TAMALA 2010: A PUNK CAT IN SPACE
D. ToL Japan 2002 92min. 35mm
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"a baffling and exhilarating piece of art-damaged anime...looks like Hello Kitty and acts like Harmony Korine" (Jason Anderson, Eye Weekly)

"It's the year 2010 on the planet of cats, wherein lies Meguro City, a megalopolis entirely controlled by the super-corporation Catty & Co. The nefarious influence of this corporate empire extends malignantly across the feline galaxy. Tamala, a carefree, one-year-old kitten, decides to flee this cruel reality and boards her spaceship in search of her planet of origin. On the way, however, an outer-space accident leaves her on the barbaric planet Q, a world where cats and dogs have been at war for longer than any can remember. There, she encounters a multitude of bizarre characters, some friendly, some most decidedly not. Strange events transpire during her stay on Q and a mysterious, ancient conspiracy with supernatural overtones starts to reveal itself. What is the cryptic relationship between sweet little Tamala and the corporate juggernaut Catty & Co.?"
(Mylene Cabana et Francis Theberge)

What upon first glance seems a typical Japanese paean to cuteness soon reveals itself to be a dark, biting satire that leaves no cultural stone unturned. Conceptually rich and wild, symbolically and iconographically dense, shamelessly perverse and violent, Tamala 2010 is like no animated film you've ever seen. We learn many of the same things we learn in other films - cops can't be trusted, old men will ramble on forever if you let them, corporations are conspiring against you, everyone's a whore for something, and only cats truly understand the order of the universe. But it's all in the telling. And Tamala tells it with a lot of oddly-placed expletives and a shitload of style. (Kier-La Janisse)
PRECEDED BY:
KRISTY
D. Stephanie Gray USA 2003 6min.
It's 1980: you're a kid with a tragic crush on Kristy McNichol and parents who know better than to let you anywhere near Little Darlings. Cut to just a couple years later, when cablevision and that chain-smoking, Toni Basil-cranking babysitter who always disappears with her boyfriend join forces to make the long-fantasized screening a reality. The plot confuses, the R-rating disappoints, and Tatum O'Neal brays, but the True Icon delivers.

RICK TREMBLES' GOOPY SPASMS LIVE CARTOON SHOW
D. Rick Trembles Canada 2004 9min. DVD
In a bracingly honest, revealing, revolting and hilarious monologue, Montreal comic artist Rick Trembles (creator of Motion Picture Purgatory) spills the beans on his sexual peccadilloes, touching on masturbation, crossdressing, coprophagia and pretty much every cavity, protrusion and fluid the human body has to offer. Goopy Spasms blends animation and live action to adapt Trembles'slideshow performance of the same name, itself adapted from his early How Did I Get So Anal? comic strip -- a forerunner of the reflexive autobiographical movement in comics that sprang up in the late '80s. The music in Goopy Spasms comes care of Montreal's One Two Three Go! And Trembles' own band American Devices. (Rupert Bottenberg)

SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER
D. Jeff Lieberman U.S.A. 2004 99 min
JEFF LIEBERMAN IN PERSON!
JEFF WILL JUDGE A COSTUME CONTEST BEFORE THE FILM!
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ay this for Jeff Lieberman: He hasn't mellowed with age. If it's hard to believe that he hasn't directed a genre feature in the over two decades since JUST BEFORE DAWN, his new SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER doesn't feel at all like the work of someone with 30 years in the movie business -- and I mean that in a good way. It plays like a movie made by an upstart young newcomer anxious to show off his rebellious, anti-politically correct streak, and the result is the first film I've seen in a while that seems tailor-made for the midnight circuit, without the pandering that afflicts so many wannabe cult movies. Among other things, SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER is the most original Halloween-themed horror film to emerge since the ill-fated, underrated HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH; like that movie, HELPER incorporates a dark satire of mass media and has no compunctions about involving children in the mayhem. In this case, the focus is on a little boy named Douglas (Alexander Brickel), who is obsessed with the titular video game, and plans to dress up as its title character on Halloween night. And who should he encounter near his suburban New England home as the evening approaches but Satan himself -- or rather, a hulking killer (Joshua Annex) wearing a grinning devil mask. Douglas, who'd like nothing more than to punish Alex (Stephen Graham), the new boyfriend who has accompanied his college-age sister Jenna (the appealing and flat-out gorgeous Katheryn Winnick) home for the holiday, appoints himself as the murderer's right-hand kid, not realizing that the mayhem that ensues isn't part of a game come to life. Lieberman posits Halloween as a night when a celebration of the darker impulses can erupt into real terror, with the Satan Man (as he's called in the credits) an even more explicit embodiment of the bogeyman than HALLOWEEN's Michael Myers. There's no escape-from-the-asylum prologue, or a Donald Pleasence type around to deliver exposition about e-vil; the Satan Man simply turns up, first seen by us at the same time Douglas initially spots him, dragging a body out of a house. It's as if he's an embodiment of the spirit of Halloween itself, a ghastly celebrant whose idea of a prank is to spike a party's punch with drain cleaner, and run down babies and blind folks with indiscriminate glee. It's perhaps no surprise that SATAN'S LITTLE HELPER feels more like a product of the confrontational '70s than a typical modern genre piece. It's good to have him back, and one can only hope it won't be such a long wait for his next horror exercise.
(Mike Gingold, Fangoria)

