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Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter - Lee Demarbre, 85 minutes, 2001

The first testament says “an eye for an eye.” The second testament says, “love thy neighbor.” The third testament... KICKS ASS! The filmmaking team that brought us HARRY KNUCKLES & THE TREASURE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY ups the ante with this tale of the ultimate action hero: Jesus Christ.

The Second Coming is upon us, and Jesus has returned to earth. But before he can get down to the serious business of judging the living and the dead, he has to contend with an army of vampires that can walk in the daylight. Combining kung-fu action with biblical prophecy and a liberal dose of humor, the film teams the savior with Mexican wrestling hero El Santos against mythological horrors and science gone mad, and also manages to address contemporary sexual politics. And did we mention that it’s a musical? This sure ain't Sunday School.

JESUS CHRIST VAMPIRE HUNTER, the best attended midnight screening in the history of MicroCineFest, won the Grand Jury Best Feature Film Award at MicroCineFest 2002.

Read the interview with Lee Demarbre in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.

Squeal Of Death - Alex Winter & Tom Stern, 16 minutes, 1986

Young Howie had a rough time growing up with his abusive dad, braindead mom, annoying sister, and neighborhood bullies. He found solace in the local movie house, watching his favorite gangster movie for inspiration. Then one day he finds a gun and realizes how different his life would have been if he had had it all along. Determined to turn over a new leaf, he goes on a crime spree, stealing newspapers and ink pens, until one day when he reaches the end of the line. This is a cult classic student film from Alex Winter (FEVER, Ted from the Bill & Ted movies) and Tom Stern, the same team who later made the cult classic feature, FREAKED.

Gravity - David Wechter & Michael Nankin, 8.5 minutes, 1976

In this classic parody of 50’s educational films, a young Mary Jane’s curiosity about what makes the sun set leads her to the world famous Dr. Thornton Waxman of the Carl LaFong Foundation for Gravitational Research. There she learns about the Earth’s gravity shortage and is instructed on how to take part in a “gravity conservation program” courtesy of an animated musical number from Jiminy Gravity. This early short from the makers of Disney’s MIDNIGHT MADNESS built up a cult following thanks to late night showings on cable’s Night Flight in the 80s.

Quasi At The Quackadero - Sally Cruikshank, 9.5 minutes, 1975

A classic animated short, a cross between Pee Wee’s Playhouse and a Betty Boop cartoon! Quasi, his girlfriend Anita, and her robotic friend Rollo, take a day trip to the Quackadero, an amusement park with attractions like the Tunnel Of Youth, Your Shining Moment, Hall of Time Mirrors, Think-O-Blink Paints Pictures of your Thoughts, Madame Xano and her Fabulous Dream Reader, 9 Lives 2 Live (a revue of your past lives), and Time Holes. Little does Quasi suspect that Anita and Rollo’s future plans do not include him.

Read the interview with Sally Cruikshank in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.

Herd - Mike Mitchell, 18 minutes, 1998

A brilliantly clever and hysterical homage to the sci-fi genre, HERD is the story of a lowly fry cook (Kent Osborne, writer/star of DROPPING OUT, MCF 2000 Closing Night Film & Audience Choice Winner) who becomes the unwitting accomplice to an alien who instructs him to build a nefarious black box. Originally shown at MicroCineFest ‘99. Filmmaker Mike Mitchell went on to direct the Rob Shneider comedy, DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO, and the recent Ben Affleck comedy SURVIVING CHRISTMAS.

Cat Number Six Is A Coward - Jérôme Gariépy, 7 minutes, 2000

An educational, psychotronic, propaganda, horror, comedy on the subject of quantical physics experiments performed on living cats, with a lullaby. Shot in glorious, low-budget black & white! Winner of the Low-Budget Film Award at MicroCineFest 2001.

Shank - David Morley, 33.5 minutes, 1995

Shank Surefire resigned from the police force to work in a deli, but when his friends start getting murdered, he is forced to take back his badge and solve the case. This blaxploitation parody student film was filmed in Baltimore and contains buckets of corny humor, an earful of Bawlmer accents, and plenty of cameos from recognizable local people and places (look carefully and you might recognize some of the MicroCineFest staff). Shown originally at MicroCineFest ’97.

