Spectacle – Page 13 – Spectacle Theater

THE 9TH ANNUAL SPECTACLE SHRIEK SHOW

Posted on September 30, 2019October 15, 2019 by Spectacle

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19 – ONE DAY ONLY
ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

In numerology, the number 9 represents wisdom and responsibility and here at Spectacle we take our responsibilities very seriously. As such – this year, in our infinite wisdom, we are pleased as punch to offer up a trick-or-treat’s pillowcase lineup so chock full of goodies, so dense, so decadent – you’re bound to get a mouthful of cavities. Nine years of marathons culminate this year with seven screenings (plus featured shorts!), twelve(ish) hours, and zero survivors!

As always, tickets are $25 for the full day or $5 per film.

NOON: THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (w/ score by Stephanie Neptune)
1:30: ALISON’S BIRTHDAY
3:00: PREMONITION
5:00: LUKAS’ CHILD
7:30: GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE
10:00: NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN
MIDNIGHT: VAMPIRE HOOKERS

THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE
dir. Victor Sjöström, 1921
107 mins. Sweden.
Silent w/ a new score by Stephanie Neptune.

On New Years Eve a dying Salvation Army Sister named Edit has one humble request, to speak to a man named David Holt for a final time. David, a graveyard drunkard, wiles away the hours telling stories he heard from his friend Georges, who had died the year before. David weaves a tale of a carriage helmed by the last person to die each year who is then tasked with roaming the countryside ferrying the souls of the departed for the following year until the torch is passed. When a colleague finds him and tries to take him to the dying woman a fight breaks out and David struck over the head just as the clock strikes 12. David arises to find the carriage in front of him driven by his deceased friend Georges who takes him on a tour of his life showing him those he hurt or abandoned.

A technological marvel in the early 20’s that still looks incredible almost 100 years later, THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE makes expert use effects wizardry by renowned cinematographer Julius Jaenzon. This years marathon festivities kick off with this classic film wrapped in an all new score from Stephanie Neptune (Sweat Equity).

ALISON’S BIRTHDAY
dir. Ian Coughlin. 1981.
97 min. Australia.
In Australian.

While fooling around with a Ouija board with some friends on her 16th birthday, Alison’s receives some cryptic advice. Speaking in Alison’s dead father’s voice, her possessed friend Crissy tells Alison she has to get away from “them” before her 19th birthday just before a bookcase falls on Crissy and kills her. Flash forward a few years later and Alison is about to turn 19 when her “aunt and uncle” invite her to their country home for birthday celebrations. In an effort to move the plot along, Alison agrees despite all signs pointing to this being exactly what the ghost of her father was talking about (RIP Crissy). Rounding out the mix of colorful characters that you can tell are “definitely not a cult” is Alison’s 104 year old great grandmother who wants to transfer her spirit from the withered husk where it currently resides to a fresh-faced youth. Alison’s friends manage to piece this together but can they get there in time to stop the ceremony??

A nod to Satanic Panic films (maybe a dingo ate Rosemary’s Baby) like THE OMEN with a tense atmosphere, ALISON’S BIRTHDAY is sure to get your cloven hooves stomping. Fans of ENTER THE DEVIL, BLACK CANDLES, and Inside No. 9’s show-stopping Series 1 finale “The Harrowing” take note – this one is for you, it’s all for you!

PREMONITION
(aka HEAD)
dir. Alan Rudolph. 1972.
83 min. United States.
In English.

A heady group of musicians set up camp outside of town in sunny California. There they smoke dope, play some jams, and experiment with a strange red flower they found growing on some nearby indigenous territory that causes strange hallucinations. These experiments lead to vivid nightmares where they foresee their own deaths and things get even weirder when these nightmares begin to bleed into reality.

Alan Rudolph’s first feature coming out of a stint as assistant director on a bunch of episodes of “The Brady Bunch.” This film (along with his follow up, 1974’s TERROR CIRCUS aka BARN OF THE NAKED DEAD) were the only horror entries in the directors long list of films. A gauzy slow burn about the perils of addiction with a soundtrack featuring flourishes from then little-known electronic artist Harold Budd, PREMONITION is the perfect chaser to 2019’s psilocybin-soaked full-sun freakout – MIDSOMMAR.

LUKAS’ CHILD
(aka NIGHT OF THE BEAST)
dir. Eric Louzil. 1993.
92 min. United States.
In English.

Special thanks to director Eric Louzil and Echelon Studios!

