I'd heard about this quirky little gem when searching for mockumentaries, and even though it was a bit hard to locate, it didn't disappoint.  I always love a good backstory and this one has it in spades.  It was meant to be just a bit of Halloween fun by the BBC, but it ultimately turned out to be a complete disaster.  It caused quite a commotion when it was shown and as a result, the BBC hasn't aired it since.  You see, even though it had all the hallmarks of a mockumentary and even had a disclaimer at the beginning letting everyone know that it was faked for entertainment purposes, a lot of people took it seriously and were subsequently traumatized by thinking that it was real and there were even a few fatalities involved.  Apparently, most people tuned in a few seconds too late and missed the disclaimer, therefore believing that what they were viewing was the real thing.  Having well-known BBC personalities starring in it made the film all the more believable and realistic, and being billed as a "live broadcast" it had audiences convinced that what they were viewing was happening in real-time, even having a working phone number that you could call into, therefore adding about as much realism that the BBC could come up with.

     The story is pretty basic actually.  Just what you might expect from a ghost mockumentary.  For those of you familiar with the Enfield Poltergeist Haunting, you'll definitely see some major similarities and Ghostwatch was surely inspired by the case.  A family consisting of a single mother and two young daughters are being tormented by a ghost they call "Mr. Pipes", a name given to the ghost because it makes noises like the clanking of old pipes.  The family has also claimed that the previous owner died by suicide in the home and whose corpse was soon eaten by his own cats.  They claim that the bulk of the haunting seems to reside in the basement, said place of the previous owners' death and where he became Fluffy's dinner when the vittle tin went dry.  Amazingly, this area becomes known as the "glory hole".  No really, that's what they actually call it.  Some other creepy stuff went down in the area too, something about a cult nearby, some unsolved murders, and I think even a baby farm.

     The case has already gained much media attention and a TV station has decided that it would be a great idea to do a live broadcast of a ghost-hunting exhibition at the home on Halloween night.  Showcasing all the cool equipment they have with infrared cameras and microphones that can catch the faintest of ghostly whispers, etc.  The reporters are so sweetly innocent that you find yourself really wanting them to experience something terrifying that'll scar them for the rest of their lives and destroy their TV careers forever.  Or is that just me?  The main hosts of the show who are keeping tabs on everything from back at the station studio and a few of the reporters were well-known TV personalities, lending quite a bit of credence to the reality of this being an actual live broadcast.  

      In the studio along with the show's host is a paranormal investigator who gives us the lowdown on hauntings, poltergeists, and supernatural phenomena.  She displays broken crockery that has shattered under extreme temperature change which apparently can only be done by a ghost and some other video tidbits proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that ghosts are a reality.  And though presented with basic debunking facts, she insists that spectral apparitions are common and that the haunting being investigated by the TV station is real and will be proven so by this presentation.  

     The ghost watch starts off pretty tame with only a bump or clang here and there that is soon discovered to be something simple and harmless, but soon weird things begin to happen.  A mysterious wet spot appears on the ceiling, the TV becomes staticky, and one of the girls starts behaving strangely.  The TV crew is guided through the house and told gruesome stories about the history of the property when a loud clanging can be heard.  Upon looking for the source of the sound though, it's discovered that one of the young girls is doing it on purpose and faking the ghost sounds, throwing the credibility of the whole haunting into question.  But just when everyone is about to give up on the whole thing and all look pretty embarrassed, the oldest daughter ends up with mysterious cuts all over her face and has become almost catatonic.  The enraged mother declares that this couldn't possibly be faked and that the haunting is real.  With new evidence to support the case, the ghost watch continues and more unexplained creepy things begin to happen, each more inexplicable than the last, when finally in the midst of utter chaos, the studio loses contact with the crew at the house.  

