“Lucía Seles is the + selfless, absorbed and romantic with herself in the world and she doesn’t want to be treated = no director living or dead besides she’s a classical guitarist a graphomaniac better than ella fitzgerald when ef was alive and too many more things than anyone.”
– Lucía Seles’ director bio

Suis generis works of avant-garde comedy, Lucía Seles’ tennis tetralogy, HATE UNCHAINED, are a sight to behold. Filmed over a few days on prosumer cameras working from improvised scripts, the films operate in a language uniquely their own. Seles incorporates on-screen text-based poetry, verbal slapstick, a documentarian’s eye, compelling characters, stray camera mistakes, love triangles, and more into an DIY screwball stew that lands somewhere between The Office, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm, the work of El Pampero Cine, and Samuel Beckett. These are films that obey their own logic of dramatic storytelling, film aesthetics, and poetry to an often disorienting degree. During their premiere in Germany, no less than Ulrike Ottinger seemed to be baffled by Seles’ odd rhythms and unique potpourri of experimental techniques. We’re proud to host their New York premieres including a special conversation with Seles after the October 20th screening of SMOG IN YOUR HEART.

Focusing on the petty squabbles and romantic employees of a tennis complex on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, the series is best enjoyed by starting with SMOG IN YOUR HEART. Setting the stage for the interpersonal dynamics and romantic crushes of the five main characters, SMOG IN YOUR HEART establishes a screwball workplace dynamic that the next three films continually tease at and subvert through all sorts of absurdist detours. SATURDAYS DISORDERS, for example, sets half of its running time following a Kafkaesque pilgrimage around the suburbs of a small town, while TERMINAL YOUNG completely abandons the tennis complex for a roller rink where one of the characters is having a birthday party mainly filled with strangers.

SMOG IN YOUR HEART (Smog en tu corazón)
dir. Lucía Seles, 2022
Argentina. 112 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 7:30PM
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 5PM FT Q&A
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 7:30PM

TICKETS

Q&A TICKETS

“How difficult it is when a person owns a tennis complex and mixes that with his other feelings.”
– Lucía Seles’ synopsis

Five characters working at a tennis complex: the owner Manuel, a tennis teacher who only goes by the name La Tenista, new recruit Sergio from San Juan, shy manager Lujan, and a dopey accountant Aristegui. The series begins in a romantic-comedy vein, introducing the protagonists and quickly drawing up a love pentagon between them as they talk about Singing in the Rain and whether people with dark eyes can love people with light eyes. Tensions flare as they consider making a pilgrimage to the cathedral of the town of Lujan, but don’t actually invite Lujan. Less a romantic melodrama than an anarchic cinematic poem of disorder, desire, absurdity, futility, labor, and miscommunication; Seles sets the tone strong in the first film through a chaotic montage of dramatic tensions, visual gags, and textual poetry.

SATURDAYS DISORDERS (Sábados desordenados)
dir. Lucía Seles, 2022
Argentina. 97 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2 – 10PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15 – 10PM
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 – 7:30PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29 – 7:30PM

TICKETS

“Saturdays Disorders is a non-professional tennis final linked to a not-so-famous way of the cross, apart from the fact that loneliness is undoubtedly the virgin, the mother and the most beautiful sister of all plans every day of the week.”
– Lucía Seles’ synopsis

Taking a bizarre left-turn from Smog in Your Heart’s labyrinthine romantic entanglements, Saturdays Disorders plays like an extended riff on a late scene conversation in that prior film with Lujan traveling to the town of Lujan to undertake a pilgrimage of the lesser stations of the cross. A seemingly endless Kafkaesque journey through the suburbs of Lujan ensues while the tennis complex holds a tennis competition with only two entreats, Selena Prat (Seles herself, but credited as Selena Prat) and a friend of La Tenista’s father. Injuries, misunderstandings, fairground rides, puffy jackets, on-screen poetry, barking dogs, and some oddly achieved notes of comic futility ensue.

WEAK RANGERS
dir. Lucía Seles, 2022
Argentina. 126 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 7:30PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 7:30PM

TICKETS

“Neither the cold nor the storms can calm you down when you are faced with a new boss that you would not like.”
– Lucía Seles’ synopsis

The third film in the series showcases Seles’ most chaotic experimentation with time, see-sawing all over the place, simultaneously catching the same characters in various scenes through a relentless montage of poetic asides. La Tenista has taken over the complex, Lujan gets a haircut by Sergio, Manuel’s brother comes to visit (and wrestles him to the ground), and much more. The third film in the series shows Seles at her most rambling and discursive, working completely non-linearly in a disorienting montage of scenes truncated and intercut with each other so that the same characters often appear simultaneously in multiple instances of time. The result is something uniquely Seles’ own: a cubist-esque piece of freeform cinematic comedic poetry.

