Episode 15 - Slashers! and February Releases with Ewan Cant

Finding the joy in unfettered creativity. A podcast dedicated to bringing awareness and context to movies of any budget, from anywhere, and during any time.

In Episode 15 I am joined by Ewan Cant, the Associate Director of content, acquisition, and licensing at Vinegar Syndrome. We discuss the underrated February releases and spend a good amount of time talking about Ewan's love for unique slashers.

Before working at VS, Ewan worked at Arrow in a similar role. He is the producer behind iconic releases throughout his whole career, and at VS recently has put out Iced, Blood Tracks, Ghost Dance, and Mother's Day.

Coming up next we see the return of our very first guest, the manager of media and special features at Vinegar Syndrome.

Thank you for those who continue to listen and please let me know how I can make this better!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You are now listening to the Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
All right, so welcome back episode fifteen of Punk Vacation.
Thank you all for those that have made it this
far with me, and welcome if it's your first time.
This is an unofficial Vinegar Syndrome podcast. As you all
have heard me say before, I have a goal with
this podcast of finding the joy and unfettered creativity and

(01:08):
really using this to bring awareness and context to movies
of any budget, from anywhere in the world and during
any time in history. I've personally been a subscriber since
Black Friday of twenty one, and we're kind of watching
VS become this industry powerhouse and wanted to use this
as a way to track and see how high they
can go. As always, I try to bring on a

(01:30):
guest every month, and this month I'm super excited to
bring somebody who I've been unintentionally tracking for years as
he was both a part of Errow and now Vinegar Syndrome.
Ewan Kent Ewan, thank you so much for.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Joining my pleasure. Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Heck yeah. So, your official title with Vinegar Syndrome is
the Assistant Director of Content Acquisition and licensing. That's what's
on your business card, right, Yes.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
It's a mesophical business card, but yes, that's what would
be on it.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
Exactly wonderful and you have but practically speaking, you do
a lot of acquisitions, and you're a disc producer for
special features and a lot of the content that goes
on the actual discs.

Speaker 3 (02:18):
Right, Yeah, that's right. Yeah. I've been acquiring titles since
I joined in the time is Escaping me mid two,
I was sort of acquiring titles kind of right out
the gate. And yeah, and I also I generally produce

(02:41):
the bonus features for those titles that I acquire, and
also kind of take on talk projects as well other titles.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
That's wonderful. And was was Mother's Day your first title
or was that just an early one for you? No?

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Mother's Day Again, I'm losing track of time. I want
to say that was who was that last year? I
want to say that was you know, not it could
have been early last year, I think so, No, that
was first. The first title I well both produced exors
for and acquired was Don't Open until Christmas?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Oh yeah, of course, of course.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, which is kind of appropriate being a London shot
slasher movie.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
That's great. So I guess it's too late to see
Welcome to the Vigo Syndrome family. You've been here for so.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
I feel it still kind of feels near in a way.
So yeah, so I'll take that.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
How how has it been transitioning from Aero into Vinegar Syndrome, Like,
how are the two cultures and just kind of how
is it working here?

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Yeah? Really good. I mean I'm the only you know,
kind of kind of European based employee, and so you know,
I'm kind of out on a limb in a way,
you know, sort of my sort of my own sort
of satellite really, so you know, I'm not kind of

(04:19):
a kind of enmeshed in the in the culture, but
I do, you know, generally make it make it over
to to Bridgeport to the HQ maybe like once a year.
So it's nice to kind of, you know, sort of
be in the team environment. But yeah, I'm also kind
of very much kind of you know, sort of in

(04:42):
a bit of a silo here as well. So so
that I mean, that's that's different. Obviously, when I was
at Arrow, you know, pre COVID, we were sort of
in an office, you know, five days a week, that
there was, there was that kind of aspect to it,
and then obviously COVID happened, and then the rules completely
changed and we were you know, pretty much never went

(05:05):
back to more than like a day a week. So
it kind of in a way some of a natural
sort of follow on from COVID just becoming kind of
yeah for the kind of remote working.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Yeah, how tight knit is the Blu Ray you know,
producer and and sort of special feature community in London
Because you've got like Anthony Neil over there from Indicator.
I know he's not technically in London, but yeah, it
comes in a lot. You've got you know, obviously aero
you've got second sight. Like how like, how tight is

(05:40):
that community over there?

Speaker 3 (05:43):
Yeah? Pretty tight, i'd say. I mean, you know a
lot of the producers that Indicator were formerly my Arrow colleagues,
you know, so my Anthony and Laura James Blackford. Yeah,
you know, so it's yeah, quite tight knit really, And yeah,

(06:04):
there's quite a lot of like events, you know, where
you'll you'll you'll see everyone, you know, people's various like
birthday parties and stuff. Kim Newman, I don't know if
you know Kim Newman is a well, yeah, he has
kind of an annual summer party, which is you know,
basically just like all the kind of UK based kind

(06:28):
of producers will tend to be there. So yeah, it's
pretty you know, and then we have things like Fright
First and stuff like that kind of socials where yeah,
I tend to tend to see quite a lot of
people and you know, we you know, sort of keep
in touch as well. I'm still very much in touch
with colleague Samarrow, you know, I see very frequently, so yeah,

(06:49):
we're all kind of kind of plugged in.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
You just unlocked a new life course from me of
getting invited to Kim Newman's barbecue.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Didn't say barbecue just just to hang out. I think
you have to You might you might get some some
chips and dips maybe, but you might have to bring
this more of a more of just a drinking. That's
fine then, but yeah, you know you've made it on
the UK horror scene when you get that invite in
your in box.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
That's awesome. And speaking of horror, your specialty as far
as how the world knows you is kind of like
the slasher guy, right.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
Yeah, I mean I'd be very happy with that title. Yeah,
I guess I just at some point in my sort
of journey as a as a horror fan, you know,
I kind of locked in on slasher movies. I mean obviously,
you know, I saw all the kind of the key ones,

(07:49):
you know, when I was becoming a horror fan as
a very young kid, and at some point that sort
of yeah, I don't know, just transitioned into being very
hyper focused on you know, kind of digging deeper and
deeper into the kind of sub genre and just really

(08:10):
geeking out on it. And then suddenly, you know, when
I joined Arrow, finding myself in a position where I
could actually you know I was previously and you know,
i'd be like checking, you know, be like frequenting the
you know, the this kind of will date things, you know,
the kind of the Code Red blog about like their

(08:31):
updates about like whether the Mutilator was coming or like
ghost Keeper and stuff like that. You know kind of
you know, I remember, like, yeah, just just kind of
like tracking these things. And then suddenly I ended up
in a position where I could be like, oh, actually
I can I could maybe make this happen, and then

(08:54):
just kind of yeah, but then it just became this
kind of like mission to get as many of these
really just like to create my own Blu Ray shelf,
you know. And you know, I'm really really happy to
say that I have been able to you know, get
re released. I think pretty much like all of my

(09:18):
you know, like all of the one all the titles
that were kind of like the ones I was really
focused on pretty much at this point, managed to get
most of those back out there. So I'm really happy
to be able to do that.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
You've created your own growth.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, pretty much managed to
get most of them. That doesn't mean that the work
is over, but but yeah, no, it's it's a definite, definite,
strong sense of satisfaction looking at looking at some of
those titles on my on my shelf.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
Well, you mentioned the Mutilator. Did you happen to work
on that disc at your previous employer?

