EVIL DEAD TRAP 2 (1992); DVD
Japan/Gore/Thriller/Cult - Unearthed Films, DVD
A sequel in name only, this second entry in the EDT-series is easily the most satisfying one. It's as gory as one might expect from an Asian horror film, some scenes almost forcing the viewer to look away (eg: when the breaking-the-arm-over-the-radiator bit comes along) but this one has an ingenious plot and decent acting to boot. Far less derivative than the original, EDT 2 involves a young, timid girl who goes on a killing spree, her self-loathing fueling the fire. There's also a sub-plot of an abortion gone awry, and the re-appearance of Hideki, probably the scariest child in movie history. Dream-logic, most of it, but it works. The photography is perversely stylish, the pacing hypnotic. Some images, like a wounded victim staggering forward against a full-neon backdrop, or the twisted ballet of protagonist and antagonist battling in a mesh of white sheets, will stay with you for a very long time. The soundtrack, a Goblin-inspired celesta-theme, is breath-taking, and extremely well used throughout the film.
EDT 2 is top-notch film-making all the way, and will have you looking under the bed for nights to come. Argento would be proud. ........
ILSA: THE WICKED WARDEN (1977) Jess Franco; DVD
Cult/Sexploitation/Sleaze, DVD
Dependably twisted schlockmeister Jess Franco dishes up enough nastiness, violence, sex, nudity and sleaze for a dozen average exploitation pictures. A female journalist infiltrates a women's prison to expose the corruption within. Once inside (posing as a prisoner), she is exposed to the grim, vile world that is a women's prison. Ilsa is the vicious warden, who puts her prisoners through all sorts of physical and psychological abuse, although the prisoners manage some pretty outrageous behavior on their own. There's a nice, long, voyeuristic catfight in the showers, as well as an unspeakably tacky scene in which self-appointed lead prisoner forces the reporter to lick her ass clean after a bout of diarrhea. That pretty much sets the standard for taste in this movie.
SVINET: Vase De Noces (Wedding Trough) (1974)
ART/Experimental/Cult/Underground DVD, Used
A farmer(Dominique Garny)who may be the last man on earth, loves and makes love to a huge sow-pig. When the sow gives birth, he takes the piglets from her to keep her from eating them, and knits cute little infant things for them. When the piglets abandon him for their mother, he executes them by hanging, and the sow shows the first distress she has shown for the whole film. "Wedding Trough", more commonly known as "The Pig Fucking Movie" is certainly one of the sickest and strangest films ever made. It's loaded with scenes of implied bestiality, coprophagia and insanity,so fans of unrelentingly grim, experimental transgressions will be satisfied. The action is set on a secluded rural farm and the film is completely devoid of dialogue. It certainly has some truly repellent subject matter, and the scenes of the farmer sodomizing his swine or eating his own excrement are sick as hell. Absolutely amazing film, especially for those folk who are into cinema on the more extreme bizarre side.....
DER TODESKING - Jorg Buttgereit (1990); DVD
Graphic Horror/Cult/Underground DVD, New
Cult Epics presents the third release in the series Corpse Fucking Art; Jorg Buttgereit’s powerful masterpiece Der Todesking (aka The Death King), made in between Nekromantik (1987) and Nekromantik 2 (1991). Seven stories on Death and Suicide, each taking place on a different day of the week, enframed by the decomposition of a human body.
Warning: extremely graphic. Der Todesking, available for the first time on DVD and Blu-ray, is presented Uncut and Uncensored in a new High Definition transfer.
SANTA CLAUS: SERIAL RAPIST (Bill Zebub); DVD
B-Grade/Sex/Absurd DVD
A woman who is researching alien abductions for a book receives increasing reports of nocturnal attackers described as resembling Santa Claus. She enlists the aid of a scholar of mythology to see if the legend of Santa has a darker side, and what she discovers is more horrifying than she could never have expected.
A female figure sleeps, face buried in a pillow, covered only by a sheet of uninspired textile pattern. Something is off. Slowly an unseen force begins to pull the sheet off of her voluptuous figure. To our terror, it is Santa Claus! The intruder has his way with his victim with images of red velvet, white fur, nose piercings, and breasts, fill the tight close-ups spilling across the screen. Thus begins Santa Claus: Serial Rapist. This surprisingly pensive film delivers rape, Santa, and the philosophical ramblings of writer-director and star Bill Zebub. It all adds up to something that is thoughtful, yet painfully remiss of the absurdist possibilities that the title indicates.
