Cult! Film Distribution Presents PSYCHOTRONIC CINEMA!!
What Is Psychotronic Cinema?
Hot on the heels of the massively successful Cult! and Wild Japan festivals, Psychotronic Cinema is a brain-blasting new line-up of insane cult movies. The films are screening in a late night Thursday slot each fortnight at the Filmhouse, kicking off this Thursday (November 10th).
Psychotronic Cinema is the only late night cult cinema event in the entire UK. And Psychotronic is more than simply a programme of superb, crazy films. Each film will be proceeded by 20 minutes of classic Drive-In movie trailers from the golden days of Exploitation Cinema. Plus the Psychotronic Bar – offering low priced drinks, atmosphere and exotic party tunes from classic cult movie soundtracks.
In an era dominated by market-led filmmaking the movies, plucked from ‘the’ classic period of cult movie history, will explode on to the screen and pump demented energy from every frame. Representing the very best from a diverse selection of genres, these films are unified by their wildness, their utterly unique nature and the longevity of their fascination to film fans. Get ready for a weird and wonderful ride through a landscape of truly transgressive cinema...
Psychotronic Nights Schedule
Psychotronic Bar Opens – 10.30pm
Exploitation Trailers – 11.00pm
Intro To Film – 11.20pm
Psychotronic Movie – 11.30pm
Tickets are : £4.50 / £3.50 (concession). Special priced full season passes available.
The Psychotronic Films:
THE MACK (Director : Michael Campus, USA, 1972) - Thursday 10th November
Known amongst cineastes because of a clip featured in the Tarantino-scripted True Romance, The Mack represents the absolute pinnacle of Blaxploitation filmmaking. This black action classic holds all the aces – spectacular 70s fashion (a massive influence on the costume design for Jackie Brown), a belting funk score by Willie Hutch, truckloads of attitude and enough quotable one liners to fill ten cult movies. It also features Richard Pryor at the absolute peak of his early 1970s drug-fuelled insanity. And yet, despite its immense cult credentials, The Mack also functions as a superb socio-political critique of black ghetto life in New York, every scene soaked with sad, desperate truths.
Superbad. Superfly. Supercool.
“Blaxploitation heaven!” [Arizona Daily Star]
*
THUNDERCRACK! (Director : Curt McDowell, USA, 1977) - Thursday 24th November
Words simply cannot do justice to this movie. The most infamous cult film of all time arrives back in the UK. Only two decades ago Thundercrack! was popular enough to screen at the legendary Scala Cinema every weekend for two years straight.
In the midst of a thunderstorm a motley crew of characters seek refuge in an old mansion, home of the spectacularly obscene Mrs.Gert Hammond. Thundercrack! is chock full of taboo-shattering shocks, dialogue which plays like Tennesse Williams on speed and an undying love of Hollywood kitsch. The high water mark may be when a gorilla enters the fray.
Gloriously overwritten and utterly deranged, this is legendary stuff, without a doubt the most truly bizarre film in the history of cinema. Expect horror, black humour, melodrama, pornography and zoo animals. But be warned - this is not for the faint hearted.
“If you’re at all familiar with underground cinema then you’ve probably heard tales of this flick for years. But actually seeing the damn thing is a different matter entirely. Crass, sick and hilarious, this feature is filled with the essence of pure, undiluted cinematic derangement.” [Shock Cinema]
*
PRIVATE PARTS (Director : Paul Bartel, 1972) - Thursday 8th December
A teenage runaway seeks refuge in the seedy San Francisco hotel run by her Aunt only to discover that it is populated entirely by freaks, perverts and nuts.
Paul Bartel went on to make several well-known cult classics – Death Race 2000 and Eating Raoul included – but his debut feature Private Parts remains a little known, rarely screened, joyous gem of depravity. Set exclusively in the seediest districts of New York, it mixes horror and comedy in unspeakable ways to create a film which is extremely peculiar and abominably involving.
Weird and wonderful stuff from an underground filmmaker with genuinely warped
preoccupations and a real eye for disarmingly screwed up imagery.
“In exceptionally poor taste and the tone is quintessential Bartel.” TimeOut
*
BLOOD FOR DRACULA (Director : Paul Morrissey, 1975) - Thursday 19th January 2006
The talents of director Paul Morrissey alone would be enough to justify a screening of this legend of a movie. But the film also boasts Andy Warhol as producer and two ultimate cult icons in the leading roles – Joe Dallansandro and Udo Kier.
The latter’s performance is particularly astonishing to behold, as his Count Dracula virtually rots away on screen, while pursuing a desperate quest for the blood of “wirgins”.
Stunningly beautiful to look at and blessed, as Morrissey films always are, by a beautiful spirit of genuine humanity. But the director also possesses a wild imagination and he takes the Dracula myth and puts it through the blender. What emerges is an incredible mix of high camp, melancholia, sex and the weirdest kind of horror comedy imaginable. A masterpiece by any standard.
“Even by modern standards, Morrissey's risks remain considerable…it is to his credit that he ventured to go where no other filmmakers before or since have dared.” Box Office Magazine
*
THEMROC (Director : Claude Faraldo, France, 1973) - Thursday 2nd February
Had enough of work? Feel like you are about to crack up? The lead character of Themroc reaches this point about 20 minutes into the action and then all hell breaks loose. He exchanges speech for violent caveman-like grunts and proceeds to cause a wave of utter havoc that includes the barbecuing of policemen. To give away more than this would be a crime. This is a film that simply has to be seen to be believed.
Themroc is a comedy of the very blackest variety, a vicious satire on society’s rules and an anarchic vision of humans as a bunch of directionless sheep. It’s also a bona-fide art movie - a nightmarish speculation on the horror of urban confinement.
“If you've ever had the urge to bark at people out of sheer frustration, then this film comes recommended.” The Spinning Image
*
THE NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE (Director : Emilio Miraglia, Italy, 1971) - Thursday 16th February
We conclude the incredible first run of Psychotronic Cinema with something of an experiment. We dive into the murky waters of the so called ‘Euro-Shocker’, a type of film characterised by insane and utterly distinctive European genre movies from the 1970s. If this taster proves popular then future Psychotronic line-ups are likely spin off into magestically demented territory.
The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave is a gruesome, hallucinatory Italian horror classic featuring a former mental patient with some truly kinky and bizarre sensibilities. This is film as pure delirium, chock full of crazy visuals and mind-melting plot twists. The characters and scriptwriters seem liable to do just about anything at any given moment. It’s handsomely shot and features a spectacular jazz funk score but above all it’s very, VERY mad.
“The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave appears to be a classic piece of Eurotrash.” Kinocite
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