CAFE FLESH at 366 Weird Movies

Check out my review of Stephen Sayadian’s CAFE FLESH (1982) over at 366 Weird Movies here.

Weekend Update with Your Host Goregirl

“Jane you Ignorant slut”. It was an action-packed weekend folks. On Friday night I went to The Vancity Theatre to see A Special 40th Anniversary Presentation of Sexcula (1974); A Canadian-made tax-funded porn flick with a horror twist. A doctor creates the perfect man but he can not get a hard-on. The doctor calls on her cousin Sexcula to lend a hand. Sexcula started out fun and campy but the last 40 minutes are mostly just straight up porn. My exposure to XXX is pretty slim. Everything I have seen has been from the 70s or early 80s and there has only been a handful. Café Flesh spoiled me. If only every XXX feature could be as good as that thing. Amazing set pieces, fantastic costumes, sex scenes that are interesting and esthetically pleasing and a compelling apocalyptic premise. I suppose that those features are not why a goodly amount of the population watches adult films, but it is the reason I have endeavored into XXX territory. With the exception of John Alexander who plays Frank “Frankenstein’s Monster” the acting in Sexcula was really terrible. The sex scenes are long and not very appealing and it features the lamest lesbian scene I have ever seen. On the plus side Sexcula did have a guy in a monkey suit, a deformed Igor-esque character and Frank “Frankenstein’s Monster” was quite amusing. The actor who played Frank was on hand “incognito” for the showing. He stated quite pointedly that he was ashamed to have been in Sexcula which is why he was wearing a hat and sunglasses. He was also slurring and I think he might have been drunk. He was quite entertaining actually. Someone asked him a question about potential symbolism in Sexcula. This produced a guffaw from the man accompanied by a verbal lashing for taking the film WAY too seriously. The presentation was pretty neato. They showed all these really fantastic 70s-licious stills from Sexcula prior to the film which I thoroughly enjoyed. What I did not enjoy so much was the uncontrollable twitching of the gentleman beside me. I couldn’t sit back in my chair for the entire second half of the film because I thought I was going to vomit due to motion sickness. It could only happen to Goregirl. I think we as a society could use a little laxative when it comes to our uptight views on sex. I became aware of Sexcula thanks to the folks at Return to Porno Chic who I follow on Twitter @RTNtoPornoChic. In their own words “Celebrating the Golden Age of Adult Film and the era of theatrical presentation of adult entertainment. Bom chicka wah-wah.” I recommend keeping an eye peeled for their next presentation and follow them on Twitter @RTNtoPornoChic

They showed loads of behind the scenes stills which was a real 70s-licious treat.

John Alexander who plays central character Frank “Frankenstein’s Monster” was on hand in a hat and sunglasses.

On Saturday night we went to The Railway Club to celebrate an early Halloween. Performing were The Bone Daddies, Everybody Left, The Elixxxirs, & Whiskey Chief. The bands were all decent but the final act of the night Whiskey Chief were seriously bad-ass. This was a first time event going with a group costume. Our theme; Undead Alice in Wonderland. Yours truly was The Queen of Hearts. Don’t forget to click on the picture to make it bigger…

Undead Mad Hatter, Undead Queen of Hearts and Undead Alice.

Undead Mad Hatter and Undead Alice hamming it up.

Undead Queen of Hearts close-up.

Undead Mad Hatter close-up.

Queen of Hearts costume full view.

My favourite costume of the evening Vampira.

The Elixxxirs at The Railway Club.

Whiskey Chief at The Railway Club.

It was a helluva weekend and I have one more Halloween event to attend; Haxan, Witchcraft Through the Ages. Not just any viewing of Haxan, Witchcraft Through the Ages but Haxan with a new, specially commissioned live score performed by Vancouver’s Funerary Call.

Blurb from Vancity Theatre Website:

About Funerary Call

Created by Vancouver musician Harlow Macfarlane in 1994, Funerary Call draws from a diverse palette of analog and digital hardware, found objects, field recordings and ritual implements to conjure an unsettling ancient atmosphere that aims to transcend the perceptive listener, spiritually and emotionally – beyond all boundaries and limitations. Joining Harlow for these shows is drummer Nathan Funk.

Haxan, Witchcraft Through the Ages is not just an outstanding, well made, fascinating film it is the perfect way to kick off No Volume Required November! All November long I will be reviewing only silent horror films with my finale being a Top 20 Favourite Silent Horror Films list.