Tag Archives: 1980s

Apr 6 2013

Erin V. Panda Hits The Road With Dudes

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I’m happy to have our good pal from up north, Erin V. of the Kill Panda Kill site, making his first visit to the Basement with his look at the road-punk classic Dudes. Find all kinds of Top 5 goodness and more at his site HERE

Growing up in northern Ontario in 80′s, there wasn’t a lot of access to punk music like there is today.  Al Gore hadn’t invented the internet yet because his wife Tipper was too busy blaming the woes of society on bad language in record albums and the Much Music only had the Pepsi Power Hour, which was mostly hair metal bands and City Limits, which was on at midnight on Fridays, so you would have to tape it, if you remembered.  So any movie that had any kind of punk rock reference was like gold to us back then and luckily Dudes just met the criteria.

After a Vandals show in New York, 3 punkers, Milo, Grant and Biscuit decide that they want to give up the New York groove and take a shot at living in L.A.  With a thousand dollars in hand, that Milo got in an insurance deal, they jump into Grant’s Volkswagen bug and hit the road.  On the way to L.A, they help a Elvis impersonator, Daredelvis get his camper back on the road.  He thanks them and lets the guys know if they ever need anything, to give him a shout.  Of course, no good deed gets unpunished and that night, while the guys are camping under the stars, they’re attacked by a gang of rednecks! And not the Jeff Foxworthy or Larry the Cable Guy kind with bad jokes, but the Deliverance kind!  After the redneck’s rough up Grant and his friends, they take Milo’s jacket, rob them and before anything else happens, Grant sees a chance and takes it.  He knocks down one of the thugs and the guys take off into the plains with the rednecks hot on their trail.  The guys are chased throughout the desert and end up scaling the side of a rock but Milo slips and slides down into the hands of the rednecks.  Milo tells the leader of the gang, Missoula to Fuck off and gets a bullet in the brain pan.  Grant and Biscuit can’t believe they just killed Milo and surprisingly neither can some of the gang members.  While they’re leaving can be heard arguing with Missoula about taking things to far.  The next morning, Grant and Biscuit trudge their way through the desert and contact the police.  They tell the guys that their sorry that they got robbed but don’t see any evidence of murder and Grant explains that they took Milo’s body.  Frustrated with the cops, Grant and Biscuit decide to find Milo’s killers and get justice cowpunk style.

What originally drew me to this film was that Jon Cryer, who plays Grant, was in it.  At the time, Jon Cryer seemed to me, to be the Anti-Matthew Broderick or the “if Broderick is unavailable, get Cryer to do it”, which made me feel for him.  I really enjoyed Cryer’s work in Pretty in Pink and for some reason loved Morgan’s Stewart’s Coming Home, so I was totally game for this. I had no idea about who else was in, so I was also pretty excited to see that Flea, who plays Milo and Lee Ving, playing the redneck badguy Missoula, were in this as well.  I had just discovered the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Lee Ving, from Fear and his excellent role in Clue.  However, what totally sold me on the film was, The Vandals at the beginning, playing Urban Struggle.  The moment the song kicks in and you can see the Vandals playing at a shitty dive with maybe 15 people in the club, you knew this was punk rock and this might have been the first time I think I saw someone stage diving.

My only issue with the film is that there is a strange metaphysical sub plot that is never really explained.  Gran keeps seeing this Marlboro Man motherfucker that no one else can see until him and Biscuit get real drunk.  At the same time, Biscuit is having the flashes of Native Americans being killed and their villages burned by Missoula and his gang but dress in 18th century battle garb.  Maybe it was a metaphor for their journey, I’m not that deep but think it ate up time in the film that could have been put to use better.

Overall though, this a fun film, director Penelope Spheeris does a great modern-day western.  Plenty of bar fights, people riding horses and a pretty decent soundtrack to boot.  Give it a watch if you get a chance.

Mar 25 2013

GoreGirl Enters The Forbidden Zone

Our good friend GoreGirl steps out of the Dungeon and into the Basement once again to take you into the Sixth Dimension!  Find all of her blood spattered sermons HERE

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I am no fan of musicals as a rule but Richard Elfman’s seriously entertaining and downright bizarre Forbidden Zone is an exception. The Forbidden Zone is a non-sensical, amusing and incredibly silly romp filmed in black and white with music from The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo (soon to be known as just Oingo Boingo). If nothing else, you are unlikely to ever see anything quite like it.

