Author: Zach Fleming

AN EVENING WITH LAURA CITARELLA

Posted on by Zach Fleming

Continuing our ongoing showcase of the work of Argentine film collective El Pampero Cine, we’re happy to host producer and filmmaker Laura Citarella in a special presentation of OSTENDE and TRENQUE LAUQUEN. Both starring Laura Paredes as a stranger in a small town in the Buenos Aires Province who finds herself embroiled in an ever-expanding web of mysteries, the two films are playful mirrors of each other that tease out new mysteries and resonances between themselves when seen together.

 

TRENQUE LAUQUEN
Dir. Laura Citarella, 2022
Argentina, 260 Minutes
In Spanish with English Subtitles

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 5 PM – In person Q&A with Laura Citarella after the screening

GET TICKETS HERE!

One of the year’s best and most underappreciated films, Laura Citarella’s TRENQUE LAUQUEN is a marvel of low-budget ambition. Shot over the course of five years with the barest of means, the film is an epic mosaic of stories-within-stories that never abandons its simple, observational roots even as it pulls off ever-increasing feats of narrative dexterity. The second part in what is likely to become a series of films directed by Citarella and starring Laura Paredes, we’re happy to be showing the film in a double feature with its predecessor OSTENDE.

“A large-scale epic on a small-scale canvas, Laura Citarella’s Trenque Lauquen (2023) is a brain-teaser of a film, a baroque shrine to the endless possibilities of storytelling that’s as focused on grand gestures of narrative dexterity as it is on observational studies of mundane details. At the core of the film is the mystery of a missing woman, Laura (Laura Paredes, also the film’s co-writer), and the attempts by her husband, Rafael (Rafael Spregelburd), and lover, Ezequiel (Ezequiel Pierri), to find her in the small town of Trenque Lauquen, Argentina. With clear nods to Antonioni (the first chapter is titled “La Aventura”) and Otto Preminger’s Laura (1944) Trenque Lauquen weaves a metaphysical mystery on the fungibility of identity and the nature of storytelling itself.

A semi-sequel to—or perhaps remake of—Citarella’s earlier Ostende (2011), which also featured Laura Paredes listlessly wandering around a colorless small town in the Buenos Aires province, Trenque Lauquen carries over the paranoia, hazardous curiosity, and unstated romantic longing which defined the character of Laura in the previous film. A botanical researcher and radio host, the Laura of Trenque Lauquen is both the mysterious, absent center of the film and the jumping-off point from which the film’s myriad stories explode out. The closer the film brings us toward solving the mystery of Laura the further it also drags us into the labyrinthian tales that spin endlessly outward from her character: cryptic markings in library books leading to a secret trove of love letters; an eco-terrorist couple embroiled in a sci-fi conspiracy plot. The result is a head-spinning game that interrogates our desire for understanding and the fundamental fantasies underpinning storytelling.”

– Screen Slate

OSTENDE
Dir. Laura Citarella, 2011
Argentina, 85 minutes
In Spanish with English Subtitles

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 10 PM – In-person intro with Laura Citarella before the screening

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Thanks to a radio contest, a girl wins four vacation days in a huge hotel in Ostende, in the Buenos Aires province. It’s the low season, and she gets to the place alone. Her boyfriend will join her a few days later. On the beach there’s plenty of sun but also too much wind; and a not very sophisticated bar with a waiter that talks too much. In this place with no obligations or big attractions apart from a windy beach nearby and the not-so-tempting ocean, the girl starts to pay attention –maybe too much, maybe not enough– to the strange behavior of an old man who’s accompanied by two young women. Flirting with both Hitchcock and Rohmer from a light, feminine perspective, Laura Citrella demonstrates the entrancing possibilities of storytelling in her first film.

 

MYSTERY HALLOWEEN SCREENING

Posted on by Zach Fleming

XXXXXXXX: XXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXX
dir. XXXX XXXXXX, 1993
83 mins. USA.
In English.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 10 PM

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN, SPECTATOES!!!

Join us for a 1-time mystery screening of an early 90’s cult splatter masterpiece – currently in the process of a loving remaster, we couldn’t get access to the new version in time for our proper Spectober programming, but in celebration of the season, we’re bringing back the old VHS rip for a final spin, with the director’s blessing no less!

Bring a big ol bucket o candy and get ready for a head exploding bloodbath!

 

A NIGHT WITH LEONARDO PIRONDI AND ZAZIE RAY-TRAPIDO

Posted on by Zach Fleming

Last April, Spectacle presented EARTH/GRAIN/PIXEL, a selection of formally investigative, mesmerizing, and sci-fi-infused experimental shorts from emerging Brazilian filmmaker Leonardo Pirondi.

To celebrate the occasion of Pirondi and filmmaking partner Zazie Ray-Trapido’s upcoming screenings of WHEN WE ENCOUNTER THE WORLD among this year’s New York Film Festival Currents lineup, Spectacle will host a special one-night shorts showcase of the duo’s respective avant-doc ventures into the collision points between the analog, the cybernetic, and the world caught in between.

Both Pirondi and Ray-Trapido will be gracing the theater in the flesh on Friday, October 6th to present and discuss recent 16mm films, a world premiere, and exciting works in progress.

FRIDAY, 10/6 – 7:30 PM

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NONA
dir. Zazie Ray-Trapido, 2022
USA. 6 mins.

A lush portrait of the filmmaker’s grandmother as she approaches her 90th decade and a marker of Ray-Trapido’s skills with collaborating with documentary “subjects,” NONA weaves together vibrant small-gauge tableaus to evoke a warm synergy between aging and blooming. Eva, the titular hero, provides a narration as compelling and distinct as the visuals make her out to be, ranging from her experiences as a Holocaust survivor to her eagerness to start the next chapter in her life.

