...and all I got was this t shirt.

Tonight we unleash the dogs.

Well, not really dogs, more like shirts.
Not even "like" shirts, they are actual shirts.

For each film we screen at the Rio Cinema, we will release a shirt in celebration of that film.
All designs are hand illustrated by Mark Mitchell, the shirts are all hand printed with love and are strictly limited.
If they sell out on the night, that's the end of them. If there are any left over I will let people know via our twitter feed and on facebook, so get following and liking.

In honour of tonight's Ms. 45 screening, we proudly present:


White and red on black, with white and red sleeve print.
Only 30 printed, so you best make your way to the Rio if you want one.

Next month, we'll be screening Shogun Assassin... What magic will Mark bring? Only time will tell...

Ms. 45 - Monthly Film Bulletin review by Kim Newman

Found, tucked in a box in Tony Paley's attic was this little gem, a cover story on the 1984 video release of our upcoming feature, Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45 - Angel of Vengeance. And so, culled from the pages of the BFI's long running Monthly Film Bulletin, since merged with Sight & Sound is Kim Newman's review:

Spoiler WARNING!


Ms. 45: Angel of Vengeance
U.S.A., 1980
Director: Abel Ferrara-

Thana, a mute girl who works as a seamstress in Manhattan's garment district, is attacked and raped by a masked thug while walking home. When she reaches her apartment, she finds it being rifled by a housebreaker who also tries to rape her. Defending herself with a paper weight and an electric iron, Thana kills him, then carves up the body and stores it in the fridge for gradual disposal. While on one of her dumping expeditions, she is accosted by a street punk whom she promptly shoots dead with the burglar's .45. Later, a pushy photographer tries to pick Thana up with hollow promises of a career in modelling, and she returns with him to his studio before shooting him. Thana's boss Albert and gay/feminist workmate Laurie become increasingly worried about her erratic behaviour and moodiness. By night, stalking the city in a whorish outfit, she continues her crusade, gunning down various sexists-a violent pimp, a kerb-crawling Arab, and a threatening street gang. While she is trying to execute a barfly who has been lamenting his wife's infidelity, Thana finds that the gun has jammed, whereupon the victim takes it from her and shoots himself. Albert prevails upon Thana to accompany him to a Halloween party, during which he intends to seduce her. He finds her gun concealed under a fancy dress nun's habit, and she shoots him. She proceeds to pick off all the men in the room, but is stopped when Laurie stabs her in the back. Unable to shoot a woman, she utters a single word ("sister") and dies.


While it is undeniably true that the splatter/nasty genre, in its treatment of female flesh as meat to be carved, tends to exhibit a particularly unpleasant brand of sadistic sexism, the form does contain possibilities for militant feminism unmatched even by the likes of A Question of Silence or Born in Flames. In I Spit on Your Grave, the leader of a gang of degenerate rapists is allowed to express to the heroine the theory that, by wantonly displaying her body, she has "asked for" her violation. His uncharacteristic intellectualising of the issue is immediately undercut by the most physical retort possible -the girl castrates him in the bath and leaves him bleeding to death. With The Driller Killer, his first feature, Abel Ferrara acknowledged the sexism of the splatter movie by explicitly avoiding it, presenting a psycho whose preferred victims were not desirable young women but undesirable old men. In Ms .45 (a film whose very title has proved too much for many audiences), Ferrara, aided by the presence of the extraordinary Zoe Tamerlis, gives a rigorously feminist reading of the always problematic revenge-for-rape genre. The film signals the seriousness with which it will tackle the subject in its treatment of the initial rapes. While the incidents are profoundly shocking, they horrify mainly because of their abruptness (at least in the currently available, slightly trimmed version) and the monstrosity of the performances. Ferrara, who appears as the first rapist under his Jimmy Laine pseudonym and pops up throughout the film in nightmare flashes as the incarnation of masculine evil, presents the two unconnected assailants as merely less restrained examples of the _ attitudes espoused, not only by the chattering street people who proposition every passing woman, but by the smooth-talking photographer, the paternally lecherous Albert, and the shoe salesman who proudly admits that he reacted to the discovery of his wife's bisexuality by strangling the cat. With such a relentless parade of unsympathetic male characters, the film has little need of explicit sexual violence to make its points. The complete absence of nudity, and the remarkably soft-pedalled violence, compare strikingly with I Spit on Your Grave-which drags out the rape sequence for over half its running time--or even with such mainstream, male-oriented versions of the same basic story as Hannie Caulder, Death Weekend and Sudden Impact.
A Polanski connection suggested by the decaying rabbit in The Driller Killer is furthered here by a few clutching hands and a body in the bath out of Repulsion, and by Tamerlis' resemblance to the Nastassia Kinski" of Tess. However, while Polanski cannot refrain from making fetishes of his striking heroines, Ferrara presents Tamerlis' Thana as a neutral figure whose power over her victims derives from her ability to inspire and then contradict their fantasies of femininity. In the case of the shoe salesman, who pours out the story of his marriage to the mute girl in a bar, the moment of Thana's failed attack on him coincides with his own dawning awareness of his shortcomings; hypnotised by her silent reproach, he acquiesces in his own execution. The usual escape clause in the genre has the raped woman turning into an avenger by assuming masculine qualities (Raquel Welch learning gunfighter skills in Hannie Caulder, Brenda Vaccaro exhibiting her un-womanly technical aptitude in Death Weekend, Sondra Locke competing with Clint Eastwood in Sudden Impact). But Ferrara has Thana become more seductively feminine in appearance as she transforms into a feminist vigilante. The reductio ad absurdum of this process-and indeed of the whole genre -finds Thana murdering such varied male stereotypes as Count Dracula, a cowboy and a drag bride, while incarnated as a furious, gun-toting nun.