Friday, April 17 4:00 PM Venice California

Huckleberry P. Jones, local pimp, narcotics peddler, slum-lord was seen entering a vacant house that he owned. While stashing some heroin in the basement, he stumbled upon a mysterious door. Naturally, he entered…

Only to find… ???

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Jones retrieved the heroin and promptly sold the place.

One month later the Hercules family moves in to the now vacant house…

Ma & Pa Hercules – Ma is a stay at home type and Pa works at the tar pits.
Frenchy Hercules – The adorable and audacious Frenchy acquired a French accent while attending school in France; hence her nickname.
Flash Hercules – I have no idea why this guy is called Flash, but he wears a cub scout uniform and a beanie and is one old-looking kid!
Gramps Hercules – For some reason Flash has to tie up Gramps before he goes to school each morning.

Will the Hercules family discover what lies behind the mysterious door in the basement? You bet they do! Frenchy is the first to open the mysterious door. In an animated sequence we see Frenchy travelling through an intestine and shot out of a huge butt onto a bed of pillows. Frenchy has just entered the Sixth Dimension! The strange and foreign place is ruled by Queen Doris and King Fausto. It is not long before Frenchy is detained by the princess and brought to the Queen and King. King Fausto sends Frenchy to cell number sixty-three; this is where he keeps his favourite concubines. King Fausto falls hard for Frenchy on account of her French accent. When the rest of the Hercules family realize that Frenchy has disappeared they also dare to enter the door to the Sixth Dimension.

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Right from the nifty opening animated title sequence you know you are in for something wonderfully strange. Don’t try to make sense of it; just kick back and enjoy. The sets look like something out of a school play, the costumes are crazy and a lot of people are wearing their underwear and Mickey Mouse ears (Apparently King Fausto has a Mouseketeer obsession). Some of you will be pleased to know the Princess character appears topless throughout. Every character is insanely over-the-top and is played with fevered enthusiasm. There is countless musical numbers and if you hate the music this will be immensely painful; personally I thought the music was a hell of a lot of fun! There is sex (if you consider dry humping sex), nudity and Satan! That’s right folks; Satan lives in the Sixth Dimension and looks a lot like Danny Elfman. He wants the topless princess for his bride and I can not think of a better match for him. Have I mentioned there is a gorilla, a gunfight, a Frogman butler and a character called Squeezit who thinks he’s a chicken? It has something for everyone and it all ends with one big happy musical number. Serve with Tequila. Forbidden Zone is highly recommended!

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Dungeon Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Richard Elfman

Starring: HervÈ Villechaize, Susan Tyrrell, Gisele Lindley, Jan Stuart Schwartz, Marie-Pascale Elfman, Virginia Rose, Gene Cunningham, Phil Gordon, Hyman Diamond, Matthew Bright, Danny Elfman, Viva, Joe Spinell, Brian Routh, Martin von Haselberg

Mar 19 2013

Love Kills: A Love Letter To Sid and Nancy by Eric D. Leach

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Today’s entry in our ongoing exploration of punks on film is brought to you by our good friend Eric D. Leach from The Cult Movie Reviews, where you can find Eric waxing nostalgic about all manners of classic and contemporary horror films. Find that HERE…