Speaker 3 (09:58):
Yeah, so the Mutilator was the the second title I
ever acquired. And as I said, yeah, when I was
you know, pre Arrow, I remember I was you know,
always on the Code Red blog, and you know, there
was a period when I don't I don't totally remember

(10:20):
what happened. And I'm sure Buddy told me at one
point the director, but it was sort of they were
constantly placed. They must have had it under license at
some point and they were sort of teasing it and
it never never came to pass. But yeah, when I
joined Arrow, I think that quite quickly became you know,

(10:43):
one that you know, wanted to make happen. And I
think it's probably simultaneous around at the same time with
Blood Rage and I and I managed to, yeah, get
the I didn't really know how you acquired film or
who you you know, who you went after, you know,

(11:03):
to sort of get the rights, But I think I
managed to get Buddy Cooper, the director's email address, and
just dropped him an email and I think he replied
quite quickly and we were able to go from there.
And it was actually the first time I went to
the US was to go to North Carolina to the

(11:26):
Oceanana Motel where the movie, where the film was shot
and which you know has been in Buddy's family for decades,
in which he still currently runs. No I knew, and yeah,
I don't know, because you know, by that point, I've
been producing releases for a couple of years maybe, and

(11:47):
it never really occurred to me to actually, you know,
go out there and do it. But I just suddenly
thought why wouldn't I go? And I think just the
conditions were right. There was the motel that I could
stay at, funny it was the cast and crew there
to do the interviews, and I was just like, well
that why couldn't I go, you know, obviously being a

(12:09):
fan of American horror films and you know, music and everything.
I don't know why I hadn't gone sooner. Really, it
just it just suddenly it was kind of clicked, and
so yeah, that was a really really big formative, you know,
experience for me. And it's still the kind of the

(12:31):
disc I think out of anything, it's definitely very high
up there with like the disc I look at on
my shelf and I just feel this real satisfaction of
you know, and just as just as much as just
having made that almost for myself, I basically made the
Blu Ray for myself, and it seemed like, you know,

(12:52):
a lot of other people shared the same feelings about it,
because you know, it did pretty well as I remember.

Speaker 2 (12:57):
Well, just like everything from the themes on to the
actual like murder instrument, to the way the story, it
was just such a cool movie. Yeah, and like such
an interesting take on Slashers with the it's so moody
with the rain, and I could go on about the Mutilator, right,
I'm a big fan of that movie.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
So probably separate episode on that.

Speaker 2 (13:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, a different show.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Yeah. It was one that you know, I came to
barely barely late. I used to see it on the
shelves in like Virgin megastore in the downstairs basement on
Oxford Street in London, where I used to spend like
a significant amount of time, just like you know, because
it was pre Internet pretty much, and just like looking
going from sleeve to sleeve, and that was one I

(13:42):
looked at but for some whatever reason, just not having
you know, enough pocket money or whatever, because I was
definitely very young, you know, probably prioritize other things. But
it was one I always remembered and then I finally
got to it, and yeah, just really just really like

(14:03):
one of those slash films that just really just like
ticked all the boxes for me, you know. I love
like the kind of you know, the the themed killings,
you know, the synthie kind of woggly SYNTHI score obviously,
the kills are you know, like stand out in the
slasher genre. I just love it. It's like such a

(14:24):
pure slasher film as well. It doesn't even you know,
try and make any mystery out of the killer. You know.
It's just like I love that about it as well.
But you know, it's just it's it's in form. It's
just very textbook. You know, You've got your you know,
kind of you know, traumatic backstory set up, and then

(14:44):
we're straight into the you know, the setup of the
you know, kids going to the isolated place and being
picked off. But it also does some very you know,
odd things along the way. So that for me is just, yeah,
that's exactly what I've kind of looked for in a slasher.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Well that's a that's a good transition. There's two things
in what you said that I think is a good
transition to your life at Vinegar Syndrome.

Speaker 3 (15:11):
Now.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
One in the way you told that and the way
you started to get in the commentary mode. I think
it's it's really cool that your love for slashers is
now kind of spilling over and you've done forgive me
if I get this number wrong, but three or four
commentaries now, right.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Yeah, I think that sounds about right. Yeah, and yeah,
I mean started kind of moderating and yeah, I've maybe
done three or four like with you know, in together
with Amandareas and primarily and yeah as as you know,

(15:51):
as a kind of critical commentator, I guess, yeah, and
that's that's that's you know, often comes out of kind
of necessity where you know, we haven't you know, been
able to get someone. You know, the priority is always
with a release is getting cast and crew on the disc,
you know. But yeah, in some cases, either that's more

(16:16):
possible or you know, you feel like you can add something,
or to be honest, where it's just like it's just
a title that I'm obsessed about enough that I just
k one to get on this and yak about it.
And it's normally with Amanda because we Amanda Rayas, because
we have a very shared sensibilities and it's just fun
to chat with Amanda over slasher movie.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
Yeah, I was gonna say quick, quick love for Amanda Areas,
who may just pound for pound, know more about film
history than most people on the planet.

Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, totally, yeah, I mean always, yeah, I feel in
as you know, I couldn't really do them to be
honest if it wasn't with Amanda, because I just feel
very in, very good, you know, and she really kind
of carries it. So I give her full credit for that.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
Well, I'm sure you're I'm sure you're being humble, but
it is. It is wonderful to have y'all both on there.
So and then that's the second thing you kind of
just talking about, you know, kind of interesting slashers that
follow the genre but add their own unique twist on it.
Some of the projects that have come out recently for

(17:27):
Vinegar Syndrome, I think they all fit that description pretty well.
Like even in the last six months or a year,
we've seen some really like unique titles within the slasher
genre come out, right, so we've the three that come
to mind would be I guess working Backwards would be
iced recently. That's technically for Degausser, and then Blood Tracks

(17:52):
and then Ghost Dance, Right, those are all fairly recent
ones for you. Yeah, yeah, and I would love I
would love to spend just a little bit of time
on Ghost Dance. I mean, you can talk about any
of them if there was a particular story you want
to tell. But Oscar was gushing about your passion for
Ghost Dance and getting that Actually he said fighting, and

(18:15):
then he corrected himself and he's like, you know, not
that it was a fight, that's kind of how he
said it. But basically, how you really advocated for that movie?
So how did you sort of discover Ghost Dance and
how did you convince the team to let you put
that up?

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, I mean a lot of these titles, what people
maybe don't get right off the bat unless they listen
to me yacking on something like this is that a
lot of these things can be incredibly like long lead.
So Ghost Dance and from memory, I think I have

(18:52):
to credit the Hysteria Libs website, Justin Kurzwell's website for
putting me onto Ghost Dance. I think it has a
great review section, and I think it was one of
one of the ones that maybe had like a high rating,

(19:14):
like a four hour five or something. So so I
sought that one out definitely quite a bit later on
in my kind of slasher watching career. So maybe, like
I don't know, I want to say, like twenty twenty
fifteen something like that maybe, And I'm just looking on

(19:34):
my shelf. I have a US VHS of it, So
I must have. I must have a lot of these ones.
You know. I would have tracked down like a VHS
off and transferred it to watch it. I mean, when
I started doing that, it was kind of before YouTube

(19:54):
was so reliable for that kind of thing. But I
also like having the VHS and you can you know,
generally get better quality out of it if you do
it that way. But yeah, so I must have seen
it around then and really warm to it. You know.
I thought it was very atmospheric, very different. You know,

(20:18):
I had an interesting angle with the kind of American
Indian sort of mythology. Yeah, and it's funny with some
of these things, it's hard to sort of remember how
like the beats that that got me there. But I
think at this point I kind of knew that sort

(20:40):
of generally with this kind of film, the you know,
the producers might be the people to go for. I
sort of learned over the years. I think initially because
of things like The Mutilator, where it was like produced, written,
directed by Buddy I would kind of look a look
to the director and be like, well, that's the guy
to ask. But there's been so many films over the

(21:02):
years where you know, I spoken to the producer and
the director. You know, they haven't been in touch for
the decades. I don't know, just kind of come into it.
You assume, well, obviously they're going to sort of know
each other or be in touch or whatever, but that's
quite often not the case. And you start to get
a sense of these things. And at some point I

(21:24):
managed to get a number, I guess for for the
producer of Ghost Dance and probably probably just cold courting,
and that was probably like twenty seventeen, so that you know,
that was well, so we released it last year, so

(21:45):
seven years and not to go into the ins and outs,
but basically just a long process of and also you
kind of you I think sometimes these people would you know,
gonna just be really up for you know, kind of

(22:10):
licensing the film, but there's all sorts of like complications
and maybe things that you know, you're not aware of,
and you know, just in that instance just involved just
constant you know, hassling, basically negotiating, and you know, I

(22:30):
guess you know he would you know, just things would
go cold for like six months or a year, and
I think, well, let me try that guy again. And
then eventually you know, when I got to Bneger Syndrome,
was in a position to kind of push that a
bit more, and eventually we were able to make it happen.

