The House by the Cemetery - Billups Allen

There is no confusion like Fulci confusion, ‘cause Lucio Fulci confusion don’t stop. Amidst a successful career spanning a wide variety of genre films, Italian film director Lucio Fulci hit big on the coattails of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978). In Italy, Dawn if the Dead was called Zombi, a cue for someone to come along with Zombi 2 (1979). Zombi 2 was a straightforward zombie narrative designed to appear as if it were a sequel to the Romero classic but was soon seen to hold its own in the arena of zombie films. Fulci achieved international success with this horror classic, so much so that he perfected his technique of producing films that sound like Romero films with his next project City of the Living Dead (1980). The title brought out horror fans anxious to see the successful zombie formula replicated. The film had little to do with zombies, (there are some), but what horror fans got was a marvelously convoluted story about a priest who hangs himself in a cemetery and accidentally opens the gates of hell. 

It’s hard to tell what Fulci was thinking as he made it; or what moviegoers must have been thinking when they saw it. The movie plays as if four films are beginning in the first ten minutes. The head of the séance is thinking about a guy in an abandoned house who finds a blow up doll. Then there is a newspaper reporter talking to a cop in New York City. A priest rubs worms in a woman’s face. A woman bleeds through the eyes and vomits out her guts. Along the way, patrons in a rural bar where a mirror cracks without provocation refer to the priest hanging himself. Wait, there’s the plot again. 

City of the Living Dead was the launching point for an unofficial trio of films known as the Gates of Hell trilogy. Fulci followed immediately with a southern gothic tale called The Beyond (1981) about a house in Louisiana that was, yes, built on a gate of hell.

The third film in this unofficial trio is The House by the Cemetery (1981). House by the Cemetery begins with a family of three moving, surprisingly, into a house by a cemetery. Norman and Lucy Boyle (Paolo Malco and Catriona MacCall) have a creepy kid named Bob (Giovanni Frezza) who keeps seeing another creepy little kid Mae Freudstein (Silvia Collatina) around. Mae keeps warning Bob not to stay in the house as if an eight year old has any say in the family’s living situation. There is a creepy babysitter named Ann (Ania Pieroni) who either used to be a mannequin, or still is one in some capacity. From there, the plot shoots off in an orgasm of nonsensical twists that lead to interesting murders and some of the most unique macabre imagery ever to grace a screen. The House by the Cemetery is so convoluted that the company in charge of the American video release got the reels out of order and nobody could tell the difference. 

Lucio Fulci earned the nickname “Godfather of Gore,” around this time, a title he shares with American film director Herschell Gordon Lewis. All three of these movies share the common theme that something or someone opens a gate of hell. It becomes a convenient plot device when you have a continuity nightmare on your hands. Still, nothing can derail Fulci when he is in the zone. These films are comprised of some of the most genuinely unique gore scenes, some of the most unimaginable death scenes, and some of the most original reimagining of gothic elements ever put to film. Never mind that the films don’t always make sense. When hell comes to your house, there is no reason to figure things out anyway.  

THE HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY - Monday, March 29th at 8:00 p.m.

It's MONDO MONDAYS at The Loft, celebrating weird, wild and wonderful flicks from the Mondo side of the silver screen! Admission is only $2.00, and don't forget to check out our yummy "Mondo Munchies" snack bucket ... fill a cup for a buck!

Billups Allen's interest in writing began composing lyrics for the band Shoutbus and later for the band Corn on Macabre. Lyrical duties led to writing poetry and short stories. Several of his short stories were published in a book entitled Unfurnished published by Florida’s now defunct Schematics Records. Allen currently lives in Tucson, Arizona where he writes Cramhole comic zine, writes reviews for Razorcake Magazine and the Tucson Citizen and hosts a radio show called The Groove Tomb. www.billupsallen.com

10 Music Videos Directed by David Fincher

The Loft will be screening David Fincher's FIGHT CLUB Friday, March 26th and Saturday, March 27th at 10:00 p.m.  Admission: $5

Rick Springfield - Dance This World Away

   

The Outfield - All The Love In The World

Foreigner - Say You Will

Roll With It - Steve Winwood

Roy Orbison - She's A Mystery

Madonna - Vogue

Aerosmith - Janie's Got A Gun

George Michael - Freedom! '90

Who is it -Michael Jackson

Nine Inch Nails - Only

 

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BONUS - The Commercials of David Fincher

Coca-Cola Blade roller David Fincher

Barkley on Broadway Nike Commercial

American Cancer Society - No Pregnant Smoking (1984)

 

The Loft at Festival of Books!

