Trade List

Here's my list of movies for trade. I figured I might as well go ahead and post it here for anyone who might be interested in doing a swap. I also sell some of them for a living (can't technically sell the ones that are in print). Check out my Ioffer shop to see what's listed as of now.  I'll update this list and link back to it periodically. Also, as I write reviews for some of these movies I'll try and link those too.

Fell free to leave comments with questions or email me at Papermothra@yahoo.com

Clicky Von Linky...

Blue Sunshine & Patrick

I've always had a penchant for baldness. That would explain my crush on Terry O'quinn circa ALWAYS. I seem to gravitate toward bald characters in movies. I especially love baldness in women! I'm still pining over the hard to find trashterpiece, Bald Headed Betty. Today's feature's initial attraction was the incredible ominous cover featuring a beautiful bald woman soaked in somber blue rays. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from Blue Sunshine. Sometimes I do endless research before watching a movie, other times I like to go into it blind.

A ten year delayed reaction to a bad batch of acid leads a group of well adjusted citizens to have the suckiest kind of flashback. The kind that leads to murder, mayhem and baldness. When one of these post-hippies flips out at a party and kills everyone (in turn, getting hit by a truck and being killed himself), the one survivor (cult actor Zalman King who bears a striking resemblance to Sean Penn!) is framed for the murders. He starts to realize that his predicament is related so some other murders and begins putting the pieces together to prove his innocence.

This being 1976, LSD had pretty much gone out of style. Most of our free love youngsters were now well into adulthood having hung up their peace pipes for polyester suits. It was the dawn of the disco era and closing in on the 80's was going to mean the end of drugsploitation movies of this nature. It had been years since a decent acid movie had been made. In this respect Blue Sunshine really is an under appreciated gem. Not only is it unique to it's decade but it's exploits the "dangers" of psychedelics better than pretty much any movie I've ever seen. It's a scary concept! The feel of this movie immediately reminded me of David Cronenberg, particularly the Brood and They Came from Within. It was directed by Jeff Lieberman who also made Squirm (1976), Just Before Dawn (1981), Remote Control (1988) and more recently Satan's Little Helper (2004).

The final outburst by a giant patchy bodyguard Frankenstein guy in the middle of a disco makes me smile. Did I mention there was baldness?

I ended up watching the marvelous new documentary on Ozploitation (Aussieploitation) Not Quite Hollywood. I was pretty much blown away and completely humbled by this whole world of bad assery I basically didn't even know existed. There was only a hand full of movies I had even heard of let alone scene. After the movie ended I'd immediately ran to the computer and started typing in memorable titles only to realize WHY I hadn't heard of them. A shitload have not made it to dvd in the US! Talk about a bummer! I decided to check out FYE today and see if I could dig anything up. I wasn't unsuccessful, I found several of the more well known Aussie flicks. I decided to start with the one I'd been putting off for years. Everyone's favorite telekinetic coma victim, Patrick.

I can see why this is considered a classic. It's well made and has moments of sheer brilliance (IE: when the doctor is eating the frog) but I'd be lying if I said it didn't leave something to be desired. I thought the pacing was a bit slow with long scenes of dryness. We don't really watch genre films to sit idly for gaps of time. I was most impressed by Robert Thompson who plays Patrick. Being the title character it would make sense that he steals the show but then again he still has no speaking parts. His look is incredibly intense and it was his intensity that carries the whole film. It was directed by Richard Franklin who's a genre film house name having made Fantasm (1976), Road Games (1981), Psycho II (1983) and Cloak and Dagger (1984).

This was obviously an influential movie. Now that I've seen it I can tell that it must have been a big inspiration for Lucio Fulci's Aenigma (1987). Which I happen to love but always read bad things about, mainly that it's a rip-off of Carrie (1976), but If it's a rip-off of anything my vote is on Patrick. This wouldn't have been the only time the Italians ripped off Patrick. On Not Quite Hollywood they show clips from an unofficial sequel called Patrick Viva Ancora aka Patrick Still Lives (1980). It supposed to be terrible but I thought it looked fantastic! As a general rule I find that poorly and cheaply made sequels are often times more fun than the originals. I can't wait to track down a copy of that.

Maybe after all of the excitement of discovering a genre that is new to me and having been curious about this movie for six or seven years I wasn't mentally prepared for what the film actually would be. It has it's moment of trashy goodness but overall it's a very serious psychological thriller. It really is a good movie, perhaps not one of my favorites, but I'm glad I've finally seen it.

