The zombie--a real Romero zombie, not the voodoo kind--is the first new monster in decades that has captured the public imagination with the same kid of archetypal recurrence as werewolves and vampires, rising up again and again. It's a modern, urban terror; humans aren't necessarily supposed to be surrounded by millions of other humans. What if these faceless hordes of people of people we have to deal with, packed into one location, all mindlessly turned on each other? On us? But the zombie-take-all scenario isn't just a fear--it's a fantasy too, exposing our secret desire to guiltlessly blow away row after row of hungry, stupid humanoids, with no repercussions. When is it gonna be most okay to shoot someone in the head? In the zombie apocalypse, that's when.
10/2 @ 8pm / SERIES: zombies! zombies! zombies! Return of the Living Dead with
Night of the Creeps Two dead greats that taste flesh together! Years before 28 Days Later, writer/director Dan O'Bannon created the first "fast zombie" flick by successfully tweaked the zombie behavior template that had previously been held sacred: zombies don't just shuffle and eat--now they can talk, scheme, and get laid. Craggy heroes Clu Gulager and James Karen hold stage with sexpots Linnea Quigley and Jewel Shepherd while classic L.A. punk rock wails over the soundtrack. Our followup is Fred Dekker's underrated campy campus comedy of terrors, where alien brain parasites freed from a college lab turn infected hosts into killer zombies. And guess what: the parasites just found out about that party full of hot sorority girls! Featuring characters named for famous directors, '50s retro self-aware humor, and a nimble balance of real laughs and real scares. Oh, and supposedly, George Clooney plays the janitor--if you see him, scream real loud. Return of the Living Dead Dir. Dan O' Bannon, 1985, 35mm, 91 min. Night of the Creeps Dir. Fred Dekker, 1986, 35mm, 88 min.
Watch the Return of the Living Dead trailer!
Tickets - $10
10/9 @ 8pm / SERIES: zombies! zombies! zombies! Messiah of Evil with
Shock Waves Messiah Of Evil is one of the great lost films. Made by screenwriting team Willard Hyuck and Gloria Katz right before their breakout success writing American Graffiti, it details the unsettling relationship between a girl, her mysterious painter father, and a Northern California town full of bloodthirsty catatonic everyday people. There are standout zombie attacks in a supermarket and a movie theatre (one of the best ever), as well as an appearance by '70s gay film icon Michael Greer (Fortune and Men's Eyes, The Gay Deceivers), make the film an off-kilter killer. Next is the no-budg underwater Nazi zombie flick that cares: Shock Waves. Brooke Adams is the survivor of an ill-fated vacation cruise, during which her ship runs aground on Peter Cushing's tropical SS hideaway. On the isle, Cushing breeds zombies from his deceased soldiers, who now lurk beneath the water, ready to drag the living to a watery death. The dreamlike setting plays like a cross between Fulci's Zombie and the haunted wastelands of Val Lewton, and coupled with a skin-crawling electronic score, makes for a unique and unsettling experience. Messiah of Evil Dir. Willard Hyuck & Gloria Katz, 1973, 35mm, 85 min. Shock Waves Dir. Ken Wiederhorn, 1977, 35mm, 90 min.
Watch the Shock Waves trailer!
Tickets - $10
10/16 @ 8pm / SERIES: zombies! zombies! zombies! Versus with
We're Going to Eat You Explaining the plot of the genre-bending Japanese instant classic Versus in a hundred words or less is virtually impossible, so we thought we'd let its IMDB keywords do the talking: samurai, splatter, forest, zombie with gun, immortality, yakuza, amnesia, exploding head, exploding body, escaped convict, man with no name, heart in hand, shot in the head, shot in the face, shot in the chest, shot in the back, shot in the arm...and yes, almost forgot: martial arts. Rounding out the evening is one of Tsui Hark's earliest films, the cannibal kung fu crime comedy We're Going To Eat You, in which the fake blood flows like wine, the zombies flow like fake blood, all the characters scream and the soundtrack screams louder. Gory gory hallelujah! Versus Dir. Ryuhei Kitamura, 2000, 35mm, 119 min. We're Going To Eat You Dir. Tsui Hark, 1980, digital presentation, 90 min.
Watch the We're Going To Eat You trailer!
Tickets - $10
10/23 @ 8pm / SERIES: zombies! zombies! zombies! The Etruscan Kills Again with
Tombs of the Blind Dead Two trippy films tapping into the spooky world of Old Europe rising from the grave. The giallo-like The Etruscan Kills Again has amateur archaeologists Samantha Eggar and Alex Cord investigating the appearance of the god Tuchulcha, whose victims' bodies are arranged in the traditions of ancient rites. The film's labyrinthine plot frequently rises to the level of pure hysteria, matched by an unglued performance by John Marley (The Godfather's horse's head victim), who chews the scenery into tiny shreds. Tombs Of The Blind Dead is the first Romero-influenced Spanish horror film, all about the Knights Templar using witchcraft to return centuries later as the blind undead on horseback--in gorgeous dreamlike slo-mo, backed by an amazing musique concrète score. We were lucky enough to find the rare re-titled U.S. version, Revenge From Planet Ape, featuring a bizarro sci-fi Planet Of The Apes-inspired prologue! The Etruscan Kills Again Dir. Armando Crispino, 1972, 35mm. Tombs of The Blind Dead Dir. Amando de Ossorio,1971, 35mm.
Watch the Tombs of the Blind Dead trailer!
