ATLRetro

The Plaza Theatre presents the Bela Lugosi Film Festival; Starts Friday, May 30 @ 8:00 p.m., final show Thursday, June 5 @ 8:45 p.m.; Plaza Theatre; Schedule here; Tickets $5.00 per screening, available at Plaza box office.

By Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

The Plaza Theatre is taking a week to honor the legacy of one of the greatest icons of horror to ever grace the silver screen, Bela Lugosi. And in doing so, they’re avoiding the obvious choices of programming; there’s no DRACULA, nor any of the films he appeared in for Edward D. Wood, Jr. Instead, we’re getting treated to a wide variety of his lesser-seen films, ranging from major studio productions (MGM’s MARK OF THE VAMPIRE—see our Retro Review here—and 20th Century Fox’s THE GORILLA) to his most accomplished independent film (the brilliant WHITE ZOMBIE, which we’ve covered here), and the rest of the roster is filled with a sampling of the work he did for what was then known as Hollywood’s “Poverty Row” studios.

Born in Lugos, Hungary (previously part of Transylvania, now part of Romania) in 1882, Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó had aspirations to stardom. He found success on the local stage in his late teens, which prompted him to move to Budapest and join the National Theatre of Hungary, where he played numerous roles both before and after World War I, where he served on the Russian front. After his return, his political activism as part of organizing an actors’ union resulted in his fleeing the country after the Hungarian Revolution failure in 1919 made life difficult for those perceived to be leftist agitators. He made his way to New Orleans on a merchant ship, adopted the surname “Lugosi” to honor his birthplace, and began working the stage in New York, forming a stock company with fellow Hungarian actors and performing for immigrant audiences. Soon, Broadway beckoned, and Lugosi was quick to answer her call. After a series of successful parts in comedies and melodramas, he was approached with the role that would change the course of his life.

In 1927, he was cast in the title role of the smash Broadway adaptation of DRACULA. It ran for 261 performances before touring the country during 1928-29. Despite the play’s phenomenal success, when Universal optioned it for a motion picture, Lugosi was not their initial choice. But Lugosi lobbied hard for the part, accepting a smaller salary—only $500 a week—in return for having his acclaimed stage performance immortalized on the screen.

However, because Lugosi was so effective in his role, he quickly became typecast as a horror “heavy,” playing villains at nearly every turn, no matter how often he tried to demonstrate his versatility. And even though he proved a box-office draw during his time at Universal, he frequently found himself second-billed to co-stars like Boris Karloff, or cast in smaller roles. Sometimes those roles were instantly memorable—such as that of Ygor in Universal’s series of FRANKENSTEIN sequels—but other times, he found himself playing butlers or other domestics, most often as a red herring in some convoluted mystery plot. But a 1936 regime change in Universal, combined with a ban on horror films in the UK, led to Lugosi’s fall from favor with the studio and his decision to turn to the smaller studios of Poverty Row to supplement his income.

“Poverty Row” was an umbrella term for the plethora of smaller, independent studios that popped up in Hollywood’s golden age to capitalize on the need for cheap films to fill out the “B” slots of double-feature bills (hence, “B-movies”). Because the pictures were made quickly, even though they didn’t pay well, a featured player could get consistent work. Cast into Hollywood’s forsaken jungle hell, Lugosi could prove that he was all right. And it’s in these films, where we’re neither seeing the Universal “superstar” Lugosi, nor the Ed Wood films where he’s been unfairly regarded as an on-the-skids camp figure, where we can get a picture of Lugosi the working actor. Just an honest guy plying his trade. And while some of the films are more ludicrous than others, they’re all chances to witness that no matter how low the budget or how silly the concept, Bela Lugosi gave them his all. Frequently relegated to public domain home video releases, these movies are rarely shown in theaters, as they’re not instantly recognizable titles like DRACULA. So it’s a rare treat to see them once again where they belong.

THE CORPSE VANISHES (1942, Monogram Pictures) is one of the more lurid low-budget exploitationers of the 1940s. Here, Lugosi plays Dr. Lorenz, a horticulturist and mad scientist, who needs glandular excretions from virgin women to restore the youth and beauty of his octogenarian wife. He uses poisoned orchids to place young brides—at their weddings, yet—in suspended animation, and drags them back to his laboratory. Reporter Patricia Hunter (Luana Walters) is hot on his trail, however, and is determined to uncover the mystery of the orchid killer. Lugosi shows a great deal of restraint in his portrayal, which contrasts with the over-the-top aspect of the scenario, while the film displays tight pacing and a real sense of suspense. As a result, THE CORPSE VANISHES is one of Lugosi’s best Poverty Row horrors.

Keeping in tone with the “Lugosi distributes pleasant-smelling objects that wind up killing people” theme of the previous night, THE DEVIL BAT (1940, Producers Releasing Corporation) finds cosmetic chemist Dr. Paul Carruthers passing out “test samples” of his new after-shave lotion to those who have wronged him. Unbeknownst to his victims, Carruthers has been breeding giant bats, trained to attack those who wear the scent of doom. Here, Lugosi is deliciously over-the-top in his performance, relishing every bit of evil he sows forth. As the film takes a much more comic tone than THE CORPSE VANISHES, Lugosi’s portrayal supports the movie’s aims, establishing a kind of proto-ABOMINABLE DR. PHIBES on the cheap. It was so successful, PRC made a sequel (without Lugosi), DEVIL BAT’S DAUGHTER.

INVISIBLE GHOST (1940, Monogram Pictures) finds Lugosi playing a Jekyll-and-Hyde role as Dr. Kessler, a normal family man who falls into a murderous trance-like state whenever he sees his wife, whom he believes to be dead, but is really just living in the gardener’s shed. The plot is absolutely ridiculous, but the film is salvaged by the inspired visual flair of celebrated B-movie auteur Joseph H. Lewis and Lugosi’s nuanced performance. The film is very nearly stolen, however, by Clarence Muse as Lugosi’s butler, Evans. While most roles for African-Americans in this era fell into broad caricature and stereotype, Muse remains intelligent, strong and dignified throughout.

In THE GORILLA (1939, 20th Century Fox), one of the rare non-Poverty Row productions on display here (yet one whose lapse into the public domain has placed it alongside them), Bela plays second fiddle to the Ritz Brothers, Fox’s answer to the Marx Brothers. Playing a butler, Lugosi is largely just there as sinister window dressing while the Ritz boys and Patsy Kelly (longtime star of stage and screen, she is, however, best known today as Laura-Louise in ROSEMARY’S BABY) clown around. It’s a spoof of the “old dark house” sub-genre, wherein the Ritzes are bumbling detectives protecting a wealthy attorney (Lionel Atwill) from a murderer known as “the Gorilla” while an actual escaped gorilla shows up at the estate. Everybody’s a suspect, and of course, all eyes are on Bela. It’s a shame he’s not given more to do, as Lugosi is in fine form, but the zany comedy keeps things moving along nicely.

