NotQuiteHollywood

The Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, Texas is something of a Mecca for movie geeks. In addition to first-run theatrical fare, the Drafthouse regularly showcases cult, foreign, and classic films. For the last four years, Alamo programmer Zack Carlson has hosted a late-night horror movie celebration called Terror Tuesday and if you are a lover of horror, both esoterically brilliantly and obscurely awful, this night was invented just for you.

So I decided, since I am already a fixture at the Drafthouse, despite their best efforts to get rid of me, why not provide coverage for this weekly treat? The Terror Tuesday Report will dissect the movie shown as well as provide a barometer for the audience's reaction; as many of these films demand to be seen with an audience, this proves a vital component to the evening.

This week's film: The Beast Within.

Director Mark Hartley (Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story Of Ozploitation!) recently revealed plans to remake the work of fellow Aussie filmmaker, Richard Franklin (Pyscho II, Road Games), by revamping his cult flick, Patrick. Hartley is currently working on a documentary, Machete Maidens Unleashed, which explores the bizarre world of Filipino exploitation movies made during the Marcos era and the their influence upon American filmmakers shooting in the Philippines during the same time. Patrick will take the director back to Australia for a story about a man who uses telekinesis to control those around him.

The original 1978 Patrick revolves around the title character, played by Robert Thompson, who after murdering his mother and her lover several years ago, winds up comatose in a hospital. He falls in love with his nurse, Kathy (Susan Penhaligon), and uses his powers of telekinesis to control the men in her life. Awww, love.

Hartley plans on shooting the remake after he wraps up Machete Maidens and spoke to Fangoria more about his intentions for the remake:

"We're sort of giving it a creepier, Gothic flavor, very much in a similar style to The Orphanage," says Hartley. "There's much more of a backstory for Dr. Roget, and Patrick has dream sequences and flashbacks where he's out of the bed. We don't want to turn Patrick into Freddy Krueger; we like to think of it as a love story with a body count. The great thing about the original was the fact that here's a guy with unlimited powers, but all he wants to do is use them to manipulate the events in that nurse's life to make her fall in love with him. So we've kept that central premise and really upped the ante."

Read more of Hartley's interview on the Fango blog.

Hello again and welcome back to Terror Tapes; your one-stop-shop for horror films that languish away in forgotten formats. As a stalwart proponent of the wonder that is VHS, I must admit that sometimes the films I see on those glorious tapes have at some point made the jump to DVD. Scandal! The idea behind this column was to tap the wealth of VHS titles offered by Austin's behemoth local videostores. But I understand the necessity for standards and can see the legitimacy behind someone crying foul. However this particular film had an American DVD release that has long since been out of print. So, barring paying upwards of $75 to a private seller online, I believe this VHS still very much qualifies. This is a stroke of luck as I am incredibly excited about today's entry: Fair Game.

If you haven't seen Mark Hartley's unbelievably cool documentary Not Quite Hollywood, shut your laptops or rip your Ethernet chord out of the wall and go rent it right this damn minute! It is a perfectly-crafted celebration of cult cinema from the land down under and if it doesn't get you excited to be a horrorphile, I have a number of rom-coms I could recommend to you. This film exemplifies exactly why I moved across the country to Austin: to be immersed in cult films. While the spirit of the film is one of shameless appreciation of trash genre films, it is incontrovertible that a number of the titles in the horror section of the documentary offer more than just a so-bad-it's-good quality. So I decided to write up today's triple play of Aussie horror in the hopes that if you haven't seen these films, you'll seek them out and give them a shot.

Best of the New Releases: Trick 'r Treat, The Children, The Thaw, Not Quite Hollywood
Okay, okay, you've had Trick 'r Treat bludgeoned into your conscious to no end lately. Well now is your chance to finally see Michael Dougherty's fabled film. I can't speak for what's on the DVD or Blu-ray, but the film itself is a wonderful tribute to all things Halloween. I saw it for the first time a week ago (review) and I'm already planning on popping in the Blu tonight.

This October's haul from Ghost House Underground isn't quite as large as the eight or so films they put out last year, but what they've lost in quantity they've made up for in quality (plus all four titles are available on Blu-ray). For starters we have The Children, a film I think can't be improved upon (review). Next up is The Thaw, a nice bit of eco-terror starring Val Kilmer and Aaron Ashmore about the discovery of a mammoth and the deadly parasites frozen inside it. Mark A. Lewis' film is basically a proposition of how to remake The Thing without remaking The Thing, but that's not entirely a bad thing considering how excellent the formula of frost-bound bio-horror is. I wouldn't call The Thaw a blind buy, but it's worth a look down the line.