Tickets - $10
10/30 @ 7:30pm / SERIES: zombies! zombies! zombies! Lucio Fulci Triple Feature: Zombie/Gates of Hell/The Beyond Even though he worked in many genres, Lucio Fulci will forever be known as a splatter master. Starting in the late '70s, Fulci upped the gore quotient in all his films, leaving the plots to fall through the paper shredder, in order to concetrate on innovative grossout moments and a plethora of juicy kills. His undead "trilogy" (Zombie, Gates of Hell and The Beyond), made at the height of his popularity, are legendarily nutty, grotesque and awesome. Eyes gouged out on sharp things! Pretty girls literally vomiting their guts out! Maggot sandstorms! Power drills through the skull! A zombie punching a shark in the face, man!!!! For real, not some CGI bullshit--a real live actor clocking a motherfucking shark on the head in a water tank! Any horror fan not into this should be sent to the gulag. Zombie Dir. Lucio Fulci, 1979, 35mm, 91 min. Gates of Hell Dir. Lucio Fulci, 1980, 35mm, 93 min. The Beyond Dir. Lucio Fulci, 1981, 35mm, 87 min.
Watch the City of the Living Dead trailer!
Tickets - $12
ROBERT DOWNEY, SR. - A PRINCE / Thursdays in November
"After being thrown out of the house, four schools and the United States Army, I discovered that I was on the right track." - Robert Downey, Sr.
Robert Downey, Sr.'s early films are just as rebellious, reckless and fun-loving as their maker in his youth. While perhaps best known for his advertising industry send-up Putney Swope, Downey actually emerged from the early'-60s New American Cinema scene, America's own New Wave movement. Breakout hits from the underground movie circuit of that era, his outlandish satires Chafed Elbows, No More Excuses and Pound are as barbed as Lenny Bruce, as absurd as Alfred Jarry and as out-to-lunch as Eric Dolphy. Rough around the edges and all-around hilarious, Downey's first films stand as landmark works in the history of independent cinema. The Cinefamily is proud to have the L.A. premiere of brand-new restored 35mm prints of Chafed Elbows and No More Excuses, alongside the recently-discovered "lost" Downey film Moment To Moment, and very rare theatrical screenings of Pound and Putney Swope.
11/6 @ 8pm / SERIES: ROBERT DOWNEY, SR. - A PRINCE Putney Swope Putney Swope, the only black exec in his firm, finds himself unexpectedly elected its president due to a by-law messup, and turns the industry on its ear as his new company ("Truth & Soul, Inc.") churns out outrageous, taboo-breaking TV commercials. As the company gets wildly successful, Swope funnels money into the black community and gets increasingly Castro-like--which makes the government take notice. Shot in a heady mix of both black-and-white and color, Swope plays out in a series of absurd vignettes perfectly sequenced for its original intoxicated audience, made all the more surreal by the fact that Downey himself had to dub all of Swope's dialogue, since actor Arnold Johnson could never remember his lines. One of the legendary cinematic fuck-yous of its time, Swope still delivers an brazen, acidic portrait of Madison Avenue advertising culture during the height of the counterculture era.
Dir. Robert Downey, 1969, 35mm, 84 min. Tickets - $10
11/13 @ 7:30pm + 11/20 @ 10:30pm/ SERIES: ROBERT DOWNEY, SR. - A PRINCE Pound shown with
No More Excuses Pound, Downey’s barely-released follow-up to Putney Swope (a chagrined United Artists thought Downey was producing for them an animated feature!), features a cast of humans as stray dogs trapped in an animal shelter, as they await the “doggie gas chamber”. Mannered in the human equivalent of their pedigree, they see flashbacks of their former lives, watch TV and yammer at no one in particular. Downey’s fast-and-loose dialogue, zany musical numbers and broad, wild performances from his large ensemble (including a five-year-old Downey, Jr.) keep Pound consistently unpredictable and entertaining. No More Excuses is the rowdiest of Downey’s early films (which is saying a lot), and interweaves five scenarios into one raucous mix amalgamation. A dazed Yankee Civil War soldier (Downey) mysteriously awakens in modern NYC where, naturally, he heads to Yankee Stadium; Alan Abel, Director of the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, speaks of his crusade to cl! othe all animals; a killer repeatedly bungles an assassination of President James Garfield; a priestly perv and a chimp hit up a plus-sized lover; and, Downey visits the seriously swinging singles scene that is the original T.G.I. Friday’s on the Upper East Side. No More Excuses is unhinged, downright funny, and art brut to the max.
Pound Dir. Robert Downey, 1970, DigiBeta, 92 min.
No More Excuses Dir. Robert Downey, 1968, 35mm, 44 min. Tickets - $10
11/13, 7:30pm show
11/20, 10:30pm show
11/13 @ 10:30pm + 11/20 @ 7:30pm/ SERIES: ROBERT DOWNEY, SR. - A PRINCE Chafed Elbows shown with
Moment To Moment Putney Swope, the only black exec in his firm, finds himself unexpectedly elected its president due to a by-law messup, and turns the industry on its ear as his new company ("Truth & Soul, Inc.") churns out outrageous, taboo-breaking TV commercials. As the company gets wildly successful, Swope funnels money into the black community and gets increasingly Castro-like--which makes the government take notice. Shot in a heady mix of both black-and-white and color, Swope plays out in a series of absurd vignettes perfectly sequenced for its original intoxicated audience, made all the more surreal by the fact that Downey himself had to dub all of Swope's dialogue, since actor Arnold Johnson could never remember his lines. One of the legendary cinematic fuck-yous of its time, Swope still delivers an brazen, acidic portrait of Madison Avenue advertising culture during the height of the counterculture era.
Dir. Robert Downey, 1969, 35mm, 84 min. Tickets - $10
Return of the Living Dead
Messiah of Evil
Versus
The Etruscan Kills Again
Putney Swope
Pound
Chafed Elbows
