First Clue: July's Mystery Movie

Clue #1: This month's theme is Aquatic Horror!

 >>>THIS MONTH'S SHOW WILL BE ON A THURSDAY AT A NEW LOCATION & WILL SCREEN ON A THURSDAY!! Read on to find out more!<<<<

>>>>THE TRYLON IS IN THE MIDST OF A REMODEL SO OUR SHOW IS TEMPORARILY ON THE ROAD!!! Come check us out this month at the community room in the Carleton Artist Lofts! The space is nothing special, until we deck it the f-out!! We're going all out this month, you seriously do not want to miss this air-conditioned beach bash!<<<<

Tape Freaks Presents: July's Mystery Movie at the Carleton Artist Lofts community room, Thursday, July 6th @ 7:00pm. Suggested donation $5

Aquatic Horror: Piranha (1978)

This Joe Dante directed freshwater classic is a fantastic jab at Jaws but also sets up one of our favorite that's-way-too-long-after-the-last-instalment-to-make-another-instalment sequels!

The plot unfolds something like this: An insurance adjuster has been sent to find the bodies of two missing teenagers in a remote summer resort town. While searching an abandon research facility, she accidentally releases genetically engineered fresh-water piranha into the town's river. Who would be genetically piranha you ask? The military of course! And they're hell bent on getting their fish back, innocent locals be damned...

Low key jabs at the military: Though the military cooperated with the production of Piranha, they were doing so under the assumption that the military portrayed in the film would end up the heroes. That might be because Dante gave them a fake script that portrayed that exact scenario, but the actual version of the film basically makes the military the bad guys. And it's not just because they created the piranha in the first place, but also their reckless attempts to get the fish back into their position and their lying to the public about the eradication of the piranha.

Great appearances by: Barbara Steele as the military scientist, Dick Miller as the local resort owner, and Paul Bartel shows up to be berated by Miller's character while he directs a commercial for his resort.

Jaws rip-off: Dante didn't try to hide from the audience that they were parodying Jaws, they even have on of the main characters playing a Jaws stand-up video game under the directer credit in the opening scene!

July's Mystery Movie!

It's no secret that the Trylon microcinema is expanding into a slightly larger microcinema this summer, and that means we're taking our show on the road for our July and August screenings! (We did run into a small snag with our first screening, but our solution to that problem is that our July's movie will screen on the first Thursday.)

With the (temporary) location change, we've got a whole slew of extra nonsense planned, including a theme that extends from our blog into the real world! Keep an eye on the blog and Facebook page for more information, and mark your calendars for Thursday the 6th!


Tape Freaks Presents: July's Mystery Movie, Thursday, July 6th @7pm in the Carleton Artist Lofts community room, suggested donation $5

Roger Corman: Forbidden World

Tape Freaks has another guest writer! Thank you to Izzi Xiques for a great piece on Forbidden World:

Forbidden World (aka Mutant) is a sci-fi horror flick. But don’t let the poster fool you, this film is NOT about giant bugs.

The plot goes a little like this: An intergalactic troubleshooter is called to duty to a remote planet called Xarbia where a group of scientists are running genetic experiments to produce an endless food supply. In stead though, they accidentally create an unrestrainable murderous mutant. As the mutant grows, the scientist begin endlessly expositioning, fornicating, and dying!


Sort of like Prometheus?: The theatrical release is presented as a deadly serious drama, but the tone doesn't really make a lot of sense. Apparently, around 6 minutes of humor in the directors edit were cut by Corman because he didn’t appreciate audience members laughing during the first test screening. He actually slapped the back of an audience member's head during the screening because he was so upset! The director, to this day, is disappointed the humor was cut because he feels it's a much weaker as a drama.