Lured by the limelights of Tinseltown (Hollywood) a cavalcade of wannabe starlets are kidnapped by a cult helmed by the nefarious Lukas Armand who want to sacrifice them to his “child.” After being baited with fake auditions the woman are locked in his makeshift prison and left to await their grisly fate. Luckily, detectives Steve Anderson and Susan Wesley are on the case. Can they penetrate the cults lair and get the babes out before the child must feed again?

The blood-sacrifices-and-cult-action train keeps on chugging along with a quick pitstop into Fredrick’s of Hollywood for our fourth film of the day. Day-glo undergarments and Satanic go-go dancing abound as Eric Louzil’s early-90’s sect-ual slasher ramp things up for the second half of our day.

GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE
dir. Peter Rader. 1988.
90 min. United States.
In English.

Special thanks to producer Nico Mastorakis!

After the death of their beloved father, Lynn (Kim Valentine, Mr. Belvedere / Family Matters) and her younger brother David (Eric Foster, The Wonder Years / CRY WILDERNESS) are sent to live with their grandparents. At first everything seems quaint enough but soon after they arrive David begins having vivid and troubling dreams that his grandparents are up to no good. It seems this normal family may have some (literal) skeletons in the closet…

A tense, oddball thriller that feels like a made-for-TV-movie (in the best possible way), everything about GRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE is slightly askew. Great performances by Len Lesser as Grandather (best known as Uncle Leo in Seinfeld) and a surprise pop-up from Scream Queen Brinke Stevens (NIGHTMARE SISTERS) remind viewers that you can travel the wild world over but home is indeed where the heart is.

NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN
(aka NIGHTMARE)
dir. Roberto Scavolini. 1981.
97 min. United States.
In English.

Special thanks to David Ginn & Jim Markovic at Films Around The World!

A mental patient named George Tatum (played by a turned-up-to-11 Baird Stafford) is on the loose and fueled by nightmares of his childhood trauma and an unstoppable bloodlust George leaves a trail bodies in his wake on a coastline rampage with his former doctor and investigators hot on his tail. Meanwhile down in Florida, single mom Susan Temper has her hands full with one of her brood. Young CJ is a menace – acting out, pulling pranks on his siblings, and generally causing his poor mother to tear her hair out. Susan gets a night out of the house for a date leaving her kids with a babysitter. Things go from bad to worse on the homefront as creepy phone calls escalate into a home invasion and a devastating ending that has to be seen to be believed.

A pitch-perfect, bloodcurdling hellscape – NIGHTMARES IN A DAMAGED BRAIN is nothing short of astonishing with wonderful camerawork and some incredible effects. Not to be missed!

VAMPIRE HOOKERS
dir. Cirio H. Santiago. 1978.
82 min. Philippines/United States.
In English.

Special thanks to Joe Rubin and the fine folks at AGFA.

Two horndog sailors (Bruce Fairbairn of “LA Law” and Trey Wilson of RAISING ARIZONA) are on shore leave in the Philippines and looking to bone down when they run into one Richmond Reed (John Carradine) and a bevy of bodacious bloodsuckers who take the duo out on the town. They go out for Bloody Mary’s, have a few laughs, and try to get everything other than their blood sucked.

Director Santiago (director of EBONY, IVORY AND JADE, and producer of last year’s marathon entry THE BLOOD DRINKERS) really lets this cast sink their teeth into this film. A phenomenal theme song, hambone antics, some unsurprisingly un-woke jokes, and plenty of farts slam the casket on another years festivities.

SPECTOBER MIDNIGHTS

Posted on September 23, 2019October 7, 2019 by Spectacle

BLOODY MOON
dir. Jesus Franco, 1981
85 mins. West Germany.
In (dubbed) English.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 – MIDNITE

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

BLOODY MOON (Dir. Jesus Franco, 1981) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

Miguel, a severely disfigured man, has just been released after 5 years in a mental institution for murdering a girl who he failed to have sex with. He is released into the care of his incestuous sister and their rich Countess aunt, who run a language-learning school together in Spain. Shortly after his arrival, new student Angeline notices strange events, and her friends start to disappear…

Jess Franco is operating at the peak of his sleaze-powers in this American-slasher knock-off for the German market, which manages to feel both insanely familiar and like nothing you’ve seen before. Like a disco riff on HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH, this accidental giallo with a badass leading lady (Olivia Pascal), psychedelic synth score and off-the-charts fashion (think Grace Jones sweaters and full body leopard print) is a sicko gem that is sure to blow your mind.

