Cinematic Oblivion

Strange cutout anime, brooding resentment about the 00's, discourse on disturbing horror, nostalgia for the Universal classics, major creative output from our circle, welcome back to our cacophonous carnival of Halloween horrors, we've missed you.

Taste the fruits of Autumn Burn away the dead crops

Once a year, once a year, now it's here, now it's here.

Our last episode ever. Putting the final nail in the coffin on the original concept of Cinematic Oblivion. Happy Halloween, it's the season of change and death after all. Keep watching the screens.

It's been a while. We discuss what's kept us entertained and sane in Shelter-In-Place including the gory, gutsy guerrilla action film Deadbeat at Dawn (1988) Guy Maddin's odes to his city and ours in My Winnipeg (2007) and The Green Fog (2017), Harry's pickaxe striking a mother lode of untapped 80's horror sleepers, Nick teaching Chris Marker's La Jetée (1962) to his AP English class, and our ever-returning to the town of Twin Peaks. Also we share our "to watch" quarantine lists. Enjoy, stay safe, wash your hands, we love you. Balboa Forever.

You can find me in the back of the Castro theater drinking whiskey and cherry Coke yelling at people to get off their phones before the third Mexican noir starts.

We promise to only be this basic once every ten years.

In this year's Halloween episode of Grab Bag Harry revisits some horror movies we didn't used to like very much and reveals that we were right about one of them and wrong about another, Nick discusses his new Giallo concept bar and cocktail menu, and we both revisit some childhood Halloween specials that warm our heart. Carve a Jack O' Lantern now before it's too late!

Sweets for the sweet, it's our official Halloween special. Listen as we discuss horror fantasy's finest imaginer, Clive Barker, and his brief career in film, as well as the trademarks of his work, including sadomasochistic inter-dimensional travelers, queer zombies, and ghosts of urban segregation. prologue: I have seen the future of horror (1:43) Chapter 1: Now we can begin (14:30) Chapter 2: Casting Cronenberg (47:35) Chapter 3: Be My Victim (1:05:55) epilogue: Darkplace (1:19:25)

The Earth shall tremble. Graves shall open. They shall come among the living as messengers of death and there shall be the "nigths" of terror. Continuing our October horror rituals, we examine the ineffable minimalism of Andrea Bianchi's zombie shadow play Burial Ground, a film that achieves unique style and effectiveness completely by accident.

We turn our October attention to one of the least conventional iterations of the Frankenstein monster all in the interest of discussing Nick's favorite and most expensive toy.

The Dude Bros are coming to the Balboa Theater here in San Francisco on October 23rd for a Rewind Wednesday VHS screening of Cinematic Oblivion's favorite slasher comedy Dude Bro Party Massacre III! Two of the directors, Tomm Jacobsen and Michael Rousselet, will be in attendance, the latter of whom chats with Nick in this episode. Listen as they discuss the early comedy of USC's public access channel "Trojan Vision," the "Golden Age" of Five Second Films, the writing, scoring, and acting of Dude Bro Party Massacre III, and the town in the belly of the whale. And make sure you join us at the Balboa Theater on October 23rd to drink beer, eat popcorn, and bro out!

R.I.P. Sid Haig 1939-2019

The third part of our three-part history and analysis of Soviet Science Fiction films. In this episode we focus on the science fiction films of the USSR's final years including grey, colorful, and silver tones all in the wake of Andrei Tarkovsky's influence. Chapter One: Grey Chapter Two: Color Chapter Three: Silver

Our report from an oblivionated weekend at the historic Balboa theater under the curation of the Overlook Hour. We briefly review the history of found-footage and then discuss such diverse representatives of the subgenre as The Midnight Swim, La Llorona Investigation, The Moosehead on the Mantel, Hound Footage, and the film that may have killed us both; Antrum.

We briefly review and analyze such classics as Pickup on South Street (1952) and Kiss Me Deadly (1955) from our recent outing to Noir City at the Castro Theater, during which we discovered that we are total amateurs at this whole "liking movies" thing.

The second part of our three-part history and analysis of Soviet Science Fiction films. In this episode we focus on the two science fiction contributions of Soviet auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris (1971) and Stalker (1979), and discuss how his contributions forever changed the landscape of Eastern genre cinema and film in general. Chapter 1: The Ocean (3:35) Chapter 2: The Zone (43:30)

A sickly sweet cocktail of various ingredients, Harry and Nick reunite after two weeks apart to discuss the 90's films of Brian De Palma, the video art of Jan Svankmajer, Ryan Trecartin, Alan Resnick, and the "wayward circus child" sub-genre, particularly Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay (1988) and Hiroshi Harada's Midori (1992).

The first part of our three-part history and analysis of Soviet Science Fiction films. In this episode we begin in the silent era with Aelita: Queen of Mars (1924) and Cosmic Voyage (1935) and then blast off into the space race with Road to the Stars (1957), The Silent Star (1960), Planet of Storms (1962), and Ikarie XB-1 (1963) These films shine with the hope of a united communist Earth, where no matter what side of the iron curtain you call home we are all joined under the glory of the sky's call. Chapter 1: Soviet Silents (2:05) Chapter 2: Escape Velocity (14:45) Chapter 3: Venus (30:50)

The first installment in a new series of mini episodes called spotlight, wherein Nick and/or Harry take a look at a particular theme (film/director/genre/etc.) that wouldn't otherwise be featured in a regular episode. In this inaugural episode Harry takes a look at the 2009 indie horror comedy Make Out With Violence, while also reflecting on the days when Netflix offered a bevvy of bizarre low budget indie films available to stream.