We wrap things up by staying on the simian side of the street with one of Lugosi’s most insane, yet jaw-droppingly entertaining, motion pictures: BELA LUGOSI MEETS A BROOKLYN GORILLA (1952, Realart Pictures). What can I say about this movie? Where else can you see the musical comedy team of Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo carry out the most blatant rip-off of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ever committed to celluloid? (Paramount studio head Hal Wallis, who had Martin and Lewis under contract, tried to purchase the movie in order to have it destroyed. They just couldn’t settle on a price.) Where else can you see Bela Lugosi on a tropical island planning to turn a man into a monkey? Lugosi, as always, gives it his all against the wacky backdrop, despite the fact that he was in poor health and hadn’t worked since 1946. People like to say that Lugosi’s Ed Wood pictures were his nadir, but at least those were earnest pictures. They were sincerely done. With this movie, though…who the hell knows what was going on in the filmmakers’ minds other than “let’s cash in on Lugosi’s name by pairing him with low-rent Martin & Lewis imitators?” And even then, you have to wonder why they were thinking that in the first place. It’s not like some time-tested means of making a profit. It’s just so gob-smackingly weird that I find it completely enthralling. It’s got to be seen to be believed, and even then you might not believe it. And to see it on the big screen? You gotta be kidding me.
Ordering Phentermine from https://levgrossman.com/phentermine-online/ for few month already.

So, that’s it. It’s nearly a week’s worth of Lugosi the working man. Giving it his all in movies that, frankly, probably didn’t deserve him (aside from the amazing MARK OF THE VAMPIRE and WHITE ZOMBIE, of course). But in movies that are made all the more remarkable and entertaining by his presence. Movies that were enriched by his old world style and class. It’s a rare theatrical treat that should not be missed by anyone who considers themselves a fan of the man, a student of cinema history or a horror movie aficionado. Because while these movies have long been easy to overlook, they—and the history they represent—are a vital part of the legacy of Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó. May they live forever.

Aleck Bennett is a writer, blogger, pug warden, pop culture enthusiast, raconteur and bon vivant from the greater Atlanta area. Visit his blog at doctorsardonicus.wordpress.com

By Andrew Kemp
Contributing Writer

The Atlanta Film Festival is back in business. Starting Friday March 28, the Festival will host 10 days of screenings, premieres, special events, and filmmaking panels and, once again, ATLRetro is going to be there. We’ll be posting previews and reviews of retro-themed films throughout the festival, so be sure to check in with us often, or keep an eye on the ATLRetro Facebook page for all the updates.

For those looking to attend some screenings or simply intimidated by the depth of the schedule, allow us to offer a few highlights for the Retro-inclined.

20th CENTURY-THEMED FEATURES

Among the many feature films gracing festival screens this week is 45RPM, directed by Juli Jackson. The film follows a young artist’s quest for a rare 45RPM record released by her deceased musician father, and her search through Memphis with a vinyl enthusiast to find it. The film explores the connection between the present and the past, as the young woman hopes to find a link between her own art and her father’s music. 45RPM screens on Tuesday, April 1, at 7:15 at the Plaza Theatre.

Of course, the sad truth is that the past is not always as rosy as we remember it, which is certainly the case in 1982, directed by Tommy Oliver. Set in Philadelphia just as crack cocaine is engulfing the inner cities, the film concerns one man’s struggle to hold his family together despite his wife’s crippling addiction. The drama, which stars Hill Harper and comedian Wayne Brady, the film played to strong reviews at the Toronto Film Festival and screens Saturday, April 5, at 4:30 at the Plaza.

Hera, the protagonist of Ragnar Bragason’s METALHEAD, is born in Iceland in 1970 at the near-literal birth of heavy metal, just as Black Sabbath releases their legendary debut. Years later, the metal-obsessed young woman pursues her rock star ambitions while dealing with the pleas of a courting lover and the watch of the new village priest. METALHEAD screens Friday, April 4, at 9:30 at the Plaza.

1970s style drapes over the cast of DOM HEMINGWAY, a new British crime comedy from director Richard Shepard. Jude Law plays Dom, a safecracker freshly out of a long prison stay and on the move to reclaim money owed to him. The stylish film, which also stars WITHNAIL & I’s Richard E. Grant, evokes the cool and quirk of the best Guy Ritchie caper movies and screens on Monday, March 31, at 7:15 at the Plaza.

MUSIC ON THE SCREEN

The AFF never forgets the large audience of music lovers and music industry professionals in this town, and has made sure to provide plenty of programming for those interested in the history and culture of the art form. BAYOU MAHARAJAH: THE TRAGIC GENIUS OF JAMES BOOKER is one such film, chronicling the life of the man Dr. John once called “the best black, gay, one-eyed junkie piano genius New Orleans has ever produced.” Alternately known as the “Black Liberace,” Booker played rhythm and blues in Louisiana during the 1960s and 70s and this new documentary by director Lily Keber tracks his distinct sound and incredible career during what the festival calls “a time of paradigmatic change.” BAYOU MAHARAJAH screens on Thursday, April 3, at 9:15 at the Plaza.

Phil Cohran was another groundbreaking musician in a chaotic time. Cohran played jazz in the Chicago of the late 1950s and developed an incredible legacy, in more ways than one. Besides his involvement in the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and his invention of the instrument called the “space harp,” Cohran also gave the world eight talented sons who today have formed their own band, the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. BROTHERS HYPNOTIC, the new documentary from Reuben Atlas, explores the brothers and their band as they play for audiences and record executives, but also as they sort out their own complex legacy. The film screens Saturday, April 5, at 2:15 at 7 Stages. 

From R&B and jazz, we move to the roots of country music and the Carter family, country royalty who helped establish the genre and became some of its earliest celebrities. THE WINDING STREAM, directed by Beth Harrington, explores the family’s history from their first emergence in American roots music through June Carter and her husband Johnny Cash. This comprehensive music documentary screens on Saturday, April 5, at 4:30 at 7 Stages.

Moving from country to showtunes, THE ROAD TO FAME offers a look at the familiar Broadway casting process, but with an entirely new twist. Directed by Hao Wu, THE ROAD TO FAME depicts a production of the play FAME by China’s Central Academy of Drama, the top drama school in the country. The film was shot by Wu, a documentarian once imprisoned by the Chinese government for making a film about Christian Chinese house churches, and ultimately completed with funds acquired through Kickstarter. The finished product is a must-see for theatre lovers and screens on Sunday, April 6, a 12:00 PM at the Plaza.