Totally not stormtroopers: Even though the futuristic robots look more like off-brand stormtroopers, Forbidden World has some serious production value going for it. Though, that's mostly because almost every set piece and costume was recycled from other films with higher budgets, credit needs to go to the FX team because there's some seriously gnarly imagery throughout the film, including dozens of actually dead and disemboweled animals. (But don’t fret! No animals were harmed for the making of this film, they were all animals that had been euthanized for unrelated reasons at local veterinary clinics.) The FX team also put themselves at risk (though unwittingly) while filming a scene where insanely cool pink goo spews out of the mutant. In reality this was a substance that produces EXTREMELY toxic fumes and burns skin on contact! The FX team did put up a bunch of trash bags between the mutant and the film crew so they weren't totally reckless...

But the score though: The true standout in this film is the score, composed by Susan Justin. After watching the movie I had to listen to the score a few times through. It's truly a moody and epic ode to 80’s space horror!

Third Clue: June's Mystery Movie

Clue #3: The director of this month's film chose directing this film over editing a film for a well known director. (That film would go on to become the biggest film of that year, though the director of this month's film has no regrets!)

>>>HEADS UP!! This is our last screening at the Trylon before they start their remodel, so come have fun with us at the Trylon one last time in it's tiny state! Soon that little 50 seat theater will be all grown up... 100 seats, here we come!<<<

Tape Freaks Presents: June's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, June 7th @ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

Roger Corman: MST3K

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 series reboot has features a pleasant amount of Corman productions, we'd be ashamed of ourselves if we didn't give them a nod for this theme!

Starcrash (released by New World Pictures, Roger Corman's production company): We've talked about the spectacle of this film before, and we were excited to see the riffing of it, but it's sadly one of the weaker of reboot episodes. The jokes aren't bad or anything, Starcrash just doesn't need a running commentary to be enjoyable. But if this film seems like it's too weird for you to sit through in it's entirety (or your friends aren't the sort to watch a movie of this caliber with you) this might be a pretty good option for you to experience all that is Starcrash!

Avalanche (produced by Corman and released by New World Pictures): Now, if I told you we were going to watch a movie called Avalanche you'd expect the movie would feature an avalanche and most of the movie would be about the drama during/after the avalanche right? Same. But that's what sets Avalanche apart from other disaster movies! They spend SO much of the movie building up to the titular avalanche that the actual event seems like an after thought. This is a movie that lends itself excellently to the MST3K formula, on it's own it would be a pretty big letdown.

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom (produced by Corman and released by Concorde Pictures (another Corman production company)): A humdrum kid's story featuring a boozed up hero, a boy magician and his strange furry companion team up to save their kingdom from an evil sorcerer. It's not my cup of tea on it's own, but that usually makes for the best MST3K episodes and this one is no different! They're pretty merciless in their riffing, and it's all well deserved.

Wizards of the Lost Kingdom II (produced by Corman and released by Concorde Pictures): A has-been wizard and his hapless apprentice are the only ones who can stop a power hungry band of villains from taking over a trio of kingdoms. This one features Sid Haig and Robert Jayne with the asinineness ramped up appropriately from the first installment. This might be the more enjoyable of the two though because the film is extremely dated, but also takes place in medieval times, and it's a pretty amazing balance to behold.

Second Clue: June's Mystery Movie

Clue #2: The effective and enjoyable music for this month's film was composed by the director's very inexperienced brother.

>>>HEADS UP!! This is our last screening at the Trylon before they start their remodel, so come have fun with us at the Trylon one last time in it's tiny state! Soon that little 50 seat theater will be all grown up... 100 seats, here we come!<<<

Tape Freaks Presents: June's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, June 7th @ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****

First Clue: June's Mystery Movie

Clue #1: The theme for June's screening is Roger Corman films!

>>>HEADS UP!! This is our last screening at the Trylon before they start their remodel, so come have fun with us at the Trylon one last time in it's tiny state! Soon that little 50 seat theater will be all grown up... 100 seats, here we come!<<<

Tape Freaks Presents: June's Mystery Movie at the Trylon microcinema, Wednesday, June 7th @ 7:00pm, only $5!

****Purchase advance ticket here****