Wild Eye Releasing, one of the leading U.S. distributors of genre works since 2008, will launch the sister sub-label Visual Vengeance in July. A collector’s Blu-ray label dedicated to vintage, often overlooked micro-budget genre independents from the 1980s through to the 2000s, Visual Vengeance reinforces Wild Eye’s commitment to curating works from deep within the world of horror.
The upcoming slate of releases will span underground genre history, including films shot on SOV, Super 8, 16mm and 35mm lensed movies. However, the primary source of titles for Visual Vengeance will be the shot-on-video movies of the VHS and early DVD era, when filmmaking technology became digital and independent film output flourished.
The first two titles under the Visual Vengeance label indicate just how far the Wild Eye team are willing to go in the name of cult cinema curation. The first title is Shinichi Fukazawa’s 1995 Super-8 splatterfest, Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (pictured, above), a legendary cult item often referred to as ‘The Japanese Evil Dead’. It tells the story of a muscleman who, while trapped in a possessed house, must survive a blood soaked night of insanity to save himself and his friends from a vengeful demonic ghost.
Also in the July release is Matt Jaissle’s The Necro Files (pictured, right), the notorious 1997 underground epic that became known as ‘America’s Video Nasty’ upon release. The corpse of a cannibal rapist rises from the grave as a flesh-eating zombie, and it will take two Seattle cops, a satanic cult and a flying demon baby to stop the lust-crazed ghoul before he can kill again.
Both titles are Blu-ray premieres; it will be the first official North American release for Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell, a title that was a hot bootleg title in the late ‘90s. Both releases will include participation on new bonus features with the original creators and stars of the movies, and be released in deluxe collector’s editions with limited edition ‘Slipcase packaging’ – as well as being loaded with special features.
While future releases remain a closely-guarded secret, the label has confirmed that restored works from enduring fan-favourite directors such as Todd Sheets, Bret McCormick, Mark Polonia, Brad Sykes, Kevin Lindenmuth and Donald Farmer are scheduled, with many of the featured movies feared ‘lost’ or out-of-print for decades.
No Australian distributor or release date has been confirmed for the Visual Vengeance catalogue.
The legendary Lloyd Kaufman, the oldest ‘enfant terrible’ in showbusiness, is back, this time with an adaptation of The Bard’s The Tempest that American society didn’t know it needed. The lovable showman, still head of the underground cult giant Troma Studios after nearly 50 years, directs himself in #ShakespeareShitstorm, a brutal, brazen takedown of cancel culture, the opioid crisis, SJW influence and Big Pharma.This nakedly ambitious, garishly grotesque freakshow has found some serious festival love worldwide, and comes to Australia on October 31 as part of the 2020 Monster Fest line-up.
From his home in New York, Kaufman spoke with SCREEN-SPACE (“I'm happy if anybody pays attention to Uncle Lloyd,” he bemoans, half-seriously) about his ongoing battle to defy the mainstream, even as the U.S. slides closer to a Troma-like reality...
SCREEN-SPACE: Why The Tempest? What link was there between Shakespeare's work and the satire you were aiming for with #ShakespeareShitstorm?
KAUFMAN: The Tempest has always been my favourite Shakespearian play. Prospero deals with magic [and] I create magic with the movies. Prospero has been banished, as I have to the deep, deep underground by the mainstream. So, I love The Tempest. I went to see it with my mommy when I was nine years old. She took me to Stratford on Avon in Connecticut and I loved it. We studied it in eighth grade at Trinity School. Saw it numerous times on stage and a lot of the movie iterations. I very much liked Derek Jarman's version, as well as the television version with Lee Remick, Roddy McDowall, Richard Burton as Caliban. It's got a monster in it and Troma's big on monsters. It's got fairies. It's very druggy. I learned about drugs at Yale. That's about all I learned. Well, I learned about Marvel Comics at Yale, too, which is why I was friends with Stan Lee for 50 years. (Pictured, above; Kaufman, left, as Prospero)
SCREEN-SPACE: You work with your Troma troop again; Doug Sakmann, Monique Dupree and Debbie Rochon all return. Are you at that stage now where they know what you're thinking, what you want as the director? What’s a Troma set like?
