Roky Erickson's Favourite Cult Horror Films

Underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico shares cult hero Roky Erickson's (from The 13th Floor Elevators) favourite horror movies.

*Curse Of The Demon (1957)
*I Walked With A Zombie (1943)
*Creature With The Atom Brain (1955)
*Donovan's Brain (1953)
*Frankenstein (1931)
*Night Of The Living Dead (1968)
*Psycho (1960)
*Creature From The Black Lagoon (1954)
*Jack The Ripper (1959)
*Blood On Satan's Claw (1971)
*Halloween (1978)
*The Wolf Man (1941)
*The Munsters (1966)
*Rodan (1956)
*Dracula (1931)
*Day The World Ended (1955)
*Columbo (TV Show)

Interview with FACE THE STRANGE

Face The Strange

When did you start sharing Face The Strange posters? 
My first posters went up in the wee small hours, one morning in August 2014 - although I had spread smaller stickers around for about a year before that. 

How did you come up with the name? 
Originally my work was going to have a bunch of different taglines, with "Face The Strange" being just one of them, but that just summed the work up the best. It's as much a message as an identity. 

People call you the ''The North's Banksy'' how do you feel about that? 
Perplexed.  I live in The Midlands and spend as much time in London, so I don't see how I could be The North's anything!  Besides, we work in completely different ways.  You hear Banksy comparisons all the time in the media and its just used as an easy way for people to pigeon-hole you. 

Where does your inspiration come from? 
The inspiration really varies. Often it's from something retro, such as a classic film or TV show - The Evil Dead, A Clockwork Orange and Monty Python have all been recent subject matter.  I also did a whole series of pieces based around the board game Cluedo, just because. Sometimes I'll get an idea from a phrase, a tune, or an image that I see. Other times it's a bit more random, and is just a case of throwing a bunch of things into the mix and seeing what comes out. 

What do you use to put your posters on the walls? 
An old mate put me onto traditional wheatpaste - just water, flour and sugar - and that's what I've always used. Do occasionally think about switching up the recipe for something a bit more durable, but never have. 

What are some of the themes that your art work has tackled? 
The main theme behind a lot of my work is inclusivity of diversity - acceptance of the unusual.  I've also done pieces that are city-specific, and highlighting environmental and ethical concerns such as climate change and artist rights. 

At the moment you are anonymous, will the public ever see what you look like? 
The anonymity ties into the faceless identity of my characters, so I doubt that will ever change! 

Do you have any funny stories from being an artist? 
I think the funniest stories come from the larger pieces that I've put up. I remember having an ace spot lined-up up in Derby, a large electrical box which would've been seen on foot, by car and from passing trains.  I pasted it up one night with my largest ever work, comprised of two A0 sheets (which made something approx 2x1metres).  Went back the following day, and it'd already been removed by the council. I had to laugh at their dedication. I also have terrible memories of standing on a Bristol street that felt like a wind tunnel, desperately clutching a large glued-up poster which was feeling more like a very flimsy, soggy kite. If I ever become an actual artist then I do hope to have some more entertaining stories. 

What are your plans for 2020? 
I'm currently working on a series of pieces on the subject of gentrification and, after some small involvement with Derby's branch of Extinction Rebellion at the end of 2019, that may well turn into something more this year. 

Would you ever like to star in a movie? 
That could be fun. Cinema is definitely lacking in pigeon-faced characters!

