Brian De Palma, a director I admire a lot, also seem to admire "b-movies", sleaze and exploitation like no one else. His movies are often like big-budget stylish b-movies, and in at least two productions he also used the old Movie Within Movie-concept.
In Blow Out, the excellent thriler with John Travolta, our hero is a sound editor for a very sleazy slasher titled "Co-Ed Frenzy". Some critics make this to be some reference to John Carpenter's Halloween, but we who have seen more than one slasher can see how it makes fun of/celebrates all the rip-offs that came afterwards. "Co-Ed Frenzy" has a lot of nudity, a killer that looks like a mix between Stephen King and a random janitor and a sleazy feeling that actually beats a lot of the real movies out there.
Every time I see it, I wish that it existed for real and that Code Red would release a newly remastered version of it with commentary track and funny anecdotes by the guy playing the killer, John Coppolino Jr.
The Dirty Dolls (1973)
3 hours ago
2 comments:
That's a great theme for a long and prospering thread!
I'll be looking forward to reading more of these!
Cool!
J.
I'm a total Brian de Palma fanboy (apart from The Untouchables which I detested), but I haven't yet caught up with Blow Out. But it sounds like a must-see, just for the sake of Co-Ed Frenzy!
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