#joseph p. mawra

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Chained girls (1965), dir. Joseph P. Mawra

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September's single shots: Olga's House of Shame (dir. Joseph P. Mawra, 1964)

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Movie Review | White Slaves of Chinatown (Mawra, 1964)

This is the first of the Olga movies, and offers the same things as the others. Namely, a nice looking lady being mean to other nice looking ladies. But not just regular mean. Hot mean, mostly through bondage and things of that nature. Anyway, before any of you start hooting and hollering, I should specify that this movie is spicy enough for you to have to sign in to watch it in YouTube but not so spicy that it can’t be on YouTube altogether. There are on the rougher end of the spectrum of ‘60s sexploitation, although aside from a bit involving fingers, none of the torture here should leave you terribly frazzled, unless you find Bettie Page pinups to be traumatizing. As the main (and mean) nice looking lady you have Audrey Campbell, and as the other nice looking ladies, you have a group of actresses who look to be in some of director Joseph P. Mawra’s other movies. I recognized Gigi Darlene, best known for her movies with Doris Wishman.

What distinguishes this one from the others can be inferred from the title, but while it leans into stereotypes of Chinatown being a sinister and seedy place, it’s much less hideously racist than you’d expect from the title. Also you get to see Gigi Darlene in a cheongsam, so there are pluses to the angle the movie takes. I understand all of these movies were shot at least in part in Chinatown, but from my memory, this is the only one set there diegetically. The other distinguishing element is a heavier emphasis on the perils of drugs. Not just opium and heroin, but the devil’s lettuce. The wacky tobacky. Mari-hoo-wana. Horrifying stuff.

Anyway, as with the other movies, this one is quite enjoyable thanks to Campbell in the lead role. There are limitations to her performance thanks to the heavy use of narration (which apparently was used to piece a story together after the fact as the movie was shot without one nailed down, and weighs this down a bit more heavily than the subsequent entries), but Campbell, aside from being strikingly beautiful, has a certain poise that helps add a touch of elegance to her dominatrix-type role. And like with the others, this has a good amount of style for throwaway product made pretty quickly and cheaply. It’s probably true that some of that is from being shot on film, a quality which makes disposable movies of yesteryear better looking than the disposable movies of today, but there is some beautiful chiaroscuro lighting, and Mawra knows how to capture the distinct presence of his different cast members in visually striking ways. Apparently he was learning how to make movies on the go and using them to experiment, and the results definitely show.

Anyway, if you wanna learn more about Mawra’s career, the Rialto Report as always has a great interview with the man.

[marypickfords]

Not at all made up statistics from Chained Girls (Joseph P. Mawra, 1965)

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On February 6, 1964 Olga's House of Shame debuted in Los Angeles.

[1day1movie]

Chained Girls (1965) Joseph P. Mawra.

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Olga’s House of Shame (1964)

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joseph p. mawra, {1964} olga’s house of shame

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9 Signs You Sell Uncle Drew Film For A Living

How The Important American Independent Movies Industry are Changing to Troubling Times

Table of ContentsThe top 11 things The Greatest American Independent Movies can help withWhy You Never Found Best Independent Films to Be ImportantWhy Independent Film are So PopularWhy The Greatest American Independent Movies are Booming

UA rented room at the Pickford/Fairbanks Workshop, but did not possess a workshop whole lot as such. Because of this, much of their movies would be fired on area. Mainly functioning as lenders, they supplied money to independent producers. Thus UA did not have the expenses, the maintenance or the expensive production personnel which added expenses at other workshops.

Levine as well as others. By the late 1950s, RKO had ceased film manufacturing, and the staying four of big 5 had identified that they did not recognize just how to reach the young people audience. In an effort to capture this target market, the Studios hired a host of young filmmakers (much of whom were mentored by Roger Corman) and also enabled them to make their films with reasonably little studio control.

The only Sundance Film Festival Guide You'll Ever Need

The flick had actually earned over $70 million around the world by 1973. This preliminary successes led the means for the workshop to give up nearly full control to the movie institution generation and began what the media dubbed "New Hollywood." Dennis Hopper, the American actor, made his writing as well as routing debut with (1969 ).

