The Cinema of the Unintended (Unattended?)

More than a few times I’ve heard the question: “Why do you want to watch that?”. Which, to be fair, is a perfectly reasonable question when you’ve just told someone that you’re going home to watch The Killer Shrews. Why would anyone waste their time watching The Vampire Happening when they could be watching The King’s Speech? Welcome to my little corner of the cinematically obscure and weird. Fortunately, I’m not alone.

Adorable, don’t you think?

At first it might seem like wandering these back alleys of bizarre cinema is a lonely endeavor, but I assure you it’s not. My wife, Erica, and my good friend Karen Kohoutek, are also fellow travelers in this seedy realm. While our interests don’t always mesh completely (I’m a big horror fan, Erica isn’t) we frequently see a lot of the same movies and enjoy them for similar reasons. When I started exploring this area of cinema, I found fans from all walks of life. From people who swear that Spielberg is a hack and that Roger Corman is the only real filmmaker still alive to those who vociferously defend every Full Moon movie ever made. Once I tapped into that community, I found a cast of characters almost as varied as that of the movies I watch.

To be fair, often these movies are just as bad as they might seem. For every The Dead Hate the Living there is usually at least half a dozen Meat Market or Zombie Apocalypse movies. This, of course, is subjective. Why The Dead Hate the Living over Meat Market? Because I liked The Dead Hate the Living better. Some movies latch onto me like a rabid lamprey eel and remain buried in my consciousness for years.

Of course, there is also the Mystery Science Theater 3000 effect. When I’m feeling blah or even a bit smug, I can watch one of these celluloid disasters and laugh at the bad dialog, the wooden acting, or just make fun of hairstyles from the 1980’s. Affectionately known as “MST3K”ing a film, it’s usually a good time when you can sit down with friends and family to rightfully heckle the bejeezus out of a horrid movie.

The hidden treasure aspect of trolling the sea floor of cinema is another reason I waste my spare time watching the exploits of Demonic Toys or whatever synapse-destroying treat catches my eye on a Saturday afternoon. Seeing Leonardo DiCaprio’s first movie role in Critters 3 or Jennifer Aniston in Leprechaun is fun. Catching yet another of Jeffrey Comb’s roles as H.P. Lovecraft is even more fun. I’ve encountered a lot of big name actors, directors, etc. in these throw away movies than most people would probably expect.

If you’re looking to expand your horizons and do something a little different, consider taking a trip to the cobweb strewn corners of the Internet, Netflix, or video store and finding a movie that you’ve never heard of before. Whether the box cover intrigues you, an actor in the movie is on your radar, or the description reads like it was written by a pulp writer coming off a 3-day peyote bender, consider giving it a chance. It’s possible the movie is just as horrid as you might imagine, but it’s also possible you’ll discover a new favorite or a delightful train wreck for your next movie night.

Recommendations

• Horror – The Killer Shrews – As silly as it might sound, this is actually a really good movie. I recommend this one to people on a regular basis
• Action/Adventure – Goliath vs. The Dragon (or any of the Goliath films) – Fun, low budget, and usually entertaining sword and sandals movies from the 60s
• Drama – Shanty Tramp – This is usually classified as exploitation, but this movie is all about bad people, the bad things they do, and — well, you’ll have to watch it
• Sci-Fi – Cave Women on Mars – Christopher Mihm (from Minneapolis) does his best to recreate the crazy monster/sci-fi cinema of my youth, and does a good job
• Comedy – The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra – This one hits on a lot of genre’s, but first and foremost, it’s a parody of science fiction films of yesteryear

Super Survival

Maybe it’s just me, and maybe I’m picking the wrong ones, but so far, I’ve had no luck with romance novels. I realize that I’m not the target audience (even though I’m a hopeless romantic). The one I’m reading right now, Steamed, is so poorly written in parts I cringe as I’m reading. I’m going to power through it as a matter of principle, but I’m getting real gun-shy of anything from the overall “Romance” genre. Too bad, I’m sure there are good books in the genre out there, but I’m not willing to wade through piles of them just to find one good book.

My bookbinding materials arrived today and I dove right in. First off is the first section of flyleaf that I cut out. I ended up using a carpet knife because the Exacto knives I have wouldn’t do the job. I might have to look into getting something a bit better. For now, the carpet knife will do.

This is the text block with the super laid on top (not yet glued) and the two flyleafs (inside and outside) below.

The final step for the evening is the text block with the flyleafs glued on. I’ll press this overnight to get a good solid bond and more compression of the spine of the text block.

Tomorrow I’ll glue the super to the text block and set that aside. The big deal will be cutting the bookcloth (which one to use now) and the bookboard. Bookcloth I’m not too concerned about, but the bookboard is substantial. Ideally, I’d cut this with a bandsaw, but I don’t have a bandsaw. I don’t even have a table saw, so I’m going to have to get creative on this one.

Our game of Fiasco went off swimmingly last night. I admit that I was hesitant about trying out a game so different from our normal style, but this seemed to hit the spot. John chose the Main Street setting after winning at Zombie Dice. We went through the setup, and nothing was leaping out at first. But once we got the ball rolling, it went quickly. We all assumed our characters, and started off. And it never stopped. At the end of Act I, we were all still in high gear. Midway through Act II (and not even necessarily consciously by any of us), we reached the denouement of the story, and the resolution fell into place like we had scripted the whole thing. There were gangbangers, crooked cops, ex-cons, and grave robbing. Easily one of the most messed up and enjoyable one-shot games I have ever played.

