Mike Watt - Fervid Filmmaking: 66 Cult Pictures of Vision, Verve and No Self-Restraint

Foreword by Lloyd Kaufman

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Watt, Mike, 1973
Fervid filmmaking : 66 cult pictures of vision, verve and no self-restraint / Mike Watt ; foreword by Lloyd Kaufman.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7864-7066-2

1.Cult filmsCatalogs.2.Motion picturesCatalogs.I.Title
PN1995.9.C84W38 2013
791.43'611dc232012049686

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

2013 Mike Watt. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

On the cover: top the funeral in Blanco Town in Straight to Hell; middle Brother Bear and Brother Rabbit in Coonskin; bottom Queen Doris (Susan Tyrrell) and her court in Forbidden Zone (courtesy Alex Cox; courtesy Bakshi Productions, Inc.; courtesy FZ Distribution)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

For Mom and Dad,
for Phil Hall,

And for Amy,
whose uncanny sense of what may be
a bad movie sometimes meant
that shed fall unconscious
before the FBI warning was over,
but who nonetheless made my
movie pursuits so much more enjoyable.

In memory of Frederick S. Clarke

It should go without saying that a huge number of people have supported this work and assisted in ways theyll never fully understand, because I refuse to explain myself. Anyway, Id like to take this time to thank, in particular, Richard Harland Smith from TCMs Movie Morlocks; Mark Bell, Eric Campos and Chris Gore from my beloved Film Threat; Art Ettinger, Alana Sleeth and Ally Melling of Ultra-Violent Magazine; and particularly Bob Kuiper, whose unfounded faith allowed me to continue my professional journalism career when he brought me aboard to edit the revamped Sirens of Cinema.

Id also like to thank my former employers Cathy Kelly and Bruce Lentz. Also, my once and future conspirators Justin Wingenfeld, Bill Hahner, Bill Homan, Don Mike, Mike and Carolyn Haushalter, Matt Gilligan, David White, Charlie Fleming and Tim Gross, Ray Yeo, John Bulevich, Darryl Unger and Terry Thomemore than nearly anyone else, these learned and semi-civilized men are responsible for a good deal of my obscure film knowledge.

On both a professional and personal level, I need to thank Amy Pham at Aquarius PR; Allison Jones, Sabrina Sieck, Alvaro Galvan, Ron and Cathy McKay, Erin Sparks, Dan Levay at Troma Entertainment; Eric Grundenmann from Epic Slap Productions; Bobbi Valentine Heller of ZIA Film Distribution LLC; and the Horror Writers Guild of America. Also, Ry at Full Moon Features; Victor Moreno at Clubcultura.com; Nicole Mikuzis at Severin Films; Stephen Housden and a very special and heartfelt thanks and everlasting devotion to Xenon Pictures Incorporated ... rulers of the known universe and purveyors of the finest cinematic treats available to all species.

In addition, heartfelt thanks must go out (in order of height) to Alex Cox, Alex Kuciw, Amanda Anderson, Amanda Reyes, Amber Benson, America Olivo, Andy Copp, Barbi Myles, Bigas Luna, Bill Moseley, Carmen Chaves Gastaldo, Carmine Capobianco, Dan Wool, Debbie Rochon, Dennis Devine, D.S. Cohen, Eric Gruendemann, Eric Stanze, Eric Thornett, Erin Cummings, Gadi Harel, Glenn McQuade, Gorman Bechard, Grant Moninger, Henrique Couto, Honey Lauren, Holt Boggs, Jasi Cotton Lanier, Jeff Monahan, Jeff OBrien, Jim Cirile, John Baker, Jonathan Maberry, Jon Keeyes, Joshua Grannell, Joshua Miller, Julia Voth, Ken and Pam Kish, Kriscinda Meadows, Lisa Coduto, Lisa Morton, Lucy Lawless, Michael Bowen, Peter Bishai, Peter Greenaway, Ralph Bakshi, R.H. Greene, Richard Downing, Richard Elfman, Romeo Carey, Sally Mullens, Scooter McCrae, Steve Bissette, Taylor Jessen, Tom Byron, Tom Schiller, Vincent Guastini, Ward Jenkins, Will Keenan, William Kaufman, William Malone, William Richert, William Wright, Zack Nilsson, Zoe Bell, and Lloyd and Pat Kaufman for their assistance, their skillful direction in turning me on to some of these great movies, or, most especially, the creation of some of the wildest, most creative films that far too few people have seen.

Special thanks go out to Mr. Michael Varrati and Dr. Rhonda Baughman for their editing assistance.

I must extend praise and great respect to Phil Hall, whose ongoing column at Film Threat, The Bootleg Files, inspired me to rip him off with my own column, Movie Outlaw.

Of course, I must thank my wife and partner, Amy, for all the editing and support. I must also thank her for wasting many hours in front of nth-generation VHS movies and substandard DVD burns with me.

Finally, I have to thank my father, Bill Watt, for sparking my lifelong obsession with movies of all kinds, from John Fords epic westerns, to the silent pioneers, the 40s hard-boileds and the screwball comedies.

by LLOYD KAUFMAN

Some say that film criticism is dead, that the Internet killed and buried it in a shallow grave of message boards, blogs and IMDb posts. Others believe criticism is alive but if you cant sum up your feelings about a movie in 144 characters, then maybe you dont deserve the thumbs God (or whoever) gave you! I happen to know for a fact that serious criticism still exists, because Ive been married for 37 years, and because Mike Watt exists!

I also know that when Mike Watt writes about a movie, he chooses his words carefully, tries to put that film into a cultural, political and occasionally personal context, and then uses way more than 144 characters to express those thoughts. Maybe he uses too many characters.1 I am a living testament to the fact that the eye can only read so many words before the brain starts thinking about sex.

Lloyd Kaufman and the Capitol Building, together again ( Troma Entertainment, Inc.).

Mike, however, understands something that all the casual film lovers with their own websites only hint at and that the rest of the world flocking to see the extra, longer and more extravagant Avatar seem to miss entirely: MOVIES ARE IMPORTANT. Theyre art! At their best, they are comparable to great music,2 enriching our spiritual individual and collective lives. At their least, they are entertaining, a way to escape from the toxic waste and rampant chicken genocide all around us. If you agree that art is anything that is created by the hands of man (or gyno, or combination of the two) then all movies created are art. With the exception of Eat, Pray, Love.

Maybe the movies Mike chooses to focus on dont seem like art to the naked eye. But he tries to point out a few that you may not have heard of for some criminal reason. The devil-worshipping media conglomerates in charge of the movies, who dictate what we have the right to see or not see, have determined that a lot of these movies, art or not, are better off buried or relegated to the Danteesque level of limbo known as out of print. Often for no other reason than because they were created by me. Sometimes because they are out-and-out lousy; but lousy, like beautiful, is in the eye of the beholder.