Category: Sunday Streaming

What does OFFERINGS (1989) have against me? I was not even able to finish it the first time I tried to watch it back somewhere in that missing decade. I am forever searching for that elusive hidden classic and I doubt I was too far into OFFERINGS before I realized it wasn't classic and should probably stay hid. Its title evaporated in my head but it left all this stupid debris anyway. Sometimes I'd wonder to myself, "What was that movie with the terrifyingly hideous orange wallpaper?" or "What was that stupid movie that had that poorly executed bit about kids eating pizza with human flesh on it thinking it was sausage?" or "What the heck was that boring movie with the strange cake eating parents who laugh maniacally while watching cartoons?" In all cases the answer was the same; gosh darn OFFERINGS. This was before KT so it wasn't like I could write up a Name That Trauma and Googling "hideous orange wallpaper" would get me nowhere. Plus there was the fact that I had absolutely no desire to watch whatever movie it was again to consider. That really curtailed the search.

Then again, dipping my psychological pigtails in ink is a great way for a crap-tastic movie to endear itself to me and it's not as if my sensibilities have not nose-dived towards the bottom of the barrel lately. OFFERINGS is terrible and rather hypnotically so. It's like watching a dozen HALLOWEEN rip offs in one sitting because it goes on forever and whatever trance everybody in this movie is in, is highly contagious. Let's face it too that at the end of the day I'd rather see something atrociously flawed than something all Hollywood-sanitized and pruned of all character. It's my curse.

Here's an example of why OFFERINGS is maddeningly stuck in my craw. One scene finds our dazed heroine preparing dog food for the family pooch. Her front door bell rings and so she goes to answer it carrying a full spoon of dog food because who has time to put a spoon down? At the door is her friend who sees the spoon sporting an unidentified substance and then bends down and eats whatever it may be and is alarmed to find that she has just eaten dog food. Who does that? And more importantly why am I so fascinated by the idea that somebody out there at one point thought human beings might behave this way. I will give points for the line, "Serves you right!" which is the spoon girl's response to her friend's insane actions because truer words have never been spoken. There are dozens more inexplicable occurrences in this guesstimated 9-hour long movie but I should really just let them go and move on with what is left of my squandered existence.

Maybe you shouldn't watch it. Maybe you should just put it on and do something else while listening to its wonderfully shameless rip-off score. It's up to you. All I know is that I found it on YouTube with a better picture than I recall and spectacularly enhanced with spicy Spanish subtitles! Yay! It's called OFFERINGS because the killer leaves random body parts like ears and noses behind as gifts. If it was up to me though, I would have titled it THE HOUSE WITH THE SCREAMING WALLPAPER.

The other night I found myself jonesing for some ABEL FERRARA. He does that thing where he makes movies about stuff he's actually interested in rather than crap that panders to lame-o's. I love when people do that. It reminds me of art! Our pal has plenty of masterpieces under his belt. DRILLER KILLER, MS. 45, KING OF NEW YORK…aces all. But do you know the movie of his I hold closest to my heart? Why it's THE ADDICTION.

You should not be surprised by that because it stars LILI TAYLOR, is shot in black and white and is so morose it makes Eeyore look like RICHARD SIMMONS. It's my favorite vampire flick besides THE HUNGER. Lots of folks tell me it's an allegory for drug addiction but I think that's only one casket at this mass funeral. FERRARA gets all up into humanity's addiction to evil and he's not afraid to point an accusing finger at the victims who stand back and allow or even invite evil to occur. I can understand this movie not being for everyone, it goes a little overboard with the quoting of philosophers and there are a few scenes that are truly barking mad. I don't care though, because that's what gives this strange movie is singular personality. In any case you have to witness CHRISTOPHER WALKEN's delivery of the line, "You know nothing!" and the bit where TAYLOR, confronted by an image of Christ on a pamphlet, goes mega beserker equating goodness with slavery ripping off her clothes and screaming, "I will not submit!" Plus it's chock full of New York night life and mid-nineties rap. Who isn't craving some "I Wanna Get High" from CYPRUS HILL? You're lying. Watch THE ADDICTION below, it's regrettably not on DVD at least not in these parts.