RETRO DOCUMENTARIES

LIMO RIDE, directed by Gideon C. Kennedy and Marcus Rosentrater, may not seem like an obvious retro fit, but as an act of reliving our past glories, it’s a fascinating exercise in nostalgia. Everyone has that one favorite bar story, the one you whip out to break the ice and that always ends with some newcomer to the tale saying “that should be in a movie.” That’s not usually true, but this is the exception that gives credibility to the entire idea. The film is a reenacted documentary about a group of friends, a New Year’s night, and a limo ride that left them “kidnapped, stripped, stranded, and left for dead…fighting to survive.” And it’s a comedy. To see the rest of the story, LIMO RIDE premieres Sunday, March 30, at 6:30 at 7 Stages.

Going way, way retro brings us to director Rafael Garcia and his new documentary MAYAN BLUE, which depicts the discovery of the ancient Mayan city of Samabaj. Part archaeological record and part cultural exploration, Garcia’s film delves into the spirituality and mythologies of the ancient people and how real-life events shaped their understandings. MAYAN BLUE screens on Saturday, March 29, at 4:00 at the Plaza.

As a film critic and enthusiast, I have a special fondness for documentaries about moments in the film industry, especially those films that explain how something that once seemed so promising turns to dust seemingly overnight. MISFIRE: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE SHOOTING GALLERY is one such documentary. Directed by Whitney Ransick, the film chronicles the short life of The Shooting Gallery production company, a once-promising and white-hot group of indie filmmakers who scored a hit with Billy Bob Thornton’s SLING BLADE (1996) before going out of business entirely only a few years later. The festival calls the film “a story of passion, hubris, and missed opportunity” and it screens on Monday, March 31, at 9:45 at the Plaza.

CESAR’S LAST FAST is screening as a special, free event on Monday, March 31, at 7:00 at the Plaza. The film is a documentary on the legendary labor leader Cesar Chavez and his final protest, a hunger strike in support of farm workers needlessly exposed to hazardous pesticides. The film boasts never-before-seen footage of Chavez and offers a grounded portrait of the man who became a hero to millions by standing up for those who had been buried by the system. With the new Michael Pena-starring biopic currently in theatres, interest in Chavez is on the rise, and tickets will go fast. Again, this screening is a FREE special event, and so you must RSVP to secure tickets if you wish to attend.

SPECIALTIES AND CULT MOVIES

As Retro goes, the 18th century is pretty darn Retro. But those whose interests lie in the era of big wigs and bigger dresses should check out the costume drama BELLE, from director Amma Asante. The film is based on the life of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the real-life daughter of a British Admiral and an African slave. She was brought up as a free woman in the household of William Murray, an English barrister whose rulings on the slave trade had far-reaching effects. The film explores the contradiction between Belle’s freedom and her society’s prejudice against the color of her skin. BELLE screens on Thursday, April 1, at 9:15 at the Plaza.

Fans of 19th century Gothic literature—or vampire fiction—are probably familiar with “Carmilla,” the novella by Sheridan Le Fanu that depicts an attraction between a young girl and a female vampire years before the publication of Bram Stoker’s more famous Transylvanian Count. Atlanta director Bret Wood has adapted “Carmilla” for the modern day in THE UNWANTED, a bloody and twisted horror tale the gives the story a Southern Gothic setting and a new way to interpret ‘vampirism.’ THE UNWANTED screens on Monday, March 31, at 9:30 at the Plaza, and be sure to check out our Kool Kat interview with Bret Wood about his film and career!

THE CONGRESS, directed by Ari Folman (WALTZ WITH BASHIR), deals with the past and nostalgia in a completely novel, even radical way. Starring actress Robin Wright as herself, the film proposes a world in which actors at the end of their career may take a hefty payday in exchange for translating their entire selves into a digital form, to be used forever as a “character” by the studio who now owns the likeness. Dealing with complex issues of identity and self and using a mix of animation and live action, this sci-fi tale (recently acquired by Drafthouse Pictures) will screen on Sunday, March 30, at 9:00 at the Plaza.

And lastly, what Retro Guide would be complete without mentioning THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, that ultimate retro cult standard which has been a longtime regular of the Plaza programming. The regular crew from Lips Down on Dixie have put on their show as part of the AFF for the last two years, and they’ll open their doors on Friday, March 28, at midnight at the Plaza. Bring your usual props and witty one-liners. Check the weather before pulling on your fishnets, just as a precaution.

There’s plenty more programming of the non-Retro variety, such as David Gordon Green’s JOE and Ti West’s THE SACRAMENT. Take a glance at the full schedule and you’ll find all the screenings, parties, and panels you can manage. Enjoy the festival and remember to check in with ATLRetro throughout as we keep you up to date on what’s happening in the theatres!

Andrew Kemp is a screenwriter and game designer who started talking about movies in 1984 and got stuck that way. He can be seen around town wherever there are movies, cheap beer and little else.

Feathers and fringe and rhinestones, oh my! Founded and presented by Syrens of the South Productions, The Fourth Annual Southern Fried Burlesque Festival brings the best performers from all over the world to Atlanta Thurs. March 20-Sun. March 23 for a weekend full of burlesque classes, panels and performances  at the Wyndham Atlanta Galleria.

This year, the festival kicks off with the Just Hatched Newcomers Showcase Thursday night highlighting newer performers like Melody Magpie, May Hemmer, Duchess Dakini, as well as local Atlanta performers Roula Roulette, Nina Charrise, and some student group performances from classes at The Atlanta School of Burlesque.

Friday Night brings The Free Range Burlesque International Showcase, featuring performances by Burlesque Legend Penny Starr Sr. and her granddaughter Penny Starr Jr., and headlined by Queen of Burlesque 2008, Angie Pontani, and King of Burlesque 2013 Ray Gunn, as well as other amazing performers from all over the world!

Saturday night, get ready for the main event: The Southern Fried Burlesque Pageant has performers competing for Best Group, Variety, and the Southern Fried Burlesque King and Queen!  The Pageant will also include a farewell performance by the 3rd Southern Fried Burlesque Queen, Lola Le Soleil!

After the awards ceremony Saturday night, let your hair down at the Southern Scorcher Showcase with performers from all over the Southeast, like Robotica and the Professor, Dee Flowered, Violet Vixxxen, and headlined by Ursula Undress!

The Southern Fried Burlesque Festival also features lectures, events and classes Friday through Sunday for all interest and skill levels. Whether you are a history buff, into crafting costumes, want to learn the basics, or finetune your performance, this festival will have activities for all levels and aspects of burlesque. Learn entirely from seasoned burlesque performers, teachers, and legends, and leave the festival with all the tools you need to be the next Burlesque Aficionado! Don’t worry guys – all genders are welcome to attend classes!