(22:55):
I did meet him, the producer, I think last time.
I was in LA twenty twenty three and he came
along to show me the I think I think it
was an into negative that we an integative that we
transferred from. And he turned up I don't know if

(23:15):
you know Jim Kins who in LA and you pretty
much shoots out, yeah, any any La you know interview
for Boutique Labels. Yeah, So so I was so I
met I met the producer there, and he turned up
in his car with the int neegative in the in

(23:37):
the boot and brought them in and I've got some
photos of it. Actually, just just for me. It was
mainly to meet him, you know, because it's it's difficult
really to progress a kind of a relationship when you're
just kind of sending emails back and forth. So it's
mainly that, but it was also just to look at
the material. Check the over there and showed me some

(24:00):
some cool, you know, promotional material and stuff, and and
then kind of after that we were able to kind
of make it happen. So yeah, along a long journey.
But I mean in terms of the Viniger syndrome side,
it wasn't really it wasn't really a fight. I mean
a lot of the conversations I have with Joe Joe

(24:22):
Rubin and the co owners, and he was always very
on board with the title. You know, I think it's
it's definitely one that's been you know, sort of talked
about in slasher circles and also what you know, one
that's kind of like, you know, there's a lot of
night scenes and so it's kind of always been one

(24:42):
that people have said it would be nice to see
this cleaned up and you know, being able to see
stuff properly. I think that the whole kind of first
you know sequence or thereabouts is kind of in the dark.
So I think, you know, that's one people always I
talked about, you know, that would benefit from getting the

(25:03):
blue white treatment.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Right well, But and the movie itself, I think is
we're talking about. But I do want to mention just
briefly on the features because you know, there was something
that Oscar said when he was on here that I
really resonated with because I feel this way he said
that you're kind of a master questioning and sort of
understanding how to phrase things to get people to open up.

(25:27):
And I think Ghost Dance is a fantastic example of that.
Like the director and writer I believe, or the two
that I'm thinking about, where they just go into the
fact that these two random white guys made a movie
about like Native American culture and like they weren't they

(25:48):
were very intentional looking back at like the areas where
they were insensitive, the areas where they were sensitive, what
they were trying to do, like how they got that
local community like engaged in the filming. And it's just
a it's a it's a really masterful interview and a
really cool special feature. So I just wanted to call
it out.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yeah, and I appreciate that. I mean, I'll I definitely
wrote the questions. I'd have to credit Jim for shooting those,
and you know, so so he you know, and his
kind of manner, you know, people people always without exception,
you know, have a really good experience with Jim. You know,

(26:31):
he's just able to make people, you know, he does
obviously a lot of my LA interviews, I send the
questions to him. I do I do do them there
when I can, but I have to give him credit
for like making interviewees feel extremely comfortable. And yeah, like
I said, like without exception, you know, I always check
in with interviewees when you know, after they've done the interview,

(26:54):
and without exception, they always say, you know, Jim was fantastic.
I felt so comfortable. Definitely have to give him credit
for that. But yeah, I was, I was. I definitely
it was important to me to put those questions in
and not not in a kind of an accusatory way
or anything, but you know, like you say, there's sort
of it's kind of you know, looking back, it's you know,

(27:20):
it's sort of quite you know, sensitive, pensitive material that
they were working with, and you know, I kind of
wanted to just kind of get their thoughts really looking back,
not not you know, it's not it's never like a
sort of gotcha like trying to catch people out, you know,
I mean, the films are what they are, you know,

(27:41):
I mean, and working with the kind of films we
work with, you know, there's going to be a lot
of there is going to be a lot of stuff
that wouldn't fly now, and it's it's it's a balancing
act of sort of acknowledging that stuff. But you know,
we're also releasing the film, so we obviously think that
they're worth being scene. So we don't want to be

(28:03):
something like critiquing, but certainly reflecting on some of these aspects.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Yeah. You know, there's I mentioned Yodorovsky earlier before we
started recording because of somebody we're going to talk about
here in just a minute. But you know, the like
Santa Sangre or The Holy Mountain or any of these
movies that he's made early on he does the commentary
for them, and you know, he does the similar thing.

(28:32):
So even in like you know, quote unquote art house
films or whatever you want to say, like like he's
looking back on it and being like, you know, yeah,
like I blew up a thousand frogs, like I like,
you know, I don't think I could do that today. Yeah,
but you know he's he's got this whole thing about
like artists violence here. He's very passionate gay Yeah. Yeah,

(28:54):
but like you at this point, I think you nailed it.
Like looking back on something from the seven these eighties, nineties,
it's not you're not There's never a sense of like,
you know, morality put on it, and it's just this
is what I was thinking at the time. This is
what I was trying to do, and that's important to

(29:14):
chronicle the history and have it recorded as like a
sort of living document that goes with the film, right.

Speaker 3 (29:21):
Yeah, I mean a good recent example of that. I mean,
I know we're not really going to talk about March titles,
but the British film Brimstone and Treacle, which I just
produce the Excess Forum, which we just announced. You know,
that's a very you know, it's based on a played

(29:44):
by the British television playwright Dennis Potter, and the story
is very I mean, it was very controversial at the time,
and you know, the director and you know, Richard long Craine,
who I worked with extensively on that release. You know,

(30:04):
it was very kind of reflective and you know, sort
of saying, you know, it couldn't really be I couldn't
imagine sort of making it now. And we also managed
to get Sting to do an interview, which was yeah,

(30:25):
you did not really did not you know, obviously wanted
to do that, but did not think that would come off.
And that's a whole other story, but you know, he
was also sort of saying you know that you know,
he was sort of looking back, felt be uncomfortable about
some of it, but you know, at the same time

(30:46):
also yeah, sort of acknowledging that stuff while still you know,
sort of not learning that cloud the whole picture because
you know, again we're putting these films out because we
think they're worth being seen. I will just say, just
just back on ghost Stance, I'm really glad that you
liked those interviews because but behind the scenes that those
were very I mean I almost ended up having nothing

(31:09):
on that release. Oh ok, it was just so difficult
to get people. Julia Marto, who plays the lead. I started,
I'd exchanged some WhatsApp WhatsApp, exchanged some Facebook messages with
her back in maybe like twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen, you know,

(31:31):
when I sort of was thinking maybe it was good,
you know, we were you know, I was going to
be in a position to acquire the film quite quickly,
and exchanged some messages with her, and yeah, she was
She was receptive and seemed to remember it fondly, but
sadly she passed away a few years ago, maybe only

(31:54):
a couple of years ago, and you know, so a
lot of you know, a lot of the other cast
are no longer with us. The producer was was kind of,
you know, pretty retident to do an interview, and that

(32:19):
literally came he sort of literally agreed to do that,
you know. I was, Yeah, I had like a day
to edit it basically. And again I have to like
give a huge amount of credit to Jim or managing
to just you know, I think I literally was messaged
him and was just like, can you get this guy

(32:40):
in tomorrow? And and you know, and he made it happen.
And with the director, I just you know, you try,
you try and track people down through your usual sources,
but I just couldn't, you know. And he hadn't done
a huge he didn't have a huge amount of IMDb it,

(33:00):
and I, yeah, I just I couldn't. I hadn't. I
hadn't managed to track him down. And then I think
I was struggling to get people, and I just thought
that I'm going to let me just make a one
last real concerted effort to find him Peter Buffer. And
I think I just found like a was just some

(33:21):
random hit on Google where I just got some some
document it's a document I found online and it had
a number in an email. I can't remember which I tried.
I either left the voicemail or or sent an email
or something. And then I heard back from him within
like a day or two.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
And again that was like literally like can you come
in in like the next week. Yeah, and so yeah,
So those two just very nearly didn't happen. So yeah,
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed them. And I think

(34:05):
they did turn out really well. I mean, you know,
the producer, he was sort of and this happens a lot,
you know, he was just saying, I don't know, you know,
if I'll have much to say, I don't know if
I can, you know, will be any good? And I
thought his interview was, you know, probably one of the
most illuminating. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
No, I really they were very open. I can't remember
at this point, I can't remember which one was what,
but I think who was just talking about how they
really like made an effort to go into the local
community and like some of the stuff they filmed was
on a reservation and like they did their best as
these two like knucklehead college kids to like really try

(34:44):
to make something intentional and not just you know, guess
on a lot of the folklore and stuff. So it
was I don't know, it was it was cool, they
were they were both great.