TERMINAL YOUNG
dir. Lucía Seles, 2023
Argentina. 128 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3 – 10PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 7 – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16 – 10PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 – 10PM

TICKETS

“A light-eyed man who, thanks to his best friend, is an accountant at a tennis complex, rebels against the universe and himself and becomes an accountant at a flower shop.”
– Lucía Seles’ synopsis

Picking up a year after the first three films in the tetralogy, Terminal Young is set largely during Sergio’s birthday party at a roller rink. Organized by Sergio’s mom, the party is filled with random guests invited by Manuel including a real estate agent and a young blonde choir boy Manuel met at a terminal, nicknamed The Terminal Young. A mix of screwball tensions and awkward miscommunications, Seles finishes off her series in true style i.e. randomly, chaotically, irreverently, and hysterically. Do the romantic tensions established in Smog in Your Heart ever get resolved? Do the characters ever morph out of their bizarre and highly specific archetypes? Does Lujan ever make it to Lujan? See the movie and find out, but for anyone already keen to Seles’ relentless inventiveness, you may already know what sort of odd dramatic teases could be in store.

This collection of experimental shorts traces the systemic, oft-unseen echoes of history left through generational trauma, grief, colonialism, urban redevelopment, redlining, and displacement, and pays tribute to the individuals and communities that maintain and resist. Following the screening, artists Cameron A. Granger, Shala Miller, and Jard Lerebours will be present for an in-person discussion.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 7:30PM FT Q&A

TICKETS

COCONUT
Dir. Jard Lerebours, 2022.
Jamaica, United States. 3 minutes.
In English.

To his mother’s homeland of Jamaica, a young man returns to pay last respects to the grandmother he called Two Mommy. COCONUT is a self-proclaimed “public declaration of love,” an experimental documentary and poetic remembrance of a matriarch and caretaker.

BEFORE I LET GO
Dir. Cameron A. Granger, 2023.
United States. 23 minutes.
In English.

Set in the fictional town of Bad City, 5 years after a giant monster attack leveled the city’s east side neighborhood, BEFORE I LET GO follows a documentary filmmaker’s experience covering the community’s recovery efforts. Awarded Best Experimental Film and Audience Award at the 2023 Blackstar Film Festival.

THE ECHO
Dir. Shala Miller, 2017.
United States. 8 minutes.
In English.

An ethnographic study of the relationship between Shala Miller and their mother (Ruby Clyde), specifically focused on the idea of trauma being passed in the blood.

HERE AND THERE ALONG THE ECHO
Dir. Cameron A. Granger, 2024.
United States. 27 minutes.
In English.

HERE AND THERE ALONG THE ECHO finds Granger and his community coming together once again to document and study the mysterious black holes plaguing Bad City, in hopes of finding a missing friend. Currently installed as part of Granger’s multidisciplinary exhibition, 9999, at Queens Museum, this screening will mark the film’s theatrical world premiere.

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Cameron A. Granger is Sandra’s son & came up in Cleveland, Ohio. Inspired by the rigorous archival & homemaking practices of his grandmother, Pearl, Granger uses his work as a means to quilt his communal and familial histories, into new, not just potential, but inevitable futures. He’s an alumni of Euclid public schools, Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, and the Studio Museum in Harlem AIR program. He is currently an In Situ Artist Fellow at the Queens Museum.

Jard Lerebours (He/They) is a queer community oriented Jamaican-Haitian filmmaker, writer and curator who creates exploratory pieces in service of venerating his ancestors and putting image to theory. He is an active member of the Meerkat Media Artist Collective. Jard’s practice straddles the worlds of cinema and video art. He approaches filmmaking as a conversation between friends and family guided by their loving West Indian upbringing in Long Island.

Shala Miller, also known as Freddie June when they sing, was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio by two southerners named Al and Ruby. At around the age of 10 or 11, Miller discovered quietude, the kind you’re sort of pushed into, and then was fooled into thinking that this is where they should stay put. Since then, Miller has been trying to find their way out, and find their way into an understanding of themself and their history, using photography, video, film, writing and singing as an aid in this process.

That’s right Halloweeners, it’s already time for another edition of Spectacle’s storied SHRIEK SHOW MARATHON ! For the 13th almost-consecutive year in a row, we bring you ~12 hours of gut-bursting brain-splattering genre madness from around the world.

