RUSS MEYER'S MUDHONEY

Russ Meyer's "Mudhoney" (1965), is one twisted, dark, mean, southern gothic melodrama of a movie...like The Andy Griffith Show gone horribly awry. This movie has a down home charm, but there is an ominous and foreboding atmosphere throughout, with a shuddering sense of violence of depravity.

"Mudhoney" is a about an ex-prisoner Calif McKinney (played by John Furlong) who comes into town looking for work. He finds a job at a farm that is owned by Lute Wade ( Stuart Lancaster) but ran by the drunken, adulturous Sidney Brensaw (Hal Hopper). The ex-con Calif beigns to set his eyes on the drunken Brenshaw's voluptious wife Hannah (Antoinette Christiani). All chaos ensues as Calif faces Brenshaw's wrath. Lute, the farm owner, has a lot of money and a bum ticker. Nothing will stand in the maniacal Brenshaw's way of getting his hands on this dough after Lute passes...

"Mudhoney" is a work of genius. The acting, pacing, and cinematography are excellent, with a script that exudes evil. Hal Hopper gives an incredible performance as Sidney Brenshaw. His performance is loaded with drunken testosterone and violence. Brenshaw's character is frightening indeed. He flies into drunken rages at the drop of a hat, frequents the town whorehouse frequently, and beats his wife. Just look into his eyes alone and you know this is a person you want to stay away from. Stuart Lancaster does a great job as Lute, the wisened owner of the farm. Do you remember him from "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill"? He turns in an excellent performance here. Down to earth yet tough. You take an immediate liking to him, and he has some of the best lines in the movie. There are many strange characters in this film that add a certain southern gothic charm. The neighborhood brothel/moonshine still is full of interesting characters, amongst them a beautiful mute played by Lorna Maitland, whose seductive presence practically radiates throughout the movie. There is also a preacher played by Frank Bolger whose disheveled appearance and hellfire and brimstone dialogue adds a morbid tone to the film.

The story moves at a tense, maddening pace, only stopping every now and then for a breather to take him some of the charms/horrors of sinful country living. The dialogue is stilted and full of dread, but it does have it's humorous moments. The beautiful black and white photography is crisp and clean. Russ Meyer's gray, wide open skies never looked so ominous. This movie is darker than "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill", which came out that same year. They are both great films, but "Mudhoney" is a bit harder to watch on first viewing because it is not quite as over the top...it s more subdued but nonetheless rewarding. Highly recommeded.

Coming Attractions...

Coming soon...
Movie reviews: John Ford's beautiful 1956 western "The Searchers" and Russ Meyer's "Mudhoney".
Music reviews: Bauhaus' "The Sky's Gone Out" and Faith No More's "Angel Dust".
Stay tuned.

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.

SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS

If you're looking for a thrill packed wild ride of a movie that is about oversexed cheerleaders, satanism, and football, then director Greydon Clark's "Satan's Cheerleaders"(1977) is the movie for you. The movie is about about a group of trouble making cheerleaders and their clueless teacher Ms. Johnson. The story starts off kind of slow, with various tawdry and mischievous shenanigans that take place on the practice field. There is plenty of dialogue filled with double entendres galore straight out of a Russ Meyer movie and a disco soundtrack that grows tiresome after a while. The cheerleaders' antics begin to annoy the school's perverted janitor and groundskeeper Billie, who sneaks peaks at them in the shower from time to time. After a while, they push Billie to his breaking point. Little do our cheerleaders know that Billie is a Satanist, and he begins to weave a spell on them that they will never forget.

So it's the day of the big game, and our cheerleaders are headed out of town. The rival team's car runs the cheerleaders off the road, and groundskeeper Billie, who is not too far behind, offers them a lift in his truck. The girls are relieved, or so they think. Billie takes them on a "detour" and the cheerleaders start wising up to what is going on and begin to resist him. Billie runs the car off the road and they wind up at an altar with a giant devil head in the middle of the woods. The sexiest cheerleader of the bunch, Patti, becomes entranced by the devil head. She promptly takes off all of her clothes, lays down on the stone altar, and begins to have sex with the devil himself, who is invisible of course. Billie wants Patti for himself and tries to take her, but the devil strikes him down. Satan makes all of the other cheerleaders oblivious to what is going on. After Patti has an orgasm, everyone comes back to their senses and they realize that Billie is dead. They panic and head to the sheriff's office to report his death. In their eyes, Billie had a heart attack while he was trying to rape Patti. A big mistake, going to the sheriff...

If you thought things were wild so far, this is just the beginning of the madness. The sheriff B. L. Bubb (masterfully played by John Ireland) and his wife Emmy (played by Yvonne De Carlo) are really the high priest and priestess of a satanic cult that has lured these cheerleaders into their town for a reason. B. L. Bubb seems like a nice guy. Very down to earth and John Wayne-like. All he wants is to sacrifice a pure maiden to the devil and murder the rest of these girls just for the hell of it. The cheerleaders quickly wise up and try to escape, but they don't have any luck. You see, everyone in the town is a Satanist, and die these girls must! I can't give away too much more of the story or you won't have any need to see the movie. Let me just tell you there is never a dull moment. And which one of these cheerleaders is really untouched? To say that they are loose would be an understatement...