Easy Biker debuted at Cannes as well as gathered the "Very first Film Award" (French: Prix de la premiere oeuvre) after which it received two Oscar elections, one for finest original screenplay as well as one for Corman-alum Jack Nicholson's innovation performance in the supporting function of George Hanson, an alcoholic legal representative for the American Civil Liberties Union.

21 You Always Wondered About Influential People In Independent Film

It came to be the initial and just X rated movie to win the Academy Award for finest picture. Midnight Cowboy likewise held the distinction of including cameo functions by much of the top Warhol superstars, who had actually currently become symbols of the militantly anti-Hollywood climate of NYC's independent film neighborhood. Within a month, one more young Corman student, Francis Ford Coppola, made his launching in Spain at the Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Event with (1969 ), a movie he had generated with his own firm, American Zoetrope.

Via Zoetrope, Coppola created a distribution contract with workshop huge Warner Bros., which he would exploit to achieve wide launches for his movies without making himself based on their control. These 3 movies provided the significant Hollywood workshops with both an instance to comply with and also a new plant of ability to draw from.

By the list below year, 2 Brand-new Hollywood supervisors had come to be sufficiently established for Coppola to be offered oversight of Paramount's (1972) as well as Lucas had acquired workshop funding for (1973) from Universal. In the mid-1970s, the significant Hollywood studios continued to touch these new filmmakers for both suggestions and workers, producing movies such as (1973) as well as (1976 ), all of which consulted with essential and commercial success.

While a lot of members of the New Hollywood generation were, or began as, independent filmmakers, a number of their tasks were created as well as released by major workshops. The New Hollywood generation soon came to be firmly set in a revived manifestation of the workshop system, which financed the development, manufacturing as well as distribution of their movies.

The Only Guide to Independent Filmmakers You're Going To Need

Relatively independent movies such as Cab driver, and others were workshop films: the manuscripts were based on studio pitches and consequently paid for by the studios, the production funding was from the studio, as well as the advertising and circulation of the films were designed and controlled by the studio's advertising firm.

Tips and Trick for Best Independent Films

Indeed, it was throughout this duration that the really definition of an independent film ended up being obscured. Though Midnight Cowboy was funded by United Artists, the business was certainly a workshop. Also, Zoetrope was another "independent workshop" which functioned within the system to make a space for independent directors who required funding.

In fact, the only two films of the motion which can be defined as uncompromisingly independent are Easy Cyclist at the start, and Peter Bogdanovich's, at the end. Peter Bogdanovich gotten back the rights from the workshop to his 1980 movie and also paid for its distribution out of his very own pocket, encouraged that the image was better than what the workshop believed he ultimately went bankrupt as a result of this.

With their unprecedented box-office successes, these flicks jump-started Hollywood's hit attitude, giving workshops a brand-new paradigm regarding exactly how to earn money in this altering business landscape. The focus on high-concept properties, with greater concentration on tie-in goods (such as playthings), spin-offs into various other media (such as soundtracks), and also making use of sequels (which had been made extra reputable by Coppola's ), all revealed the workshops how to earn money in the brand-new atmosphere.

6 things About independent filmmaking official statement Independent Film Directors That Will Change the Way You feel

At some point, even RKO was restored. The corporate mindset these companies offered the filmmaking business would slowly eject the a lot more distinctive of these young filmmakers, while seating the a lot more malleable and readily effective of them. Like the original independents that left the Edison Depend develop old Hollywood, the young film school graduates who had actually fled the workshops to explore on-location shooting and dynamic, neo-realist styles as well as frameworks ended up changing the autocrats they had actually looked for to dislodge with a more secure and also all-pervasive base of power.

Directors who wished to reach mainstream target markets of Old Hollywood swiftly discovered to stylise these styles to make their movies appealing and eye-catching as opposed to undesirable or profane. Nevertheless, at the exact same time that the radical movie trainees of the American New Wave were creating the abilities they would certainly make use of to take control of Hollywood, much of their peers had begun to develop their style of filmmaking in a various direction.

e. Joseph P. Mawra, Michael Findlay, as well as Henri Pachard) and avant-garde movie theater, (Kenneth Temper, Maya Deren) a variety of young movie manufacturers started to trying out transgression not as a box-office draw, yet as an artistic act. Supervisors such as John Waters and David Lynch would certainly go far for themselves by the early 1970s for the peculiar as well as often disturbing images which identified their films.