     The situation back at the studio is becoming crazy too, with poltergeist activity occurring there as well.  The paranormal investigator that has been co-hosting the show tells us that by having viewers call in and share their ghost stories they have formed a sort of huge televised seance where ghosts can now travel into the studio and possibly into the viewers' own homes through their TVs.  Cameras at the station have begun to flicker, papers are flying around, and the main host appears to be just wandering around and possibly possessed.  All of this is presented in a pretty realistic way and I can see how this would look convincing to someone who didn't catch the disclaimer at the beginning of the show that lets you know that this is most definitely for entertainment purposes only.

     Anyway, the show was a hit, only not exactly as planned, or maybe too well planned depending on how you look at it.  You see, the general audience can be quite gullible, and the people who freaked out over the War of the Worlds broadcast still exist, and pretty much the same thing happened here.  Having actual well-known television personalities involved in the plot lent a huge amount of credibility to the broadcast and I'm sure that being shown on Halloween night added to the anxiety people already feel when just a little bit spooked.  And a great many people in the audience thought it was all real.  There was an actual call line that went with the show where people could share their own personal ghost stories, but instead, the line was bombarded with calls from people wanting to know if this was really happening or not.  So much so that the line got clogged with callers and most people were redirected to a busy signal, adding to the panic already beginning to occur.

     A public admission of the show's inauthenticity and an apology by the network couldn't contain the damage already done.  Audience members lost their minds in the typical fashion and thought every pipe clank or board creak was a ghost, a poltergeist, a demon, or basically the devil himself.  People sued for developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and there was even a suicide.  A teenage boy suffering from mental health problems apparently seemed to prefer the idea of being a ghost himself and took his life citing Ghostwatch as the inspiration for his undertaking.  The BBC has obviously never aired the broadcast again and doesn't even like to talk about it, considering it a true embarrassment.  A documentary called Ghostwatch: Behind the Curtains was produced in 2012 and chronicles the making of Ghostwatch and the subsequent public reaction that followed.  After watching so many found footage films that were done well and were quite believable due to clever advertising like The Blair Witch Project, it's hard to be impressed by one, but a film like Ghostwatch is actually better if you know the trivia behind the film before watching.  When you know that it caused such a crazy reaction from such a huge amount of the viewing audience and that there were lawsuits and actual deaths involved, the movie itself carries a lot more gravity.

     
 

The Poughkeepsie Tapes

     Ok, so most cult films tend to be more on the older side because a cult following usually takes time, but now and then a cult film can be relatively new if it manages to get enough of a following within just a few years. In this case, The Poughkeepsie Tapes definitively achieved this. It was filmed and ready for release in 2007, but for unknown reasons, it was pulled from theaters and held for four years until being released as a video on demand, but it wasn't until a full ten years after being made that it finally got a DVD release. This is what makes it a cult film, one person heard about it, then told someone else, and so on until enough people had complained about wanting to see it but not being able to find it that it had to be widely released. And even now it's still a bit hard to find, but definitely worth the effort of trying.  

     It's a found footage film, which is a genre that may sound a bit overdone at this point but can still be pulled off if it's original enough. This one works because it resides in an area between being completely believable and totally disturbing, a combination that can easily ride the line between whether it's real or not. It begins with a criminology class discussing the events that led to the discovery of 500 videotapes left behind by a serial killer. The tapes are beyond disturbing and what's discussed about them in class is almost as freaky as what is actually shown on the tapes. 

      The killers' first few tapes are filled with strange balloon porn, such as women being made to sit on balloons and bounce up and down till they popped, etc. Around the fifth or sixth tape, the real scariness begins when the killer approaches an 8-year-old girl and abducts her, we learn afterward that she was found raped and murdered later that day. 

      The murders progress in increasingly disturbing ways. The killer pretends to have a broken-down car and hitches a ride with a man and his pregnant wife. Then on one of the tapes, the woman is awoken from being drugged only to find that her baby has been cut out and that her husband's severed head has been placed in her belly. 

