Cinematic Void Double Feature

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see an amazing set of movies in the Spielberg theatre at the Egyptian Theatre. For those who don't know, the Spielberg is the incredibly tiny theatre that is used for certain screenings and special events. The films showed were Dream Stalker and Blackenstein presented by Cinematic Void. They help promote some of the lesser known cheap 80's slasher films and actually will do some restorations and DVD/Blu-Ray releases if there aren't any available. They do screenings at both the Egyptian and the Aero. The films I'm talking about today are the two extremes on the bad horror spectrum.

There is a certain sub-genre of cheap slasher films that, for one reason or another, turns out to be utterly hilarious and highly entertaining but, not for the intended reasons. Dream Stalker is the epitome of this. Brief breakdown of the plot, girl's boyfriend (or fiance, not really clear on that) dies. Three years later, she keeps having nightmares about him killing her. After this revelation, it turns out that her boyfriend, when she's asleep, is now killing people. After her therapist is killed, she decides to go to her cabin which is right next to a camp for troubled teens (who appear to be in their 20's). It's at this point when the death toll skyrockets and shenanigans happen. 

The plot isn't anything special except when it's described as Freddy Kreuger on a dirt bike. Then it's fascinating. The truly interesting part of the film is the story of how it was made. First off, the film has no credited director (to be explained later). Secondly, it has some of the worst sound I've ever heard in a film. Lastly, none of the actors had acted before except for the guy playing the killer, Mark Diaz. Oddly enough, the face makeup used is really well done.

Mark Diaz (on left) was at the screening to talk about Dream Stalker and here is what we learned. The original concept was going to be much more intellectual. It was called Kinetic Nightmare and had a very different outcome. Boyfriend was going to be very controlling and scary. After death, girl has nightmares. It's this version of boyfriend that comes to life and kills whoever is perceived to be trying to keep them apart or is hassling girl. Same thing happens when she listens to a music box that he gave her. As cool as that sounds, that's not what got filmed. The main problem, technically, is that it was filmed on video. Basically, it was filmed on VHSs that then had to be edited together. This is a major problem when you have a horrible sound guy. The sound is a lesson in what not to do. There are two scenes where you can't hear the dialogue because the ambient noise is so damn loud. The sound was so bad that there was twenty minutes of footage they couldn't use because of the sound. This leads to some very awkward opening scenes being included to pad it out.

Now for the story of the director. The director also wrote the film. He was 22 at the time of filming. It was his first film and he wanted final say in editing. The production company refused because it was his first film. He was so unhappy with the final cut of the film (because they left stuff in he thought was technically unacceptable) that he legally had his name removed from the credits. That's what you call a ringing endorsement.

The second film is on the opposite end of memorability. It is Blackenstein, the blaxploitation version of Frankenstein. It's dull and has a disappointing ending. Spoilers: Blackenstein is killed by TWO police attack dogs. And he dies fairly easily too. The one really confusing thing was the open sequence. It's done like they were trying to hide that the actress was pregnant and it's done in an obvious (to me) way.

Overall, it was a fun night with the usual suspects. Although, there were only like eight of us by the end of Blackenstein and we started off with like 30 before Dream Stalker.

Evening's Rating: 4/5