01-02T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last year I was working for Troma producing their DVD releases. A close friend of mine had suggested that we reissue a classic, forgotten slasher film buried in the Troma library. This film was The Last Horror Film (also known as Fanatic), which stars the late, brilliant Joe Spinell. He was a character actor commonly type-casted in small roles because of his rugged appearance (Taxi Driver, The Godfather Part 1, 2, Rocky 1, 2, The Sorcerer, Cruising, The Ninth Configuration, etc). Spinell is most remembered for his unforgettable starring performance as the depraved, psychotic serial killer in Maniac.

JOE SPINELL IN MANIAC

SPINELL IN THE LAST HORROR FILM

The Last Horror Film was a decent effort attempting to cash in on the success of Maniac. The film takes place during the Cannes Film Festival where Spinell plays a disturbed fanatic stalking a beautiful actress played by Caroline Munro (who also co-stars in Maniac). I began working on the DVD extras for the The Last Horror Film by interviewing Maniac director William Lustig. He had told me that if I wanted a wealth of incredible onset stories, I had to get in touch with Luke Walter who was Spinell's closest friend.

I phoned Luke, and he agreed to be interviewed for the disc. I remembered Luke as he was heavily featured in the Joe Spinell Story documentary available on the Maniac DVD.

LUKE WALTER IN THE JOE SPINELL STORY (2001)

I met Luke at a rundown strip club in Queens where he had frequented with Spinell in the 80s. Luke was with Spinell the night before he died at this very strip club. Spinell slipped in the shower, injured himself and bled to death -- he was a hemophiliac. Luke hadn't been back to this strip club until we shot him for the DVD.

Luke had always been at Spinell's side. When Spinell auditioned for Taxi Driver, Luke was there. In fact, Spinell recommended to Scorsese that Luke screen test for the Secret Service bodyguard character on the basis that Luke was shot several times with an Uzi while working security at a bank in New York. Intrigued, Scorsese agreed, but sadly Luke didn't get the part.

JOE SPINELL WITH DE NIRO IN TAXI DRIVER

Luke was also present during the filming of Maniac. The car used in the infamous scene where Spinell blows a victim's head off with shotgun pointblank through a windshield was Luke's old car! Luke also shot scenes in Maniac with Spinell on his own, which are arguably some of the greatest segments in the film. In particular, the scene where Spinell is seen peering into storefront windows, panting, and oogling at mannequins. The shots were fuzzy, disconnected, raw, and unconventional for a horror film. It gave Maniac a meandering feel. Observing sequences like these, added a sympathetic complexity to the nature of Spinell's creepy character. These interludes help make Maniac the definitive horrid plunge into the mind of a serial killer.

A SCENE LUKE SHOT IN MANIAC

Luke had an appreciation for experimentation and art which thoroughly showed in his contributions to Maniac and hearing him speak about acting and filmmaking. Luke is quite the character, he has Brooklyn running through his veins. Luke was part of a theater troupe in Europe in the 60s comprised only of ex cons. Luke wasn't a criminal, but they let him join because he always carried a gun. The troupe performed plays loosely based on the crimes they committed in the past.

When Luke showed up to the strip club, he was instantly very outspoken about his personal life as if we had known him for 25 years. I was immediately compelled. He told us jaw-dropping stories during the Last Horror Film production where he and Spinell ditched a hotel in France for $25,000, stumbled in the streets drunk throwing bottles at cars, and Spinell's fascination with wearing woman's clothes or nothing at all in public. Luke also told us about impromptu sequences he shot for The Last Horror Film, including a scene with Spinell and Karen Black in a bathtub (sadly didn't make the final cut)! This fascinated me and from that period onward, I knew I wanted to make a film with Luke. Luke might be 72 years old, but he has an undeniable youthful energy and spirit.

LUKE IN MY BEST MANIAC FEATURETTE ON THE LAST HORROR FILM DVD

LUKE LOOKING FOR SPINELL'S GRAVE

I had said to a friend of mine, 'we need to make a film this weekend, I don't care what it is we just need to do something." The concept began as being a 'rugged' film starring Luke. I imagined an image for the film where Luke was standing on top of a truck wielding a sledgehammer into the car's windshield -- and the film would be titled: SLEDGEHAMMER.

I phoned Luke the next day and asked him if he would be interested in starring in a film this weekend where he would be wielding a sledgehammer through Queens. He laughed and agreed.

