In Essential Deren, experimental filmmaker Maya Deren said that the essence of her work was to, “externalize an inner world to the point where it is confounded with the external world.”…
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Perhaps more than any other movie in the 80s, Fatal Attraction showed the world that bitches be crazy. Not to be undone, director Orhan Elmas wanted to show the world that…
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Humans are the worst organisms on the planet. We hate, pollute, and don’t know how to share. That’s why we knock down trees for no good reason. But sooner or later,…
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If you’re like me—and you are—then you love gooey, goopy, gruesome horror movies, ones that explode with crimson gore or neon slime. You love those beasties coated in mucus, with the…
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There will never be a moment in time when aliens aren’t cool. By that logic, the same goes for Tartarus. John has spent his life scamming people for large sums of…
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At some point in filmmaking history, people—ahem, men—decided that all women in the thoes of a mental breakdown do the following: eat their feelings with reckless abandon modern dance (pronounced dahnse)…
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After watching Fuck the Devil, I was convinced that the best 40 minutes of my life were over and it was all downhill from there. Then Nightmare Feddy showed up during…
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Somewhere in sun-baked Nigeria, a cabbie picks up a passenger alongside an empty dirt road. Watch out, it’s a zombie! And it’s wearing a giant floppy straw hat! Zombies need sun…
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In Pop: A Survey of the Explosive Rise of Pop From the 1950s-60s, Andy Warhol is quoted as saying, “You have to do stuff that average people don’t understand because those…
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Isaac Hayes. Eddie Deezen. Juliette Lewis. Elisabeth Moss. Forest Whitaker. John Travolta. Tom Cruise. Scientology has claimed the minds of many, though if I’m being honest, I’m probably most bummed about…
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In 1964, one-and-done filmmaker Louise Sherrill wrote, produced, and directed a crude, avant garde reinterpretation of The Haunting and called it Ghosts of Hanley House. No one cared. Until now. While…
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I live on the fourth floor of a building with no elevator. This means I’m constantly lugging heavy shit up and down a bunch of godforsaken stairs: cartons of milk, boxes…
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You can ask Alexa pretty much anything: the weather in Chicago (cold), the speed of light (fast), the age of the oldest person in the world (122). You can ask her…
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When a movie called Fuck the Devil opens with a scene of a baby crawling across a floor, it’s safe to assume that something bad will happen to that baby. Enter…
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In Midnight Movies, authors J. Hoberman and Jonathan Rosenbaum describe underground movies as “redolent of danger, secrecy, subversion, resistance, and liberation; not to mention perversity, alienation, and even madness.” They didn’t…
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AGFA + Bleeding Skull! is a collaboration with our friends at the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA). Purchase the Wicked World Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD combo here. In 1989, filmmaker Barry J. Gillis and…
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In Anyab, the Egyptian rip-off of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Ali faces the camera and says gravely, “If someone can think a little, he can understand everything.” Then, a ludicrous…
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Our story begins in an insane asylum where a woman with dark, stringy hair rocks back and forth in a dingy room. The walls are covered in crude scrawlings; there are…
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I often wonder what Gary Whitson is like. Is he a genius? Is he a basement dweller? Is he a resourceful, low-budget filmmaker who found his crazy, mixed-up niche in our…
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The time is: the future. The environment is: fucked. Animals are: mutants. Humans are: hunted to near extinction. The ones left: fight, kill, and maraud. But there’s one who rises up…
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A guy (mullet, topless) and a girl (no mullet, topless) are making out in a pick-up truck. A stranger comes out of the misty woods. He’s wearing black boots—a sure sign…
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In issue 27 of Marvel Two-In-One, Ben Grimm (aka The Thing from the Fantastic Four) and his blind girlfriend Alicia are vacationing in London. But even on vacation, Grimm is his…
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A girl in a school uniform approaches a guy in a dim alley. She stares and smiles at him. “For 30 grand, you can go the mile.” The man raises an…
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The most beautiful visuals on the planet aren’t found on tropical beaches or the walls of the Louvre — they’re found in experimental Super 8 films. Especially when these movies include…
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Leslie and her beau have just gotten hitched. They cuddle by the fireplace. Suddenly another woman stabs the husband in the back over and over and over again. Just when you…
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In 2007, my marriage and career both ended within a six month timeframe. My entire identity was erased before my eyes. I got used to the fact that insomnia, pills, and…
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Mothers. Everyone has at least one. Of course, not all moms are good—there’s a spectrum. On one end, there’s Joan Crawford from Mommie Dearest and on the other end, there’s Carol…
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Someone went on vacation and brought us a souvenir called Flesh Freaks. FLESH FREAKS!!! College students Barry and Stan have a lot on their minds. Barry has just returned to Toronto…
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Dracula gazes sexily into the camera and into your eyes. His gleaming white fangs catch the light just right. He’s got a full head of luxurious black hair, perfectly conditioned and…
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Chicago experienced a golden age of repertory film screenings in the early 2000s. And since I had just moved to the city proper, I took full advantage of the situation. From…
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Blue Murder is about a serial killer in a clown mask who guns down filth peddlers in order to rid the world—or at least Toronto—of sin. That’s my two-cent summary. But…
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A 1951 issue of the comic book Darling Love featured a story of love-gone-wrong at a costume party that ended with the protagonist saying: “Thanks to you, my fickle friend, I’m…
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Sam is a very successful businessman who has just secured a big deal. Money’s coming his way and he’s giddy with dollars. I see too much cocaine in his future. Sam…
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Cannibals. Hookers. Cannibal Hookers. The title tells you everything you need to know. A hooker struts down the Sunset Strip. A john picks her up. They go back to her place…
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In Where Evil Dwells, every night is Halloween. On June 19, 1984, Long Island teenager Ricky Kasso went to the woods, smoked PCP, ate acid, and stabbed his friend Gary Lauwers…
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AGFA + Bleeding Skull! is a collaboration with our friends at the American Genre Film Archive (AGFA). Purchase the Blood Lake Special Edition DVD here. Blood Lake is the most fascinating — and…