SMPTE FOREST
dir. Leonardo Pirondi, 2023
USA. 3 mins.

A world premiere of the latest piece in Pirondi’s ongoing ALCHEMICAL VIRTUAL series of formalist micro-length shorts. In line with previous entries, SMPTE FOREST operates as a tech-minded haiku, creating lasting impressions through analog and digital hybridity. The filmmaker’s own description is worth citing here:

“iPhone video and SMPTE color bars were filmed on 16mm at 24fps. The digital overscan of the celluloid is played back at 0.24fps (1% of the original speed). The film is a sequence of 15-second shots in which the computer creates hundreds of frames sampling from three frames. It chooses how to build natural forms out of one of the standard test patterns of NTSC video created by The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers.”

VISÃO DO PARAÍSO
(VISION OF PARADISE)
dir. Leonardo Pirondi, 2022
Brazil, UK, USA. 16 mins.

Connecting the search for the mythical island of Hy-Brazil off of the Irish coast in the late 15th Century to the race for imagined territories within today’s simulated worlds, VISÃO DO PARAÍSO presents a hypnotic investigation into the ideological underpinnings of unreal and surreal forms of cartographic landscapes through a myriad of inter-medial sources, such as colonial maps, video game time-lapses, and microscopic views of computer circuitry.

TWO WORKS IN PROGRESS
dirs. Leonardo Pirondi and Zazie Ray-Trapido, 20??
USA. 27 mins.

THE REDEEMER: SON OF SATAN

Posted on by Zach Fleming

THE REDEEMER: SON OF SATAN aka CLASS REUNION MASSACRE
dir. Constantine S. Gochis, 1978
United States. 84 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, 10/21 – 7:30PM
FRIDAY, 10/27 – 10PM

BOTH SCREENINGS WILL BE FROM AN ORIGINAL 16MM PRINT! $10 TICKETS!

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If you have a craving for terror… come to the class reunion

Six people are trapped within the confines of their old high school during the 10th high school reunion with a psychotic, masked preacher who kills them off for their sinful lives they have made for themselves.

What to say about a regional horror film that opens with a fully clothed child walking out of a lake and getting onto a shuttle bus to a church?

Shot entirely in Staunton, Virginia, THE REDEEMER follows a crazed preacher who orchestrates a fake high school reunion for six sinful classmates (why not seven? we’ll never know), trapping them inside their abandoned old school and picking them off one by one in a series of elaborately staged (and variously costumed) kills – each victim very loosely, though sometimes not at all, connected with one of the seven (six?) deadly sins.

Easily one of the strangest proto-slashers to come out of the 70’s, THE REDEEMER, intentionally or not, manages to capture a rare, disturbingly dreamlike feel from start to finish that never lets up as we follow the preacher’s warped attempts at moral reasoning for each murder.

THE ABSENCE OF MILK IN THE MOUTHS OF THE LOST

Posted on by Zach Fleming

THE ABSENCE OF MILK IN THE MOUTHS OF THE LOST
dir. Case Esparros, 2023
United States. 75 min.
In English.

SPECIAL EVENT

SUNDAY 10/8, 7:30 AND 10PM – TICKETS ARE $10

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A single mother struggles with the grief of her missing child on the one-year anniversary of her disappearance, while her neighborhood milkman begins to feel a strong connection to her grief.”

Starring Hannah Weir, Amelie Fernandez, River Faught, and the infamous underground musician Gary Wilson as “The Milkman”. Featuring an original score from Aaron Dilloway (Wolf Eyes).

On October 8th, please join us in welcoming director Case Esparros to Spectacle for the New York premiere of THE ABSENCE OF MILK IN THE MOUTHS OF THE LOST. Followed by a Q&A with moderator Charlotte Ercoli.

COLLAGE HORREUR

Posted on by Zach Fleming

As our dear bodega is serenaded in shrieks and showered in gore this SPECTOBER, we are excited to exhume COLLAGE HORREUR, an accompanying series of contemporary experimental horror films that reanimate, reuse, and remix found materials to summon novel sensations and dreadful meta-epiphanies from the genre.

In the case of Péter Lichter and Bori Máté’s THE PHILOSOPHY OF HORROR, celluloid itself becomes the object of both bodily and psychic slaughter as a pair of iconic horror film prints are brutalized into nightmarish abstraction. Aristotelis Maragkos’ THE TIMEKEEPERS OF ETERNITY takes a similarly hands-on approach through the volatile manipulation of a cosmic horror miniseries that has been entirely printed and re-edited on paper. Charlie Shackleton’s FEAR ITSELF sees the filmmaker’s grasp of the video essay form stitch together a daunting and diverse filmography to reflect upon the complications of horror film connoisseurship.

Preceding THE PHILOSOPHY OF HORROR will be two vampiric shorts by the Croatian collage animation maestro Dalibor Barić: the upbeat and bloodthirsty THE HORROR OF DRACULA and ALL CATACOMBS ARE GRAY, an interpretation of Sheridan Le Fanu’s sapphic 19th century novella CARMILLA. Barić’s sonic reworking of TWILIGHT ZONE clips paired with comic book cutouts, MY GAME OF LONGING, will also play before THE TIMEKEEPERS OF ETERNITY. For the non-Q&A screenings of FEAR ITSELF, audiences will have a chance to see Ben Rivers’ short film TERROR! as another complementary meditation on the joys of being afraid.

