Not familiar with Video Nasties, eh? Well, gather round, kids, and let ol' Uncle Skin tell you a story: A long, long time ago, back in the VHS era, somehow the British government became convinced that horror movies were single-handedly sending the morals of English youth straight down the toilet.
So they assembled a list of 72 titles, each featuring content-- nudity, gore, graphic torture, David Hess--that was deemed inappropriate and thus banned or censored in the UK. Of course, once this list was leaked to the media, each of those 72 movies became instant must-sees for horror fans, and the resulting notoriety has buoyed their popularity to this very day.
To celebrate the twisted legacy of the Video Nasties, Los Angeles' Cinefamily is holding a month-long series of 30 midnight movies, each hand-picked from that scandalous 72. We've already missed Night Warning (1981), Hell of the Living Dead (1980), and The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976), but never fear- the lineup only gets more nasty as the month goes on, culminating with a 35mm screening of the infamous Cannibal Holocaust (1980) on Halloween night.
And as a test for the most hardcore of horror hounds, Cinefamily is also holding a contest: each movie-goer who attends a midnight screening will be issued a scorecard, and the lucky guy (or gal) whose stomach of steel endures the most Nasties gets to guest program a Cinefamily screening of their choice!
See the full schedule for Cinefamily's Nightmare City: A Video Nasties Celebration series after the jump!
Hey Chicago! Got any plans this weekend? Well, now you do, because tonight, September 21, and tomorrow night, September 22 at midnight, we'd like to cordially invite you to a screening of the unsung X-rated classic The Telephone Book (1971) co-presented by Mr.Skin!
The Telephone Book stars Sarah Kennedy, a dead ringer for a young Goldie Hawn who you may remember as a hooker hawking her wares alongside Cassandra Peterson (aka Elvira, Mistress of the Dark) in The Working Girls (1973).
Sarah plays Alice, a sexually curious young woman with pornographic wallpaper in her apartment who becomes obsessed with John Smith (Norman Rose), the "world's greatest obscene phone caller." After gushing to her best friend (Jill Clayburgh in her screen debut) that the call was a "work of art", Alice sets out to find this master of obscenity on an erotic journey across New York City. Her only clue? "I’M IN THE BOOK," he tells her. "I’LL BE WAITING. TRY AND FIND ME.”
Disowned by distributor Joe Levine (who had built his reputation bringing racy art-house fare like 1963's Contempt to America), The Telephone Book went virtually unseen for 38 years before a 2009 screening at Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre exposed it to a whole nude generation.
Playing like the bastard child of Russ Meyer and Jean-Luc Godard and a major influence on Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (1972), The Telephone Book is a fascinating look into the taboo-busting world of early '70s indie film that's just begging to be re-discovered. So pick up the phone and join us and producer Merv Bloch (appearing in person) this weekend at Chicago's historic Music Box Theatre-- you'll be glad you did.
See the original trailer for The Telephone Book after the jump!
Think you've seen Lucio Fulci's Zombie (1979) in all of its pus-oozing, worm-ridden, zombie shark fighting glory? Then think again, son.
The fine folks at Blue Underground have digitally remastered and restored this splatter classic to its original gory glory, and in advance of an October 25 Blu-ray release they're sharing the undead love with special midnight screenings October 21 & 22 all across the US and Canada. Seeing a cult classic on the big screen is an unparalleled moviegoing experience, and with the buzz coming from the restoration's premiere at Fantastic Fest, this is guaranteed to be one of the hottest tickets this Halloween season.
"Hey, Mr. Skin! How about some flesh that isn't putrefying?" you ask. Well, Zombie features Italian eyeful Auretta Gay doffing her top to fight underwater zombies and Greek goddess Olga Karlatos baring boobs and butt as we (and a horde of hungry creatures) watch her getting out of the shower. So you'll be spewing in more ways than one...
Check out the trailer for the restored Zombie, pics of the sexy stars, and information on a screening near YOU after the jump!
Mr. Mike Hits DVD, but Does Mr. Bill Get Raped? Oh, Nooo!
