On Friday, December 14th, we're having our very first Tape Freaks Holiday sale!
We'll have almost four years of Tape Freaks screen printed t-shirts and posters for sale, but we'll also have: test prints (tees and posters), a considerable amount of VHS tapes, button packs from past screenings, and a variety of other geeky items! Come shop for that perfect movie-nerd gift for someone you love, or just treat yourself.
Around 9pm we'll collectively decided on a movie to watch, could end up being something great, could end up being something painful... either way it should be fun!
There will be snacks and beverages on hand, loads of geeky like minded people will be hanging around, and fun will be had by all 💖
Parking: Park in the Carlton lot until 7pm (and be towed if you leave your car there past that exact hour, no joke) or park on the side streets on either side of University Ave.
Light rail: We're right off the Raymond stop on the Green Line (runs every 10 mins until midnight, and less frequently after that).
Payments accepted: Cash or Card.
"What if I want a Tim Monster?": We can arrange that! Message us through Facebook or email Timmonsters@gmail.com
"Should I bring anything?": If you want to bring snacks/beverages to share, feel free! If you want to a bring comfy (portable) movie watching chair/beanbag/blanket you are welcome to, but (not comfy) chairs will also be available.
Clue #2: One of the plots in this month's movie is clearly an attempt to cash in on anther film, and it must have been somewhat successful because there were a few sequels based on the same element.
Godfrey Ho has a LOT of ninja movies. None of them make much sense, and most of them re-use the same footage over and over, but man are some of these goodies! I can't remember which ones are good and which ones are painful, so if you want to know which are which, you'll just have to play the same games of movie roulette we did!
This British anthology predates the American TV show considerably, but they do share a few similarities.
The story flow: This anthology does utilize a through-line story, the featured character in each segment have all found themselves on a tour of a crypt. None of them seem to remember how they got there, but they're all in a hurry to leave...
The segments: Each segment features a character dying after they've morally compromised themselves, and there are some cheeky twists throughout. But all the characters are in the connecting segment together, so there's clunky exposition at the beginning and end of each story.
The stars: This anthology features two British powerhouse actors, Peter Cushing (in full zombie makeup no less), and the incomparable Joan Collins.
The Crypt Keeper: (Mild spoilers.) This film, like the American TV series, features a crypt keeper. The British keeper is more reserved and dry than his American counter part (as you'd expect), but he's also a human rather than animatronic. Though, the British keeper does turn to camera at the end of the film, delivering his final line straight to the audience exactly like the giggly Keeper we all know and love.
But do we recommend it: It's a bit dry and dated, but it's not without charm.
Clue #2: The co-writer and producer of this month's movie started his career by writing and producing a different horror anthology staring Cameron Mitchell.
This is the only horror anthology I can think of that features the same actor in all it's segments. At least Karen Black wears a different glasses in each segment so we didn't get confused! (JK, she's very amazing all the way through.)
The story flow: There's no connecting story in this anthology, so there's no resetting after forced exposition between each segment, but having same actor playing different characters can take a moment to settle into each time.
The segments: The first two have some pretty solid misdirects, and a couple nice twists! The last segment is fairly predictable, but contains some pretty interesting elements none the less.
Karen Black x4: Even though there's only three segments in this anthology, Karen manages to play four different characters!
The rampant misogyny: There's about two different flavors of female characters in anthology: milquetoast and harlot. Black manages to breathe considerable differences into each of them, and there are a couple nice pay offs, but over all it's more cringy than not. (Spoiler misogyny: The final segment even features an overbearing mother who ends up being lured into a trap that will certainly end in her death.)
The rampant racism: There are two segments that use racist tropes, one featuring voodoo and the other magical Native American objects. The voodoo is slapped in like a weird afterthought, and the other relies almost entirely on made-up Native American lore.
But, do we recommend it: Yes, but with reservations. It's a solid series of shorts with interesting twists and performances, but the unnecessary dependence on either misogyny or racism (or both) detracts from this one significantly.
This might well be the best horror anthology out there it's spooky, well shot, utilizes great effects and lighting, features underrated actors pushing their most often cast parts to intense extremes, and takes place on Halloween!