DC, Marvel, and other comic companies have been coming out with a series of $1.00 comic books lately. They are all meant to tempt new readers in, and I have to say, it’s working for me. I’ve read about a dozen of them so far, and there are at least three of them that I plan to follow (in graphic novel form) going forward, and a couple of others that I might try to get when I’m low on reading material. For the money, the John Constantine $1.00 comic has been the best value, followed by Invincible and Chew. If you’ve been away from comics for a while, this is a great way to dive back in and try a variety of material. Titles range all over the place from mainstream Batman/Spiderman to Vertigo titles like John Constantine and I, Zombie.

My first two RPG books in quite some time arrived today. The first was a dead tree version of Fiasco. It’s nice to have something I can pass around the table easier than the three-ring binder I have right now. The other was the Red Dwarf RPG. I bought this strictly for nostalgic purposes. I certainly wouldn’t mind playing the game, but I don’t know how much everyone else would be up for it. I can certainly propose it when we have another break in the schedule for role-playing.

I’m not surprised, but I am a bit disappointed to see that Fargo has yet to get Survival of the Dead in local theaters. I was really looking forward to seeing this on the big screen.

And just because I introduced someone at work to the series today, here’s a bit of mirth to lift the spirit. Yes, Creature Comforts are available on Netflix too.

Runners Game

I just finished watching Zombie Death House on Netflix Instant Watch. I’m not entirely sure why, but I’m actually a little more lenient with 80s crappy horror flicks shot on film than I am with modern crappy horror flicks shot on film or video. Strange. Not a bad movie, certainly nothing to get excited about either. The zombie part of it doesn’t actually kick in until about halfway through the movie. After that, zombies are still much rarer on screen than you would normally expect from a genre film. They did manage to have some internal consistency with the zombies, as they were vulnerable to gunshots and other methods of destruction. The method of zombification was a virus, again, plausible enough. I gave it three stars on Netflix, it entertained me for 80 minutes or so, and I stuck around until the end. Good enough.

I’ve been reading The Art and Craft of Storytelling by Nancy Lamb. I’m about halfway through it. It’s an easy read and has some useful advice. I think it’s a good place to start if you’re looking for basic advice on writing. There are helpful hints for intermediate level writers too. She has an easy writing style that makes it a quick read. Most of the information in the book is also non-technical and almost non-pedagogical. More of a pick this, throw that, use sparingly approach to traditional storytelling. It’s been helpful to read about techniques I could use to plot out and use in my own stories. I’m thinking this will actually be helpful when I’m ready to start on my next novel.

I’m about 10% of the way done with the Yu Yu Hakusho anime series. It seems like the series isn’t quite sure where it wants to go at first. Some of Yusuke’s first enemies don’t appear to be continuing characters, but that changes in later episodes. That’s okay though, for a shonen series, I quite enjoy it. It can get a bit repetitive at times, but I like the “spirit” of the show. It’s not quite as optimistic as some other shonen series, which is a nice change.

I’ve also been watching Batman Beyond Season 1. What an excellent show by any accounting. When it first came out, I was definitely apprehensive about trying to future-ize Batman, but it worked well. In fact, I think Batman Beyond probably even outshines some of the early Batman animated series. Once I’m done with the first season, I’ll probably end up purchasing the remaining seasons. It is just that good.

Erica and I just finished up the first disc of season 2 of Corner Gas. This one is an interesting diversion from our normal fare. It’s so harmless, but still manages to be laugh out loud funny. I can’t recommend this one highly enough to people of all ages.

Zombies vs. Robots

I finished watching the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross today. All in all, probably one of the best anime series I’ve ever watched.

I loved the fact that while it is one of the seminal mecha series, it is very much about the people inside the machines. Both the SDF Macross and the Veritech fighters. Actions by all of the characters have a very real impact on the events in the story. Characters, grow, change, and die throughout the series, just another aspect that lends the series more dramatic credibility. The writing/script appears to be developed enough that the ending doesn’t come as too much of a surprise. Getting to know these very believable characters as I watched the series was what made it great.

There were some flaws. I thought the love triangle between Misa, Hikaru, and Minmay was drawn out a bit too long. The last episode had some small surprises that seemed a bit out of place. The animation seemed to change in the last 3 or 4 episodes too. Not sure why that was, it could have been the quality of the prints used by Animeigo. Those are all minor quibbles in the grand scheme of things though.

I haven’t seen “Robotech” in quite some time, so I’m having a hard time comparing the two. However, when given the choice, I don’t see why I would ever go back and watch the original Robotech series after watching the brilliance of two of the series that comprised the mashed-up American version. I haven’t finished “Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross”, I think it will still be the weak link in the chain. “Genesis Climber Mospeada” and “Super Dimension Fortress Macross” are both exceptional anime series and I would easily recommend them to anime fan. In addition, I would recommend “SDF Macross” to sci-fi fans in general. It’s a shining example of making sci-fi about the people and not the science.

I also watched George Romero’s “Diary of the Dead” again. It seems like I need to watch Romero films at least twice to really grasp just how good they really are. My first viewing of “Diary of the Dead” gave me the impression of a heavy-handed attempt at exploiting a new genre of low-budget film making (handheld cam). After watching it again, I am starting to appreciate the movie for its finer qualities. This really is a brilliant film. Even with some of the overt attempts of driving his points home, George Romero shows that he is a master director, and deserves a lot more credit than Hollywood gives him. While the movie isn’t perfect, it is very much a worthwhile addition to his “Dead” series.