Macabrelujah

Although Marty and I are currently in the process of developing some seriously insidious, CIA level market research information gathering technology, we have as yet been unsuccessful so we have no real way to determine what the exact demographic make up of our listeners might be. This being the case, I'm not sure how many of you folks are familiar with the original syndicated run of Elvira's Movie Macabre. This wonderful nugget of early to mid eighties cheese was, for me at least, an integral part of my development film wise and well...let's just say that there was alot of things for a teenage boy to enjoy about Movie Macabre. The reason for this post is to happily announce Elvira's triumphant return to the syndicated airwaves. The first episode of the new series even featured Night of The Living Dead as the feature film. It's unclear at this point if she intends to feature more quality films, NOTLD in my opinion is a classic, or if she will return to her more B movie roots, we can only hope. Long pre-dating MST3K, the lovely Mistress of the Dark's commentary about the films was almost always as entertaining as the films themselves. I would encourage you all to give Elvira a shot, I'm sure you'll find something to enjoy about Movie Macabre. Whether it's nostalgia for the days when horror hosts were a fixture of local Saturday night programming or a chance for some of our younger listeners to glimpse the good old days, I'll spare you the "back in my day" speech, I think we can all agree that Elvira's return is a welcome one for genre and B movie fans everywhere. Follow this link, Elvira on HULU, to get a little taste of the original series. Check your local listings for show times.

-Mike

Episode 6 Posted!

In Episode 6, Mike and Marty discuss two "classics" from the 80s that tried to cash in on the success of Ridley Scott's blockbuster 1979 film Alien. The films covered are 1980's Contamination from italian maestro Luigi Cozzi, and 1985's Creature from William Malone and featuring the inimitable Klaus Kinski. These are both low-budget, earnest efforts from guys who really really love to make movies, and though neither can be considered a total success, they are both worth your time if you can find enough patience to ignore some of the more glaring problems they each have. Enjoy the podcast and let us know what you think at "flickersfrom@yahoo.com".
-Marty

Italian Cinemeh

In Episode 5 of the podcast, Marty and Mike talk about two "epics" of Italian sci-fi, 1979's The Humanoid and 1978's Starcrash. These two are wonderfully bad with some recognizable faces littered amongst the cast. If you were a reader of Starlog magazine in the Star Wars era, you are probably familiar with at least Starcrash, and ,if you are like me, all it took was knowing that Richard Kiel stars in it to make me desperate to watch The Humanoid. These are far from good films, but they both are so utterly charming that, each time I would wake up from being bored to sleep, I found myself really enjoying them in all their ineffable badness. Enjoy the show and let us know what you think! Oh, and if you're concerned about whether your hog is on meth, here is a PSA that will give you all the information you need.
-Marty

European Horrors

This weekend I settled in for a back-to-back European horror-fest. The films I watched were 2004's Calvaire ( The Ordeal ) and 2008's Linkeroever ( Left Bank ). Both were good but in very different ways.
Left Bank reminded me very much in story and tone of Polanski's classic Rosemary's Baby. Subtle performances and striking cinematography combined to give the film a very somber mood with a constant sense of dread as the mysteries in the story were revealed. The story centers on Marie, a 22 year old girl who is training to be a world champion runner. During a period of forced inactivity, she meets Bobby who is the dean of the local Archer's Guild ( it is set in current time but apparently in Belgium there are still Archer's Guilds ). The two begin a relationship and Marie moves in with Bobby during her convalescence. Bobby's grandmother is the landlord of a large block of flats called Left Bank and she has managed to get Bobby an apartment there. Marie finds out that the apartment they are in was occupied by a woman who disappeared and that it was this woman's disappearance that left the apartment open and available for Bobby. She decides to investigate into the woman's disappearance and this forms the driving element of the plot. It is, at its core, a supernatural thriller, but it is couched firmly in the real world which lends weight to the festivities when things inevitably begin to get strange.
The Ordeal was even more impressive and much less fun to watch. It is a very dark ride indeed. I could not help but think of the work of David Lynch as I watched the film. The story follows along the familiar "fish out of water" storyline. The main character is a traveling performer/singer and at the beginning of the film is finishing up a stint at an old-folks home. He leaves the home a few days before christmas to head to his next show "to the north". The scenes at the old-folks home are weird, very weird, so I was disconcerted from the very beginning. Things become progressively weirder as car-trouble leaves our hero with the peculiar character of Mr. Bartel, who runs a defunct inn out in the absolute middle of nowhere. The Ordeal had me recalling scenes from things as diverse as Hostel, Last House on the Left, Deliverance, Martyrs and Blue Velvet. The performances are all utterly off-kilter and confounding. As things become increasingly heavy and dark, the goofy little idiosyncracies of the characters almost made me laugh in the midst of all the truly disturbing scenarios that the main character found himself in. As with Left Bank, the cinematography in The Ordeal was truly beautiful, with verdant landscapes full of dark, loamy soil and primeval forests. The world of the film is not the world we all live in, but a nightmare which I would want to quickly awake from.
Both films are highly recommended, with a strong warning about The Ordeal, the name is, in many ways, very appropriate.
-Marty