KAUFMAN: Well, we attract fans. Everybody who worked on #ShakespeareShitstorm was a fan. The director of photography came from California to New York and got paid about 10% of what he would usually receive. The first cameraman came in from Denmark, the production designer from Japan. People came from all over the world to do something that they believed in and to disturb the shit a little bit. My wife was one of the producers. My assistant Justin Martell convinced us to go to Albania, becoming the first American feature film to shoot in Albania. So it really was a labor of love. It was probably the most wonderful group we've ever had. People got married; people [fell in] love with each other. There's a whole family of these people now all over the world, and that's been true of the last 20 years.
SCREEN-SPACE: Do you keep things tight when shooting? You don’t strike me as 12-take kinda director.
KAUFMAN: We took a long time rehearsing and preparing the movie. By the time we came to the set, we were pretty well prepared. We accept improvisational ideas, such as the Chinese warlord woman singing the Sergeant Kabukiman theme song with the actor who played the Evil One in Sergeant Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. And there were a couple of young guys who are obsessed with Citizen Toxie, who put on diapers and played the nightclub scene naked except for the diapers, to pay homage the Diaper Mafia in Citizen Toxie. (Pictured, right; Kaufman with his biggest star, The Toxic Avenger)
SCREEN-SPACE: It’s great seeing you back in the director’s chair, it must be said…
KAUFMAN: The late John G. Avildsen was my mentor. I learned so much from him, like trying to shoot in sequence. As you go along, if an actor becomes nasty, you get rid of him or her or it. Or you can rewrite, and blah-blah-blah. And since we can't afford to shoot with a union, we can shoot in sequence for the most part. He also suggested that it was much more satisfying to shoot with young new actors rather than famous stars. We made Cry Uncle together, which you can see on Troma Now. He turned what should be X-rated softcore into a hilarious movie. It was Paul Sorvino's first movie. With Joe, he discovered Peter Boyle and Susan Sarandon, and then Stallone in Rocky and Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid. Every movie he did was wonderful. He never relied on big stars. #ShakespeareShitstorm is dedicated to the memory of John G. Avildsen, and Stan Lee and Monty Python’s Terry Jones, who were major, major influences on me.
SCREEN-SPACE: How do you define Troma's place in the pop culture landscape, and what responsibility does that bring with it?
KAUFMAN: Well, the first step is to thine own self be true. I bought into the auteur theory, which was founded back in the late '50s and '60s by the French journalists Jean-Luc Godard and Claude Chabrol and a couple of others, who were transitioning into filmmakers. They propounded the auteur theory, which basically suggests that films should reflect the mind, soul, and heart of the director in the way a book reflects the mind, soul and heart of the writer. I bought into that because I speak fluent French and at the Yale Film Society, they had a stack of these Cahiers du Cinéma, which was the magazine of the Cinémathèque Française, and I started reading that stuff.
SCREEN-SPACE: Troma's has been around now since, what, the Carter administration, the Ford administration? Is American society as rich a source of satirical targets as it's ever been?
KAUFMAN: Since 1974. It's a rich source of satire, but unfortunately, other than South Park, we have free speech here as long as we don't say anything. I think to create real satire, you have to step over some lines. Look who's running for president, both of them; old lying millionaires who have used public service to enrich themselves. I think some of my fans are pissed off at me because I didn't want to #SettleForBiden. In New York State, where I vote, he will get 90% of the vote. So I just couldn't bring myself to vote for him even though he's better than Trump. I voted for the Green Party because I just couldn't bring myself to vote for the better of the two lying sleazebags. (Pictured, above; Kaufman, left with #ShakespeareShitstorm co-star, Debbie Rochon)
#SHAKESPEARESHITSTORM screens Saturday October 31 at 7.00pm at Event Cinemas sites in George St Sydney, Innaloo Perth, Myer Centre Brisbane and Marion Adelaide. Full ticket and sessions can be found at the official Monster Fest 2020 website.
Even with a filmography that includes gorehound favourites like Blood Moon Rising (2009), Slaughter Creek (2011) and .357 (2013), Brian Skiba must have been in the most adventurous of creative moods when he decided to sign on for Rottentail, the blood-soaked and bawdy big-screen adaptation of author and friend David Hayes underground graphic novel classic. “The concept of a bunny man going home to seek revenge on high school bullies is just so out there, I knew that I wanted to be the guy to helm such a project,” Skiba says, securing a cast that includes Dominique Swain, William McNamara and an up-for-anything Corin Nemec in the title role (pictured, below; Skiba, left, and his leading man). “It’s okay to laugh, I promise,” the director told SCREEN-SPACE in a lengthy interview ahead of Rottentail's assault on select U.S. theatres from April 12.