Speaker 3 (34:53):
Yeah, and yeah, I have to give another plug to
Amanda Rayes and Justin Cursel, who did the commentary on that.
That's right, I mean to be honest. You know, as
I mentioned, I discovered Ghost Dance through hysteria lips, so
you know, I like to kind of pay things forward.
I don't know if that's the expression, but you know,

(35:16):
I discovered it thanks to Justin, so you know, I
kind of wanted to bring that kind of full circle.
And me and a man had spoken about the film
for a long time as well, and as a film
I love, I just didn't feel that personally qualified to
talk about it in depth. I just felt those guys
would do the best job. And we also got the

(35:39):
stuntman as well, so that turned out he was the
first person I managed to get for it, actually, and
he gives some good tidbits about you know, doubling for
the little girl that gets attacked by the dog early on,
and you know how you can kind of see it's
a fully grown man in a wig in some shots
and some some other good bits about you know, he

(36:02):
played he has a very small part as a reservation
worker who gets pinned by a truck kind of early
on as well, talking about how that was done. So
so that was really nice piece as well. And I
think he played Michael Myers. And I want to say
Halloween five. I think it's four or five. I think
it's five.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
It's always nice when you know people have other horror
credits to kind of you know, sort of touch upon
those as well.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
That's awesome. Well, you know, I love that your passion
for this is very clear, both in the conversation today
and also just and the titles that are coming out,
because you have a lot of deep cuts that are
coming out, and you there's you know, the diss are
produced with a lot of focus and passion, so it's
clear that this is a genre you love. I can't

(36:52):
wait to see what you do next. I know that
Vinerger Syndrome has a very tight lit policy and stuff,
so I want to ask you directly, but I just
hope that you have more stuff in the hyper because
it's it's really I love your releases a lot. I
think they're very intentional and and there's always great history
and love put into them.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, and I appreciate that. Yeah. Like I said with
with you know, the example of like the Mutilator, like
it's really really you know, making a blu ray for myself,
you know, and that I think that hopefully that translates
to other fans of the film, because you know, it's
made with that love and level of like what would

(37:35):
I want to see in this kind of release?

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Yeah. Absolutely, I'm trying to think if there's anything else
that people should in terms of getting to know you,
you know, I think is there like a is there
anything that you're you know, promoting or like that you're
excited to kind of focus on now as far as

(37:59):
you know, or release you really want people to look at.
I know Ice came out recently. I think that's a
really interesting one, just in the sense that there's like
a it's an interesting kind of like po V slasher,
right where so much of it is from this like
broken lens of the of the scheme mask.

Speaker 3 (38:18):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, which is is a great image
and one that was used in the in the artwork.
I don't my copy.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
Yeah, actually it is it is. I can confirm, yeah,
it was.

Speaker 3 (38:33):
I know it's part of the artwork. Is that is
that image which I think is yeah absolutely, Maybe it's
somewhere in the release anyway, which is yeah absolutely, you know,
the right kind of image from the film to use. Yeah, No,
I mean that that again was a very long lead one.

(38:54):
I mean the the the I don't want to say
sad thing, but the thing with Ice is that you know,
we haven't as yet been able to crack down film elements.
See the film was shot on sixteen sixteen MIL and
edited on tape. So you know, that's why it was

(39:17):
put out the Degauza label because that's you know, dedicated
for s OV shot on video or films that were
shot on film edited on tape and you know where
film is no longer exists or is available. But you know,
honestly say, you know, there's a bittersweet element there. But

(39:39):
you know, to be honest, I as a fan, you know,
I would you know, would I rather you know, watching
it on YouTube or you know, because I did try
and I don't have a VHS with that because they're
pretty expensive last time I checked. But you know, would
I rather have Iced on on YouTube, or would I
rather you know, physical release with cool artwork and a

(40:02):
bunch of extras. You know, obviously I would take the latter,
even though it's a shame that you know, it's it's
from a video master, but you know, that's what's available.
And you know, I think it's really fun slasher. You know,
some some ridiculous kills, excellent pov as you said. And yeah,

(40:27):
I managed to get some some some really nice interviews
for that, and I did moderate the the commentary with
director Jeff Quitney for that. Yeah, I mean he I
could have just sort of let him go into the
studio and and and chat, but you know, I mean
you never really know how that's going to work. And

(40:50):
I sort of considered getting someone else and more moderate it,
you know, someone again he did that at Jimkinson's studio
in LA and I thought, you know, as there's someone
I can get locally. But you know, again, with that one,
I just thought, well, I care a lot about this film,
so why not, you know, And so I joined that remotely.

(41:11):
But you know, as you find doing these kinds of things,
you can still build up a rapport even when you're
you know, the other side of the world.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Especially as people are getting used to zoom calls and
you know, teams calls like that. I think even in
the last five years, the world has moved to be
more comfortable.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
I remember which a movie it was. There was an
interesting story that came out in the middle of COVID
where there was an entire Disney film that was shot
in sound studios from like wherever people lived locally, m
like the entire voice acting cast would just go like
book time in their local studio and they made an
entire film that way. I can't remember which one it was,
but I remember hearing that story and just thinking like, huh,

(41:56):
like the world's really changed a lot.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I guess, yeah, I guess that is
part of it. Yeah yeah. I mean I always feel
like i'd much you know, rather be be sat in
the studio with them, but you can you sort of
forget that after a while. And I was really happy
with that commentary, and you know, I think, you know,

(42:20):
Jeff is maybe kind of a bit skeptical about the
kind of enthusiasm to the film, because you know, he
doesn't think it's I don't think he mind me saying
he doesn't think it's a great film, but I think
I think through my you know, through my enthusiasm for it,
you know, I think he kind of warmed to the
idea of it as a kind of a cult classic,

(42:42):
and and that's a nice thing you can do as well.
You know, people come away from these projects think, you know, actually,
you know, maybe I did something there and people like it.
And that's that's why I love working on these kinds
of films, you know, which which haven't been released a
bunch of times, and often, you know, even now, I
reach out to people and they were like, because also,

(43:06):
they're not in our world, right, they're not. They're not
on forums or whatever. They don't know that people are
talking about Tracts or Killer or they you know, maybe
not so much about Terror Tila, even though I love
that film, but they're just you know, they're not connected
to that, so you know, you know, they get a

(43:28):
random Facebook message, you know, someone from Terror ten Killer
gets a random Facebook message from some guy. They're just
so perplexed. But then they then they learn what this
is all about, and then they get you know, a
copy of the release, and they come away generally, I hope, thinking,
you know, thinking differently about that part of their lives,

(43:49):
which that's a really nice thing to be able to
to do for people.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
No, I totally agree. I In December we had Richard
Baylor on who put out some shorts from through Saturday's
Court and he was part of that no Wave movement
and helped bring it to Europe and the UK. And
he lives in London now and he's just got like
a great corporate job. He's like an executive working in healthcare.

(44:14):
And then out of nowhere, this you know, Ross approaches
him from Saturday's Court and is, hey, like, we're gonna
put out a retrospective of your work from the nineties.
He's like, wait, what, Like, I don't know, it's cool.
I agree with you, Like, it's so cool to hear
that this. You know, these folks that can get to
kind of rediscover their work through the eyes of fans

(44:35):
as opposed to just trying to hustle to find a
producer or a distributor or whatever. Right, So.

Speaker 3 (44:42):
Yeah, definitely, yeah. I mean a lot of these people
have you know, especially with the films I work on,
have you know, haven't stayed in the industry. So they've
gone on and had completely, you know, other lives, but
you know it's obviously you know, it's a you know,
a part of their lives, and you know they get

(45:03):
to kind of, yeah, they might have just forgotten about
it or just thought, you know, that's that's something I did.
But then you know, they kind of get to reappraise
it as something that people still think about and talk
about and get a lot of enjoyment out of.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
So, yeah, that's awesome. Well, I think this is a
wonderful introduction to you and to the work you're doing
in Vinegar Syndrome. I would like to spend a few
minutes going over the releases from February just as part
of the kind of mid month episode. But before we
go into that, are there is there anything that I

(45:38):
did not ask you that you'd want people to hear
that I that I missed on.

