FANEX at the Senator

As some of you may know, Baltimore's single-screen movie house The Senator has fallen on hard times and "the end" was supposedly at hand. I'm not sure what's happening at this point... there had been talk of the city taking over the historic theater to avoid the auction block but I'm not sure what the latest is.

The good part about the current problems has been that it has forced the powers that be to re-examine just what the hell they've been doing and for the first time in the eight years I've been here somebody finally got the idea that maybe plunking first-run features in there wasn't the best use of the building.

Anyway, recent weeks have seen a wide range of flicks hit the screen at The Senator and I just found out that our old friends Gary & Sue Svehla of Midnight Marquee and FANEX fame are going to program the schedule the weekend of May 1. Here are some of the highlights...

Friday, 5/1
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ALIEN FACTOR @ 7 PM
SUSPIRIA @ 10:30 PM

Saturday, 5/2
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THE INVISIBLE GHOST @ 10:30 AM
BASKET CASE @ 1 PM
FANEX FILES: HAMMER FILMS @ 3 PM
HORROR OF DRACULA @ 5 PM
SUSPIRIA @ 10:30 PM

There are some additional, locally made, low-budget flicks playing as well. For more check out the Midnight Marquee website.

VIGILANTE FORCE: They Called It God's Country... Until All Hell Broke Loose!

Thanks to Comcast OnDemand I watched about an hour of VIGILANTE FORCE this afternoon. This crazy Gene Corman production from 1976 was written and directed by George Armitage who wrote and directed the excellent MIAMI BLUES.

It's a lightning paced proto-ROADHOUSE with Kris Kristofferson as a Nam vet recruited to come home and help "clean up" his old town by brother Jan-Michael Vincent. Little does JMV know that Kristofferson is planning to run out the current thugs... and replace them with his own cronies.

For fans of 70s pulchritude we've got Victoria Principal and Bernadette Peters in nice supporting roles as well as a pre-WKRP Loni Anderson as a casino bimbo named "Peaches" and I don't think it's for her love of fruit. CHARLIE'S ANGELS' Bosley (David Doyle) turns up as a bank executive and we even get BREAKFAST CLUB principal Paul Gleason as a mob enforcer with quite the taste in shirts and neck jewelry.

Some great dialogue, gratuitous Dick Miller, a very Wild West feel to it (the whole thing could be redone as a Western with little change), and enough random acts of violence and mayhem that you're never bored. As far as I know this little gem is unavailable on DVD and is running on Comcast for the next few days, at least here in the Baltimore region.

Can't wait to see how this one turns out!

Happy Seagalday!

"Anybody who stands in my way it's them or me!"

You'd think he was talking about the Shoney's All-You-Can-Eat Buffet but apparently Big Steve wants his daughter back in JELLY BELLY OF THE BEAST, the pre-TAKEN Thai butt-kicker starring Steve as a "retired" CIA operative whose daughter gets kidnapped by Thai rebels along with a senator's daughter.

While not as instantly forgettable as OUT FOR A KILL – yesterday's excursion into Seagology – it's still one of those overly-plotted foreign co-productions that have been the earmarks of Seagal's post-UNDER SIEGE 2 filmography.

Worse yet, I realized about halfway through that I have seen chunks of this flick, though not enough to feel like I'd truly experienced it.

Anyway, hope everybody has a Happy Seagalday and gets a big, blousy kimono, some incense sticks, black dye for their widows peak, and a case of Steven Seagal Energy Drink (which one of my pals told me earlier today "tastes like carbonated shit").

HATCHET Director's Mock Commercial

For whatever reason it took me a few years to get around to watching Adam Green's HATCHET, despite a rave review on the ER site from good buddy and recent traveling companion Louis Fowler.

To be honest, I probably avoided it because I'm usually averse to phrases like "old school slasher flick" because that kind of talk makes me think about those wretched SCREAM movies and not, you know, real slasher movies. Coupled with reviews that seemed all over the place and slavish endorsements from the likes of Ain't It Cool News I wasn't sure if I'd love or hate this latest attempt to add a new horror villain to the slasher pantheon.