PRECEDED BY:
YOU'RE INVITED and (e) (p) (m)
D. Josh Richmond Canada 2004 approx. 8min total DVD
When my roommate of ten years ago emailed me out of the blue claiming to have shot some films for my festival, my first thought was, since when does Josh make movies? A career engineer who makes robots for a living and the first guy I ever knew who liked Stereolab, Josh was as unlikely a candidate as any for horror film director. Imagine my surprise when his two short films turned out to be my favorites of all those submitted! Grotesque and meticulous with tongue planted firmly in cheek, Josh's films could see him on a new career path in no time flat...
(Kier-La Janisse)

Director Christian Molina in Attendance
Spain 2004 90min. 35mm subtitled

Guest Bio: Christian Molina
When an injury forced him into early retirement from his career as a professional tennis player, Christian Molina enrolled in film school and has been active in the Spanish industry ever since. Along with Marivi de Villanueva, his producing partner on the slasher film School Killer, Molina is head of Canonigo Films of Barcelona. He previously worked in the camera department on the acclaimed Spanish films as Airbag and Memoirs of the Fallen Angel, and has directed numerous television commercials. Rojo Sangre is his feature directorial debut.

PRECEDED BY: UNWELCOME
D. Gentry Smith USA 2004 Beta SP 14min.
Unwelcome is the story of a young painter who moves into a haunted house. The evil presence won't leave her in peace, but she can't afford to move. Her only choice is to exorcise the ghost by avenging his murder. Or so she thinks...

ONE MISSED CALL
D. Takashi Miike 2003 112min.
A group of Japanese college kids are out for a night on the town. All seems well until Yoko's cel rings with an unfamiliar tone. Unable to answer in time, she checks it to find the readout "one missed call"-from her own phone, three days in the future. More disturbing is the message: the sound of her own screams! No big deal is made of the matter, until three days later, when, at the exact time of the call, Yoko plunges to her death from a bridge.

Things get scarier when Kenji gets a similar call. Three days after, he too is dead. Then it's Natsumi who gets the call, except this time it's worse. Her phone's video display shows her turning to see an ominous figure creeping around a corner, behind her. Natsumi's scared witless and, as word of the curses have spread and broadcasters jump on the chance of a live, on-air exorcism, Natsumi agrees to go on TV at the appointed hour. Meanwhile, Yumi, a companion of all the victims, summons up the courage to delve into the terrifying mystery and find out who-or what-is killing her friends.

One Missed Call brings together two of the hottest things happening in Asian cinema -- renegade director Takashi Miike and the post-millennial horror wave, best exemplified by The Eye and of course the massively-influential Ring cycle. The hallmarks of this new horror scene are a tragic Asian gothic, filled with eerie ghosts and subtle chills, and the modern technology these dreaded spirits are all too ready to use. This is all putty in the hands of the hyper-productive and entirely unpredictable Miike, known for his vicious yakuza flicks, his stunningly cruel thrillers (Audition, Visitor Q) and his ultra-violent, manga-style movies (the Dead or Alive trilogy, Ichi the Killer). Miike handles this latest move masterfully, bringing to Asian horror-fantasy his stylish originality, his clever wit and philosophical bit and, naturally, his bursts of shocking cruelty. (Rupert Bottenberg)

PRECEDED BY:
THE CLEARING (icon - moi?)
D. Dandi Wind Canada 2004 3:41min. DVD
A gorgeous stop-motion piece in the dark vein of the Brothers Quay, Vancouver east-side Industrial/Performance set Dandi Wind's latest animated piece is a haunting ode to degeneration and rebirth.