Alongside remote Q&As with many of these filmmakers, the local found sound DJ duo, Vampÿrates, will climb aboard the theater on Friday the 13th for a special one-night performance to sink their fangs into the willing eyes and ears of spectators through the wee hours.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF HORROR: A SYMPHONY OF FILM THEORY
dirs. Péter Lichter and Bori Máté, 2020
60 mins. Hungary.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 10 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 3 PM FEATURING REMOTE DIRECTOR Q&A / THIS EVENT IS $10

GET YOUR TICKETS!
GET TICKETS FOR DIRECTOR Q&A SCREENING HERE!

Deriving its name from Noël Carroll’s seminal book on the poetics of horror, Lichter and Máté use excerpts from the text as framing devices to move from scholarly taxonomy to visceral affect as a pair of film prints are cut, scratched, painted, overlapped, and recombined to a point of mesmerizing and indecipherable grisliness. The victims of choice? A certain 80’s classic concerning a vengeful monster that kills teenagers in their dreams, and its sequel.

Screening with:

THE HORROR OF DRACULA
dir. Dalibor Barić, 2010
5 mins. Croatia.

ALL CATACOMBS ARE GRAY
dir. Dalibor Barić, 2013
20 mins. Croatia.

THE TIMEKEEPERS OF ETERNITY
dir. Aristotelis Maragkos, 2021
64 mins. Greece.
In English.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 3 PM FEATURING REMOTE DIRECTOR Q&A / THIS EVENT IS $10
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 – 10 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!
GET TICKETS FOR DIRECTOR Q&A SCREENING HERE!

In a painstaking process that calls to mind the Library of Congress Paper Print Film Collection (an initiative that ended up giving many films an afterlife beyond their initial celluloid deaths), Maragkos printed each frame of a 3-hour 1995 miniseries adaptation of a novella by the world’s most famous horror writer onto black and white paper to then rephotograph them back into motion with many artistic liberties taken along the way. Visible crinkles, cuts, and tears inflicted on the paper images create both dramatic emphasis and nihilistic resonance as ten passengers aboard a night-time flight awaken to realize everyone aboard has vanished.

Screening with:

MY GAME OF LONGING
dir. Dalibor Barić, 2013
10 mins. Croatia.

FEAR ITSELF
dir. Charlie Shackleton, 2015
88 mins. United Kingdom.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 3 PM FEATURING REMOTE DIRECTOR Q&A / THIS EVENT IS $10
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 – 5 PM

GET YOUR TICKETS!
GET TICKETS FOR DIRECTOR Q&A SCREENING HERE!

Recovering from the grief of a lost sibling, a woman in voice-over reflects on her paradoxical repulsion and fixation with viewing horror films in seclusion. Shackleton’s visual track takes us through a century-spanning tour of the genre, eclectically sampling hundreds of well-known and obscure gems from around the world. While its essayistic qualities are squared confidently in the foreground, FEAR ITSELF never lets intellectualizing overcome an ever-present sense of impending fright.

Screening with:

TERROR!
dir. Ben Rivers, 2007
24 mins. United Kingdom.

ONE NIGHT ONLY! FRIDAY, 10/13 AT MIDNIGHT

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“Featuring, our music videos & video music, stolen treasures & unburied graves,
detournèd objects & cultural corpses, including:

BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD,
DAHLIA NOIR,
BIOMUTANTEN,
HEART OF (SHATTERED) GLASS,
VAMPYR/BLOOD,
ULTRAVIOLET CATASTROPHE,
& LES VAMPIRES (in inverse~reverse~negative).

With these (ab)original works by Vampÿrates, aka, Richard Sylvarnes & Bradley Eros.”

Special thanks to Mackenzie Lukenbill, Nate Dorr, the Vampÿrates, and Wouter Jansen.

KETCHUM ON THE SCREEN

Posted on by Zach Fleming

Born Dallas Mayr in Livingston, New Jersey, Jack Ketchum arrived on the horror scene with his debut novel Off Season in 1981. Off Season, an updating of the Sawney Beane story, drew the outrage of the Village Voice, which publicly scolded the novel’s publisher for printing violent pornography. Over the next 37 years, until his death in 2018, he would write over 20 novels and novellas, five of which have been adapted for the silver screen. A protégé of horror writer Robert Bloch, Ketchum’s novels eschewed the supernatural for unflinching and unsettling studies of man’s capacity for evil, often drawing on true crime for inspiration. While never failing to deliver the genre goods, weaving provocative scenarios pushing the boundaries of the macabre and twisted tales of sex, murder and torture for hardened extreme horror gore-hounds, Ketchum’s writing distinguishes itself from that of his Splatterpunk contemporaries for its sobriety, restraint and empathy which lend a tragic and mournful tone to the carnage.

THE LOST
dir. Chris Sivertson, 2006
United States. 119 min.
In English.

THURSDAY, 10/5 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, 10/20 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, 10/24 – 7:30 PM

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Once upon a time, a boy named Ray Pye put crushed beer cans in his boots to make himself taller.

These words open both Jack Ketchum’s novel and Chris Sivertson’s cinematic adaptation of THE LOST, introducing us to Ray Pye, a teenage psychopath played with narcissistic glee and murderous male fragility by Marc Senter. Jack Ketchum drew his inspiration for the character of Ray Pye from the real life convicted serial killer Charles Schmid and Senter’s interpretation is a nightmare vision of suburban rot and everyday evil.

When 19-year-old Ray, with the help of his two lackey friends, murders two innocent campers for kicks, he becomes the target of Detective Charles Schilling. Unable to gather enough evidence to bring charges, four years pass, but Schilling won’t give up the chase. When Katherine Wallace, a seductive and mysterious new girl arrives in town, Ray’s reign of power is challenged and his wall of secrecy begins to crumble, leading to an explosive violent finale.