      The tapes get worse when a 17-year-old girl named Cheryl Dempsey is filmed being abducted, hogtied, and forced to repeat over and over that her name is no longer Cheryl but is now "slave". She's brought to the killer's basement where he tortures her relentlessly into complete submission, and forces her to wear a rubber maid's outfit with a mask, leaving us to only be able to see her terrified eyes underneath. More tapes are shown where Cheryl is made to assist in the murders of other victims in increasingly violent ways. 

      The acting is so convincing that the viewer is sometimes left wondering how on Earth they were able to film it without the actors suffering an equal amount of actual torture. More victims fill the tapes, dismemberments are shown, and the fear starts feeling very genuine. 

      Through the criminology class, we learn that a policeman is eventually arrested for the crimes as his semen is found at several of the crime scenes. He is eventually put to death by lethal injection. A few days after the execution more murders are committed and it becomes obvious that the wrong man was put to death. It turns out that the actual killer had somehow gotten hold of the cops' donation to a fertility clinic and used it to plant his DNA at various crime scenes. The wrongly executed cop is posthumously exonerated but no one really pays attention to this news because the terrorist attack on 9/11 occurred the day before and this news completely dominated the airwaves and overshadowed what had happened with the falsely accused policeman. 

      More tapes are watched, showing more victims murdered in increasingly gruesome ways. We learn that the tapes were found at a house in which not a single fingerprint was discovered, the only thing left behind is a wooden box the size of a coffin containing what is assumed to be the corpse of Cheryl Dempsey, shockingly she is found to be alive but in horrible shape, too disturbing to even be described. We do learn that while in the hospital recuperating Cheryl mysteriously continues to show recent injuries and that she is so mentally disturbed by over ten years of constant torture that she compulsively continues to injure herself, thinking that this is what is normal and expected of her. An interview with her later shows what can only be described as the shell of a human who doesn't know how to think for herself and can only ask what the interviewer wants her to say, as this has become her normal existence. We also notice she is missing a hand along with other scars and somewhat healed injuries. A caption displayed after the failed interview lets the audience knows that Cheryl soon after committed suicide leaving a note stating that she loved her torturer, that he loved her, and that she believed he would return for her someday. 

      A new film is then shown of a rope being tied to the neck of a recently buried corpse that we can only assume is Cheryl being pulled from her grave and taken away. After the movie's credits, there is a short film of a woman whose mouth is taped shut and who is told that as long as she doesn't blink, she'll live. After a few very tense moments, she blinks and is stabbed in the neck. 

      As gruesome as the tapes are, there are still about 27 tapes unaccounted for and we're left to assume that the killer took these with him and contain footage so horrifying as to make all the others seem tame by comparison. 

      This is an extremely disturbing movie and I can see why its release was probably delayed due to its subject matter. What is shown on the tapes has such a feeling of intense realness that it's actually very believable and what isn't shown and simply described can only be visually imagined by the sickest of minds. A terrifying film to say the least, and even though we know it's just a movie, it's somehow believable enough to leave a very nasty taste in your mouth.

Let Me Die a Woman!

     This is a very in-your-face documentary on the topic of sex changes and transgenderism. And I mean that truly, it literally takes you from start to finish, into the nether regions that not so many of us wanted to see or know about (I can't say "all of us" because there's something for everyone). 

      It was made in 1978, not long after Christine Jourganson went public with her successful new life as a post-operative transgender, male to female. She pulled it off (no pun intended) rather well, appearing very feminine with little to no masculine reminders of her previous gender. Born a Man, Let Me Die a Woman begins as a very in-your-face documentary on the topic of sex changes and transgenderism. And I mean that truly, it literally takes you from start to finish, into the nether regions that not so many of us wanted to see or know about (I can't say "all of us" because there's something for everyone). 

      It was made in 1978 to explain in different ways, pre-op, post-op, half-op, hormone treatments, plastic surgery, etc.  This documentary explores them all... at a range, so close you can almost smell it (I'm so sorry, don't worry God'll get me for that) We're shown, the ins and out, the missing and the added, all narrated by a doctor that noticeable flinches every time he mentions the words "cut off". We're even shown demonstrations of sex with transgender people that are very unexpectedly pornographic but are still being narrated like a documentary (sort of like...and here we see the North American Humanus Pervertis in their natural habitat). 