When Women Had Giant Mutant Sheep Embryos

While preparing for a move across the County I've been trying get through some of these randoms I've accumulated. Just to filter out a few impulse buys and watch a few of the movies I have on loan from friends so they can be enjoyed and returned. Yesterday I watched an incredible piece of Italian schlock, the 1972 film When Women Lost Their Tails. I found it as a budget release of two Senta Berger movies (the other being Blitz which I haven't gotten around to yet) at a local used dvd shop and thought the title sounded sufficiently wonderful.

It ended up exceeding my expectations. It turned out to be a tongue in cheek sex comedy set in the stone age. Senta Berger plays a sexy cave girl who's the belonging of a group of five cave stooges. One of which is played by Italian cult actor Frank Wolff. I didn't expect this movie to be as funny as it turned out to be. A new, smarter cave man moves into the area and tricks the dim witted neanderthals into using a money systems with rocks, he swindles them out of work, food and of course sex kitten, Senta Berger. The dialogue was surprisingly witty, it's fun seeing these characters fumble around to build themselves a little society. The gay cave man was especially charming. The punchline at the end of the movie is that Berger is liberated through prostitution! Not a movie for those sensitive to misogyny but worth a look to anyone with a sense of humor. My favorite thing about this movie were the sets and music. It was like a Flintstone cartoon come to life. Completely over the top! It reminded of how the sets looked in Robinson Crusoe on Mars. The score was done by none other than one of my all time favorite composers Bruno Nicolai, although it was basically the same theme and incidental music through out the whole film it's still fun and catchy!

After I watched the movie I of course looked it up the internet, the poster I came across struck a nerve. I suddenly had this crazy deja vu from seeing this poster as a kid and being completely intrigued by it. I'm not positive where I saw it but my best bet would be this book of 1970's film posters my Mom got for me when I was in the 6th grade. I remember seeing her looking all savage and ravishing bound by chains, I remember the title being very odd to me and the text seeming out of place but in a good way. I remember think she had a lot of hair and wondering what the hell this movie could be about. I assumed it was some weird western. I couldn't imagine a time women ever had tails so none of it made any sense to me! This memory has made me feel a bit sentimental over finally seeing this movie. I'm so happy it found me!

The other movie has been bouncing around my mind all week. The reviled and ignored creature feature, Godmonster of Indian Flats. Reading some other reviews online was a bit disappointing for me. A lot of people seem to really hate this movie. I don't get it, what did they expect? I went into this with extremely low expectations and immediately noticed it wasn't just any run of the mill Something Weird movie. After a few flicks like Bowanga Bowanga and Sinderella and the Golden Bra you learn that they can't all be winners. The style of film making reminded me of Russ Meyer. The cuts were clever and funny. The acting was the kind of "good-bad" acting you want from a movie like this - intentional almost. It also had Meyers alumni, Stuart Lancaster as the racist town Mayor. At one point I wondered if Russ Meyer might have directed this under a pseudonym. He didn't of course, but if he made a movie with no boobs, mutant sheep and an even more limited budget and time frame, I could see this being apart of his filmography. The "no boobs" should have been the give away, ha!


The story revolves around a historic old west town in Nevada. After being drunk and beaten, a sheep farmers has a psychedelic experience in his barn with floating yellow sheep. When he comes-to he sees that a giant bloody embryo has been born. He tells a scientist who's doing experiments on the strange phosphorescent gasses in the area and they begin to study it. It grows up to be a giant 8 foot mutant sheep. Isn't that wonderful?!

The Godmonster isn't even my favorite thing about this movie. It's the over all feel and production quality. Not to say that the production quality is high, but it's nice and grainy which works beautifully with the gorgeous location and the director's artistic vision. On the dvd you can expect Something Weird's usual awesome special features, including an AMAZING music video for a song called "Don't Fart Around with Love" from another movie by the same director. It reminded me of something from Forbidden Zone! I did some research and discovered the director, Fredric Hobbs was an artist and experimental filmmaker. He made three other movies, Troika (1969), Roseland (1971) and Alabama's Ghost (1973). I haven't been able to find out much about the first but Roseland (the movie that feature's "Don't Fart Around with Love") and Alabama's Ghost both have a small cult following. I plan on getting them both very soon. You can order Roseland from Something Weird's website click HERE, you can also view the trailer on that page. Alabama's Ghost is a little more difficult to track down. . In the meantime there are a few wacky clips from that crazed blaxploitation horror movie on Youtube if you care to check it out.

Until next time!!

