Why Sandy Petersen doesn’t subscribe to Time Out Chicago…

Updated on February 24, 2010 By Ken Begg 15 Comments

Last year at T-Fest, Sandy showed the wacky Japanese horror flick House.  It’s playing in Chicago this week, and the reviewer of TOC is less than impressed:

“A film in search of a grindhouse audience to walk out on it, this unearthed whatsit from 1977 has developed a following for its relentless, mind-numbing craziness.  In an effort to make the movie sound even more singular than it is, the ad copy even complies a list of attempted analogues.  (“An episode of Scooby-Doo directed by Dario Argento” is probably the closest–although both Argento and Scooby-Doo have more wit.)  In other words, this s a lot of deliberately slapdash filmmaking applied to utterly nonsensical content, with no apparent reason for being other than inspired viewers to wonder WTF?

There’s more–“Unexpurgated, the movie is proof that nothing is as tedious as nonstop zaniness”–but I figured that was enough to rile up Sandy.

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  • I will simply say that HAUSU was pretty much the smash hit of T-Fest last year, and that I was put on the defwensive by many people saying that it was a “good” movie, and didn’t deserve being at T-Fest as a result.

    My defense was that I had traditionally been the guy to bring wacky-but-good Asian stuff to T-fest.

    So the People have decided. They loved it. I still get students coming to me six months later and telling me they were entertained by HAUSU.

  • Not-So-Great Cthulhu

    Does this mean that you have/will inflict “The Seventh Curse” on the audience or is Hausu on a different level?

  • Lawyer Ku

    Which one’s the fat one again?

  • The Rev. D.D.

    I’d say there on different levels. Hausu makes much less sense (even taking into account the subtitles on Seventh Curse) , has less plot, and no Chow Yun Fat. Both have Murder Muppets (TM), but Seventh Curse’s are not only superior, but given much more to do. Hausu has more hot, partially- and fully-unclothed women, but the one we get in Seventh Curse….DAMN she’s hard to beat. Hausu has less gore (blood flood notwithstanding), and since it’s about a decade older, more of its special effects are less than optimal to the modern eye. It’s also at least three times more batshit crazy than Seventh Curse. I enjoy both, but I definitely prefer Seventh Curse.

    Now, that one he showed two years ago, Eternal Evil of Asia? THAT was more on a level with Seventh Curse. So if he’d show the former, he might very well show the latter. (Or Wild Zero.)

  • i’m thinking of showing HAIR RXTENSIONS this time. I hope that’s whacky enough.

  • Again, I think we’ve oversold T-Fest as a ‘bad movie’ fest. It’s a b-movie fest…with, admittedly, a certain emphasis on bad movies. However, you do need those palete cleansers. Sugar Hill was a great movie last year.

  • Don’t forget the one on Finnish mating rituals. That one kills me.

  • Actually, we’ll probably save the Finnish short for the summer fest. Don’t want to overuse it. We’ll have some other stuff, though.

  • “BANANAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

  • Rock Baker

    I’ll never attend one of your shows, simply because I don’t like to watch a movie -even a bad one- listening to people talk back at the screen (obviously, the exeption is MST3K), but if you’re looking for a movie that’s a real scream and cries out for viewing by a sarcastic audience, I highly recommend the 1966(67? 68?) Japanese flick GENOCIDE, recently added to the Sinister Cinema catalog under the title “War of the Insects”. This is one of the most berserk and wacky films I’ve ever seen. It was made by the folks who gave is Bodysnatcher From Hell, but goes far, far beyond that one in terms of stupifying stupidity. Pretty much every single frame has something wrong with it, like Fury of the Wolfman but more livley. Within the first six minutes, you’ll be wondering if it provided inspiration for the script of The Swarm.

  • Rock Baker

    I guess I can sum it by saying Genocide does to the killer insect genre what Mighty Peking Man did for giant ape movies.

  • My opinion about MST3K is the opposite of Baker’s – basically i feel that everyone had a college roomie who was wittier than the MST3K guys. The social entertainment value of watching a dog like Nightmare City with a full audience is keen as far as I’m concerned. Though even the audience coudln’t save Theodore Rex.

  • The Rev. D.D.

    Mr. Petersen: Or Funky Forest. I still get creeped out remembering how silent it got during that one.

    Mr. Begg: We had two last year, since <bIsland of Lost Souls was also quite good.

    I don’t know how things went at the two in Houston, but the ones in Dallas do seem to come with good ones mixed in. First one I went to, we had Kid with the Golden Arm, and I’d argue Blood Car as well (maybe not GOOD, but defintiely a hoot). Last year the good one (Eternal Evil of Asia) was first, which made things interesting.

    Rock: I imagine Genocide is more stupifyingly stupid than Goke, since the latter’s pretty damn good and it wouldn’t take much to be more stupid than it.

  • Rock Baker

    Well, I’ll grant you that Goke is a fun movie, and a very slick movie, but I’m not sure I’d call it a good one. They used about seven climaxes one right after another because they apparently couldn’t decide how to end the picture. The lapses in logic and goofy character development keep it from being as super-cool as it could have been. Not to say it doesn’t have a great setup and spooky moments, but it comes off a little too fanciful to be what it might’ve been in the hands of a better crew.

  • Matt B

    “i’m thinking of showing HAIR RXTENSIONS this time. I hope that’s whacky enough.”

    Ew. Exte? Yeah, you don’t want to do that. While the main plot of “OMG! Cursed hair extensions!” is goofy, there’s also a B plot of “8 year old girl gets beat up by her abusive mom.” Which unfortunately defuses all the amusement of killer hair every time it appears making the movie as a whole rather unsatisfying.