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FEO NEWS FOR WINTER 2004:
FEBRUARY

AWARDS

FEBRUARY

FEB. 25

From Brett Savory
THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE: UPDATE
Brett Savory and M. W. Anderson's West Memphis Three anthology will be published in early October by Arsenal Pulp Press. Use the following link to find out more about the true story (one of the boys is on death row awaiting lethal injection) and the book, THE LAST PENTACLE OF THE SUN.

"EDDIE PRESLEY" IS ABOUT TO LEAVE THE BUILDING
Before Bruce Campbell played "The King" in Joe Lansdaleand Don Coscarelli's BUBBA HO-TEP, he had a role in Jeff Burr's 1992 lost cult classic EDDIE PRESLEY, which debuts on Tempe DVD this May.

But this Tempe DVD, despite the many cameo appearances by Cheapo Horror movie actors, ain't no Horror movie! This lost cult classic veritable who's who of independent film stars includes cameos by none other than KILL BILL director Quentin Tarantino.

EDDIE PRESLEY is a down-on-his-luck ex-Elvis impersonator. With his days of former glory performing in small to medium-sized clubs behind him, he’s stuck in a dead-end security job, making barely enough to live out of his van. But Eddie’s luck is about to change when he’s offered a comeback gig at a seedy Hollywood nightclub...until he has a breakdown on stage and gives the audience a powerful, improvised performance they’ll not soon forget.

Based on the stage play by star Duane Whitaker (HOBGOBLINS, TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, pawn shop owner, Maynard, in PULP FICTION, TALES FROM THE HOOD, THE HAUNTED SEA, FROM DUSK ‘TIL DAWN 2, NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW), EDDIE PRESLEY is a bittersweet drama in the tradition of THE KING OF COMEDY and ED WOOD, with plenty of satirical jabs at politics and life at the bottom of the entertainment food chain. Featuring an all-star lineup of genre favorites, Tempe DVD is proud to bring this cult classic from director Jeff Burr (THE OFFSPRING, STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS, LEATHERFACE, NIGHT OF THE SCARECROW) to home video for the first time ever, complete with commentary from the filmmakers!

While this is definitely not a horror film, most everyone associated with EDDIE has done some pretty recognizable work in that genre, making this release of interest to both Tempe's loyal fan base as well as a new audience who will be introduced to our DVD line for the first time. EDDIE PRESLEY features a veritable who's who of genre stars, including some pretty high-powered cameos.
Joe Estevez: SOULTAKER, DARK UNIVERSE, INNER SANCTUM 2, CHILDREN OF DRACULA, WEREWOLF
Clu Gulager:THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, A NIGHTMARE ON ELMSTREET 2, THE HIDDEN
Ted Raimi: THE EVIL DEAD, EVIL DEAD II, DARKMAN, CANDYMAN, ARMY OF DARKNESS, WISHMASTER

Director Jeff Burr is no stranger to horror films, having made his debut in 1987 with THE OFFSPRING starring Vincent Price, followed in rapid succession by THE STEPFATHER 2 and the theatrical release LEATHERFACE: THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE III, which recently made its Special Edition debut on DVD. Burr's latest, the World War II epic STRAIGHT INTO DARKNESS, is now making the festival rounds (a preview of which can be found on all 3 versions of the EDDIE PRESLEY DVD).

The rest of the EDDIE cast will not disappoint genre fans, either. Joining such veterans as Roscoe Lee Browne (BABE), Daniel Roebuck (THE FUGITIVE) and Lawrence Tierney (RESERVOIR DOGS) are Stacie Bourgeois (FROM DUSK 'TIL DAWN 2), and Willard Pugh (ROBOCOP 2). R.A. Mihailoff (LEATHERFACE), Tim Thomerson (TRANCERS), Chuck Williams (DOUBLE BLAST) and John Lazar (BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS) are also on hand.

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FEB. 24

SKYCAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW
Sneaking up with minimal advance word is a retro future alternate history movie with an outstanding website (skycaptain.com); lush though vaguely familiar heroic music, and some good looking monster robots. It could be really cool, or it could crash and burn like Disney's 1991 megaflop, THE ROCKETEER.