CONTENT WARNING: This film contains is an actual snake-death on screen (not cool) / attempted sexual violence in the opening (also not cool), but otherwise above-board-sleaze.

EVIL LAUGH
dir. Dominick Brascia, 1986
87 mins. United States.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 – MIDNITE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 – MIDNITE

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

EVIL LAUGH (Dominick Brascia, 1986) from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

“Ten years ago something terrible happened in this house… This weekend, it’s about to happen again.”

A group of medical students take a weekend to fix up an old house where a mass murder occurred 10 years earlier.”

An early example of the self-aware slasher that Scream would later epitomize, EVIL LAUGH falls heavily on the campy side of the equation. This meta fright-fest features a Fangoria-reading nerd who calls out the horror-tropes as they happen, a preppy couple in matching fedoras, unsafe pranks, and a house-cleaning dance break montage that will haunt you for weeks to come.

Directed by the chocolate-eating ‘disabled’ guy from FRIDAY THE 13TH: A NEW BEGINNING and co-written, produced by, and starring Scott Baio’s brother Steve, this is low-budget horror comedy at its best (worst).

DON’T PANIC
(aka DIMENSIONES OCULTAS)
dir. Rubén Galindo Jr., 1989
89 mins. Mexico.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 – MIDNITE
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

“You’re already dead, but don’t panic…it could be worse!”

On his seventeenth birthday, Michael is given a present of a Ouija board by his best friend, Tony. At a session, using a medium known only to him as ‘Virgil’, Tony unwittingly unlocks the evil forces of the board. Soon there is a wave of violent killings and the chief suspect appears to be Michael, who has been witness to all the killings via premonitions and/or out of body experiences. Is Michael the killer? Can he prove his innocence, or is someone else being possessed by the evil spirit…?

From the director of GRAVE ROBBERS comes this bizarro Saved by the Bell/NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET-possession mashup, a blur of horror tropes and cheap Americana (Coke cans and Marlboro packs are all over this thing). Not to mention the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, mullet-sporting Americanized lead actor. For fans of: adults playing high-school teens, full body dinosaur pajamas, soapy-teenage melodrama, and good ‘ol-fashioned goopy gore.

THE BASEMENT
dir. Timothy O’Rawe, 1989
79 mins. United States.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 – MIDNITE
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 – MIDNITE

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

“Four strangers are summoned to the basement of an abandoned house by a mysterious entity known only as The Sentinel. One after another, they are forced to witness heinous deeds they have yet to commit – and which will damn them for all eternity.”

A shot-on-video camp-fest anthology structured as a series of ‘flash-forwards’, each segment follows one of our confused basement dwellers as they do something ‘unforgivable’ and are then swiftly punished for it.

Scenarios include: a woman using a monster in her pool to kill her husband and other “enemies”, a disrespectful actor encountering some real zombies on set, and most importantly, a disgruntled teacher who hates Halloween getting a lesson in terror from the spirits of Halloween. Terrible acting and dubbing only add to the experience, as well as some of the deepest New Jersey accents ever to appear on film, plus, of course, the incredible low budget splatter FX goodness you come here for.

SWIMFAN: Y2K STALKERS presented by MATCH CUTS

Posted on September 22, 2019October 7, 2019 by Spectacle

SWIMFAN
dir. John Polson, 2002.
85 mins. United States.
In English.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

Y2K STALKERS presented by MATCH CUTS coming soon… from Spectacle Theater on Vimeo.

MATCH CUTS PRESENTS closes out the year (and their three-year [!] Spectacle run) with a series titled Y2K STALKERS, taking place October thru December. Presented in reverse chronological order, the series looks at, well, stalker movies before and after the year 2000 (aka Y2K). First up is 2002’s SWIMFAN, followed by FEAR in November, and finally THE CRUSH in December.

MATCH CUTS is a weekly podcast centered on video, film and the moving image. Match Cuts Presents is dedicated to presenting de-colonialized cinema, LGBTQI films, Marxist diatribes, video art, dance films, sex films, and activist documentaries with a rotating cast of presenters from all spectrums of the performing and plastic arts and surrounding humanities. Match Cuts is hosted by Nick Faust and Kachine Moore.

MERCANO EL MARCIANO

Posted on September 22, 2019September 23, 2019 by Spectacle

MERCANO EL MARCIANO
(MERCANO, THE MARTIAN)
dir. Juan Antin, 2002
73 mins. Argentina.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

Do you like Martians? Tex Avery-paced animation? Political satire? Rude humor? Subtitles? Then have we got a movie for you!

