Few American filmmakers of the last 40 years await a major rediscovery like Hal Hartley, whose traces in modern movies are either too-minor or entirely unknown. Thus it’s cause for celebration that the Criterion Channel are soon launching a major retrospective: 13 features (which constitutes all but My America) and 17 shorts, a sui generis style and persistent vision running across 30 years. Expect your Halloween party to be aswim in Henry Fool costumes.
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
Speaking of: there’s a one-month headstart on seasonal programming with the 13-film “High School Horror”––most notable perhaps being a streaming premiere for the uncut version of Suspiria, plus the rare opportunity to see a Robert Rodriguez movie on the Criterion Channel––and a retrospective of Hong Kong vampire movies. A retrospective of ’70s car movies offer chills and thrills of a different sort
Six films by Allan Dwan and 12 “gaslight noirs” round out the main September series; The Eight Mountains,...
- 8/21/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Is there anything scarier than being a teenager? Bd has learned that the Criterion Channel will be launching their 13-film High School Horror collection on September 1!
The streaming service previews, “Relive your high school nightmares with these tales of terror unleashed in classrooms, gyms, locker-lined halls, and cafeterias, where psychotic slashers and supernatural monsters pursue jocks, nerds, and prom queens alike.
“The everyday fears of adolescence—social anxiety! changing bodies!—have inspired some of horror cinema’s most giddily bloodthirsty visions, from VHS-era exploitation shockers like Massacre at Central High and Slumber Party Massacre to ’90s teen-movie touchstones like I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Faculty and cult favorites like Donnie Darko and Battle Royale.”
Of particular note, Dario Argento’s Suspiria will be included in the collection, marking the worldwide streaming premiere of the restored uncut version from Synapse Films!
The full “High School Horror” lineup includes…...
The streaming service previews, “Relive your high school nightmares with these tales of terror unleashed in classrooms, gyms, locker-lined halls, and cafeterias, where psychotic slashers and supernatural monsters pursue jocks, nerds, and prom queens alike.
“The everyday fears of adolescence—social anxiety! changing bodies!—have inspired some of horror cinema’s most giddily bloodthirsty visions, from VHS-era exploitation shockers like Massacre at Central High and Slumber Party Massacre to ’90s teen-movie touchstones like I Know What You Did Last Summer and The Faculty and cult favorites like Donnie Darko and Battle Royale.”
Of particular note, Dario Argento’s Suspiria will be included in the collection, marking the worldwide streaming premiere of the restored uncut version from Synapse Films!
The full “High School Horror” lineup includes…...
- 8/11/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Renee Daalder’s Cult Classic Comes To Blu-ray With Synapse Films’ Special Edition of Massacre At Central High, Available September 13 “A very good movie, a considerable filmmaking achievement.” – Roger Ebert, Sneak Previews “Witty, surprising, very entertaining.” – Vincent Canby, The New York Times Renee Daalder’s Massacre At Central High remains one of the premiere …
The post Massacre At Central High Is Back In Class This September! appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.
The post Massacre At Central High Is Back In Class This September! appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.
- 5/9/2022
- by Adrian Halen
- Horror News
Cinema’s Hidden Pearls – Part II
By Alex Simon
One of nature’s rarest items, a pearl is produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. Truly flawless pearls are infrequently produced in nature, and as a result, the pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable.
Hidden pearls exist in the world of movies, as well: films that, in spite of being brilliantly crafted and executed, never got the audience they deserved beyond a cult following.
Here are a few more of our favorite hidden pearls in the world of film:
1. Massacre at Central High (1976)
Dutch director, and former cameraman for the legendary Russ Meyer, Rene Daalder was hired by producers to direct an exploitation...
By Alex Simon
One of nature’s rarest items, a pearl is produced within the soft tissue (specifically the mantle) of a living shelled mollusk. Just like the shell of a clam, a pearl is composed of calcium carbonate in minute crystalline form, which has been deposited in concentric layers. Truly flawless pearls are infrequently produced in nature, and as a result, the pearl has become a metaphor for something rare, fine, admirable and valuable.