      There is also a Puerto Rican transexual that does a lot of the narration, who is actually very attractive and intelligent and tells of her difficult life growing up transgender in a poor and intolerable society. The rest of the people (all transgender) in this documentary seemed like they were reading from a cue card or something. Their dialogue seems very scripted and wooden, and they all appeared to be "attempting" to act. Probably because they were transexuals and not actors (oh don't worry, they are proven without a shadow of a doubt to be transexuals). I know the correct term is Transgender, but the film uses the term Transexual, so that's why I'm using it here.  

     It's very campy, mostly due to its age, and I'm quite sure that today we've come a long way in surgical advancement when it comes to fine-tuning a medical procedure like a sex change since this was filmed. But whether you're genuinely interested in the subject or just desire 87 minutes of sheer weirdness, this Bud's for you. Definitely not for the squeamish, weak of stomach (or worse... homophobic).

Faces of Death

     Released in 1979, "Faces of Death" was banned in over 46 countries until a video boxset containing all six volumes was released on VHS. Only parts 1 and 2 (and a "greatest moments" version containing clips from parts 1 and 2) have been released on DVD.

      Dr. Frances B. Gross (great name huh) takes us on a journey through the different arenas of death in all its blood and gore. From suicides to gruesome accidents, and from eating live monkey brains to orgies and cults that dine on dead human flesh. Part one is by far the best. Although, some of the footage has since been revealed as having been faked. Mostly blended together with real footage for appearance's sake. 

      Part one probably has the highest volume of real footage out of all six volumes. Part two is a slightly cheaper version of part one. Part three is pushing the boundaries of being all fake. Part three also has a new host who loves to give the camera big-eyed close-ups that are far more frightening than any of the fake footage piled together. Part five is a hodgepodge of clips from parts 1 and 2. Part six has absolutely no extra footage. The first 30 minutes are from part 2, and the rest are clips from parts 1 and 3, which is pretty damn lazy, and is absolutely no reason to release a boxset.  Therefore, stick to volumes 1 and 2, for some real footage, and part 3 only for the absurd dramatics of the new host. The rest is a waste of time.  The actual real footage contained in it is well worth seeking out though, especially for those cult fans who thought they had seen it all. 

      There's a ripoff series called "Traces of Death" which steals all the "supposedly real" scenes from Faces of Death and has added some new scenes of their own, some real and some obviously not, but it's set to an instant headache-inducing death metal music soundtrack that makes watching it rather difficult.

Sex Madness

     This is another one of those over-the-top, ill-informed, propaganda films released in the late 1930s that attempted to inform citizens and save lives, mostly about the dreaded Marijuana!! Reefer Madness is the most popular and well-known of these films and was one of at least three different films made on the topic of the evils of pot smoking. Ironically, if it weren't for potheads, these films would have died out seconds after their release. Reefer Madness has been restored, colorized, and even remade as a musical. The same care should be taken with Reefer Madness's fellow films, as they are just as bad if not worse. 

      This particular film is called Sex Madness and deals with the very real dangers of syphilis. Though not as "out there" with its story as Reefer Madness, which obviously tries to explain something that it in actuality knows nothing about, Sex Madness is somewhat more informed. Only in the bare sense though really. We know it is transmitted sexually, affects vision, and is damn hard to get rid of (at least in the '30s). Like the others, this movie has a really lame plot and some of the worst acting imaginable. It isn't quite as choppy as one of its companion films "Cocaine Fiends", the editing here is slightly better, but not by much. 