[artofcinema]

all movies watched in MAY 2019

bold: rewatch

Alice (1988, Jan Švankmajer) Assassination Nation (2018, Sam Levinson) Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997, Jay Roach) Brief Crossing (2001, Catherine Breillat) Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach (1968, Danièle Huillet & Jean-Marie Straub) Cléo de 5 à 7 (1962, Agnès Varda) Daisies (1966, Vera Chytilová) Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019, Joe Berlinger) Fish Tank (2009, Andrea Arnold) Funeral Parade of Roses (1969, Toshio Matsumoto) Goodbye to Language (2014, Jean-Luc Godard) Her Smell (2018, Alex Ross Perry) High Life (2018, Claire Denis) High-Rise (2015, Ben Wheatley) I, Tonya (2017, Craig Gillespie) Jane B. by Agnès V. (1988, Agnès Varda) Knock Down the House (2019, Rachel Lears) Machorka-Muff (1963, Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet) (Short) Marketa Lazarová (1967, František Vláčil) My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done (2009, Werner Herzog) Nocturnal Animals (2016, Tom Ford) Olga’s House of Shame (1964, Joseph P. Mawra) Perfect Blue (1997, Satoshi Kon) River of Grass (1994, Kelly Reichardt) Spring Breakers (2012, Harmony Korine) The Beaches of Agnès (2008, Agnès Varda) The Hunger (1983, Tony Scott) Tideland (2005, Terry Gilliam) Twilight (2008, Catherine Hardwicke) Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992, David Lynch) WR: Mysteries of the Organism (1971, Dušan Makavejev)

[littlemovieposters]

2022 Home Viewing #37: Chained Girls. (dir. Joseph P. Mawra, 1965)

Another deranged entry in the collection of mid-century trash films restored by Nicolas Winding Refn. This “documentary” about lesbian life is almost—but not quite—as deranged and ill-considered as the Christian propaganda films with Estus Pirkle from the Refn collection. Questionable statistics abound, as do fabricated “facts” such as “According to federal prison records, all women harbor the capacity to be lesbians depending on the circumstance.” All? And how do “federal prison records” know this? Now that I type it, that seems like one of the less egregious claims made in the film, which asserts that lesbianism is a cult featuring terrifying initiation/hazing rituals. Another highlight: “Lesbians occupy an impressive range of professional positions,” and the only reasons lesbians have any job is to trap unsuspecting young “debs” into the lifestyle, not for any reasons of personal satisfaction, interest, or talent. Also, I can’t stop laughing about the lifestyle being referred to as “lesbionics.” Add to it that the film is soft pornography clearly made to titillate straight men, and you have another insane mid-century winner! I applaud Refn for restoring all of these cinematic nightmares; but, to paraphrase what I once said about Robert Pollard albums, I watch these so you don’t have to.

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BILAN CULTUREL - FÉVRIER+MARS 2019

Cinéma :

Minuscule 2 : Les Mandibules du bout du monde - Thomas Szabo, Hélène Giraud

Dans les bois - Mindaugas Survila

La Liste de Schindler - Steven Spielberg

Us - Jordan Peele

Livres & bandes dessinées :

Annihilation - Jeff VanderMeer

Chanson douce - Leïla Slimani

Isles, La Grande Odyssée - Jérémy Perrodeau

Les grands espaces - Catherine Meurisse

Shi, tomes 1 & 2 - Zidrou, José Homs

Et si l’amour c’était aimer ? - Fabcaro

Trop n’est pas assez - Ulli Lust

Pénis de table - Cookie Kalkair

Amazonie, tome 4 - Leo, Rodolphe, Bertrand Marchal

Rencontre sur la Transsaharienne - Pierre Christin, Sébastien Verdier

Spectacles :

