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Snuff Box: Rich Fulcher loose in New York City
10.10.2011
02:52 pm
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Zany Rich Fulcher will be signing DVDs of Snuff Box tomorrow night, October 11th, at 6:30pm in New York City at Kim’s Video. There’s going to be an event later that night at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade East Village at 11:30 pm, with a screening of a Snuff Box episode followed by a Q&A with Rich. He’ll be on The Jimmy Fallonl Show tonight.

Snuff Box is out on DVD tomorrow from Severin Films.
 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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10.10.2011
02:52 pm
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‘Snuff Box’ invades Los Angeles


 
This weekend, Matt Berry (The IT Crowd) and Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh) will descend upon Los Angeles to promote the release of their BBC cult comedy series Snuff Box on DVD by Severin Films. The DVD (which includes a bonus CD of Matt Berry’s excellent soundtrack music) will be in stores by October 11th, but Los Angelenos will be able to pick it up early at Amoeba Records where there will be a DVD signing October 1st at 4:30pm (You might want to get there earlier to see Rich in action as auctioneer for Amoeba’s Monthly Charity Auction at 4pm, I’m sure that will be memorable…).

Berry and Fulcher will also be appearing that night at The Upright Citizens Brigade at 10pm for a screening of two Snuff Box episodes and a Q&A. (Earlier that day, I’ll be interviewing them for the Dangerous Minds talkshow).

On Sunday, October 2nd at 7pm Berry & Fulcher will be appearing at Cinefamily for a screening and panel discussion co-hosted by Steve Agee and Rob Schrab of The Sarah Silverman Program (which both Matt and Rich have appeared in). Some live musical numbers are promised as well.

Below, an awkward date… Her last line is a stone classic, isn’t it?
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.28.2011
12:19 pm
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‘If you don’t like ‘Snuff Box,’ you’re an asshole’


 
I’ve practically been an evangelist for Snuff Box for these past five years, so I’m happy to report that at long last one of the decade’s hidden comedic gems will finally be coming out on DVD stateside. Snuff Box will be released in the US by Severin Films on October 11th.

What is Snuff Box? It’s the legendary BBC series written by and starring Britain’s Matt Berry (The IT Crowd, Garth Marenghi’s Dark Place) and American Rich Fulcher (The Mighty Boosh, The Sarah Silverman Program) that only aired once yet instantly entered cult infamy. It’s a combination of depraved sitcom about a pair of jovial hangmen and twisted sketch comedy ala Monty Python, filled with bad first dates, time travel, sex, whiskey, awkward moments, random beatings, snappy musical numbers, one very long white hall, rampant swearing and other pleasures. It’s the show critics have called “one the best kept secrets in the history of British comedy,” now on DVD for the first time ever in America!

Featuring commentaries from Berry, Fulcher and director Michael Cumming, “testimonials” from well-known fans of the show, behind the scenes featurettes and outtakes. There’s even a separate CD of Matt Berry’s striking original Snuff Box soundtrack music, a treat in itself.

Have a look at the new trailer featuring Simon Pegg, Paul Rudd, Noel Fielding, Rob Coddry, Rob Schrab, “Weird Al” Yankovic, Paul Scheer and yours truly. What Paul Scheer says at the end is, of course, totally true…
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Snuff Box: The Best Sketch Comedy Show You’ve Never Heard Of

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.22.2011
08:45 pm
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Things: Depraved, idiotic, no-budget 80s Canadian gore film


 
“It’s a terrifying sensation that will rip apart your soul.”

I’m not so sure about that, but Things, a pathetically inept, blood-splashed straight-to-video “shocker” will probably do something for you…

Is there anything better than a no-budget gore flick that makes you laugh out loud? Think Bloodsucking Freaks. Extreme gore and humor (especially when it’s unintentional) are two great tastes that taste great together—at least if you are in the right frame of mind, I suppose—but when you add in a hefty dollop of ineptitude, it gets even tastier. The newest “outsider cinema” release from The Intervision Picture Corp. and Severin FIlms, Things looks like it’s a stand-out of the “wow this sucks, but it’s GREAT” genre. They’re the experts!

In 1989, it became the first Canadian shot-on-Super 8 gore shocker commercially released on VHS. Today, it remains perhaps the most bizarre, depraved and mind-boggling chunk of Canuxploitaion ever unleashed upon humanity. Adult film superstar Amber Lynn and co-writer/producer Barry J. Gillis star in this surreal saga about two friends who visit a remote cabin, only to discover a womb of monstrous horror that demands graphic dismemberment. It’s an inexplicable orgy of eye ripping, beer guzzling, boob baring, skull drilling, sandwich making, chain sawing, bad acting and post-sync dubbing from co-writer/producer/director Andrew Jordan that has spawned its own disturbing cult of fans. Some will be repulsed. Others may be transformed forever. But you have never seen anything like THINGS.

Now there’s a factual statement if ever there was one… Order a copy of Things if you dare…

There will be a special midnight screening of another recent Intervision/Severin release,Sledgehammer, Sunday night, July 3rd at the big Everything is Festival! at Cinefamily in Los Angeles. Check the website for more information and tickets.
 

