THE JESUS LIZARD; Club (2011) DVD
Live DVD (2011)
Though it's impossible to properly convey just how ferocious a live band the Jesus Lizard are, particularly in smaller confines, Club does an admirable job capturing the quartet's first stateside show in more than ten years, in July 2009. The band's original line-up touch upon every full-length and EP they released, demonstrating how strongly their songs, including torching versions of "Killer McHann" and "One Evening," stand up today. There's actually nothing dated or putridly nostalgic about this exercise; the Jesus Lizard are like an ageless, un-caged animal with scores to settle and points to prove, particularly since they went out rather unceremoniously in 1999 as a weakened, incomplete unit. Yow proves to be a consistant menace, half-naked and threatening the audience in the midst of songs like "Mouthbreather," as he rolls over and through them like a possessed man caught in a whirlwind. Club reveals much about their reunion tour – most notably that it felt like they'd never stopped playing together in the first place.
WHO I AM AND WHAT I WANT (David Shrigley); DVD
DVD + Booklet (2006), Used
Who I Am And What I Want is a 7 minute animated short film directed by Chris Shepherd and David Shrigley in 2005. The film is based on the 2003 David Shrigley book of the same title. This DVD was released in 2006 with a 12 page booklet with art from the film.
The animation in this short is super cool, simplistic but looks and flows great, with ideas and motion. It is not a family film needless to say as it is full of sexual imagery and violence as Pete relates the contents of his life and his head. It is a fascinating film; not an easy watch but engaging, interesting, disturbing and clever. Describing this animation is difficult, and this DVD is quite a rare find in Australia.
LA VIDA LOCA; DVD (2008)
DVD (2008)
The fearless photographer and documentary-maker Christian Poveda submerges himself into central America, into the underbelly of society. He managed to get permission from the Salvadorian police and one of the gangs, the "18", to follow them in their lives. Four years later, La Vida Loca sees the light, taking you along the path of violent outcasts of society. And it is very different to what you might imagine. The documentary takes us from the unfolding of someone's life to their funeral after a shooting. It is an endless spiral of gang violence, with seemingly no point to the gang war whatsoever, other than that of having an enemy to unite them. Joining a gang is not even an alternative employer for the poor, as the gang does not offer any external symbols of success (wealth, privilege, whatever). In fact, the gang does not seem to offer anything at all but the prospect of death, jail or invalidity. Hardly the attractive option, but these youths are already broken by their lives. And change becomes inevitable with the gang tattoos (voluntary or forced) marking their allegiance. Once you are have your face covered in tattoos, you can no longer send your CV anywhere. They can not back down. After the films release, filmmaker Christian Poveda was killed by gang members who appeared in the film, who claimed that he was a police informer.
SAVAGE MAN, SAVAGE BEAST; DVD
DVD (1975), New
Savage Man Savage Beast, is a 1975 'Mondo' documentary film co-produced, and co-directed by Antonio Climati and Mario Mora. Filmed all around the world, its central theme focuses on hunting and the interaction between man and animal. Like many mondo films, the filmmakers claim to document real, bizarre and violent behavior and customs. This was the first film of Climati's and Morra's Savage Trilogy, which also includes "This Violent World" and "Sweet and Savage". Arguably the most infamous film of the trilogy, Savage Man Savage Beast became influential in exploitation cinema by use of cinematographic techniques that were repeated in numerous subsequent Mondo films. Two scenes in particular, a lion attack on a tourist in Namibia and the murder of an indigenous man by a group of mercenaries in South America, have gained notoriety as genuine footage of human death.
This film is new and sealed, well presented bootleg on no official label.
HELLS GROUND; DVD
DVD (2007), New
This is cetrtainly the first gore film to ever come out of Pakistan.....and it's a great one. Serious amount of bloodletting, Intestines, Headless Corpses, More intestines, Zombies eating people, A dwarf zombie feasting on intestines, A main villain twice as insane as Leatherface & carrying a spinning spiked-ball, A damsel in distress getting her head snapped 360, More bloodletting, A doper zombie spitting out blood at the sight of people trying to embrace, and then the great ending. B-grade horror heaven.....
HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES; DVD
DVD (1922) - (1968 re-release)
Directed by Scandinavian filmmaker Benjamin Christensen, 'Haxan -Witchcraft Through the Ages' (1922) is a strange silent film depicting black magic, witchcraft, and demonology from the middle ages to the 20th century. Shot and presented in documentary form, the film is more akin to a pseudo-scholarly lecture with moving visual aids. Not as intense or as shocking today as upon its initial release, the film is filled with nightmarish images that are certainly profane and explicit, but also humorous. Yes, sex goes hand-in-hand with Satan, and Christensen's flamboyant portrayal of the aforementioned character, complete with flicking, wanton tongue, drives home the point (well, that and a peppering of nudity). Unique to say the least, 'Haxan' is a rather weird curio of a film with some incredibly atmospheric, somewhat graphic images, esp. for that era.
The 1968 re-release with an electric jazz-fusion score by Jean Luc Ponty and narration by William S. Burroughs is a treat in itself.
BLOOD ORGY OF THE SHE-DEVILS; DVD
DVD; (1973) Ted V Mikels
Cult Horror Indie filmmaker Ted V Mikels 1973 occult classic, "Blood Orgy of the She-Devils" involves a group of sacrificing witches who carry out satanic rituals and human sacrifice. Their head witch is hired to kill a politician, and then is killed, but then reincarnates herself. She also does seances. She decides to extract her vengence on the two who attempted to kill her. We also have some disturbing flashbacks of torture scenes from history's witches. And, it ends with a bunch of witch hunters coming to kill her. If you like Mikels style of indie B-grade horror, you will be sure to like this.
ALICE; (Jan Svankmajer) DVD
DVD, New
Alice is a 1988 surrealist dark fantasy film written and directed by Jan Svankmajer Its original Czech title is Něco z Alenky, which means "Something from Alice". It is a loose adaptation of Louis Carrol's first Alice book, Alice's adventures in Wonderland(1865), about a girl who follows a white rabbit into a bizarre fantasy land. The film combines live action with stop motion animation, and is distinguished by its dark and uncompromising production design.
For Švankmajer, a prolific surrealsit director of short films for more than two decades, Alice became his first feature length film. The director had been disappointed by other adaptations of Carroll's book, which interpret it as a fairy tale. His aim was instead to make the story play out like a darkly disturbing amoral dream. The film has been widely praised and is certainly an astonishing film.
GUTTERBALLS; DVD
DVD, New
Canadian splatter comedy GUTTERBALLS (2008) is a damn fine sexually explicit, graphically violent, morally repugnant, willfully bad B-Movie that refreshingly takes itself seriously, despite the over-the-top subject matter. Heads will bowl.....
DVD release on Australian 'Bad Movies' independent label.
