An exercise in cinematic comic book style with Pat Boyette and „The Dungeon of Harrow“ (1962)

„I’d been in love with motion picture-making for a long time,“ Boyette recalls. „When television came in, suddenly there was a big market for films. I thought, ‚This is the thing to do. You can make some schlock and get by with it at this early stage.‘ Not that you purposely go out to make schlock. But the fact is, with limited resources, that’s the best you can hope for.“

(Pat Boyette quoted in „A fright-fest of films by Pat Boyette“ by Marty Baumann [J. David Spurlock – The Nightstand Chillers – Vanguard Productions; p. 45])

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Versunkene Perlen aus dem Eskalierende-Träume-Archiv #01: No Man’s Land (1964)

Es ist wahrlich verlockend leicht, diesen offensichtlichst im extremen Maße kostengünstig (oder kosteneffizient, wie ich meinen möchte) zusammengeklöppelten Koreakriegsreißer als das zu verlachen, was er ist. Eine extensive Sammlung sich teils auch noch frech wiederholenden Archivmaterials von echten Kampfhandlungen, das sich mit sicherlich 75 Prozent der Gesamtlaufzeit um eine narrativ dürftigst herausgearbeitete Handlung und minimalistische Heldenreise geradewegs in die filmische Ausflucht erstreckt. Dies würde allerdings schnöde verkennen, dass er sich selbst am allerwenigsten dafür interessiert, was ist, und lieber in dem verharrt, was hätte sein können. Früh wird deutlich, dass vielerorts keinerlei Raumbegrenzungen existieren und andere gleichzeitig von größter Bedeutung sind. Weiterlesen “Versunkene Perlen aus dem Eskalierende-Träume-Archiv #01: No Man’s Land (1964)” »

Calling it a day in Neon Hell: Night City (2015)

Life is like a B-picture script. It’s that corny. If I had my life story offered to me to film, I’d turn it down.
(Kirk Douglas)

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The Unexciticist – Upsidedown Cross (2014)

With advertising making it appear as something of a wild crossbreed between Friedkin classic „The Exorcist“ and „Her Name Was Lisa“ (Roger Watkins, 1979), William Hellfire’s „Upsidedown Cross“ sparks some rather diverse expectations and ultimately subverts them all. Opening with a nearly twenty minute long sequence chronicling Nadine’s (Erin Russ) bread-and-butter job as a nude model in the most unagitated way imaginable, the spirit of Watkin’s bleak reflection on lifes slowly burning away in erotic industries of differing nature is very much channeled. Even somewhat mirroring the way the New Yorkian mad hatter employed rooms coated in myriads of expressive colors to spur his narratives, one important difference though is discernible from the get go. There is no pretense that any of this is – and be it only in a temporary pull-the-rug-from-under-your-feet way – real. That’s not paint laughing from your walls but deep red variations of bath towels, old curtains and improvised color stainers of similarly somber fabrics hung up to conceal two different yet closely related kinds of emptiness. Red, the color of love – it is perhaps the most important fixture in Hellfire’s film, doubling for passion where there is none to harbor. Weiterlesen “The Unexciticist – Upsidedown Cross (2014)” »