KIM NEWMAN


We will be hosting a rare London screening of Ms. 45 at the Rio Cinema in Dalston on 19th March. You don't want to miss this!

(Extra thanks to Tony's lovely wife for the scans)

Equinox and beyond...

What were you doing at age 17? Fast Forwarding through a VHS of Eurotrash to the saucy bits? Searching for a pub that ignored your fresh face and served you without ID? Or were you, like the makers of Equinox, applying the German holistic-art concept of gesamtkunstwerk to stop-motion animation? In 1962, accomplished pianist, student of classical literature, precocious little shit, and special effects enthusiast, David Muren joined an effects-nerd collective advertised in the back of influential American magazine Famous Monsters Of Filmland. Together with part time film journo Mark McGee and animator Dave Allen, Muren and gang experimented with various effects in their back garden for years. Honing their skills before finally deciding (via an injection of cash that was due to be spent on Mullen's education) to make the leap into making a full length feature.


Armed with a 16mm Bolex camera, a crew of friends and a script by cthulu-nut McGee they set out into the woods and over the next 2 and a half years of weekends, school holidays and light evenings, they filmed the story of a wholesome group of young kids who head out for a lovely day in the country, get given an evil book by a cackling old man (Mullen's Grandad), which then unleashes creatures from the very pits of hell. These hell-pit creatures were then constructed and lovingly animated in a makeshift studio in Mullen's dad's shed: making The Equinox... A Journey into the Supernatural, quite literally, a Backyard production.


Although intended as a way to exercise their special effects skills, and perhaps get a few bucks from a late night horror tv show, The Equinox... A Journey into the Supernatural was spotted by Jack H Harris, producer of The Blob, who saw the marketability of the kids vs. demons flick, and got his mate Jack Woods, a professional sound editor, to shoot some extra footage to pad out the film to a sell able length. He added and edited in a whole new plot line about a creepy mounted policeman, starring himself as the leering law man.
This new fuller version of the film had the title shortened to just Equinox and went on to be a success on the drive-in circuit.


While a little-watched film, Equinox's legacy is undeniable. Mullen went on to revolutionise special effects, working as visual effects supervisor on the Abyss, Terminator 2, and Jurassic Park and all pivotal films in the development of CGI, and shaping many of our childhoods, working on the visual effects for the proper Star Wars trilogy and E.T. He won 6 Oscars and is the only effects artist to have a star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame. Dave Allen went on and had a career producing fantastic, and characterful, stop motion such as the little Batteries Not Included aliens, the Young Sherlock Holmes graveyard confectionery attack, the Puppet Master's puppets and the Demonic Toys. McGee carried on writing and directing genre fare such as Sorority Party Massacre II and Bad Girls From Mars.


