Prima Donna Trauma

"The Effects of Mustard Gas"

A Horror Thrift Store Restoration by Aimee Thomas.

Used preemptively for the first time in World War I - Mustard Gas is a toxic chemical weapon used to murder and incapacitate human beings.  24 hours after exposure, the victim gradually suffers extreme itching and skin inflammation.  Eventually developing into first and second degree burns, characterized by large blisters filled with yellow liquid.  Early preventative measures, such as wearing a gas mask, were found to be unsuccessful.  Mustard Gas is an agent that is highly transferrable to exposed skin and can linger on surfaces for weeks.  Those who survive the chemical agent, are more likely to develop cancer later in life.  Unfortunately, sulfur mustards have been used in a multitude of wars and disputes since 1917.

I wanted to do a few portraits involving human experimentation for my next few projects.  While researching, I came upon the chemical warfare agent, Mustard Gas.  I loved the idea of a gas mask paired with a mustard yellow dress - but all of the reference pictures I used were very distressing and painful to look at.  Majority of the time, I'd like to believe that making these restorations is my way of honoring the people directly affected by the subject matter.  This was definitely one of those times..  This piece started as a small print of an original painting, which I purchased at Junk in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.   I restored the image using acrylic and water color paints.

Some things I've read have suggested that perhaps Mustard Gas was not as lethal as it's reputation suggests.  That it was mainly used to have a psychological impact on soldiers.  After all, chemical agents were not the most conventional weapon at the time.   However, I remain doubtful to that opinion.  I just refuse to believe that Reddit and Google Images would lie to me!

Till Death Do You Part

A Horror Thrift Store Restoration by Aimee Thomas.

"Bestowed at the tender age of 8 years old, the Cantors had no idea they were indeed signing their beloved daughter Eloise's eventual death certificate.  The Rutherford household in turn, was a strict and cold place to grow up - leaving Chancellor Rutherford Thorpe no choice, but to mature as quiet and distant man.  Never a true admirer of the boisterous, outspoken Eloise, Rutherford fell deeper and deeper into despair.  Overtime, he grew to resent his future bride.  On the fortnight before their wedding, the Chancellor found himself seeing nothing but red and destruction.  In a profound rage, he took a knife to his young bride's throat, sending her into oblivion for what he thought would be an eternity.  However, just as outlandish in death as she was in life, Eloise Cantor refused to be forgotten.  On the 14th night, her sleepless spirit rose from her shallow grave, determined to prove her loyalty to her fated husband and executioner.  Though bloodstained and ragged, the Chancellor could not stop his knees from weakening at the sight of Eloise's tenacious corpse.  She had finally proven what she could not in life, and the two found love in death." 

It only took 6 months, but I finally finished "Till Death Do You Part" - a piece on "love in death" in my series of Horror Thrift Store Restorations.  The original photograph was purchased from Gotham Thrift Shop in Ridgewood, Queens.  It was a framed black and white photo painted on with watercolor.  I restored this mixed media portrait using acrylic, watercolor paints and colored pencil.  I honestly feel as though the countless hours I've spent on the "Gore Subreddit" page prepared me for this one.  My favorite part of the whole thing, is the look on Rutherford's face.  He seems so proud of what he's done.  

It's the perfect addition to our dining room.  But seriously though, the moment these two start haunting us, this painting is out!  Any takers?

The ABCs of Death

26 Directors, 26 ways to die.

Despite the scholarly title, majority of educators wouldn't choose to show this 2012 horror/comedy anthology film to a class of youths. Especially if said educators were aware of it's grisly and erotic content. Unfortunately Sheila Kearns, a 58 year old substitute teacher from Columbus Ohio, picked the wrong film to distract 5 classes of impressionable spanish students - The ABCs of Death. (Good idea - because you know, SOME of this movie is in spanish after all.) As of Thursday, January 16th 2015, Kearns was convicted of four felony counts of 

"disseminating matter harmful to juveniles."  

So, is the ABCs of Death really that traumatizing?

Simple answer: Yes. Yes, it is.