ANTFARM DICKHOLE (2011); DVD
Bill Zebub B-Grade/Sex/Trash DVD
Hailed as having "the most WTF moments in movie history" Antfarm Dickhole is the story of rampaging army ants that have nested inside a living human man's 'dickhole'. The unwilling host discovers that when bullies attack him, the ants defend their penile nest. Thus begins a tragic tale of what happens when the powerless become powerful. After a painful encounter with some bullies next to an ant colony, Ant-Drew will never have to fear again, as an improbable, yet miraculous symbiosis begins. Now, he is unstoppable, and he thirsts for revenge. Is this a dream come true? Who could have ever come up with this shit? He's Got Ants in His Pants! - Later re-released as "Human Antfarm"
CITY OF SHADOWS: Sydney Police Photographs 1912-1948; Hardcover
239 pages (2007); New
Focusing on the victims, perpetrators and vicinities of crime, City of Shadows introduced the world to the Justice & Police Museum's extraordinary and compelling collection of police forensic photography dating from 1912 to 1948. You will meet thieves, breakers, receivers, magsmen, spielers, urgers, gingerers, false pretenders, hotel barbers, shoplifters, dope users, prostitutes, makers of false oaths and the occasional murderer.
Radio Silence: A Selected Visual History of American Hardcore Music; Hardcover
224 pages (2008), Used
Hardcore music emerged just after the first wave of punk rock in the late 1970s. American punk kids who loved the speed and attitude of punk took hold of its spirit, got rid of the “live fast, die young” mind-set and made a brilliant revision: hardcore. The dividing line between punk and hardcore music was in the delivery: less pretense, less melody, and more aggression. This urgency seeped its way from the music into the look of hardcore. There wasn’t time to mold your liberty spikes or shine your Docs, it was jeans and T-shirts, Chuck Taylors and Vans. The skull and safety-pin punk costume was replaced by hi-tops and hooded sweatshirts. Jamie Reid’s ransom note record cover aesthetic gave way to black-and-white photographs of packed shows accompanied by bold and simple typography declaring things like: "The Kids Will Have Their Say", and "You’re Only Young Once." Radio Silence documents the ignored space between the Ramones and Nirvana through the words and images of the pre-Internet era where this community built on do-it-yourself ethics thrived. Authors Nathan Nedorostek and Anthony Pappalardo have cataloged private collections of unseen images, personal letters, original artwork, and various ephemera from the hardcore scene circa 1978-1993. Unseen photos lay next to hand-made t-shirts and original artwork brought to life by the words of their creators and fans. Radio Silence includes over 500 images of unseen photographs, illustrations, rare records, t-shirts, and fanzines presented in a manner that abandons the aesthetic clichés normally employed to depict the genre and lets the subject matter speak for itself. Contributions by Jeff Nelson, Dave Smalley, Walter Schreifels, Cynthia Connolly, Pat Dubar, Gus Peña, Rusty Moore, and Gavin Ogelsby with an essay by Mark Owens.
NASTY TALES: Sex, Drugs, Rock 'N Roll & Violence in the British Underground; Paperback
David Huxley (2002) 192 pages, Used
Though never on the scale of its American counterpart, there was indeed a comics underground in Great Britain. Many of these comics were obscure limited print run productions and few were financially successful. But with subject matter that was anarchic and sexually unrestrained, this political pornography' did indeed have an impact-and invariably caught the wary eye of the law, resulting in several landmark Obscenity cases. From their origins in the 1960s, Nasty Tales covers the turbulent history of these comics and the cultural instability from which they emerged.
LIVE.....SUBURBIA!; Paperback
(2011) 240 pages, Used
Live...Suburbia! is a collection of stories and images of the post-1960s subcultures that define America. It’s kids taking their urethane wheels to empty pools, picking British Punk in broad downstrokes and creating Hardcore, it’s skinheads wearing sneakers and moshing in Connecticut warehouses. Live...Suburbia! is dedicated to denim devils twirling butterfly knives and hasty tags thrown down with Rust-Oleum touch-up paint stolen from your parent’s garage. Most importantly Live...Suburbia! is a new approach in compiling a book. We have Tumblr, Facebook, Flickr and thousands of blogs documenting subcultures, but we’re interested in the other side: real people’s archives and memories, the ones that haven’t been passed around so many times that we have no idea where they came from. The book begins with Kiss. From there Live...Suburbia! rushes through years packed with ninjas, long metal hair, BMX dirt jumps, karate, seven-ply skateboards, bathroom mohawks, skinheads, jockey hardcore kids, basement DJs, graffiti murals behind supermarkets, and finally we arrive in the 1990s where it all collides. This is just fucking awesome!!
CAN: Tago Mago (33 1/3); Paperback
151 pages (2014), Used
A brilliant exploration of the German rock band Can's 1971 album Tago Mago. This hugely unique and influential album deserves close analysis from a fan, rather than a musicologist. Novelist Alan Warner details the concrete music we hear on the album, how it was composed, executed and recorded--including the history of the album in terms of its release, promotion and art work. This tale of Tago Mago is also the tale of a young man obsessed with record collecting in the dark and mysterious period of pop music before Google. Warner includes a backtracking of the history of the band up to that point and also some description of Can's unique recording approach taking into account their home studio set up. Interviews with the two surviving members: drummer Jaki Liebezeit, keyboardist Irmin Schmidt and bassist Holger Czukay make this a hilariously personal and illuminating picture of Can.