Artist and writer Dave Steven's THE ROCKETEER had all the goods, a sporadically published yet wildy popular comic book that re-launched the career of 50's pin-up queen, Betty Page. But when it came time to make it into a movie, the lunkheads at Disney chose the insipid tag team of writers Danny Bilson and Paul Mateo (TRANCERS, ZONE TROOPERS, ELIMINATORS, ugh, etc.), giving director Joe Johnston, nothing worthwhile to work with. The screenplay first stripped out everything fun and amazing about the comic book, then gutted the charm as well, leaving nothing but a Hollywood Trivia pursuit game as numerous scenes became a wasted game of "Guess what famous dead actor this character is supposed to be?"*

It's not fair to push a past failure from one movie company onto the unknown efforts of another film studio. Especially when SKYCAPTAIN has such a cool cast: Gwyneth Paltrow (SE7EN, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY), Angelina Jolie (CYBORG 2, THE BONE COLLECTOR, TOMB RAIDER), Jude Law (eXistenZ, THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY), Lin Bai (THE CROW, THE BREED), and Giovanni Ribisi (THE VIRGIN SUICIDES, THE GIFT). Plus first time writer/Director Kerry Conran has a pretty interesting bio at imdb.com.

EVERYTHING IS A BLUR AND IT LOOKS LIKE, IF IT WERE CLEAR, EVERYTHING WOULD LOOK COMIC BOOK FAKE.

I say all of this because I'm exactly the kind of person such a movie would be directed towards. Monster robots! Alternate History! Retro Future stuff! Thriller! This movie has the potential to kick ass in the kind of fun way that the original Stars Wars did way back in the 1970s. That movie had such momentum behind it that its still moving forward nearly 30 years later even after two dismal prequels.

Director Kerry Conran is going for Fleischer animation appeal set in a gothic Fritz Lang world of Manhattan cityscape: complete with chiaroscuro light and shadows. Yet the "blur" that runs throughout, and the muted colors present even in the blue sky daylight scenes, is enough to give me pause about this film. I hope I'm wrong. Because this could be a really cool movie. The problems I'm seeing - fake looking robots stomping through fake looking cities - just might kill this. Godzilla movies could get away with their "model" looking cities only because they were made so cheap. A select (read small) number of people are willing to pay the overpriced theater ticket to see a toy city stomped to bits on the big screen. Yet even today, you could make 10 Godzilla movies for what a single Hollywood big budget film commands. Godzilla movies never had actors who expect 10 million a picture, let alone 3 of them. And for all of their fans and lip service, most Godzilla movies have gone direct to video in the U.S. Now Paramount may be showing the CGI "rushes", so the unrealistic nature of the buildings and other effects might be cleaned up (use longer render times) in the digital houses. But if that's not the case, I hope that in saying this, someone will notice and take a second thought or two. Because for all of it's potential, visually this movie is looking like FINAL FANTASY with live action actors.

Read an interview with Producer Jon Avnet at CHUD.

* To be fair, the critics loved THE ROCKETEER. Gene Shalit, Siskel and Ebert, and Peter Travers all gave it rave reviews. Critics loved it, fans of the comic book and movie audiences hated it - or just weren't impressed enough to bother with it. What little Rocketeer fan sites there are today pay homage to the creator and the comic, not the movie.

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FEB. 23

From Brett Savory
THE WEST MEMPHIS THREE
Brett Savory and M. W. Anderson's West Memphis Three anthology will be published in early October by Arsenal Pulp Press.

The anthology is called "Last Pentacle of the Sun: Writings in Support of the West Memphis Three." Sales of the book will raise money for the defense of the “West Memphis Three,” young men tried and found guilty of a murder through a disturbing pattern of public hysterics, official misconduct, and completely illogical judicial conclusions. These young men were convenient suspects not because of evidence, but because they wore black, listened to heavy metal music, and liked horror fiction. It is a very disturbing situation. Check out the site created to raise awareness of the case:

wm3.org

How would you like to be with Brian Keene until death do you part? Because on May 8th, one lucky winner will have that opportunity for the rest of their life!

Announcing Brian Keene's `Till Death Do Us Part' contest: Purchase a copy of FEAR OF GRAVITY before March 5th and you could win a free, signed, personalized copy of every future book Brian Keene writes for life! Every novel! Every collection! Every hardcover! Every paperback! Every foreign edition! EVERYTHING! You will receive every book written by Keene until death (his or yours) intervenes.

