Willow + MirrorMask

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Willow + MirrorMask

Fantasy films by the likes of Ron Howard, George Lucas, Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman. Warwick Davis is Willow, but who is Ron Howard? THX, 1138 and otherwise. The Deep Note. Industrial Light and Magic, Lucasfilm, and Lucasart. The role of an effects crew in the creative process. The life and times of Warwick Davis. The day to day living of a dwarf actor. How Return of the Jedi is like Dancing With the Stars. An honest conversation about casting dwarves in films. Tony Cox, Kevin Pollack, and Val Kilmer. Hamster Tokens! A unique way to film a magic fight. Real magic! Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman…and Richard Dawkins? McKean’s work for Fear Factory, Stabbing Westward, and in other places. The Sandman. Zen film score. Alice spends an extensive amount of time reading Neil Gaiman in preparation of MirrorMask. Trying to figure out Neil Gaiman’s sense of humor. Punctuated endings. MirrorMask Close to You Carpenters cover. Continue reading →

My Bloody Valentine + Poltergeist

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
My Bloody Valentine + Poltergeist

An 80s horror show! Is the Double Feature studio haunted? A definitive answer. The longstanding released version of My Bloody Valentine vs the legendary uncut version. Non-franchise 80s slasher films. Valentine’s day as an exploitable holiday for horror films. Slow tracking shots. Harry Warden. The infrequently used “mining town” setting. Pre-genre slasher. Music and canadians. Eyeline matching. The shame once associated with creating a slasher film. Alice steals an accidentally post apocalyptic scene from Poltergeist. The Steven Spielberg vs Toby Hooper debate. Toby Hooper’s style. Conspiracy. Strobe light television and eye shine. Diane and Steve, world’s most undetected adolescent parents. A vertigo shot. The oldest rolling reverse delay? Ghost hunters are kind of terrible human beings. How ghost hunters con people. Zelda Rubinstein! The curse of Poltergeist. Continue reading →

Freaks + The Straight Story

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Freaks + The Straight Story

David Lynch is back on show number 200! Double Feature choices – why pair these two films? Getting to the truth of Tod Browning’s Freaks. Who director Tod Browning is and what else he’s known for. The lewd and taboo. The lost film London After Midnight. Freakshows as exploitation. Freakshows as empowerment. Olga Baclanova has a rough time. Pillow man. What a sideshow display illustrates to us about humanity. Modern side shows. Jim Rose Circus. Walt Disney presents a film by David Lynch. The Straight Story. David Lynch does the morning weather! Why and how The Straight Story exists. Mary Sweeney. Editing digitally vs editing on film. Avid and Final Cut. Still expecting terrible things to happen. Signature, shining through. Theories on how David Lynch starts his day. The normal life of a crazy director. Getting picked up by Disney. Common Ground. Continue reading →

For a Few Dollars More + Gamera: Guardian of the Universe

Posted on April 26, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
For a Few Dollars More + Gamera: Guardian of the Universe

A return to two genres Double Feature was not prepared for. Spaghetti westerns and kaiju (Japanese monster films) return! For a Few Dollars More following A Fistful of Dollars. Lee Van Cleef as Douglas Mortimer. Ridiculous weapons. American McGee’s Alice. Unintentional smash cut humor. Sergio Leone’s signature. Spaghetti bank heist! Finally arriving at the formula for the lazy Sunday movie. Gamera: Gaurdian of the Universe as an example of the Heisei era of kaiju. Non-toho kaiju. Gamera before the reset. The difference in special effects. Still not supernatural. Well, mostly. Why is Gamera so bizarre? The Lost Continent of Mu. Atlantis. Coming up: Number Two Hundred! Continue reading →

Red Rock West + Burn After Reading

Posted on April 19, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Red Rock West + Burn After Reading

Two noir bent directors get double featured. Who is John Dahl? Red Rock West and Arizona-Noir. Playing with the lie. When to bail. Lara Flynn Boyle’s Suzanne. A cowardly femme fatale. Keeping the mystery magic. Dennis Hopper being a scary motherfucker. Surprises without twists. Weak allegiance. The intensity of Dennis Hopper and Nicholas Cage. Alice’s love of movie one-sheets. Burn After Reading and the influence of Saul Bass. A story of idiots. Hyperrealism. Carter Burwell, Roger Deakins and Emmanuel Lubezki. Tilda Swinton has to model. Has to. Voice work. Cave Johnson. The dangling plot thread of Double Feature. Continue reading →