      Made in 1938, Sex Madness was pretty racy, for not only did it deal with syphilis, but it also had a lesbian subplot that didn't have anything to do with transmitting venereal diseases. A secretary hits on her coworker and convinces her to go see some showgirls together. While at the theater, the secretary actually pulls the old "yawn, stretch my arms, and end up with my arm around her shoulder" routine. It works, but the story isn't continued. What this had to do with syphilis is anyone's guess, but what a great touch!

      The real hunk of the story revolves around two showgirls named Millicent and Sheila. Sheila already has syphilis and Millicent contracts syphilis at a beach party when she gets drunk and boinks a guy in a Zorro costume. Apparently, it was illegal in 1938 (could be illegal today, I dunno) to marry someone if you know you have syphilis. You could only wed once you got a clean bill of health from a doctor, which back then could take years. Millicent is treated by a quack doctor that promises her she will be syphilis-free in a mere 30 days, and even though it's presented as an absolute impossibility in the movie, I believe that's pretty close to what it really is today. She falls for it and gets married the second the doctor says she's cured. She then proceeds to have a child. Soon, the husband is having vision problems and the baby is displaying weird symptoms. They all go to a doctor where all three are diagnosed as having syphilis. Millicent breaks down and admits it's her fault.  

     Feeling lower than the rent on a burning building, Millicent nurses her ailing husband who is sick in bed. She finally reaches her emotional limit and laces two drinks with poison and plans to end both their suffering when she gets a call from Sheila. Sheila says that she has gone to a "real" doctor and got the news that she will be syphilis-free in a year. She's actually quite elated with this news (a whole year? I personally wouldn't feel that much better) and says that she also plans to get married and have children. Millicent laughs hysterically and hangs up the phone. While embracing her deathly ill husband, she exclaims "If there's hope for Sheila, then there's hope for us!!!". Good ol' syphilitic showgirl Sheila shall lead the way! The end. 

      This is probably one of, if not the cheapest movies ever made. There's a hilarious goof in it that completely boggles my mind. During a speech from Millicent to her landlady, a window set slams shut and makes the actress playing Millicent totally mess up her lines... and they left it in! I think even Ed Wood would have trashed that botched-up of a scene. Its topic is a bit more dismal than its other fellow public message companion films, but it's still filled with all the hilarity of a cheap pile of vintage propaganda crap.

Party Monster

     There are three versions of this story, all of which are amazing. The book, the documentary, and the movie.  In the early '90s when the club kid craze was at its peak, a complete freakazoid named Michael Alig (the crowned prince of all club kids) committed murder, and even though he bragged about the killing, everyone thought that was just Michael being Michael, a well-known drug user who would lie and swindle Jesus Christ if he thought it could get some drugs from him. 

      James St. James (self-proclaimed original club kid) was a close friend and sometimes roommate with Michael Alig and was therefore present for most of the inside story. In fact, it was James St. James that started this ball rolling. He wrote a wonderful book called "Disco Bloodbath, a Fabulous but True Tale of Murder in Clubland". It's a must-read. 

      Anyway, they made a documentary on the whole affair, including footage from all the key players in this bizarre story. Before his downfall, Michael Alig was a huge success as a party promoter, mostly for a club in New York called "The Limelight" run by infamous club owner Peter Gatien, who ended up going down with Michael Alig due to the obvious and abundant drug use at the club. Drugs truly did flow freely and the weirder you were, the cooler you were considered to be. It was a nonstop psychedelic world of color that was very intriguing and fun and even spawned a celebrity or two (RuPaul was a club kid). They also made the talk show circuit for a while, appearing on shows like "Geraldo" and "Sally Jesse Raphael". Alig's favorite tactic was throwing impromptu surprise parties held in any place from small McDonald's restaurants to subway stations. He made the news all the time and was a strong personality in the hippest of scenes. Eventually, the more drugs that Michael took, the grimmer his party themes became though. My favorite is the "Blood Feast Party" featuring every gruesome sight imaginable. 