Go to Delirium Books for more info

Something strange is happening on a small-town college campus... Students have been disappearing and the only clues left behind are a bloody corpse and the name "Midnight Skater." A group of nosy kids take it upon themselves to put an end to the mystery, but find out they may be in over their heads! They’ll have to make their way through the college’s dark side of drugs, lies and murder in order to find out who is behind it all. Prepare for an all-out gorefest in one of the most bloody twisted tales of horror ever told!

MIDNIGHT SKATER begins a new era in Splatter Rampage history. Tempe has split the label off from its existing deal with Ventura Distribution, and all national sales & marketing on Splatter Rampage will now be handled by Pro-Active Entertainment Group. This will allow us to get a few more titles out the door each year and put a special focus on movies that are a bit more graphic in nature. And if there's one thing that MIDNIGHT SKATER doesn't skimp on, it's the blood and gore! This is the kind of movie that the Splatter Rampage label was created for...drug-addicted zombies ripping apart kids on a college campus!

The SKATER disc includes a handful of bonus features, including 17 minutes of deleted scenes, a commentary track with the Speed Freak crew and a short film "The Stranger". If that's not enough, the Speed Freakers have already wrapped up their latest project, DEMON SUMMER, which will debut from Splatter Rampage this June. This one is a must for fans of THE EVIL DEAD series. A trailer for DEMON SUMMER is featured on the SKATER DVD. These guys are starting to really make a name for themselves in no-budget horror, and with good reason...they deliver the gory goods!

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FEB. 17

From Matthew Warner
HITTING CLOSE TO HOME
The Mid-Atlantic Horror Professionals announces a Book Signing to benefit Parkinson's research. April 17, 2004, 2-4 p.m. at Burke Used Books (Falls Church, VA). Featuring: F. Paul Wilson, Elizabeth Massie, Douglas E. Winter, Steven Spruill, J.F. Gonzalez, Matthew Warner, L. Marie Wood, A.B. Wallace, and Mary SanGiovanni.

Full press release:
http://midatlantichorror.org/pressrelease.pdf

The disturbed minds at AAA Milwaukee Publishing recently sent me a trade paperback collection of early Arsenic Lullaby material, along with work from its conjoined twin publication, LAUGHTER OF THE DAMNED, plus some never before seen material that was held back as being too disturbing - and if the stuff that WASN'T held back involved humor about zombie fetuses, the Holocaust, and guys with all their skin removed getting stuck to the sidewalk and nibbled on by raccoons, you can just imagine what was deemed inappropriate. Anyway, my comments in the earlier Arsenic Lullaby review pretty much also apply to the trade, which is available at well-stocked comic shops or at arseniclullabies.com, and if this stuff jibes with your particular sick sense of humor, the regular Arsenic Lullaby comic is published bi-monthly.

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FEB. 16

CHIM+HER
The most stunning moment in horror history has arrived. And when I say stunning I mean stunning in the same way that they slaughter cattle with a bolt gun or a crocodile tears off the leg of a weak swimmer - CHIM+HER is it's name and it's gonna eat your skullpan clean.

I came up with the idea for CHIM+HER after positive experiences writing collaborations here and there with one or two female writers (my Shocklines #1 Bestselling "BoyFistGirlSuck" collection released by Massacre Publishing last year was a book of collaborations with one female writer, Alex Severin).

A collaborative collection is nothing new - but never like this, never on man battling it out with eight exceptionally strong and powerful female writers through 29 collaborative short stories. Be warned: nothing will prepare the reader for the ferocious exploration of contemporary society's ugliest taboos; abortion, rape, kidnap, child abuse, pornography, murder, illness, abandonment, loneliness, discovery, hatred, secrets, love.

Find a good strong chair and strap yourself in for the ride of your life as Chim & Her leads you on a blindfold journey with an international writing squad consisting of eight of the most riveting and extreme female writers out there today:

Charlee Jacob, from America
Alex Severin, from Scotland
Amy Grech, from America
Destiny West, from Australia
Brutal Dreamer, from America
Dawn Andrews, from England
Queenie Tirone, from Canada
Christina Sng, from Singapore

CHIM+HER was originally gonna be an ebook (and all parties were happy with the artistic freedom that medium allowed) but then LULU came on the scene a couple months back and offered CyberPulp the chance to have books printed out through P.O.D., too.