The idea started as a comedy, but became a study of a 72 year old man's grim decent into uncontrollable anger. The story was about a man who had recently gone though his third divorce, and is now living alone for the first time in 50 years in a shithole Queens apartment. He is a mad as hell how much New York has changed. Old friends have passed on, and familiar hangouts have closed. He still has ambition to be something great, and fears dying alone. So he hits the streets to desperately find something -- work, women, old friends. He then finds a sledgehammer in an alleyway. Hammer in hand, he threatens to beat the shit out of the next door neighbors he hates who plays loud music. ANGER. Fascination with destroying things and venting anger with use of the sledgehammer progress uncontrollably leading him to petty crime, possibly murder.

That's all we had developed (if even that much), before we began shooting. It seemed like an interesting exercise in improvisation, which Luke was keen on. I wanted to see how Luke would channel anger into this character.

Spinell also had a knack for improvisation and experimentation. Shortly before Spinell's death, he hooked up with Buddy Giovinazzo (Combat Shock) in 1989 to make the unofficial sequel to Maniac titled Mr. Robbie. Spinell's idea was to play a kiddie talk show host that would seek murderous revenge on abusive parents (a loose remake of The Psychopath). Buddy got together with Spinell for a few creative sessions, but ultimately began shooting with no financing, a very small crew, an unfinished script, and a cast comprised of Spinell's friends and people he had met the bar the night before. Sadly, Spinell had passed before they finished shooting. However, the result of what they were able to accomplish is fascinating. Its revoltingly gory, the locations are gritty, the sound design is ominous, and Spinell is completely convincing. I had seen the Mr. Robbie footage prior to filming Sledgehammer, and it heavily influenced me to go out and shoot a film with the tools I had at hand.

JOE SPINELL IN MR. ROBBIE

FULL MR. ROBBIE FOOTAGE INCLUDING INTERVIEW WITH BUDDY GIOVINAZZO

Luke met us promptly at 8am at a Brooklyn breakfast spot where we discussed the filming details. Luke pulled up in his Suburban blasting Lord Buckley, an eccentric spoken word artists from the 40s who was once Al Capone's protege. Luke knew every word to the Buckley piece complete with authentic hand gestures. I actually joked about having a scene, which now seems like a great idea: Luke's character looking at himself in the bathroom mirror rehearsing his outlandish Lord Buckley performance which he would then shop the routine around clubs and bars in a 2009 New York.

We arrived at my apartment a few hours later. We begin to set up the camera and audio equipment (a microphone stuck in a shoe), in the living room of my then apartment in Queens. The dusty living room was empty besides a chewed up ugly white couch, a crappy coffee table and rocking chair. Coincidentally (on a Maniac level), I had a green mannequin torso in my living room at the time. Luke immediately zeroed in on it, and before we could even set up the equipment properly or any direction was given, he was on my floor, weeping and holding it tightly. Rolling back and forth on his back clutching the mannequin he began to cry out, "why did I do this to you?"

I quickly turned the camera on and began rolling. Luke delivered a 13 minute take. Luke caresses the breasts of the mannequin. He stood up. Peered out the windows, plotting. Screams. Shouts. Crys. Hides underneath the coffee table for minutes. Ravages through the house to find the sledgehammer. Kisses it. Wields it.

"Ok, cut." Luke says. Dumbfounded, I cut the camera and walk up to Luke who is on his way to my patio for a smoke. Luke turns to me after he centers himself.

"I think I found my character's motivation."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"You see this mannequin over here? This represents a woman I used to love. I cut her body up into a thousand pieces. I'm sitting here on this couch, dreaming. I'm imaging a wasteland. There I am. I am smashing through things trying find where I had hidden her body parts."

Luke had found something real in this scenario. We decided to keep filming with this concept in mind.

After shooting in the apartment, we went over to a friend's junkyard in Queens where we had access to copious amounts of bathtubs, toilets, sheets of glass, cabinets, etc to smash with the sledgehammer.

I shot some exteriors while Luke was shopping for things to break. Luke came to me with the idea that he was going to begin rummaging through a large industrial dumpster, smashing things and throwing objects out of it. I had never seen a 72 year-old man this agile. After smashing pieces of wood and throwing a microwave, Luke screams 'WHERE ARE YOU!?' and jumps down from the dumpster to annihilate a toilet and a sheet of glass. Luke lies on the ground, rain pouring. He screams again. Luke enters the frame, crying, yelling. He sees a wooden cabinet. He studies and it and then smashes it to bits.

"CUT!"