Of the four main stars, only Frank Bonner, the slightly more devil-may-care male lead, carried on working in show business. He made himself a healthy acting career with various American TV sitcoms, including a regular gig as one of Screech's fellow teachers on Saved By The Bell: The New Class. Jack Woods went back to sound editing and ended up working on such sequels as Critters 2, Look Who's Talking Too and Naked Gun 2 1/2

But legacy: Schmagacy. Is this flick worth a watch or what?

Fuck yes.


Even if you are not charmed by the effects of yesteryear there is still tons to enjoy. The characters were obviously created by a bunch of bookish young men with little real world experience. The men in Equinox, tackle the increasingly bizarre situations with hilariously stoic good sense while the women are pretty young things who will wander off and get into trouble when there's not a man around to tell them what to do. Evil Dead fans will have a field day. With it's teenagers find necrotelecomunicony thing and unleash all manner of terrors plot, Equinox can easily be viewed as a prequel. Deadites will also see echoes of Sam Raimi's camera work in some of the scenes, most obviously in an early crucifix-related freakout scene early in the picture.

So, whether you want Evil Dead 0.5, a chance to see hoe today's top FX bods got started, or just an enjoyably clunky creature feature, Equinox will show you a good time.

Join us as we visit this classic tomorrow evening at the Mucky Pup.

Sleeping beauties

"Oh my god" I gasped when I saw this.

What a fantastic shot. No clue where it originates.
Looks like a scan from a book, anyone know?

Daughters of Darkness at the Rio - 19th Feb

"Silly tales of ghouls chased away by garlic, and vampires, shrinking from crosses."


We'll have none of that. No more of these middle of the road, twilight vampires, let us instead return to the classier roots: a time of manipulation and seduction, where devious villains coerced their prey, lured them, gained their trust and then devoured them. A time where respect and nobility were important parts of the dreaded Count and his mythic brethern’s lore.

These are the creatures of the night we have come to love and fear, before the 80s saw them driven to nomadic life styles, hiding by day and tearing through the American wastelands by night. Before they were forced to hunt in the cold of an Alaskan night, they were prowling the grand hotels of Europe and seducing who they could, when they could, to exist.

Which leads us to our feature presentation at the Rio Cinema on 19th February: none other than one of the most acclaimed vampire films of all time, Daughters of Darkness. Harry Kumel's masterpiece is loved by those in the know, fanatics and historians, yet largely overlooked by most.

Daughters of Darkness sees Delphine Seyrid embody, for there is no other word, the seductress Elizabeth Báthroy, the infamous Hungarian Blood Queen. Swaggering onto the scene like Marlene Dietrich, oozing power and confidence, she seduces, entraps and divides a newlywed couple, never for a second letting her eye off the prize: the gorgeous French-Canadian, Valerie.

Oh the sights she has to show her....

So join us at the Rio as we screen one of the most overlooked, and yet well respected vampire films of all time: Daughters of Darkness.

Click here for the Facebook Event Page

Fun starts around half 11 with Dee Dee's Vintage who will be sprucing up the place and invoking the spirit of Countess Báthroy with vintage wares and ambiance we will have Flashback Record's very own Graham Murphy how will be taking to the decks a comprehensive collection of suitably undead vinyl goodies to set the mood before and after the screening, the Rio's bar will remain open throughout the film and after, a brilliant night is guaranteed. All for a measly £7.50.

Click here to pre book

The Rio Cinema is mega easy to get to and from-
Buses, 38, 56, 67, 76, 243, 242, 149, plus East London Line to Dalston Junction and the Overground to Dalston Kingsland all drop you off at the Rio's doorstep and plenty of night buses back.

In space no one can hear you laugh...

Star Crash has got less of a cohesive plot than a series of random happenings one after another. Luckily for us, these are really cool moments. As such, the plot is best recounted in the rushed manner of a schoolboy who’s had too much e-number-heavy fizzy pop while at the cinema.

