Burial Ground: The Night of Terror – Say what you will about Bianchi’s Burial Ground but you cannot deny this film’s trashy charm! Zombies, gore, nudity, incest and one of the most unique and unsettling actors you’ll ever come across in Peter Bark; Burial Ground is a stinky, goofy, delightfully gory zombie oddity. A professor discovers an ancient Etruscan tomb and unleashes the flesh-eating denizens to roam the countryside and lay siege, with weapons, to a mansion full of potential victims! Glorious garbage!
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Cyclone (1987) – This is a great 80′s film from Fred Olen Ray starring Heather Thomas and Jeffry Combs. Wild action and a fun cast make this a gem to watch and own!
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7 Days (Seven Days) – Forget the silly quotes that make this sound like the torture flick of the century because 7 Days has far more going for it than that. This is a rape/revenge film that really touches on the deep, dark fears of parents with young children. There are no traps meant to max out gore and teach lessons and there are no obsessed stalkers, 7 Days is about one guilt-driven man’s love for his daughter and the lengths to which he’s willing to go to not only avenge her death but to find forgiveness. It’s one of the most touching films I’ve ever seen in which a doctor surgically gives a man a colostomy against his will. Don’t fall for the hype, 7 Days has more substance, more emotion and more intensity than you’d expect. Very disturbing.
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The New Daughter – I was very impressed with this film. Luis Berdejos’s first directorial debut was great, I loved the slow burn to the final act! No Hollywood cop-outs here!
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Theatrical Poster
No figure in the horror film world appears to be as polarizing as Rob Zombie. On one end of the spectrum we find the haters who dismiss Zombie’s work as depiction of trailer trash who can do very little other than spout profanity and engage in random bouts of hysteria. This group in particular views his remake of John Carpenter’s classic, Halloween, as bordering on sacrilegious. The other group appreciates Zombie’s work and often his fusion of 70’s style with contemporary directorial approaches such as that of Fernando Meirelles. In spite of being labeled as nothing more than rabid fanboys, this group will attest to their analysis of Zombie and how it shows that there is more depth and critical thinking displayed in his films than one usually finds in Continue reading »
Born of Fire – Jamil Dehlavi’s Born of Fire is an odd, hallucinogenic acid trip of a film. Cult cinema indeed. Incorporating Islamic mythology, human deformity and and the vaguest of arthouse plots, Born of Fire is sure to befuddle, offend and, depending on what type of geek you are, engage. I love this film, Pete Tombs and Mondo Macabro are all sorts of awesome for having saved this from obscurity. Don’t miss this epic battle between an obsessed Flautist and Iblis himself!
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The Being – Jackie Kong’s first film is a riot! A gooey monster, Ruth Buzzi and a lot of fun gore make this film a must-see!
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Years ago after giving a low budget horror film a bad review I received an email tirade from one of the irate producers that worked on the project and it pretty much boiled down to this, “Critics are just failed filmmakers.” My answer was exactly what one might expect, I replied with something along the lines of, “…and producers are gofers that lack the testicular fortitude to direct and the rudimentary education to critique.” It was wrong of me to take such Continue reading »
Mr. Nobody - After almost a year of whining, I was finally about to secure myself a copy of this intriguing sci-fi film and the wait was well worth it. In the vein of arthouse sci-fi films like Primer and Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind comes Jared Leto in Mr. Nobody, the story of the last living mortal and his effort to recall his past. Despite dealing with mind-boggling topics such as String Theory, The Butterfly Effect, Time Travel and The Big Crunch, Mr. Nobody is successfully able to balance its visionary concept with a whimsical, coming-of-age story. Neosurrealism at its finest.
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Ted V. Mikels
Wildside Cinema: You’ve had a long, varied filmmaking career. How did you get started making low budget films in the early sixties?
Ted V. Mikels: Actually, I started shooting movie film on a Keystone camera in 1949. I spent almost all of the nineteen-fifties making my first movies, like Dream Man, A Tall Tale, Yellow Roses, Fool’s Prosperity, Compelled and a number of others with 16mm Bolexes. Then in 1959, I wrote and started filming in 35mm, my first theatrical feature movie Strike Me Deadly. Only obsession with making movies got me started.
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