I can't be the only one surprised by the very existence of the Festival of Books.

A festival...for books? In 2010? In Tucson? And attended by tens of thousands, no less. All of this at a time when Americans are reading fewer books each year and as the nation's publishing industry reels from the upheaval of traditional business models by an ever-shifting technological landscape. So it was heartening to see so many Tucsonans and out-of-town bibliophiles descend on the University of Arizona's campus for a two-day tribute to the written word. I'm proud to have taken part in the proceedings as both volunteer and patron.

Of course, as one waggish gentleman pointed out, I was there representing The Loft Cinema. Film prints, not the printed page, are our stock in trade. But as ambassadors representing the theatre's contribution to Tucson's rich, international, and multiple-perspective culture, we were right at home alongside the booksellers, educators, and activists. This view was upheld by a surprising source, an author who generously gave me and my fellow volunteer, Peggy Springer, a copy of her book, "Dieppe Crossing." The novel, written by Betty McLane-Iles, a professor of French at Truman State University, is set during the tumultuous years of French resistance during the Spanish Civil War, continuing through the Occupation of France, and into the present day. She and her husband, also a writer and educator, stopped by our booth just before leaving the Festival. It was her husband who inscribed the novel with words that beautifully encapsulate exactly why The Loft is such a vital part of contemporary Tucson.

He wrote: "The only way, sometimes, Americans ever learn to value other cultures is via global cinema like [films shown at] The Loft."

Whether you subscribe to this particular contention or not is ultimately less important than Mr. Iles' recognition that The Loft provides our community with an ongoing opportunity to enjoy those films that are too often ignored or marginalized by theatre chain conglomerates with a prevailing interest in mainstream, homogeneous, and risk-free presentations. The films that play at The Loft, in contrast, give voice to the concerns of locals, minority groups, and artists working with difficult subject matter. From the guiltily delicious lowbrow scuzz of Mondo Mondays to ballet and opera presentations in high-def, The Loft presents a complex, multifaceted, impossible-to-pigeonhole portrait of the world we live in, and therefore a truer one. Also, we sell popcorn.

See you at the movies!

Mike Hughes

Loft Volunteer

Bare Knuckles (1977) - Billups Allen

Bare Knuckles opens with a fistfight in an abandoned lot in beautiful 1970s Los Angeles. Zachary Kane (Robert Viharo) is a bounty hunter who finishes the brawl and brings the bad guy back to the police. Kane trains hard as an amateur boxer. We know this because there is an exercise montage set to funk music in the first five minutes of the film. Cut to Kane on the floor of his apartment playing a flute. No doubt, Kane is a complicated guy. Complicated enough to meet a girl in a Pizza Hut parking lot and score. They exchange soulful looks over slices and end up in bed together. She asks about his art. Then she asks his name. Well, it was the 70s. Another funk montage demonstrates that he is streetwise. Since he is seen talking and laughing with a variety of street people, we know he can acquire information. Kane knows people everywhere he goes. 

After much danceable character development we become aware of a serial killer stalking women on the streets. The stalker commits a murder that is witnessed by what appears to be an entire apartment building. Of all the witnesses, one inexplicably becomes spooked and lams it. On the trail of the “lone” witness, Kane discovers that bringing this killer to justice may be more complicated that just catching him.

Director Don Edmonds is a legend in the arena of low budget action films. His director credits include Ilsa, She Wolf of the S.S. (1974) and Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks (1976). Bare Knuckles follows nicely with shots of incidental objects being destroyed in brawls, a killer in a weird mask, and a decisively un-PC brawl in a gay bar. For fans of The Mack (1973), Truck Turner (1974), and Black Belt Jones (1974), Bare Knuckles is guaranteed fun. Perhaps not scoring in a Pizza Hut parking lot fun, but fun.  

BARE KNUCKLES - Monday, March 22nd at 8:00 p.m.
It's MONDO MONDAYS at The Loft, celebrating weird, wild and wonderful flicks from the Mondo side of the silver screen! Admission is only $2.00, and don't forget to check out our yummy "Mondo Munchies" snack bucket ... fill a cup for a buck!