Speaker 3 (45:45):
You mentioned blood tracks, and again, that was definitely one
that has been, yeah, many years in the making, and yeah,
one one that I'm I'm really pleased that we were
finally able to get back out there, and that was
that was you know, one of our secret titles for

(46:05):
Black Friday. So, I mean I don't follow so much
sort of a bit kind of off Facebook and socials
and stuff now, so don't really kind of track, you know,
kind of what the response is like. But yeah, I hope,
I hope it went down well. I mean again, it's
kind of a release for me really where it's just

(46:26):
you know, I've been wanting to have, you know, a good,
good copy of that for years and yeah, I think
it's just just so many fun elements in that film
and that was really fun to work on. And that
is one I did a commentary with on with Amanda

(46:47):
and Rickard graand Force, who's sort of a friend of
the of the label Swedish film expert, and he sort
of came in because me and Amanda had a number
of commentaries together we did the Prey Phantom of Them

(47:07):
All Don't Open Till Christmas, so we had kind of
a bit of a dynamic going and I wasn't I
wasn't sure, you know. We felt like we had good
a lot of good info on the film, but we
felt because it was kind of a kind of a
British Swedish co production, we could really do with that angle,

(47:27):
especially not being able to get any of the kind
of Swedish crew. We felt like having someone who could
speak to that with authority would be you know, really beneficial.
And yeah, I wasn't kind of sure what the dynamic
would be like adding a third person to the mix
and having that remotely, but it just but for us anyway,

(47:48):
just worked really well. And you know, we all we
all brought our own perspectives to it. But but Rickard
and you know, Amanda obviously always always brings her a game,
and Ricard you know, kind of gave us, you know,
lots of insight on on the Swedish side of things.
And the director matts Helgols and who record. I mean,

(48:11):
I guess it's the kind of behind the scenes that
people wouldn't know. But but Ricards, you know, sort of
speaks with the director quite a lot, and you know,
through him, we were sort of trying to trying to
sort of coax him into doing an interview or something,
but it just seems, yeah, he's an interesting, sort of

(48:31):
eccentric guy, and yeah, he just didn't didn't seem to
be on board with that. In the end, there was
times when it was looking like maybe we might get
an interview. But anyway, so getting Recard on the commentary
was really the kind of the next best option there,
and so that was that. That turned out really well,

(48:52):
I think, and some of the some of the cast
a UK based, which was nice as well. So Jeff Harding,
who's kind of the lead male lead, turned out to
live like down the road for me, you know, and
a lot of these things I'm doing remotely, so when
when I can actually go there and do it in person,
you know, that's really nice. So that was that was

(49:14):
cool as well. And he's kind of like, you know,
kind of a well remembered TV personality in the UK
for being on a what would you call it a
comedy sketch show called The Fast Show where he plays
this reporter called Ed Winchester, and so he's kind of

(49:37):
kind of a cult figure here. So that was really
cool to tell people that I'd just been to Ed
Winchester's house. Oh yeah, that's blood Tracks.

Speaker 2 (49:49):
You you asked you have, you know, kind of asked
and just running the reception, I can say the reception
was great. And I can't hear you say the name
blood Chirks without singing that song in my there's a
there's a particular like sub subgenre of horror movies where
the title of the film is also the theme song,

(50:10):
which is also played a lot through the movie. And
I have a particular affinity for this little tiny subgenre.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
No, it's one of my favorite subgenres of all time.
I mean I remember I'm one of the few people
who maybe went to see The Naughties Hills Have Eyes too, Okay.
I remember being like, as the credit for Rolling in

(50:39):
the theater the there's a a band called loud Line
made a song called the Hills Have Eyes, which is
just like the Hills Have Eyes, and it was just
playing as we were leaving. I was like, my god,
this is amazing, Like why don't they do this anymore?
Like it really like skyrocketed my estimations of that film.

(51:04):
I mean, I thought it was a crap when I
saw it, but it's kind of guilty pleasure now. But
that song, I was kind of like when that came
on and I was like, Oh, it's kind of all
a bit of a they're sort of kind of in
on the joke here, and yeah, no, I absolutely love that.
And then things like The Fear, which we put out
a few years ago, there's like a kind of a

(51:25):
rap theme on the end there. I can't remember the
songs called the Fear, but it definitely it's like a
theme song. It's it's like a music view as well. Yeah,
I just yeah, I I absolutely love that. Yeah, it's
a shame there's not a blood tracks video, but but I.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
Mean I think it it just instantly kind of puts
you in the in that world, right, which I love.

Speaker 3 (51:49):
Just so it's it's I love the self referentialness of it.
It's kind of like it's all the big kind of
in joke, you know, it's just kind of attention to
itself as a piece of you know, peace of entertainment.
And yeah, I just I don't know, Yeah, I really
like it.

Speaker 2 (52:05):
Yeah, as I said, no, but I'm glad you brought
that back up. I think it's a great release as well.
And I think that's a good segue because I made
the argument. When the February titles were announced, I would
say from the general community there was kind of like

(52:25):
a mixed reaction to the titles because number one, it
was the titles that not a lot of people had
heard of, and number two, it was sort of like,
oh that just Franco film, and like it was just
sort of like a there was just there seemed to
be kind of a mixed response on like a like
a skeptical response to February. And the argument that I

(52:47):
made at the time was, y'all don't understand, like I
think this is going to be a month that you
remembered well, because this is literally what vinegar syndrome does
is they pull stuff that we haven't heard of and
it turns out being great. So like, like give it
a chance, because this is literally why we love this label.
And I think what I'll probably do, just because of

(53:08):
my OCD brain is go up by order of spine number. Again,
that's just the way that my mind works. And so
the first one from February was four ninety two and
is a movie starring Wingshauser, directed by a Canadian guy,

(53:28):
David Wellington, and it's got a great commentary track from
the Oscar Bait guys, and it's it's called The Carpenter.
And I'd heard about this movie for a long time.
I was excited to see it, and I knew it
was going to be good, but I didn't know how

(53:49):
good it was going to be. This movie fucking rules, Like,
like I remember we kind of talked about this little
bit on when we were going through some of the
titles you put out. But like, I love it when
horror movies just do something different. And Wingshauser in this

(54:11):
movie is so weird. And you don't know if he's
sort of like a like a godlike figure or you know,
this kind of guardian angel or is he a ghost
or like you don't know what's going on, but he
has this like supernatural ability to be there as this
woman is restoring her home, as as she's going through

(54:33):
a lot in her life, and like her husband's kind
of an asshole, and like there's all this stuff going
on and he comes in as this protector and as
the movie goes on, you you start to really kind
of blur that line between protector and just psycho killer.
And it's like it's this weird, like you know, it's

(54:58):
one of these movies where're watching it, I'm like, who's
sits down and thinks of this stuff? But I love
it And I actually watched it twice because I had
such a good time with it the first time. Have
you have you seen the Carpenter?

Speaker 3 (55:11):
Yeah? I think it was. I think it was something
I watched remotely with someone during during COVID I think
it took been on my radar for a while because
I think Scorpion maybe put out a DVD, okay, and
so I haven't seen it for quite a few years.
But yeah, I remember really enjoying it and really enjoying

(55:32):
the kind of kind of off key vibe about it,
you know, because it's vera a call. You know, she's
sort of kind of like late at night in the house,
we'll hear the kind of noises from downstairs and then
comes and finds wings houser kind of toiling away at night,
and it's kind of like, you know, you don't know,

(55:54):
I like that kind of conceit when it's sort of
you don't know if it's kind of in the person's
imagination or not. Yeah, exactly, but yeah, it's sort of
got that kind of oddball he say it's Canadian.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Canadian production anyways.

Speaker 3 (56:09):
Yeah, yeah, it kind of kind of in my mind,
I put it in kind of like the kind of
late eighties kind of realm of things like pin. I know,
it's not like a similar film, but a kind of
Canadian production with sort of a you know, it's not
out and out horror, there's kind of it, but there
are good horror elements, but it's just kind of the

(56:30):
general vibe is quite oddball, and I definitely appreciate that.
And I have recently received my February package, so this
is definitely encouraging me to to check it out again.