“The narrative moves along at a slow grind, taking its time developing each of the characters and their unsettling relationships. But it works and the threads all come together with a truly savage and unforgettable finale… THE LOST is a triumph of independent cinema – a bold novel turned equally bold film that will haunt you for a very long time.” – Dread Central

“Far more unsettlingly savage than many horror thrillers… undeniably fascinating and deadly serious from start to finish” – Variety

THE WOMAN
dir. Lucky McKee, 2011
United States. 101 min.
In English.

THURSDAY, 10/12 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, 10/20 – 10 PM
MONDAY, 10/23 – 10 PM

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The last survivor of a cannibalistic cave-dwelling clan from Ketchum’s earlier work OFFSPRING is hunted and captured by a country lawyer in THE WOMAN, co-written by Ketchum with the film’s director Lucky McKee (MAY, ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE). Imprisoning the eponymous feral woman (Pollyanna Mcintosh, returning in a powerhouse performance) in the family’s cellar, the all-American dad (a loathsome Sean Bridges) commences a program of domestication, attempting to tame the ferocious female while turning his family into accomplices to her subjugation . THE WOMAN is an unbearably tense, gruesome, provocative and disturbing experience, whose scenes of cotidian domestic abuse will haunt and outrage the viewer as much as its scenes of savage animalistic violence.

“THE WOMAN picks right up where 2009’s OFFSPRING (also an adaptation of a Jack Ketchum book) left off. It’s a totally different beast though, and it is as much infused with Ketchum’s DNA as it is with McKee’s. That should come as no surprise at all since they collaborated on both the book and the screenplay. Ketchum’s predilection for tales of the inherent savagery in man, and McKee’s for the role women play in our patriarchal society, come to a head in the brutal and visceral masterpiece they created together.

What differentiates both adaptations, though, is that, unlike OFFSPRING, THE WOMAN plays with the notion of who the real monsters are. Now, “the savages are not the monsters” might seem like a tired cliché, and to a certain extent it is, but in the hands of McKee and Ketchum it becomes fresh, even poignant, and regains its status as an uncomfortable universal truth. This becomes even more true to the extent that THE WOMAN is not so much about the divide between civilization and savagery as it is about how men try to “civilize” women or to expel the savagery perceived within them.”  -Simon Cogen, Horror HomeRoom

COVENS, CULTS, AND CABALS

Posted on by Zach Fleming

Covens, Cults, & Cabals

There’s something diabolically attractive about being in a cult. The acceptance, the belonging, the fun new name they give you. But there’s also something horribly distrustful about them. Their secrecy, their brainwashing, and what they must get up to behind closed doors. The horrors they must be perpetuating upon the good people of this planet. At least that’s what we assume, they wouldn’t let us join the fun. We can only expect (and showcase) the worst…

This Spectober, join us as we carve out a small selection of international films surrounding one our most beloved macabre subjects: the evil ritualistic conspiracy.

THE PYX

THE PYX
(aka THE HOOKER CULT MURDERS)
Dir. Harvey Hart, 1973
Canada. 107 min
In English

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 7:30 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 5 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26 – 7:30 PM

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This October is the 50th Anniversary of Harvey Hart’s diabolical thriller THE PYX. In order to honor the occasion, we’ve decided to resurrect this Spectacle Classic, which originally screened in 2015 and subsequently streamed as part of SPECTOBER IN EXILE following the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Somewhere between ROSEMARY’S BABY and KLUTE, this Canadian supernatural mystery offers plenty to satisfy police procedural fans as Dr. Sgt. Jim Henderson (played by Christopher Plummer) investigates the murder of Elizabeth Lucy (Karen Black). As the film moves back and forth between Henderson’s investigation and Lucy’s last days we learn of her connection to a cult of devil worshipers.

While other films would try to drive up the tension, there’s a quiet, sullen feel to THE PYX, from the grubby rain-soaked streets of Montreal to Lucy’s manipulative madam to the minimal orchestral score, supplemented by Karen Black’s songs, all of which build a slow sense of inescapable dread. Lucy’s conflagration of sex, heroin and Catholicism drifts through the entire film, a counterpoint to the increasing paranoia and futility of the detectives seeking to understand what remains beyond them as both storylines mirror the downward spiral of the other.

EL MONTE DE LAS BRUJAS

EL MONTE DE LAS BRUJAS
(THE WITCHES MOUNTAIN)
Dir. Raúl Artigot, 1972
Spain. 86 min
In Spanish with English subtitles

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 – 5 PM

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After an opening that a written description would only spoil, Carla shows up unannounced at the home of her (ex?)boyfriend, Mario, who wants little to do with her. To avoid Carla, Mario forgoes his vacation time and heads north to the mountains on assignment as a photojournalist. Arriving at a beach, Mario, and his godlike handlebar mustache, luridly comes across a young sunbather named Delia. Smitten, Delia decides to join Mario on his assignment and the two head deep into the mountains. What follows is a sequence of bizarre and unsettling events: strange cloaked men lingering outside the windows of a mountain inn, the theft of Mario’s car by an unknown entity, unexplainable photographic anomalies, and a nighttime funeral procession. What or who is behind these strange occurrences? What fate is in store for Mario? And what does it have to do with Carla?

What the film may lack in plot and coherence, it more than makes up for in its ethereal mood and striking atmosphere. The true star being the mountains of northern Spain, who’s ancient harsh landscape coated in lush vegetation already feels haunted in its appearance alone. Raúl Artigot’s career was more often spent in the role of cinematographer, having worked on such features as CANNIBAL MAN, THE GHOST GALLIEN, THE EROTIC RITES OF FRANKENSTEIN and many more. WITCHES MOUNTAIN would be his directorial debut, and only one of his 3 total features. Knowing this, the film’s tendency for style-over-story makes perfect sense (as well as Mario’s profession). If you enjoyed Spectacle’s summer screenings of LE ORME, and the vibes it exuded, WITCHES MOUNTAIN may be right for you.