POOR PRETTY EDDIE
D. Richard Robinson USA 1973 92 min. 35mm Rated R
"Best described as Genet's The Balcony as filtered through the warped narcissism of a third-rate Elvis impersonator." (Sleazoid Express)

Variously released as Black Vengeance, Redneck County Rape and Heartbreak Hotel, Poor Pretty Eddie is a curious entry into the rape-revenge cycle that was rampant in the 70s. Populated by legit actors like Leslie Uggams, Shelley Winters and Slim Pickens (although the credit is conspicuously absent from Uggam's website) and support by powerhouse character players Ted Cassidy (Lurch) and Dub Taylor (a man who listed "prairie scum" as his occupation on IRS forms), Poor Pretty Eddie remains one of the most nightmarish examples of backwoods horror in the exploitation film canon.
When a famous black singer's car breaks down in nowheresville USA, she attracts the unwanted attentions of Eddie (Michael Christian), a psycho Elvis-wannabe who makes his living 'performing' (in various capacities) for the aging Shelley Winters. Winters runs a motel -- "a demented hillbilly stronghold" (Sleazoid Express) -- and keeps the much-younger (and did I say psychotic?) Eddie by her side with flattery and the promise of financial stability. But Eddie sees Uggams as his way out. And she's going to be his girl whether she likes it or not. After being knocked about and raped (I never thought I'd say this, but the rape scene in this film is one of the most stunning sequences you'll ever see), Uggams goes to the local authorities for help. A bad move, since they're dim-witted good 'ol boys who see her as nothing more than fresh dark meat. The seething sexual repression in this town about to explode - and manifests itself as misplaced race-hate. Financed by homicidal porn mogul Mike Thevis and warped even by 42nd Street standards, Poor Pretty Eddie is nevertheless elevated to high art by the masterful editing of frequent Donald (Performance) Cammell collaborator Frank Mazzola.
(Kier-La Janisse)

PRECEDED BY:
EXPERIMENT: 17
D. Matt O. Canada 2004 17min. DVD
Matt O's ode to the contemporary horror fan's plight is both twisted and enlightening -- and host to a few surprises. A guide for the neophyte: There are 4 kind of horror fans: 1)Weekend horror fans who buy every new edition of Zombie and Dawn of the Dead but rarely venture beyond the classics; 2)Rabid fan-boys who collect every DVD that comes out, pour over the commentaries and annoy you with their competitiveness; 3) the real collectors who only mail-order and lose interest in something as soon as it becomes domestically available; and 4) People who think they're horror fans but consider snuff films to be the real Holy Grail. Experiment: 17 acknowledges the different levels of horror fandom while self-reflexively questioning the ethics involved in obsessively seeking the ultimate in cinematic gore. Protagonist Tom is an unemployed horror junkie who mail-orders a tape from an unidentified PO Box only to discover -- to his horror -- that it may be a bona fide snuff film. His friend (type #2) thinks he's deluded and waxes poetic about the scarcity of real snuff films, but Tom is convinced...and now he's scared...
(Kier-La Janisse)

VIDCANADA presents
LADY TERMINATOR
D. Jalil Jackson 1988 82 min. 35mm
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"Quite simply the greatest, most over the top exploitation film ever made." (Mondo Macabro)