Hidden pearls exist in the world of movies, as well: films that, in spite of being brilliantly crafted and executed, never got the audience they deserved beyond a cult following.
Here are a few more of our favorite hidden pearls in the world of film:
1. Massacre at Central High (1976)
Dutch director, and former cameraman for the legendary Russ Meyer, Rene Daalder was hired by producers to direct an exploitation...
- 6/29/2015
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Mandingo, a 1975 movie based on the best-selling period potboiler by Kyle Onstott about sexual shenanigans between masters and slaves on the Falconhurst slave-breeding plantation, was savaged by critics who saw it as nothing but degrading, big-budget exploitation. Roger Ebert called it “racist trash”, a “piece of manure”, and “excruciating to sit through”. Mandingo certainly had it all; brutal violence, interracial sex, rape, infanticide, lynchings, and abundant nudity including full-frontal shots of it’s male star, boxer Ken Norton. But of course it was a huge hit and inspired a brief run of “slaverysploitation” films such as Passion Plantation (1975 aka Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle ) and the cleverly titled Mandiga (1976). Mandingo was overwrought melodrama to be sure, but it’s a model of subtlety compared to its official sequel, the more lascivious Drum, a mean-spirited trash epic from 1976 that would never fly in today’s politically correct climate. Despite its spaghetti western trappings,...
- 12/12/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2013—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2013 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How...
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How...
- 1/13/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The definition of a slasher film varies depending on who you ask, but in general, it contains several specific traits that feed into the genre’s formula. Author Vera Dika rather strictly defines the sub-genre in her book Games of Terror by only including films made between 1978 and 1984. In other words, she saw it as a movement. When someone describes Brick, they don’t define it as a noir, but instead neo-noir . In other words, it’s a modern motion picture that prominently utilizes elements of film noir, but with updated themes, content, style, visual elements or media that were absent in those from the 1940s and 1950s. So does one consider Scream a slasher film or a neo-slasher, or simply put, a modern slasher?
Some consider Thirteen Women to be the earliest slasher – released all the way back in 1932. Personally I think that is rubbish. Thirteen Women is more like Desperate Housewives on sedatives.
Some consider Thirteen Women to be the earliest slasher – released all the way back in 1932. Personally I think that is rubbish. Thirteen Women is more like Desperate Housewives on sedatives.
- 10/29/2012
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
There are some violent activities that are happening in the Great White North that are the talk of the town. No, I am not referring to the riots that took place after Vancouver lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to Boston. I speak of Mr. Ryan Nicholson and his flesh shredding films that have satisfied gorehounds everywhere, and have brought Canuxploitation into the new millennium.
Jason Bene: With films like Grindhouse and Machete, it appears old school viscera is back in a big way. What made you decide to jump in and make your own balls-out horror film?
Ryan Nicholson: I kind of got a head start with Gutterballs, doing the whole retro thing but it was so mean-spirited that it had a very little audience, but very loyal audience diggin’ what I was doing…with Famine, it has more mass appeal I think. No fifteen minute long rape scene in this one!
Jason Bene: With films like Grindhouse and Machete, it appears old school viscera is back in a big way. What made you decide to jump in and make your own balls-out horror film?
Ryan Nicholson: I kind of got a head start with Gutterballs, doing the whole retro thing but it was so mean-spirited that it had a very little audience, but very loyal audience diggin’ what I was doing…with Famine, it has more mass appeal I think. No fifteen minute long rape scene in this one!
- 7/25/2011
- by Jason Bene
- Killer Films
Dance of the Damned Coming up with a title that almost no one has heard of is a difficult task, since I am an advocate for the little known or indie horror film. There's so many films that I could mention.... Night Warning, The Midnight Hour, The Power, Massacre at Central High, Grandma's House, Eyes of Fire, Paperhouse, The Black Waters of Echo's Pond, Storage and so on and so on. There's just been so many titles that deserve special mention or special praise that have been overlooked over the years. So trying to figure out one title that single handily deserved this distinction was a tough task. However, I think I've found a title that's most worthy as it's a film that took risks, it took chances and offered up something completely unique and different that the genre really hadn't seen before. So I give you.....