SCREEN-SPACE: When did you first attach yourself to the adaptation? What was it about the creative minds behind the novel that you gravitated towards?
SKIBA: The writer David Hayes, who is a long-time friend, introduced me to Travis McIntire of Source Point Press and together the three of us developed of the film. I’d read the graphic novel and thought it was very funny with roots that dug into something much deeper. Rottentail is the typical David Hayes screwball humour with a twist of demented horror and a splash of social commentary. David was a huge contributor on my first feature, Blood Moon Rising. I can attribute a lot of my success directly to him and will always be grateful for his help and direction in my career.
SCREEN-SPACE: You mash-up some classic sub-genres - body-horror in the first act; the vengeful anti-hero in the second half. And there are classic ‘romantic literature’ archetypes at work, recalling Beauty and The Beast or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Rottentail has legitimate roots in the great monsters of lore…
SKIBA: (Laughs) Thank you and yes, David and I are both English majors who love to mash genres. When we wrote the adaptation we were very focused on making Rottentail an anti-hero-monster who harkens back to the classic monsters mentioned above. We wanted the audience to cheer for Rottentail. With regards to him being “The Beast”, I think that’s a great example of how we wrote the relationship between Rottentail and Anna. Spoiler alert… I love tragic endings.
SCREEN-SPACE: Rottentail recalls the unleashed id of iconic characters like The Toxic Avenger and Brundlefly. What were the films and filmmakers that influenced you and your directing style?
SKIBA: I was that kid who would stay up all night watching every ‘B’ movie deemed “bad” by my parents that hit the antenna of my tiny 8” dial colour TV. Kids these days have it so easy; if they knew the positions I would lay in while holding that antenna, just so I could get reception. (Laughs) And then rental stores became a thing and that was a whole new addiction. Films like Bloody Mama, Children of the Corn, Rolling Thunder, Ice Pirates, Cold Sweat, Enter the Dragon, and Swamp Thing; directors like Sam Raimi, De Palma, Craven, Carpenter, Bruce Lee and the comedy of Mel Brooks, Monty Python, and Cheech and Chong. I remember the first time I watched John Waters’ Pink Flamingo and I was like, ‘Holy shit, that is a work of art.’ I love really big characters that have deranged motives for almost no reason, so Rottentail made sense to me.
SCREEN-SPACE: The aesthetic screams ‘80s VHS horror. There is an authentic ‘griminess’ about the design and look of this film…
SKIBA: I chose a hybrid of old VHS and that ‘dirty film’ look, to homage those old VHS tapes. There is something to be said about some 16mm grain, dirty pixels, a six-foot bunny-man, an evil preacher, and fifty gallons of blood. To me, that’s a film. Furthermore, you can’t just get the ‘grindhouse look’ out of a camera these days, you have to artistically create it, or re-create, and to me that process has become an art that I enjoy. Rottentail is a grindhouse homage to the films I loved to watch as a pre-teen during the ‘80s. (Pictured, right; Skiba with friend)
SCREEN-SPACE: Given that he’s also an ugly manifestation of angry masculinity, what elements make Rottentail a character for these times?
SKIBA: You have to look at the entire Rottentail story to understand why we designed his look like we did. In our current day of instant gratification, we’ve also entered the age of instant demoralization. It’s so easy to feel like a complete piece of shit after spending five minutes on social media. There is always someone richer, stronger, faster, sexier, better than you. Bullies can create a fake identity, go to someone’s profile, and virtually beat him or her up with little or no consequence. ‘Peter Cotten’ is the embodiment of a geek who has been abused all his life. As Rottentail, Peter gets everything he’s ever wanted, and then realizes that all he ever needed was revenge on the bullies who killed his pet rabbit and to get with his high school crush, Anna. The message that makes Rottentail a character for these times is: Attention bullies of the world! If you kill someone’s pet rabbit (or post shitty stuff on Instagram or Facebook) watch out! You never know what mutated son of a bitch will pop out and pay what’s due.
SCREEN-SPACE: What was the pitch to Corin Nemec that got him on board? What did he bring to ‘Rottentail’ that was so crucial to the character?