      Alig and his friend Freeze were all strung out one day when Mr. Pissed Off Drug Dealer Angel Melendez shows up and demands money which of course they don't have. A fight erupts, and Angel is hit on the noggin with a hammer, dragged to the bathtub by Alig and Freeze, injected with Drano, and smothered with a pillow. Michael dismembers Angels' body and stuffs it in a large TV box and uses it for a coffee table. They also feel the need to hastily paint most of the walls red to hide the blood spatter and blame a mysterious stench on screwed-up plumbing. Eventually, the smell becomes overwhelming so Michael and Freeze dump the box with the body into the river. The body is found and put into a freezer with a misidentification of the race (he was listed as Asian, and Angel was Hispanic) making Angel's disappearance just a mere rumor for quite some time.  Most people just suspected that since he was a drug dealer he had just been arrested, solving the mystery of his absence at the club. It was only when Angels' brother decided to do his best to find him that the murder was actually solved. If it weren't for Michael Alig bragging about it, he probably would have gotten away with it. When Michael Alig told his stories of killing Angel, everyone thought it was a joke because Michael joked incessantly and was a notorious liar. 

      Rumors started to circulate that Michael was not kidding when he bragged about killing Angel and certain people close to the situation started to come forward with their stories to save their own asses. Eventually, it all caught up with him, and he and Freeze were convicted of first-degree murder. A big-budget movie has just been made that is basically the documentary verbatim minus the documentary narration, feel, and interviews with the real people involved. Macauley Culkin plays Michael Alig with stark precision. Seth Green plays James St. James. Marilyn Manson and Chloe Sevigny also have notable parts in the movie. It's a colorful flick with a fantastic soundtrack which is somewhat nostalgic for those of us who watched the club kids on TV and wanted more than anything to be like them. It really is a fabulous but true tale about murder in Clubland.

Satanis and Sinthia

     Satanis is a self-made documentary by Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan. You would think that a documentary about Satanism would contain some shocking footage of some kind, but it's nothing like that at all. It's actually rather comical as Anton LaVey expresses his belief system while wearing his horned hood with his overly arched eyebrows. He looks more like a cartoon character than a Satanist. People who follow LaVey's teachings are about as comical as he is. His neighbors describe him as a very interesting individual and their only complaint was that he had a pet tiger. His masses always included a naked woman on the altar and it was really surprising to see how many women were willing, eager, and were actually auditioning for this role. 

      Filmed in 1970, Satanis still retains a very 1960's feeling. Pretty much a live-and-let-live attitude. People are always scared of the unknown and I think this is actually a very well-made documentary that lets you know that the goings on inside the Church of Satan are really not all that scary or dangerous.  There are no orgies, animal sacrifices, murder, etc... all the things people assume are part of Satanism. Unlike Christianity, Satanism praises sex as healthy and natural, which was enough for many people to consider a change of religion, especially in a time of free love. 

      The only thing I found annoying was Anton LaVey's egotistical sense of self-righteousness. He was very proud of who he was and what he'd accomplished and wasn't afraid to tell the whole world how he single-handedly built the Church of Satan from the ground up. He claimed thousands of followers in spite of obviously having few attendees at his masses. And when it came to religion, especially Satanism, LaVey always seemed to kind of make it up as he went along, much like any other religion. Whatever. 

      This documentary has been released on DVD, coupled with a very very bad movie called "Sinthia, the Devil's Doll". Being made in the 60s it was obviously meant to be watched on drugs, and ultimately Sinthia doesn't really have a story. It's mostly psychedelic sex scenes with a girl named Sinthia going on about how she wants to have sex with her father. This movie never really made it and was only coupled with Satanis as a vehicle for its release.

Cannibal Holocaust

     This is another "video nasty" that was banned for years and is making a comeback through revived interest and DVD releases. Cannibal Holocaust is pretty convincing, and although there was a tremendously popular belief that the footage contained in this movie is real, it most certainly is not. Some of the "cannibals" really are actual native people though, mostly from South America. 