Gary Oldman Sid and Nancy

When Basement Screams offered me the opportunity to review a punk orientated movie I chose Alex Cox and his wonderful, no holds barred 1986 biopic film Sid & Nancy, based on two of the most unlikely but important iconic punk figures of the mid era of the 1970′s music scene, it was a ‘no brainer’ really. There are ample reasons for appreciating this fine piece of movie glory on many structured levels besides what the films obvious title infers in its biographical context. This film is not just a feature based on two famous but extremely damaged characters, (Nancy Spungen in particular) but what this gem offers us in the first part of Alex Cox direction is a fantastic recapturing atmosphere of a very specific, important and retrospective moment of historical musical provenance and how and what the ‘punk’ scene ultimately came to epitomise for both the right reasoning but sadly and more oftly for the wrong reasons which in the main and particularly in the case of The Sex Pistols seemed inevitable. Those interested in the punk phenomenon who were either not born, too young, or cared little at the time (after the event) for what many would in later years appreciate for being part of a very important cultural uprising. Sadly those who wanted to gain in financial terms e.g. Malcolm McLaren who often used aggressive manipulation methods as a marketing ploy and the use of nurturing self publicising exercises that deliberately courted controversial media coverage that included numerous record labels throwing silly money at the band in order to entice them to sign for them, glaring example being (EMI). Cox in this early reminisce deals with two major points of memorable significance which included the now famous live early evening Thames television broadcast of the Today Programme that became known by the press in particular as ‘The Filth and the Fury’ incident which saw Pistols lead guitarist Steve Jones use abusive language in a pre-watershed verbal tirade during Bill Grundy’s (condescending and provocative) interview of the band and their entourage that included amongst its brethren one Siouxsie Sioux, she of the Banshees. Then there was the very famous barge on the Thames incident during the 1977 Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II June 7th celebrations which ended in the high-profile arrest of guests, band members, and Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren by the London constabulary, all incidents well documented here by Cox who does well to segregate the film into well proportioned retellings of the tale and the different strands that made the bands story so unique and excitable for the time. What makes the direction of Cox so plush and vibrant is how he deals with the band issues as well as using important juxtapositions to integrate the main focal point before eventually concentrating in greater detail on Vicious and Spungen and their descent into eventual oblivion. Before the movie moves into drug addiction and violence, Alex Cox starts at the beginning by highlighting the events that started it all and early on provides answers to why The Sex Pistols became public enemy number one and gained the punk rock movement it’s often negative stereotypical notoriety. Continue reading →

Mar 6 2013

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Shawn Robare Reviews Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains!

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This installment of Damaged, is brought to you by our friend Shawn Robare, who you may know as one-third of the Cult Film Club podcast and website, which you can find HERE. You can also find him laying down nostalgia and rolling in it like a pile of Jem and the Hologram dolls at Branded In The ’80s HERE. So without further ado, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains!

“I think that girl is great, she said what I think all day long…”

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Though most might recognize Diane Lane’s from some of her early performances in The Outsiders, Rumble Fish, and as the highly kidnap-able rock goddess Ellen Aim in Water Hill’s 1984 rock opera Streets of Fire, it was as Corrine Burns, frontwoman for the titular punk band in Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains where she really kicked the door down and took Hollywood by storm.  One part Poly Styrene, one part Patti Smith, one part Exene Cervenka, with a dash of Belinda Carlisle, sixteen year-old Lane’s Corri…excuse me, 3rd Degree Burns encapsulates the listless, pissed off, and slightly hopeless tone of the late 70s, early 80s West Coast punk scene. I’m not sure where the flick falls in the echelon of punk or punk inspired movies like Sid & Nancy, Repo Man, Suburbia or Rock ‘n Roll High School, but on my list it’s right there near the top.

Written by the woefully under-rated Nancy Dowd (Slap Shot, Coming Home, Cloak & Dagger – uncredited) and directed by legendary music/film producer/director Lou Adler (Rocky Horror Picture Show, Up in Smoke), the film is probably most notable for helping to kick off Lane’s career as well as managing to wrangle the Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones and Paul Cook, alongside Paul Simonon of The Clash to form the backbone of the punk super group The Looters, fronted by Ray Winstone. The Looters are basically an on-screen variation of Jones & Cook’s short-lived, post-Sex Pistols band The Professionals, and their song, aptly titled “Professionals” is the central song to the soundtrack and the plot of the film.  The flick also features Vince Welnick and John “Fee” Waybill from The Tubes as a couple of over-the-hill bloated glam/metal rockers in the band The Corpses.

