Day 2: NUDIE-ROUGHIES!

Okay, okay, I said 7 Days of Something Weird but.. do they have to be consecutive days? They do? Eesh :D

Anyway - hi Weirdos! Welcome back, in today's installment of 7 Days of Something Weird I'd like to talk about a REALLY niche genre of grindhouse film: The Nudie-Roughie. When we talk about what played in "Grindhouses" of the 60s, this is actually the kind of film we're usually talking about, although most people think of the much later blaxplotiation and sexploitation genres of the 70's.

Somewhere in the Venn diagram overlap between the almost quaint naughtiness of the "Nudie Cutie", the art house film, and the straight up porno, the "nudie roughie" generally had a plot, and (duh) nudity. It didn't show explicit sex, but made up for it with large helpings of disturbing and often downright violent subject matter. Fetishes, voyeurism, and sado-masochism were all fair game, usually in the context of a Freudian morality tale gone off the rails. Don't repress your urges, seems to be the main message of the nudie-roughie, or you'll end up like one of these guys:

The Sex Killer

This is one of my all time favorite SWV titles, because it's just so freaking bonkers. Tony, a frustrated voyeur, likes watching nude sunbathers on his off hours from the  mannequin "factory" (is the loud screeching in the background every time we cut to the factory location intentional, or was somebody just jackhammering the sidewalk on the day of shooting?). Since Tony can't work up the nerve to talk to an actual girl, he starts going on dates with a mannequin head. Half of the movie is him taking the mannequin head out to dinner, touching its lips, and staring lovingly into its eyes. Then, I guess he graduates to strangling women and having sex with their corpses? For some reason? This guy really needs to find a better way to relate to women.

Download the Sex Killer, $9.99, on the Something Weird Site.

The Animal

While The Sex Killer entertains mostly through demented camp appeal (seriously, it does - I'm not selling it well), the Animal - like the other films of director R. Lee Frost (The Defilers, Zero In and Scream) - is genuinely creepy and disturbing. It plays out more like a horror film or a psychological thriller than a goofy campfest. "Ted Andrews (John Alderman) is a booze-swilling, pot-smoking, mother-hating psycho who suffers from severe migraines and gets his kicks from invading the privacy of women." Alderman, in his first role, "actually manages to be both scary and strangely sympathetic at the same time."

Download the Animal, $9.99, on the Something Weird Site.

Strange Rampage

A smarmy "sex doctor" who "looks like a low rent Vincent Price" gives four personal case histories of his female patients in psychoanalysis who are victims of the "serious sociological problem" of having too many women competing for not enough men. Spoiler alert: the thin sociological pretext is an excuse to show women dancing around in their underwear,  pullling their shirts up for the TV repairman, and... making out with a mannequin? What's up with the mannequins?

I have a soft spot for this one because I did an intro to it on the VHS version of Strange Rampage, which I'm linking to because the actual trailer for Strange Rampage has too many boobies. Johnny was like "okay, give me something to come in on like do something with the whip or something, okay action." And I guess I did a... mean face? I don't know how to use a whip, really.  Enjoy!

Download Strange Rampage, $9.99, on the Something Weird Site.

Seven Days of *** SOMETHING WEIRD!! ***

If you are a true afficionado of the obscure, you may be familiar with the Something Weird Catalog. And by catalog I mean, literally, a mail order catalog.

Printed on newsprint, including the "Blue Book," which was the vintage porn section, it featured some amazing art from people like  Jimmy Zero, guitarist from the Dead Boys, Dave Stevens, and whoever drew the below:

The brainchild of Mike Vraney and partner Lisa Petrucci (whose kitch-inspired art also informed much of the distinctive Something Weird VHS package design), who lovingly found and restored a cache of obscure exploitation films that otherwise would have been bound for the dumpster, Something Weird Video was, and still is, an incredible archive of the cheap, crude, trashy and outrageous. It's as American as apple pie and as pervy as Times Square in its heyday. And it's all been uploaded to the internet for your viewing pleasure.

