Friday, 13. October 2006, 01:39:36
Sometimes we go very far out in our bookings, showing a film that fits all those favored cliches of the extreme independent arts world: the film goes all the way, the film takes no prisoners, and the film pulls no punches.
FRANKENSTEINS BLOODY NIGHTMARE, currently our featured film for the week, does all these things.
This is extreme filmmaking - filmmaker John R. Hand is a mad scientist, creating a crazy monstrosity out of the Frankenstein legend and a wide range of cinematic technique.
This is also mind-blowing filmmaking.
Shot mostly on Super8 and processed through a delirious range of effects, stitched together with a whirring, buzzing synthesized soundtrack that might have come off an arcade game from the 1980s -- the technical daring is wild and often brilliant.
Shot in the burnt grass Florida panhandle, the story has something to do with a Dr. Karlstein - played by Hand himself - creating a monster and harvesting body parts to supplant his romantic life.
Thirty years ago, the film would have screened alongside ERASERHEAD, and one could imagine the spacey and random conversations Hand and Lynch would have with each other. And one could imagine they might have gone on to develop crazy projects together.
FRANKENSTEINS BLOODY NIGHTMARE was reviewed okay. There were some nice pull quotes which I'll mention below. But, honestly, the film has had and is going to have a very tough time finding an audience.
Still, FRANKENSTEINS BLOODY NIGHTMARE is a film worth fighting for.
Take a chance, go far out. I'm not yet prepared to say Hand is a genius - but I might yet some time soon.
Please, come out to see FRANKENSTEINS BLOODY NIGHTMARE.
It shows at 9pm through next Tuesday. Buy tickets here:
http://www.twoboots.com/pioneer* * *
Some quotes about FRANKENSTEINS BLOODY NIGHTMARE:
"Visually it's a perfect 10 . . . something beautiful . . . a handmade object that looks ravishing . . . the overall effect is like watching some kind of lost exploitation film from the 1970s cobbled together by a deranged grindhouse projectionist out of damaged film."
- Grady Hendrix, NY SUN
"A 1970’s-style horror oddity that could pass for a perverse experiment masterminded by a mad scientist."
- Laura Kern, NY TIMES
“John R. Hand might just be America’s answer to Shinya Tsukamoto. Layered with a surreal theatricality, raw experimentation, a fixation on the intersection of humanity and technology, disturbing sexual overtones, a firm genre sensibility and a driving soundtrack.”
- Twitchfilm.net
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