Similar to LA PAPESSE, WITCHES MOUNTAIN was banned in its home country (fuck you Franco), and gained an undeserved reputation for being violent and misogynistic due to its censorship. However, it should be noted that the film only appeared in front of investigators/censors because some of the actors in the film felt they were being shortchanged on night shoots and in wanting fair compensation snitched to the review board. In light of the recent and ongoing SAG and writer’s union strikes, we must point out that this could be your film’s fate if you skimp on paying your workers. Languishing in obscurity for decades, and then having a short run at an ex-bodega in Brooklyn for $5 tickets. Chilling.

Special thanks to Mondo Macabre.

LA PAPESSE

LA PAPESSE
(THE POPESS or THE HIGH PRIESTESS; aka A WOMAN POSSESSED)
Dir. Mario Mercier, 1975
France. 94 min
In French with English subtitles

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7 – MIDNIGHT
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30 – 10 PM

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CONTENT WARNING: This film contains violence against animals and depictions of rape.

Laurent and Aline are newlyweds. Laurent is a self-described artist who pines for a life of hedonism amongst the local sex cult, and to learn the teachings of its Popess. Aline? Not so much. They squabble over the direction of their lives. To Laurent’s dismay, the cult isn’t interested in only him, they want his wife as well. In order to overcome Aline’s reluctance, the cult begins a process to break her down including, but not limited to: flogging, drugs, imprisonment, branding, the male gaze, animal sacrifice, and a poison challenge akin to THE PRINCESS BRIDE’s Battle of Wits. A tale of warning for those who seek acceptance from the right crowd to further their art careers.

The cult’s Popess, from whom Laurent seeks absolution, is a dark-haired woman named Géziale, played by—get this—a mysterious woman named Géziale. She has no other on-screen credits and is purported to be an actual occultist leader. Is she real? At what point does the film blur between fiction and documentary? Are we seeing a retelling of the occult dabblings of director Mario Mercier and his initiation into a magical sect lead by the very same Géziale? Or is this just BLAIR WITCH levels of marketing and promotion?

With a firm grasp of the ritual practices of esotericism and occult magic, LA PAPESSE finds itself sitting comfortably within the venn diagram of psychedelica and S&M/fetish/power and domination play. Featuring quite inventive lo-fi camera and editing work that may be the film’s most redeeming and inspiring qualities. Mercier achieves beautiful images and sequences, some of which bring fellow magician Kenneth Anger’s oeuvre to mind.

Despite some of its more extreme contents, LA PAPESSE is often unfairly derided as euro-sleaze trash. This assessment was fueled by the French government’s censorship of the film upon its release. Originally pulled in its first week and re-released with an X rating (or the French equivalent?) back into the pornography theater circuit where it was not well received. Not sleazy enough for the porn theaters, but too sleazy for the general public. This censorship process seemingly ended Mercier’s short filmmaking career, with him choosing to shift his focus back to writing, painting and practicing shamanism.

And is it just me, or does the film’s theme music bear a remarkable resemblance to Wendy Rene’s After Laughter?

SPECTOBER 2023

Posted on by Zach Fleming

CAMPFIRE TALES
dir. William Cooke, Paul Talbot, 1991
United States. 86 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 5 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 7:30 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 7:30 PM

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Once Upon a Time…You’re Dead

A grizzled derelict tells a quartet of horror tales to a trio of young campers.

Not to be confused with the 1997 anthology film also titled CAMPFIRE TALES, this original edition stars the infamous Gunnar Hansen as the grizzled derelict in question telling scary stories to the three teens he finds gathered around a campfire.

Each tale is prompted by something one of the teens does – oh you have a knife? How about a hook-handed killer story? Is that weed you’re about to smoke? Get ready for the only body-horror anti-weed story you’ve ever heard – and while the pacing is a little wonky (as it frequently is in anthology movies), Gunnar’s presence and some ingenious practical effects are more than enough to make this worth any horror freaks while.

CRYPTIC PLASM
dir. Brian Paulin, 2015
United States. 80 min.
In English.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 10 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 – MIDNIGHT

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Absorb the plasm…

The story is about David Gates, a cryptozoologist who is hired to film his investigations. One of them being a mysterious town where all of its inhabitants have vanished without a trace. David uncovers far more than he anticipated and puts his own life at risk. Afterwards David begins to feel the bizarre effects from the town within his own biology. Meanwhile he is sent by his investor to film an exorcism. Something that is completely outside of his expertise. Already suffering from unnatural symptoms, David, who is now reluctantly in the presence of pure evil, fears that multiple inhuman forces are tearing him apart from inside.

Cryptic Plasm takes the tired ‘ghost hunter reality show encounters actual ghost’ premise and turns it on its ear. When a cryptozoologist is hired by a sleazy TV producer to film his research into the paranormal, we’re treated to a series of escalating close encounters of the spooky kind, including a swamp monster, a ghost town, and one of the worst exorcisms this programmer has ever seen, all culminating in an otherworldly gore soaked climax that has to be seen to be believed.

Brian Paulin has been cranking out homemade bloody epics from the Massachusetts area since the mid 90s, and his love of the craft is evident in every frame. The effects work is truly fantastic, working with his limitations to create something truly nightmarish and memorable in a sea of shot-on-DV crud.