From Argentina, and a combination of traditional and computer animation, the Spanish-language MERCANO EL MARCIANO is the epitome of a cult movie: not too many people have seen this, but those that do, love it. When animation comes out of a region where it is not an “industry”—like the US, Japan or France—it tends to use the medium for more than just brainwashing children and increasing sales of soon-to-be-forgotten toys.

In this film, after a space probe from Earth squashes his “dog,” angry alien Mercano flies his saucer to Earth to register a complaint—only to find that the Earth is so fucked up and evil that even a Martian armed with a death ray can’t catch a break.

The film is a twist on the “fish out of water” and “Martian Invasion” tropes, and uses the spaceman’s naiveté of our greedy and malevolent ways to drive the humor. Stranded in Buenos Aires, the sad and lonely Martian (who looks like a cross between Charlie Brown and a pickle) wanders through a city that has been devastated by poverty, corporate greed, violence, and uncertainty, all the while chased by trigger-happy cops (dub the flick into English and you could say he landed in NYC). In an attempt to “phone home,” the extraterrestrial steals a laptop, but instead winds up befriending a teen sci-fi geek. But the kid’s yuppie-executive father is plotting total global consumer enslavement—and he intends to use Mercano’s outer space technology to get it, eventually entrapping the unfortunate alien in a giant test tube. But those foolish humans don’t know what tricks those “men from Mars” have…

Originally released in 2002, this was the first independent Argentine full-length animated film in 30 years. MERCANO EL MARCIANO was originally produced as a series of shorts for Argentina’s MTV, and the flick is certainly a kissing cousin to South Park and Beavis & Butthead—and not just because of the outrageous gross-out humor, deliberately crude animation, and a propensity for musical numbers, but as a barbed and absurdist take on contemporary capitalist society.

Created while Argentina’s economy was melting down, the film has even greater resonance today with a global recession, thuggish world leaders in the pockets of corporations, and nightmarish austerity measures forced down people’s throats ruining social services. “Now… the whole world [has] started to collapse and I am not surprised at all,” said director Juan Antin in 2013. Antin has gone on to make the family-friendly Netflix hit PACHAMAMA (2019), which, among the plucky adolescent protagonist’s misadventures and antics with various cute animals, actually has a strong, subversive anti-authoritarian streak running through it.

Featured in multiple international film festivals, MERCANO was the winner of the Audience Award at Spain’s Catalonian International Film Festival in 2002, as well as the Special Jury Mention at the Festival du Film d’Animation Annecy 2002 in France. Mercano el Marciano has also been shown at the Melbourne Latin American Film Festival, San Sebastian Film Festival, the Latin American Film Festival of Washington D.C., the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and many others.

THE HANDS OF GOD with Alyson Levy Q&A

Posted on September 22, 2019 by Spectacle

THE HANDS OF GOD
dir. Alyson Levy, 2003
22 min, USA

preceded by

HIGHWAY
dir. Sergei Dvortsevoy, 1999
57 min, Kazakhstan
In Kazakh with English subtitles

with

Clips from WONDER SHOWZEN
dir. PFFR, 2005-2007
~20 min, USA

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 7:30 PM w/Alyson Levy in person for Q&A!
(This event is $10.)

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

Circa 2003, THE HANDS OF GOD was devised by Alyson Levy and PFFR after coming across an advert for a Christian Puppetry Conference and receiving permission to film. Its zero frills situate its affect uncomfortably between dead-pan and reverent. At 22 minutes, it’s a concise and bittersweet portrait of the edges of art and faith.

Screening alongside are a selection of segments from MTV2’s WONDER SHOWZEN (2005-2007), the much-loved, frenetic parody of children’s educational shows, which was being developed by the group at roughly the same time, and HIGHWAY, Sergei Dvortsevoy’s contemplative study of a traveling family circus as they traverse post-Soviet Kazakhstan, an influence on Levy.

Alyson Levy is a member of the art collective / TV production company PFFR. For the collective, she wrote and produced TV series such as XAVIER: RENEGADE ANGEL (2007-2009) and THE HEART, SHE HOLLER (2011-2014). Levy will be in attendance to discuss the works.

BODY COUNTING WITH TIM RITTER

Posted on September 22, 2019September 23, 2019 by Spectacle

Hankering for a good old-fashioned slasher, but sick of all those slick production values and coherent plots? Look no further than Spectacle’s very special October retrospective of early Tim Ritter joints.