The story flow: All the segments of this anthology interact with each other, and those interactions have impacts on the other stories. One character yells at another over the fence in one segment, and you see it from the other character's perspective in the next. And since there's no clunky connecting story, there's no having to reset after cheese-ball nonsense. Each story ramps up as the movie rolls on, just like a normal narrative movie, and the weak spots in each story are few. It's honestly refreshing.
The twists: As you'd expect, there are twists in each story, but many of them are new spins on old tropes. Some are more obvious than others, some lead you on to believe one thing only to take a left turn, and some even play on cultural themes that almost never get addressed in the horror genre.
The type casing: Dylan Baker and Brian Cox play variants of their typical rolls, but each is dialed to a new flavor of horrifying.
The best Halloween movie there is: Not only is this a great Halloween anthology, it's a great Halloween movie period. Even the Halloween franchises doesn't utilize the holiday as well as this film does. There's no better time of year to watch this gem than on Halloween night!
Dumped to home video: This movie was never given a chance to shine. It was finished, shelved, and unceremoniously released to home video. Unfortunately, the studio didn't license the music for theatrical release, and that's sadly why you'll never see it playing in revival theaters.
But do we recommend it: Yes, whole heartedly. This movie is one of our favorites. The cutest fan art: If you're not familiar with Tales from the Stitch, allow me to introduce you through my FAVORITE of her offerings: the Crochet Sam Doll. It might be the perfectly crunched-through sucker, it might be the adorable size, but whatever it is, this little monster marched straight into my heart the first moment I saw him!
Clue #2: The director of photography for this month's movie has worked for an interesting array of directors, including Wes Craven, Larry Cohen, Jim Wynorski, and Roger Corman. He's also lead some additional-camera units for multiple action movies including some Fast and Furious and Marvel installments.
We thought this was going to be a James Bond knock off, so we were pretty surprised when the main character was less 007 and a whole lot more Inspector Clouseau.
Normal everyday teenager with 5 o'clock shadow.
The plot unfolds something like this: Michael Corben is your average high school senior who has to take summer school in order to graduate. He only has to make up a french credit, but to get that credit, he must join the french honers students on their summer trip to France. Poor Michael Corben. Meanwhile, British intelligence super spy, Blade, is on a covert mission in France to thwart well-to-do politician Augustus Steranko's plans for world domination. Unfortunately for Blade, the moment he steps into Steranko's mansion, he's handily dispatched by Steranko's henchman. This leaves British intelligence with no choice but to have US intelligence send their deep, deep, deep-cover operative to France to complete the mission. That operative's codename? Michael Corben. With both Michael Corbens bound for France, wackiness is bound to ensue.
Lots of death for a comedy: There's two major deaths before this movie gets going, which is odd because the over all tone of the flick is basically slapstick comedy.
Is that Robert Daultry!?:It totally is–and he's dead. Huh.
The French Teacher.
Over the top villain: This film isn't big on subtlety, but the villain's plot might take the far-fetched cake. Augustus Steranko is a crooked politician whose plan for world domination hinges on minting his own currency. But he's not just going to print his new money on paper, nooooo. His currency is to be gold coins, so he's smelting gold in HIS OWN FRIGGIN' HOUSE. This is the same house where he has business meetings and hosts parties to keep up his regular politician appearances, where no one ever notices the DIY SMELTING OPERATION IN THE NEXT ROOM.
Over the top henchmen: Steranko's right hand, Ilsa Grunt (played by Linda Hunt), isn't any more subtle in her evilness. She has a thick German accent, a necklace that hides a deadly metal whip, and a henchman assistant who has a comically-insatiable thirst for murdering with his cybernetic arm.
Fashionable necklace, or deadly weapon?
Over the top action: One of the final fights happens on a vat of molten gold, another scene involves a helicopter rotor coming loose and taking out a GIGANTIC portion of the mansion's roof, and there's a final shoot out punctuated with numerous unmotivated explosions, culminating in a harrowing escape from the mansion rooftop while it's completely ablaze. Over the top acting: Everyone gives a hamfisted performance throughout this film, though that's not entirely without charm, it does start to wear thin.
