Author Archives: Eric Thirteen

Black Swan + Patti Cakes

Posted on August 9, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Black Swan + Patti Cakes

Female fame in different games at different levels. Black Swan as a mainstream arthouse horror film. Why the horror elements of Black Swan are worthy of callout – body horror! A fight between avoiding the most obvious conversation and avoiding the most delicate conversation. The lengths an artist goes through to achieve success, revisited. How Black Swan mostly avoids being rape-y when it basically is. Patti Cakes. Patti Cake$. Patti Cake Dollar Sign. A stunning turn in the plot when someone turns out to not be a cartoon villain. Who actually has talent or promises n Patti Cake$? Living the art life. Escaping the suburbs. Arrested development, lower-case d. Patti Cake$ and the simple art of never giving up. A suspicious lack of conversation around Black Swan’s portrayal of oral sex. Continue reading →

Horror of Dracula + Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Horror of Dracula + Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Horror of Dracula, very much not the same as original Dracula. Jonathan Harker upsets Dracula after after accepting a job at the vampire’s castle under false pretenses. Legends of hammer horror. The Universal Monsters and the Dark Universe reboot. What was happening in horror in 1958. Later, in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: exiled into the dangerous forest by her wicked stepmother, a princess is rescued by seven dwarf miners who make her part of their household. Disney’s place in the modern world. Dwarfs is more commonly spelled Dwarves now. Thanks, Tolkien. The intersection of Disney and angry progressives on Twitter. A case for ladies being chased around by mad men or what the fuck ever. The world as it could be vs living in the world as it is. Princess problems.

Blood and Black Lace + School of the Holy Beast

Posted on July 26, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Blood and Black Lace + School of the Holy Beast

Yellow and Pink films. Italian giallo pulp films and a requisite number of Dario Argento jokes. Japanese pink films – pinku, pinky violence, and nunsploitation. Blood and Black Lace in high definition. A masked, shadowy killer brutally murders the models of a scandalous fashion house in Rome. That goddamn Suspiria 4k remaster. Putting on a play or opera or whatever behind the scene thing. The giallo fixation on props. School of the Holy Beast aka The Transgressor. What is a pink film? Japense pinku. Finding the canonical pinku and pinky violence films. In order to investigate her mother’s strange death, a woman enters a sacred convent run by hypocritical, perverse nuns. Peeing on Jesus. One of the most incredible things Double Feature has ever seen. Continue reading →

Bad Boys + Rush Hour

Posted on July 19, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Bad Boys + Rush Hour

Double Feature does the bare-minimum to look at two 90s blockbuster buddy-cop movies. Bad Boys is an unlikely film in an unlikely time, all before you consider Michael Bay. Even stranger still, it didn’t look or feel weird at the time! Representation in big movies. Are buddy cop culture-clash films problematic? Is everyone tired of using the phrase problematic? Everything is easier when you can dismiss it out of hand. The self-conscious anxiety that projects mainstream problems onto obscure movies. Bad Boys was far to easy to defend, time to watch Rush Hour. A Los Angeles film totally lost on a Texan. Chris Tucker was loud and that was fine. Jackie Chan was a weirdly-gazed asian commodity and that was probably also fine. People saw these goddamn movies. For all the ill, there’s unsung power in tropes and clichés. Continue reading →

Road Games + Body Double

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Road Games + Body Double

Contrasty Hitchcock covers. Tributes? Ripoffs? Probably not ripoffs, right? Road Games: two words. Although sometimes Roadgames, one word. The open road and how not to tune your guitar. Murder death. Murder death is how not to. A suspicious lack of jokes about dingos. Americans in the outback. The temporary towns that exist on road trips. What Illinois, California, Austin, and some random part of Australia all share in common. How a placement of extreme violence in one specific location can impact the entire viewing experience. Body Double, two words. One half of this episode, still featuring Barbara Crampton. Brian De Palma finally gets some air time on Double Feature. Voyeurism to the next level. Under the surface – what else do audiences get out of voyeurism? Another option for placing your extreme violence. Continue reading →