The offerings in this series were all written and directed by Ritter between the ages of 16 and 19, and boy does it show, as he delves into insecure white-male panic head on. If that sounds too serious or self aware, don’t worry, these SOV classics are neither of those things. They are a great deal of fun, though!

TRUTH OR DARE: A CRITICAL MADNESS
dir. Tim Ritter, 1986
87 mins. United States.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

Mike Strauber is just your average Joe, working a 9-to-5 to support his doting wife Sharon. That is, until he comes home early from work and catches her in the throes of passion with his best friend Jerry. Mike spirals into madness, hallucinating a new female companion who nudges him into some playful self mutilation and murder via a game of, you guessed it, Truth or Dare! The bodies begin to stack up quickly in increasingly unique ways, including a brief side-trip through a mental hospital and a golden mask for some reason.

KILLING SPREE
dir. Tim Ritter, 1987
88 mins. United States.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 5 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

What can you say about a film starring a man named Asbestos Felt? Not much.

Tom is convinced his wife is sleeping around on him, so he goes on a killing spree, offing anyone he suspects might be philandering with his her – but this time, the victims aren’t staying dead!

KILLING SPREE is essentially TRUTH OR DARE? turned to 11, trading in the same themes and paranoia as his previous feature but managing to go even more berserk, indulging in cheap porn-parody setups to kills as Tom reads sleazy short stories his wife has written and fantasizes himself into a murderous rage.

The best suburbia takedown this side of EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, with exterior locations so bland they’re dreamlike, and interiors so stylishly decorated and warped by neon lighting they become a nightmare. Also make sure to stick around for an end-credit-rap-recap that will truly blow your mind.

Special thanks to American Genre Film Archive.

CINAP θ CINATAS

Posted on September 19, 2019September 26, 2019 by Spectacle

CINAP θ CINATAS
dir. Darren Bauler, 2019
33 mins. United States.
In English, with portions in German and Spanish with dubious subtitles.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

“For I am possessed by evil. Forever a servant of the devil.”

It should be clear in 2019 that American culture is nothing but endlessly rehashing the later half of the 20th century, with senile politicians muttering about video games causing mass shootings and degenerate art fostering resentment against the Empire. As such, for the final installment of the CINAP CINATAS series, we present material from over fifty sources (many never before referenced in the series), from fake former Satanist/huckster Mike Warnke’s comedy albums to Matamoros crime scene footage taken by the El Paso sheriff’s department, from Evangelical outrage at the shirtless antics of His Royal Badness (rest in purple) to the dismal roots of Multiple Personality Disorder as Satanic Ritual Abuse to Deicide’s prank calls to talk radio “expert” Bob Larson, no burnout is left unheard, no stoner left unturned. For the first time ever, we are including illuminating/obscuriantist commentary from Dr. Barnard Euler, scholar of the uncanny. The film will commit with the sacrifice of an infant to Lucifer (weather permitting). NO REFUNDS.

Content warning: this program includes repeated and deliberate use of backmasking and binaural sound and strobe lighting — any patrons with proclivities to seizure are strongly encouraged not to put themselves in harm’s way. Repeated discussion of suicide, homicide, necrophilia, blasphemy, animal sacrifice, drug and alchohol abuse. Simulated sex acts.

THE 12TH ANNUAL IMAGINE SCIENCE FILM FESTIVAL

Posted on September 19, 2019September 23, 2019 by Spectacle

The Imagine Science Film Festival has been melding art and science in interdisciplinary hybrid programming since 2008. While the festival travels throughout New York City each year, we always save some of the most audacious memorable reconfigurations of scientific themes for Spectacle. This year, this will extend over three full programs of recovered memories, post-anthropocene flicker film, and dystopian data massage.

ISFF 2019 PROGRAM 1: SELF CARE, ALCHEMY, AND OTHER LIFE HACKS
dir. Various, 2016 – 2019
83 mins.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 7:30 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

ONLINE TICKETS

How do we preserve ourselves in uncertain times, when even body and identity may become commercially harvestable data and threats take on unpredictable forms? Our annual wide-ranging program of animation and experimental film explores all this and more. Watch for: unsettling sociologies of social media, unconventional conversations on health, technological history informing personal visions, and a literal preservation process in the frames of stop motion.