Burlesque is the art of the striptease, with a focus on the tease.  Performers occasionally strip to pasties, but there is no nudity in any festival productions. This festival is dedicated to the preservation of an art form that has become an international movement.

For advance tickets to Fourth Annual Southern Fried Burlesque Festival events or the whole weekend, click here. 

by Melanie Crew
Contributing Writer

Emory Cinematheque offers art-house films to the masses! They’re available to the critics, film-students and all film-lovers alike! Their retro-tastic line-up of critically-acclaimed films, all screened in 35mm, is available free to the public every Wednesday night during each semester’s series.  Their Spring 2014 ‘Global French Cinema’ series runs through April 23 with all films being screened in room 208 of Emory’s White Hall at 7:30 pm, almost every Wednesday.  ATLRetro caught up with Dr. Matthew Bernstein, Chair of Emory’s Film and Media Department as well as Dr. Charlie Michael, Professor in the French and Italian Language Department at Emory and curator of the series, to discuss their love of French cinema and its profound international influence on filmmakers worldwide throughout the history of cinema.  Let Emory Cinematheque quench your thirst for all things retro, French and cinema-tastic!  

“The reach of (Jean) Renoir’s films was enormous,” Bernstein explains and was one of the reasons why Jean Renoir’s LA GRANDE ILLUSION/GRAND ILLUSION (1937) was the screening that kicked off the series. Given that the focus is French films in a global setting, it made absolute sense. Bernstein further went on to share a tidbit of film trivia: “Twentieth Century-Fox wanted to remake it with John Ford directing. Ford rightly demurred, saying it could not be replicated.” And rightly so! Renoir’s anti-war masterpiece, dubbed by Nazi Propaganda Minister Goebbels as “Cinematic Public Enemy No.1” was released on the eve of World War II, not only showcasing Renoir’s humanity but also touching on the harsh realities of nationalism, classism and anti-Semitism. The epic was one of the first prison escape movies, leading the way for a plethora of replicas attempting to reach the same peak, visually and emotionally.  The film proved so inspirational that even Orson Welles said that it would be one of two he would take with him, “on the ark” (Dick Cavett interviews Orson Welles, July 27, 1970).  American film lovers and critics alike agreed with the enormity and significance of Renoir’s work of art, when it became the first foreign-language film nominated for Best Film at the 1938 Academy Awards. 

“I think the 1960s New Wave probably still holds the mantle as the most influential movement in French filmmaking history,” notes Michael. Thus their next choice was an easy one, as Jean-Luc Godard is one of the most prominent members of the movement.  Godard’s PIERROT LE FOU/PIERROT THE MADMAN (1965) was touted as an apex in the French New Wave and considered Godard’s last ‘frolic’ before delving into his more radically political cinema. Godard dubs his protagonists as “the last romantic couple,” their love being the last shard of humanness left among the clouds of chaos that surrounds them. This tactic has been replicated time and time again in many modern films. Renata Adler, of the New York Times, described Godard’s chaotic and drastic hero as one whom, “ultimately wraps his head in dynamite and blows himself to bits,” but added that, “it is in part a delicate, sentimental love story.” (New York Times, January 1969)

Renior, Truffaut and Godard seem to be the usual suspects at most French cinematic events.  Michael notes, “The insertion of the word ‘global’ in front of the word ‘French’ in the title of the series is meant as a gentle push back against the sorts of common assumptions we have about foreign films.”  His goal was to redirect assumptions that French filmmakers only created their art in France. That couldn’t be more true when thinking about Ousmane Sembene’s first feature-length film, LA NOIRE DE/THE BLACK GIRL (1966).  Senbene has been dubbed the “Father of African Film” and this film in particular was the first Sub-Saharan African film made by an African filmmaker to receive international attention.  It’s the tale of a young Senegalese woman who abandons her home in Senegal to work for a wealthy French couple in France.  This film gracefully touches on history at its most repulsive – colonialism, racism and post-colonial identity – through the eyes of its heroine.

“French cinema and American cinema have a long, long, love-hate relationship,” says Michael, with regards to film as art and film as entertainment.  “Ever since the Lumieres and Edison, the two traditions have been inspiring each other and measuring themselves against one another,” he adds.  This dynamic can be seen clearly during their screening of  LA NUIT AMERICAINE (AMERICAN NIGHT)/DAY FOR NIGHT (1973), French New Wave alum Francois Truffaut’s dark comedy about filmmaking and his slight jab at the artificiality of American-style studio films. The film’s title speaks volumes regarding the director’s disregard for the artificial and the manufactured. Truffaut’s film within a film, not only spotlights the personal and chaotic lives of filmmakers over a short period of time and all the mishaps that go along with creating a film, but he also brings into question whether films, the end products, are more important than the lives of those who create them. 

“France’s youngest, flashiest and most visually-inventive of Jean-Luc Godard’s heirs”, Leos Carax,  makes his appearance with his second film, MAUVAIS SANG (“Bad Blood”)/THE NIGHT IS YOUNG (1986). Michael’s post-modern pick for the series, it will take you on the darkly-tinged 1980s journey of a French bad boy who falls for a beautifully tragic and very unavailable American girl. The film aims to “re-incorporates the post-modern slickness of US advertising,” while exposing the cinematic game of ping-pong that has been played between the US and France since the beginning of the art form. Carax’s film screams modern ’80s melodrama and has a film score including music from David Bowie. Still at the same time, the director pulls from his cinematic forefathers’ influence, as Richard Brody of the New Yorker explains, “with an emotional world akin to that of Godard’s early films, a visual vocabulary that pays tribute to his later ones, and a magical sensibility that owes much to Jean Cocteau, Carax allegorizes the burden of young genius in a world of mighty patriarchs who aren’t budging.” (Richard Brody, New Yorker, December 2013)

As much as French filmmakers enjoy taking a cunning jab at their American counterparts, from time-to-time they also enjoy a nice, swift kick to the rear with regards to their own industry. This can be seen in Olivier Assayas’ satire, IRMA VEP (1996) and his pictorial view of the contemporary French film industry.  Assayas’ film-within-a film technique, previously used by Truffaut and his other filmmaking forefathers, lays the framework that unfolds the beautifully tragic life of a filmmaker, well past his prime,, attempting to revive his career in an industry that has blown past him, by remaking and  modernizing Louis Feuillade’s classic silent film, LES VAMPIRES (1915).  Assayas, through his satire of the current French industry, was able to get back to his roots, or as Manohla Dargis of LA Weekly puts it beautifully, “There’s not a false note in IRMA VEP, not one wasted image, nor one superfluous move of the camera. [Assayas discovered] a native cinema as querulous, alive and magical as [French cinema] was, once upon a time.” 