“They’re-in-space-and-then-they-get-chased-by-the-space-police-who-are-robots-and-a-green-man-then-they-go-to-prison-and-then-they-are-rescued-by-the-space-police-who-are-now-good-and-they-go-to-fight-the-evil-king-but-they-crash-and-there’s-kung-fu-cavemen-and-giant-robots-then-they-are-in-a-giant-robot-fist-then-it-all-blows-up-and-it’s-wicked”


“Breathe, Little Billy, breathe”

Made in the post-Star Wars, sci-fi crazy, late 70s, Starcrash was conceived, written and directed by Luigi Cozzi, (who’s most noteworthy other credit is as director of the Italian language version of Godzilla, cobbled together out of the original Gojira, the Americanized Raymond Burr version and some cheaply colourized World War Two footage). Often criticised for being a cheap Star Wars rip off, Starcrash was actually written before A New Hope was released. Visionary Cozzi struggled to make a film that lived up to his original aspirations, however budgetary constraints and a constantly nagging studio demanding he “make it a bit more star warsy” was bound to lead to problems. This uphill battle was not made easier when prop failures and poorly exposed film of some of the exciting climaxes of sequences resulting in unusable and ultimately lost footage, and thus plot strands that never really pay off. However, Signore Cozzi deserves a tip of the hat in recognition of managing to piece together an thoroughly enjoyable cinematic experience from what was left.


Starring Caroline Munroe (who readers of a certain age will fondly remember as the slave-girl from 7th Voyage Of Sinbad) as the clothes-phobic intergalactic smuggler Stella Starr, Joe Spinner delivers the wide eyed pantomime villain Count Zarth An (following small parts in Taxi Driver and the first two Godfather films, he fancied a bit of proper acting) , and drunken heartthrob David Hasselhoff as the space prince.


For such rushed shambles, the production design is gorgeous. From the opening shot of a charmingly obvious miniature space ship (I’m sure I spotted some sprues from an airfix kit stuck on the side) cruising through an every-felt-tip-in-the-packet, spacescape (reputedly made by literally hanging fairy lights in front of some black cardboard, no Star Trek style poring over NASA’s star maps for these cats) to the final scenes in front of the Alien King’s snazzy throne the Italian eye for design shines through.


Special mention must be made of the score, composed and conducted by the great John Barry who sadly passed away this month. While he is quite rightly best remembered for his bombastic Bond scores and heartbreaking work on Midnight Cowboy and The Deer Hunter, he was also willing to put the graft in on less prestigious projects. Echoes of his better known work can be heard throughout, most clearly during an “entering the villain’s lair” sequence to my ears, and the whole thing sounds lovely.

Most importantly, it’s got a fist shaped space station, a comedy-accented robot, a mechanical giant with tits, and a lightsaber-wielding android tackling two bionic swordsmen. Get in touch with your inner 9 year old, load him up on cheap orangeade, and enjoy.

Float through the stars with us on Monday the 7th at the Mucky Pup More info here

London Film Nights

I suppose it would be foolish not to mention the great piece Tony Paley did on London Film Nights, while certainly by no means comprehensive, solid and covering a good range of evenings.
From our friends at Filmbar70 and their classy approach to cult films to The Duke Mitchell Film Club and their treasure troves of trailers and the down right bizarre cult films to the Exploding Head Film Club and Tom's love of American Cinema, not to mention ourselves. I think Tony did a great job.
London has a near endless supply of film nights, some pop up for a few weeks and others stick around for years, but if you want to, you can catch a film and a pint almost every night of the week.

Anyway - have a read, come down to each of the nights mentioned, wander through the comments where even more are mentioned.
Film Clubs: Fancy a Cheap Night out at the Picture and a Pint?

Bronx Warriors Redux

So back in October we screened Bronx Warriors and did a piece then, but there's nothing wrong with giving this epic trilogy a bit more love, is there? I think not.


Welcome to guilty pleasures. Or rather, welcome to Enzo Castellari's low grade Warriors/Escape From New York mash-up/rip off, an inspired saga of post apocalyptic New York wasteland inhabited by violent rival street gangs. At first glance, appearing for all the world like yet another Italian cash-in on the bigger and more successful American films, these three flicks are surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable. While the acting and dialogue is on par with Cannibal Ferox for the idiotic and laughably quotable, you can see just why a certain Mr. Tarantino never shuts up about this trilogy or its lovable, cheery director. The very same chap who directed the original Inglorious Bastards back in 1978. He comes across as a thoroughly likeable guy on the DVD extras in which he runs us through the film's development and legacy. Castellari remains passionate and proud of his films to this day.