Inspired by educational ABC books, the film is made up of 26 short horror films, created by 26 different directors ranging from fifteen countries. Including directors such as Srdjan Spasojevic (A Serbian Film), and Noboru Iguchi (Machine Girl).  Each director was presented with a $5,000 budget, a 4 minute run time and a letter of the alphabet to theme their film after.  They were given free reign over the film's subject matter and genre - but were given the requirements of showing at least 1 death, as well as opening and closing their film with the color red.  This movie is said to be an ambitious and diverse look into the beauty of death and all it's splendor.  So in honor of Sheila Kearns and the abundance of mistakes that we all make in life... Can of Worms decided to delve into the depths that is The ABCs of Death.  Or something like that? 

After watching this movie, what I really want to know, is what in the hell was Kearns doing for five class periods to miss something like this?  Oh, her back was turned to the screen?  That would explain why she missed "L is for Libido" five times - a short film about men being skewered alive for losing a masturbation contest.  Or, "P is for Pressure" - where a woman desperate for money, finds herself the star of a crush film (stepping on and crushing animals to death).  It's not exactly the preferred subject matter for high school students.

From a horror standpoint, the idea behind this movie is brilliant.  It was interesting to see how each filmmaker interpreted the letter they were given.  The end result giving us sci-fi, experimental, mockumentary, animation, torture porn, etc.  Regrettably, as a lot of anthology films go, The ABCs of Death is lacking in the execution department.  It's relatively easy to distinguish which directors are well-experienced, and which are just starting out.  A few left me wondering where the budget even went to?  So clearly some films are better than others.  At the top of the list, is Srdjan Spasojevic with "R is for Removed" - where a man's skin is used to make 35mm film.  As well as "D is for Dogfight", by Marcel Sarmiento (director of DeadGirl).  Surprisingly, one of the least popular turns out to be Noboru Iguchi's "F is for Fart" - which has been called absurd and tasteless.  

Be it absurd and tasteless at times - I dug this movie.  It made me chuckle, shriek, cringe in pain, but most of all, made me want to keep watching.  It gives a glimpse into the minds of some of today's most current directors working in the horror genre.  Best of all - each segment is so brief, that you can easily skip over the shorts you find personally unsavory.  

So take a gander at Can of Worm's current #28 - The ABCs of Death.  You can stream this title on Netflix Instant or rent online on Amazon Video and Apple iTunes.  Last but not least - let us not forget the most important lesson learned - please resist all urges to force this movie upon large groups of minors.  Seriously.

The Exorcist

A movie so scary, it’s own Atheist director began to believe in demonic possession.  

The 1973 American supernatural horror film, The Exorcist is the definition of a controversial classic.  To this day, it still consistently disturbs audiences and influences filmmakers.  It’s said that the original spectators of the film were so traumatized by what they saw, they became ill, fainted, went into hysterical fits, or raced out of the theater in shock – there are even reports of institutionalization and one miscarriage that was caused by the film.  Certainly, the theme of demonic possession wasn’t something that 1973 audiences were used to – however, this feature presentation may have been extra horrifying had viewers known the story was a little more accurate than they were aware of.  

Both the film and the original book (by the same name) revolve around the plot of a young girl becoming possessed by a demon – but the real story deals with the response and reception of this crisis from the viewpoint of two other characters.  Chris McNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is a famous actress, residing in Georgetown, Maryland.  She seems to lead a very happy and prosperous life with her 12 year old daughter Regan (Linda Blair), her personal assistant (Kitty Winn) and their two house servants.  Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller) is a priest and psychiatrist who is plagued with guilt over the recent death of his mother.  He is distraught and has lost his faith in god.  Not before long, Regan begins showing concerning signs of a serious ailment – she appears comatose at times, uses foul language, has a rapid heartbeat, gains exceptional strength, has pungent breath, causes the temperature in the room to drop, self mutilates and even has multiple personalities.  Chris grows frustrated as doctors cannot solve Regan’s illness, suggesting the girl should be prescribed ritalin (the doctors assume epilepsy in the book).  She turns to the only place she believes to have left, the church.  Damien Karras reluctantly agrees to help give the grieving mother what she wants – an exorcism for her daughter.  Already struggling with his own faith, Karras knows that an exorcism is not easy to come by in the Catholic church – rules must be met and possessions must be proven.  He will need permission from the bishop.  He will need a priest of much stronger religious conviction than himself.  He will need Father Lankester Merrin (Max von Sydow), the exorcist.