6e Cérémonie des Doigts d'Or : Les Oscars du Capitalisme 2018 - Compagnie Triple A

Séances spéciales :

Kino-bouffe n°30 (spécial fête du court-métrage) (avec notamment Les Indes Galantes de Clément Cogitore) - La Chapelle, Toulouse

Projections privées :

73 Cows (court-métrage) - Alex Lockwood

Feminists : What Were They Thinking? - Johanna Demetrakas

Nine to Five - Colin Higgins

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry - Mary Dore

Chained Girls - Joseph P. Mawra   (via MUBI)

La nuit a dévoré le monde - Dominique Rocher

I Feel Good - Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern

Green Book - Peter Farrelly

Blue Gate Crossing - Yee Chin-Yen   (via MUBI)

Privilege - Yvonne Rainer   (via Tënk)

Masculin Féminin - Jean-Luc Godard   (via MUBI)

Les Nouvelles Aventures de Sabrina, saison 1 - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa

Kingdom, saison 1 - Kim Seong-hun

Le Nom de la Rose - Giacomo Battiato

Dear White People, saison 1 & 2 - Justin Simien

American Gods, saison 1 - Bryan Fuller, Michael Green

Love, Death + Robots, saison 1 - Tim Miller

Découvertes musicales récentes :

( Vendredi sur Mer - Chewing Gum   /   Alemayehu Eshete - Alteleyeshegnem   /   COMA-CHI - Water (ft. Josef Leimberg )

[doublefeatureoftheday-blog]

Olga’s House of Shame (1964, Joseph P. Mawra)

Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy (1990, Léon Paul De Bruyn)

[marypickfords]

Chained Girls (Joseph P. Mawra, 1965)

[analogscum]

PRIME EVIL (1988, d. Roberta Findlay)

Recently, my dear Scumbags, I watched a horror movie that I simply must tell you about. It deals with a woman who is haunted by dark secrets in her family history. It keeps her from enjoying everyday life, and she only begins to unravel more and more when a tragic death rocks her world. In her time of need, she brusquely pushes away those around her who would provide the help she really needs, and instead turns to spiritualism, only to realize once it’s far too late, and she’s burned all her bridges, that she has been an unwitting pawn in the machinations of a bloodthirsty demonic cult for her entire life, a sacrificial lamb destined for the abbatoir since birth. That movie, of course, is 1988’s Prime Evil. Wait, what movie did YOU think I was talking about?

Prime Evil was the final film to be directed by exploitation auteur Roberta Findlay. Her story is a fascinating one: alongside her husband Michael, she wrote and directed a number of sadomasochistic sexploitation films in the 1960s. Under the tutelage of George Weiss, who produced Ed Wood’s cross-dressing classic Glen or Glenda, the Findlays began spicing up their skin flicks with touches of seedy violence, essentially creating the “roughies” genre, alongside fellow New York City filmmakers Joe Sarno, Joseph P. Mawra, and Lou Campa. By the 1970s, the couple transitioned into making straight up slashers, including the super controversial 1976 feature Snuff, arguably an early example of found footage horror. The next year, Michael Findlay was tragically killed in a horrific helicopter crash on the roof of the Pan Am building. Roberta soldiered on, directing a number of genre classics on her own, including two in 1985 alone: Tenement and The Oracle. Prime Evil, unfortunately, is not a classic. In some regards, it is barely even a movie. Miss Findlay clearly had some lofty ambitions with this film, but attempted to execute them on a grindhouse, run and gun, down and dirty production. Because of this, Prime Evil is a fascinating failure, the type of film that works best when watched with like-minded friends, and preferably at some level of inebriation.