Unlike the previous low grade and deceivingly titled "Vault of Horror" Vipco "Churn 'em out" VHS releases, Shameless Screen Entertainment present these for what trashy fun that they are, who for starters aren't advertising these films as anything other than the fun trash they are and have gone and put out a superb looking trilogy box set in a wonderfully skull embossed metal tin. The care and attention to detail that Shameless put into their DVD releases is a great way of introducing bizarre films such as these to an audience who would otherwise not know they existed. And as daft as this trilogy is (its pacing is at times uneven and makes no sense), it's particularly hard to dislike, especially if you're a fan of The Warriors, Mad Max or just post apocalypse films in general.
There's a tradition with most Sci-Fi films of this type, even with the more respected titles, of slapping a date on the film, in this case it's 1990. Made during the golden period of Italian exploitation films and sharing more than just a passing resemblance to Lucio Fulci's films of the early 80s, Castellari also shared producer, screen writer and apparently locations with Fulci, as there are several scenes set on the same Bronx harbour as the famous opening sequence to Fulci's Zombie, and the twin towers crop up ominously in several shots.


The story itself revolves around Anne (Stefania Girolami), a 17-year-old heiress to The Manhattan Corporation. Feeling guilty over having to inherit a morally questionable company on her 18th birthday, she flees into the lawless wasteland of The Bronx and seeks refuge with The Riders, a street gang, led by the charismatic Trash (Mark Gregory, who for some reason walks more like a horse than a man). Throw into the mix a Clockwork Orange-esque rival gang in clown paint, an insane ninja pony tailed George Eastman (of Absurd and Rabid Dogs fame) and a low key appearance from Vic Morrow as the renegade ex cop out on a manhunt and you have yourself an entertaining night of rock n roll urban hell. Though not anywhere as near as violent or brutal as you would think from the poster art or the time they were conceived, all three films pack quite a punch, and surprisingly, both sequels are fairly strong.


The New Barbarians (part 2 or part 3? Different sources say different things) was shot the same year as the first film and is intentionally silly in comparison. Taking place in 2019 where laser guns and cyber-punks roam the desert wastelands chopping each other up and doing little else. Escape From The Bronx is similar in tone to the first instalment but flies along at high speed as Trash returns alone to stop the Bronx being torn down and turned into a high tech city of the future. Apparently, Castellari felt that Mark Gregory was a bit too pudgy by this point in his career, so asked him to keep his jacket on throughout filming. Though slightly more cynical and downbeat in tone, Escape From The Bronx is a great companion piece to the first film and stays truer to its origins than the more lightweight and sci-fi tinged New Barbarians. Sadly the glowing plastic skulls that adorn the gangs' motorbikes from the first film don't make a return.


All in all solid trashy fun that, whilst not begging for THAT many repeated viewings, is a worthwhile addition to any respectable collection. Especially in this incarnation as it just looks great and feels all the more special for its almost unnecessarily deluxe treatment. Another classy job from Shameless Films.

I Spit on your Graves

Back in 1978 one of the most notorious films of all time sleazed it's way onto the screens of 42nd St. Ground out in cinemas littered with popcorn, soda cups and needles, smut seekers and cinemanics alike witnessed Camille Keaton, great-niece of Buster Keaton, violated and beaten relentlessly, only to retreat to the relative safety of her cabin to emerge the ultimate rape revenge heroine.
I Spit on your Grave has, until recently been the thing of legends, the sort of film that is usually proceeded by the statement "you can't really like it, but..." It's not a film you show your girlfriend (though I did once, that was a mistake). It's a dark, filthy archival film, important in it's own way and in it's time as a slice of our grindhouse past, something we cherish, but realise that time is behind us.