Dance of the...
Dance of the...
- 4/20/2011
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
Horrid (2009) Kevin Kiser is the leading man of the latest low budget zombie movie to hit the marketplace - Horrid - which co-stars Rex Steven Sikes (Massacre at Central High). In Horrid, three friends travel north for a bachelor party weekend full of babes, booze and unexpected encounters. Oblivious to what is happening around them, the three find themselves trapped as a cannibalistic diseases, developed by the military, transforms the townspeople into ravenous zombies. Kevin Kiser is a local of Wisconsin. With Horrid, he showed an ability to be the appealing everyman in a leading role. His abilities in Horrid I think could easily translate to him playing the "best friend" kind of role in other films. The question is, does he have the drive to pursue any more acting projects? Here's what Kevin had to say about working on Horrid.
Kevin Kiser Who is Kevin Kiser and what are you all about?...
Kevin Kiser Who is Kevin Kiser and what are you all about?...
- 4/8/2011
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
Long cited as an inspiration for Heathers, Rene Daalder’s 1976 drive-in favorite Massacre At Central High has been hard to see over the last couple of decades; it’s only been available on a long out-of-print VHS, since a couple of announced DVD editions haven’t panned out. But in June, New York City-area fans will be able to catch a rare theatrical screening.
- 3/24/2011
- by gingold@starloggroup.com (Michael Gingold)
- Fangoria
Almost one year ago, when we launched at Big Daddy, one of our first posts was about 10 horror films in need of a DVD or Blu-Ray release. The Nesting and Twice Dead which both made the list are now either out on DVD or about to be released. Other titles that made the list included The Pack, Night Warning, Massacre at Central High, Dance of the Damned, Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice, Deadly Blessing, The Kindred and Killer Party. With this second annual edition, we hope to spotlight more horror films that have fallen through the cracks. Titles that haven't been released beyond VHS (with the exception of one, that has only been released to VOD) that need the attention of us horror fans and distributors to make these titles readily available for our horror movie watching enjoyment.
The Power In The Power, an ancient clay idol...
The Power In The Power, an ancient clay idol...
- 3/7/2011
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
"This Spring Break…Get Hammered!"
Bongiovi Entertainment in association with Rex Steven Sikes (Massacre at Central High) and George Barnes (Take 2 productions)
present
"Girls Gone Dead"
(Aka Spring Break Massacre II)
Michael Hoffman Jr. and wife Meghan Jones were looking to reinvent the classic "The Slumber Party Massacre" or "Sorority House Massacre" sub-genre of films. Well, looking at the behind the scenes pics from the film, so far to date, they have come up with at least one new cliche or invention for the horror genre-
The Shawn C. Phillips death scene
Shawn C. Phillips is an indie actor who has been in a wide variety of horror films (President's Day, Witch's Brew, Hell House, Deadly Dares: Truth or Dare Part IV, Red River), but one thing always seems to be a constant in those films. He always gets killed! Judging by the pics from the set of "Girls Gone...
Bongiovi Entertainment in association with Rex Steven Sikes (Massacre at Central High) and George Barnes (Take 2 productions)
present
"Girls Gone Dead"
(Aka Spring Break Massacre II)
Michael Hoffman Jr. and wife Meghan Jones were looking to reinvent the classic "The Slumber Party Massacre" or "Sorority House Massacre" sub-genre of films. Well, looking at the behind the scenes pics from the film, so far to date, they have come up with at least one new cliche or invention for the horror genre-
The Shawn C. Phillips death scene
Shawn C. Phillips is an indie actor who has been in a wide variety of horror films (President's Day, Witch's Brew, Hell House, Deadly Dares: Truth or Dare Part IV, Red River), but one thing always seems to be a constant in those films. He always gets killed! Judging by the pics from the set of "Girls Gone...
- 1/17/2011
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
Cast & Crew "This Spring Break…Get Hammered!"
