2010 Directed by Joshua Grannell
A mousy librarian inherits her father's beloved but failing old movie house. In order to save the family business, she discovers her inner serial killer — and a legion of rabid gore fans — when she starts turning out a series of grisly shorts. What her fans don't realize yet is that the murders in the movies are all too real…
Natasha Lyonne Thomas Dekker Cassandra Peterson Mink Stole Noah Segan Jack Donner Jade Ramsey Nikita Ramsey Ashley Fink Ariel Hart Patrick Bristow Robin Calvert Julie Caitlin Brown Joshua Grannell Kat Turner Anthony Fitzgerald Lyndsy Kail Santia Andrews Jennifer Taher Gwyneth Richards Heklina Jesse Pimentel
USAR
Germany18
Germany
USA
A campy tribute to classic shock and gore flicks. It's dumb fun, and Natasha Lyonne kills it with her supremely over the top performance.
Deborah: You're smarter than that, Steven. You know better than anybody, the audience is always secretly rooting for the killer. We want to see this mommy bitch die!!!
This is why I watch independent film. This is why I’m in love with film in general. I don’t really know what I would do without it.
Steven has a Moonbathing poster over his bed featuring the character Elvira. Elvira was played by Cassandra Peterson, who plays his mother in this movie.
“I’m just trying to understand why you like this stuff. This is sick!”
Natasha Lyonne, the Queen of Ham. I listened to the Severin podcast prior to watching this, in which director Joshua Grannell and Mink Stole talk about the making of the film. Grannell is obviously the world’s biggest John Waters fan, and much of what he’s doing here is a late aughts-homage to The Sultan of Sleaze and the goofball bloodletting of Herschell Gordon Lewis. Also in the vein of Waters and Romero in how the city is as much a character as the flesh-and-blood spattered humans, in this case, San Francisco, where an old woman can be beaten within an inch of her life by a homeless…
the beginning had me hating this immediately, but it started to grow on me about halfway through. the practical effects are good and this was really campy. still didn't love it though. it's just okay.
it has everything i love: references to classic horror movies, gore, so much blood, deaths and a reckless filmmaker main character who has nothing to lose
Campy + queer horror at its finest 🌈 I sought this movie for years, because one of my favorite teachers from film school did the production design. Now that I’ve finally seen it, it’s even better than I dreamed. The cast is brilliant, and they all know exactly what movie they’re in. Natasha Lyonne in particular goes *all* in as malevolent film director Deb-oar-uh Ten-eeess! I hope to watch this with a group of queer horror fans someday.
P.S. There’s a poster for Carnival of Souls in the opening credits 🖤
oh to be natasha lyonne, plotting murder in a transatlantic accent while wearing a black dress and smoking a cigarette with a white streak in my hair and my lipstick in the shape of a heart
Deborah's parents believe that she is unbelievably talented but alas she pees the stage and is electrocuted instead (but survives). Flash forward to adulthood and she's unfortunately a disappointment being a merely average librarian who operates her family's theatre. Her mom is super hard on her and she murders her, and then accidentally screens the footage as a short film, and well things just escalate from there. Hundreds of nods to classic campy horror films are in this film which is a nice treat for fans. The style in which this is treated is very campy black comedy which I love for this scenario, sort of like Bloodsucking Freaks meets Female Trouble but with Natasha Lyonne & Mink Stole (who are fabulous). It's pretty fun, but if you are looking to be scared this isn't it.