Minus a few small details, William Friedkin’s 1973 horror film and Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel are almost exactly the same.  Which isn’t surprising, considering Blatty adapted the screenplay.  His book was inspired by the 1949 exorcism of “Roland Doe”, a young boy from Cottage City, Maryland.   Doe was said to be able to levitate and move furniture on it’s own.  In fact, besides the victim’s gender, the location and the color of the vomit - everything else in the story was essentially true, head spinning included.  That is sincerely the scariest thing I have ever heard… as if the movie wasn’t scary enough.  When making the film, Friedkin was allowed to look at the diaries and notes from priests, doctors and nurses of the original case.  As previously mentioned, the director studied the case in such great depth, that even as an Atheist, he began to believe in demonic possession.  Think about that the next time you watch this film.  

Combine frightening true accounts with gorgeous cinematography, newfangled special effects, a dedicated director and an honest, proficient cast, and you’ll get the greatest horror movie ever made.  I can’t even begin to describe the beauty in this footage.  The image above is one of the most iconic moments in cinema.  This shot alone took 24 hours to achieve, being shot in both the daytime and nighttime.  If adjusted for inflation, The Exorcist would be the top grossing R-rated film of all time.  It was the first horror film to ever be nominated for Best Picture, along with 9 other nominations and 2 wins.  

The first time I watched this film, I was a teenager, alone at home in my parent’s basement during a thunderstorm.  I was watching it on some random TV station – they weren’t even showing the gorey or disturbing parts due to television ratings.  Even so, I was terrified enough to have a friend come pick me up and protect me from the possession of Pazuzu…  Everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing the first time they watched this movie – and that is why The Exorcist is Can of Worm’s number 1 pick.  

You can digitally rent The Exorcist on Redbox Instant or Target Ticket - or rent via DVD on Netflix. 

Nekromantik

Not a good movie for rabbit lovers.

Jörg Buttgereit’s first feature film, Nekromantik is not an easy movie to find on DVD – and when you do, it can be rather pricey.  So imagine my amazement when my Boo handed me the most perfect Christmas gift I could have hoped for… a new, unopened copy of the coveted 1987 West German horror film.  He knows what I like!  I’d heard a lot of things about this offensive film.   A production masterpiece by no means, Nekromantik has been said to have poor camera work and inferior acting.  Still, with the amounts of gore and grotesque sex scenes, Nekromantik was obviously set out to become 
a cult classic.

Rob Schmadtke (Bernd Daktari Lorenz) works for “Joe’s Cleaning Agency” – a company that is hired out to clean up horrendous road accidents and dead bodies.  Good thing too, cause our main character and his girlfriend Betty (Beatrice Manowski) have a sick little hobby that his employment helps facilitate… including bathing in blood and a collection of body parts in formaldehyde.  If the word necrophilia is popping up in your head, you would be correct.  One day while on the job, Rob is presented with a new infatuation, the rotting corpse of a man who apparently drowned in a pond.  He brings home the surprise, and our pair promptly begin one of the most repulsive sex scenes I have ever witnessed.  While Betty bestrides a steel pipe attached to the carcass, Rob focuses his attention on the corpse’s eyeball… which is even more vile once you learn the prop is actually the real eyeball of a butcherhouse pig.  Things begin to take a sour turn when Rob loses his job under petty circumstances.  Betty, realizing that her lover is no longer able to aid her morbid fetish, decides that she does not want to waste the best years of her life and takes off with the corpse.  Grief stricken Rob eases his pain in an explosive finale that is too crazy to reveal in this blog.  You must see for yourself.  

