Full Moon sinks deeper in to pseudo-Troma territory by delivering another installment of “Killjoy’s Psycho Circus.” If you’re prepared for a movie that has literally no plot but spends ninety minutes advertising its product tie-ins, then you might enjoy what’s on display here. During Killjoy’s demented TV show, there’s an ad featuring the characters from “Evil Bong,” and the movie literally stops to promote the “Adam and Eve” website. They even bring on a model to talk to Killjoy to promote their products. I’ve heard of product placement before, but I’ve never seen a movie so lazy that it literally stops in its tracks to promote a product for a company.
Emilie Black At Home with Guillermo Del Toro’s Monsters
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is hosting an exhibit of a part of filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro’s horror-centric art collection. This includes everything from movie props (from his own films and others’), to paintings, to photographs, to sculptures, to storyboards, to sketches, etc, etc, etc. This small part of his collection is insane in the best of ways and any movie nerd that can should go and see it before it closes on the 27th of November.
As a proper movie (horror especially) nerd, I went and took a ton of photos. Unfortunately, it is dark in there and flash photography is not allowed to protect the art and other people’s enjoyment of it. With no further ado, here are some of my photos of the exhibit in all their dark and grainy glory!
The Trail of Dracula (2016) (DVD)
It’s funny how I know so much about Dracula and still can’t get enough of the character or the concept no matter where I turn. Intervision’s “The Trail of Dracula” is an hour long look in to the history of Dracula through the ages. There are tons of interviews and accounts from the creation of Bram Stoker’s novel, and the unauthorized adaptation called “Nosferatu,” right down to his pop culture influence in the modern age like “Vampire Hunter D” and “Castlevania.” While I would have loved a more thorough examination of the vampire legend and its various incarnations of cultures all around the world, “The Trail of Dracula” explores how Dracula eventually was crafted.
X-Rated Alley: Sin [Blu-Ray/DVD], 42nd Street Forever: Peep Show Collection Vol. 17 (DVD), 42nd Street Forever: Peep Show Collection Vol. 18 (DVD)
For consumers and collectors interested in erotica that’s both artistic and evocative, Cult Epics releases Nico B’s “Sin.”
Interview with Scream Queen and Author Carrie Keagan
I first learned about Carrie Keagan during her stint on “Attack of the Show” in the mid-aughts. As one of the hundreds of men in America smitten with the bold, funny, quick as a whip, and daring journalist, I’ve been following her career and am pleased to see Ms. Keagan is now starring in two highly anticipated upcoming horror films. Carrie Keagan has an insatiable appetite for horror movies, and is a bonafide horror geek and self-professed “Gore Whore” who can be seen playing a Burlesque dancer/zombie fighter in Staci Layne Wilson’s “Fetish Factory,” and as a bride to be turned monster in “The Fiance.”
Thanks to talented director Staci Layne Wilson, I was lucky enough to grab an interview with the very busy Carrie Keagan, who is taking on more film projects, huge television projects, and even released a memoir.
Green Room (2016)
Jeremy Saulnier has a habit for taking the characters he writes and literally throwing them in to the furnace to be scorched. With “Blue Ruin” he set his character down a path of destructive revenge, and in “Green Room” he takes absolutely zero prisoners. He doesn’t just build on four characters that end up in the wrong place in the wrong time, but he punishes them severely. “Green Room” is yet another superb dramatic thriller about innocence succumbing to evil that’s beyond pure emotion and impulse. Patrick Stewart’s character is a villain who works with a horrific sense of swiftness and cold instruction like a businessman trying to clean up an insignificant spill. The moment we meet him he’s a man unencumbered by emotion or anger, despite the fact every move he makes could mean the end of his lifestyle as he knows it.
The Short Films of Ithaca Fantastik 2016 [Ithaca Fantastik 2016]
As only a few short films were seen, here are mini-reviews for each of these titles.
Curve (Australia) (2016)
A young woman wakes up sitting on a curved surface, clinging to it for dear life. This short is very simple in concept, yet possibly one of the most grim and dark short seen this year. There is not clear, or unclear, way of the situation this young lady is in and signs are accumulating that others did not have any luck in her position. Written and directed by Tim Egan, the film has no dialogue and only one character, making the most of its location and the situation the character is in. The star, Laura Jane Turner, gives a very good performance and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat as she tries to get in a better situation. The film is grim and her performance suits it well, showing desperation and a need to survive.