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In short the film follows a young all-girl punk band, The Stains (Lane, Laura Dern and Marin Kanter), as they try to escape from the doldrums and depression of a rural suburban town.  After catching a local show featuring an up and coming UK punk band the Looters opening for a rundown metal outfit known as the Corpses, the girls talk their way into joining the cross-country tour.  Though at first The Stains are essentially ignored or booed off stage, things quickly change as Burns unleashes a side of her personality she had been keeping in check.  Donning some fish net stockings, underwear, a see-through blouse and a cut up heavily streaked new hairdo, Burns starts grabbing the mike and in true Patti Smith fashion starts mixing poetry and rage to incense the audiences of the local dive clubs.  Before you can blink an eye The Stains start winning over the young girls in the crowds with their new look, and after stealing the Looters one big hit, they single-handedly take over the tour and rocket to superstardom.

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Though written as a satire of the music industry with a heavy hand placed on the ignorance and tossing aside of talent over the money-making machine of mass marketable, pre-packaged bands, the strength of the film lies in its ability to capture a decent amount of the nihilism and ennui that pervaded the punk scene of the early 80s.  To me it nails that sensibility of pissed off suburban kids who want to scream and shout, lashing out at the over indulgence and commercialism of the previous decade; a time when you only needed to know a couple of chords and how to keep a basic beat, where the passion of the music came from the intensity and anger of the musicians expressing themselves with raw abandon.  It’s in the little moments, like at the beginning of the film when an interviewer is questioning Burns (Lane) on her life as an orphan and whether or not she thinks that her views will change as she grows older, to which Burns innocently replies, “Grow older?”  Though the music in the film is nowhere near this level per-se, it reminded me of what it was like to hear Black Flag or the Minutemen for the first time and it evoked that feeling that a handful of guys and gals who hand enough talent to play, but who weren’t trying to write commercially viable songs or become the next big thing.  Even though the film is aiming to tackle the urge to rise quickly to fame, there’s a punk rock heart at the center that’s impossible to ignore.

Mar 2 2013

Suburbia – guest review by Nom & Razor of The Church of Splatter-Day Saints

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We kick off our celebration of all things punk rock in film with a guest review from the tag team of trash, Nom and Razor from The Church of Splatter-Day Saints. For more of their bastardly antics check ‘em out HERE

A group of Reagan-era punks and skins squat in an abandoned California suburb after fleeing their dysfunctional homes. They are The Rejected……..and this is their story.

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Nom DePlume:  This is the first real-punk movie that I fell in love with and it was due purely to the realism of being an outcast at that particular moment in time.  The cast is mostly comprised of actual punks – not actors – so even in their ineptitude they excel as the film is realistic in its portrayal and not a contrived piece of shit.  They can see through the “American Dream” bullshit and are pissed off that the society (from the wealthy to cops, community leaders, and their parents) that looks down on them are soulless fucks who abuse, molest, mistreat, disown and abandon their own children. So they do the only thing that makes sense to them: move out and take care of their own by squatting in an abandoned suburban tract home and raiding open middle-class garages for food and supplies.  This is an astonishing first feature from Spheeris and I have to give her insane credit for keeping it genuine and about the kids and the lifestyle and not turning it into some plastic Hollywood bullshit to turn a quick profit. (and with Roger Corman producing that’s saying something)

Razor88: I concur – the film is very authentic. The fact that the kids in the film aren’t actors does show through but it adds to the integrity of the film in this case. I wasn’t “living the life” so to speak when I discovered it but having grown up in the 80s it’s always struck a chord with me. I remember seeing it in the video stores with that hideous neon pop art cover that made it look like a David Bowie sex tape/sci-fi thriller. I swear that fucking box art kept me from actually seeing this film that would ironically become a staple of my viewing repertoire.  And really, how can anyone deny the awesomeness of a film that shows a toddler getting mauled by wild dogs within the first three minutes? Talk about kicking you in the teeth from the get-go and it doesn’t let up until the very end. I know Corman wrote the check but he certainly didn’t have a hand in it as far as I can tell. No space ships or insect rape here (although to be fair, most films would benefit from insect rape – this is one of those rare exceptions).

