The Incredibly Strange Film Show

★ 9 · 1988 · Documentary

A series of documentaries focusing on the world of psychotronic movies; focusing on the lives of filmakers such as Hershell Gordon Lewis, Saim Raimi, Doris Wishman, Ed Wood Jr, and Tsui Hark. Covers weird movie genres, like Mexican wrestling movies and Hong Kong horror films.

Episodes

1. John WatersThe Pope of Trash is captured at the height of his popularity with the surprise mainstream hit Hairspray. Most of the contributors to Waters' underground Baltimore-based film collective "Dreamland Productions" are interviewed, including one of Divine's final interviews.

2. Herschell Gordon LewisDrive-In pioneer Lewis is interviewed at a country club in Florida where he details his beginnings in nudie cuties, his successful partnership with Dave Friedman which resulted in the Blood Trilogy (Blood Feast, 2000 Maniacs and Color Me Blood Red), and a late-life career reappraisal where a new cult of devoted followers crowned him the “Godfather of Gore.”

3. Ray Dennis StecklerThe Las Vegas skyline provides a glittering backdrop for the story of no-budget auteur Steckler, whose improvisational style fueled the creation Rat Fink a Boo Boo, Wild Guitar, The Thrill Killers and The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Decided to Stop Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies.

4. Ted V. MikelsThe eccentric Las Vegas-based filmmaker behind The Corpse Grinders, The Astro-Zombies, and The Doll Squad frolics around the desert playing an accordion and performing a ventriloquist act while regaling Jonathan Ross with stories of cinematic courage and communal living in a Los Angeles "castle" full of exotic women.

5. Russ MeyerAmerican independent filmmaker and lover of cleavage Russ Meyer recounts his groundbreaking early sexploitation melodramas, his scandalous 20th Century Fox Production Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and his aborted Sex Pistols project.

6. Sam RaimiAn early profile of the filmmaker, fresh off Evil Dead II and ready to begin production of Darkman for Universal. Raimi and his collaborators Scott Spiegel, Rob Tapert and Bruce Campbell discuss early Super-8 productions, their breakthrough horror film Evil Dead and their compromised sophomore effort Crimewave.

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