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FEB. 13

"DAMN, THEY'RE FAST!"
Hey gang, I attended a ten minute preview of the upcoming DAWN OF THE DEAD remake. They had some of the folks from the movie there as well as Ken Foree from the original DAWN OF THE DEAD. Everyone in the audience applauded politely as the film makers made their way to their seats on the stage. Then Ken Foree appeared and the place exploded. Ken has a cameo in the film.

The thing that really knocked everyone on their ass though, was the ten minute clip. I don't know if this is the beginning of the film, but it should be. Writer James Gunn, who cut his movie teeth making films for Troma (YES!), and newbie director Zack Snyder, took the path of full cliches, then ripped them apart. The effect is jarring. For folks who watch a lot of movies, you'll instantly recognize "comfort zones" where you expect the movie to go a certain way for a length of time - then they smash it! The zombies in the new DAWN OF THE DEAD don't shamble, they run full tilt. Zack created a visual of watching a world come apart in the same way people might have felt when watching the Challenger explode, the Twin Towers fall, or the Columbia disintegrate into firey balls. The effect is awesome and amazingly, lacks in noticable SFX.

Only ten minutes of film, and people were jumping in their seats like popcorn. When the lights came up, the place went nuts. I can't wait for March 19. The film has such high expectations, that it has been bumped up from its original March 29 release date.

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FEB. 12

ALIEN AND PREDATOR 2004 TOY SERIES ANNOUNCED
Appears that 2004 is shaping up to be an ALIEN and PREDATOR sort of year. Though these film franchises are dated (the original Alien film was released in 1979), they still have strong fan support, not to mention the big-budget ALIEN vs. PREDATOR movie coming from 20th Century Fox this year.

McFarlane Toys thought they’d get in on the action. They’re releasing a refreshed Alien and Predator line of four figures, based roughly on Movie Maniacs 6 from 2003, but thoroughly updated.

• ALIEN from the movie Alien features a new facehugger base.
• WARRIOR ALIEN from the movie Aliens features new paint and new body parts (head, hands, arms and tail).
• PREDATOR from Predator featuring a new head with helmet/mask. Now includes new skull/spine accessory. Specialty versions will be bloody.
• PREDATOR THE HUNTER from Predator 2 now includes medical kit, flintlock pistol and skull from the ship's trophy case at the end of the film.

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FEB. 10

IT DOESN'T MATTER WHY THEY SAID IT
Just that they said it as if they actually meant it. By that I mean a statement by an MTV spokeswoman, who was quoted by the Los Angeles Times as saying,
"... It's part of our responsibility as broadcasters."
MTV? MT Freakin' V talking like they're "Responsible broadcasters"??? I'm just glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that. I woulda drowned in laughter!

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FEB. 6

LEGENDS OF HORROR! RISE UP!
The INTERNATIONAL HORROR GUILD has, for the first time, named two recipients for its annual Living Legend Award. Judges are, additionally, making a rare "Special Award." Honored as Living Legends are Stephen King and Everett F. Bleiler; Jack Cady is recognized with a posthumous Special Award.

"Jack Cady was an author whose extraordinary talent and meticulous craft cannot be praised too highly. His death deprives us of more of his darkly elegant fiction," said Paula Guran, award administrator of the Special Award. "The naming of Stephen King, especially in light of his recent acceptance speech for the National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, needs no further explanation. Everett F. Bleiler's name is probably as obscure to the general population as Mr. King's is well known, but as an editor, bibliographer, critic, and researcher, Bleiler's work expanding our appreciation of and access to the field is unsurpassed in the 20th century." IHG Living Legends are individuals who have made meritorious and notable contributions and/or have substantially influenced the field of horror/dark fantasy. Previous recipients are Charles L. Grant, William F. Nolan, Alice Cooper, Ray Bradbury, Clive Barker, Hugh B. Cave, Edward W. Bryant, Richard Matheson, and Harlan Ellison.

For more information, go to the International Horror Guild Designed by the outstanding Chad Savage.

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Alert by Weston Ochse
GOING TO HELL: HORROR FROM THE 1970s AND ‘80s
Friday, February 13 – Wednesday, February 25

Just as today’s audiences look back to the 1970s as a golden age of innovative American filmmaking, horror fans have long treasured the films from that decade for their exciting mix of pioneering spirit and no-holds-barred gusto. In the wake of George Romero’s NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968), horror filmmakers channeled the unease of a nation at war overseas and in turmoil at home into dread and shock onscreen. Films like DEATHDREAM and MESSIAH OF EVIL ground their gore in the anxieties of a society unraveling at the seams. The sexual revolution brought a plethora of lesbian vampires to the screen in LEMORA and THE VELVET VAMPIRE and their European cousins DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS and THE VAMPIRE LOVERS.