Freeze Frame (Soetkin Verstegen | 5 min | Belgium | 2019)
Shalva (Danna Windsor | 3 min | USA | 2018)
Slug Life (Sophie Koko Gate | 7 min | UK | 2018)
Las del Diente (Ana Perez Lopez | 5 min | USA | 2018)
The Desert (Ben Bigelow | 14 min | USA | 2018)
Reverie of the Puppets (Kathy Rose | 5 min | USA | 2018)
Pwdre Ser the rot of stars (Charlotte Pryce | 7 min | UK | 2018)
Cyanovisions (Tiare Ribeaux & Jody Stillwater | 14 min | USA | 2019)
iBooks (Odile Postic | 4 min | USA | 2018)
Call of Comfort (Brenda Lien | 9 min | Germany | 2018)
Your Last Day on Earth (Marc Martínez Jordán | 13 min | Spain | 2019)

Content Warning: Male genitals undergoing wax strip hair removal.

ISFF 2019 PROGRAM 2: MODERN HAUNTINGS
dir. Various, 2018
65 mins.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 10 PM
ONE NIGHT ONLY!

ONLINE TICKETS

As the night goes on, we’ll allow some of the phantoms banished by science back into the discourse. Here, the psychiatric myth of the “recovered memory” drives the Satanic Panic of the early 1980s, ghosts are reanimated by 3D scan, and information itself haunts deep water and the margins of international law.

Demonic (Pia Borg | 29 min | Australia | 2018)
Tropics (Mathilde Lavenne | 14 min | France / Mexico | 2018)
Cablestreet (Meredith Lackey | 22 min | USA | 2018)

ISFF 2019 PROGRAM 3: TWILIGHT GEOLOGIES
dir. Various, 2018-2019
85 mins.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS

Otherworldly mineral landscapes glisten and flicker, sunset throws vast shadows across the clouds, craters dream, and the entire anthropocene Earth shivers and collapses in a deathly shimmer. This program collects four brilliant experiments in light, landscape, and perception, harnessing the luminous photochemical mechanics of film and projection itself to heighten the experience of climactic celestial and earthly events. These are films that demand to be seen splashed large and in the total darkness of a cinema, in their full apocalyptic and regenerative power.

CW: Viewers should be advised that several films in this program make use of strobe effects.

THE DIGITAL NIGHTMARES OF DAMON PACKARD

Posted on September 18, 2019October 15, 2019 by Spectacle

Damon Packard’s films are a singular experience, a genre unto themselves in a way that few filmmakers can achieve. Working with low budgets and limitless ambition, Packard has crafted some of the most visceral, hilarious, and abrasive films of the last few decades. Littered with breakneck pop culture references, glitchy editing, nightmarish sound design, and mind-bending special effects, Packard’s films feel like the cinematic equivalent of a late-night panic attack.

This October, Spectacle is proud to present PART 1 of a small retrospective of his films, leading up to PART 2 in November with the ~New York Premiere~ of his new four-year-in-the-making magnum opus FATAL PULSE aka NIGHT PULSE aka UNTITLED YUPPIE THRILLER – which will screening alongside SPACEDISCO ONE, TALES OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, and FOXFUR. Throw your brain in a blender and tumble down the wormhole with us.

REFLECTIONS OF EVIL
dir. Damon Packard, 2002
137 mins. United States.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

The plot ostensibly follows Julie, who died of a PCP overdose in the 70’s, as she searches from ‘beyond the ethers’ for her brother Bob (played by Packard himself), now an overweight watch-salesman on the streets of LA dying of sucrose intolerance. In actuality, we spend most of the run time with Bob, alternately sheepish and rage-filled, as he eats and pukes and screams his way through the hell of downtown LA.

Strangely prescient of many viral internet-comedy tics – “bad” filter effects, digital distortions, pitched voices, looping audio – think Tim and Eric but more explicitly terrifying, the film is essentially a two-hour-plus panic attack with comic relief. REFLECTIONS OF EVIL dives headlong into the trauma and terror of America in the early aughts, and features one of the best on-screen uses of ET and Universal Studios, in an unauthorized sequence that famously earned Packard a lifetime ban from the park.

This one will shatter your brain and leave you puking on the sidewalk with joy. Buckle up.

GRIZZLY REDUX
dir. Damon Packard, 2005
91 mins. United States.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 5PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

Damon Packard’s re-work of William Girdler’s JAWS rip-off GRIZZLY is truly a labor of love. Expanding on the original with alternate cuts, added footage, and an “enhanced” mix, Packard adds a huge dose of hilarity and gore – most notably with a much louder guttural bear groan every time the classic Bear-POV cam appears, making its unnoticed approach on helpless campers even more hilarious.