The series then sends the viewer on a journey to Tunisia with the screening of Abdel Kechiche’s LA GRAINE ET LE MULET/THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN (COUS-COUS) (2007).  From the director of 2013’s BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR, this film follows an aging and displaced immigrant and his family trying to begin life anew by opening a family-run restaurant.  Kechiche touches on the universal theme of what to do next when life throws you a curve ball.  In this case, Kechiche’s hero takes that curve ball and attempts to turn it into a thriving restaurant and new life for him and his family. 

Directed by Agnes Varda, lifetime filmmaker and French New Wave alum, LES GLANEURS ET LA GLANEUSE/THE GLEANERS AND I (2000) was included in this series because it, “speaks out against our global problem with consumption and waste,” Michael says. The documentary is shot completely with her hand-held digital camera in a  total abandonment of the usual high-end equipment. That personal element, she said, took her back to the early short films she shot in 1957 and 1958. She told Melissa Anderson of Cineaste Magazine during a 2001 interview: “I felt free at that time. With the new digital camera, I felt I could film myself, get involved as a filmmaker.” Varda’s documentary follows the lives of various kinds of gleaners throughout the French countryside. (M. Anderson, Cineaste Magazine, 2001)

The series then crosses the Atlantic to Canada and Denis Villeneuve’s film adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s play by the same name, INCENDIES (2010). This movie takes the viewer on a nonlinear trek through time, using a dead mother’s flashbacks between present-day Quebec and 1970’s Lebanon as a pair of twins try to untangle the mystery of their mother’s life and the lack of their father in their own.  M. O’Sullivan of the Washington Post describes Villeneuve’s film as, “A horror movie, a love story and a mystery, each thread of which is so expertly interwoven into the larger narrative that it is impossible to separate any one strand from the other.” (M. O’Sullivan Film Review, May 2011)

The French aren’t always so sophisticated, artsy and stuck-up, as proven with the series’ next film. Michel Hazanavicius’ parody, OSS 117: CAIRE LE NID D’ESPIONS/OSS 117: CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES (2006), represents a layer of French cinema rarely seen when offering up such a series.  Kudos to Michael for throwing this one in! OSS 117 spoofs ’50s and ’60s spy films, following the exploits of a French secret agent in 1955 Cairo. Curt Holman, Creative Loafing noted that, “CAIRO, NEST OF SPIES looks like a perfect artifact from half a century ago, but its political satire smells brand new.” (Curt Holman, Film Review, June 2008)  Hazanavicius is better known for his throwback to the ’20s retro-style film, THE ARTIST (2011), which won five Academy Awards.

Finally, Emory Cinematheque screens Marcel Carne’s celebrated three-hour, two-part epic, LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS/CHILDREN OF PARADISE (1945), set in the 1820s and 1830s Parisian theatre scene and filmed during Germany’s occupation of France during World War II.  Follow the mime, the actor, the criminal and the aristocrat as they pine over the gloriously beautiful courtesan.  During a 1990 interview with Brian Stonehill for Criterion, Carne responded to his question about the New Wave Critics’ aversion to studio films, stating that Francois Truffaut once told him, “I would give up all my films to have directed CHILDREN OF PARADISE.” (Exerpt from 1990 Criterion Audio Interview). In the original American trailer for the film, it was described as, “The French answer to GONE WITH THE WIND.”

Both Michael and Bernstein have enjoyed and continue to express gratitude for the opportunity to share their love of cinema and in particular, during this semester’s series, their love of French-language cinema.  “Frankly, it was difficult not to show more films from that period [French New Wave] in this series – but I really think there are other great stories to be told and films to be seen.  French-language filmmaking is so deep, rich and varied,” explains Michael.  Bernstein notes that, “Truffaut and Godard and their cohorts (of the French New Wave movement) reinvented film language and influenced filmmakers the world over, while inspiring the greats [Coppola, Scorsese, Paul Schrader, et al] and continuing to have a hand in the production of modern films.”

See below for a full screening schedule and make sure you make it out to Emory Cinematheque for the remainder of their Spring 2014 ‘Global French Cinema’ series!

Full Screening Schedule:

1/22/14 – ‘La Grande Illusion’ (1937) – Jean Renoir
2/05/14 – ‘Pierrot le fou’ (1965) – Jean-Luc Godard
2/12/14 – ‘La Noire de…’ (1966) – Ousmane Sembene
2/19/14 – ‘La nuit americaine’ (1973) – Francois Truffaut
2/26/14 – ‘Mauvais Sang’ (1986) – Leos Carax
3/19/14 – ‘Irma Vep’ (1996) – Olivier Assayas
3/26/14 – ‘La graine et le mulet’ (2007) – Abdel Kechiche
4/02/14 – ‘Les enfants du paradis’ – (1945) – Marcel Carne
4/09/14 – ‘Les glaneurs et la glaneuse’ (2001) – Agnes Varda
4/16/14 – ‘Incendies’ (2010) – Denis Villeneuve
4/23/14 – ‘OSS 117: Caire, le nid d’espions’ (2006) – Michel Hazanavicius

What are we doing this weekend?! We’re heading down to the third annual Days of the Dead at Sheraton Hotel Atlanta, Friday-Sunday Feb. 7-9.

1) THE THING REUNION! Given that John Carpenter‘s THE THING (1982) is one of those rare remakes that surpasses the original, we can’t think of anything more fun than meeting a bunch of the guys who signed on for Antarctic duty and ended up monster-meal. Keith David, Richard Masur, Joel Polis, Peter Maloney, Thomas Waites all together on one stage at 1 p.m. on Saturday and signing all weekend.

2) DAMIEN ECHOLS. We have followed the case of the West Memphis Three since 1993, and couldn’t be more happy that he is finally free. He talks about “Life After Death” Row Saturday at 7 p.m.

3) RUNAWAYS. We’re not sure how two of rock’s most badass babes ended up on the horror con circuit, but we’re not complaining about any chance to meet Lita Ford and Cherie Currie. Also rocking the roster are crazy ’80s metal man Dee Snider and Skinny Puppy’s Twiggy Ramirez.

4) SID HAIG AND BILL MOSELEY.  Sid Haig, one of those rare B-movie icons and character actors whose career spans the decades from Jack Hill’s blaxploitation films of the 1970s to the chaotic, creepy Captain Spaulding. Quite frankly you and Bill Moseley scared the sh-t out of us in THE DEVIL’s REJECTS and since we’re not easily scared, for that we salute you both!