By the 1980s, the horror film was dominated by the slasher movie, but examples of energetic originality continued to emerge as the genre began to mutate by revisiting its recent past. NIGHT WARNING reworks the Gothic psychosexual dynamics of PSYCHO in an age of homosexual panic, while DEADLY SPAWN and RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD rework ALIEN and Romero’s classic, respectively, with enthusiasm and punkish anarchy.

Almost all of the prints to be presented come from the Archive’s holdings; some of the older prints have faded slightly but all are in good physical condition and all are extremely rare. We’ve augmented the series with the Japan Foundation’s spectacular widescreen print of SINNERS OF HELL, a classic that exhibits the same sense of social decay as the rest of the films in the series.

*IN PERSON: Director Richard Blackburn on February 20th!

*IN PERSON: Director/Screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz
on February 25th!

Friday, February 13
7:30 p.m.

DEATHDREAM
(US/Canada, 1972) Directed by Bob Clark
An eerie, atmospheric variant on the classic “Monkey’s Paw” wish-fulfillment premise, DEATHDREAM was the second of three indelible low-budget horror films directed by Bob Clark in the early ’70s. John Marley and
Lynn Carlin—the central couple in Cassavetes’ FACES—play small-town parents whose son (Richard Backus), reportedly killed in combat, returns home under mysterious circumstances, seemingly zombified by his wartime experience. Equal parts critique of the Vietnam quagmire, B-movie disquisition on post-traumatic stress and pitiless exposé of nuclear family implosion, DEATHDREAM is of course also a taut, tense and utterly unnerving exercise in slow-burning terror.
Producers: B. Clark, Peter James, John Trent. Screenwriter: Alan Ormsby.
Cinematographer: Jack McGowan. Editor: Ronald Sinclair. Special Effects:
Tom Savini. With: John Marley, Lynn Carlin, Richard Backus, Anya Ormsby.
35mm, 90 min.

NIGHT WARNING
(US, 1981) Directed by William Asher
An unheralded entry in the early ’80s slasher film cycle, NIGHT WARNING has endured as a cult item due for rediscovery. Jimmy McNichol stars as an orphaned high school athlete whose pending departure for college launches his possessive aunt (Susan Tyrell, totally over-the-top) on a murderous rampage. The plot thickens when a hyperbolically homophobic police detective (Bo Svenson) takes on the case. Astonishingly
perverse for an ostensibly mainstream genre piece, NIGHT WARNING is equal parts exploitation flick and disturbing account of the links between violence and sexual repression.
Producers: Stephen Breimer, Eugene Mazzola. Screenwriters: S. Breimer,
Boon Collins, Alan Jay Glueckman. Cinematographer: Robbie Greenberg.
With: Jimmy McNichol, Susan Tyrell, Bo Svenson. 35mm, 96 min.

Saturday, February 14
7:30 p.m.

THE VELVET VAMPIRE
(US, 1971) Directed by Stephanie Rothman
Cult movie favorite Celeste Yarnall plays Diane, a fearless femme fatale who casually stabs an outlaw biker and would-be rapist on her way to an art gallery. Once there she picks up a young couple and invites them to her hacienda in the desert. Yarnall’s dune buggy-driving, bloodthirsty, raw meat-eating vamp is a curious creature whose deadpan delivery and sexual come-ons are about as subtle as a sledgehammer. A campy and atmospheric cross between THE VAMPIRE LOVERS and ZABRISKIE POINT, director Rothman’s sun-drenched cautionary tale of swinging Southern California offers a biting commentary on the fear of the sexually liberated woman.
New World Pictures. Producer: Charles S. Schwartz. Screenwriters: Maurice
Jules, S. Rothman, C. Schwartz. Cinematographer: Daniel Lacambre. Editors:
Stephen Judson, Barry Simon. With: Celeste Yarnall, Sherry Miles, Michael
Blodgett, Gene Shane. 35mm, 80 min.

