Congratulations to Late Night Grindhouse of St. Louis on 12 Years of genre and exploitation programming! To celebrate the occasion they created a diabolical challenge for die-hard fans of their programming: a 12 Hour Mystery Movie Marathon. I only discovered LNGH recently, so thought this would be a great way to be introduced to their programming, and the event truly exceeded my expectations. 8 films from Noon to Midnight, unknown to the audience until the title hits the screen, laid out in double-feature blocks preceded by a few grindhouse trailers as hints to what's to come. Consider this a standing ovation from ECSTATIC to host Andy Triefenbach and his collaborators on an impeccably organized and expertly curated day of cinemania. I am chuffed to report that I survived the entire marathon, and will display proudly my #1 issued Cinematic Certification. What follows is a list of each "mystery" film, followed by some commentary based on what I could piece together from my celluloid-saturated memory of the event:
Movie #1: Blood and Black Lace Mario Bava, 1964
I went into the marathon hoping for films that I hadn't seen before, and this opening film not only fit that bill, but was one I had in the at-home queue. Blood and Black Lace is considered a great starting point for enthusiasts of the Italian pulp genre known as giallo, but also served as a great starting point for the marathon. The gorgeous projection and sound was particularly reassuring. Bava's oeuvre spans multiple genres from giallos to sword & sandal, sci-fi, and westerns. While I'm not a Bava completist, this film stands out among some pretty great pictures like Planet of the Vampires and Bay of Blood, and set a perfectly atmospheric and suspenseful tone for an event that was likely going to contain some, let's say, less subtle fare...
Hard Ticket to Hawaii is one of only two films in the marathon that I had seen before, but this is the first time seeing it with a full house, and it was the ideal choice by the programmers to escalate the proceedings early. Of course, I knew Hard Ticket was a masterpiece of action filmmaking featuring boobs, nunchuks, throwing stars, remote control helicopters, blow-up dolls, bazookas, boobs, a contaminated snake, and an incredible theme song. But, what I didn't anticipate was how much fun it was to watch with an audience, which amplified the way in which it is, perhaps, the most fun and watchable piece of aggressively stupid and meat-headed filmmaking ever committed to celluloid. If you haven't seen this movie...what are you waiting for? For a better movie to come along? That's not likely. Watch out for snakes, indeed.
Movie #3: Shogun Assassin Robert Houston/Kenji Misumi, 1980
While I was aware of how this samurai favorite has been sampled or referenced in both the GZA album Liquid Swords and Tarantino's Kill Bill Vol.2, I had never seen this mash-up of two Lone Wolf and Cub films until now, and while I'm sure it's considered a hack-and-slash job by some, it's a wildly entertaining, fast-paced, cinematic ballet of violence. In April I had watched the first film in the Lone Wolf and Cub series, Sword of Vengeance, which Shogun Assassin excerpts early on, so I was a bit thrown off by seeing scenes from a movie that I clearly recognized within a movie I was positive I hadn't seen. While I plan to catch some of the other Lone Wolf and Cub films, seeing Shogun Assassin on the big screen made it clear why this one is so beloved and repeatedly screened.
Movie #4: The Blob Charles Russell, 1988
I had passed on this one back in the 80's, and since become a fan of the 1958 original, as well as it's theme song (a classic that might only be topped by the theme to Hard Ticket to Hawaii). The charm of the 1988 version is mostly in the display of practical effects that would largely disappear from horror and sci-fi in the 90's. Some fun performances by Kevin Dillon and Shawnee Smith. Stand up and improv legend Del Close makes a cameo as the town reverend, and is featured in a finale that pretty strongly suggests a sequel, though I think the only Blob sequel in existence is one that Close was also featured in, 1972's Beware! The Blob!
Movie #5: Bloody Birthday Ed Hunt, 1981
This is the only film I've watched again since the marathon, partially because I missed the opening scene and wanted to be sure that this blunt tale of murderous 10-year-olds was solely explained by the premise that they were all three born on the same night during a lunar eclipse. And, yes, that's all the reasoning behind the murderous rampage these kids perpetrate, which includes shootings, beating a cop to death, jump-rope strangulation, more shootings, and short-range peephole archery, to name but a few. The "birthday" of the title is a bit misleading, and made me wonder if there wasn't an alternately scripted version that climaxed more around that event, but the overall effect of the film is oddly chilling, partly due to how untroubled it is about explaining the motivations of this deadly trio of grade schoolers.
Movie #6: Popcorn Mark Herrier, 1991
The inclusion of this comedy/horror/thriller set during a horror-movie marathon was a justified and fun choice, even though this was my least favorite in the LNGH 12-film marathon. It also made a great double-bill with The Blob, given it's famous sequence set in a movie theatre infiltrated by the unstoppable goo. Popcorn is one of those movies that feels like a couple of movies mashed together (but with less success than Shogun Assassin), landing in a tonally shaky place between the camp horror movies it sends up and the experimental "cult" film that casts a curse on the William Castle-inspired fright fest. Jill Shoelen is not a terribly compelling lead, but the always committed horror icon Dee Wallace shows up, as does Bruce Glover in an electrifying cameo.
Movie #7: The Black Cat Luigi Cozzi, 1989
No, not that The Black Cat...or that other one. This is the one originally proposed as a finale to Dario Argento's "Three Mothers" trilogy--after Suspiria and Inferno--but then was taken up by Luigi Cozzi (frequently billed as Lewis Coates, as he is here), who had directed Starcrash and a few Lou Ferrigno vehicles, and turned into a movie about the making of a movie that is perhaps entirely happening in a dream within a dream...that also goes by the title Demons 6. So, yeah, that The Black Cat. The one with Caroline Munro. The one that is truly unlike anything you've ever seen, and, viewed 10 hours into a grindhouse marathon, might seem to be a movie you're dreaming while you fell asleep during Popcorn. I truly admired the psychotic pitch and placement of this choice. It contains a rather lengthy dream sequence where the refrigerator of the main characters breaks down, a repairman is called, comes to fix it, and is paid, but...the next day the receipt for the payment is missing(!). Did their refrigerator really break down? And what does that have to do with the demonic witch that keeps appearing in the house and gooing all over the place?? The Black Cat is confounding and delightfully bizarre, but can in no way compete with the final film...
House isn't exactly a movie that one can synopsize, but it does involve a house. It might help to note that aspects of the script were created in collaboration with Ôbayashi's 12-year old daughter, though that doesn't exactly mean it's a children's film. Nor is it a movie for just any adult, and judging from the collective mood of the final screening, some were way into it while others seemed to be quietly tolerating this deeply freaky movie. This was the only other picture I had seen before, though I quietly wished I could have been seeing it for the first time. The sonic aspects of House were particularly highlighted in this screening, sharp and assaultive in the same way the visual aspects in the film seem to progressively splinter, jostle, and rend characters apart in various ways, until the whole film explodes in fragmented, supernatural ecstasy.
And, with a sigh of satisfaction, I high-tailed it out of the Des Peres Marcus Cinema to collect my official certification:
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