I finally got around to watching HATCHET a couple weekends ago as the capper to my epic Day of Trash and I could not have misjudged the flick more. Intentionally funny and exceedingly well cast, the flick also piles on the gore and boobs so you're never bored. Plus, my favorite lab assistant from BONES (Joel Moore as the dark and comically death-obsessed Mr. Fisher) turns up as the flick's male lead, a comic and pop culture geek who heads off on an ill-fated swamp tour.

Despite an unsatisfying ending, I'd highly recommend HATCHET to anybody out there looking for a fun, admittedly "old school" horror flick with plenty of nudity and gore. I enjoyed it so much that I recently NetFlixed SPIRAL, another collaboration between Green and Moore, this time with the actor sharing directorial chores. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet and since today is Steven Seagal's birthday BELLY OF THE BEAST takes precedence but I'll get to it soon and report back.

In the meantime, here's a mildly amusing deoderant/body spray commercial from Green that nicely combines lingerie and lightsabers...

Two-Disc Director's Cut of COMBAT SHOCK Headed to DVD

Lauded by no less an authority than Slimetime and Shock Cinema publisher Steve Puchalski as "one of the great cult films of the 1980s", Buddy Giovinazzo's COMBAT SHOCK (aka AMERICAN NIGHTMARES) is finally coming to DVD in all its ugly, dark, filthy, brutally brilliant glory.

Released on Prism Entertainment video back in 1987 after a brief theatrical run, COMBAT SHOCK – made for a shockingly low $60,000 budget – blends ERASERHEAD, TAXI DRIVER and THE DEER HUNTER for a grim slice of gutter-level cinema that refuses to flinch.

This July Troma Video is bringing the flick into the 21st century with a two-disc special edition that features both the theatrical and director's cuts (the latter featuring an additional ten minutes of footage) as well as interviews with such fans as John McNaughton, David Gregory, William Lustig, Jorg Buttgereit, and – in his first interview in 20 years – Gore Gazette publisher Rick Sullivan!

Additional bonus features include an interview with the director conducted by Troma's Lloyd Kauffman (last seen working the room at Cinema Wasteland), Giovinazzo shorts, liner notes by Puchalski and much more.

With this and Fred Dekker's NIGHT OF THE CREEPS getting the special edition treatment later this year, 80s trash cinema fans will have plenty to celebrate. Pre-order COMBAT SHOCK at Amazon now.

Check out the trailer for the new release below:

If You Get Correspondence from Me Expect to See a Lot of These

Been a busy couple weeks here at ER HQ. Between finishing another big client project and spending a weekend with my trash-loving pals at Cinema Wasteland (more details to come) I once again find myself way behind the eight ball trying to catch up with all the news, posts and reviews flooding my in box and brain.

However, I needed to post this info as soon as I got up this morning... check out the press release that turned up in my mailbox yesterday afternoon:

Who's your favorite Simpson?

The post office wants folks to vote early and often for their favorite among the five new stamps honoring the nation's funniest dysfunctional family.

The Simpson stamps will be issued May 7, portraying Homer, his wife, Marge, their son Bart, daughter Lisa and baby Maggie.

The characters, created by cartoonist Matt Groening, have become pop culture icons in 20 years on Fox television.

The 44-cent stamps will go on display at 8 a.m. Thursday at www.usps.com/simpsons and votes can be cast at that site until May 14.

The price of a first-class stamp goes up 2-cents to 44 cents in May.

First it was Universal monsters, then the post office gave us not only DC but also Marvel superheroes. Now they're giving me Simpsons stamps?! Unless there's a Trash Films of the 80s series on the way or a set dedicated to College Radio Icons I may have actually lived to see every stamp issued that I could ever want.

Unless it'd be too much to ask for a second series of Simpsons stamps featuring our favorite side characters. What Simpsons supporting cast members would you want to see gracing your next electric bill?