Bongiovi Entertainment in association with Rex Steven Sikes (Massacre at Central High) and George Barnes (Take 2 productions)
present
"Girls Gone Dead"
The film which is set to start filming on November 13 is genre director Michael Hoffman Jr.'s (Spring Break Massacre) most ambitious undertaking with a five week shooting schedule and a budget of roughly around $500,000. Helping him with this endeavor is Aaron Wells (Rock and a Hard Place: Another Night at the Agora) who will share co-directing credit and Ryan Dee who is on board as the film's producer.
Girls Gone Dead features a cast including hottie Caley Hayes (who ironically played the hottie in "Sex Drive"), sizzling Penthouse Pet Ryan Keely (seen on this year's MTV movie awards in a fake commercial for "Devil" alongside M. Night Shyamalan) internet sensation Shawn C. Phillips (President's Day) and the hardest working man in indie horror,...
Bongiovi Entertainment in association with Rex Steven Sikes (Massacre at Central High) and George Barnes (Take 2 productions)
present
"Girls Gone Dead"
The film which is set to start filming on November 13 is genre director Michael Hoffman Jr.'s (Spring Break Massacre) most ambitious undertaking with a five week shooting schedule and a budget of roughly around $500,000. Helping him with this endeavor is Aaron Wells (Rock and a Hard Place: Another Night at the Agora) who will share co-directing credit and Ryan Dee who is on board as the film's producer.
Girls Gone Dead features a cast including hottie Caley Hayes (who ironically played the hottie in "Sex Drive"), sizzling Penthouse Pet Ryan Keely (seen on this year's MTV movie awards in a fake commercial for "Devil" alongside M. Night Shyamalan) internet sensation Shawn C. Phillips (President's Day) and the hardest working man in indie horror,...
- 11/12/2010
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
Dean Chapman is making his feature film directorial debut with The Spade County Massacre which stars Rex Sikes of Massacre At Central High fame. Rex Sikes has experienced a career resurgence with his radio show and a comeback in the indie horror world starring in Horrid and The Amateur Monster Movie. Rex Sikes is also stepping it up to take on producing duties with the Spade County Massacre. Here is what Dean had to say about making The Spade County Massacre, working with Rex, and what the future holds.
So who is Dean Chapman and what are you all about?
I’m the co-writer, executive producer and director of The Spade County Massacre and co-producer for the up and coming Broadcast TV series “Mayhem Music Television”. A few years back I had visited a friend in La who met producer David Sterling, known for the Camp Blood series. Sterling met...
So who is Dean Chapman and what are you all about?
I’m the co-writer, executive producer and director of The Spade County Massacre and co-producer for the up and coming Broadcast TV series “Mayhem Music Television”. A few years back I had visited a friend in La who met producer David Sterling, known for the Camp Blood series. Sterling met...
- 10/6/2010
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
Rex Steven Sikes started out his career with one of the leading roles in the critically acclaimed Massacre at Central High co-starring genre stars Andrew Stevens (The Fury, The Seduction, The Terror Within), Robert Carradine (Ghosts of Mars, Orca, Tag: The Assassination Game), and Kimberly Beck (Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter) along side Derrel Maury. Lately Rex has seen a resurgence back in the genre that he started out in with appearances in Backwoods Bloodbath, Horrid, The Amateur Monster Movie, and The Spade County Massacre. You can also catch Rex on his Inet radio show Rex Sikes' Movie Beat "conversations with filmmakers". With this interview, Rex Steven Sikes reminisces about his days on Massacre At Central High and what the future holds for him.
Hi Rex! It's really great to have you taking part in this interview.
Thanks it is always nice to be asked questions about movies,...
Hi Rex! It's really great to have you taking part in this interview.
Thanks it is always nice to be asked questions about movies,...
- 9/16/2010
- by Big Daddy aka Brandon Sites
- Big Daddy Horror Reviews - Interviews
The 1976 film Massacre At Central High was a political allegory mounted as T&A exploitation and disguised as a teen slasher flick, but despite its well-deserved reputation as a cult classic, it’s Not available on DVD. After opening with a deceptively drippy song (“You’re at the crossroads of your life…”) Massacre At Central High kicks into teen angst overdrive by creating a somewhat exaggerated fantasy of a high school notable for its complete absence of teachers, adult supervision, rules or even classes.