INSTAGRAM @face_the_strange_

Filmmaker Matt Rivera's TOP 100 Films

1. In a Lonely Place 2. On Dangerous Ground 3. Bigger Than Life 4. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) 5. Citizen Kane 6. The Lady from Shanghai 7. Touch of Evil (long version) 8. Army of Shadows 9. The Gold Rush 10. City Lights 11. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 12. The Man who Shot Liberty Valance 13. Fort Apache 14. The Searchers 15. Psycho 16. Rear Window 17. Vertigo 18. Strangers on a Train 19. Marnie 20. Crime Wave 21. Double Indemnity 22. Ace in the Hole 23. Sunset Boulevard 24. He Ran All the Way 25. Night at the Crossroads 26. A Day in the Country 27. Trouble in Paradise 28. Ninotchka 29. Gun Crazy 30. Scarlet Street 31. The Big Heat 32. Roadhouse (1948) 33. Casablanca 34. Yankee Doodle Dandy 35. I Walk the Line (1970) 36. Breathless (1959) 37. Alphaville 38. Act of Violence 39. Night and the City 40. Rififi 41. The Window 42. The Narrow Margin 43. Annie Hall 44. Manhattan Murder Mystery 45. Anything Else 46. Kiss Me Deadly 47. The Leopard Man 48. Cabin in the Sky 49. The Bandwagon 50. Father of the Bride (1950) 51. Stolen Kisses 52. Laura 53. Whirlpool 54. The Conversation 55. Not Wanted 56. The Wages of Fear 57. It’s a Gift 58. Scandal Sheet 59. 99 River Street 60. The Killing if a Chinese Bookie (long version) 61. Sherlock Jr. 62. Seven Chances 63. American Graffiti 64. La Collectioneuse 65. The Green Ray 66. Full Moon in Paris 67. The Blob 68. Twentieth Century 69. Bringing Up Baby 70. Il Sorpasso 71. Taxi Driver 72. Goodfellas 73. The Aviator 74. The Heartbreak Kid (1972) 75. Terminal Station 76. Yoyo 77. L’Atalante 78. Late Spring 79. Dumbo 80. The Girl Can’t Help It 81. Female Trouble 82. Scorpio Rising 83. Mirror 84. Nights of Cabiria 85. 8 1/2 86. Wild Strawberries 87. The Magician 88. Winter Light 89. Persona 90. The Nutty Professor (1963) 91. Duck Soup 92. Be Gone Dull Care 93. The Black Panthers 94. Daybreak Express 95. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom 96. Journey to Italy 97. Brief Encounter 98. The Third Man 99. A nous la liberté 100. Crumb

Dont Play Cards With Satan - Music Inspired by the Occult

Underground filmmaker Fabrizio Federico has compiled an album called 'Dont Play Cards With Satan' of music inspired by mysticism, shamanism and esoterica. Starting with the blues and trailblazing through decades of experimental music.

Official Website
Listen here:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIp7ho3kHPwfyJDS5isysYExfrvwHL2Qd  

1)    The Orkustra – Flash Gordon

2)    The Doors – Not To Touch The Earth

3)    Robert Johnson – Hell Hound On My Trail

4)    Marc Bolan – The Wizard

5)    Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath

6)    Ry Cooder – The Hashishin

7)    Rolling Stones – Sympathy For The Devil

8)    Jimmy Page – Lucifer Rising

9)    Charles Manson – Mechanical Man

10)  Brian Jones & The Pipes Of Pan – Take Me With You

11)  Daniel Johnston – Don’t Play Cards With Satan  

12)  Mayhem – Freezing Moon

13)  Mao – Graveyard Music

14)  Psychic TV – Magik Defends Itself

15)  Skip Spence – Land Of The Sun

16)  Marilyn Manson – Great Big White World

17)  Pink Floyd – Lucifer Sam

18)  Peetie Whitestraw – The Devils Son Inlaw

19)  Skip James – Devil Got My Woman

20)  Bobby Beausoleil – Ghost Highway

21)  Peter Green – End Of The Game

22)  Black Widow – Come To The Sabbath

23)  Blue Oyster Cult – Don’t Fear The Reaper

24)  Burzum – Dunkelheit

25)  Father Yod – Im Gonna Take You Home

26)  Rocky Erikson – Two Headed Dog

27)  Led Zeppelin – Kashmir

28)  Tommy Johnson – Big Road Blues

29)  Electric Wizard – Funeralopolis
30) David Bowie - Quicksand                                                                                                                                                                

SUB

The Best Marilyn Monroe Documentaries

Marilyn Monroe: Masterpiece Movie Moments

Filmmaker Fabrizio Federico chooses an obscure magical movie moment.