Billups Allen's interest in writing began composing lyrics for the band Shoutbus and later for the band Corn on Macabre. Lyrical duties led to writing poetry and short stories. Several of his short stories were published in a book entitled Unfurnished published by Florida’s now defunct Schematics Records. Allen currently lives in Tucson, Arizona where he writes Cramhole comic zine, writes reviews for Razorcake Magazine and the Tucson Citizen and hosts a radio show called The Groove Tomb. www.billupsallen.com

Top Ten Memorable Tim Burton Characters

Large Marge - Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Bunny Breckinridge (Bill Murray) - Ed Wood

Vincent Malloy - Vincent

Juno (Sylvia Sidney) - Beetlejuice

Ed Bloom (Ewan McGregor) - Big Fish

Dottie - Pee-wee’s Big Adventure

Oogie Boogie Man - Nightmare Before Christmas

Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) - Ed Wood

Bernard (Dick Cavett) - Beatlejuice

P.W. Herman (James Brolin) - Pee-wee's Big Adventure

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BEETLEJUICE plays Friday, March 19th at 10 p.m. and Saturday, March 20th at 10:00 p.m. and Midnight. Admission: $5.00

First Friday Shorts – R.J. Cavender

It was a busy week. Oscar week always is for a film critic. But, after catching the Academy Award Nominated Shorts program at The Loft, I’d promised I would return with my assignment photographer, Breezy VonChardonnay, to catch the much anticipated First Friday Shorts program for March.

I was met in the lobby, Breezy thrusting a double-serving of Avalanche Amber Ale (the beer-of-the-month) into my grubby mitt, and then I was whisked off to the main theater which was at near capacity.

That’s when I saw it for the first time. There it stood, just feet from our VIP seats.

The Gong.

Ecstatic Truth - The Top Ten Werner Herzog Clips

MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE, the new film from director Werner Herzog and producer David Lynch, is currently playing at The Loft!  Visit our website or call the box office at 520.795.0844 for showtimes.

#1  Werner Herzog gets shot by LA sniper during interview

#2  Werner Herzog eats his shoe

#3  Werner Herzog on Nature

#4  Kinski - Butterfly

#5  A scene from Werner Herzog's Heart Of Glass

#6  Deranged Penguin - Encounters at the End of the World

#7  Mister Lonely & Flying Nun

#8  Werner Herzog on Languages

#9  Lessons of Darkness

#10  Werner Herzog on Henry Rollins' Show

THE BEING (1983) - Billups Allen

The opening credits of The Being are simple white words against a black backdrop. No soundtrack. Martin Landau. That’s promising. Jose Ferrer. Even more promising. Ruth Buzzi? Yea, this is gonna be good. The Being is loaded to the breaking point with low budget 80s horror clichés. Teenagers act bad and get eaten. The mayor is attempting a cover up. Red lights appear in the background out of nowhere during attacks. No one is concerned about the fact that people are rapidly disappearing. The being only attacks after a dog, cat or falling pie tin scares the victim first. New ground is broken in the form of an Easter egg hunt where a toddler comes across the Being having a rest in a hole among the trees near the church. There is also a great scene involving a drive-in movie showing a movie about an amorphous being terrorizing teenagers. The drive-in is filled with moviegoers screaming at the screen and making out. Is there a good chance that the being will put in an appearance? I won’t ruin the surprise.

Martin Landau portrays Garson Jones, a scientist investigating possibly dangerous radioactivity in the area. The combination of the element of class Landau adds to the production versus a lack of research on the part of the filmmaker as to what a scientist might actually say makes for some wonderful moments such as Landau holding a Geiger counter over his wristwatch on a talk show. Ruth Buzzi surprises by providing some of the film’s most bizarre moments; namely bleeding through his eyes during a bizarre Wizard of Oz-type dream sequence and being killed off when her garage is destroyed during an operatic recital.

The Being itself is a bit of an enigma in that it seems to move quickly when it is lurking around on its own from the point of view of the camera, but is not very adept at chasing people when a pivotal character is in trouble. The Being is also randomly selective about whom it kills right away and whom it throws around and injures for the sake of the story. It absorbs people whole, but never seems to get any bigger. Sometimes it is a gelatinous blob, and other times it looks like a giant peanut with a deformed hand. As the movie progresses, the creature begins to take on a more definable shape, something of a bastardization of H.R. Giger’s design for Alien, but the creature is ultimately hard to pin down as it alternates between having hands and tentacles when one appendage becomes convenient over the other.