      The only real and ultimately most distressful footage is of some live animal killings. A muskrat gets gutted alive, a turtle gets mutilated, a monkey has his head chopped off and a pig gets shot in the head. Being an animal lover, I can say that this is the only thing that I found disturbing about this film. The rest really isn't too bad. The director of this movie says that the animal killings are the only thing he regrets about this film, despite being temporarily arrested under the belief that it was a real snuff film. 

      Anyway, the story goes as such... A team of scientists is going into the deep jungle to find and study cannibals. The two missions before them never returned, yet these snotty adventurers think they have what it takes. Two months later they are classified as missing (well, duh). A new research team is sent in to find these people. They find traces of them here and there, some of their clothes and equipment, some rotting bodies, etc. They also stumble upon the film canisters from their expedition. Upon returning to the States, the films are watched and reveal a rather stupid group of people that frankly deserve to be cannibalized. 

      Instead of research, they use the cameras to record orgies, and the raping of native women and totally disrespect the tribes in every way by eventually burning down their village. The last canister reveals them finally getting their comeuppance as they are all butchered and eaten by the cannibals. Yum!  

     Ultimately not a bad movie, but not a good one either.  The hype over it being supposedly real was the only driving force behind it becoming a cult classic.  Otherwise, I'm sure it probably would have faded into obscurity.

Glen or Glenda

     This was Ed Woods' first real attempt at movie-making and as many movies as he ultimately made, you'd think he would have learned something about it along the way. Umm, no. Ed's last movie was just as bad as his first. For those who don't know... good 'ol Ed was a transvestite with a particular liking for Angora. 

      When Christine Jorgenson (one of the first and definitely the most famous) transexual ever, announced that she was once a man and had his sex surgically changed to that of a woman. The world was a bit shocked, but this story struck a chord with Ed and he auditioned to be the director of the Christine Jorgenson movie that was set to be shot soon. Christine Jorgenson got wind that a movie was being based on her story and wanted money for it, but money was one of the many things that eluded Ed Wood for most of his life. So they just decided to make a sex change movie anyway with a fictionalized story. 

      Ed Wood got the role only because he was able to produce the practically embalmed screen legend Bela Lugosi to be in the film. Ed took this as the perfect opportunity to reveal his own transvestitism and played the main role of both Glen and Glenda. It's Ed's story, truer than we ever wanted to know. A boring documentary about whether or not to tell his girlfriend why her pink sweaters are always so stretched out. Only the last five minutes deal with the topic of actual sex changes. 

     Bela Lugosi (who is totally out of place) plays a sort of mad scientist role that pulls the strings (sorry... Pull De Strink!) The movie has an overall uplifting (yet narratively annoying) facade until it cuts to Bela, then we see lightning and hear thunder and for the moment at least, it's a horror movie (without much horror). After the doom and gloom dissipate, then comes the happy Glenda turning down homosexuals in rude ways, letting us know that transvestites are definitely not gay. 

      It's got bad acting, cheap sets, nonsensical characters, and a terrible editing format. Which of course means that you'll love it. This by his own accounts, Ed's true story, the bizarre makings of Edward D. Wood Jr.

Reefer Madness

     This movie was actually a propaganda film made with the most honest of intentions by trying to discourage people from the supposed evils of marijuana, but instead, it ended up entertaining pot smokers rather than preventing them. The acting is deplorable, to say the least. 

      Originally titled "Tell Your Children!", it is presented as part documentary and part movie to explain the absolute horrors of the "demon weed". According to the narrator, it's compared to and considered worse than Morphine, Cocaine, and Heroin combined into one. 

     The movie has an extremely improbable plot consisting mainly of very dim people who peddle pot to teenagers, resulting in them committing horrible crimes, including murder, and an inevitable descent into sheer and utter Madness!! Originally in black and white, it has recently been colorized by Off Color Films, who cleverly made the pot smoke being blown by the characters come out in multiple colors.  A movie with a sincere intention that was completely turned around and went the other way, being cherished by potheads worldwide!  Thankfully it can now be found on YouTube!