SKIBA: When we started casting Rottentail I went through a couple hundred actors but didn’t feel any of them were the right fit. I asked (casting director) Ricki Masler to call Corin Nemec, who is a great character actor and just maybe would do this part for me. A few hours later I was on the phone with Corin, who is a prolific painter and collects graphic novels. He read Rottentail long before our conversation and when I mentioned the title, and the fact he would play Rottentail, Corin was in. He studied the movements of rabbits, how they ate, even how they copulated. We had his fake teeth made months before we shot the film and he would call me with different voices while wearing the teeth around his house. When he walked onto set after two-hours in the make-up chair, I knew he was Rottentail. He embodied the role and gave us little gems that still make me laugh, even after seeing the film a couple hundred times. (Pictured, above; Nemec as 'Peter Cotten')
SCREEN-SPACE: What essential quality did real-world/non-CGI gore and prosthetic artistry bring to your film?
SKIBA: If I can do it practically, I will. I would study book after book as a kid on how to build creatures and models for film. The process fascinated me. When you apply prosthetics to an actor there is a soul under all that foam and latex that gives the character life. This is something that CGI can’t emulate. When David and Travis came to me and asked that I direct the film, I told them my one term was that Rottentail had to look amazing no matter the cost. I reached out to producer Josh Tessier and he called Todd Tucker, known for Mrs. Doubtfire and Pirates of the Caribbean. Todd doesn’t do every film that drops on his front door step, but after I pitched him my vision for Rottentail, he was in. His company provided our makeup effects, puppetry and special effects. I was very lucky to have such a great artist working with us.
SCREEN-SPACE: The thrill of seeing a man-rabbit on a killing spree aside, what do you hope your audience takes from the film?
SKIBA: I want them to laugh! This film has dumb moments, cheap moments, trashy moments, and just plain outrageously wrong moments. Laugh at it! Take ninety minutes of your life, let go of being politically correct, let the air out of the stuffy room! Forget the day to day grind that makes you an adult and re-live a simpler time, when we were all young and movies came in a little black box with reel-to-reel magnetic tape that sometimes made more noise than the single TV speaker. Because, even without the high-end, million-dollar visual effects, those movies were pretty damn good and really fun to watch.
“It’s like an Aussie Ghostbusters on acid,” boasted director Kiah Roache-Turner to his Facebook followers after the recent release of four images from his highly-anticipated film, Nekromancer. Co-written with brother Tristan, the sophomore effort is their follow-up to the low-budget/high-energy zombie splatter epic Wyrmwood: Road of The Dead (2014), which earned critical kudos and a global cult following.
During it’s late 2017 pre-production period, the brother’s sci-fi/horror/comedy mash-up had the international horror community buzzing when it was announced Italian actress Monica Bellucci (L’appartement, 1996; Malèna, 2000; Irréversible, 2002; The Passion of the Christ, 2004) would headline the Australian production, opposite local talent Ben O’Toole (Hacksaw Ridge, 2016) and Tess Haubrich (Alien: Covenant, 2017). (Pictured, below; Bellucci, as 'Finnegan', in conflict with 'Luther', played by David Wenham)
Although the shoot and plot details have been kept under wraps, a synopsis accompanies Screen NSW’s funding approval page: “Howard North, electronics genius, is dragged into a conflict between The Tribe - a family of powerful demon hunters, and Asgaroth - an evil demon possessing the world’s internet, assisted by his devil-worshipping corporate acolytes. Molly, a Tribeswoman and warrior, is desperate to destroy the demon and is sure that Howard has the right stuff to become a true hero. They must learn to work together to exorcise the fiend from the web and blow him back to Hell.” (Pictured, below; co-stars, l-r, Bob Savea as 'Rangi', and Ben O'Toole as 'Howard')
The production shot at Sydney’s largest soundstage facility, Fox Studios, located in the inner city suburb of Moore Park, as well as at various locations around the Harbour city. The local sector was rife with genre film production at the time of Nekromancer’s principal photography; director Abe Forsythe’s zom-rom-com Little Monsters, which imported international names Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther, 2018) and Josh Gad (Beauty and The Beast, 2017) to star opposite local talent, was also shooting at several Sydney locales. (Pictured, below; hero 'Howard' with, l-r, nekromancers 'Torquel', played by Tess Haubrich, and 'Molly', played by Caroline Ford)
DOP duties fell to the brother’s Wyrmwood lensman, Tim Nagle. Other key production duties were filled by top tier talent from the local sector, including line producer Sam Thompson; production designer Nicholas Dare (Down Under, 2016); composer Michael Lira (The Hunter, 2011); costume designer Xanthe Huebel (The Loved Ones, 2009; Ruben Guthrie, 2015); veteran casting director Nicki Barrett (Somersault, 2004; Australia, 2008; Mad Max Fury Road, 2015); concept artist Dane Hallett (Jupiter Ascending, 2015; Aquaman, 2018); and, 2nd unit director James Chappell (director of the acclaimed short, Proceeds of Crime, 2017).