We open in a church in the 1300s, where some good ol’ terrible narration explains that the plague is in full effect, and the priests believe that it is God punishing those who aren’t holy enough, so a few priests were like, fuck this noise, we’re taking our talents to Hades. There’s a meeting with a bunch of priests, and the head priest is like, yo, Father Thomas, what’s with you, man? And Father Thomas is like, didn’t you hear the narration? I’m on Satan’s team now, God is wack. They converse about this, but Roberta Findlay must’ve not liked the dialogue, so the narrator comes back in to drown them out. Then the head priest is like, I’m gonna excommunicate you, Father Thomas, but Father Thomas is like, lol nope, and decapitates this head priest with a giant sword, and it’s awesome. Father Thomas is like, news flash bitches, I’m running this show, and I’m Satan Squad all day, so don’t get in my way. Some dork-ass priest is like oh noooooo! So Father Thomas awkwardly slashes him across the stomach with his sword, and the guy awkwardly falls down some stairs, and even the movie can’t stand to look at this, because it fades to black, mid-fall, like it’s embarrassed.

Cut to: present day Boston, though the film was obviously shot in New York City, to the point where nearly every synopsis I’ve read incorrectly says that the film takes place there. Anyway, an old priest dies while holding a weird amulet. A nun, Sister Angela, goes to the bishop and is like, hey bishop, I think Satanists killed that old priest, and I have a story about my mom being murdered by Satanists in Egypt or something, it’s kinda boring, Liam probably zoned out during this part. And shockingly enough, the bishop is like, yup, we know, it was totally a satanic cult, we just don’t know how to handle this pesky problem. So Sister Angela is like, hey, let me go undercover and infiltrate the cult and do nothing else until the final scene of the movie. The bishop is apprehensive for like five seconds, but then agrees, under the stipulation that Sister Angela must renounce her vows so she can do all sorts of evil cult stuff, which in this movie means smash a plaster crucifix with a hammer and burn her nun uniform. Umm, hail Satan?

Honestly, nothing about this cult makes much sense. They’re still lead by Father Thomas (whose last name, we find out, is Seton. GET IT?!?!) Members of the cult have to sacrifice a family member who is a virgin, and in exchange they get “13 years of immortality,” which is an oxymoron. That is not how immortality works! Why would you agree to some cockamamie plan where you have to renew your immortality clause or whatever every 13 years or start to age again? Is worshiping Satan like going to the DMV? Actually, that kinda makes sense.

So all of a sudden, this blonde lady is making out in a hallway with some dude who looks like Kevin Nealon. But wait, what? I thought Sister Angela was our main character? Is it now this lady? Anyway, she goes in and sees Alex, who is her job recruiter of some kind? Apparently blondie used to be a prostitute before she joined this like, temp agency? So Alex is like, hey, I got you a job interview at 2:30 tomorrow, it’s for a paralegal job…on Wall Street! To which blondie animatedly replies, “Wall Street?!?!” And I died a thousand tiny deaths.

Now we get to see blondie and Kevin Nealon hitchin’ a ride into the bone zone, Findlay style. But oh gosh, they’re interrupted by a homicidal maniac in a handyman’s uniform! Wait, what?! But fortunately, Kevin Nealon knows karate! WAIT, WHAT?!?! So he awkwardly does karate at this schlubby murderer for a minute, but then whoops, he still gets stabbed in the back, contorting his body like a Merce Cunningham dancer. Which is weird. So blondie runs down the stairs, before our killer catches up via a convenient jump cut, and knocks blondie out with some sort of tranquilizer. As he’s carrying her out of the building, some guy passes them and goes, “She have too much to drink?” To which our schlubby murderer replies, in a lifeless monotone, “Yes.” And the guy responds, “Have fun, man!” EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW EWW.

Since every cut to a new scene in this movie feels like violent whiplash, all of a sudden we’re at a gym, and Alex is working out with her friend. This friend is the most obnoxious character I’ve seen in a movie in awhile. She yells all of her lines in an exaggerated Valley Girl accent like a Siobhan Fallon SNL character for no reason, grunts loudly while using the machines, is constantly shoving chips and other junk food down her throat, and only wants to talk about sexytimes. She asks Alex if her boyfriend, Bill, is any good in bed, which really upsets Alex for some reason, and they get into a fight, which ends with the friend yelling the amazing line, “WHY DON’T YA WANNA GET POKED?!?!”