Whether you’re a fan of the original or a newcomer to GRIZZLY, you’ll find something to love here. Crack a cold one, sharpen your pencils and don your camo for this “extra scary” redux.

THE UNTITLED STAR WARS MOCKUMENTARY
dir. Damon Packard, 2003
45 mins. United States.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

George Lucas and the STAR WARS prequels get raked over the coals for forty-five relentlessly hilarious minutes, using BTS production footage to expose the buffoonery that was Lucas’ attempt to bring his ‘immense vision’ (read: sell toys) to life. Packard inserts himself and a few cohorts into the madness that was production on EPISODE ONE: THE PHANTOM MENACE – a budget freak-out at the cost of CGI and a cult-initiation-chant at ILM studios (‘Digital characters rule. Digital characters rule.’) May the force be with you as you experience Lucas’ CGI-fueled nightmare through Packard’s eyes.

screening with

DAWN OF AN EVIL MILLENNIUM
dir. Damon Packard, 1988
20 mins. United States.

A fake-trailer for a non-existent 20 hour feature (“starring Jeff Bridges”), Damon’s first notable short film has all the trademarks that would come to mark Packard’s work – glitchy, manic editing, gross out sound effects + splatter effects, undead, aliens, LA street life – horror pastiche cranked to 11 and mutated into a twisted work of art. Think MAD MAX meets EVIL DEAD on PCP.

Clocking in at a mere 20 minutes that takes you to the ends of the universe and back, DAWN OF AN EVIL MILLENNIUM is sure to leave you wishing Netflix would dump Packard a bunch of money to create the full twelve-hour version we deserve.

ZACK NORMAN IS SAMMY IN CHIEF ZABU

Posted on September 18, 2019October 13, 2019 by Spectacle

“There are people through the decades who become regular fixtures in the pages of Variety – everyone from Al Jolson to Jimmy Durante to Michael Ovitz to Harvey Weinstein. But no one’s presence has been as constant as that of Zack Norman.” – Variety

🔥 NEIL COHEN & ZACK NORMAN (aka HOWARD ZUKER) IN PERSON ON OCTOBER 15 🔥
🔥 ZACK NORMAN (aka HOWARD ZUKER) IN PERSON ON OCTOBER 14 🔥
🔥 NEIL COHEN & ZACK NORMAN (aka HOWARD ZUKER) IN PERSON ON OCTOBER 15 🔥

Filmed in the dead center of Reagan’s second-term, CHIEF ZABU was conceived as as a send-up of the get-rich-quick American mentality of the yuppie ’80s, following a couple of loudmouths who get themselves into an ill-conceived real estate venture in the fictional Polynesian island nation of Tiburaku. Zack Norman (of SITTING DUCKS and Robert Downey’s AMERICA) co-stars—and co-directs under his the name Howard Zuker—alongside the legendary Allen Garfield and Allan Arbus. Filmed over a two-week period at Bard College’s campus with a small indie crew (lensed by Frank Prizzi, who also DPed for SLEEPWALK and LIVING IN OBLIVION), it also enlisted a 22-student fleet of Bard interns padding out the shoot. The shoestring budget was so ludicrously scrappy, the production was profiled in a special “film centennial” issue of Life magazine.

Perhaps in an act of life imitating art, the production was subjected to its own comedy of errors, toiling for well over a year to find a distributor and eventually languishing after its would-be acquirer declared bankruptcy mere weeks before its planned premiere. But the story didn’t end there: the film achieved an unexpected second life as a running gag on MST3K, its hosts echoing the long-running page-3 ad ran in Variety for three years—”Zack Norman is Sammy in CHIEF ZABU”—every time a newspaper is shown on screen.

In October 2016, the political ascendancy of a certain real estate tycoon who rose to prominence in Reagan’s America—and whose own conquests had been a literal inspiration the film—motivated Norman and producer Neil Cohen to dust the film off, showing the film as a series of road show screenings across the US. Its influence is slowly but surely paying off: if you’re ever at Ft. Lauderdale tiki bar The Mai-Kai, you can order a rum speciality drink called “The Chief Zabu.” Indeed, it’s probably worth a revival—it’s a handsome 73 minute character-driven comedy, carried not only by its heavies Garfield and Arbus, but by Zack Norman’s gabby, desperate, puppy dog comedic ingenuity.