This year we’re bringing you seven (7) mystery-titles from noon-through-midnight – expect roughly 15-30 minute breaks between titles, give or take.

BYO seat cushions + barf bags, sickos !

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 – NOON THROUGH ~1:30AM

TICKETS

12PM – XXXXXX XXXXXXXX
dir. XXXXXXXX XXXXX, 1972
In Italian with English subtitles
95 min.

We kick off the Shriek Show proceedings with this gothic Italian gem that follows a group of hippies who stumble across a black mass ritual at a seemingly abandoned castle in the countryside, featuring killer synths and paint-red blood.

2PM – XX. XXXXX, XX. XXXX
dir. XXXXXXX XXXXX, 1976
In English
85 min.

Our second film of the ‘thon is an overlooked blaxploitation classic that should be mentioned in the same breath as Blacula (even if the title is a misnomer of its protagonist). To say more would give it away, but it’s worth noting that, despite some of the campy trappings, this film offers a dour look at how awful America was and continues to be.

4PM – XXX XXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX
dir. XXXXXX XXXXXX, 1980
In English
95 min.

One of the most legendary and underseen horror films of the 80s – shot on super 8mm for a reported budget of $500 by a then-teenager, this thing packs a wild amount of ambition and guts into its not so modest runtime packed with tropes and references and wild accents from a place that shall not be named lest we reveal the title.

6:00PM -XXXXXXXXXXX
dir. XXXXX XXX XXXXXXX, XXXXX XXXXXX
In Dutch with English subtitles.
60 min.

A nasty short one from the Netherlands is up next – follows a recently bereaved man as he starts seeing a woman who may or may not be a necrophiliac.

8:00PM – XXXX XXXXXXXXX
dir. XXXXXX XXXXXXXX, 1979
In Spanish with English subtitles.
86 min.

The most legitimately scary film of the day is up next – steeped in steadily building dread, this Mexican horror film from the late 70s is full of surprises, not to mention a knockout of an ending. Not to be missed.

10:00PM – XXXX XX XXX XXXXX
dir. XXXXXXX X. XXXX, 1991
78 min.
In English.

Filmed in the dusty outskirts and suburbs of Las Vegas, our 10pm feature feels like a sneakily ultra-gory after school special. The setup is simple – two kids dig up a gargoyle statue (while cutting school, no less) – a strange man appears and tells them to leave it because it contains ‘the essence of evil’, so they bring it home.

A perfect garbage gem in a sea of bland SOV offerings from the dustbin of the 90s. Do not miss this!

WARNING : BRIEF MOMENTS OF STROBE EFFECTS

MIDNIGHT – XXX XXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX
dir. XXXX XXXXXXX, XXXX XXXXXXX, 2000
In English
70 min.

Closing out the marathon, we have an early aughts entry from one of the most prolific no-budget filmmaking duos in SOV history.

A famous horror novelist with writer’s block rents a haunted house while seeking inspiration for his newest novel – a psychotic blast of dream-fueled chaos ensues, as the filmmakers use this conceit to throw everything and the kitchen sink at the digital wall.

If this doesn’t clear out what’s left of your cranium, nothing will.

Another year, another collection of the best of under-seen horror in the tri-state area.

Join us for SPECTOBER 2024!

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BLACK MAGIC RITES
dir. Renato Polselli, 1973
Italy. 98 min.
In Italian with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1 – 10PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 10PM

TICKETS

A group of vampires keep the body of a witch in a castle cellar. They require virgin blood to resurrect her. A party of people arrive and things kick off.

A psychedelic-erotic-horror masterpiece, BLACK MAGIC RITES is hypnotic and transportive in its vibes-first visuals and storytelling.

Starring Mickey Hargitay and Rita Calderoni (A Quiet Place in the Country) and featuring a kaleidoscopic grab bag of 70’s-and-the-occult-isms (witches, vampires, Satanists, flashing lights, crash zooms, psychedelic soundtrack) – this is a midnight flick for the arthouse sickos, presented in an all-new 4k restoration from the original negative.

Viewers should be warned it also features the (unfortunately common and very Italian) depiction of sexual-asssault-turned-”consensual”-sex-scenes, giving a glimpse into the truly vile thoughts behind the eyes of the film’s overtly male gaze.

WARNING: BRIEF COLORED STROBE EFFECTS

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FATAL IMAGES
dir. Dennis Devine, 1989
USA. 99 min.
In English

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 – MIDNIGHT
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 5PM
MONDAY, OCTOBER 21 – 10PM

TICKETS

A crazy serial killer kills himself by sealing his soul into his camera. Years later, a woman buys the camera, and everyone she photographs begins being tracked down and killed by the killers spirit.