Over the top humor: Once the movie gets going, there's hardly a scene that doesn't contain some attempt at humor. The longest running gag is that the french class keeps getting new tour bus drivers that are conspicuously seem less and less like bus drivers than they do mercenaries. The french teacher also directly communicates with Michael Corben's point agents multiple times, but they somehow can't understand that she's actually a french teacher and not an operative codenamed the French Teacher. There's also an abundance gags where British agents write off Corben's immaturity and ignorance as him being an American. Unexpected feminism: There are a few points in this film where male characters acknowledge the lady characters are capable and have value, most notably when it comes to the French Teacher. Early on in the film she's obtusely angry with (teenager) Michael Corben, lashing out at him every chance she gets. She's also generally brash or obnoxious to everyone in her path, while also being oblivious to much of what's happening around her. But when the shit hit's the fan, Corben doesn't hesitate to throw her a weapon with all the (unspoken) confidence in the world that she'll rise to the occasion. And she does rise to the occasion, utilizing her previously abrasive character traits and never needing anyone to (blatantly) save her from peril. (It's nice to see female characters with agency, but it'll be nicer when this is the standard instead of the exception.)
But did we like it?: We weren't 100% on board with this one at the start (probably because we were expecting something completely different), but it certainly won us over by the end.
This movie was brutal. There wasn't a single likable character, almost no plot, and it was two hours long. It wasn't totally without charm, but it almost was...
The plot unfolds something like this: The peaceful planet of Jillucia, has been conquered by the steel-skinned warriors of the Gavanas Empire, who've turned the planet into a military base. Kido (the elder of Jillucia) sends eight Liabe seeds [glowing walnuts] into the universe to find heroes worthy enough to liberate their planet. Kido's granddaughter (Princess Emerald) and the warrior Urocco are sent to round up all the seed recipients and assemble their rescue task force. This is the only hope to save Jillucia, so hopefully all the recipients are ready to embrace their destiny.
Don't let me over sell this: That plot rundown gives this movie more credit than it deserves. If this movie were as simple as that, it might have been more enjoyable, but every character has to have their own solo adventure, and that leads to more backstory, and that uncovers more mythos, and that leads them to different planets, and all of that leads to a highly unnecessary two hour runtime.
Walnuts, or Liabe seeds?
The plot that never gets going: Our first two heroes find their prophetic walnuts very early on, and they come across the third walnut recipient shortly after that. Those three team up with a fourth friend (who oddly isn't the fourth nut recipient) and together they're led to the fourth nut holder. The fourth friend does eventually become the fifth nut holder, but not before the first four recipients denounce their nut-destiny. Now, we're about twenty mins into this thing and before the plot can move forward, three of the eight nut holders must receive their nuts and four others must be replaced. The original four nut recipients do eventually receive replacement nuts (that also glow) and find the sixth nut holder after crash landing on a far-flung planet. Now were about 80 mins into this flick, and two more nut recipients must be discovered. They eventually discover the third nut holder's robot is also the seventh nut holder. The eighth nut holder turns out to be someone who's been with the group most of the movie, but wasn't deemed worthy of a glowing walnut until this point. Now that the eight heroes are FINALLY assembled, they can save Jillucia! But there's also 15 mins before the movie ends and so it's really hard to care anymore.
Not one likable character: Aside from a robot sidekick, everyone in this film is either completely obnoxious, oddly gruff, or outrageously childish. The worst offenders the three "teen" friends and their thirty-something companion who somehow embody all of those characteristics. The "teens" seem more like adults imitating toddlers than they do teenagers, they react to the slightest annoyances by screaming at each other or throwing temper tantrums. Their older friend isn't any better, he's about as sophisticated as a Benny Hill character but he also screams every single line he has before huffing out of the scene. And these are basically the hero protagonists! Entitled selfish brats who hate each other, but eventually (and apropos of nothing) decide to work together to save Jillucia, but will continue to be horrible monsters while they do it. If this movie wasn't a full two hours, that all might add to the ridiculousness of the movie, but two hours of this almost obliterates any fun in the rest of the film.
Visuals galore: From the clearly plastic ivy the Jillucia inhabitants adorn themselves with, to the fully impressive costumes the villains rock, someone's always wearing something to look at. The sets and matte paintings are pretty impressive as well, and the effects are enjoyably cheesy. But again, if this film was an hour shorter these elements would more than make up for the unbearable elements, but they're lost in the din of "teens" arguing.