Suddenly, Alex and Bill are in the back of a horse-drawn carriage, riding through the part of Boston that looks just like Central Park. Without being prompted, Alex begins to go into excruciating detail as to why she don’t wanna get poked. Turns out, when she was 6 years old, her father sold her to a ring of child pornographers before mysteriously disappearing, yup, the movie really goes THERE. Clearly and understandably, she’s still deeply traumatized by all of this, which is why she and Bill still haven’t had sex despite the fact that they’re ENGAGED. But then, in basically the next scene, she’s hanging out with her rich lush of a mother, and she’s like, hey, come with me to Grandpa’s Christmas party, and the mom is rightfully like, you mean the father of the man who sold my daughter into sexual slavery as a child? Yeah, no thanks, I never wanna see anyone in that family ever again. GOOD IDEA, LUSH MOM! But Alex is like, oh c’mon, Grandpa is nice.

Plot twist: Grandpa ISN’T nice! In fact, Grandpa is a Satanist, and he’s going to sacrifice Alex at their next ceremony in order to renew that bullshit immortality contract. Apparently last time he offered up his son, Alex’s father, and that’s why he ain’t around no more. But, didn’t it have to be a virgin who was sacrificed? Umm, don’t worry about it. Father Thomas has the amazing line, “You’re being very flippant for a man about to sacrifice his granddaughter.” But Grandpa doesn’t just want to do that, he wants to overthrow Father Thomas and rule the world, or something, basically it’s all talk and nothing ever comes of it.

OK, this is taking forever, because something batshit insane happens every two minutes in this movie, so I’m gonna ramp it up a bit: Alex meets Father Thomas and begins to fall under his Satanic influence, thanks to his handsome eyes and Shatneresque line delivery. This rightfully upsets Bill, but Alex screams in his face every time he brings up how inappropriate this PRIEST acts around her. Dude, Bill, my guy, between the crazy family and the lustful priest and the no sex, why would you marry this woman?! The Satanists basically waterboard Alex’s lush mom with alcohol, which somehow Alex doesn’t hear despite being right next door to it happening. She moves in with Grandpa. Father Thomas makes out with her after the funeral, which, holy shit! Schlubby murderer abducts more ladies, including a hooker whom he basically reverse psychologies into roofying herself (in a scene set to Seinfeld style slap bass, no less!), a wise-cracking teen prostitute character they introduce solely to be abducted, and Alex’s slutty gym rat snack friend. Turns out schlubby murderer is doing all this because he wants to be a part of the Satanic cult, but Father Thomas is like, lol bro you may hang with us, but you’ll never be ONE of us, because you’re a creep and no one likes you. Somehow Bill starts to figure out that Father Thomas is behind all this murdering and Satanic chicanery, and goes to confront him, but whoops, schlubby murderer throws him off a roof. At least we get a pretty good bad dummy shot out of it!

At this point, you may be asking yourself, is there a bumbling police detective in this movie? Well of course there is! I think his name is Dan and he’s got a mustache! He’s investigating the disappearance of blondie from the beginning, and gets wrapped up in all this drama with Alex’s family because of it. Based on one phone conversation with Bill shortly before he’s murderized, he somehow puts together the entire satanic plot, including knowing that it’s going to happen during the winter solstice on December 21st, which, whatever, the movie has to end somehow, right? So Mustache Dan and his partner go to arrest Father Thomas, and during their confrontation, Mustache Dan utters what is actually the best line in the entire movie, a line that puts even “WHY DON’T YA WANNA GET POKED?!” to shame. Get ready for it...

“Cut the crap, fart breath!”

Slow clap for that. Slow clap. Brilliant.