Who's in the mood for an atrociously dubbed Indonesian ripoff of overblown American action movies? Lady Terminator is an awful awful movie. Truly stunning. But it may also be the funniest movie of its kind ever made. If you're reading this you've probably seen your share of "bad movies". And if you're honest with yourself you'll have to admit that most movies touted as "so bad it's good" are just plain bad. But Lady Terminator is a kind of bad movie "perfect storm". All the requisite elements cohere into an impossibly sublime souflee of good/badness that has few if any peers in all of moviedom.
The plotline straddles eastern and western myths of violent retribution as an ancient myth about a south sea goddess of destruction moves into the modern era. The spirit of the goddess (a kind of variant of the Indian Kali) possesses a vapid bikini-clad "anthropologist" who dares to trespass on her undersea sanctuary. The method in which the goddess takes possession of her unsuspecting victim (a luminescent sea snake magically penetrates her vagina) gives viewers a pretty clear tip-off that Lady Terminator is not like other movies, despite the film-makers' flailing attempts to make a highly commercial movie for worldwide consumption. It's patently clear that director Jalil Jackson was trying to follow Hollywood action formulas to a 'T'. The effects are downright deconstructive. Thus part of the fun of watching Lady Terminator is the giddy thrill of recognition you get from seeing all the familiar action cliches through a convex mirror.
As the possessed title character marches through the streets of Jakarta (or "J-town" as it's referred to in the movie) machine-gunning everyone she encounters, the nihilistic excess of it all is convulsively hilarious. Funniest of all though are the American cop-hero's ex-paratrooper buddies who show up to help him defeat the evil with an impressive array of military hardware, as if all Americans own rocket-propelled grenade launchers and attack helicopters. One of the troopers, named Snake, is a kind of lethal Jeff Spicoli, as envisioned by Indonesians. Snake has an amazing peroxide mullet hairdo and is always ready with the ludicrous one-liners ("Eat it bitch!", "If it bleeds it dies!"), in between drags on a joint. The dialogue in this movie is pure gold. After watching this recently my abdominal muscles were sore for two days from laughing so hard. So approach this movie cautiously. And eat your wheaties.
(Lars Nilssen)

FRANKENSTEIN: THE TRUE STORY
D. Jack Smight USA/UK 1973 194 min. 16mm Unrated
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I n the wake of this month's latest television epic claiming to be the 'ultimate' Frankenstein, I would just like to take this opportunity to remind viewers that there can only be ONE 'ultimate' Frankenstein, and it is this one - Frankenstein: The True Story. Made for American television in 1973 and subsequently released theatrically in Europe in a shorter version with snippets of extra gore not deemed appropriate for TV, Jack (The Illustrated Man, Damnation Alley) Smight's lovingly-executed take on Mary Wollstonecraft-Shelley's 1818 classic is unparalleled in either its grandeur or its moving performances. Christopher Isherwood's brilliant script also explores what many other versions only gloss over - the intimate relationship between Frankenstein and his monster. I wouldn't go so far as to call this "Frankenstein: The Gay Story" (okay, I guess I just did), but there are certainly noticeable homoerotic undertones at work here, and it's an undisputed fact that gay men love this version more than any other (a gross generalization based on the two gay men I asked). With the FX crew from 2001: A Space Odyssey, production designer Wilfred Shingleton (The Innocents, Polanski's MacBeth) and a cast to die for -- including Leonard Whiting (Romeo and Juliet), Michael Sarrazin (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?), Jane Seymour, James Mason, David McCallum (Watcher in the Woods), Tom Baker (Dr. Who!) and Sir Ralph Richardson -- producer Hunt Stromberg, Jr. swore he would "settle for nothing but the absolute best!", and I believe he succeeded. (Kier-La Janisse)
NOTE: The version you are about to see is unique in the world and had only ever been screened once before. It is the COMPLETE version of the film, with everything from both the US and European versions. While many sources FALSELY list a 240min. running time, that includes 46 minutes of commercials.
PRECEDED BY:
AFTER ATE
D. Jason DeGroote Canada 2004 8min.
Local horror team Cinema Fabulon's long anticipated zombie short starring CineMuerte regulars Kelly Salerno, Ed Brisson and Chris Bavota. Salerno and Marcia MacDonald star as two dinner guests trapped in a bathroom after a zombie apocalypse ruins their soiree. Incredibly suspenseful given its short running time, After Ate marks all involved as talents to watch.

CLOSING FILM:
DIRECTOR JIM VAN BEBBER & CINEMATOGRAPHER MIKE KING IN PERSON!
THE MANSON FAMILY
(Formerly CHARLIE'S FAMILY)
D. Jim Van Bebber 2003 93min. 35mm
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" As near to a representation of a Heironymous Bosch painting as you're likely to see in cinema, replete with acid-scarred tripped-out brain-damaged visuals. THIS is the reason we come to underground cinema, to see beautiful damaged hardcore fucking shit the mainstream will not show, and VanBebber does not disappoint." (Film Threat)

"The most accurate and uncompromising cinematic portrayal of the exterminating angels of Death Valley '69, a psychotic assault of sex, drugs and violence that propels the viewer headlong into the Manson experience." (Creation Books)