For a cinema icon as big a Marilyn Monroe there's an enormous plethora of movie moments to choose from, but one of the most perfectly realised moments that strangely never gets any attention is this quick scene in a powder room between the three leading ladies of the movie How To Marry A Millionaire. This scene with Marilyn captures all of her personality perfectly in one fell swoop. Marilyn plays Pola who is blind as a bat, but refuses to wear her glasses because she fears men dont like girls who wear them.

Screen sirens Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable and Marilyn are talking shop about the rich guys that they are on a date with in the powder room, suddenly realising that they need to get back to their dates, after quickly checking themselves out in a tall elegant quadruple full-length mirror Lauren and Betty leave the room leaving Marilyn alone who takes her time put on some perfume and struts over for her turn to check herself out in front of the mirror. What we get is an Andy Warhol style matrix multiple-image feast of Marilyn as she poses and turns in a beautiful violet dress in front of the mirror, her beauty is spellbinding and she's without a doubt the star of this movie after watching her in this scene, her magic is palpable and it hits the viewer like Cupid's arrow. Realising that she looks great she removes her glasses and goes for the front door, only she misses it and walks straight into the wall instead!!
Classic Marilyn at her starsailing best, this scene is both comedy gold and breathtakingly beautiful.
OFFICIAL WEBSITE

BRITISH CINEMA TODAY - A NEW DECADE OF INDIE FILM

Interview With Filmmaker Krystyna Curtis

*How did you get into making music videos?
I’ve always photographed and filmed everything since I was 15, with these, working with other people and their music gave me a platform to make short films this way

*Do you have any strange stories from working on your last music vid?
Strange stories yeah - there are sections of the first video which required my muse to hold a bunch of questionably safe black toy goop in her mouth - it kept going wrong and my living room ended up covered in the stuff

*Any plans on making a feature film in the future?
The first video is a mashed together collection of clips from a short film I’m currently working on atm. I think found footage films have way more potential than some of the ones that are out atm

*I've noticed your into the occult thats always been one of my fav topics, which is your fav horror film?
I’m a bit of a horror fanatic - but very choosy when it comes to finding the good stuff. I’m aiming to make my own horror film someday, but you could say I’m heavily influenced by Kenneth Anger, David Lynch, Jodorowsky etc. I love some 60s/70s/80s horror/sci fi like Alien, Altered States etc as well as more recent stuff like Mandy & Hereditary
I prefer horror with a building sense of dread over most slasher stuff, my fave horror of all time is probably The Shining

*Where are you based and is there a cool local DIY filmmaker community?
I’m based in the Midlands, Wolverhampton- there are a few filmmakers and photographers/artists here and a local collective called Asylum Gallery/Studios. Yeah we’re a pretty tiny group here but I generally only have two friends working in the same field

Interview With Filmmaker Bronwen Trudi Brooks Morgan

*How did you get into making music videos?
I got into making films 7 years ago whilst at school and then continued it into college and university, I have always been very artistic with my outlets and academic skills are not my way, so it gave me so much joy to Express art in this way

*This video is very experimental, how long did it take you to edit?
This film took me around 3 weeks on and off to edit, I often find as a female Filmmaker people have a lot less trust in you in your decision so it's a lot more back and forth, also the general nature of the edit was complicated

*How did you come across the band?
I came across the band as my partner is the guitarist, however this gave me no advantage to getting the project in my opinion because I was not their first  choice

*Do you have a name for your style, I've never seen anything like it before?
In turns of my whole asthetical style, In my purely experimental work (see portfolio) i strive detail, but in uncommon places, I love working with mirrors, water and the elements  l, preferring raw and dilapidated scenery and locations, and I'm usually very solitary. With this music video, as my other love is producing, I wanted to bring my experimental persona into my organised mind of a producer, the bands main prerogative was for it to be out their, wild and funny, the complete opposite of what they might be perceived as, as a 'folk band' and I think thsu is achieved, the little spats of confetti, the colour and style, that was the randomness I wanted to bring

*Are you planning on making a feature film in the future?
And yes I would love to do a feature film, but I want to being experimental film and that raw artistry to the front end of the industry and less of a secret!

