INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS

Before the advent of the Internet there was a series of over sized trade paperback periodicals called Re/Search. They were about all sorts of bizarre counter-culture subjects, from strange outsider music to pranks to bizarre fiction, movies, and other off-the-wall treasures that you could find nowhere else. The Re-Search series flourished throughout the 1980's through the very early 1990's. Most were edited by V. Vale and Andrea Juno and featured articles, interviews, and essays by a wide variety of writers. My favorite of these books was "Incredibly Strange Films"(Re/Search #10, published in 1985). This book helped turn me on to wide variety of bizarre directors and films. Some in the book I already knew about, but this book helped me learn more about them and discover more of their films. Others I had never heard of, and I immediately and hungrily sought out their work.

"Incredibly Strange Films" is a real treasure trove of information on bizarre American cinema. It is chock full of in depth interviews with directors, essays, and other information on several pieces of classic and unheard of cult cinema, some of which you may have seen reviewed here. There is also exhaustive coverage of several cult cinema sub-genres, such as mondo films, women in prison films and LSD flicks. There are interviews and in-depth coverage of some of my favorite directors their lifetime production of films.

I will give you a list of some of the directors featured in this book, and the movies in parenthesis are the ones that have been reviewed here so far.

Russ Meyer (Faster Pussycat Kill Kill)

Ted V. Mikels ( Corpsegrinders 2, Mark of the Astro Zombies)

Frank Henenlotter (Basket Case 2, Brain Damage, Frankenhooker)

Larry Cohen (Black Caesar)

Herschell Gordon Lewis (Bloodfeast 1 and 2, The Wizard of Gore, The Gore-Gore Girls)

Ray Dennis Steckler (Rat Phink a Boo Boo)

Essay on Jack Hill's Spider Baby

There are a lot of movies featured in this book, many that I have yet to discover, and some that I have yet to share with you. Just pick this book up if you can. Even though it came out in the 1980's, I have not seen another publication to cover so thoroughly the joy and wonders of the American cult film.

BRAIN DAMAGE

Everybody knows who Frank Henenlotter is by now, right? If not, check out my reviews of "Basket Case 2" and "Frankenhooker".
Well here's another installment in the demented world of Frank Henenlotter....BRAIN DAMAGE! It came out in 1987 and its much more dark and twisted than any of hos other works in my opinion. It delves deep into the human side of horror and drug addiction, and shows the streets how they really are.....and yet at the same time this is the funniest and strangest movie you will see in a long time. You will fall out of your chair laughing in horror and disbelief!!

BRAIN DAMAGE is about a parasite named AYLMER that loves to eat brains. He is blue, looks like a turd(MR. HANKEY ring any bells?), has many many sharp teeth, speaks perfect English, travels through the decrepit inner-city New York plumbing and will eat your brains in a second. But there is one catch. He is lazy and quite sophisticated. He would rather have someone else go find his brains for him!

So how does he do this? Well, he promises to get you high! He sinks his fangs into the base of your brain and secretes a chemical that makes you feel like you are on LSD but addicts you like heroin. If you don't bring him brains, he cuts you off!!! In fact, he cut off his last owners because they would only give him animal brains...the nerve! It's human brains or nothing!

So he finds a new owner, a gullible youth named Brian...watch him sink to the depths of despair in the most disgusting area of New York you have ever seen! He can't get a girlfriend because Aylmer wants her brains, he can't get a friend because Aylmer wants brains! And he has to have his fix...

This movie is a must see! Drop everything now and find this movie before Aylmer crawls up through the drain of your bathroom sink and tries to get you high or eat your brains...

FRANKENHOOKER

FRANKENHOOKER (1990). What a great movie! I don't know where to start... Anybody familiar with Frank Henenlotter's stuff? He directed this movie as well as the "Basket Case" trilogy and "Brain Damage". His brand of horror is very twisted. It's streetwise, human, very funny in a sick kind of way and always deals with the human side of horror. What strange things can go wrong with the body and mind!