RICHARD LAYMON’S IN THE DARK
dir. Clifton Holmes, 2000
United States. 106 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 5 PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 10 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 7:30 PM

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Play a game with only one rule … keep playing

*NEW YORK PREMIERE*

We are very excited to screen this never-officially-released adaptation of the never before-or-since adapted Richard Laymon novel, IN THE DARK.

The novel follows librarian Jane, who finds a note one day from the unseen and unheard ‘Master of Games’, daring her to complete increasingly more drastic challenges for money as she gets drawn further into the perverse world of the game.

Laymon’s writing typically leaned toward the extreme and the splatter, but Clifton’s adaptation focuses on the discomfort of what goes unseen, steeping us in Jane’s mundane world as she sinks deeper into the game, seemingly unable to stop herself, and brilliantly tapping into the human impulse to find out what happens if we go just a little further. IN THE DARK feels like an art-house slow burn SAW without the on screen torture.

Shot on mini-DV on a miniscule budget, what Clifton Holmes’ Chicago-set adaptation lacks in budget, it more than compensates for in pure mood and dread, entering the rare pantheon of films that manage to improve upon their source material.

Spectacle is proud to present this early oughts lost gem – you won’t regret catching this on the big screen!

THE LAKE
(บึง/กาฬ)
dir. Lee Thongkham, 2022
105 mins. Thailand.
In Thai with English subtitles.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 10 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12 – 7:30 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 5 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30 – 7:30 PM followed by remote Q+A with filmmaker Lee Thongkham!
(This event is $10.)

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As part of our annual Halloween programming, Spectacle is thrilled to offer a limited engagement of Lee Thongkham’s giant kaiju thriller THE LAKE (never before shown on the big screen in New York City.)

A young girl finds an egg near a lake in Bueng Kan (“black marsh”), near the northernmost part of Thailand facing the Mekong River. Not long after she’s brought the egg back to her home village, an amphibious monster over thirty feet tall emerges, terrorizing the town in search of its young. Designed by SFX maestro Jordu Schell (of NEMESIS, STARSHIP TROOPERS, Tim Burton’s PLANET OF THE APES, CLOVERFIELD and many many others), this monster is a triumph of combined practical and computer-generated effects, hulking and menacing like a shapeshifting mutant dinosaur. Cut off from the rest of the outside world, the residents of Bueng Kan must band together to stop the carnage before it’s too late.

Visceral, moody and drenched in darkness, THE LAKE foregoes the slow-burn exposition of more traditional monster movies. It’s a kaiju lover’s feast of a film, equally indebted to Godzilla and Gamera as to Spielberg’s original JURASSIC PARK. In an interview with PopHorror, director Lee Thongkham emphasized THE LAKE as a loving homage to the creature feature as well as “a story about religion, the human spirit, and science… But most importantly, it’s about finding one another through the chaos that one does not understand.”

LAURIN
(aka LAURIN: A JOURNEY INTO DEATH)
dir. Robert Sigl, 1989
83 mins. Germany.
In (dubbed) English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 5 PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 7:30 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 29 – 7:30 PM followed by remote Q+A with filmmaker Robert Sigl!
(This event is $10.)

GET YOUR REGULAR TICKETS!
GET YOUR Q&A TICKETS!

Robert Sigl’s debut feature LAURIN takes place in a small port town in Germany at the turn of the 20th century, where children have begun to go missing. After her pregnant mother is murdered, nine year old Laurin (Dóra Szinetár) must contend with visions both dreamlike and nightmarish – and laced with possible clues towards the mystery encircling the village.

Made when Sigl was just 25 years old, LAURIN is a gothic fairy tale of ethereal beauty, evenly evoking Fritz Lang’s M., Victor Erice’s SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE and Richard Blackburn’s LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL. Shot on location in Hungary and heavy on ambience (abetted greatly by the work of cinematographer Nyika Jancsó, son of Miklos), the film barely qualifies as horror; it’s more of a gothic fairy tale, ruminating on innocence lost, suppression of sexuality and the concentric nature of abuse handed down across generations.

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR
dir. Jack Bender. 1985.
United States. 94 mins.
In English.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 5 PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20 – MIDNIGHT
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31 – 7:30 PM

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It’s Halloween night in Pitchford Cove, Massachusetts. When five high school friends accidentally summon an undead army, the teens must rectify their mistake and save the town before the midnight hour.

An early effort by legendary TV producer and director Jack Bender (LOST, UNDER THE DOME, MR MERCEDES), THE MIDNIGHT HOUR is a bewitching comedy horror with incredible production value, by TV standards. Criminally underseen and effortlessly nostalgic, THE MIDNIGHT HOUR is the perfect movie for Halloween.

Although the film can be tonally cacophonous, switching between slapstick comedy and dramatic violence on a dime, Bender masterfully toes the line between absurdity and horror. THE MIDNIGHT HOUR will provide a healthy dose of Halloween nostalgia this October, featuring zombie dance numbers, vampire transformations to The Smiths, and even a GREASE (1978) callback.

PIN
dir. Sandor Stern. 1988.
Canada. 104 mins.
In English.

MONDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 5 PM – FEATURING REMOTE Q&A WITH DIRECTOR SANDOR STERN AND AUTHOR ANDREW NEIDERMAN – THIS EVENT IS $10
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 27 – 7:30 PM

GET YOUR Q&A TICKETS!
GET YOUR TICKETS!

Leon, a troubled child, befriends his father’s lifesized medical dummy, Pin. Leon’s reality crumbles following the death of his parents, and his obsession with Pin takes a dangerous turn.

The best way to describe PIN is by its full title, ‘PIN: A PLASTIC NIGHTMARE.’ Although the film might seem like a classic killer doll movie, à la PUPPET MASTER (1989), the true terror of PIN comes from within. Pin explores themes of childhood trauma, authoritarian parenting and object attachment in this emotionally driven psychological horror.