Troll Hunter + Rare Exports

Posted on April 12, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Troll Hunter + Rare Exports

Fake terror from fake children’s tales. Make fun of Jesus far away from X-Mas. Troll Hunter is not the same as Trollhunter but is probably ok as The Troll Hunter. What the fuck happened with goblin backwards? Show me that goddamn monster. The creature is kinda terrible, but it’s going to be ok. All the trolls! Talking you out of the big troll. Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale. There is no God. There is no Jesus. Do times of danger make people more or less religious? Using the Troll Hunter to explain why conspiracies fall apart. Social Engineering. How you make silly Troll myths seem real. Showing off your work. Atheists mocking X-Mas. Hey, you downloaded this show. The look of Rare Exports. Rare Exports as a Christmas movies. The butcher. The mystery. Building fantasy into reality. Pedophilia imagery. Continue reading →

Red State + Stake Land

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Red State + Stake Land

No one expects these two movies to be this good. Dangerous places, even more dangerous directors! What does the Double Feature studio look like? Religious crazies shot on Red One cameras. Red State isn’t even Kevin Smith’s second chance. Popculture out, Waco and Fred Phelps in. A very Kevin Smith movie is also a very good movie! Charismatic characters. Rolling Shutter put to use! Kevin Pollack, Anna Gunn, John Goodman. What was so great about the TV show Roseanne? Michael Parks. Not just dabbling in horror, but adding to it. The charm and demeanor of Michael Parks as Reverend Cooper. Crazy religious nut jobs. Executions. Personalizing death. Why Red State has the best of possible endings. Another surprize, Stake Land! Written by it’s director Jim Mickle, but also it’s star Nick Damici. The ultimate apocalypse weapon: a pistol-grip sawed off shotgun with a shoulder strap. Finding subtlety in a place you don’t expect it. Color palette between day and night. Danielle Harris. Building an apocalypse film. Voiceover narration performance. Chin-up fiddle score! How is this movie doing this?! Continue reading →

Rocky 5 + The Machine Girl

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Rocky 5 + The Machine Girl

Rocky 5 and the early 1990s. 90s rap and hip hop. Joey Ellis – Go for It (Heart and Fire). Urban Blight. Back to America. Real retirement. Reconnecting with Rocky’s roots. But actually, this time. The lazy route the film could have gone. How the fifth film betrays the formula. The last Rocky movie isn’t the last one. The dark side of the ring. Redemption sequel. The third wave of Double Feature’s asian films and asian extreme. Camp and style in The Machine Girl. How Kill Bill paid off. Hattori Hanzo, all over the goddamn place. The ambiguity of references and inspiration. Deep fried arm. The blood soaked lens. Absurdist cartoon violence? The commonality of America’s favorite asian horror films. Burst of violence. The grotesque in The Machine Girl. Japan and strange weapons. Continue reading →

Attack the Block + Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Attack the Block + Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Brand new sci-fi films! Humans, defend yourselves! Feel free to listen if you haven’t seen any other Planet of the Apes films. Get that snitch. Get the strap. Don’t give a fuck – brap, brap, brap! Joe Cornish. Basement Jaxx! Kids? Adults? Teenage violence. The age of gang members. The Hippocratic Oath and aiding your attackers. Matte black sonic toothed creature design. Conspiracy is all throughout civilization. Muir Woods National Monument, Big Basin State Park, California, and filming in Redwoods. The apes! How the apes could rise. Hubarus and the downfall. An art snob defends CG. The actual main character. Surprise, Rise of the Planet of the Apes actually loves science! Slaughtering baby apes would have saved humanity. Further animal testing would have saved humanity. Continue reading →

Welcome to the Dollhouse + Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Posted on March 15, 2012 by Alice Thirteen
Welcome to the Dollhouse + Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

Dollhouses on cult film day. Heather Matarazzo. There’s apparently titular songs too. What the fuck is going on with that cover? Contrasting the dark humor in Welcome to the Dollhouse with Re-Animator. Subtle comedy. Music. Steve’s band. Worse than worse: mundane! Todd Solondz loves the suburbs. Directors fascinated with suburbia and the themes typically addressed in these films. Kids are having sex, they just don’t know what the fuck they’re doing. The repercussions of sheltering children from sex. Dealing in extremes. What Roger Ebert’s doing headlining the credits of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Other Russ Meyer films Roger Ebert has worked on. Studio project selection. The marketing concept. Differences from Russ Meyer’s other work. Genre bending. The editing. The fucking editing. The moral of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls as opposed to The Valley of the Dolls. Continue reading →