Herbie:

This was a short about a very calm, mellow cannibal serial killer. The whole movie was narrated by his seemingly menace-less internal dialog. It was hilarious! "I'm not too hungry, but I could eat. Oh well. Break time's over."

Katie Bird: Certifiable Crazy Person:

This was a really interesting and intensely disturbing movie that showed you the inside of the head of a serial killer by showing her with her first and latest victim: she's telling the fellow currently under torture about her first time, and how daddy showed her the philosophy behind it. It makes heavy use of split-screens, showing you multiple views on the same incident at the same time. It's really well done. It's also full of the most graphically intense dental nightmares that I've ever seen. And I know me some dental nightmares. This was very hard to watch, but great. It's probably going into the category of "really good movies that I never want to see again", along with "Dead Ringers". It's interesting to contrast this with Kichiku Dai Enkai: Katie Bird was more graphic, but was still the better movie, because all that Kichiku had going for it was the gross-out factor.

The Calamari Wrestler:

This was goofy fun. A pro wrestler that everyone thinks is dead comes out of hiding after having himself transformed into a giant squid. Then his nemesis makes a comback as a giant octopus. They are of course after the same girl. It's full of dorky costumes and seafood jokes.

Evil Dead Live:

Without question the best play I've ever seen! Ok, I don't see very many plays, but that's because so few of them spray the audience with blood! Oh, so great. They covered the major elements of all three of the Evil Dead movies, and the guy who plays Ash did an admirable job of having his ass kicked by his own possessed hand. A good portion of the show took place off stage, with the cast running up and down the aisles and even down the rows of the audience. Best play ever. The Primitive Screwheads say that this was their last performance of Evil Dead, but that they're going to be doing Herbert West: Reanimator next. I can't wait!

(Confidential to Mr. Sweeney: I did not see you there, hopefully because you had seen it last time. But if you and your Spectaculeros have not seen this, for shame. FOR SHAME, SIR!)

The Man with the Screaming Brain:

This was just kind of "eh." I expected more from Bruce Campbell. This just seemed like a not-very-good take on the Steve Martin movies The Man With Two Brains and All Of Me, except that the slapstick wasn't anything to write home about. Ted Raimi's range continues to consist of telling an un-funny joke then making a dorky face at the camera afterward. Go see Bubba Hotep again instead.

Audition:

A widower with a teenage son decides to take advantage of his role as a movie producer to audition potential wives while pretending to audition actresses. So, of course, he picks a loony. It's a bit long: it bogs down some in the middle, after the set-up and before the hallucinations and torture, but it's still fantastic and creepy.

You have one last chance to see Evil Aliens: this Friday at 10:30. I believe Dead Meat and Immortel have also been held over and are playing multi-day runs later this month, but they are not on The Roxie's web site yet.