Blind Beast

When you watch as many movies as I do you tend to get bored easily. I think my compulsive movie watching is partially the result of Adult A.D.D. I'm always hoping to find something new and exciting. I become obsessed with and then burn myself out on themes. I did it with horror for a while, I spent so many years obsessing over all of these different facets of the genre that I found myself hardly able to watch any horror movies for two years or so. When I did catch one I couldn't muster up the passion for them I once felt. I'm pretty much over that now, but I'm still guilty of burning myself out on something. I also did this with sex movies. Watching tons of Euro-sleaze can get old after a while. You know you're over doing it when Pasolini's Salo: 120 Days of Sodom isn't even shocking anymore, just boring. Don't even get me started on Something Weird's brand of  nudie film. After a few Doris Wishman nudist camp movies it's enough to make you never want to see a naked body on film or IN LIFE ever again! So I cooled it on the perverted stuff for a while. Sex can be a pretty boring subject matter for film anyway. It has to be something really special to stand out. Like Russ Meyer for instance. Now there's a guy who can be make a sexy, campy, and artistic film. Even still, I find myself yawning at sex scenes that last longer than a minute. Whole movies revolving around the subject? I still have my doubts. However today's feature surprised me in the most delightful of ways. I finally got around to seeing Yasuzo Masamura's Blind Beast.

I'd been curious about it ever since it's release a few years ago. It was put out by Fantomas, who I've always been pleased with in the past. They tend to deliver on great offbeat movies with cool packaging and decent special features. After several years of this bouncing around my Netflix que I finally made the leap.

The story follows an attractive young model who's stalked and kidnapped by a blind sculptor who has become fixated on her exquisite physique by feeling up a sculpture of her at a museum. He decided he must have her to model for one his masterpiece, even if by force. He locks her up in his amazing studio which is comprised of wall to wall sculptures and installations of giant bizarre body parts. Although this subject should be revolting and offensive Masamura delivers a very sensitive and erotic manner of telling this sad and beautiful story. Naturally Aki protests and tries to escape, but inevitably she becomes sucked  in to the self destructive abyss and falls for her captor.

The images and ideas in this movie effected me profoundly. I've seen a lot of debauchery in my day, but this one was different. I felt somewhat naive watching. As if I was seeing something new. It's hard to believe this movie is 41 years old. There were moments I was frightened b what I was seeing and there were times I was magnetically entranced. I found myself loving and hating all of the characters at some point through the duration of the movie. The subject matter got pretty ugly towards the end and despite it's dismal ambiance I left the movie feeling peaceful and satisfied. The narration by Aki (Mako Midori) helped with that. It wasn't just a story of a woman kidnapped, raped and inevitably...worse. Her voice over gives the viewer peace of mind that she's not as out of control as she may seem at first glance. In the end, they were all perverts! And I love it!

It was based on a story by the famous Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo from which many film adaptations of his work have been made. I plan on seeing more of those. Also, the wonderful Yasuzo Masamura. Before this I'd only seen one of his earlier films, Giants and Toys. A WONDERFUL, yet completely different movie! I can hardly believe they were made by the same guy! You can bet I'll be cruising his filmography pretty fiercely as well!

I'M BACK!

Have you missed me my children?

I was thinking about starting a new blog. Nothing wrong with this one, but I have neglect issues with sites I've been estranged to. If a certain amount of time has elapsed I feel like I'm not wanted here anymore. Silly though, I'd probably just end up doing the same thing to the next blog. So I'm going to write off my absence and try to start fresh here. My problem is my attention span. I take in too many interests. For several months I wasn't as interested in watching movies, I mostly spent my time painting, making jewelry, collaging and writing in my hand journal. I finished a big commission piece a few weeks ago and have felt at a loss for inspiration to start a new painting. Maybe not "inspiration" but "motivation". My jewelry making hobby is still there but it's not exactly consuming. Slowly over the course of the past few months I've been watching more and more movies again. Not as artistically fulfilling but movies are such a huge part of who I am that it's fulfilling in another way. Thinking about them, obsessing over them, writing about them, researching them has always been a large factor in my life. It's sort of comforting to come back to it. Not to say I didn't still watch movies when I was painting and making jewelry non-stop, but I watched them in small doses. Like a normal person, ha! Not 2-5 a day, which is a luxury of my "line of business" (selling them).

Anyway, I've been feeling major itch to start reviewing again. I was looking at my old myspace review page where literally years upon years of reviews are stock piled. It made me nostalgic, I don't have much to look back on in that way from this past year, except for the little bit here on this blog. So it doesn't really make sense to start a different one just because I have cultural A.D.D. it's happened before and it will probably happen again but for now this blog has been reinstated so I'll press on with whatever I can come up with. I've even been considering doing Endless Fall again.

So stay tuned for reviews, unicorn magic, ghost cats, bubbling cauldrons, flying turtles and fun with wizards.