Nekromantik is banned in Singapore, Malaysia, Norway, Iceland, and parts of Canada.  And rightfully so.  The film falls under the term transgressive art – which essentially means, art that is created to violate traditional customs and create outrage.  I mean, even my poor boo had to shield his eyes during practically half of the graphic threesome.  I was more distressed by another scene, which I had previously not read or even heard anything about.  During a flashback, it’s revealed why Rob became so psychologically scarred as a child.  Playing Rob’s father, a real life rabbit breeder is shown slaughtering and then skinning a live rabbit - as though it were Rob’s beloved pet.  If you’re like me, and can watch any kind of gore, except gore dealing with animals… then definitely avoid this scene.  

But even with said slaughter - I very much respect the hard work and creativeness that went into this film.  With basically no budget, production still managed to make all the blood and guts look authentic.  As cited before, real eyeballs and intestines were used from butchered animals, as well as other low-cost special effects.  Jörg Buttgereit truly dreamt up a concept on the connection between intimacy, infatuation and fatality – a topic that not everyone is brave enough to confront.  

Cult Epics is releasing Nekromantik on Blu-Ray DVD this coming October!  You can pre-order here!

Crash (1996)

Crash Officially Sets New Record for Can of Worms.

I know what you’re thinking –  No, this is not 2004’s Crash with Matt Dillon.  I don’t blame you though, I initially thought the same thing.  This is 1996’s Crash, starring everyone’s favorite Blacklister, James Spader - a psychological thriller, written and directed by David Cronenberg.  So for a moment, forget everything you were just thinking about discrimination and reparation, and tune your brain in for something very much the opposite – a disconcerting sexual fetish.  

James Ballard (James Spader) and his wife Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger) are losing interest in their sex life.  They are in an open marriage and frequently discuss their separate sexual encounters with one another.  After a disastrous head on car collision, James finds himself staring straight into the eyes of the passenger from the opposing wreckage, Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter).  Over their curative healing process, the two are confused by the sexual arousement brought on from the accident and begin an extramarital affair.  To learn more about their new erotic fixation, the pair attend a cult meeting and are introduced to Vaughan (Elias Koteas), a man who presents automotive performance pieces by reenacting famous motor vehicle fatalities.  With the help of Vaughan and his groupies, James delves into a world of vehicle paraphilia with the hopes of revitalizing his intimate relationship with his wife.  

Critic’s reviews of Crash range all over the place.  Clearly this is a controversial movie due to the explicit sex scenes which are all prompted from violent situations.  I was not negatively provoked by the nature of this movie – I’ve seen way more messed up shit than people getting it on.  With the combination of David Cronenberg’s direction and the subject matter of sexual fetishes, the end product of this film was exactly what I was expecting.  I mean, who would have thought that a movie about fetishes would depict a lot of sexual acts… lots and lots and lots of sexual acts.  Isn’t that a given?  In fact, every character in this movie, has sex with every character in this movie - the combinations are just endless.  

The main distressing thing to me about Crash, was the lack of emotion the characters had for each other.  The characters were obviously less interested in each other, and more interetested in their “auto” erotic props.  Their actions came off cold and distant - even when participating in the utmost intimate acts - which seems very characteristic of Cronenberg films.  If you are not a Cronenberg fan this movie may not strike your fancy.

As previously mentioned, Crash gave a “first timer” to the Can of Worms’ list.  Of all the movies I have watched.. and all the naked girls I have seen.. and all the tit after tit after flopping naked tits that have been shoved down my throat,  Crash is the first movie I have watched on this list, that shows two men having intercourse.  And now I supposed I’ll have to watch 45 more movies to see it happen again.  

So thumbs up David Cronenberg - you have apparently done the impossible and proven that all humans, male or female, can be viewed equally as sexual objects.  And now I will never quite look at James Spader the same way again!

#25 - Crash (1996).  You can digitally rent Crash on Google Play, or watch the DVD via Amazon DVD or Netflix DVD.    

High Tension

Warning -  spoilers ahead… (You can read the first three paragraphs).  

What better way to spend a five + hour flight, than watching Alexandre Aja’s 2003 french slasher film, High Tension?  Great idea for me - bad idea for everyone else.  I took the risk of freaking out fellow passengers, considering the French are experts at creating transgressive horror flicks.  Just don’t let the poor audio dubbing ruin this one for you.  Seriously though, I turned the DVD player on and off numerous times thinking it would fix the sound.  It didn’t.  