P-13 - Nathan Pommer, 13 minutes, 2000

When a legion of trans-dimensional terrorists kidnap Scotty Ruben, only the wholesome power of oatmeal can save him. A colorful, suspenseful, visually dazzling short film that won the Judges Special Recognition Way Cool Looking Film Award at MicroCineFest 2000, from the same filmmaker who made DEVIL IN MY TUBESOCKS, ANGEL IN MY UNDERWEAR (MCF 2000) and the James Kochalka Superstar music videos DON’T TRUST WHITEY (MCF 2002) and MONKEY VS. ROBOT. It's Propagandamonium!!!

Acne - XXXXXXXXXXX, 72 minutes, 2000

When their hometown water supply is laced with an experimental chemical, the town’s teenagers become the unsuspecting victims in a plot conceived by Government, Corporate, and Military forces. Teenagers turn into acne-headed pus-spewing mutants. The only way for them to eat is to rub junk food directly onto their exposed brains. Teenagers Franny and her brother Zooey are drawn onto a dark journey through the subterranean backroads of America, in search of the truth; trapped in a surreal race against time, they try to find their enemies before they meet a disastrous fate.

A punk rock, sci-fi, horror, comedy, black & white, low-budget feature that was originally shown at MicroCineFest 2000.

Read the interview with XXXXXXXXXXX in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.

Harry Knuckles & The Pearl Necklace - Lee Demarbre, 120 minutes, 2004

From the makers of JESUS CHRIST VAMPIRE HUNTER comes a new knuckle-dusting adventure starring Canada’s favorite super spy, Harry Knuckles, and his reflex is action!

A valuable necklace made of radioactive pearls has gone missing, and Harry is on the case. Teamed with his loyal friend (Mexican wrestling hero El Santos) and armed with a lethal arsenal of kung-fu moves, a hair-trigger temper and a seemingly endless supply of potassium-rich bananas, Harry’s ready to knuckle up against any and all comers.

In the course of the film, Harry will go toe to toe with the hinterland horror of the Bionic Bigfoot, brave the binary beat-down in a booby-trapped virtual reality, manhandle some heavy metal thugs, and trounce a team of Amazon assassins. And when he’s waded through all that, he’ll still have to confront the man behind it all - a man with a secret that will shatter Harry’s world. Harry had better make every punch count, because this could very well be the final round before he has to face the big eight-count in the sky.

This is a brand new feature length sequel to the short film, HARRY KNUCKLES & THE TREASURE OF THE AZTEC MUMMY, which won the 2nd Place Audience Choice Best Short Film Award and the Judges Special Recognition Way Cool Ass-Kickin’ Action Award at MicroCineFest 2000.

Read the interview with Lee Demarbre in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.

Spectres Of The Spectrum - Craig Baldwin, 94 minutes, 1999

The year is 2007. Yogi and Boo Boo, a telepathic father-and-daughter team, lead a group of media outlaws in resistance against a corporate/governmental “New Electromagnetic Order”, which threatens to use the earth’s magnetosphere to “bulk erase” the brains of every human on the planet. The only way to save humanity is to travel out into space, following the history of television broadcasts back in time to uncover a secret lodged in an old episode of the 1950’s series, Science In Action.

Appropriating images from the detritus of high school instructional films, low-budget science fiction, and old television broadcasts, mad scientist/media archeologist Craig Baldwin (TRIBULATION 99, SONIC OUTLAWS) has once again created an obsessive, densely layered, and intellectually challenging vision of technology gone awry. A wildly energetic blend of science fiction and science fact, this epic rifles through the trash bins of our image-obsessed culture, piecing together a dossier on our love affair with technology and projecting it into a dystopic future. SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM won the Judges Special Recognition Way Cool Feature Film Award at MicroCineFest 1999, and has gone on to build up a strong cult following in the years since.

Read the interview with Craig Baldwin in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.
Read more about Craig Baldwin and SPECTRES OF THE SPECTRUM in Cashiers du Cinemart #11.