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Nom: Ugh! That cover was embarrassing, a new-wave/Liquid Sky rip-off having nothing to do with the film at all. Speaking of new-wave, there’s the scene at the D.I. show where Skinner insults the new-wave poser and then with the help of a few others proceeds to humiliate and rip her dress off. I’ve read some reviews where they really rake this movie over the coals for that but it was about her being a radically out-of-place scenester who was there for all the wrong reasons. It was about having some fucking integrity and sex aside, you don’t get a free pass because you’ve got a gash, ya know? It was about teaching her a lesson if she had been strong enough to hear it. Speaking as a punk who grew up during the cold war and seeing the massive changes that have gone on within the community in the last 25 years this movie stands as a time capsule of an era. There was a sense of hopelessness and apathy trapped inside the angst-ridden kill-or-be-killed mentality. We see that same girl later in a Citizens Against Crime meeting dressed like the girl next door as her Daddy complains about the T.R. gang and punks in general. My attitude has always been that she was dutifully weeded out and not that the punks were being just as fascist as those they oppose. They opened their doors to anyone – social class and sex made no difference – it was about survival and need and not about how some poser slut dresses so that she can piss her parents off on the weekend. That little rant aside, I have always wished this movie would have had better bands – Circle Jerks, FEAR, etc. Why oh why did fucking TSOL have to be in this? Puke.

R88: The bitch was asking for it… I didn’t feel sorry for her in the least. Actually it always kind of irked me that the singer for D.I. starts whining at the kids assaulting her. That’s not a dig at D.I. – They’re alright – but come on. I do agree it would have been nice to see some better bands in this. FEAR would have been killer, GG Allin a wet dream (although I seriously doubt they would have been able to get a release very easily with the Troubled Troubadour’s performance).  I like TSOL… at least the stuff they did prior to what they were performing in Suburbia. Could the guy have had more makeup on? At least they were fun to watch, and incidentally the best of the three bands in my opinion.

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I noticed a fair bit of poignant symbolism here. The phone booth at the beginning – a monolith of hope in the darkness right before the dogs come, the T.R. kids living in a dilapidated house that was meant to be someone’s utopian dream home now a rotting husk of economic ruin and shattered dreams yet right on the outskirts of where “civilized” society lives and breeds. Even the land they live on is owned by the county and therefore outside the city’s influence. The kids are truly isolated from everything in every way and Spheeris really drives that home brilliantly. It’s almost like T.R. are unto themselves a pseudo-dystopian society nestled amongst the straight-laced, invading their space to take what they need like some sort of rebel force overthrowing an oppressive regime. The irony here is these kids are truly just products of their environment. I really liked that Spheeris has a lot to say and the film isn’t just a showcase or excuse to put a few punk bands into a movie.

Nom:  That’s interesting because I thought some of it was a little heavy-handed… the wild dogs being a metaphor for the kids, remnants of lives that effortlessly move on without them now left to fend for themselves and becoming feral in the process (The alternate title of The Wild Side would have been fucking tragic). The hokey comic-relief-obviousness of the redneck assholes passing moralistic judgment on T.R. as they sit in a fucking strip club watching titties jiggle and plan their ignorant, right-wing attack on children. That being said, there were a few scenes of absolute brilliance that for fleeting moments transcended celluloid and evoked the beauty and power found in unity. I’m speaking of course of the slow motion shot of the gang walking in the upper middle class neighborhood and the shot of all of them scattered motionless and silent across Sheila’s front yard. Fucking gorgeous. The thing that I probably love most about the film is that it ends on such a down-note, it doesn’t wrap up in a neat bow at the end with everyone going back home to happy families. It ends as it begins, in the midst of tragedy and loss with no definitive path and no answers in sight.

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Nom/R88: Suburbia perfectly captures a frustrated subculture in an era of depression. It pulls no punches, is exceedingly thought-provoking and remains relevant to this day. Essential viewing.

Official COSDS Nunspank(TM) Rating: 4

Nov 29 2011

In A Glass Cage – The Art Of Depravity

In A Glass Cage (Tras el cristal) 1987

Dir. Augusti Villaronga

Cult Epics

In A Glass Cage, or Tras el cristal in its native Spain, is a beautifully shot, ugly bastard of a film. It opens in a dimly lit basement where a young boy is strung up by his wrists, naked, beaten and unconscious. An older man observes him, snapping pictures, with a facial expression that suggests his thoughts are elsewhere. When the boys eyes open the man begins to caress him, rubbing his face against the boy’s. Barely alive, the boy doesn’t a make a sound as the man smashes a wooden board into the back of his head. The man makes his way onto the roof  while someone off camera enters the basement, observes the scene and picks up a journal off the floor. The man stares across the land before taking a fall. This opening scene sets the tone for the entire film – bleak and uncomfortable, yet nearly impossible to take your eyes off.