Victor Crowley + The Endless

Posted on July 5, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Victor Crowley + The Endless

New listener? Start here! A brand new year of Double Feature starts a fresh run with returning local heroes. Pay to rent these films! Victor Crowley as Hatchet 4. Returning to form. The slasher trajectory. The most misunderstood element of the Hatchet franchise – the humor! Top secret Hatchet 10 year anniversary. The impact of Adam Green’s series on two young horror fans. Felissa Rose gets the spotlight she deserves! The Endless is better if you’ve seen previous Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead films. Remembering back to Resolution. 2018 makes joining a cult super easy. One of the most mind-blowing moments in Double Feature history. Intentional or not, The Endless as a metaphor for filmmaking. Expanding on an interpretation from previous Benson / Moorhead work. Continue reading →

Double Feature Year 10 Finale

Posted on June 29, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Double Feature Year 10 Finale

A spoiler-free look back at all of Double Feature Year 10. New to Double Feature? Fuck it, start here! The best pairs, the best movies. A secret thing Eric is overly diplomatic about but needs to let loose on. Michael has feelings about 2018. Hang on to tomorrow because tonight the stars revolt! Do you believe and will you learn to scream..like me? There’s nothing to it. When stars revolt. They’re only doing what they’re told. Dun nun nun. Dun nun nun. What’s the mystery? The lights of death and fame. Shine. On. Invaders from inside can easily replace you now. Hang on tomorrow because tonight, the stars. You know. Target Earth for me because tonight, the stars. Sing your favorite song because tonight, the stars…revolt? Death to Double Feature, long live the new flesh. Continue reading →

The Shawshank Redemption + The Human Centipede 3

Posted on June 21, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
The Shawshank Redemption + The Human Centipede 3

Double Feature year 10 comes to its logical conclusion. The Shawshank Redemption and a quick word on Stephen King. Two imprisoned men bond over a number of years, but not in a prison-bondage centipede kind of way. It turns out the Shawshank Redemption isn’t a movie about standing outside in the rain. Timeless elements of films with and without centipedes. The minimalistic appeal of a prison film. The Human Centipede 3 as the final sequence! A warden finds inspiration in cinema. Michael Koester, Human Centipede expert. Using a sequel to bring real world elects of a film’s reception and legend into the fictional canon. The percentage of American in the prison system, prison system, has doubled since 1985 they’re trying to build a prison! Continue reading →

Legend + Krampus

Posted on June 14, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Legend + Krampus

Monster worlds on sound stages! A young man must stop the Lord of Darkness from both destroying daylight and marrying the woman he loves. Well, pretty much that. How Legend is unlike anything else and maybe – just maybe – what it’s about at all. A magical place called Spooky Burbank that is actually called Magnolia Park. The former glory of Creature Feature and the always-glory of Tim Curry. Who needs an audience surrogate? Krampus and the inevitable countdown until Trick r Treat talk begins. A boy who has a bad Christmas ends up accidentally summoning a festive demon to his family home. The audience’s inexplicable need to try their hardest not to understand the tone of Krampus. Continue reading →

Jackie + The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Reifenstahl

Posted on June 7, 2018 by Eric Thirteen
Jackie + The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Reifenstahl

Presidents and propaganda gets an epilogue! Discovers from looking at fictional adaptations of presidents’ lives and documentaries that are implied to carry the truth. People around the president. Finding more truth in fictional accountings. The desire of fictional narratives to find what feels like “the Truth.” Closer study reveals just how large gaps in knowledge are. Just what is propaganda? Judging an entire person’s life based on one thing they did decades ago. The power of filmmaking. Demanding moral choices from artists. Art that is clear on moral grounds vs art that is a valid use of time and resources. Film as the least rewarding bang-for-buck on the question of resources. Continue reading →