Speaker 2 (56:44):
I mean, the film looks great, no surprise as far
as the Vinegar Syndrome transfer, but it's just such a
cool movie. I really hope anybody listening like, like, this
is the one I would say if you're if you're
not a subscriber and you're like looking to buy, this
is not this is not a try before you buy, Like,
this is just a buye and like you can you

(57:05):
can at me if you don't like it for some reason.
But I would be shocked if people like Vinegar Syndrome
and don't like this movie. I feel like I would
be shocked, Like, yeah, if you're already down this rabbit
hole enough to know about.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
Yeah, no, I think so. I think that would probably
be my pick from from that month as well.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Yeah, and then one that you actually helped produce, if
I remember correctly. Going to four ninety three is the
Just Franco release of White Cannibal Queen.

Speaker 3 (57:34):
Right, Yes, that's right, Yeah, and this has.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
A bunch of alternate titles, like I think it was
released as Mondo kanniballet to kind of tap into that
Mondo wave that was going on in the seventies and eighties.
But did you I know that Eugenio or Goolani made
the commentary for this along with Troy howth But did

(57:58):
you were going a lot of the special features, like
what was your role in the disc?

Speaker 3 (58:04):
Yeah, I mean I sort of commissioned the extras from Eugenio.
I guess my My kind of major contribution was bringing
Steve Thurwer on board, which is I mean, Steves generally
is a bit of a no brainer anyway. But obviously, yeah,
for you know, for Jess Franco, you know, even even

(58:25):
more so. So obviously he jumped at the chance to
talk about this, and yeah, turned out typically articulate and
insightful piece. So, you know, insightful to me as well.
I mean, I'm I wouldn't say I'm kind of I

(58:47):
appreciate Franco. I'm definitely not like a scholar of Franco,
but I kind of like the fact that essentially it's
kind of a cannibal movie made by someone who doesn't
really have much regard for that genre, and you know,
it's definitely kind of adds his own slant on it.

(59:09):
And you know the fact that it was kind of
you know, I mean, the fact that the kind of
the cannibal makeup looks nothing like you know, sort of
real tribal makeup kind of gives it. You know, they're
going in for this kind of you know, it's almost
almost sort of kids face paint, like you know some

(59:31):
of them, some of them have kind of almost like
sort of corpse paint type thing, you know, like they're
in ghost or something, or you know, like yellow you know,
yellow face paint or just like all kinds of things.
It's all kind of Yeah, it was deeply inauthentic, but
that kind of had the fun of it, and also
that it was you know, it was kind of shot

(59:52):
in some I guess it was Spain, just in some
kind of like a park basically no gardens or something.

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
I think people need to go into this with the
expectation that this is just like kind of a curio,
because like there's the tribes of cannibals are literally just
white people.

Speaker 3 (01:00:20):
Yeah, yeah, is yeah, there's there's levels of problematicness there,
I guess, but again we sort of say these things
as they come, and yeah, it's you know, the there's
some some some good super SlowMo you know, gut chomping
as well. Are missing that aspect of it, But yeah,

(01:00:44):
no one should go and expecting cannibal feroks or cannibal
Holocaust style shoko. It's it's a very different, more Franco
esque proposition.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Yeah exactly. But still, I mean I think, like, I
don't know, I enjoyed it. It's is it you know,
is it gonna go for an Academy Award? I mean no,
But like I do think that this is a fun movie,
and I do understand I guess why Vinegar Syndrome put
it out in this sense that like there's enough stuff
in here that I was very engaged and I was

(01:01:14):
kind of and I was dying laughing at some parts
just of like the choices that he made. But you know,
I think the words deeply and authentic are a great
summary of the film. But it's still fun. So, I
you know, I would not say this is like a
must buy, but I do think it's one that people
should watch it. They can find it streaming, and like

(01:01:36):
see if they kind of have fun with it, because
if you can let go of this need to have
like I don't know, if you can just kind of
sit back and have fun with it, I think you'll
end up liking it. Because I like this based on
the feedback of people saying this is like a lower
Franco movie, I was not excited about it, but I
had a great time. So I don't know, yah, but

(01:01:56):
it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 3 (01:01:58):
Yeah, No, it's totally agree Okay.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
The Possession of Joel Delaney is a really interesting one.
So Shirley McClain, like a young Shirley McLain is in
that she's the lead and she plays somebody, and there's
this kind of like implied incest that's never discussed like

(01:02:22):
directly or but every interpretation of the film talks about
how the word possession is sort of like a double
Chandra one, that he's actually kind of being possessed like
in a traditional horror sense, but also that his sister,
Shirley McLain, is like possessive of him, like she's kind

(01:02:43):
of like trying to possess him, and I, I don't know,
like the interesting thing about this one, Sam Degan does
a commentary, I just have to shut up Sam Degan
because she's one of the best to do one of
them was my favorite like current film historians and just
some of the best to do it as far as

(01:03:03):
commentaries go. And she has some great research and insights
into the movie. As always, y'all actually got the director
wats who's saying, which is awesome to me because you know,
he definitely has been around movies and his personal life
is fascinating just if you look into his history of

(01:03:23):
the way that his mom was in the BBC and
then like how he kind of got into it and
I don't know, he just he has like an interesting
story and you can tell that. I think the way
the movie's made, it's clear that this is made by
somebody that's very comfortable with a camera and like very
comfortable telling a story, because it's a very professional looking movie.

(01:03:44):
Like there's not a this is not It doesn't feel
like a regional horror. It doesn't feel like an SOV
like like you would if somebody told you this was
a Hollywood release, you know it would. It has all
the markings of that in terms of the way it's
shot in the seventies and the choices that are made
of the character development, and it just got a very

(01:04:04):
professional feel to it. And the way the movie plays out.
I don't know, it's I think the writing is a
little bit of a mess for me, And like I
didn't know as it as it kind of like goes on,
I found myself a little bit lost on like what

(01:04:26):
they were trying to say, like what exactly was like
going Like I couldn't quite place exactly what the movie
was trying to do. But it you know, I don't
want to fault the the production team for that, Like
I don't it was an extremely well made movie across

(01:04:47):
every angle, Like the music was good, Like it looked pretty,
like everything was like it's a well made film. And
I just as far as horror movie goes and possession
movie goes, it's a it's even a kind of an
interesting take on it. But I don't know, I didn't,
I didn't This one registered with me the least. Oh
I should mention it's vs. Four ninety four. This one

(01:05:08):
kind of registered with me the least. But you know,
it's like, by no means a bad movie like that,
You can't no one would ever say this is a
bad movie.

Speaker 3 (01:05:19):
Yeah, did you? Did you check out the I see
there's a locations piece. I mean, obviously this is one
I worked on. But see there's a locations piece.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Yeah, yeah, there's a there's a film, there's a one
of the features. Yeah, yeah, they go through I can't
remember exactly all the things that they did, but yeah, no,
I watched the first few minutes of it. I but
I know the locations is a big deal for you

(01:05:49):
in general. That's something you love to, You're kind of
drawn to, right.

Speaker 3 (01:05:53):
That's why I picked it out. Yeah, I mean, I
mean yeah, when I mean it's the ones that I
personally enjoyed doing when you know, when that is available,
I mean when we did don't open until Christmas. That
was kind of like a real no brainer for me
because it's all got in and around like the West

(01:06:16):
End of London, and I found some very good resources
for you know, for finding out where certain things were,
and there was just a lot that we could we
could kind of do within quite a small area, you know.
So we kind of spent a day basically from ten
am to like five pm, running around grabbing shots, doing

(01:06:38):
a few fairly probably goofy gags. Maybe maybe some people
recreating stuff which I get carried away sometimes, but yeah, no,
I like I like doing them and I like watching them,
and you know, I hope people get something out of them.
I think that, you know, there's you can do something.

(01:07:00):
It's just kind of you know, talking heads. Since it
is obviously great and that's the kind of main thing,
but it's nice when you can do something slightly different
as well, like a little mini production basically. So that's
just why I'm curious about that one and who had
done that, because I haven't had a chance to see
that yet. But again, it's it's in my stack of
February titles that I'm planning on working through soon.