Now I get it! DON'T OPEN THE DOOR is on my list of films I always fish for on YouTube and always fail to catch. Then the other night, there it was just staring me in the face like it was there all along claiming to have been posted more than a year ago. How is that possible? Turns out I have been searching for it with the year 1975 attached while the YouTube video says 1974. I guess that's why it never got stuck in my net. Well, IMDb agrees with ‘74, I have no idea where I got ‘75 from and to make matters muddier the actual film sports ‘79 in its opening credits. Are we talking when it was made or when it was released? I'm confused enough to stop pretending that I have any concept of time in the first place. The important thing is that I got to see this movie again! DON'T OPEN THE DOOR was directed by the always interesting independent filmmaker S.F. BROWNRIGG whose first film DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT (1973) haunted late night airwaves throughout my youth. I had seen DOOR once before on VHS and although the entire film hadn't rocked my world, I was wowed by its climax which took place in a lighthouse-like crow's nest cupola complete with colored glass windows. It stuck in my head.

But how did I forget the film's opening credits? How? It consists of an assortment of creepy dolls standing in a black void and it is the swellest thing ever. Maybe I blocked it out because I wasn't cool enough to appreciate the awesomeness yet. That must be it. Oh geez, I wasn't ready for any of this movie back then! That was before I realized that the best plot in the world concerns a young lady returning to her childhood home where she once witnessed a parent being murdered. Why are movies ever about anything else? It also doesn't hurt that our main lady (SUSAN BRACKEN) acts like a cross between NAOMI WATTS in MULHOLLAND DRIVE and a petulant LINDA BLAIR or that the entire film looks like the grooviest candy-coated art flick that CINDY SHERMAN forgot to make. I'm probably not the best person to speak on the subject of feminism because my favorite Spice Girl is Baby Spice (I know Sporty has better pipes but did she attempt an awesome ode to Carol Anne from POLTERGEIST?), but somebody really should write a term paper about how every menacing man in this movie tries to get our heroine to bend to their will only to get a full blast of her nuclear ire instead. Sure, madness is her only reward and that's the same resigning towel THE YELLOW WALLPAPER threw in.

What on Earth am I talking about? I should say that there is a legitimate swampy ten minutes of redundancy that you have to drag yourself through to get to the glorious denouement but don't cry during that part, just use that opportunity to make yourself a tuna fish sandwich. Put pickles on it, that's what I did. If your refrigerator does not offer pickles, push it out the door and buy a new one.

Today we have an especially special rarity thanks to our good pal Crafty Pants Carol! It's Bloodrage (1979) (not to be confused with that OTHER BLOOD RAGE from 1987). It's directed by JOSEPH ZITO, the underappreciated dude who brought us THE PROWLER and FRIDAY THE 13th PART 4: THE ALMOST ENDING. It's about a misanthropic ne'er-do-well who finds himself killing hookers so you might want to ask yourself, "Do I mind movies in which many prostitutes are killed?" before you watch it. Personally, I think hookers are fascinating and should not be murdered but I also take into account that the psychopath in this movie works at a YOO HOO bottling plant and I can't honestly say how my own brain would handle that. I might quit before I killed a hooker but who knows, maybe not. The most important thing is that this movie is filmed in New York in the late seventies and it's totally worth it for the seedy atmosphere and all the mesmerizing secondary characters that inhabit its raunchy halls. That reminds me, I'm sad to say a nice non-hooker doggy also gets killed which I wasn't happy about but thankfully a cute kitten poster is prominently displayed in many scenes to balance out that atrocity.