A regional SOV gem that does exactly what the synopsis says and then some.

From the first awkwardly ADR’d moments of tape fuzz, there’s something cozy about this bizarre supernatural slasher from the director of Dead Girls (and an impressively long list of mid-to-late-oughts straight to streaming garbage horror films with fantastic titles like Ouija Nazi and Curse of the Pirate Dead )

Come for the beige interiors and home locations dressed as ‘offices’ and ‘police stations’, stay for the alien performances and surprisingly gnarly kills.

Screening courtesy of Visual Vengeance.

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THE LAST GATEWAY
dir. Demian Rugna, 2006
Argentina. 105 min.
In English.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13 – 7:30PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23 – 10PM
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 30 – 10PM

TICKETS

Michael and Marianne recently married and moved into their new home, however they have come to discover that their peaceful lives are about to be turned upside down when Michael starts suffering from severe stomach pains. They will soon discover that the pain comes from a miscalculation made by Victor, a demonologist who has just opened a portal to hell in MIchael’s stomach.

Now both Michael and Marianne have to run from dangerous people who are after this gate while facing horrific creatures that are escaping from the portal that Michael carries in his body. They will soon arrive to a deserted town, which will be plagued with monsters and death. Will Michael find a way out before it is too late?

Demian Rugna’s (WHEN EVIL LURKS) second feature throws everything at the wall, and it is genuinely shocking how much sticks once you get on its wavelength (it opens with some deeply hilarious English dubbing, and there’s a mix of accented English and awful dub applied to the whole thing in a way that feels deeply Italian).

There is a lot of plot to track, as evidenced by the convoluted synopsis above, but it pays off that plotting with ingeniously designed and rendered creature effects, all practical and covered in goop – not to mention that thick sense of impending doom his later work is steeped in.

Fans of Fulci classics like CITY OF THE DEAD, take note – this is for you!

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MR. ICE CREAM MAN
dir. Mack Hail, 1996
USA. 65 min.
In English.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 3PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 5PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 – MIDNIGHT

TICKETS

Children are going missing in a suburban town. There’s a creepy guy driving an ice cream truck. Related?

Deeply uncanny and unsettling, MR ICE CREAM MAN feels like a direct transmission from an alien dimension, or like a deeply cursed episode of a lost Nickelodeon show (or even a lost segment from I SAW THE TV GLOW’s fictional cult-kids-show).

Not to be confused with THE ICE CREAM MAN, this rarity is sure to make you squirm.

“Like a lost episode of Twin Peaks: The Return” – Matt Lynch via Letterboxd

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LAS NUEVE CARAS DEL MIEDO
dir. Christian Gonzalez, 1995
Mexico. 90 min.
In Spanish with English subtitles.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 6 – 5PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 – MIDNIGHT
MONDAY, OCTOBER 28 – 10PM

TICKETS

A TV crew alongside a medium, a friar and a killer with regrets spend the night inside a haunted hotel where a guy murdered prostitutes in the 1950’s. Soon they discover the place is really haunted, the friar is possessed by an evil force beginning a new massacre.

Probably the nastiest offering of this year’s Spectober lineup, LAS NUEVE CARAS DEL MIEDO is sorely underseen and ahead of its time stylistically – blending “true-crime” storytelling with a supernatural slasher (some online have compared it to a cross between GHOSTWATCH (1992) and an episode of the X-files).

Featuring a cast of mostly reprehensible people dying in increasingly gnarly ways, this movie has a surprising amount of bile. Viewers be warned!

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TILL DEATH DO WE SCARE
(小生怕怕)
Dir. Lau Kar-wing, 1982
Hong Kong. 91 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 7:30PM
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 – 7:30PM

TICKETS

Irene (Olivia Cheng) is chronically unlucky in love, having already lost three husbands to various Rube Goldberg-esque wedding day mishaps while still in her youth. Worried that she may be slipping into a suicidal depression– which in turn would mean there would be no one left to pray for or provide offerings to them– the ghosts of her three husbands assume the role of supernatural matchmaker, conspiring to set her up with the bumbling host of a local radio horror show (Alan Tam) while trying to temper their own jealousies.

