Fangoria Magazine editor-in-chief Chris Alexander is curating a weekly film festival every Monday night in January at the Toronto Bloor Cinema celebrating his love for B-movies. The Monday Madness B-Movie Film Festival (as it’s so appropriately called) kicks off January 10 with the 1971 charmer I Drink Your Blood (presented uncut) at 7 p.m. Part of the “Get Your Blood On!” double bill, the 1965 Italian schlocker Bloody Pit of Hell screens after at 9 p.m. The fest wraps up on January 31 with screenings of the 1931 classic Freaks (7 p.m.) and the 1972 not-so-classic Vampire Circus (9 p.m.)
Single film tickets are $5 each for members with a double bill ticket running $8 each for members (membership for the Bloor Cinema is only $5). Full list of films (with descriptions courtesy of Chris Alexander) and schedule below. For more information, visit bloorcinema.com.
January 10, 2011 – “Get Your Blood On!”
I Drink Your Blood (1971)
Notorious post-hippie horror show sees a backwoods town under the thumb of a gang of unwashed thugs. When a young boy decides enough is enough, he injects meat pies with rabies, causing the ruffians to become frothing, wide eyed, ultra-violent murderers. Lynn Lowry (Shivers, The Crazies) co-stars in this trash classic, presented UNCUT.
Bloody Pit of Hell (1965)
Absolutely insane, homoerotic camp classic from Italy sees Mickey Hargitay (widow of Jayne Mansfield and father of actress Mariska Hargitay)trapping a troupe of fanshionistas in his Hollywood hills mansion and subjecting them to ridiculous, colorful tortures. Hargitay goes off the rails with jaw dropping bravado and it’s clear he was robbed at the 1965 Academy Awards…
January 17, 2011 – “Get Your Motor Runnin…”
The Pink Angels (1971)
Absolutely hilarious answer to Easy Rider sees a roving gang of funloving Transsexual bikers on purple hogs having every class of misadventure. See the “ladies” eat hot dogs and swap fasion tips! See a young, pre-Geizzly Adams Dan Haggerty riding his bike without a shirt! See The Pink Angels and marvel at how genuinely weird the 70’s were!
Werewolves On Wheels (1971)
The granddaddy of oddball biker flicks, Werewolves features a badass, completely uncivilized bike gang fall prey to a coven of evil bread eating Satanists (led by real deal actor Severn Darden) who proceed to turn one of the gang into a murderous, fuzzy faced wolf man. Moody, rough and tumble, ridiculous and featuring a kick-ass trucker rock score.
January 24, 2011 – “Dan Curtis Double Features”
Producer/director/small-screen mogul Dan Curtis changed TV history with his gothic vampire soap opera Dark Shadows in the late 1960’s. Throughout the 1970’s, he owned the evil airwaves, unleashing a tidal wave of quality frights that pushed the boundaries of what could be shown in prime time. The Bloor Cinema is pleased to present two of those classics.
The Norliss Tapes (1973)
Curtis and writer William F. Nolan created this pre-X-Files pilot about a supernatural investigator who uncovers evil. Police Woman Angie Dickenson co-stars in this tense, occasionally terrifying horror/mystery.
Dead of Night (1976)
After Curtis and writer Richard Matheson hit gold with the anthology film Trilogy of Terror, he tried again with this picture. The first two stories are fine romps, but the third, ‘Bobby”, is a masterpiece of terror that pre-dates Stephen King’s Pet Semetary.
January 31, 2011 – “Big Top Bloodbaths!”
Freaks (1932)
The mother of all exploitation films, Tod Browning’s immortal melodrama still commands controversy today. Telling the tale of the lives and loves of a travelling circus full of physically challenged performers (no actors here, its the real thing), Freaks is uncomfortable, tragic, amusing, shocking and completely fascinating. A one-of-a kind cinema experience.
Vampire Circus (1972)
The weirdest and perhaps most violent offering from Hammer Studios, Vampire Circus is a lush and bloody gothic freak out. When a bizarre carnival rolls into a cursed Austrian village bringing death in its wake, it appears to be the handiwork of the long dead Count Mitterhaus, staked by the vengeful villagers a decade before. Kinky, gory and very, very cool.
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