Based on the novel by the author of THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE, Andrew Neiderman, and directed by Sandor Stern, screenwriter of THE AMITYVILLE HORROR (1979). Together, they have reimagined the killer doll subgenre without the comfort of childhood nostalgia. The result is a harrowing film starring David Hewlett (STARGATE: ATLANTIS, CUBE) and Terry O’Quinn (LOST, THE STEPFATHER).

For one night only, join us on October 22nd for a remote Q&A with director Sandor Stern and author Andrew Neiderman!

PLAYROOM
dir. Manny Coto, 1990
United Kingdom. 90 min.
In English.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 22 – 7:30 PM

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“Where the terror is child’s play”

An archaeologist is haunted by a nightmare in which his family is murdered.

The debut feature of director Manny Coto (DR. GIGGLES, STAR KID), PLAYROOM follows the increasingly unhinged Chris (played by Christopher McDonald aka Shooter McGavin in a rare leading-man role) as he revisits the archaeology site in search of a mythological place his father was looking for before he was killed.

Is it his imagination, or is something supernatural at work?! Will unaddressed childhood trauma come to a happy conclusion?! Only one way to find out!

Also features niche 90’s child actor Aron Eisenberg (PUPPETMASTER III, HOUSE III, AMITYVILLE: THE EVIL ESCAPES) and the dinosaur pajamas from DON’T PANIC. Don’t miss this!

Sidenote: googling this title pulls up some late-movie moments that are best experienced ice cold, so avoid that if you can!

RED SPIRIT LAKE
dir. Charles Pinion, 1993
United States. 69 min.
In English.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 – MIDNIGHT

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After a vengeful sorceress is tortured and killed by a corrupt industrialist looking to harness the spectral powers of Red Spirit Lake, her niece arrives in snow covered Angel Falls to settle her aunt’s estate.

The sleazy crown jewel of this month’s Spectober is the SOV trashterpiece RED SPIRIT LAKE. Directed by Charles Pinion (Twisted Issues, We Await) and featuring a who’s-who grab bag of late 80s/early 90s underground NYC talent (including Spectacle favorite Tessa Hughes-Freeland in a blink and you’ll miss it cameo) Red Spirit Lake is the rare SOV flick that manages to transcend its scuzzy trappings into something more than the sum of its parts.

Not for the faint of heart (almost every content warning applies – no animals harmed though!) and borderline actively repellent, it’s a fever dream of a movie that lands somewhere between a snuff film and Picnic at Hanging Rock, featuring aliens, angels, witches, nymphs, 80s workouts, nude galavanting in the snow, Victorian flashbacks and a killer soundtrack featuring Cop Shoot Cop, Lydia Lunch, Clint Ruin and The Lunachicks.

Special thanks to Saturn’s Core Video

TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE
dir. Chester Novell Turner, 1987
United States. 62 min.
In English.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 10 PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 21 – MIDNIGHT
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 11 PM

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3 Tales of Evil Beyond Belief

A woman reads two spooky tales to the ghost of her dead son, Bobby: the first, about a poor family who takes drastic measures to allot more food to their members; the second, about a pair of adversarial brothers and what happens when one of them dies and the other attempts to humiliate his corpse.

The follow up to Black Devil Doll from Hell, Chester Novell Turner’s Tales from the Quadead Zone has achieved a deserved cult status over the years as one of the more unsettling and esoteric horror anthologies ever assembled (some video stores refused to carry the tape because they were so uncomfortable with its lo-fi nightmare aesthetics).

Legends aside, the lean 62 minute run time packs in a breathtaking amount of creativity and ingenuity – including one of the best anthology theme songs this programmer has ever heard. The hand crafted effects and props, occasionally inaudible dialogue, warped tracking, and messy rotoscoping all combine to create a transportive, chaotic stew of SOV derangement that miraculously manages to pack an emotional punch as well.

TIME OF MOULTING
dir. Sabrina Mertens, 2020
Germany. 82 min.
In German with English subtitles.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19 – 7:30 PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 10 PM

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In 1970s West Germany, young Stephanie (Zelda Espenschied) lives with her emotionally stunted parents, sequestered from life outside their cluttered home. Her father oscillates between ignoring and denigrating her, while her unstable mother’s cloying affection may actually be the most sinister thing happening within their walls. Discouraged from playing with the neighborhood children, Stephanie’s only friend is her own imagination, which absorbs every decrepit family “heirloom” in the house, from the grandfather’s old butcher’s tools to her grandmother’s dentures. Years later, the curious little girl has matured into a cold, frightening young woman (Miriam Schiweck) whose oppressive surroundings cultivated in her a disturbing erotic life. She is an animal growing up in captivity, unable to molt.

Described by director Sabrina Mertens as a “still life of a family in 57 pictures,” TIME OF MOULTING creates a Gothic portrait out of a series of vignettes, private moments from which we can construct a murky idea of what went wrong with Stephanie. Unable to crawl out from under the rubble of her parents’ repression, she also cannot escape the shadow of violence wrought by the country’s previous generation. Dark fantasies and isolation coalesce in one girl, building to an unforgettable conclusion. While the film lets the viewer in on plenty of secrets, the most disturbing parts of this family’s life are perhaps what we do not see.

WARM BLOOD AND THE FILMS OF SIX STAIR

Posted on by Zach Fleming

WARM BLOOD AND THE FILMS OF SIX STAIR

This September, Spectacle is proud to present a week long run of Rick Charnoski’s new experimental feature film WARM BLOOD, alongside skate films and documentary collaborations between Rick Charnoski and Buddy Nichols, founders of SIX STAIR FILMS, including FRUIT OF THE VINE, DEATHBOWL TO DOWNTOWN, and the roadtrip documentary NORTHWEST.


