Thursday, June 16, 2005

Fantasmo Cult Cinema Explosion!


On Friday, July 1st, I'll be the special guest speaker at the Chesapeake Central Library's Fantasmo Cult Cinema Explosion!, a monthly double-feature of cinematic weirdness and obscurities. July's topic (and Episode 4 in the Fantasmo series): cult auteur Tobe Hooper!

The library will be unspooling two classics from this director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: The Funhouse (1981) and Invaders from Mars (1986). I'll be doing a meet-and-greet (and selling some books) before the screening, at 7:00 pm and then doing an hour-long author talk starting at 7:30. My comments will cover the career and history of Tobe Hooper, and especially some details on these two classics from his career.

In my book, Eaten Alive at a Chainsaw Massacre: The Films of Tobe Hooper (McFarland, 2003), I call The Funhouse "an accomplished film that captures the raw edge of early Hooper...as well as the new, more disciplined Hooper (exemplified by the pristine Salem's Lot.)"

And Invaders from Mars, I wrote, "accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, to recount a crazy adventure from the viewpoint of a slightly off-kilter, smart aleck, media-exposed kid. Hooper's camerawork is laudable, his pacing is good, and his tongue planted firmly in cheek. At times, when the picture involves the shadowy and unfriendly faces of whispering adults plotting secret matters, Invaders from Mars evokes the isolation and discontentment of childhood in a very tangible way."

So if you're in the neighborhood of the Chesapeake Central Library on Friday, July 1, 2005, stop by to catch this cult double-feature. You'll go home with shivers, I promise...

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