10/7
Luther the Geek (1990, Carlton J. Albright, Roku) - 8.5
A young boy named Luther witnesses a circus geek biting the head off a chicken, and is inspired later in life to try to bite the heads off people. He's sent to prison, but gets paroled for being a "model prisoner" despite the fact he can't even speak and only makes chicken noises. After his release, he immediately bites into the neck of an old woman at a grocery store, and from there, it rather disappointingly becomes a home invasion flick where he holds a mother, daughter, and daughter's boyfriend captive. I'd have much rather seen a spree of neck-chomping murder. There's still more than enough to like, though. Some good gore, a funny ending, and an excellently creepy lead performance from the guy playing Luther.
10/8
Tales from the Crapper (2004, Gabe Friedman/Chad Ferrin/Dave Paiko/Brian Spitz/Lloyd Kaufman, Roku) - 5.0
Two stories, one about a killer alien at a strip club and the other about a guy trying to pay for college with a stripper party, are bridged together by Lloyd Kaufman with a trash bag over his head calling himself the Crapkeeper. The movie feels like some intern at Troma blackmailed Kaufman into giving him a modest budget to shoot a flimsy tasteless movie full of gross gore and excessive nudity. Apparently, a few people directed it (all different segments, presumably), and apparently-er, the two main shorts were actually directed by India Allen, but Kaufman had some dispute with her, so Troma shot new footage to add in between, and re-dubbed a lot of dialogue to make people have lisp-y gay voices, and put in a farting sound effect every ten seconds (literally). It doesn't set out to be anything more than a gore and tits film, and to that degree, it's fantastic. Any movie so openly against a coherent plot, and instead devoted strictly to gore and tits is beyond fine by me. But this one goes for an unfortunate trifecta of gore, tits, and fart jokes, and with this, it ruins itself. I can handle one or two fart jokes in an otherwise good comedy, but here it became fucking excruciating. So no matter how much I wanted to like this movie, it just wouldn't let me. I'd be curious, though, to watch the original shorts, as it seems that every aspect of this that wasn't good was something that was dubbed in later by the new directors. Also, James Gunn and Eli Roth had some funny cameos.
10/9
Sensitive 70s (16mm, Oddball Cinema)
The 70s were really fucking sensitive. This program at Oddball Cinema was basically the sweetest, most sincere two hours of my life. Overwhelmingly so, and fucking amazing. Here's the lineup, all on 16mm.
Francesca, Baby (1976, Larry Elikann) - 9.0
The Drug Scene (1970, Justin Purchin) - 9.0
I'm Feeling Scared (Rewatch, 1974, Larry Klingman) - 10.0
Your Self Image (1971, Jim Gable & Jerry Greenman) - 9.0
Suicide: It Doesn't Have to Happen (1976, Peggi Chute) - 9.5
Francesca, Baby was a tv movie, about 45 minutes, and the others were shorts, from 8 minutes to 20. It's hard to rate them separately because even though they were much different, I basically liked them for the same reasons. Individually, I'd rate them each a 9.0, but together it was a 10.0. Actually, I'm Feeling Scared on it's own is a 10.0. It's a series of enactments of kids in situations that scare them, as they sing about their fears to a catchy tune. The message for kids being that it's ok to feel scared sometimes. And as an adult, there were things I still related to. Francesca, Baby was about a teenage girl and her little sister learning to deal with a frequently absent father and an alcoholic mother. The Drug Scene was a documentary, produced by Hanna/Barbera, where teens talked about their use of drugs, and the sense of hopelessness that led them there. Your Self Image had a little boy finding a mirror man in his closet, who showed him the importance of perceiving yourself positively. And Suicide: It Doesn't Have to Happen starred Marcel Marceau helping out a depressed girl, and getting her into a group to discuss the ways they all deal with thoughts of suicide. It was probably the most heartbreaking film of the night. All were excellent and extremely moving, and are described perfectly by the word "sensitive".
Psycho II (1983, Richard Franklin, DVD) - 9.0
It's been more than 20 years, and Norman Bates is deemed sane enough to return to life on the outside, back at the motel. But once he's there, he starts receiving notes and phone calls from his mother, and people start getting murdered. But is it Norman, or is someone trying to set him up and make him feel like a psycho again? It's a fucking awesome thriller, that continues the story of the original in a respectful and intriguing way. Anthony Perkins returns as Norman, and is excellent, as is Meg Tilly as the young waitress he befriends, and Dennis Franz shines as the sleazy motel manager. The story unravels really well and kept me guessing on who the real killer was throughout, and the resolution is amazing. It also had some great gore moments that were a bit more graphic than the original could be. The original is great, and I wouldn't say I prefer this one, but I definitely felt it to be worthy.
10/11
House on Sorority Row (1983, Mark Rosman, Roku) - 7.5
A group of recently-graduated sorority girls want to throw a final party before they move away, but the house mother won't let them. They decide to pull a prank on her, but accidentally kill her instead, and then the girls start getting killed. Is the house mother not actually dead, or is it her disfigured son, born through experimental means? The girls are good, the gore is so-so, there are some really amazing, creepy moments, and I loved the story, but somehow it doesn't quite gel into something great. More gore probably would've done it. It's good, though, and occasionally fantastic.
The Sweet House of Horrors (1989, Lucio Fulci, DVD) - 9.0
A couple comes home and finds a masked robber there. The husband attacks the robber, but the robber overpowers him and repeatedly smashes his head into the wall, leaving chunks of brain, hair, and blood. He then chases the woman into the kitchen, holds her down, and with some kind of weight, hits her in the face, knocking her eyeball out. He then hits the other side of her face, and her other eye kind of explodes. Then he smashes her forehead open. He goes back into the living room, where it turns out the husband is still alive, so the robber grabs a fire poker, and hits him repeatedly in the face with that. And then he drives their bodies off a cliff to look like a car accident. After that, it's a haunted house story about the couple returning as ghosts to get back at their murderer, prevent their house from being sold, and hang out with their kids. The opening ten minutes are fucking extraordinary, and the rest of the movie doesn't quite live up to that, but it's very funny (fairly sure it's intentionally so) and very sweet.
10/12
Patrick (1978, Richard Franklin, Roku) - 8.0
A new nurse is put in charge of a creepy patient named Patrick who has been comatose for three years, and has developed telekinetic powers. Patrick falls for the nurse, and uses his powers to jealously maim anyone who gets too close to her. Pretty good!
10/13
My Soul to Take (2010, Wes Craven, RealD, Van Ness) - 6.5
Seven kids are born on the day a serial killer is murdered, and on their sixteenth birthday, it’s believed that he’s gonna possess one of the kids and kill some people. I liked the story a lot, and found the characters endearing, but the kill scenes are mostly disappointing, and I don’t know, there’s kind of a blandness to it. It’s ok, though.
Let Me In (2010, Matt Reeves, 35mm, Van Ness) - 9.0
A meek kid (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who gets bullied a lot meets a vampire (Chloe Moretz), and they become close, and help each other deal with shit. Roughly the same as the original film, with minor differences. Aside from both of them having issues with terrible cgi taking you out of the film (though in different parts), this works out well, and both versions are equally good while remaining individual. I didn’t care much for McPhee here, whose facial expression never varied from “stressed”, and whenever he was up there alone, I found myself waiting for Moretz to return to the screen, but Moretz is compelling enough for both of them, and Richard Jenkins gives some depth to the small role of her caretaker. Like the original, it’s atmospherically brilliant and creepy, and the plot is fucking great.
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