IAN CURTIS' TRAGIC LYRICS INSPIRE MOVIES BIZARRE PLOT

This years film release Teddy Bears Live Forever takes its cues from Ian Curtis' vast catalogue of bleak but beautiful lyrics. Songs such as She's Lost Control, Atrocity Exhibition and The Eternal are some of the few that filmmaker Fabrizio Federico has named as the films inspiration, ''Ian's lyrics are like mini movies, they paint such simple doom laden pictures  that I found them ideal to form the main characters spiritual DNA, Ian is her divine guide.

The fact that Ian also believed in reincarnation also touched a nerve with the director,  ''before I made the movie I was hypnotised in a past regressive therapy session and I travelled far and wide back in time just like Ian sang about in Wilderness, during the session I found myself on a farm covered in blood surrounded by a dead family and all their slaughtered livestock, it was terrifying and that vision has haunted me ever since.''

April is a young faded ''It girl'' suffering in exile from multiple-personality disorder (brought on by a UFO Cult & Hollywood) and she decides that one of her six personalities must lose her virginity. 
As April suffers bizarre flashbacks in a solitary room, sleepwalking, telephoning rent boys, listening to The Carpenters and terrorising her old guardian with her untamed sex appeal. She ultimately set's out to become a modern saint.

''I made the film on intuition and a sensation to focus on some powerful messages (trauma, anti-establishment, false idolatry, existential angst and spirituality) wrapped up in an isolated feline martyr quality. 
The main character April is fighting to regain a state of grace that she lost as an ''It girl''  living in a superficial society obsessed with illusion while working in Hollywood. April is trying to penetrate the essence of her problems by being brave, screaming & articulating her pain through the film. She's trying to release the poisoned fragrance of her trauma. She's deprogramming her self by losing her mind. 

In the beginning of the movie we're shown a glimpse into her former ''It girl'' pop-culture life, at the complete absolute zenith of her fame, which is full of tacky excitement, flashes, games, disciples, vibrations and action. 
But then the film moves to the aftermath of all that, and to her current isolated life in London after rejecting her followers. But now she is battling her six personalities, so in a way she's leading six different realities and levels of consciousness. Each personality is a different level of consciousness, but music is her true prayer. She listens to The Carpenters while in exile, because she identifies with women who suffered, like Karen Carpenter, Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe etc... but she also enjoys hanging herself by visualising her suicide. 

The film is also an insight into gurus, and how they deal with their followers problems, whether they are suffering from family or social suffering. The movies about spiritual terms instead of adolescent terms. 

So while she's living out Hollywood, April get's mixed up with this UFO cult, has an outer body experience and is raped by the cult. After this trauma and because she's already mixed-up with this narcissism of her glamour lifestyle, it finally turns her into a stretcher case. In the film we watch her fighting to win back her sanity. 
She constructs this mission to cure the most evil of her multiple-personalities, to lose her virginity and to feel touch, which gives her a fresh enthusiasm and a existential mission; the glorification to start communicating again. In general terms, she is coming out of a isolated fog and is looking for a universal consciousness. This girls story actually represents the whole elemental goal of humanity. 

Filmmaker Fabrizio Federico in Macclesfield

Feeling lost and sending signals into outer space, maybe that's why she joined a UFO cult to begin with. But she's still looking for an atomic attraction, or a spiritual push to come and save her. Dealing with six personalities will push anyone's sense's to the limit, but because she's in self-imposed isolation she cant really receive life's true miracle cure: human touch. 
Touch is the sparkling combination of feeling all of your senses all at once. So she decides to recapture her salvation by losing the virginity of the most evil, of all her multiple personalities, called Sam.

Sam is a mythological anti-hero personality, a complete freak who suck's on her bloody tampons, wears wigs and sexually terrorises her old guardian that she's living with. But in many ways April is sacrificing her sanity in order to purify her soul from Sam's sinister presence. In order to become a divine being again and to grow.