Ultimately, it is a sadistic, misogynistic, hicksploitation pile of revulsion. Even the final playing out of Keaton's revenge fights to overcome the hard to stomach exhaustive brutality her original abuse.
When the remake was announced, I, among others were perplexed. How?! How could you remake the ultimate rape revenge film in today's climate? Fuck how, more to the point, why? Why would you remake what was a fairly pointless exercise in the extreme victimisation of a woman? There is no way that this remake would capture the original grot and unease, those days are gone, the grindhouse is closed.
So it was with great trepidation that any audience of knowledgeable fans would settle in for the initial screenings.


What glistened out of that projector was a slick remake, one of the best. A modernisation of what was previously an relic of time gone by. I Spit on your Grave (2010) is near perfection. If Meir Zarchi sat down to make ISoyG in today's climate, taking into account the films of the past 10 years, I'm fairly certain this is what we would end up with. It is undeniably a film of it's time, muted tones, an attractive lead, and a revenge sequence that could only exist in a post Saw world. Tamed to the point you would take your girlfriend to see it.
Did I like it? or enjoy it? I'm not sure, while I still feel it's a pointless remake of a fairly pointless original, I think that they held true to what a remake ought to be about, modernising the original. Updating it so that today's fans can enjoy the basic tenets of whatever they are revamping.


Both versions sit together and apart solidly, covering capsules of the time they were made. The updated one showing us we have weakened with age, we are less willing to abuse ourselves, our society and our world quite like we used to. Or at least that's what we'd like to believe.
I'll always prefer the original, partly because it is such a filthy and effective film that I had to spend about an hour trying to calm down the girl I was seeing. I don't see the remake ever having that power.

I Spit on your Grave is out in UK Theatres on the 21st January, take your girlfriend, it's a date movie.
Official site is here

X - Read all about it!

Roger Corman, renowned producer and director has made 346 films in his 55 year career including Death Race 2000, Rock N Roll High School and this year's SyFy original Sharktopus, ever the busy bee, eh? Unlike many prolific film makers, very few of Corman's films lost any money, due in part to a brilliant eye for talent. His films have included work by Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Jack Nicholson, albeit, while they were cheap and inexperienced. but also due to his knack of coming up with a marketable title, poster, or tag line and working backwards to make the film from there. For example, X: The Man With X-Ray Eyes (also known as simply "X") lives up to it's lurid title.


This is the story of Doctor Xavier who, with a name like that, was never going to live a normal life (X: The Contented Ear-Nose-and-Throat Specialist may not have been such a successful film), having grown bored of the visible spectrum, he develops an eye serum that will allow the user to access the entire wavelength spectrum, see the ultra violet wavelength, x-rays and beyond. When his serum kills a laboratory monkey, Doctor X, perhaps a little foolishly, blames the ape and decides that the only suitable test subject is himself. It all seems to work and X has a high old time perving through ladies' dresses. Unfortunately, he starts seeing through the fabric of reality itself, and seeing things that mortal man was not meant to see.


X, Man with the X-Ray Eyes, stars Ray Milland, proud bearer of a snake-and-skull tattoo and quickest-ever acceptor of an Academy Award (Just a quick bow before buggering off with his best actor Oscar for Lost Weekend). Perhaps a little older than any leading man you'd get today (Milland was in his late-fifties when he made this picture) he carries the picture solidly, showing the strain put on Xavier as he goes earnest professional to shrieking in the face of cosmic horror via a smirking peeping Tom. X also features legendary insult comic Don Rickles, a favourite of Frank Sinatra's, in one of his first acting roles and a cameo from a startlingly young Dick Miller (Mr. Futterman in Gremlins and that bloke what sells The Terminator his Uzi 9mm).


As is often the case with low-budget sci-fi, some of the effects are a little creaky, such as fading to a drawing from an anatomy textbook when Dr. X is peering into someone's organs, but others are so ingenious that they stand up to this day, the use of time lapse footage of a building site in reverse as X looks through it's walls being a particular favourite.

Despite being made for only $300,000 over 3 weeks, X still manages to be a very effective sci-fi chiller with some lovely 60s psychedelic imagery and a genuinely shocking finale. They don't make them like this any more.


Join us for another night of drunken silliness as we celebrate a Corman masterpiece on Monday the 6th, December at the Mucky Pup in Islington.