The man is Klaus (played by Mr Slugworth himself, Gunter Meisner), a former nazi who was prone to molesting, torturing and killing young boys during the war. Well it seems he decided to keep his evil activities up as a hobby after the war was over, hence the naked boy in the basement. Klaus, in an iron lung after his “accident” on the roof, lives in exile in Spain with his wife and young daughter. Griselda, his wife, is becoming more and more depressed and desperate with their situation. She needs help taking care of her invalid husband, and wishes her daughter could be at school and live the life of a normal girl her age. She writes a letter to her mother in Germany, asking to send a nurse to help with her husband. Before she can even get the letter to the post a mysterious young man shows up, saying he heard about the man’s condition and was there to be his nurse. Griselda is rightfully suspicious, but Gunter insists that the young man stays as his nurse.

The young man, Angelo, is just what Klaus needs. He shaves his face, washes him, and entertains him by jerking off while reading from Klaus’ journal from the war. Griselda meanwhile becomes increasingly suspicious and tells Angelo he must leave. In turn Angelo goes batshit crazy, kills Griselda, starts wearing Klaus’ army coat, redecorates the house with wire fence and sets furniture on fire – inside the house. That is all just icing on the depraved cake, as Angelo takes up his patient’s old habit of luring in young boys to snuff out. Klaus, being face to face with his own sick and twisted past, tries to no avail to stop Angelo, but what’s he going to do? He’s in an iron fucking lung! In all seriousness though, watching Angelo taking on the role that Klaus once held is a very disturbing thing indeed. Themes of shame, guilt, repression, abuse and perversion all run throughout.

Beneath all of the ugliness and despair, however, is a beauty that sets In A Glass Cage apart from other shock exploitation films. It’s set design and cinematography are often gorgeous, even during the most shocking of scenes. It’s this balance that keeps the viewer willing to be along for the ride, waiting to see where Angelo’s disturbed actions takes us, and what makes the film an artsploitation experience that sticks with you long after viewing it. The new high-definition transfer on Cult Epics’ recently released DVD and Blu-ray captures the dismal grey and blue color scheme quite well, and comes complete with an endorsement from über perv and shock cinema legend John Waters himself. Accompanying the film are a pair of interviews with director Augusti Villlaronga, and three of his short films. I highly recommend seeking out a copy and experiencing the film for yourself.

In A Glass Cage rates 4 out of 5 Screaming Jamies

Nov 20 2011

Maniac Cop – Killer In Blue On Blu

Maniac Cop is, in my opinion, one of the most under rated horror films of the 1980s. Not only does it blend subgenres like a Magic Bullet on high-speed, it boasts one of the best line ups of genre legends in its cast and crew. Okay, try to keep up – in front of the camera we’ve got Tom Atkins and Bruce Campbell, neither of which need introduction here. Next we have Richard fucking Roundtree as Commissioner Pike. That’s right, Shaft himself is the HNIC of the police force! Behind the camera we have director William Lustig (Maniac, Vigilante), writer/producer Larry Cohen (It’s Alive, Q the Winged Serpent), executive producer James Glickenhaus (The Exterminator) and cinematographer James Lemmo (Madman, Vigilante, Ms .45, etc). It doesn’t get much more solid than that. Maniac Cop has always held a strong cult following, but I’ve always felt it deserved more attention.

Continue reading →

Sep 24 2011

The Exterminator Descends Into Gruesome Savagery In High-Def!

“Sick example of the almost unbelievable descent into gruesome savagery in American movies”…

That’s what Roger Ebert said of The Exterminator upon its release in 1980. Well now, thanks to Synapse Films, you can experience all of The Exterminator and it’s “gruesome savagery” in high-def and fully uncut for the first time on Blu-Ray. Released last week as a Blu-Ray/DVD combo pack, The Exterminator definitely shows how far Synapse has come with their Blu-Ray releases. The transfer is excellent. It looks like you’re watching it straight from the original film print. It marks a great improvement over their first Blu-Ray ventures. Continue reading →