Promising young athlete David (Derrel Maury) moves to a new neighborhood and enrolls at the local high school. His old friend Mark (Andrew Stevens) is a student there and introduces him to his three sadistic friends who rule the school through bullying and intimidation. David declines the invitation to join the Nazi-wannabes and soon stops them from raping a girl (Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith). They take revenge...
Promising young athlete David (Derrel Maury) moves to a new neighborhood and enrolls at the local high school. His old friend Mark (Andrew Stevens) is a student there and introduces him to his three sadistic friends who rule the school through bullying and intimidation. David declines the invitation to join the Nazi-wannabes and soon stops them from raping a girl (Cheryl “Rainbeaux” Smith). They take revenge...
- 5/12/2010
- by Tom
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
"I need you out here," Russ Meyer told me on the phone in 1977. It was 6 a.m. He could not conceive that I might still be asleep. "Have you ever heard of the Sex Pistols?"
"No," I said.
"They're a rock band from England. They got a lot of publicity for saying 'fuck' on TV. Now they have some money and want me to direct their movie."
"The Sex Pistols?" I said.
"Their manager is a guy named Malcolm McLaren. He called me from London. He said their singers were big fans of 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.' They go to see it every weekend they're in London. It's playing at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road."
No director except possibly for Stanley Kubrick was better informed than Russ about where his movies were playing. Kubrick used to call specific theaters to complain about light intensity. Russ used...
"No," I said.
"They're a rock band from England. They got a lot of publicity for saying 'fuck' on TV. Now they have some money and want me to direct their movie."
"The Sex Pistols?" I said.
"Their manager is a guy named Malcolm McLaren. He called me from London. He said their singers were big fans of 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.' They go to see it every weekend they're in London. It's playing at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road."
No director except possibly for Stanley Kubrick was better informed than Russ about where his movies were playing. Kubrick used to call specific theaters to complain about light intensity. Russ used...
- 4/13/2010
- by Roger Ebert
- blogs.suntimes.com/ebert
Mandingo, a 1975 movie based on the best-selling period potboiler by Kyle Onstott about sexual shenanigans between masters and slaves on the Falconhurst slave-breeding plantation, was savaged by critics who saw it as nothing but degrading, big-budget exploitation. Roger Ebert called it “racist trash”, a “piece of manure”, and “excruciating to sit through” and Mandingo certainly had it all; brutal violence, interracial sex, rape, infanticide, lynchings, and abundant nudity including full-frontal shots of it’s male star, boxer Ken Norton. But of course it was a huge hit and inspired a brief run of “slaverysploitation” films such as Passion Plantation (1975 aka Black Emmanuelle, White Emmanuelle ) and the cleverly titled Mandiga (1976). Mandingo was overwrought melodrama to be sure, but it’s a model of subtlety compared to its official sequel, the more lascivious Drum, a mean-spirited trash epic from 1976 that would never fly in today’s politically correct climate. Despite it’s...
- 12/23/2009
- by Tom
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Like fellow Dutchmen Paul Verhoeven and Jan De Bont, Rene Daalder was drafted by Hollywood to make genre films, though his inclinations ran a little artier. Daalder achieved some cult success with the 1976 drive-in classic Massacre At Central High; then Russ Meyer asked him to work on the star-crossed Sex Pistols movie Who Killed Bambi? Newly infatuated with punk rock, Daalder struck up a friendship with Tomata Du Plenty, leader of the theatrical L.A. synth-punk act The Screamers. Throughout the first half of the '80s, Daalder and Du Plenty tried and failed to get multiple music-video projects off the ground, until in 1986, they finally released Population: 1, a quasi-science-fiction art-punk musical cobbled together from pieces of footage Daalder shot with Du Plenty over the years, cleverly layered with the help of state-of-the-art image-manipulation effects. Population: 1 stars Du Plenty as a man who survives a nuclear holocaust...
- 12/3/2008
- by Noel Murray
- avclub.com
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