FRANKENHOOKER is a demented love story, very outside the box. The movie opens at a birthday party. Jeffrey,a scientist and inventor, is a throwing a big birthday party for his long-time girlfriend. Everything is going smoothly until the auto-pilot lawnmower he built malfunctions and runs his girlfriend over, cutting her into tiny pieces! All that is left is her head...
So he begins a a maddening quest. How can he get his girlfriend back? He keeps her head in a freezer and her brain still works. It's hooked up to all kinds of electronic gadgets! So now to the next problem. How do you get her body back? SIMPLE! You invent SUPERCRACK, so powerful it will make you literally explode, hit the streets and find a bunch of prostitutes, get with their pimp, invite 'em all over for an orgy, give'em some supercrack, wait til they explode, take the parts you want to rebuild your girlfriend, throw the rest away or hide'em in your deep freezer, and BAM! your problem is solved! Now all he has to do is sew the parts together and reanimate her. It just takes a couple of minutes in the movie and he's done......right?

WRONG! An undead girlfriend, reanimated with body parts from prostitutes full of supercrack does not bode well. None of her parts match, she lumbers around, "wanna fuck?" is just about all she can say. She is extremely dangerous, as The SUPERCRACK gave her super-human powers! Things are not going well for poor Jeffrey........and what about those extra body parts he didn't use and left in the deep freezer? The freezer is making a weird noise and funny lights are shooting out of it...

Well, what are you waiting for? FRANKENHOOKER is a movie no one should miss!

BASKET CASE 2

Frank Henenlotter's "Basket Case 2". Anybody out there familiar with Henenlotter's work? HIs movies are darkly humorous, twisted, macabre, and oddly human. I love his work.


"Basket Case" is about Duane and his deformed Siamese twin Belial. They were seperated when Duane was a teenager because Belial was just too grotesque. He was attached to Duane's side and is nothing more than a grossly deformed head with two arms coming out of each side and what appears to be a mutated spinal cord growing from the back of his head. The doctors who seperated the two threw Belial in the trash but Duane rescued him and let him live in a picnic basket. They swore revenge on Belial's would be murderers and eventually killed everyone involved in the surgery.

Belial and Duane share a psychic bond: they share thoughts and communicate without speaking. Duane seeks female companionship but Belial is jealous because he cannot experience these things because of his appearance. Eventually the two get into a fight and wind up throwing each other out of the window of their apartment. They fall to their death on the streets of New York...or do they?

Enter 'Basket Case 2". It picks up right where the first one left off and finds Duane and Belial being rescued and taken to a hospital. They are also being investigated for multiple murders and are the center of media attention. Needing to get out of the spotlight, they escape from the hospital and are rescued by the leader of a commune for the grossly deformed. The commune takes them in and Duane and Belial are right at home. The inhabitants of this refuge are a sight. They give George Lucas' creatures in the Mos Eisley Cantina in Star Wars a run for their money. They are very creatively designed.

Things are going well for Duane and Belial. Belial finds love in a female that looks just like him...there is a sex scene between Belial and his companion that will blow your mind. But things cannot stay peaceful forever....there is a pesky female reporter that has to have their story. If the media finds where they are, everyone is in trouble....cultist communes with mutant abominations are not exactly legal.....So everyone vows to defend their secrecy and soon all hell breaks loose and a gory bloodbath ensues as they defend themselves against the media.Eventually there is no more threat from the media.


Eventually there is no more threat from the media. Everyone is at peace. Belial is happy, but Duane is not...he is tired of being considered a freak and wants to lead a normal life. He is in love with a woman at the commune who appears to be normal....or is she? Watch as Duane hovers on the brink of insanity.....

What happens next? Well, you have to watch the movie.

"Basket Case 2" is a well made movie. The acting, the effects, the production, and the script are all good. If you've seen the first "Basket Case" you will be shocked at how good this movie looks. The first one was grimy, dark and surreal, partly due to budget issues. The second one is much easier on the eye but still conveys the same mood.

You don't have to watch the first one to understand the sequel, as you find out what you need to know in flashbacks. I would recommend you see the first one, because you will be hooked on Henenlotter after watching "Basket Case 2" and you'll want to see everything he's ever made. I just can't get enough of Duane and Belial. There is a "Basket Case 3" out there but it is next to impossible to find and I'm dying to see it.

Highly recommended.