I’m not a big fan of TMC. Don’t get me wrong it's not bad and every once in a while they show something flat out good. But the channel tends to be a bit on the vanilla side, and its two hosts “droning talkative guy” and “Dennis Miller wannabe who really doesn’t seem to like movies much” set my teeth on edge.
So you’ll forgive my surprise when I flipped it on one day only to see Seijun Suzuki clips and the priest from The Crazies lighting himself on fire. What the hell? What was going on here, had a zombie Jerry Harvey come back from the dead to wreck vengeance on cable movie channels?
Not quite, but it's almost that cool. You see “droning talkative guy” and “Dennis Miller wannabe who really doesn’t seem to like movies much" have got a new neighbor and he seriously kicks ass. Robert Wolfgang Zombie has come to town. Every Friday night starting on the 13th, Zombie gets to show transgressive underground films of his choosing, and Rob Zombie is a man who knows transgressive underground films.
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Zombie. Even when he was just musician there was a nice Vincent Price quality to his shows. He’d entertain you by any means necessary, and if that meant ten foot tall dancing robots so be it. House of 1000 Corpses was flawed but fun. Obviously the work of a man who knew and loved his genre films, plus you it allowed you the chance to see Dwayne from The Office beat with a sledgehammer and turned into “Fishboy”!!!
The Devil’s Rejects was a friggin quantum leap, a film so dirty, hardcore, and grindhouse that it made Kill Bill look like a pathetic pretender to the throne. This was true grindhouse cinema: lean mean and without so much a thought for “decency”. The film is so good that I’m actually looking forward to, as opposed to dreading, Rob Zombie retooling of the Halloween franchise.
I suppose it's only a matter of time before this goes off the air, due to poor ratings, or because the blue hairs who usually frequent TMC looked up from there mush long enough to realize that there's something in color is on and complain. Still, this is going to be one hell of a lot of fun while it lasts. The days of Ghoulardi are back.
The madness begins Friday the 13th with an Ed Wood Double Feature of Plan 9 From Out Of Space and Bride Of the Monster playing and kicking ass. Get more info at TCM Underground. I can’t wait.
