A celluloid meteor is about to slam into the city of Los Angeles. The boys from the Alamo Drafthouse have been driving a van (license plate: Van Dam) across state lines to bring the West Coast of the United States an orgy of exploitation greatness. They’re doing two nights at the legendary New Beverly Cinema before moving on up the coast. Many of the films they’ll be showing are not available on DVD at all, so this could be your only chance to discover them. And while they’re here they’ll be having some special guests.
Tonight (Thursday) it’s a triple feature of Psychosexual Maniacs. And who better to have guesting but the inimitable Sybil Danning? Nobody! That’s why she’s going to be there!
And tomorrow (Friday) the New Bev will host the Alamo boys as they bring us a double feature of really bizarre movies (including a film called Surf 2… there is no Surf 1), and a terrific guest: cinema’s greatest nerd, Eddie Deezen!
Here are the full details for both nights. If you’re in LA you have got to be there. Both nights! I know I’ll be riveted to the screen.
Follow the latest updates from the road at the Cinemapocalypse blog!
New Beverly Cinema
7165 West Beverly Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
www.newbevcinema.com
PSYCHOSEXUAL MANIACS Triple Feature!
Co-presented with Grindhouse Film Festival at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles
JULIE DARLING
Dir. Paul Nicolas, 1983, 35mm, 100 min, R – NOT ON DVD!
I’ve never had kids and I never will. I’ve watched enough movies to know they’re bad news. Even if they aren’t possessed by the devil, they still learn to hate you and all you stand for – even as they eat all your food and wreck your sex life! If I ever waver in my determination to remain child-free, I’ll just thread this movie up and feel my testes retract. In this cinematic curio – kind of a cross between a Lifetime Original Movie and a Spaghetti Western, an actress named Isabelle Mejias gives a performance to remember as a daughter with a serious daddy hang up. There’s not a huge volume of physical violence in the film but the spriritual violence wrought by the cunning and manipulative teenager is hellishly intense. Starring Anthony Franciosa as the lucky dad and Teutonic Amazon Sybil Danning as the girl’s unlucky new step-mom. It’s only appropriate to warn you that the wrong-meter goes into the red here several times, which is just where I like it! Director Paul Nicolas also made CHAINED HEAT, my pick for greatest Women In Prison movie of all time. Be here! (Lars)
POOR PRETTY EDDIE a.k.a. REDNECK COUNTY RAPE
Dir. Chris Robinson & David Worth, 1975, 35mm, 92 min, R
This goodtime backwoods holocaust is both an exploitation masterpiece and a searing assault on all races, genders, social classes and good taste. Respected singer/actress Leslie Uggams dives deep into the cinematic netherworld as road-weary celebrity Liz Wetherly who stops off at a rural hotel for a little R&R…which in this case stands for Rape and Revenge. After being violated by the psychotic Elvis-obsessed hotel handyman, Liz finds little sympathy from the sheriff (DR. STRANGELOVE’s Slim Pickens) or the assorted colorful locals, including Shelley Winters, consummate hillbilly Dub Taylor and Ted “Lurch” Cassidy. Unable to break free of the community’s filth-caked grip, she spirals ever deeper into the tangled web of paranoia, hatred and mental illness that the entire local populace feeds on like an anguish buffet. Most notable is the film’s inevitably brutal climax, a perfectly composed extermination of the human spirit like nothing you’ll ever experience again. (Zack)
PSYCHO FROM TEXAS
Dir. Jim Feazell, 1981, 35mm, 94 min, R – NOT ON DVD!
Already a cult favorite among the most discriminating hicksploitation connoisseurs, this cheap, sleazy slice of lone-star low-life is finally poised to infect the rest of the country. All Texans are familiar with this film but the very mention of its title is oddly taboo. It’s a little like the mentally deficient cousin with the weird ears who lives in the basement and eats bugs. We just don’t talk about it. Well, maybe now’s the time to start because there’s a lot to love about this movie. The titular psycho, Wheeler, is one of the most memorable characters in regional filmdom. John King III deserved an Oscar for his performance as the mommy obsessed killer with the weird laugh and the unorthodox fried chicken eating technique. But it may be Tommy Lamey as Wheeler’s toothpick-worrying sidekick Slick who provides the most memorable moments in the film, notably a long foot chase that takes up probably a third of the run-time and provides laughs galore – as you’ll see. PSYCHO FROM TEXAS features more scummy dialogue, K-mart fashions, mean rednecks, continuity lapses, incongruous BOING sound effects and country cuties than any film you can name. Do not miss! (Lars)
* * * * * *
Friday April 17
BARREL OF MONKEYS Double Feature
Co-presented with New Beverly Midnights at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles
SURF 2 – END OF THE TRILOGY
25th ANNIVERSARY SCREENING! Stars EDDIE DEEZEN and JIM GREENLEAF live in person!!
Dir. Randall Badat, 1984, 35mm, 91 min, R – NOT ON DVD!
One of the supreme party romps of the genre’s defining decade, here is a No Rules celluloid powerhouse that doubles as a 300-fisted beachfront avalanche of insanity! Honestly, this greatest-mohawked-surfer-zombie-comedy-ever-made is best summarized by writer/director Badat: “Menlo Schwartzer – the geekiest mad scientist of all – wants to rid the world of surfers by transforming them into garbage-ingesting zombie punks! But no way dude can he stop their most awesome party!” SURF II (no, there was not a SURF 1) packs more early ‘80s drive-in mania into one movie than even a brain in the final stages of rabies can handle. Drooling undead new wave boneheads, valley girls, electronically transgendered geekazoids in underwater fortresses, the guy who played everyone’s favorite corpse in WEEKEND AT BERNIE’S, spazztastic video game combat and an appearance from actor Fred Asparagus as “Fat Boy # 1”! Speaking of the stellar Z-caliber cast, this picture sports a career-best lead performance from Supreme Alpha Nerd Eddie Deezen, as well as surprise roles from Ruth Buzzi, Carol Wayne and BLAZING SADDLES’ Cleavon Little. Combine with the pogo-inducing soundtrack by Oingo Boingo and The Circle Jerks and you have the most entertaining IQ-remover The Video Age ever shat out! Totally retardular!!! (Zack)
CARNIVAL MAGIC
Dir. Al Adamson, 1981, 35mm, 85 min, “G” – NOT ON VHS, DVD or ANYTHING ELSE!Alright, it’s time to get serious. Very serious. Because this is possibly the rarest movie on the entire planet. As far as we can determine, only one print exists of this thing and we’ve got it. And we’re going to share it with you. If you’re a fan of the cinematic badlands, you’ve seen some pretty strange things. But unless you’ve guzzled embalming fluid on the moon with Bigfoot you’ve never seen anything quite as awe-inspiringly jacked-up as this “inspirational” kids’ movie from the director of SATAN’S SADISTS and BLACK SAMURAI. Why anyone thought this was appropriate for children we’ll never understand. Granted, it might be educational for kids to see the lion tamer gratuitously slapping his girlfriend around or a teenage girl apparently giving an ape hand-relief (we didn’t believe it at first either), we don’t know if we’d be prepared to field Junior’s many questions about the unsavory goings-on in the cheapest, most depraved carnival this side of Tod Browning’s FREAKS. (Lars)