Speaker 2 (01:07:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's it's I'd be curious send
me a note when you get to it, because by
by every account, it's like a well made film. So
I it's a cool release to have in the catalog,
and like, I totally understand where why it would get
put out, So I'm not trying to downplay it at all.
I just there's something in it that didn't quite it

(01:07:45):
for me. But I totally it's it's a it's a
good movie. I'm just gonna say it like that, and
I it's it's a cool to have put out on
Vinegar Syndrome because it's it's like an interesting history and
I don't know everything about it is, you know, like
the backstory is really good and so anyways, Yeah, those
are the three main line titles for the month. I think,

(01:08:07):
I don't know, between White Cannibal Queen just being super
fun and The Carpenter being one of the best horror
movies I've seen in a long time. I love this
month so far. And that's before we get to probably
my favorite release of the month, which is a Vinegar
Syndrome Labs title. Have you been tracking the VSL line

(01:08:32):
much in terms of, you know, I think it's about
two years old at this point. This is release number fifteen.
Have you had a chance to see some of the
stuff that's come out from that line.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
Yeah, caught up with Five Cards Start a few months ago.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:08:54):
To my dad, because he's a Western fan, so you
watch anything basically. I think I watched like Cannibal Holocourse
with him when I was like thirteen, which I think
thought maybe was maybe pushing it, but he was kind
of watch anything. But I thought I'll dig this out because,
you know, because it's a Western, and yeah, we both

(01:09:19):
enjoy it was actually pitched to me. I think it
was pitched to me by Joe. It's kind of like
a Western exactly. Yeah, there you go. I think that
that immediately kind of pricked my ears up, and I
was like, well check that out. You know, it's not
my go to genre Westerns, but yeah, I never really
really enjoyed it. I remember they're being quite a jolly

(01:09:41):
kind of theme song in that one as well. And
I also worked on Paganini and blud Line and neither
the Scene nor the Sand, so I'd say probably out those,
probably neither the Scene nor the Sands, probably most of

(01:10:03):
my cup of tea, you know, very I mean, I
love the kind of moody photography of the Island of Jersey,
which is just in the English is an English Channel island,
and it's kind of it's got that sort of you know,
sort of British kind of ghost story gothic feel of

(01:10:28):
some of the you know, a bit like some of
the kind of m. R. James adaptations that yeah, you
did in the sort of seventies. So I really like
that kind of kind of ambiance, and it's it's the
kind of gives me the feel of the kind of
thing I would have caught on like TV in the UK,

(01:10:49):
and you know when I was in my early teens,
you know, kind of late at night on like BBC
two or something. It's kind of got that sort of
kind of feels like something you would watch in the
kind of smalls and and kind of wonder whether or
not you'd kind of dreamt it quality.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
That's Amicus released right, Amicus.

Speaker 3 (01:11:12):
Now it's I would say tign.

Speaker 2 (01:11:16):
Oh, Okay, okay, I'm sorry. Maybe I got the name wrong.
But then because I thought that that was the same
studio as Terror Nuts, but maybe I got that detail
wrong because Terror Nuts is Amicus, and that's that came
out the following month, and that's a great little fun
sci fi film that you know, like one of these

(01:11:40):
sci fi movies, it's produced on the soundstage and the
whole thing is pretty much shot on the soundstage. And
that's that's a fun one. And then this month is
Belly of an Architect, which I can't wait to get
in because Greenaway is a sneaky favorite of mine. I
just love his quirky sensibilities. Like I think he's super underrated.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
Yeah, I did. Actually again you know, I jump on
these things when I can. But my colleague Claudia produced
that one, but we we helped out with the interview
with the editor John Wilson on that one, who again
lives like pretty pretty close to me. So my videos

(01:12:27):
went and shot that. So that was some involvement in that. Yeah,
and so I like, you know, I mean, I as
much as I like to ghetto ghetto eyes myself in
the slasher genre, it is it is good to step
outside of that now and again so.

Speaker 2 (01:12:45):
Well, Greenaway is such an interesting guy to do it.
This is not not to put you on the spot,
but have you ever seen his three hour pseudo documentary
called The Falls.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
I have not. You'll be shocked to learn.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
It's one of the most bizarre concepts and execution of
a movie I've ever seen. Like he just it's like
a film a radio show recapping a historical event where
ninety families were impacted by this mysterious bird event and
he just goes through each family one by one over

(01:13:22):
three hours and talks about how they were impacted. And
that's it. But in typical Greenaway fashion, like it's funny
at times, and he gives a lot away. He kind
of creates the story through. You see this narrative forming,
and as you get into each family, you learn a
little bit more about the event, and it's just a adam.

(01:13:44):
I think he's a brilliant guy and I wish more
people were talking about him. So I love that vs
Labs is putting that out the belly of an architect.

Speaker 3 (01:13:53):
Yeah, it's interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Yeah, But this month in fibruwelve or this episode, we're
talking about the mention of madness and I'm gonna sell
you hard on do you like surrealism at all? Like
is that a type of movie that you're drawn to
it all?

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Yeah? I can certainly get along with that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:10):
Yeah, because this is the you know, the big names
are like Bunuel or Yodarovski or maybe Ken Russell or
you know, there's these names in like surrealism. And the
name that is lesser discussed is one Lopezmoktezuma. And he's
a Mexican director and he's probably in boutique Blu ray circles.
He's most famous for Alo Karta, which is one of

(01:14:33):
the craziest non exploitation movies ever made. I mean, I'm
assuming it has to be. It's if it's a if
it's a ninety minute movie, there's like forty minutes is
just screaming. But like it's it's great though, Like the
way that he makes it is a lot of dreamlike
imagery and a lot of folklore and something that's kind

(01:14:54):
of baked into the story. And for a mention of madness.
He is very movie and it's an extremely mature release
from him. So the basic premise is this guy is
in a horse and buggy going to an insane asylum
and actually just blanked on the reason why he's going.

(01:15:16):
I think it's like either a family estate or he's
going to see a friend there. I can't remember. But
he goes there, and the whole time he's in there,
he goes and he kind of descends into this world
of madness, and the patriot or the the what's it
called patience, and the person who runs the asylum are

(01:15:38):
all like kind of in and out of madness, to
use the words of the film. And he shoots the
film in such a way that you don't there's moments
where you're not sure exactly if it's real or not
or imagined, and the whole thing has very much like

(01:15:59):
a you know, Vochekas has this movie called The hour
Glass Sanatorium that came out through a partner label. I
think it's Yellow Veil. And then there's you know, Terry
Gilliam has some movies that certainly play with the idea
of like losing one's mind, and it has a very
similar vibe to that. And I just I love this movie,

(01:16:20):
like this is if I were if you're the slasher guy,
if I could have anything on my tombstone, it would
be the surrealist guy. I just love it, like I
love this kind of stuff. And Maktazuma was running with
boonwell late, I mean even though he was older, and
he was running with Yodarewski and like they were you know,
he was a big proponent for bringing creativity into mainstream

(01:16:46):
cinema in Mexico and and really pushing the boundaries of
what was on TV and what was made in the
cinemas and all that. And there's a great special feature
on him that's like is it like an our eighty
nine minutes? It's a ninnute feature on this about this
guy who was not only a surrealist filmmaker, but also
like a mainstay in TV both in Mexico and later

(01:17:10):
in Spain, and just I don't know, like it's a
wonderful movie and an incredible package of features, and to
me this is a really important one that VS put up.

Speaker 3 (01:17:23):
Well, I guess that's help the viewing list.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
Yeah, I can't. I can't wait to hear if you
do get to it, because yeah, I just think it's
I don't know, I love it, like it's I think
everything that Money Python was trying to do with comedy,
you could also just twist it slightly and make really
good art films, like art house movies with what they did.
You know, if you just took away some of the

(01:17:46):
comedy and replaced it with like more of a straight narrative,
they would have made some of the great art house
movies I think. And I think this one has a
similar vibe to it, where it's like it's Money Python,
but like twisted without necessarily Like there is humor in it,
and there's dark comedy in it, but it's not the
overt you know, like comedy writer type of comedy. It's

(01:18:07):
more just you find yourself kind of laughing at the
situations and kind of what's going on. Sounds good anyways,
So yeah, that was the VSL title. Now that's all
the mainline stuff. I think that. I don't know how
y'all talk about it internally. I don't know if you
talk about Cinematograph as a mainline title or like a

(01:18:28):
sub label, but you know, I think that the next
two are going to be Cinematograph titles, and they're both
I think coming out in February, so they're both like
love or romance themed. There's the fourteenth th re lease
from Cinematograph is called The Joy of Sex, and it's

(01:18:51):
just a fun eighties horny comedy. Like it's very you know,
we talk about slashers that kind of fall. They really
understand the parameters of the genre, and this is one
of those ones that came out in nineteen eighty four,
so it's kind of in the middle of a lot