Well, not all. Recent crackdowns on online smut peddlers have really crippled SWV's online presence in the last couple of years, and they are hurting for sales. So I decided to dust off this old blog and come up with something people have been begging me to do for years now: give them some recommendations from the Something Weird Video catalog. It can be pretty overwhelming to try to browse on your own, so let me direct you to some true gems that you can DOWNLOAD RIGHT NOW and watch tonight. (No, I mean it. Seriously. Download these and watch them tonight. You'll be helping SWV and doing yourself a favor in the process.)

Who am I? Well, uh... I used to sell these headshots at the Something Weird Video Table back in the 90s, for $5 a pop. I'm the Jungle Girl.

I also introduced a few of those Something Weird videos back in the day,with Johnny Legend and the Aztec Mummy, which you might remember:

As I add to these blog entries I'll link them here. Burt for now, enjoy:

Day 1: SHE DEVILS AND TEENAGE HELLCATS!

12 Days Of Youtube: You Better Watch Out

"Christmas Evil," AKA "You Better Watch Out," AKA ""Terror in Toyland" was an obscure film from 1980, directed by Lewis Jackson and produced by the legendary Edward R. Pressman.

The movie predates the better-known "Silent Night, Deadly Night" by a few years, but has a small and solid cult following which includes director John Waters. And it's easy to see why: the charms of "Christmas Evil" are a lot more subtle and weird than the broader, hack-and-slash, show-us-your-tits, 70's chainsaw horror of "Silent Night." This low-budget gem falls more in the company of nudie-roughies like The Baby and Bad Ronald. 

After the traumatic experience of seeing his mom get it on with dad in a Santa suit, Harry Stadling grows up to become this proto-stalker Santa. The movie plays up the essential creepiness of the concept of Santa: Harry watches his "little darlings" obsessively through their windows, and keeps lists of their good and bad behavior in his own books (including "impure thoughts" and "poor body hygiene.") This creepy Santa even has his own Santa-van, so he can drive around leaving bags of dirt on bad children's doorsteps. His obsession finally leads him to hacking bullies to death on the steps of a church, and melting down tin soldiers to make his own special toys so he can stab special yuppies in their special eyes. Of course, he ends up being pursued by a mob with torches.

The full movie is on Youtube. Enjoy!

Nuns With Guns

I've never been a big fan of the rape-revenge genre. Inevitably, when people hear that you are a woman who enjoys exploitation films, the conversation immediately turns to "oh! Well have you seen "I Spit on Your Grave," because, you know, the protagonist has a vagina and as a vagina-owner, you probably will love it." Like watching one of the few protagonists I can relate to getting brutally gang-raped in the opening scene is going to be an empowering experience for me. Cause that's the basic rape-revenge plot: girl gets raped, gets angry, and goes on a killing spree to get back at her rapists. At best, it shows a lack of imagination when it comes to writing origin stories for "strong women characters." At worst, it's a cartoon idea of what rape is:  a one-dimensional shorthand for female character motivation.

And that's why it took me so long to get around to Ms. 45.

I came to Abel Ferrara through Bad Lieutenant. Ferrara's sleazy, gritty portrait of a New York cop didn't shy away from portraying all sides of a self-destructive soul, so I suspected Ms. 45 would show the same unflinching commitment. And oh boy, did it ever.  This was not a one-dimensional fantasy of a "strong woman." Zoe Lund's performance is amazing, as she mutates from a mute, washed-out seamstress to a stalking killer, a Travis Bickle of sexual politics whose very existence deconstructs the motivations of everyone around her. She's not strong. She's like Batman having a psychotic break. And of course, it's all wrapped in Ferrara's lapsed Catholic imagery.  So by the time she shows up in a nun's habit and red lipstick and starts firing wildly at a party full of people, we know she's about to self-immolate for our sins.  And it's awesome to watch.

Drafhouse is releasing a new, digitally remastered and uncut print of this 70's classic in December, to theaters, DVD, Blu Ray and VOD. Right now they are giving away two tracks from the soundtrack for free, so hustle on over, baby!

http://drafthousefilms.com/film/ms.-45

(By the way, if you want to see "Bad Lieutenant," it's on Hulu for free. You're welcome.)