The nation’s slickest and sickest celebration of visceral cinema kicks off on November 23, when the 7th annual Monster Fest launches its 4-day 2017 line-up at Melbourne's iconic Lido Cinema. Feature film programmers Grant Hardie and Neil Foley know that the loyal patrons who have helped establish the festival’s reputation as Australia’s premiere genre film event expect to be challenged; this year, offerings include a killer pig, a demonic unicorn, a haunted 80’s arcade game and a newborn harbinger of the Apocalypse.
The Opening Night audience can expect to be rattled by Chris Sun’s Boar (pictured, below), a blood-soaked reworking of the ‘killer feral pig’ myth made famous by Russell Mulcahy’s 1984 cult hit, Razorback. Starring a who’s-who of Aussie genre greats (John Jarratt, Chris Haywood, Steve Bisley, Roger Ward, Ernie Dingo) alongside US horror icon Bill Moseley (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2; House of 1000 Corpses), the Queensland-based director’s fourth feature so impressed Universal Pictures local office that they picked up the project for an Australian theatrical season. Sun, producers Kris Maric and Christine Hulsby and key cast will front a post-screening Q&A.
True to its commitment to nurture Australian talent, Monster Fest 2017 will feature the World Premiere screening of five local films. Leigh Ormsby’s The Last Hope depicts a civilisation ravaged by a virus outbreak that mutates carriers into cannibalistic monsters; Tarnation, the latest tongue-in-cheek splatterfest from Murderdrome director Daniel Armstrong; Lost Gully Road, a moody haunted house story from Donna Mcrae; Travis Bain’s home invasion thriller, Landfall; and, from the directorial duo of Addison Heath and Jasmine Jakupi, the revenge-themed carnage of The Viper’s Hex.
Drawing from the organiser’s global festival and marketplace profile, six international productions will have their Australian premieres at The Lido. They are Can Evrenol’s brutal apocalyptic thriller Housewife, the Turkish filmmaker’s highly anticipated second feature after his 2015 shocker, Baskin; the German/Austrian co-production Cold Hell, from Stefan Ruzowitzky; Lowell Dean’s absurdist horror-comedy sequel, Another Wolfcop; Canadian Adam McDonald’s woodlands-set black magic thriller, Pyewacket; and, Purgatory Road, a rare foray into the international indie sector for local underground filmmaking hero, Mark Savage. Other countries represented at the event include Estonia (Rainer Sarnet’s November); Spain (Haritz Zubillaga’s The Glass Coffin); and, The USA (Graham Skipper’s Sequence Break).
Closing Night honours go to French director Coralie Fargeat’s brutal rape-retribution drama Revenge (pictured, top), a remarkable debut work that Variety called, “an exceptionally potent and sure-handed first feature… primed to rouse the self-selected few with the stomachs to handle it.” Last year, Monster Fest launched into the Australian marketplace the last great French horror film from a woman director, Julia Ducornau’s Raw. The teen-cannibal hit took the 2016 festival’s top competitive honour before endearing itself to a huge local fan base.
Shaping as arguably the highlight of Monster Fest 2017 will be the screening of King Cohen, director Steve Mitchell’s heartfelt tribute to guerrilla filmmaking great Larry Cohen (pictured, above right). Following the 11.00pm session, five of the legendary auteur’s works will screen in a midnight-to-dawn marathon. Monster Fest is keeping the titles in the all-night session a closely guarded secret, but fans are crossing fingers that ‘Cohen classics’ such as Black Caesar, Q The Winged Serpent and the rarely-seen God Told Me To feature in this exclusive festival event.
MONSTER FEST runs November 23-27 in Melbourne, with other states to follow. Full ticket and session details can be found at the event website.
Sunday, April 17, 2022 at 4:16PM 
The first two titles under the Visual Vengeance label indicate just how far the Wild Eye team are willing to go in the name of cult cinema curation. The first title is Shinichi Fukazawa’s 1995 Super-8 splatterfest, Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell (pictured, above), a legendary cult item often referred to as ‘The Japanese Evil Dead’. It tells the story of a muscleman who, while trapped in a possessed house, must survive a blood soaked night of insanity to save himself and his friends from a vengeful demonic ghost. 