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS
(Le Rouge Aux Llèvres)
(Belgium, 1971) Directed by Harry Kümel
Delphine Seyrig vamps it up as Hungarian countess Elisabeth Bathory (a character loosely based on the notorious seventeenth-century noble who was rumored to have bathed in the blood of virgins to maintain her youth). With the aid of her beautiful young companion, the Countess preys on young women and waylaid newlyweds at a deserted Ostend hotel in the dead of winter. Reminiscent of the vamps created by
Dietrich and von Sternberg, Seyrig’s Countess (adorned in body-hugging sequins and ostrich feathers) is pitch-perfect, understated camp. Kümel’s hauntingly beautiful and atmospheric film is a moody masterpiece of eroticism and violence.
Producers: Alain Guillaume, Paul Collet. Screenwriters: H. Kümel, Pierre
Drouot, Jean Ferry. Cinematographer: Edward van der Enden. Editors: Gust
Verschueren, Denis Bonan, Fima Noveck. With: Delphine Seyrig, Danielle
Ouimet, John Karlen, Andrea Rau. 35mm, 96 min.

Sunday, February 15
7:00 p.m.

DEADLY SPAWN, aka RETURN OF THE ALIENS: THE DEADLY SPAWN
(US, 1983) Directed by Douglas McKeown
A meteor crashes near a small town, unleashing a set of deadly vermin that invade the basements of nearby houses and wait for a hapless victim to wander downstairs. Fortunately, one such house is stocked with a group of resourceful teenagers and a courageous young boy, armed with the knowledge of the dozens of monster movies he’s seen on TV. Made for no money with a cast and crew of unknowns and beginners, this ALIEN knockoff (now a cult favorite) has it all: gore, shocks, gruesome special effects, surprisingly effective performances, a sense of humor, and a lot of heart.
Producer: Ted A. Bohus. Screenwriters: D. McKeown, T.A. Bohus. Based on a
story by John Dods. Cinematographer: Harvey M. Birnbaum. Editor: Marc
Harwood. With: James Brewster, Elissa Neil, John Schmerling, Ethel
Michelson. 35mm, 78 min.

RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD
(US, 1985) Directed by Dan O’Bannon
Remember the mysterious gas that brought the dead out of their graves in NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD? It turns out the government is storing it for its own nefarious purposes, but when the gas is accidentally released, another wave of zombie attacks ensues—only this time the zombies are faster, meaner and hungrier. While this film is both a remake of and homage to George Romero’s classic, it is also a great horror film in its own right. One of the creators of ALIEN, Dan O’Bannon gives RETURN a punkish and puckish bite while upping both the gore and the comedy.
Producer: Tom Fox. Screenwriter: D. O’Bannon. Cinematographer: Jules
Brenner. Editor: Robert Gordon. With: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa,
Beverly Randolph. 35mm, 91 min.

Friday, February 20
7:30 p.m.

LEMORA: A CHILD’S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL
(US, 1972) Directed by Richard Blackburn
A Southern gothic mood piece rendered both raw and poetic by the bare-bones ingenuity characteristic of no-budget genre filmmaking in the ’70s. Cheryl Smith stars as a virginal naïf who flees the safety of her small-town church—and a preacher played by director Richard Blackburn—to seek out her gangster father at a mysterious backwoods locale. Along her route she’s waylaid by zombies but finds shelter in the isolated home of alluring lesbian vampire Lemora (Lesley Gilb), dubbed “Lady Dracula” in one of the film’s many alternate titles. Unpretentious, dreamlike and authentically strange, LEMORA is a minor masterpiece of primitive psychosexual horror.
Producer: Robert Fern. Screenwriter: R. Blackburn. Cinematographer: Robert
Caramico. Editor: Pieter S. Hubbard. With: Lesley Gilb, Cheryl Smith, William
Whitton, Steve Johnson. 35mm, 80 min.

*IN PERSON: Director Richard Blackburn for a post-film Q & A and
discussion!

New Print from MGM
THE VAMPIRE LOVERS
(UK, 1970) Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Sultry horror star Ingrid Pitt plays Carmilla, an insatiable lesbian vampire who seduces and feeds on a succession of beautiful young victims. When Carmilla sets her sights on the nubile and innocent Emma, a vampire hunter (Peter Cushing) must battle her for the girl’s body and soul. With its titillating nudity and frank depiction of female sexual desire, THE VAMPIRE LOVERS is evident of the loosening of British censorship laws. The first in a trilogy, this neo-gothic Hammer version of Sheridan Le Fanu’s Victorian novel Carmilla pushed the lesbian subtext to the forefront and spawned numerous imitations.
Hammer Film Productions. Producers: Harry Fine, Michael Style.
Screenwriters: H. Fine, M. Styles, Tudor Gates. Cinematographer: Moray
Grant. Editor: James Needs. With: Ingrid Pitt, Madeleine Smith, Peter
Cushing, Pippa Steele. 35mm, 91 min.

