I’m a sucker for seeing vintage frights on the big screen, and if you’re a New Yorker, it has been a cinematic feast in the Big Apple these last few weeks. The Film Forum recently concluded its 3-D fest and then directly segued into a gimmick-laden William Castle salute (ending this Monday), while Lincoln Center has a bunch of cool screenings coming, starting with Ridley Scott’s ALIEN on Monday (see item here). Meanwhile, over at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s repertory house, the ongoing Bela Lugosi’s Dead, Vampires Live Forever festival (see item here) will be running till September 30. That’s where I caught 1970’s COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE on the big screen for the first time last week, and dug every grindhouse minute of it.
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Cult classics are a peculiar phenomenon. No film means to be a cult classic; it’s a status that’s earned. It happens like this: Sometimes movies are made that take risks and have wealths of creative energy and heart. They challenge and color outside the lines. When it comes to theatrical release for these pictures, nervous-nelly distributors and media deem them too weird, moody or different to find a wide audience.
It was a sweaty summer…
At the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, the Zombo Italiano series presented Lamberto Bava’s graphic shocker DEMONS. It tells the now-classic story of theater patrons watching a horror movie on the big screen who are suddenly cursed to turn into bloodthirsty creatures themselves.
During the recent Zombo Italiano at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, fans had a chance to see the 1979 apocalyptic opus ZOMBIE (a.k.a. ZOMBI 2) on the big screen. This is the quintessential ghoul flick that established director Lucio Fulci as a horror icon. While this is an unofficial sequel to DAWN OF THE DEAD, which was titled ZOMBI in Italy, the films have nothing to do with each other; the producers were simply seeking to cash in on the success of George A. Romero’s sequel.