TILL DEATH DO WE SCARE was an early release by Raymond Wong, Karl Maka, and Dean Shek’s newly-formed Cinema City production company, boasting a script from future hesuipian heavyweight Clifton Ko (IT’S A MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD), and directed by martial arts icon Lau Kar-wing (ODD COUPLE). Yet despite all the local talent involved in its production, the most curious credit found on this slapstick/rom-com/action/horror hybrid comes courtesy of special effects maestro, Tom Savini. As the story goes, Savini traveled to Hong Kong with the film’s original VFX artist to assist with the production, inadvertently resulting in the firing of the original artist and the hiring of Savini, for what turned out to be one of the more chaotic productions with which he’d been involved.

“It was a very frantic shoot, because, in order to start a fog in a scene, they’d start a fire in a wastebasket, put a lid on it, and take the lid off when they wanted to fill the room with smoke. […] It was great fun improvising those effects.”
– Tom Savini

Special thanks to Far East Flix.

Over the past few years, Spectacle has plumbed the depths of the disgusting effects, dubious morals, and devil fetuses of Hong Kong “Category III” cinema– the HK film industry’s rough equivalent to the American “X” rating labeling extreme content. This Spectober, we return to the sticky side with this trio of works featuring those most bloodthirsty, bite-prone, garlic-phobic, and godless of horror villains: Cats!

Cats have long played a role in Chinese mythology and horror lore, commonly depicted as xianli (仙狸 )– shape-shifting demons of divine or extraterrestrial original, trapped in our realm and intent on sucking the spirits out of humans. Though not as much a staple of Hong Kong cinemas as their hopping vampire and haunted house counterparts, the regional horror boom of the 1980s and 90s still found plenty of room for xianli stories replete with blood, guts, and a dose of kitty kung fu, truly putting the “cat” in “Category III”.

EVIL CAT
(凶貓)
Dir. Dennis Yu Wan-kwong, 1987
Hong Kong. 91 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 5 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 10PM

TICKETS

For generations the Cheung clan has protected the world from a demonic cat with nine lives who returns every 50 years to feed on unsuspecting souls. Now the last of his bloodline, the burden falls on the aging kung fu sorcerer, Master Cheung (Lau Kar-leung), to enter into final battle with the demon and claim its last life, before a terminal illness claims his.

In one of the wilder collaborations in HK film history, horror and New Wave icon Dennis Yu (THE BEASTS) brings to life one of the Wong Jing-iest of ridiculous 80s Wong Jing scripts, with the legendary Lau Kar-leung in tow as star and choreographer. The result is an incredible convergence of its creators’ sensibilities, with its giallo-esque horror sequences blending seamlessly with superb wirework action and off-the-charts zaniness.

DEVIL CAT
(貓變)
Dir. Chow Cheung, 1991
Taiwan. 86 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4 – 5PM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 8 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 – MIDNIGHT

TICKETS

The supernatural, shapeshifting Queen of Cats (Yukari Oshima) is engaged in a centuries-long war with the Dog King and his legion of bandits. After sustaining injuries during their latest battle, the Queen is nursed back to health by a kindly young man and his girlfriend, only for them to become the Dog King’s newest targets. The Queen must now serve as protector to them and a host of other locals lest her conflict with the King spill over into our realm.

Not to be confused with Kenny Ha’s earlier film of the same name, Chow Cheung’s DEVIL CAT features a hodgepodge of different story ideas united by future martial arts legend Yukari Oshima’s presence as a crime fighting cat spirit. A heavy synth score, shimmery special effects, and some solid gore make this the ultimate wish fulfillment fantasy for vengeance-minded felines, so be careful not to show this one to yours.

THE CAT
(衛斯理之老貓)
Dir. Lam Nai-choi, 1992
Hong Kong. 84 min.
In Cantonese with English subtitles.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 4 – MIDNIGHT
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9 – 10PM
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18 – 5PM

TICKETS

A trio of shapeshifting extraterrestrials– one in the form of an old man, one a young woman, and one (of course) a cat– team up with adventure novelist Wisely to defeat an alien terror known as the Star Killer with the power to absorb and re-animate its human victims.

You’ll have to forgive us for throwing in a selection that’s technically only rated Category IIB, but how could we not include the mother of all Hong Kong cat movies. Loosely adapted from one of Shaw scribe Ni Kuang’s Wisely novels, THE CAT sees Lam Nai-choi (in his final feature, no less) one-up the gonzo absurdity that put him on the map with features like THE SEVENTH CURSE, THE GHOST SNATCHERS, and STORY OF RICKY. Lam’s swan song is a non-stop barrage of ludicrous sci-fi ideas, Lovecraftian creature designs, and latex gore, featuring endless gunfights, dogfights, catfights, a dog-and-cat fight, and enough pyrotechnics to put Hollywood to shame.