Surrender Dorothy - Kevin DiNovis, 90 minutes, 1997

Trevor suffers from a paralyzing fear of females, condemning him to a bitter life of literal and emotional celibacy despite his strong desires. Enter Trevor’s friend, Lanh, a smack addict seeking refuge in Trevor’s loft. Completely dependent on Trevor for drugs and safety, Lanh becomes Trevor’s virtual slave; and Trevor discovers that he can use his new-found power to manipulate, coerce, and terrorize the weaker man into becoming “Dorothy” - Trevor’s twisted concept of the “ideal woman”.

Described as APARTMENT ZERO meets BLUE VELVET in what Film Threat says is “the most disturbing film of the 1990s ... low budget doesn’t get any better than this” this debut feature from Kevin DiNovis (DEATH & TEXAS) won the Judges Special Recognition Way Cool Film Award at MicroCineFest 1998, as well as the award for Best Dramatic Feature at Slamdance, Best Feature Film at the New York Underground Film Festival, and a special jury award at the Atlanta Film Festival.

Read the interview with Kevin DiNovis in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.

Daddy Cool - Brady Lewis, 84 minutes, 2002

Roxanne was born a boy, but became a woman. Her television allows her to see the past and the future, which gives her insight on her father. She hates her father, Reverend Alter, a mad scientist, corrupt televangelist, and former host of a kids’ TV science program. It turns out Roxanne has a long lost twin sister, who was decapitated by their father, and whose head has been kept alive in a glass jar in their father’s laboratory ever since. To get a grip on her unusual situation, Roxanne regularly visits her shrink, Dr. Talbot, who just happens to be a werewolf battling his urge to kill.

It sounds like a horror movie, but it’s more of a comedy paying homage to schlocky ‘50s horror movies, 40s noir films, the cinematic inventiveness of Cocteau & Méliès, and television science shows. The film was shot on a very low-budget over the course of six years, and stars Streeter Nelson as both Roxanne and her decapitated twin sister, John Amplas (a George Romero vet) as Reverend Alter, and Larry John Meyers as Dr. Talbot. Variety says DADDY COOL “creates its own giddy world of vengeful siblings, televangelists, mad scientists, '50s science fiction and low-budget horror with an enjoyable disregard for current trends in moviemaking”, and the film’s “retro production look is happily handmade and thoroughly inventive, with nary a digital effect in sight.” Winner of the Silver Remi Award for Horror at WorldFest Houston International Film Festival and the Best Feature Film Award at the Eerie Horror Festival.

Read the interview with Brady Lewis in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.

Crime Wave - John Paizs, 80 minutes, 1986

Quiet man, Steven Penny, is a filmmaker who wants to make the best color crime movie ever, but he has to write the script first. Aside from only being able to write by streetlight, he suffers from a writer’s block that allows him to write countless beginnings and endings, but leaves him unable to write middles worth keeping. He befriends a young neighbor, Kim, who encourages him to travel to Sales, Kansas to meet Dr. Jolly, a supposed script-doctor, but in actuality, just a murdering psychopath.

It sounds simple, but there’s a lot more to it than that. The film looks and sounds like a 1950’s educational film, with very dry and deadpan humor. Besides following Steven and Kim, the audience also gets to see the aborted beginnings, endings, and middles to Steven’s CRIME WAVE script drafts acted out onscreen. If you have not yet seen this film, play a game while watching it: try to predict what will happen next. Chances are you won’t be able to.

An offbeat, low-budget, obscure masterpiece. Hard to find on video and even more difficult to see projected on the big screen, John Paizs’ CRIME WAVE is the epitome of an underground cult classic. Often counted as a favorite among cinephiles who have seen it, its reputation has grown in recent years and we’re proud to finally show it at MicroCineFest.

Read the interview with John Paizs in the MicroCineFest 2004 program book.
Read an in-depth article about CRIME WAVE in Cashiers du Cinemart issue #9, and a follow-up article about John Paizs’ TOP OF THE FOOD CHAIN in Cashiers du Cinemart issue # 10