All in all, The Being wins as being great b-movie fun in that it maintains a good pace and has a little something for every permutation of low budget horror taste. No one “acts” for too long, the unintentional laughs do not languish and the gore is lit so you can’t tell how much they spent on it. You can generally tell what is going to happen from minute to minute, but the film seems aware of its shortcomings and acts accordingly. You won’t get bored. If you find yourself not liking what you are seeing, give it a minute. Something else will happen.

THE BEING - Monday, March 8th 8pm $2. It's MONDO MONDAYS at The Loft, celebrating weird, wild and wonderful flicks from the Mondo side of the silver screen! Admission is only $2.00, and don't forget to check out our yummy "Mondo Munchies" snack bucket ... fill a cup for a buck!

Billups Allen's interest in writing began composing lyrics for the band Shoutbus and later for the band Corn on Macabre. Lyrical duties led to writing poetry and short stories. Several of his short stories were published in a book entitled Unfurnished published by Florida’s now defunct Schematics Records. Allen currently lives in Tucson, Arizona where he writes Cramhole comic zine, writes reviews for Razorcake Magazine and the Tucson Citizen and hosts a radio show called The Groove Tomb. www.billupsallen.com

Oscar Shorts Review - R.J. Cavender

The 2010 Academy Award Nominated Short Films program came to the Loft Cinema this past week. The event was at near-capacity both nights I attended, with the evenings split into two categories: Live Action Shorts and Animated Shorts.

Ballots were available to all audience members to vote on their favorite films from each program, with the winning predictions being eligible for free passes to future shows at The Loft.

Of the Live Actions Shorts, there were two movies in particular that sent the audience into laughing fits, “The New Tenants” and “Instead of Abracadabra”. Both of these shorts were comedies, and while the other films were certainly worth viewing, the three remaining films ranged from heavy handed and dark, to outright depressing.

My choice of the two comedic entries would be “The New Tenants” from Denmark. From the first frame of the film, the audience was treated to the overblown world-view of a smack-talking chain smoker who thinks he can diagnose all of the world’s problems from the sanctity of his breakfast table. That is, until he and his roommate, the proverbial ‘new tenants’ in the building, meet their neighbors and become entangled in a web of confusion that involves a jealous husband, a sweaty drug dealer, and an industrial size bag of heroin. It’s funnier than it sounds, trust me. And as pitch-black comedies go, this one is one of the better ones I’ve seen in short film format. Highly recommended!

“Instead of Abracadabra” was charming in its own lopsided way; a tale guy who is quite possibly the world’s worst magician, and the lengths he’ll go to in impressing the girl of his dreams. This one relied more on prop gags and physical humor, while “The New Tenants” was fueled more on snappy dialogue and the escalating situation the characters found themselves in. But, both films had the theater roaring with laughter and each had their own special qualities that made them endearing, wildly entertaining, and memorable.

The second night of programming brought the Animated Shorts program, and again just from audience reaction I can say that the two films best received were the new Wallace and Gromit short “A Matter of Loaf and Death” and the Argentinean entry “Logorama”.

Personally, Wallace and Gromit shorts have never done much for me. The films are fun, and cheeky, but ultimately I feel the running times are generally too long to retain interest. This one was no exception. I love the Claymation that Wallace and Gromit director Nick Park uses and think it’s far the best looking for the process, but ultimately I feel his shorts are just too long. A half-hour “short” seems anything but.

My personal choice for Animated Short would have to go to the wildly inventive “Logorama” from director Nicolas Schmerkin. The entire film was created using nothing but corporate logos and mascots from over 2000 different companies. For the life of me I have no clue how he was able to release this without pending litigation by these companies, but the ending result is just fantastic. The film itself was a high-speed action romp through a fictional LA, but part of the real experience was the realization that I personally recognized almost every single logo that was used. It’s kind of eye-opening, and the film can be viewed on many different levels.

I’d also like to mention that of the Animated Shorts there were other films that seemed to keep the audience laughing for their entire run-time, but I felt both were too short to be really considered.

Those films were “Granny O’Grimms ‘Sleeping Beauty” from Ireland and “The Lady and The Reaper” from Spain. Both were fun little encounters with some really innovative looking animation, but having run times under ten minutes I felt like they were more of the viral video variety-- a funny clip you’d send a friend on YouTube. Both were great, and worth looking up online, but my vote is for “Logorama” to win this year. If this year’s presentation is any indication of things to come in the world on animation, then we’re going to see some really incredible stuff in the years to come.

