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Event
Front Row Festival presented by Chicago Cinema Society
After taking a break for August, we're back in a big way for September with five 35mm screenings over Labor Day weekend.
BRAIN DAMAGE Friday September 3 9:30pm in the main theater
ETERNAL EVIL OF ASIA Friday September 3 midnight in the small theater
LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND Saturday September 4 4pm in the main theater
PULSE Sunday September 5 7pm in the main theater
THE INVINCIBLE ARMOUR Sunday September 5 9:30pm in the small theater
BRAIN DAMAGE
Frank Henenlotter 1989 86 min, 35mm
Belongs to a tradition of 80s-era NYC-centric horror that suggests the cinematic equivalent of graffiti, and has a foot rooted in the outrage voiced by British punk.
-- Chuck Bowen, SLANT
After altering the landscape of trash-horror history with BASKET CASE and FRANKENHOOKER, the brilliant Frank Henenlotter unleashed BRAIN DAMAGE, his ultimate Grimms Fairy Tale for perverted adults. This is a slimy, grimy, gore-soaked slice-of-NYC-life that follows a poor schmo who is addicted to a drug called Aylmer. But unlike heroin or cocaine, Aylmer is a mutant penis monster who needs to eat human brains in order to survive. Hooray! BRAIN DAMAGE is hilarious, unsettling, and jam-packed with bad taste gags that would probably cause John Waters to reassess his life's work. Do not miss.
ETERNAL EVIL OF ASIA
Chin Man-Kei 1995 89 min. 35mm
"All Nam, Bon, Kent, and Kong wanted to do was go to Thailand and score hookers (except Bon, who's betrothed to the beauteous May). An altercation at a brothel sees the fellows wind up on the bad side of a Thai wizard who tracks them back to Hong Kong and starts stamping them out like cockroaches. May catches a break when one of her beauty salon customers turns out to be a secret Thai witch and, after blowing up a ghost with a can of hairspray, she helps May swallow an enchanted worm. By the time the movie's over, May'll have swallowed a whole lot worse. Flying naked sex witches, lurching zombies skewered by fluorescent lights, blood-hungry kiddies, bad-trip-inspired production design, a cameraman tweaking on caffeine, a mind in the gutter, and a never-say-die commitment to excess makes this one of Hong Kong's under-appreciated yet fabulous gems. And yes, this is the movie where someone's head turns into a dick. Then pees in fear." - Alamo Drafthouse
PULSE
Kiyoshi Kurosawa 2001 118 min. 35mm
Often referred to as one of the scariest films ever made, PULSE tells the story of a group of young friends rocked by the sudden suicide of one of their own, and his subsequent, ghostly reappearance in grainy computer and video images. Is he trying to contact them from beyond the grave or is there something more sinister afoot? The mysterious floppy disk they find in the dead man's apartment may provide a clue, but instead launches a program that seems to present odd, ethereal transmissions of people engaged in solitary activities in their apartments. But there is something not quite right in the appearance and behavior of these lonely souls. Soon, there are more strange deaths and disappearances within the group, terrifying rooms sealed in red tape, and the appearance of more ghosts as the city of Tokyo - and the world - is slowly drained of life.
Eschewing gore and easy shocks for a harrowing tone unique to his cinema, writer/director Kiyoshi Kurosawa has made a dense and complex film whose metaphysical and psychological resonance will last long after the chills have subsided.
UROTSUKIDJI: LEGEND OF THE OVERFIEND
Hideki Takayama 1989 108 min. 35mm (English Dubbed)
"...narrative and character are submerged into a non-stop procession of ever-grander atrocity, but this is a must for strong-stomached horror fans." - William Thomas, EMPIRE
"For a long time, Japanese animation had a bad rep in America: those freaky violent cartoons with the schoolgirls and the tentacle monsters. UROTSUKIDJI: THE LEGEND OF OVERFIEND is the film thats largely responsible for this reputation. A video store staple in America, Hideki Takayama's gruesome adaptation of Toshio Maeda's erotic horror comic had a brief stint in U.S. theaters rocking a well-earned NC-17 rating.
Grim-faced and grotesque, Urotsukidji is a hellish Freudian vision of torn bodies, sexual depravity and bitter pessimism. The apocalyptic film picks up just before the prophesied rise of the demon-god The Overfiend, whose re-birth would merge the worlds of men and demons. As time of prophecy draws closer, demons flood into the dimension of men, throwing the Earth into a chaotic storm of sex and violence." - Nitehawk Cinema
THE INVINCIBLE ARMOUR
See-Yuen Ng 1977 90min 35mm
"Hwang Jang Lee is an evil white-haired Eagle Claw villain, and master of the impenetrable Iron Armour Technique." When a young kung fu warrior is framed for murder, he's forced to run for his life from the vicious villain. Now the young fighter must survive an onslaught of kung fu assaults and master the "Iron Finger Style" to combat the crazed Eagle Claw master.
This is wall-to-wall kung fu action featuring non-stop fight scenes, a ripped off Spaghetti Western soundtrack, and amazing fight choreography by Master Yuen Woo Ping." - Hollywood Theatre
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LocationMusic Box Theatre (View)
3733 N Southport Ave.
Chicago, IL 60613
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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