We took a walk around the junkyard looking for locations. Tucked away behind the facility was an abandoned truck. Luke asked me if I wanted I to get the shot I had envisioned: Luke standing on top of a truck, smashing the truck's windshield. I could not resist. We shot the scene and ran.

Luke's next moment of inspiration is that he wanted to bring in a refrigerator from the junkyard warehouse. As his character walks up to it to break it, he stops and looks inside. Inside the refrigerator would be the head of the girl he had brutally murdered. I explained to Luke that we have filmed a lot today and we can come back another time and shoot that.

Luke drove us home. He recalled the time we shot his interview for The Last Horror Film -- combining that experience and what he had just filmed for SLEDGEHAMMER had helped him "keep Spinell alive." After viewing the footage, it was clear to me that Luke was channeling Spinell. This was awe-inspiring to me. Luke genuinely loved Spinell.

During the following months I wasn't confident in this footage. We sadly have not resumed shooting since this day. However, this experience was cathartic for Luke and for myself. At the time, I wasn't sure if the direction Luke wanted to go with the character interested me, but in hindsight, I should have continued filming the following weekend and rolled with the punches as this was an experiment from the beginning.

Recently, I've been eager to continue this project with Luke's ideas intact. Perhaps I'll give Luke a call one of these days.

Andrzej Żuławski's ON THE SILVER GLOBE

2009-10-02T14:51:00.000-07:00

"One of cinema's most stunning extravagances, and the most frightening art film you will ever see," says Film Comment's Michael Atkinson about this banned science fiction epic by controversial director Andrzej Zulawski. The Polish Ministry of Culture halted production On The Silver Globe in 1978, and until the fall of communism in 1986 when Zulawski completed the film, it remained both his best-known and least-seen work. In this surreal and disturbing mix of 2001 and Lord Of The Flies, a group of space pioneers starts a colony on the moon. As the adults die off, the children revert to primitive forms, creating their own myths, deities, and social classes. Years later, a politician from earth arrives and - fulfilling the moon people's prophecy - is hailed as their great messiah.

IMDB Link

Background: Andrzej Zulawski started work on On the Silver Globe in 1976 and was nearing the end of shooting when the Polish government shut down production in 1978. The sets and prints were destroyed, but the director and members of his cast and crew managed to smuggle some of the pieces out of the country. Zulawski then returned to the relatively open Poland of 1986 to try to finish his movie. He didn’t quite succeed, but what he ended up with is fascinating.

On The Silver Globe is one of the most delirious and viscerally intense experiences I've ever had ever viewing a film. Think of the beautiful, languid cinematography of the Zone in Tarkovksy's Stalker, the madness of Jodorowsky's films (without the shallow visual metaphors), the sexual insanity of Ken Russell's The Devils, the ambitious costuming in Kurosawa's Ran, and you might have something close to this film.

At the film's peak of insanity, there is a sequence which features a dozen or so people impailed on 100-foot stakes... on the beach...on the moon!? The camera, which is inexplicably floating over the impailed, stops on a man and holds steady as he delivers his dying words

Stylus Magazine on On The Silver Globe:

"There are all kinds of “lost masterpieces” in any field of art, from great non-albums by The Beach Boys and Captain Beefheart to missing Da Vinci paintings. Add one to the list for cinema. It is tempting to wish Zulawski had had a chance to finish his movie on his own terms, but I think maybe it’s better this way. It seems almost as though this film’s natural state is one of incompleteness, and it is hard to imagine what completion would add. No matter how finished it is, it’s not a likeable movie, not a reasonable one, and while no amount of polish could make me like it, no amount of roughness can keep me from loving it."

"To please the majority is the requirement of the Planet Cinema. As far as I'm concerned, I don't make a concession to viewers, these victims of life, who think that a film is made only for their enjoyment, and who know nothing about their own existence."

Andrzej Zulawski

This is an incredible film. There are only few films that have a strange power over me, that manage to keep me hooked from the very first scenes, making impossible for me to look away until the very end -- the dialog between Dr. Raglan and his patient in the opening of The Brood, when automated doors burst open in the airport and Suzy enters the cab in Suspiria, the opening sequence in Zulawski's later film (and equally insane) Possession, and the opening to On The Silver Globe is no exception, it is remarkably haunting -- an shadowy black figure with beautiful costume excess (almost Native American) rides a horse through a snowy, otherwordly setting to a human bunker/compound where he delivers unsettling news in his bizarre home language. Seek this one out. It doesn't matter if you like this film or not, it will have an effect on you.