 
I like this clip also. WHY are they behaving like this? If you saw this bug sitting on your toilet, would you laugh? WTF???
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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07.01.2011
11:56 am
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SLEDGEHAMMER: Brain-melting 80s shot-on-video slasher flick
05.03.2011
05:02 pm
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No indie DVD label is as dedicated to the preservation and promotion of “outsider cinema” quite like our friends at Severin Films. Nope, no one does “so bad that it’s good” titles like they do—witness their mind-numbing Birdemic:Shock and Terror release. Need I say more?

“Either by way of budget constraints or warped vision,” says Severin’s marketing director Evan Husney, their releases “represent a piece of a cinematic underbelly from a universe all its own.”

Now Severin, in association with The Intervision Pictures Corp. are going to be releasing some of the cultier cult films from the nearly 850 movie catalog owned by pioneering VHS distributor, Larry Gold, Sr., who died earlier this year of a heart attack. First in that slate is the DVD release of SLEDGEHAMMER, a shot-on-videotape, no-budget slasher flick from the 80s:

The plot is familiar: A group of friends comes to party at a backwoods house where a legacy of brutality awaits. But within this minimalist ’80s mélange of food fights, feathered hair and abusive slow-motion lurks a relentless synth score, bizarre sexual subtexts and a disturbing shape-shifting behemoth killer. The result is 85 minutes of fever-dream depravity.

The “fever dream depravity” that is SLEDGEHAMMER was directed by David A. Prior and starring Ted Prior (his brother) and Linda McGill

At some point I had a VHS copy of this that someone gave me, but it wasn’t something I paid much attention to. I probably never did more than scan through it on fast forward before passing it on to another otaku pal of mine. That was probably a mistake. One night at Cinefamily, here in Hollywood, I saw a scene from the film and I immediately thought “Oh, that was probably that SLEDGEHAMMER thing I used to have” and regretted that I never watched it.

Severin sent me the video clip last week, along with the DVD of SLEDGEHAMMER. My mistake for not paying closer attention to this absolutely BERSERK little number when I had the chance! Just look at that clip. How could you not want MORE?

Don’t answer that, but If you are interested to win a copy of the SLEDGEHAMMER DVD be the first one to answer this question in the comments (only the FIRST person with the correct answer wins):

What popular magazine featured “extensive” coverage of SLEDGEHAMMER star Ted Prior in 1984?

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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05.03.2011
05:02 pm
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BIRDEMIC: SHOCK & TERROR released on DVD and Blu-ray today
02.22.2011
02:32 pm
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Last year, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim co-hosted a special screening of director James “The Master of the Romantic Thriller”™ Nguyen’s “so bad it’s good” feature film, Birdemic: Shock and Terror at Los Angeles’s beloved art house, Cinefamily. After a positively mind-melting 90-minutes had elapsed, Heidecker stood before the audience, microphone in hand, silently surveying the psychic damage the film had caused before asking: “Don’t you all just feel like total assholes for sitting through that?”

Cue 200 people laughing and nodding in vigorous agreement.

But, hey, you can’t exactly get this kind of entertainment just anywhere, all right? How many Plan Nine from Outer Space-type winners should the human race be allowed?

Birdemic: Shock and Terror “tackles topical issues of global warming, avian flu, world peace, organic living, sexual promiscuity and lavatory access.” You, know, all the big issues. Director James Nguyen, a 42-year-old Vietnamese refugee, wrote, cast and shot the film over four years, diverting money saved from his career as a software salesperson in Silicon Valley toward making his Hollywood dream come true. Nguyen’s dream might be Roger Ebert’s worst nightmare, of course, but I don’t think that the director was really thinking much about how the critics would react to his film (It’s hard to tell what he was really thinking).

In a recent interview about the film, co-star Whitney Moore had this to say when asked about people who assume Birdemic was “faked”:

I have spoken with people who believe that Birdemic was faked, and I always ask those people if they have met James Nguyen. If they have, and they still believe that he is some mastermind of irony and comic timing who can make a movie like Birdemic intentionally, then there is nothing I can say to change their mind. Nor would I.

In any case, it’s out today on DVD and Blu-ray from our friends at Severin Films and now you can see for yourself the film that’s seen “midnight movie” fans across the county get very… well, very perplexed, let’s just say… WARNING: Do not try to watch Birdemic: Shock and Terror alone. Not because it’s too scary or anything, but because it must be seen with others, others who, like you, yourself, should be stoned into complete oblivion for this dubious cinematic treat.  I think anyone who watches Birdemic: Shock and Terror by their lonesome would just be too pathetic. So don’t do it.

UPDATE: There will be a special midnight screening of Birdemic: Shock And Terror at Cinefamily, here in Los Angeles this Friday (1st anniv. screening, director & cast in person!)

Here’s one of my, er, um, “favorite” scenes from Birdemic: Shock and Terror... “Where’s Becky?”
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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02.22.2011
02:32 pm
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