Two films enter, one film leave! Or both films leave! Together!

Dead Alive

If you weren’t familiar with Peter Jackson before that whole Lord of the Rings stuff, then check out this classic gem which clearly influenced The Mighty Hollywood Powers to put him in charge of a massive three-picture multi-million dollar franchise.

It starts off innocently enough; a trip to Strange Foreignland to bring back an evil rat monkey for a zoo in New Zealand, a comely Spanish girl falls in love with a fuddling mama’s boy because her crazy-eyed gypsy grandma says so, and OH MY GOD PEOPLE ARE EATING THEIR OWN EARS.

Better known as Braindead anywhere else but the ‘States, Dead Alive is easily one of the most goriest, silliest, straight-up insane comedy horrors to ever be created on a modest budget. There are things that simply defy conventional imagination, like fat-cheeked zombie babies riding around in split heads, kung-fu priests with no patience for leather-clad ruffians, and the importance of reading labels on suspicious jars of poison.

Jackson is someone who understands the importance of “the big finish,” and boy oh boy does he give it in spades here. There’s nothing wrong with your screen; that red-orange tinge you’re seeing is the mass amount of PEOPLE STUFF left over from the climax. Not since Evil Dead 2 has a movie had so many satisfyingly ridiculous blood & guts moments while still keeping its captive audience laughing and screaming at the same time.

Society

This movie is bad. It’s so bad that the ending is catapulted to levels of extreme awesomeness nary achieved in the history of terribly amazing horror films.

Director Brian Yuzna, based known from the Re-Animator films, has a habit of making half-assed political and social statements in his silly scare-fests, and in his first major feature he jumped straight to the high class. In this Beverly Hills community, Bill, a young guy in a well-to-do family who’s at the top of his game before he’s even hit college, is starting to suspect there’s something weird and sinister going on with his family. Why it took him nearly two decades to notice that sometimes his sister’s head is facing the wrong side or that there are people in the neighborhood who like to eat hair, we will never know.

While there’s a a simple set up for a weird secret society murder plot going on, and an uncomfortable romance between the star and his flexible wannabe-girlfriend, it’s told in such a campy way with some of the worst acting ever that it is incredibly entertaining to just make fun of. You’ll be MST3King your way up until the last 15 or so minutes when everything, to put it lightly, goes bat-shit crazy.

Like Dead Alive, Society is a movie you watch with a group of friends. It’s better with alcohol but, really, don’t overdo it because your stomach might not be able to handle itself during the shunting. And that’s all I’ll say on the subject. The subject of the shunting.

Sweet jeebus, the shunting!

I’m secure enough in my ‘Murrican patriotism that I can admit that, sometimes, the Canadians get it right. I’m not talking about health care or gay bishops. No, this is something more important: I’m talking about entertainment. Ignoring Avril Lavigne and Keanu Reeves, they gave us Neil Young, Jim Carrey, Leonard Cohen, and like half of comedy everywhere. They also gave us… Clone High.

You may have seen it for a minute on MTV alongside reruns of Sifl & Olly, but Clone High originally aired on Canada’s Teletoon (which is probably like our Cartoon Network but rolled in cornmeal [obscure joke alert]). The show told the tale of, conveniently, a high school made up entirely of clones. But not just any clones; every character on the show save for the staff is a historical figure made in teenage form. Sounds iffy, I know, but get this: the main character is Abe Lincoln, kind of a gangly loser who’s obsessed with Cleopatra (the resident Regina George) but she’s dating super-jock JFK and the artsy outsider Joan of Arc is in love with Abe and Abe’s best friend, Gandhi, is too wild and hyper to care about any of this and then Jesus Christ is actually Jesús Cristo in shop class and ohhhhhhhhh god it’s brilliant. This is the kind of premise where they come up with such an enormous sandbox and completely run with it. Every episode, another remixed historical figure shows up with hilarious results. And this is besides all of the ridiculous things going on that’s completely beside the point that this is a school full of famous clones.

Episode highlights include “Makeover, Makeover, Makeover: The Makeover Episode,” which features some great makeover montages of makeovers and also some makeovers. Also sure to be a favorite among the cinephiles is “Film Fest: Tears of a Clone.” Each major character has their own student film to help promote “expressing themselves” so as to avoid more riots and it is the most amazing showcase of hilarity I’ve seen in a cartoon. Seriously, between Abe’s football-playing giraffe epic and Joan’s wannabe French surrealist art film, it’s as close to perfection as animation can get (I’m looking at you, Wall-E).

The show was plenty outrageous and made all the better with the amazing cast, oddly culling actors from both Scrubs and SNL. It also included a slew of guest stars, from Marilyn Manson to Mandy Moore (alliteration!). Unfortunately, it only last a single season and is still listed as “on hiatus,” but, well, that was about 6 years ago so it’s not likely to come back any time soon. Still, you can enjoy all 13 incredible episodes by renting it at your local Videology (meaning this one)! So hit up the TV section and bask in its glory, for it is great.

Guy Maddin’s bizarro re-interpretation of his own childhood, “My Winnipeg,” appeared on multiple critics’ top ten lists last year, and is now available on DVD for your viewing pleasure. The film quietly appeared on DVD in Canada late last year, and is available to rent in our new release section.