5) BUTCH PATRICK, MEG FOSTER, CHRIS SARANDON, AND THE CRYPTKEEPER JOHN KASSIR! The guest list just seems to go on and on with Retro-horror goodness including the original Eddie Wolfgang Munster, one of Hollywood’s most eye-catching actresses and the star of another John Carpenter classic THEY LIVE (1988), the hot neighborly vampire from the original FRIGHT NIGHT (1985), and the man whose voice creeped us out so many times hosting TV’s TALES FROM THE CRYPT.

6) THE HISTORY OF THE SPOOK SHOW! Atlanta’s own Professor Morte leads the SILVER SCREAM SPOOK SHOW in a history lesson of this macabre art form which we are certain will both amaze and entertain. We may even learn something, too!

Professor Morte (Shane Morton). Photo courtesy of Shane Morton.

7) MARK MADDOX. If you’re a classic horror or sci-fi fan, you’ve undoubtedly encountered the work of this Rondo Hatton and Pulp Factory Award-winning artist on the covers of countless publications from Little Shoppe of Horrors to the 50th anniversary issue of DOCTOR WHO Magazine. His appearance is sponsored by Monsterama, Atlanta’s newest horror con which debuts August 1-3, 2014.

8) SPOOKTACULAR SHOPPING  Horror cons are the perfect place to stock up on both macabre movie memorabilia, cult classics on DVD and creepy clothing, costumes and accessories.

9) MACABRE MAKE-UP, CREEPY COSTUMES AND PHANTAMAGORIC PARTIES!! Check the schedule for make-up demonstrations, VIP parties, costume contest Saturday night at 11 pm followed by the Monster Ball. On Friday night, learn SFX make-up from the masters in the Atlanta Zombie Apocalypse Presents Putrid Prosthetics, hear the funny side of wrestler-actor Roddy Piper, followed by a midnight Murder Ball hosted by Atlanta’s own most extreme Halloween attraction Chambers of Horror.

10) FRIGHTENING FILMS! The JABB 48-hour film festival featuring new indie horror, such as THE MORNINGSIDE MONSTER by ATLRetro Kool Kats Jayson Palmer and Chris Ethridge, as well as crazy has-to-be-seen-tobe-believed cult classic NEON MANIACS (1986).

Days of the Dead main con hours are Fri. Feb. 7 from 5 to 11 p.m.; Sat. Feb. 8 from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; and Sun. Feb. 9 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with parties going late into the night on Friday and Saturday. For more info, visit https://www.daysofthedead.net/atlanta/.

Andrew Kemp and Ruggero Deodato at Twisted Fears.

Since Atlanta has become such a classic monster movie kind of city, ATLRetro presents the first in an ongoing new feature, CINEMA ATLRETRO MACABRE, featuring exclusive interviews with the masters and mistress of 20th century horror films. Our intrepid Retro Reviewer Andrew Kemp caught up with Ruggero Deodato, director of CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980), last fall at the Twisted Fears convention. A special thanks also goes to Sandra Despirt, who translated the taped interview from Italian into English. Watch for our next interview with Barbara Steele soon.

By Andrew Kemp
Contributing Writer

We’re done talking, but the elderly gentleman holds me up for a second. He smiles and palms me a tiny wrapped piece of candy. He has, I swear, an actual twinkle in his eye. The gesture reminds me of something a movie grandpa might do, and the man—warm sweater, round glasses and with one last tuft of unruly white hair atop his head—certainly fits the role. I half-expect to find a golden Werther’s Original in my hand, but it turns out to be a fun-sized Milky Way. It’s not what I expect, but I can’t stop smiling at the thought that Ruggero Deodato just handed me a little morsel of something to eat.

A scene from CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

Moments earlier that kindly old man, speaking to me in Italian with a translator, expressed bewilderment at his place in cinema infamy. “What I find incredible is that when I ask young people what they find more disturbing—my movie, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST or the film of the real beheading of an American in Iraq—and they reply CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST,” he says. “Incredible, very disturbing.” Over 30 years after Deodato’s cannibal opus, the director still appears surprised at the power of what he made, even though he remains to this day one of the few film directors forced to produce his actors in the flesh simply to prove to authorities that they were still alive. Clearly, there’s just something about his film that digs beneath the skin.

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST (1980) is one of cinema’s great provocations. A late entry into the brief Italian subgenre of cannibal movies, the film is alternately credited with canonizing the genre or destroying it, or sometimes both in the same breath. The film concerns a documentary crew that traipses into the Amazon to acquire rare footage of a savage, stone-age tribe of locals who may or may not engage in cannibalism. The title, I guess, is a spoiler. Suffice to say that no good comes to the crew, or to pretty much anyone else, including some unfortunate animals butchered on camera. Unlike the crew “deaths” that fooled the Italian courts, the animal torture is regrettably unsimulated. In the past, Deodato has claimed he was only filming a fact of daily life  for the local tribes, that animals were routinely slaughtered in such a way for food and materials, not simply for his cameras. (A similar argument has always been made by Francis Ford Coppola about the bull death that closes APOCALYPSE NOW [1979]).  Still, if you plan to see the film, consider the state of your stomach.

CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST.

Central to the movie’s ability to unsettle is the way Deodato frames the movie as a documentary and shoots it accordingly. Today, we know what that should look like, but nothing else quite like CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST existed at the time. Already established in cannibal cred after his 1977 LAST CANNIBAL WORLD [aka JUNGLE HOLOCAUST], Deodato found inspiration for his new technique much closer to home. “I had already made the film LAST CANNIBAL WORLD, which was a big success, especially in Japan. I ultimately decided to make CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST when terrorism [the Red Brigades] was almost a daily occurrence in Italy and my 7-year -old son asked me why there were so many horrific images on TV, casualties of these acts of terrorism. I thought to myself, hey, why is it that journalists can get away with it and I can’t? If I make a film, they cut it, so I decided to make this movie as a statement against the journalists and censorship.”

Although Italian media may have been the inspiration, Deodato’s film had a global impact because it tapped into the rise of media violence being beamed into televisions everywhere, including those seen in American living rooms every night during the Vietnam War, still a fresh wound in 1980. The brutality and realism of Deodato’s images rankled the public. It felt real, with none of those distancing effects that make movies so much fun to watch. A cult classic was born. CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST became so notorious that other directors had difficulty launching their own cannibal productions, and the bubble quickly burst. Deodato’s was a tough act to follow.

In recent years, Deodato is seen less as a rebel and more as a horror pioneer. The journalistic style Deodato developed in 1980 is today called by another name: found footage. Both fans and critics of the now-ubiquitous genre usually point to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT (1999) as the movie that brought shaky cameras and screaming amateur actors into the mainstream, but it’s hard to watch those mapless teens die in the Massachusetts woods, or to remember the internet buzz the accompanied the film, without noting that Deodato got there almost 20 years earlier. Don’t expect Deodato to be proud of all of his misbegotten children. “Unfortunately my idea has ruined movie-making to some extent because there are those that think all they need to have is a small camera and [to] start shooting without consideration for technique or storyline development.”