Dixie Dynamite

Over the past weekend I watched the 1976 movie Dixie Dynamite with my father and my 13 year old son. It tells the story of two sisters and their father who makes moonshine in a little shack behind their home as his primary way of making money to support the family. The girls are either in their late teens or very early twenties and both are super-hot in that "Daisy Duke" sort of way. Early in the film, their father dies during a police chase and the girls find themselves struggling to get by without him. There is an evil man in town who is trying to force the residents into foreclosure so that he can buy up their property. Christopher George is the local sheriff who had worked with the evil man in the past, but who now is having trouble accepting this property scam. The girls' uncle is played by the great Warren Oates and it is he who teaches the girls to ride motorcycles, which comes in handy later in the film. The titular "dynamite" is on display a lot as the girls begin to exact revenge on the evil man. They go totally "Robin Hood" on his ass as they rob his businesses and distribute the money to the locals to help them keep their homes. I should also mention that R.G. Armstrong does a fine job as the president of the local bank.
The story really clips along, there is some totally entertaining motorcycle races, the girls wear some impossibly tight shorts, there is gunplay and explosives galore...what is not to like? It was a total crowd-pleaser too, we all agreed when the final credits rolled, that Dixie Dynamite was a good way to spend 90 minutes on warm summer night.
-Marty

Episode 4: My Podcast with Andre

Episode 4 has been posted! In this show, Mike and I talk about the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre which stars Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory. If you haven't seen this film, or you saw it years ago, I think we'd both urge you to watch it now. The film drips with wonderful bits of philosophy and is a multi-level experience that reveals itself slowly with each subsequent viewing. We hope our conversation convinces you to give it a shot. Let us know what you think.

-Marty

Inception

This weekend I saw Christopher Nolan's new film Inception. I was lucky enough to see at an IMAX theater which probably added to the overall power of what was already a VERY powerful film. My friends Leif and KMO sat on either side of me, with all three of us silent through the entire 148 minutes. The only sounds I made were frequent utterances of "wow". There is not much to say about the film that wouldn't spoil the brilliant way that the plot is revealed. Suffice it to say that if you're interested in the movie, avoid as many reviews as you can. My only exposure had been through the trailers and the astounding review score that is mounting on IMDB.
As far as, non-spoiler information goes, the performances are consistent and excellent. The effects shots are seamless and fantastic. I left the theater, once again, in awe of Christopher Nolan. He has yet to disappoint ( The Prestige was good but not great to me ) and consistently proves that he is a filmmaker to watch and an artist with a unique and important vision.
The themes in the film of dream-worlds, and the deliberate altering of what goes on within them, was very interesting in light of my own experiences with lucid dreaming. If you have never had a lucid dream, I urge you to read about them and the various recommended techniques for cultivating that skill. The feeling, when you are in the dream-world, and you decide that you want a thing to be, and summoning it physically into existence...that is a feeling that is hard to beat, and hard to imagine if you've never done it.
One thing we did speak of after the movie is the question of who we would recommend this movie to. It is challenging in a way that I don't think the typical film-goer would appreciate. It doesn't guide you into its world or its ideas. When the film starts, it is up to the audience to piece together the world, the characters, and the ideas. The script does this all brilliantly, but I wonder just how large of an audience the film will attract. I will be impressed if a sizable mass of humanity appreciates the film.
Would I recommend "Inception" to my grandmother? no...but to those three people reading this? I totally would urge you to see it, and see it soon, before some sucker spoils it for you.
-Marty

Shadows on a Distant Wall

Yahoo linked me yesterday to a story on the New York Times website about a scientist who has challenged the traditional idea of gravity. In the article I found the following quote:

"Black holes, in effect, are holograms — like the 3-D images you see on bank cards. All the information about what has been lost inside them is encoded on their surfaces. Physicists have been wondering ever since how this “holographic principle” — that we are all maybe just shadows on a distant wall — applies to the universe and where it came from."

You can read the article at this link.

Just thinking of black holes makes me want to watch the old disney movie. Oh, and a word of caution...if you search for images on google using the phrase "black hole" make sure you have safe search on!
-Marty

Larry Cohen's Bone, if you know what I mean

Today I watched Larry Cohen's 1972 film Bone. Yaphet Kotto is the eponymous character who quickly throws into turmoil the seemingly idyllic lives of a couple in Beverly Hills California, played by Andrew Duggan and Joyce Van Patten. This might be my favorite Larry Cohen film of all time, and that is really saying something. The performances were all solid, especially Kotto and Van Patten. The way the plot is revealed and teased out over the course of the very speedy 95 minute run-time is totally impressive. The characters are so complex and interesting. The dialogue isn't necessarily "realistic" but it's amazing in the way that the best Tarantino dialogue is. A lot is said about race, about class, and about power, both directly and indirectly though camera angles, and the nuanced performances of the actors. I am eager to rewatch the movie now that I have the bigger picture of the plot in my mind. Much like how The Sixth Sense is a vastly different experience the second time around, I feel confident that Bone will reveal even greater depth on subsequent viewings. Consider it VERY highly recommended.
-Marty

Episode 3.5 - The Rowdy Poddy Pipercast

I had the distinct pleasure of speaking with KMO of the C-Realm Podcast and Doug Lain of the Diet Soap Podcast recently about the 1988 John Carpenter film They Live. This special edition of the Flickers From the Cave podcast focuses on this one film and its allegorical presentation of an earth where humans are kept ignorant of their alien overlords and it takes a badass pair of raybans to reveal the truth.
-Marty