Finally, the sacrificial ceremony can begin! Alex is all loopy under Father Thomas’s sexy spell, everyone has gathered in their finest Sunn O))) robes. Even Satan himself is there, and you guys, Satan in this movie is played by a tiny adorable puppet. It looks like if the baby from Eraserhead had bat wings and was made of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. It is terrible and charming. Father Thomas begins the proceedings by introducing everyone to blondie, slutty gym rat snack friend, and wise-cracking teen prostitute. He’s like, these ladies are the brides of Satan now, so go ahead and show the audience dem titties! Naturally, they oblige. Suddenly, we see Sister Angela standing in the corner, and remember that she’s in the movie. Grandpa is ready to sacrifice Alex, and all the satanists begin to awkwardly grind on each other. Schlubby murderer wants in on some of them libations of the flesh, and grabs Sister Angela. Sister Angela is like nope, I didn’t sign up for THIS shit, and slashes his throat. Then she stabs Grandpa to death, before he can sacrifice Alex. Then, oh my gosh, she stabs the tiny adorable Satan puppet to death! RIP Satan puppet! All of the occultists begin to age rapidly and turn into corpses, like a less impressive version of the climax of The Devil’s Rain. Father Thomas runs up some stairs, yelling “You’ve won this time!” as if he’s a goddamn Scooby-Doo villain. All of the women are safe, and Sister Angela has some dumb line that includes the phrase “prime evil” but who cares.

The movie ends with a real estate agent lady showing a church to some guy, which is not how churches work I don’t think, and we’re supposed to not know who this guy is even though it’s glaringly obvious, and of course it’s Father Thomas, and he’s like, why don’t we check out the basement, mwahahahaha! And then the camera zooms in on him twice, just to really make sure we all get it. But wait, how can you restart the cult if Satan has been stabbed to death? How are you not a rotting pile of bones now that Satan has been stabbed to death? Get outta here with this ending!

Now, I wanna give this movie a fair shake. Yes, it is bonkers. Yes, the dialogue and the acting are both laughable. Yes, the camerawork and the editing are shoddy. Yes, the kills are mostly dull. But as I was making my way through the movie, trying desperately to make heads or tails of the madness unfolding onscreen, I suddenly began to think to myself…did Roberta Findlay secretly make a film about abuse?

Alex, the main character, is defined by the trauma of her childhood. It rules her everyday life, it keeps her from enjoying meaningful friendships and an intimate relationship with her boyfriend. However, despite all of this, she still lets herself be groomed for further abuse by Father Thomas, and remains oblivious to the fact that she is being groomed until it is nearly too late. That really struck me. Was this intentional on Roberta Findlay’s part? Was she trying to make a statement about how women can become complicit in the machinations of their abusers? Would I have thought of this if the film wasn’t directed by a woman? Am I giving Prime Evil too much credit, seeing a feminist message in a blood n’ boobs cheapie? Either way, there’s no denying that, whether it’s amassing an impressive oeuvre of sleazy underground classics, or infiltrating a weirdly bureaucratic Satanic cult, sisters are doing it for themselves.

[z9jaimepresslyhoti4-blog1]

Nicolas Winding Refn will launch its own VOD platform, Netflix-style

While payment platforms such as Netflix or Amazon continue to add subscribers around the world, the famous Danish filmmaker, Nicolas Winding Refn, has decided to join the trend by launching his own website. The big difference between byNWR.com -as it is called- and the rest of the VOD (Video on Demand) platforms is that it will be completely free. This was explained by the same director at the last celebration of the Lumière Festival where he also pointed out that his platform will be dedicated to restoring (and sharing) classic cinema films.

Users can find volumes that include "not so popular" tapes and video, music and photo essays previously selected by expert guests. The journalist Jimmy McDonough, in charge of the first volume, which is entitled ' The regional renegades: jewels of the exploitation of the southern United States ' (' Regional Renegades: exploitations gems from the Southern US '), has announced that this will contain the restored version of ' The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds ' (Nert Williams, 1965), ' Hot Thrills and Warm Chills ' (Dale Berry, 1967) and ' Shanty Tramp '(Joseph P. Mawra, 1967). The material will be available in February 2018 with the official launch of the platform.

Tapes like ' Night Tide ' (Curtis Harrington, 1963) or ' Spring Night, Summer Night ' (JL Anderson, 1967), called " jewels of the American independent cinema ", will be seen in the second volume that will be chaired by members of the British magazine Little White Lies.

Independent whether you are a follower or not of the Nicolas Winding Refn cinema, byNWR.com is a gift in every sense of the word, for movie lovers, especially those interested in those less accessible film works. Although there are still months left for its official launch, the platform is already active.