In 1979, Michael O’Donoghue, legendary National Lampoon editor and Saturday Night Live’s original head writer, created one of the goddamndest things ever intended for network television broadcast: Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video.
A parody of 1960s’ Italian-made globetrotting shockumentaries (Mondo Cane, Africa Addio) that examined outrageous human beliefs and behaviors, NBC commissioned O’Donoghue to create Mondo Video as a pilot to be an occasional fill-in for Saturday Night Live.
Suffice to say, the finished hodgepodge of splatter gags, wet cats, Sid Vicious, ancient porn, and other eye-poppers never made it to the air. Instead, producer Lorne Michaels released Mondo Video to theaters with the tagline “The TV Show That Can’t Be Shown on TV”, accompanied by a “special” Mr. Bill Show.
Shout! Factory just issued Mr. Mike’s Mondo Video on DVD, minus Mr. Bill. I’m glad to have the show on disc, but I really, really need to know the truth about that Mr. Bill short.
Here’s why: back in ’79, a kid I knew claimed to have seen Mondo Video in a theater, and he told me that the “special” Mr. Bill Show consisted of Mr. Hand greasing up Sluggo’s big, black cock with Vaseline, and then Sluggo barbarically raping Mr Bill in the ass.
Could it be that that young rapscallion was fibbing?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recently announced its nominees for Awards honoring 2008’s best work in every aspect of movie-making.
Aside from the fact that nine of the ten actresses who got a nod have done remarkable nude work on-camera, most noteworthy is dark horse contender Melissa Leo from the film Frozen River.
For now, though, let us honor a previous Melissa Leo triumph, the 1985 teen-hooker-in-Times-Square cult favorite, Streetwalkin’.
Melissa's lusciously upturned, rosily-pink-nippled boobaloos deserve an award of their own.
Golden Globes perhaps?
Streetwalk on over after the jump.
Paris Hilton nude is a prospect that continues to tantalize at all times.
At first glance, the slinky blonde siren’s performance as wig-clad surgery addict Amber Sweet in the burgeoning midnight-movie sensation Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) seemed merely electrifyingly sexy.
But now, our resident sexperts here in the lusty laboratories at Skin Central have determined that Paris does indeed provide us with a peak at her petite eyeful tower.
Twenty-three minutes, 13-seconds in, Paris’s famous pink milk-spigot gets pumped up into plain view over the top of her sensationally hot too-tight corset. And it stays out for 12 glorious seconds!
Click the pic to see Paris Hilton nude in Repo! The Genetic Opera now.
Sleazoid Express creator Bill Landis was a pioneering publisher who really did change the world (for the better), an endlessly imaginative writer, a performer in hardcore films during theatrical porn’s Golden Age and a projectionist who worked Times Square’s glorious toilet-bowl theaters.
At the same time, Bill Landis was also a miserable junkie, a hyper-paranoid head-case, and a world-class pain-in-the-ass.
And now Bill Landis is dead, at age 49, from a heart attack.
I miss him already. And I always will. Read all about it after the jump.
Softcore super-siren Andrea Davis has been hailed for having the largest, longest, and most lickably illustrious nipples in contemporary sexploitation. Now she’s gone and done something unthinkable and unspankable. Come joining us in mourning over not coming.
That’s Hollywood! was a late-'70s/early-’80s syndicated TV series doling out admirable half-hour cinema history lessons that were narrated by the dulcet tones of Mr. Tom Bosley. Before VCRs and instant access to more movie clips than anyone could possibly stand, this and Siskel and Ebert served as methadone to movie freaks between big-screen fixes. The show has become something of a minor cult item, and never moreso than in the instance of its episode dedicated to big cult movies.
The finest nudity-laden films of 2008 include two horror hits, and a comedy featuring the naked asshole, vagina, and pert little suck-sacks of Meg McCarville, who was Andrea Davis’s main competition in the realm of superhumanly succulent nipples, and who know has the crown all to herself. Congratulations to us. Click the nips for more.