Also windows! So many creepy windows! At the risk of sounding like a peeping Tom, I think windows in movies are the coolest things ever because it's like a frame within a frame. While the viewer is watching the screen, the character is watching the window and its like some kooky mirror effect like you're trapped inside a M.C. ESCHER print on some stoner art student's dorm room wall. Anyway, I love this movie! It stinks on some level because it's partially ramshackle and clearly some important scenes were never filmed and we just have to deal with dialogue band-aids to hold the thing together but then again, it has a very convincing nihilistic flavor that would make it snuggly bedfellows with HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER , CANNIBAL MAN & THE KILLING KIND. I'm not proud to enjoy a movie with such a high dead hooker quotient (yeah, right) and yet I must acknowledge the fact that BLOOD RAGE is a success in expressing a completely horrific and dismal atmosphere and there's no better time or place to capture it than when and where it does. I'm also allowing it extra points for making me want a HEAVEN CAN WAIT poster because I don't even like that movie.

Hi! This is "Darkko."

I searched your site and did not see anything for Quiet Cool. It's a fairly violent revenge-with-a-buddy type of deal. It's so bad it's actually entertaining. Basically, some psychotic pot farming guys think it's best they slaughter anyone who lays eyes on their precious marijuana. The main guy and his buddy exchange many long, questionable looks with each other! Hahaha…
It's available to watch on youtube…

UNK SEZ: Thanks a zillion Darrko! I was just wondering the other day why I keep the KT fires burning when I only get paid negative 10 cents an hour and after nearly seven years of diligent service I have yet to win a Pulitzer (I know!). But then I remembered it's because I love movies so much that it is not even remotely funny. Point is, I would have never seen this one without your kind help and that would have been a real shame and I'm so glad that KT provides me with a place to share titles with fine folks like yourself. QUIET COOL is so awesome that I do believe the ghost of PATRICK SWAYZE watched it with me.

Now, if any of you other peeps know of a good movie that's viewable online in full, please do feel free to write in to kindertrauma@gmail.com and if it's not too inappropriate we'll share your recommendation with the rest of the class on a future Sunday! How QUIET COOL is that?

Every couple months or so I check YouTube to see if anybody has uploaded PICTURE MOMMY DEAD (1966) which has eluded me for years. I once neglected to buy the VHS at a used store and clearly the film held a grudge and was playing hard to get. Happily my saint-like patience finally paid off and PICTURE MOMMY DEAD appeared before me and looking mighty good I might add! I'm glad I didn't pick up that ratty old tape that surely was wearing washed out colors and a shroud of static. This movie needs to be crunchy not fuzzy! I put my DONNA WILKES marathon on temporary hold and dived in at once. I wasn't even through the opening credits before I decided that PICTURE MOMMY DEAD is my new favorite thing that ever existed and I was bound to be obsessed for days before some other cinematic chippy came strutting around. Holy crap, it looks like a box of candy! I had that thing were I started fantasizing about eating the movie. This movie would taste delicious! It's all pastels and gold and ornate and fizzy and now I want to listen to that ABC album "The lexicon of Love." This movie was filmed in a real mansion and has ZSA ZSA GABOR in it for Pete's sake! Maybe this will be all too frilly for some horror fans but I think the relentless onslaught of prissiness creates a counter intuitive hellish atmosphere all its own. Diabetics beware.

PICTURE MOMMY DEAD is irresistible because it brings home the crazy and fries it up in a baroque, gold-plated pan. SUSAN GORDON (who's father is incidentally the director of this fine flick, BERT I. GORDON, who also blessed our world with the tonally opposite FOOD OF THE GODS) plays Jan Brady-level crazy Susan Shelly. Our Susan has just spent some time in a convent that doubles as an insane asylum because she witnessed her mother's tragic death by fire and was so traumatized that she blocked the whole thing out of her head! Am I salivating as I type this? She comes back home to her luxurious estate with her father (DON AMECHE!) and his new wife who is Susan's ex-governess; a sneaky moneygrubber named Francene (MARTHA HYER). Turns out, if Susan looses her marbles or should happen to die her inheritance will go to her father, who could really use it because Francene has expensive tastes and has already spent his share of the dough! All right. I'm not really into inheritance drama but I am really into accusing dolls that sing, "The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out", menacing stuffed animals, attacking falcons, paintings that bleed and or yell at you and giant-sized lurking groundskeepers with scars on their faces (Not necessarily in that order). Oh, and ZSA ZSA freakin' GABORas a flaming ghost!