Deodato's cameo in HOSTEL, PART II

“When I see films that have truly been inspired by my CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, I’m very happy, but not when they start putting in zombies, aliens and vampires,” he adds. “I hate that.”

Eli Roth is one Deodato admirer who not only shares the director’s taste for horror realism but also prefers to populate his pictures with sadistic human monsters rather than ghosts and ghoulies. After breaking out with the disease gorefest CABIN FEVER (2002), Roth became a spiritual successor to Deodato with his HOSTEL series, replacing clueless journalists with clueless American teens whose condescension to Europe and lust for booze and sex make them prey for sinister millionaires willing to pay big bucks to kill. Roth wears his influences on his sleeve, adding a wink to this in HOSTEL PART II (2007) by casting Deodato as a cultured cannibal in one of the film’s more memorable gross-outs. Roth’s latest effort, THE GREEN INFERNO (2013), takes another step in Deodato’s direction by reigniting the cannibal drama. In Roth’s film, again it’s the naïve outsiders who are torn apart by the natives they were hoping to protect. “Thirty-three years have passed and I’m still being imitated,” Deodato says. “Eli Roth is a friend of mine so at the end of his movie he did an homage to me by saying in the credits – To Ruggero.”

GREEN INFERNO.

The warmth that Deodato has for Roth doesn’t extend much further, it seems. I asked him about the current state of horror, how nobody seems to be terrorizing and disturbing audiences quite the way he did. “LAST CANNIBAL WORLD was filmed in the black jungle of Malaysia,” he notes. “For CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST, I was filming in the middle of the Amazon with indigenous tribes. Back in those days, people still didn’t know about a lot of things so when you came across a tribe in the middle of the jungle that was something. Now people travel everywhere. People were more easily shocked. It is much more difficult to do so now.”

Later, sitting on a panel with other Italian horror cinema legends Lamberto Bava and Barbara Steele, Deodato reminds me once more of a kindly old gentleman. When asked about horror cinema, he confesses that he doesn’t much like the genre anymore, noting his preference for dramas and romances. I think back on the story of the “murdered” actors he had to produce in court, and recall that even after the actors appeared, not all of the charges were dropped. Such was the impact of Deodato’s gore that to be fully cleared, the director first had to first demonstrate to court officials exactly how he had accomplished a signature, grotesque impalement with special effects. I think the prosecutor in question just wanted to get that particularly nasty bit out of his head.

Andrew Kemp is a screenwriter and game designer who started talking about movies in 1984 and got stuck that way. He can be seen around town wherever there are movies, cheap beer and little else. 

Forget a War on Christmas! A John Waters’ Christmas, Thursday Dec. 12 at Variety Playhouse, prefers X-Mas and puts a refreshingly raunchy “X” into it with a darkly comic adults-only one-man show of holiday mayhem and mischief. The variety show pays homage to the tradition both of the holiday album and the TV special, but for those who cringe at listening to Christmas carols, Waters digs out the most cringe-worthy of holiday tunes. But he delivers the kitsch with the mastery he’s known for as a twisted storyteller and showman, sharing anecdotes as much as music – offbeat stories drawn from his personal holiday experiences and a voracious appetite for scouring the media. From all accounts, the result is the absolutely perfect  glam/gross-out gift we expect from the director of PINK FLAMINGOS (1972), the odoramic POLYESTER (1981) and the knock-it-out-of-the-closet hit HAIRSPRAY (1988).

In a recent TIME Magazine interview about the tour, Waters laments so many lost opportunities for Christmas albums from Pussy Riot to rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard. He seems genuinely giddy that Johnny Mathis has a new one out! But that’s Waters’ charm–his absolute enthusiasm and embrace of the tacky, the trashy and the odd–and sometimes even the insanely mainstream. If Pia Zadora ever recorded a holiday tune, you know Waters would be proudly playing it. And since she’s now torch-singing in Vegas, who knows?!

Waters’ Christmas live show takes off from his own 2004 compilation of hellacious and hilarious holiday tunes, from ditties that celebrate Santa’s weight like “Here Comes Fatty Claus” by Rudolph and Gang and the jazzy, jingly “Fat Daddy” by Paul “Fat Daddy” Johnson, Baltimore DJ and the “300-pound King of Soul,” to the twangy, whispery  “First Snowfall” by Chicago lounge-core band The Coctails. There’s also “Little Mary Christmas,” by Roger Christian, who co-wrote Jan and Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve” and several Beach Boys tunes,  head an excruciating sentimental and horrible tale of a crippled orphan named Mary who finds new parents on Christmas Day. Tiny Tim, perhaps the most frightening pop star ever, creepily croons the worst ever warped version of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and Waters, never afraid to push our racial comfort boundaries, also includes the chirpy and controversial “Santa Claus is a Black Man,”  a soulful revision of “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” sung by AKIM, the daughter of  Grammy Award-winning songwriter/producer Teddy Vann with his Teddy Vann Production Company. It wouldn’t be Waters, without indulging his inexplicable love for the ear-shatteringly squeaky with Alvin and the Chipmunks‘ “Sleigh Ride.” Oh, and nothing may be more horrifying than Little Cindy’s “Happy Birthday, Jesus (A Children’s Prayer). Little Cindy apparently also released such singles as “If Santa Was My Daddy” and the B-side “It Must Have Been the Easter Bunny.”

What else can we say about John Waters except that we’d be happy to listen to him read the phone book! Because we know by the 10th name, he’d have an anecdote to unleash which would make us laugh and maybe gag, too. After all, this man is the master of the gross-out from his one-time comment that every filmmaker can afford a barf scene to Divine devouring dog poop. With that in mind, to get you into the Merry Mondo spirit, here are five more things you may or may not know about John and Christmas!

1) His favorite Christmas movie is the B-horror CHRISTMAS EVIL (1980). From the TIME interview: “It’s about the guy who is so obsessed with Santa Claus that he gets a job at a toy factory and spies on all the children to see if they are good or bad. And then he gets stuck in a chimney on Christmas Eve. It’s really good. It’s hard to beat CHRISTMAS EVIL.”

2) For the past five years or so, he’s tried to make a kids’ Christmas movie called FRUITCAKE which had Johnny Knoxville and Parker Posey attached to star.

3) John hates the Easter Bunny. (Source: The Gothamist).