For a full list of all the 2010 Academy Award Nominated Short Films and information on where you can watch them online before the show, check out the Shorts International website at:

http://www.shortsinternational.com/

The Loft's Favorite Coming of Age Films

Anthony - American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973)



Dave - Fandango (Kevin Reynolds, 1985)



Luanne - My Dog Skip (Jay Russell, 2000)



Daniel - The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola, 1983)



Peggy - Wild Child (Francois Truffaut, 1970)



J.J. - George Washington (David Gordon Green, 2000)



Alyson - If.... (Lindsay Anderson, 1968)



Christian - Rushmore (Wes Anderson, 1998)



Tim - 400 Blows (Francois Truffaut, 1959)



Zach - Ghost World (Terry Zwigoff, 2001)



Pedro - Leon (Luc Besson, 1994)



Mike - Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)



Steven - The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967)



Jeff - Harold & Maude (Hal Ashby, 1971)

POP GOES THE LOFT!

POP GOES THE LOFT as we celebrate the cinematic legacy of the one-and-only ANDY WARHOL with a month-long tribute featuring some of the Pop Master's greatest, wildest and most influential films. EVERY THURSDAY NIGHT IN MARCH we'll be showcasing different Warhol classics, so don't miss any of these ultra-rare screenings!

PLUS! Bring a can of Campbell's Soup to any of our four Warhol nights in March (all soup collected will be donated to The Tucson Community Food Bank), and you'll be entered into our POP RAFFLE for a great Warhol-inspired prize package, to be awarded at the final screening on March 25th (you need not be present to win).

Missile to the Moon - Billups Allen

Many cult film enthusiasts pooh-pooh It Came From Hollywood (1982), a compilation style film that predates Mystery Science Theater 3000 where popular comic actors such as Dan Akroyd, Gilda Radner and John Candy riff on clips from low budget movies. The riffage is pretty disappointing and overall the film comes off as unnecessarily disrespectful, but I recall having distinct impressions made on me at a young age regarding the value of low budget fare due to It Came From Hollywood. This mish mash of sewn together clips became a canon of low budget pictures that I actively sought over the years prior to the Internet and, I am embarrassed to admit, even before my family had a video machine. Eclectic fare is far more accessible these days, but in the dark ages, low budget Sci-Fi came on late at night and occasionally on Saturday afternoons. I remember stumbling across Missile to the Moon while the Super Bowl was on another channel one year and being energized by recognizing motorcycle helmet–clad scientists being chased by slow moving rock creatures that really posed no active threat to anyone who was able to move past a crawl.

Dirk Green (Michael Whalen) is the creator of an experimental rocket that thepowers that be have deemed too risky to launch. Frustrated, Dirk takes the opportunity of discovering two escaped convicts Gary (Tommy Cook) and Lon (Gary Clarke) hiding out in it to light that candle and travel to the moon. Dirks partner Steve Dayton (Richard Travis) and his fiancé June (Cathy Downs) run aboard to attempt to stop the blast off and end up tagging along inadvertently. The rocket is launched and the five resign themselves to explore the moon. While on the moon, the group is attacked by slow moving rock people, gigantic spiders, and encounter a society of beauty queens. (Literally. Winners of a beauty contest portray the moon women.) The women don’t take kindly specifically to June’s presence and the queen develops some convoluted idea that she is supposed to marry Dirk. As the queen becomes frustrated with the visitors, it becomes apparent that this lone society of women is not as peaceful as they appear to be.

Missile to the Moon is a classic, pre-manned space exploration tale where attractive women live in caves on themoon, wear bikinis, and inexplicably speak English. The 1950s must have been a magical time for comic book artists and filmmakers. NASA sure went and spoiled everything by getting up there and finding a bunch of boring old rocks. Before that, no one had any defining proof that there were no gigantic rock creatures living on the moon.

MISSILE TO THE MOON - Monday, March 1st 8pm $2. It's MONDO MONDAYS at The Loft, celebrating weird, wild and wonderful flicks from the Mondo side of the silver screen! Admission is only $2.00, and don't forget to check out our yummy "Mondo Munchies" snack bucket ... fill a cup for a buck!

Billups Allen's interest in writing began composing lyrics for the band Shoutbus and later for the band Corn on Macabre. Lyrical duties led to writing poetry and short stories. Several of his short stories were published in a book entitled Unfurnished published by Florida’s now defunct Schematics Records. Allen currently lives in Tucson, Arizona where he writes Cramhole comic zine, writes reviews for Razorcake Magazine and the Tucson Citizen and hosts a radio show called The Groove Tomb. www.billupsallen.com