"Simply put, Jim Van Bebber is one of the toughest renegade artists alive. His films are made with blood, sweat, and psychotic determination, showcasing the lowest of white trash lowlife. He makes many other underground filmmakers working today look lazy, spoiled, and uninspired by comparison." (Gene Gregorits, Sex and Guts Magazine)

After 16 years in the making, Jim Van Bebber's epic Manson docu-drama is finally ready for public consumption. Bootlegs have been floating around since 1997, when a workprint was screened at several festivals in attempt to gain finishing funds. After a long battle doing it his way, Van Bebber's undisputed masterpiece is completed, blown up to 35mm, and poised to destroy arthouses across the nation. Everyone knows the story, so there's no need to synopsize - although it should be mentioned that Van Bebber's biopic goes into far greater detail (especially concerning the race wars) than any version previous. He also manages to capture the true chaos of the Family, their ass-backwards idealism, and aptly shows the progression from flower-children to baby-killers with a chilling believability. His use of different film stocks creates an engaging patchwork effect, all framed by the fictional character Jack Wilson, an exploitive news-caster who won't let the Manson story die, while simultaneously lamenting the adverse effect the Manson mythology has on impressionable youth through its over-saturation in the media. Using Manson's music and dialogue taken verbatim from interviews with the Family (as seen in the documentary MANSON), Van Bebber conveys the horror of a group of kids gone terribly wrong, with a arsenal of weapons and warped philosophies that lead them to the inevitable climax on Cielo Drive. All I can say is, The Manson Family was worth the wait. This is the final word on the Manson mythos, and Van Bebber hopes that now the door can be shut.
(Kier-La Janisse)

GUEST BIO: Jim Van Bebber is arguably the most gifted visionary and fiercely independent filmmaker working in the US today. With a cast and crew of friends and semi-professionals form his hometown in Dayton, Ohio, Van Bebber has ritten, directed, edited and financed a small but impressive slate of films including the nihilistic Roadkill: The Last Days of John Martin and the Ricky Kasso-inspired My Sweet Satan (both of which screened at the first CineMuerte), the balls-to-the-wall martial arts street gang actioner Deadbeat at Dawn, music videos for Skinny Puppy and Necrophagia, and in between all that was meticulously plodding away at his epic masterpiece Charlie's Family (retitled The Manson Family), which is finally completed after its inception over 16 years ago. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

GUEST BIO:
Mike King has participated as actor, producer and cinematographer on Jim Van Bebber's films since 1988's DEADBEAT AT DAWN, and has a healthy genre CV that continues to build. His cinematography on THE MANSON FAMILY brilliantly blends lo-fi verite documentary-style with the lysergic tricks of 60s psychedelic cinema.
PRECEDED BY:
FOR LOVE OF MOTHER ONLY
D. Dennison Ramalho Brazil 2002 20min.
In a village of fishermen deep in the Brazilian countryside, macabre events unfold during a night of Satanism, death and prayers to Our Lady of the Head. Starring an ex-bestiality porn actress as the creepiest Satanist you will EVER see, and co-written by Ramalho and convicted Macumba priest Pai Alex. Ramalho is currently scripting the new Coffin Joe movie.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Sam McKinlay, Danielle Zandvliet, Jim Sinclair, Darren Gay, John Ford, Norm Hill, Carl from Scarecrow, Jordan Clarke, Richard Brennan, Robin Death, Shimpei Okuda, Matt Cimber, Harvey Fenton, Don May Jr., Paul Naschy, Igor Massa, Christian Molina, Shade Rupe, Jay Bloznik, Mitch Davis, Mi-Jeong Lee, Tim and Karrie League, Rick and Barry and R&B, Rob Jones, Lora Clarke, Doug McCaffry, Blanchette Press, Kini Seong-Eun Kim, Lee Soo-yeon, Lars Nilssen, Phil Spurrell, Jim Van Bebber, Bruno & Helene, Josh Pasnak, Angie Kwong, Dennison Ramahlo, Victor Garcia, Gary Huggins, Sue Cormier, Jack Vermee, Chela Johnson, Bill Plympton, John Holderreid, Adele Hartley, Anthony Timpson, Kelly Salerno, Tony Timpone, Mike Gingold, Matt Kiernan, Mark Walkow, Edwin Neal, Frank Mazzola, Alex Dafoe, Ashley Fester, all the CineMuerte and Cinematheque volunteers, Greg Sonier for continued support, and Tadashi for being the festival's most retarded fan.