4) Don’t give John a fruit basket for Christmas. “I can buy a pear, you know? It’s not so hard to find a pear. I think gift baskets should be drugs or cigarettes, things you’d never buy for yourself. I don’t take drugs or smoke cigarettes anymore, but I think a gift basket filled with them would terrific.” (Source: Oh, No, They Didn’t)

5) He sends out lots of Christmas cards. Over 1,700 according to TIME!

ATLRetro hopes to see you Thursday at the Variety! For $35 general admission or $100 VIP tickets, click here. Oh, and don’t forget to wear a “nice” sweater!

Buried Alive! Film Festival; Friday, Nov. 8 @ 7:00 p.m. – 1:30 a.m.; Saturday, Nov. 9 @ 3 p.m. – 1:00 a.m.; Plaza Theatre; Schedule here; Tickets $40 (all access, both days), $10 per programming block, available here and at the Plaza Theatre box office.

By Aleck Bennett
Contributing Writer

Who says that Halloween has to end with the month of October? Take a journey into the future of horror with a weekend of groundbreaking short-and-long-form cinema as the Buried Alive! Film Festival takes over the Plaza Theatre this Friday and Saturday November 8 and 9!

The festival was founded by local horror fiend Luke Godfrey, whom you’ll know as the co-creator of Chambers of Horror (Atlanta’s only adult Halloween attraction and this year’s ATL Retro pick for Haint of the Season) and the award-winning film series Splatter Cinema, as well as being the undead head of Zombie Walk Atlanta. Buried Alive! Film Fest has proven year after year to be one of the many reasons that Atlanta is recognized as among the horror capitals of the world, and this year proves to be no exception as Festival Director and filmmaker Blake Myers has loaded the schedule with the acclaimed, the weird, the wonderful and the outright outrageous.

The festival opens Friday night at 7:30 with the “Evil Everywhere! Shorts Program.” Transgressive German horror auteur Jörg Buttgereit (NEKROMANTIK 1 & 2, DER TODESKING, SCHRAMM: INTO THE MIND OF A SERIAL KILLER) reverently opens the show with A MOMENT OF SILENCE AT THE GRAVE OF ED GEIN. From there, we are treated to a series of shorts focusing on the presence of evil in the most unlikely of places. Atlanta-based explorations into this dark realm are represented by the memory-triggering subterranean chamber of CHLORINE, the hidden horrors of a quaint bed and breakfast in BURIED BENEATH and the dangerous efforts of a father and son to rescue a loved one from a cult in BAIT. Other standouts in this selection are the surreal and hellish underground Miami fighting ring of C#CKFIGHT, the promise of an innocent ride home detoured in NEXT EXIT, the trials of a boy thwarting a bullying monster in the acclaimed dark fantasy of SHHH… and the menacing, encroaching shadows of shelter in REFUGIO 115.

This all leads to the 9:30 opening night feature, PIECES OF TALENT, preceded by the short film TERRITORIAL. While TERRITORIAL paints a darkly comic tale of a man settling in for a nice weekend, PIECES OF TALENT takes a more harrowing path, as aspiring actress Charlotte is swept into the plans of charming local filmmaker David. David is obsessed with creating a piece of “true art”—and that creation means a series of brutal on-screen deaths, with Charlotte as the climactic setpiece.

Following the screening, the opening night party of the festival will be held at The Workshop on North Highland (one mile from the Plaza) from 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Episodes of [adult swim] favorite YOUR PRETTY FACE IS GOING TO HELL (with effects and art direction from ATL Retro Kool Kats of the Week Shane Morton and Chris Brown) will be projected outdoors, while filmmakers from around the world will congregate to talk movies and generally have a fantastic time.

After you’ve rested and recuperated from the opening night party, the festival picks up once again at 3:00 p.m. with the “Weird and Wild Shorts Program.” As the title promises, this series takes a more off-the-wall (and at times darkly humorous) approach to the genre. Local highlights on offer here depict some unexpected changes under the light of the full moon in WEREHOOKER, the nefarious plans of an innocuous-looking clown in ALL YOU CAN EAT, and the comic domestication of the living dead in WELCOME TO THE BUBS. Among the other films, standouts are the insane comedy of the self-explanatory GIANT RUBBER MONSTER MOVIE, the gloriously bizarre visuals of DRACULA IN SPACE and the incredibly inventive “zombie apocalypse from a dog’s eye view” depicted in PLAY DEAD.

5:30 brings us “International Terror: Shorts From Around the World,” and reprises Germany’s A MOMENT OF SILENCE AT THE GRAVE OF ED GEIN and the UK’s NEXT EXIT. In addition, Brazil is represented by the plight of the journey of the blind Rafael in AS ÓRBITAS, Australia by the masked terror of CAT SICK BLUES, Canada by the existential dread of FOR CLEARER SKIES and Spain by the television-fueled insanity of BARIKU LIGHT.

We reconvene at 7 p.m. as the Atlanta chapter of the international film and animation association ASIFA joins forces with BA!FF to present the “Drawn and Quartered: Animation Program.” In addition to the intricately-constructed HERMAN BLUE, which local artist Ian Mark Stewart created using over 250 carved pumpkins, highlights include the Valentine’s Day-set NIGHT OF THE LOVING DEAD and the brilliantly macabre stop-motion of ABYSSUS ABUSSUM INVOCAT.

As the clock strikes nine, we explore the realm of body horror with the “Wave of Mutilation Shorts Program.” Local collective New Puppet Order delivers a horrifically funny tale of home invasion when a man discovers that an inter-dimensional gateway has opened up in the back of his skull in ED IS A PORTAL. And in addition to reprisals of BARIKU LIGHT and FOR CLEARER SKIES, another short you won’t want to miss is OTHER, which depicts a doctor’s extreme experiments in ridding his body of a rapidly-growing cancer. When an unforeseen development occurs with his equipment, he is determined to take his experiment all the way to witness the results.

The closing night feature delves further into body horror with an encore of AS ÓRBITAS, followed by the feature film THANATAMORPHOSE. This Canadian film poses the question, “what would you do if you woke up to find yourself slowly rotting away?” A bravura acting turn from Kayden Rose and amazing makeup effects from David Scherer and Rémy Couture combine with Éric Falardeu’s claustrophobic and intimate direction to create a bleak—and ultimately moving—portrait of sexuality, abuse, loss of control, alienation and liberation.

At $10 per screening block, or $40 for an all-access pass, Buried Alive! Film Festival continues to be the best bargain in town for anyone interested in the future of horror cinema, and the visionaries who push the boundaries of the genre.

Aleck Bennett is a writer, blogger, pug warden, pop culture enthusiast, raconteur and bon vivant from the greater Atlanta area. Visit his blog at doctorsardonicus.wordpress.com