Wednesday, February 25
7:30 p.m.

Print from the Academy Film Archive
MESSIAH OF EVIL
(US, 1973) Directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz
Young and beautiful Arletty journeys to a creepy California beach community in search of her missing father. There she meets a mysterious swinger who’s come to town (with two lady loves in tow) also looking for him. While the two spar and flirt, the local townspeople are turning into either zombies or corpses. Everything comes together in the film’s climax, but the highpoints of MESSIAH OF EVIL are the string of long, wordless sequences in which the characters wander eerie deserted streets by night only to end up pursued by the undead.
Producers/Screenwriters: W. Huyck, G. Katz. Cinematographer: Stephen M.
Katz. Editor: Scott Conrad. With: Marianna Hill, Michael Greer, Joy Bang,
Anitra Ford. 35mm, 90 min.

*IN PERSON: Directors/Screenwriters Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz for a post-film Q & A and discussion!

SINNERS OF HELL
(Jigoku)
(Japan, 1960) Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Manipulated by his demonic best friend, a young student unwittingly triggers a string of murders. Crime begets crime until the screen is littered with corpses. Then, for the last third of the film, with all the protagonists dead, the scene switches to Hell, where we witness the suffering in the afterlife of those who sinned on Earth. Director Nobuo Nakagawa brings traditional Japanese visions of Hell to eye-popping, widescreen life, complete with lurid saturated colors and fantastic sets. Well before the descent to the underworld, the film’s unusual compositions and jagged editing create an unsettling sense of the grotesque.
Producer: Mitsugu Okura. Screenwriters: N. Nakagawa, Ichiro Miyagawa.
Cinematographer: Mamoru Morita. With: Shigeru Amachi, Yoichi Numata,
Torahiko Nakamura, Utako Mitsuya. 35mm, in Japanese with English
subtitles, 100 min.

------------------------------------

For further info, please call 310.206.FILM or log on to cinema.ucla.edu.

All films screen at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, located on the northeast corner of the UCLA campus, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Hilgard Avenue.

Tickets are available at the theater one hour before showtime. Admission is $7 general; $5 students, seniors and UCLA Alumni Association members with ID.

NOTE: Advance tickets for all programs are now available for $8 using your credit card at cinema.ucla.edu!

Free street parking after 6 pm daily on Loring Ave. at Charing Cross Rd.; or for $7 in Lot 3, adjacent to the James Bridges Theater.

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FEB. 2

NBC IS PACKING GUNS ON LAW & ORDER
For those of you who live in the USA or near it, NBC television is upping the ante more than usual in hyping the latest episode of Law & Order SVU. And naturally since this is television, it's like a getting a free story. Our own Chris Gage (Comic Fanboy) co-wrote the episode with his wife, Ruth Gage. Hence, a little hype of our own! Check it out Feb. 3rd at 10pm or your local listings.

PLANET OF THE APES

FEELING PRIMAL?
They just keep finding new ways to make the Special Edition DVD you bought last year seem so worthless. 20th Century Fox releases yet ANOTHER freaking DVD release of the original Planet of the Apes. This time as a 35th Anniversary Edition, 2 disc set with still more trivia that they either held back or breathlessly discovered.

At least this one doesn't have a spoiler cover like the previous set. Anyway, if the original POTA with Charleton Heston is your meat, checkout reviewer, Kelly Parks, take on it at our PLANET OF THE APES library (we've got reviews of 'em all!) then go buy yerself this fine brand new spankin' swanky. You can get it here.

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Contributors to feoamante.com are going places!
See below!

CLICK IMAGE TO BUY! Starring Adrian Paul (THE HIGHLANDER), Bokeem Woodbine, and Ling Bai (THE CROW), This Alternate History movie is part Horror, Part crime, part S.F. and all Vampires. From the screenplay by our own Christos N. Gage and Ruth Fletcher Gage.