Marie (Cécile De France) and Alex (Maïwenn) are two young students and best friends.  They are traveling to Alex’s parent’s house with the sole intention of studying.  It’s acknowledged that Marie may be interested in being more than just friends with her colleague.  On their first night in the house, Marie is awoken to a knock on the front door.  Unwittingly, Alex’s father goes downstairs and grants a serial killer (Philippe Nahon) entrance into his family’s home.  An obvious maniac with seemingly no motives, proceeds to brutally kill off Alex’s father, mother and younger brother.  Watch out for the decapitation by book shelf… primo death here!  Seeing this all happen - Marie evades  the psychopath.  She finds her romantic interest chained up and moved to a disgusting old cargo van - it’s destination, no one really knows.  Marie uses her undiscovered presence to her advantage and decides to rescue her best friend on her own.   

I was totally digging the first half of this movie… I’m not really sure it was great as a whole though.  As mentioned before, the audio has some issues.  But overall, the deaths were pretty creative and there were several brilliant horror movie set ups here.  The reveal on the big twist ending was very clever, but the twist itself left a LOT of plot holes in the story.  So many plot holes, that the inconsistencies of the film were what I took with me the most from this viewing.  Alright.  If you haven’t watched this movie yet - this is the portion of the blog where you should stop reading...

…

When the store clerk (Franck Khalfoun) at the local gas station is murdered by our psycho serial killer - the police are brought in.  They watch the security video to see what happened, and it’s revealed that our girl Marie is the actual murderer.  Apparently she has been mad nuts the whole time and “Le tueur” is really just a figment of her imagination.  Clever… very clever.  Except for a few things.  The entire build up and everything that we have seen from Philippe Nahon’s character would prove otherwise.  

*  The very first time we see the villain in High Tension, he is sitting in his nasty vehicle, being fellated by a severed head.  Once finished, said head is dropped on the ground outside as the truck pulls away.  I found this scene pretty humorous - in fact this was one of the first moments that drew me into the movie.  But it just doesn’t make any sense.  Being intercut with scenes of Alex and Marie’s road trip, it is implied that both acts are happening at the same time.  Marie obviously cannot be two places at once… which means that the unfortunate decapitated victim’s scene never actually happened.  So… what was the point?

*  “Le tueur” first comes to the family’s house at nighttime while everyone is sleeping.  Everyone but Marie that is… she is upstairs in the guest room masturbating.  Alex’s father answers the front door, just to be murdered in his own house.  If Marie is up in her room, how could she ring the doorbell downstairs?  

*  Once Marie has realized that they are all in danger, she desperately tries to pull a large piece of furniture to block the door to her bedroom.  She tries and tries but is just not strong enough.  In fact, she comes back a second time, and can still not even manage to budge the heavy piece.  If our girl is such a weakling - how did she manage to decapitate Alex’s father by pushing a bookshelf that was just as large and heavy?   

*  If Marie is meant to have been the murderer all along - why were the several murders that she wasn’t even in the same room for?  For example - Alex’s younger brother is executed by gunshot in the backyard corn field.  Marie is physically inside the house with Alex when this happens, and watches through the window.  

*  After Jimmy, the store clerk, is hacked to death with an axe, Marie chases after “Le tueur” and Alex in the deceased’s car.  She is definitely driving his car, because at one point she has a terrible accident and crashes.  Despite the crash, Marie catches up to the van.  You know, cause she can drive two cars at the same time and all.  

I understand that when it comes to movies, anything goes.  The writers can really write anything they want to, because in the end, it’s not real.  I’m all for a twist ending.  But this particular twist was not handled as smart as say, The Sixth Sense... which is a puzzle for you to put together yourself. I still catch something new everytime I watch it.  So touche High Tension.  You got me.  You got me good.  But you do not win, you cheater!  

#34 - High Tension. You can a digital rental of this movie on Amazon Video, Google Play, Vudu and Youtube.