The cast: I would love to know how the filmmakers signed on some of these actors. Many of them had established careers at this point (Vic Morrow, Shin'ichi Chiba, Etsuko Shiomi, to name a few) so their involvement doesn't make a ton of sense. And to add to my confusion, the directer and most of the main cast made The Shogun's Samurai the same year. That movie was apparently so good it was nominated for 5 different Awards of the Japanese Academy. It seems they were capable of producing quality work together, so why on Earth did any of them agree to do this?
Space suits of the future!
The Morphin Power Ranger connection: Shôtarô Ishinomori was one of the writers of this film, and he created Super Sentai Zyuranger, which was what became Power Rangers! He also wrote a bulk of the episodes for most of the (numerous) Power Rangers franchises before his death.
Other weird connections: Kinji Fukasaku co-wrote and directed this movie. He also directed Green Slime, Battle Royal, The Shogun's Samurai, and co-directed Tora! Tora! Tora!.
A spin off of a knock off: Apparently there's a TV series called Message from Space: Galactic Wars that's a spin off of this film. Though they reuse a lot of the costumes and FX from the movie, they up the Star-Wars-knock-off ante by adding a Wookie-like character. The only behind the scenes connections between the film and show are writer Shôtarô Ishinomori and actor Hiroyuki Sanada, but to make things even more complicated, Sanada plays a different character in each...
Don't let us undersell how aggravatingly drawn out it is: At the halfway point of this movie we were ready for it to be over. This is the kind of movie where every 10 mins or so you'll find yourself asking "did any of that matter", and it'll turn out that none of it did matter. But again, if this movie had been an hour long we might have loved it! Maybe someday someone will make a fan edit and post it on Youtube.
Clue #3: Although this month's movie uses an outdated term for sex workers, it also features sex workers portraying themselves. (It might not have been an intentionally a progressive move, but it does take most of the caricature out of their portrayals.)
Basket Case is a movie I forever thought I had seen, but it turns out there are two movies about men being followed around NYC by little murderous monsters from this time period. This one is more of a family hardships sort of murderous-monster movie, and it's got some twists you really don't see coming.
The plot unfolds something like this: Duane Bradley is a man with a secret, a secret that he carries in a wicker basket with a lock on it. He's made his way to a flophouse hotel in NYC where he hopes to blend into the scenery. (Sadly a young man lugging a gigantic wicker trunk everywhere he goes seems to be one of the few things that will turn the head of a New Yorker.) Bradley's on a mission: find the doctors responsible for separating him and his brother Belial, and make them pay the ultimate price for their sins...
The city: NYC is portrayed in full scum-tastic splendor. The flophouse where he rents a room is held together by grime and is run by the exact stereotype you're imagining. His hotel neighbors range from the shifty petty thief to the sex worker with a heart of gold. Bradley takes an iconic walk through Times Square, drinks in a seedy nightclub, takes in a film in a filthy porno theater, creeps through back alleys and up fire escapes, and throws in a dash of touristy sight seeing, just to round things out.
Beverly Bonner: This movie features Beverly Bonner, who appeared in all three of the Basket Case movies, sometimes as the same character and sometimes as someone else entirely.
The effects: Though the effects in this film are as low-budget as everything else, the filmmakers sort of lean into that rather than attempt to hide it making the cheapness of the effects come off as intentionally cheeky. That (on top of the voice actor's choices for Belial) brings the comedy up a level, but it's very hard to tell if it was done intentionally or not.
Unexpected darkness: There are a few moments that set this movie's tone on the dark end of comedy, but that darkness is well balanced considering how goofy the main character is (and that he carries around gigantic wicker basket with a lock on it for the first act of the film). But you could argue that this is one of the few horror-comedy-tragedy movies in the world, because it gets pretty bleak.
Under appreciated classic: This little bag of weirdness is full of fleshed out characters, unique story elements, classic trashy NYC, and some unexpectedly delightful performances from a myriad of background characters.
The segments: The first two have some pretty solid misdirects, and a couple nice twists! The last segment is fairly predictable, but contains some pretty interesting elements none the less. 
The plot unfolds something like this: Duane Bradley is a man with a secret, a secret that he carries in a wicker basket with a lock on it. He's made his way to a flophouse hotel in NYC where he hopes to blend into the scenery. (Sadly a young man lugging a gigantic wicker trunk everywhere he goes seems to be one of the few things that will turn the head of a New Yorker.) Bradley's on a mission: find the doctors responsible for separating him and his brother Belial, and make them pay the ultimate price for their sins...