Norman, a real estate mogul in his non-celluloid life, is an actor, stand up comedian, and film financier (under pseudonym Howard Zuker), whose industriousness helped fund Spaghetti westerns, cult lesbian vampire film DAUGHTERS OF THE DARK, Peter Davis’s epochal Vietnam documentary HEARTS AND MINDS, and many of the films of Henry Jaglom. In honor of his forthcoming appearance at Spectacle and decades-long dedication to the seventh art, we also show selections from his on-screen career—the early ’80s buddy comedy SITTING DUCKS; the much-maligned Robert Downey Sr. film AMERICA; Henry Jaglom’s film festival send-up FESTIVAL IN CANNES; and a very odd, porno-chic parody of JAWS titled GUMS, directed by Robert J. Kaplan (director of the Holly Woodlawn midnight SCARECROW IN A GARDEN OF CUCUMBERS) and starring Brother Theodore .

🔥 ZACK NORMAN (aka HOWARD ZUKER) IN PERSON ON OCTOBER 14 🔥
🔥 NEIL COHEN & ZACK NORMAN (aka HOWARD ZUKER) IN PERSON ON OCTOBER 15 🔥
🔥 ZACK NORMAN (aka HOWARD ZUKER) IN PERSON ON OCTOBER 14 🔥

CHIEF ZABU
dirs. Howard Zuker and Neil Cohen, 1988/2016
73 mins. United States.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 7:30 and 10PM
w/Zack Norman (aka Howard Zuker) and Neil Cohen in person for Q&As!
(These screenings are $10.)

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

The storied 1988 feature from Howard Zuker (Zack Norman’s film financier alter ego) and Neil Cohen, a fast-talking duo who met during the production of Robert Downey Sr.’s AMERICA. Finally resurfacing in a post-Trump America, it’s a romp on a shoestring, featuring appearances from heavies like Allan Arbus (GREASER’S PALACE, M*A*S*H), Allen Garfield (NASHVILLE, BEVERLY HILLS COP II), Norman himself, and Marianna Hill (THE GODFATHER PART II).

FESTIVAL IN CANNES
dir. Henry Jaglom, 2001
100 mins. United States.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 5 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27 – 5 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

Henry Jaglom’s early 2000s highlight, Festival In Cannes is both a love-letter and a denunciation of the Riviera’s most-coveted Croisette. In typical Jaglom style, the spotlight is set upon a wispy ensemble cast as they drift through Hollywood’s most seductive landscape, exchanging deceits and searching for meaning. Featuring Peter Bogdanovich, as well as glimpses of Faye Dunaway, Jeff Goldblum, and Holly Hunter.

SITTING DUCKS
Dir. Henry Jaglom, 1980
90 mins. United States.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 7:30 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14 – 7:30 PM w/ZACK NORMAN in PERSON for Q&A!

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

Initially shown in May as part of our Jaglom ’80s series EMOTION TIME, SITTING DUCKS has Zack Norman and Michael Emil as neurotic petty criminals en route to Central America, caught up in a romantic carousel. An envoy of the eighties: self-help morphs into opportunism, the American landscape becomes a string of motels and strip-malls—the perfect pre-game for CHIEF ZABU.

AMERICA
(aka MOONBEAM)
dir. Robert Downey Sr., 1986
83 mins. United States.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14 – 10 PM w/ZACK NORMAN in person for Q&A!
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 7:30 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

AMERICA (aka MOONBEAM) was filmed in 1982, released in 1986, and then rarely screened or talked about up. Featuring an ensemble of idiosyncratic newsman led by Zack Norman (an action reporter fashioning a woman’s dress), MOONBEAM, an arguable precursor to Adam McKay’s ANCHORMAN, is a puzzling offbeat relic from the clown Prince of cinematic crime himself. At times unquestionably funny, and at others frustratingly insensitive, Downey Sr’s absurdist satire tells the story of a local news station who accidentally “beams” its transmission to the moon. You kind of need to see it to believe it—and even then, good luck figuring out what to make of it.

GUMS
dir. Robert J Kaplan, 1976
70 mins. United States.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 10 PM

ONLINE TICKETS FACEBOOK EVENT

An endlessly odd relic from the age of porno chic, GUMS stars comedian and metaphysician Brother Theodore in a ribald, bad taste parody of JAWS. From Robert J. Kaplan, director of the Holly Woodlawn midnight classic SCARECROW IN A GARDEN OF CUCUMBERS.