(01:19:13):
of the like John Hughes kind of stuff or whatever,
you know, all these eighties sort of horny comedies, but
this one is I would say the horniness is dialed
up quite a bit, Like everybody in the movie is horny.
The adults are like chastising kids, for you know, getting
into shenanigans. But then as soon as the kids leave,

(01:19:36):
they like can't keep their hands off each other, and
like the kids are you know, just dreaming of having
sex and like trying to. But then there's like this
interesting because it's directed by a woman and Martha Coolidge,
who's obviously a very good director. And then it's it's
actually based off of a novel, and it's like it's

(01:19:57):
got a little bit of a good human element as well.
So like these kids are really they're very honest about
the fact that when the moment hits, when like they're
about to get laid, they kind of chicken out or
they maybe it doesn't feel right, and so there's a
lot of authenticity of emotion and there's a lot of
open discussion about how like oh yeah, like I haven't

(01:20:18):
been able to do it yet or whatever. And it's
just like a nice twist on the horny classic because
there's no like sex Superstar. You know, everyone's sort of
an awkward high schooler, which is I think is a
nice touch. So yeah, this was a good one. I
understand why Justin or I understand why Cinematograph, you know,

(01:20:38):
was excited to put this out. It's a I think
it's a cult classic for a reason. It should be
talked about more in that like eighties sort of horny
comedy genre.

Speaker 3 (01:20:48):
Yeah, not, I mean, not a genre I'm hugely familiar
with outside of you know, the likes of Hawkis and
exactly American Virgin, which was one that I worked with
on Barrow early on. But yeah, I definitely piqued my
interest with that.

Speaker 2 (01:21:06):
Yeah, it's it's great. And then something on vinegart So
Cinematograph fifteen on the complete opposite end of the spectrum.
It's it's also a very horny movie, but it's Tilda
Swinton basically showing her Swinton's for the entire runtime, and

(01:21:32):
it's it's like this crazy art house. I don't even
really know how to describe it. It's like it's it's
almost surrealism at times, it's not, it doesn't quite go there,
but like it's very much like a visually what's the
word I'm trying to say, like like a visual art
piece as opposed to just a straight movie narrative, if

(01:21:55):
that makes sense. Like it's they you can tell they
paid a lot of attention to the aesthetics of it.
And like the scene composition, and like the way that
the colors work on screen, like and there's a lot
of moments that kind of pull away to like a
literally like a Roman statue. Tilda Swinton is like a
Roman statue that's being loved on or lusted on, and

(01:22:22):
just like a it's like this cutaway scene that happens
almost not like a dream, but just almost like a
it's almost there just to sort of make a statement
in the moments like leading up to passion for her,
where it's like I don't even know if it's meant
to be, like this is a timeless love or I
don't even know exactly what it's trying to say, but
it'll briefly like flash to her as like this Roman

(01:22:43):
statue esque kind of goddess, and then flash back to
the reality, and extremely I would say it's you hear
this critique sometimes of like style over substance over films,
which I don't like that phrase because I think it's
very reductive and and I like style over substance things.

(01:23:04):
So I'm not going to contribute to the narrative to
that narrative. But but this is the movie where I
think it's it's clear that the majority of the focus
was on how the movie is gonna look and less
attention paid to the story.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
Yeah no, I mean it's yeah, like you said, it's
kind of a pejorative term, but it depends on how
good the style is.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Really exactly, Yeah, exactly. There's a there's a great phrase
of like, sometimes the style is the substance, and I
think this is this.

Speaker 3 (01:23:34):
Is one of those that would put it definitely yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:39):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (01:23:41):
It's It's also interesting to see Tilda Swinton with like
just little things, like with long hair and portrayed as
like a sex symbol, because I think her current image
is this more androgynist, like powerful figure, like everything she
does has so much power behind it, and she certainly

(01:24:02):
brings that intensity to this role too, But but it's
very much meant to love on her physical beauty. It's
just a kind of an interesting twist for her.

Speaker 3 (01:24:14):
Yeah. No, I think the last time I saw was
maybe playing three roles in the Suspiory remake. One of
the things an old man's exactly. Yeah, that's that's where
That's what I think of now when I think of
till the Twinton not as a kind of sex symbol
like you said, so yeah as well.

Speaker 2 (01:24:33):
And this is another one that was this is what
I like about what Cinematograph's done. I think Justin and
I keep saying him in my mind, these are sort
of like this is like Justin's baby, the project Cinematograph.
I don't know if the case Okay, okay, great, So
like this is something I like. What he's doing is,
you know, when he finds a movie like female Perversions,

(01:24:54):
if there's a couple movies like this, he's gonna put
out the one that's directed by a woman, with a
female producer and a female cinematographer and a female editor,
like this is very much a feminist film. And the
director when she recounts the movie, she said that she
got one of the I think it's a cinematographer or

(01:25:16):
the editor. One of the crew she pulled from a
a Tarantino movie, early Tarantino movie. It must have been
Reservoir Dogs, just with the time the timing of kind
of mid nineties. But anyways, but she said that when
she pulled this person from the crew, she said, well,

(01:25:36):
why are you joining this? And she said, this is
not a film, this is a movement. So like, this
is a very strong feminist statement, and that's kind of
interesting in itself that it's so it's so erotic, and
it's like it's almost like women recapturing sexuality and kind
of making it like theirs, which is cool. So yeah,

(01:26:00):
those are the releases from feb And I don't know, Like,
I think this is one of those ones that I
do think as whenever there's sales, a lot of people
like to buy movies they're not familiar with during sales,
which I think is fair. I certainly do it too,
And I think this is a month that I would
encourage people to revisit during a sale and try some

(01:26:22):
try some of these titles because there's a lot of
good stuff in here that if it was part of
another month that had like a really marquee title attached
to it, then I think people would be seeing a
lot more of these. But yeah, I was really happy
with February, and then we've kind of hinted at March

(01:26:43):
a little bit, but March has some amazing titles. I
can't just the fact that Devil Fetus is getting a
release is just making me giddy. I can't wait for
it to come in and to see that movie with
the proper transfer cool lot life as well, very cool artwork.
But yeah, I mean, look, we I don't have too

(01:27:07):
much else to say. I mean, I I thank you
so much for coming in, you in and you're making
time for this in the middle of a day for you,
which means a lot. Thank you for doing this, thank
you for coming on and being a part of the
Punk Vacation family.

Speaker 3 (01:27:25):
That's my pleasure. Yeah, and it's nice to you know,
I guess because there is a lot of behind the
scenes but you know with some of these releases and
and you know, stuff that people just wouldn't know about,
and so it's nice to be able to sort of
talk about that and give some people some insight. And
you know, I forget a lot of these, you know,
the trials and tribulations behind some of these. It's kind

(01:27:47):
of fun to kind of, you know, remember some of
that stuff because you know, when you're in it, you're
just trying to get the job done and the disc out,
you know, but it's it's kind of interesting to reflect
on that. Yeah, hopefully people get something out of hearing
what goes into some of these releases.

Speaker 2 (01:28:05):
Oh, I know, people eat it up. And if there's
a if there's a month coming out where you know
you have one or two titles that are part of
the month and you want to talk about them, I'd
love to have you back. We can certainly coordinate that
if that's something where the timing works. But yeah, thank
you so much for doing this. It's really good to
meet you and spend this time with you.

Speaker 3 (01:28:27):
My pleasure.

Speaker 2 (01:28:27):
Thanks a lot, all right, Thanks JN.

Speaker 1 (01:29:17):
Thank you for listening to hear more shows from the
Someone's Favorite Productions podcast network. Please select the link in
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Speaker 4 (01:29:31):
Hello, this is Aaron West. I am the author of
the A twenty four New Wave. In this book, I
look at A twenty four's output and I make the
argument that we are in a new wave movement right now.
A twenty four plays a major role. This book has
a supplemental podcast where each episode is a brief conversation
about an A twenty four related topic, whether an actor, director,

(01:29:53):
or even a genre. As I continue research for the
book and conduct interviews, I expect to record podcasts episodes
with people involved with the company. You can find the
podcast at sindjourneys dot com or wherever you find podcasts
and we are proud to be members of the Someone's
Favorite Productions podcast network