Hideout: Bibliodiscoteque #45
Grindhouse Doors Open at Midnight
Movie theaters are magic.
Sure, there is a certain fun in watching a movie on your HD flat screen television, coiled on your couch, with food you didn’t mortgage your home for.
But none of that can compete with oil-buttered popcorn or the cozy darkness of the cineplex. Even the crappiest flick improves under the shared experience of group enjoyment or disappointment. For two-hours, in the soft glow of incandescent floor-lights, we travel to worlds which our living rooms can’t compete. It’s the darkness that focuses our collective attention to whatever projection dances onto the cave walls. Nothing exists in the dark, except the stories.
Some stories, like the Grindhouse tales of yore, were meant to titillate, tantalize, and take our money. They were shocking yarns of naughty prisons, diabolical freaks, and unparalleled deviance which seemed to rule the Drive-in’ and discount cinemas. But sadly, I was too young for such experiences and my knowledge comes from my parent’s tales of all day marathons down in Orange, NJ.
As a kid, my peers and I delved into deviant cinema on warbley VHS tapes and gathered in darkened basements feigning outrage and shock on ancient couches. The most horrible part being when a parent would walk through at the worst moments shaking their head and commenting on ‘ the trash’ we were watching. It was wild. It was fun. It was as close to Grinhouse cinema as I ever got.
This past year, Alex De Campi, and a bevvy of artists, are bringing Grindhouse cinema to sequential art. De Campi’s Grindhouse Doors Open at Midnight is like an EC comic cranked to 11. It’s low brow brought to new heights and it’s the subject of this month’s episode.
Part I is based on “Bee Vixens from Mars”
Part II is based on “Prison Ship Antares”
They can be found at your local comic shop and are not for the faint of heart.
Rage Well,
- Honey, Honey – The Rave-ons
- Bumble Bee – Big Mama Thorton
- Bumble Bee – Heavy Trash
- I’m a King Bee – Slim Harpo
- Devil Behind that Bush – The Cramps
- Crawlin’ (The Crawl) – Untouchables
- Shake for Me – Howlin’ Wolf
- I Got Something for You Girl – Hot Nuts
- Little Girl – Hollywood Sinners
- Sexual Feeling – Stinky Lou and the Goon Mat
- Lookin’ Down at You, Lookin’ Up at Me – Andre Williams
- Pink Pussycat (Kitten’s Theme) – The Del Rays
- Pull Out – Boss Hog
- She’s Wicked – The Fuzztones
- Mark of the Squealer – The A-Bones
- Myra HIndley – Coffin Nails
- Dirty – The Ettes
- Demolicion – Wau Y Los Arrrghs
- Mil Punialadas – Las Aspiradoras
- Interstellar – The Barbarellas
- I’m a Sinner Not a Saint – Imperial Surfers
- Baby, I’ll Trust You When I’m Dead – The Woggles
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