WARM BLOOD

WARM BLOOD
dir. by Rick Charnoski, 2023
USA. 86 minutes
In English.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 14- 7:30PM
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 7:30PM, Q&A MODERATED BY JOHN VEIT
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 5:00PM, Q&A MODERATED BY JOHN VEIT
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17 – 7:30PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19 – 7:30PM

ALL WARM BLOOD SCREENINGS FEATURE A Q&A WITH THE FILMMAKERS / $10 TICKETS

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS

Set in the underbelly of 1980s Modesto, California, Warm Blood uses the real-life diary of a teenage runaway named Red (newcomer Haley Isaacson) returning home to find her father. In his narrative feature debut, director Rick Charnoski’s history as a skate video director informs the frenetic storytelling style, as he combines Red’s nihilist musings with a collage of documentary and B-movie meta-narratives that paint a seedy picture of life on the outskirts of town. Talk-radio bits and punk music underscore the auditory cacophony of doom, while frequent Kelly Reichardt collaborator Christopher Blauvelt (First Cow, The Bling Ring) lends his immersive, naturalist lens shooting on gritty 16mm film. While Red searches the streets, a constant foreboding presence looms around the chemically toxic river polluting the town. Via a cable-access news reporter interviewing the local residents about its impact, Charnoski infuses today’s growing apathy around the insurmountable nature of our man-made ecological disasters into this raw, politically subversive tale.


FRUIT OF THE VINE

FRUIT OF THE VINE
dir. Rick Charnoski and Buddy Nichols, 2002
USA. 74 minutes
In English

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 – 10PM – THIS EVENT FEATURES A Q&A MODERATED BY JOCKO WEYLAND
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 – 10PM
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26 – 10PM

SPECIAL EVENT TICKETS

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

FRUIT OF THE VINE is a super 8mm film that documents the incredible and often dangerous lengths that skateboarders go to in order to ride deserted, empty swimming pools. It is not a historical documentary, but a collection of stories shot in 1999 while Coan and Rick traveled from southern California to Seattle and around the east coast in search of pools to ride. FRUIT OF THE VINE profiles the people who search for, find, break into, and ultimately glean some use out of these pieces of the American suburban wasteland. With skate luminaries like Tony Alva, Lance Mountain, Steve Baily, Salba, Shaggy, Chris Senn, Pete the Ox, Tony Farmer, Tom Groholski, Mark Hubbard, Pat Quirk and many more. Soundtrack features Bad Religion, The Clay Wheels, Steel Wool, The Loudmouths and more.


DEATHBOWL TO DOWNTOWN

DEATHBOWL TO DOWNTOWN
dir. Rick Charnoski and Buddy Nichols, 2008
USA. 86 minutes
In English

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 4 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 – 10PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30 – 10PM

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

On one level Deathbowl to Downtown is about street skating, but it’s also an overview of skateboarding’s shift from the parks and pools of the 70s, to the ramp skating in the 80s, to the street ascendancy of the 1990s and beyond. An entertaining, thought provoking take on why the action on New York’s hectic streets represents skateboarding to millions of people worldwide.


NORTHWEST

NORTHWEST
dir. Rick Charnoski and Buddy Nichols, 2003
USA. 74 minutes
In English

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 – 5PM
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 – 10PM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18 – 10PM

GENERAL ADMISSION TICKETS

In this real-life road movie, Coan Nichols and Rick Charnoski focus their lenses on hand-sculpted concrete skate parks, and the skaters who build and ride them, while making friends, visiting old ones, and wreaking havoc across the Pacific Northwest.

After the underground success of their first film, the super 8mm skateboard classic Fruit of the Vine (1999), Coan “Buddy” Nichols and Rick Charnoski founded the independent production company Six Stair, which operates under the same DIY ethics of the subculture that raised them: skateboarding and punk rock. Since 1999 Nichols and Charnoski have charted an unorthodox path, making a broad range of films that consistently go beyond tired tropes to illuminate deeper truths.

After catching the eye of renowned cinematographer Christopher Doyle for their specialty in Super 8mm and 16mm filmmaking, he tapped Charnoski and Nichols to shoot the dream sequences for Gus Van Sant’s Paranoid Park (2007). They have since worked with a wide range of respected artists and filmmakers including Cameron Crowe, Richard Serra, Peter Beard, Julian Schnabel, and NeckFace as well as on commercial projects for Vans, Nike, Converse, Mountain Dew and the Gold Effie Award winning Ouch! campaign for Tylenol.

Their documentary work includes Tent City (2003), which followed the notorious Anti Hero skate team throughout Australia; Pearl Jam‘s Vote for Change? (released 2008), capturing the band’s “Vote For Change” tour across America; the feature length Deathbowl to Downtown (2009) narrated by Chloe Sevigny as well as many other short films. Other subjects they have turned their attention and cameras to are Christo’s “Gates” project, fashion shows, music videos, surfing, airplane flight, and Jamaican dub pioneers.

They’ve shown their work worldwide at countless skate shops and hole-in-the wall venues, as well as the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, The Graduate School of Architecture, at Columbia University, Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio, the MU Art Foundation in The Netherlands, the Melbourne International Film Festival in Australia, MOCA Tucson and MoMA New York.

Currently they produce and direct the popular web series “Love Letters to Skateboarding” for Vans and are in development of their first narrative feature (Warm Blood) and continue to work on a variety of both independent and commercial projects out of their back alley studio in Hollywood, CA.

Special thanks to Factory 25