I hate to use the word "camp" because it sounds dismissive and yet it's kind of unavoidable here. This is 1966 though and we should remember that folks acted like hysterical lunatics in most movies back then not just in low-budget horror flicks. Obviously everything was done here sincerely and not as a joke but it is funny– especially if you imagine the characters have no idea how insane they sound and are actually trapped in a surreally overstated melodramatic dimension they can't escape. And I love the heavy-handed mommy and daddy issues; it's rather like a powder puff version of HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME without all the awesome kills. In any case, the scene were the dolls begin to harass crazy Susan is now one of my favorite scenes in all of moviedom. I'm not kidding! It's like three minutes of pure grade-A Kindertrauma. I almost overdosed! And as a matter of fact, this movie gave me crazy dreams. Any movie that can grant me trippy dreams can picture itself a pal of mine for life.

I'm guilty of not properly appreciating SHOCK TREATMENT until now. I own it on VHS only because it is one of those KEY videos with the rainbow stripes on the side and I love those because you can line them up and they look so pretty and can you believe I'm not forced to take medication? I have not given this one much of a thought since I saw it as a teen and I think I thought it was just weird back then. I also seem to recall a brief time period where my younger brother was very into the soundtrack and played it everyday and so, by no fault of my own, I partially know all of the songs because they poured through my wall.

Anyway, I decided to watch SHOCK TREATMENT the other night because the tape was in my face and I've decided I like it better than THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW which I'm guilty of not liking quite as much as I'm clearly supposed to. My preference is easily explained by the presence of JESSICA HARPER. Is anyone more beautiful than Jessica Harper? Beauty gets a bad rap these days because magazines are psychotic but I don't think there is anything wrong in noting when someone is visually appealing. It's kinda what art is all about. Well, some art. Also my ears are fond of HARPER's deep voice and now I want to watch PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE right this second.

I'm pretending that SHOCK TREATMENT is a sequel to equally colorful SUSPIRIA rather than a sequel to ROCKY HORROR. I have decided that at the end of SUSPIRIA, Suzy Bannion has lost her mind and so she hallucinates that her name is Janet and she's in a new wave musical. It could happen. Plus that makes more sense than MOTHER OF TEARS. You need a little SHOCK TREATMENT below.

I think we should all break out of prison today and watch the Canadian dance epic HEAVENLY BODIES (1984). The powers that be won't let me embed it so you'll have to view it HERE.

Don't worry you're not cheating on horror movies too much because HEAVENLY BODIES stars MY BLOODY VALENTINE's CYNTHIA DALE and HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME's RICHARD REBIERE. In fact, it was even directed by the guy who played Virginia "Ginnny" Wainwright's dad (LAWRENCE DANE)! After your life has been transformed by HEAVENLY BODIES make sure you "like" its sparkly Facebook page HERE!

Here is the only sporting event anyone should ever give a hoot about (besides BATTLE OF THE NETWORK STARS and THE LAFF-A-LYMPICS)… It's GRADUATION DAY vs. FATAL GAMES and YOU are the judge! Are you team SALLY KIRKLAND or team CHRISTOPHER GEORGE? Which film has the more grating and therefore superior soundtrack? Who will survive and what will be left of your brain cells? Watch them both today, back to back and YOU will be the ultimate winner!

Look at this nice thing I found for you dear people. It's THE NIGHT FLIER, which is based on a STEPHEN KING story and it's looking pretty sharp! This is seriously one of the better adaptions of KING's work, so it's really a shame that it has become so hard to come by lately. Maybe you can help change that by signing the petition HERE to have it released on Blu-ray! It is truly is a outstanding flick. It's almost like a lost X-FILES episode and not only is it suspenseful and funny, but I think it hits a pretty horrific and disturbing note as well! It is sure to leave you with three giant questions: Why doesn't MARK PAVIA direct more?, Why don't we have more movies with JULIE ENTWISLE in them? and Why don't people throw awards at MIGUEL FERRER every time he leaves his home? Be kind to yourself today by watching THE NIGHT FLIER below….

Also: Check out this oldy moldy list of SEVEN UNSUNG VAMPIRE FLICKS!