This is a perfect piece of cult cinema. The maddening pace, silly dialogue, and outrageous storyline makes for a riot of a good time. As an added bonus there is even an appearence by John Carradine as a wisened hobo. Highly recommended. There is a web site dedicated to this movie. Click here to visit it.

RUSS MEYER'S "FASTER PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!"

Russ Meyer's "Faster Pussycat! Kill ! Kill!"(1965) is one of my favorite cult films of all time. It is slickly produced with beautiful black & white photography and has an addictive bad attitude and evil vibe. It is about three go-go dancers, Billie (played by Lori Wlliams), Rosie (played by Haji), and Varla (played by Tura Satana). These three voluptuous larger than life vixens are hanging out in the desert, drag racing and having a blast when a a preppy looking guy and his girlfriend Linda (played by Susan Bernard) pull up and want to race. Varla accepts the challenge and of course she beats him. He contests the results. A fight ensues and Varla breaks the man's back, leaving him to die in the desert. They kidnap the girlfriend and take off. They eventually stop at a gas station and learn about an old man (excellently played by Stuart Lancaster) who has a ton of money. Of course our girls want their hands on this loot. They have a lust for life, sex, and crime and they don't care who gets in their way. Of course they invite their way into the old man's house and all chaos and violence ensues as they do anything they can to get their hands on the load of money.

What amazes me about this movie is the sleek photography, the great script and dialog (courtesy of Jack Moran), the impressive acting and the unrelenting pace of the story. The black and white photography is gorgeous. There are many great shots of the desert, and the camera angles and smooth transitions are extraordinary. The script writing is incredible, full of double entendres and phrases that are so ingenious they will stay in your head forever. In fact, the dialogue in this movie is so good, many bands have heavily sampled from it, especially White Zombie. The pacing of the story and dialogue is excellent. It keeps you on edge but makes you comfortable at the same time, as if you were right there with the characters. The acting is incredible. Tura Satana plays Varla with a seductive vengeance, and Stuart Lancaster plays the old man with a brilliant down-home sort of creepiness. The pace of the story never lets up as the tension builds between the three vixens, leading up to the violent and thrill-packed ending.

This is one of those movies that you don't want to divulge too much of the plot as to not to spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet, even though I want to tell you everything that happens in this movie right now. It is one of those movies that has to be seen to be appreciated, and a simple plot synopsis will not do it justice. If you have seen this movie you know what I'm talking about.
If you haven't seen "Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!" yet.....well what are you waiting for? And if you have seen it, watch it again . I've seen this one so many times I've lost count.

Here's the amazing introduction. I love the bizarre sleazy narration and the incredible 1960's garage rock theme song performed by The Bostweeds.


And here is the excellent trailer. Enjoy!

DIE YOU ZOMBIE BASTARDS!

Caleb Emerson’s “Die You Zombie Bastards!”(2005) is an insane gem of a B horror movie. Here's a word of warning...do not take this movie too seriously. You must keep your tongue firmly planted in cheek. If you are one of those that take your horror too seriously you had best look elsewhere. This movie is not for you. But if you are one of those like me that love your B-Movies and you miss the good old days of the 1960's and early '70's when they made'em raw and fun and they didn't give a darn about who was going to be offended, then “Die You Zombie Bastards!“ is for you!

Let's see.....how do I even begin to describe this one? It is like watching a movie made by Herschell Gordon Lewis, John Waters, Ted Mikels, and Russ Meyer all at the same time. It starts out with the legendary, one-of-a-kind country singer Hasil Adkins playing as himself sitting outside of his trailer, introducing the movie. He is preparing us for a strange tale, a very strange tale indeed. It seems that there are some unusual things going on at a place called Hell Island. The story centers around our heroes: Red Toole, your typical run-of-the-mill mild-mannered cannibalistic serial killer, and Violet, his sex-crazed human flesh-hungry wife. He loves to bring parts of his victims home so they can eat them and have wild sex. They love each other, and something is bound to come in their way, to try to pull them apart.

Enter our nemesis, the mysterious hooded Baron Nefarious, a mad scientist gone awry. He too is sex-crazed and he has a mission: to make the entire world an army of zombies that do his bidding...and he has a zombie ray to do it! Right now he just has a gun that shoots the ray, but his zombies on Hell Island are working on a machine that will soon zap the entire world! Nefarious needs lots of bizarre sex (there is almost too much juvenile sex humor in this movie and way too many penis site gags) so he kidnaps three hot blonds to become his sex toys and zaps them into zombiedom so they will do his bidding. So he has three green zombiefied sex slaves that run around in nothing but go-go boots and a g-string. He has it made, right?

Wrong. He needs a wife. Some one with a libido to match his, someone to be his partner in crime. So Nefarious is watching a hillbilly version of The Newlywed Game and he sees our loving couple on there. After the show is over the camera is still rolling and Violet is so worked up from all the whoopie talk that she attacks the game show host and begins to eat him alive! Nefarious wants her so off to Hell Island she goes.

Of course this doesn't bode well with her husband. He dons a skin-tight red super hero suit fashionably accessorised with a chest plate, penis, and cape all made from genuine human flesh! Find her he will. So begins Red Toole's maddening, sometimes irritating, always dada-esque quest to find Nefarious, destroy the zombie army, and get his wife back.

I can't tell you anymore about what happens next because that is the charm of the movie....what will they think of next? It will keep you guessing...you're in for one thrill-packed, exhilarating, cartoonish, wild ride of a movie!

Well what are you waiting for?