Exploit-O-Scope

7/7/04 to 8/25/04

Dementia 13|August 18|

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Past Films

The Mask
Wednesday, July 7 7:30 pm
Brought to you through the miracle of Depth-Dimension! The titular mask is an ancient relic with the power to reveal a devilish dimension, unleashing the onlooker's longing for mayhem. When instructed to don your 3-D replica mask, will you be strong in the face of spine-tingling sights?
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Rollercoaster
Wednesday, July 14 7:30 pm
Sub-Sonic Sound by Berkeley's own Meyer Sound! PFA simulates the bass-thwomping, ceiling-shaking, seat-rattling sensations of 1970s Sensurround. The film delivers a series of gravity-defying plot twists, with brooding maniac Timothy Bottoms up against safety inspector George Segal. Put your hands above your head, if you dare, and wait for the woofers.
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The Maniacs Are Loose!
Wednesday, July 21 7:30 pm
In Hallucinogenic Hypno-Vision! As hip hypnotist The Amazing Ormond explains, Hypno-Vision will make you think that "bloodthirsty maniacs are all around you-not only on screen, but live maniacs in the audience!" Three escapees from the loony bin converge on L.A., equipped with an ax, a really big shiv, and a maniacal glee, in this Ray Dennis Steckler extravaganza, also known as The Thrill Killers.
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Homicidal
Wednesday, July 28 7:30 pm
All those too timid to take the climax will be welcomed to the COWARD'S CORNER! For tonight's truly gender-bending classic, King of Gimmicks William Castle offered a money-back guarantee for the faint of heart needing to flee the theater. Will this post-Psycho tale of a knife-wielding cross-dresser leave you needing a "Fright Break"?
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Mr. Sardonicus
Wednesday, August 4 7:30 pm
Your vote counts-in the Punishment Poll! Ever the populist, for Mr. Sardonicus William Castle came up with a great democratic ploy to entertain the hoi polloi. You get to vote on the final fate of the evil baron whose face is paralyzed in a "soul-shattering smile." Will it be thumbs up or thumbs down?
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Polyester
Wednesday, August 11 7:30 pm
In Odorama! This John Waters film stinks-literally. A collection of ten scratch-and-sniff scents bonds you to the nasally obsessed Francine Fishpaw, mock-tragic matriarch of the Fishpaw clan, played with rotund resonance by Divine.
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Dementia 13
Wednesday, August 18 7:30 pm
If you fail the "D-13" test...you will be asked to leave the theater! Francis Ford Coppola's atmospheric tale of terror was considered so shocking that a test was devised to determine the viewer's psychological fitness for watching it. Be sure you give the right answers, because you won't want to miss this saga of a family cursed by its own suffocating memories.
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Nightmare in Wax
Wednesday, August 25 7:30 pm
Disfigured by a jealous movie mogul, a studio makeup artist opens a wax museum with a mission to turn living stars into waxy figures. Starring Cameron Mitchell, the Brando of the B's, Nightmare in Wax didn't come with a gimmick, but it sure could use one, so the BAM/PFA Student Committee is concocting an original bit of homicidal hoopla.
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Exploit-O-Scope

7/7/04 to 8/25/04

You've never seen anything like it! First time ever!

Movies have always had gimmicks. Some of them, like talkies and color pictures, have stuck around. But in their earliest conception, even they were nothing more than promotional ploys used to separate the suckers from their money. It was the ballyhoo boosters mainly from the 1950s through the 1970s who brought a bit of the sideshow into the mix, promoting films with blustery showmanship, especially when they had little to show. Sometimes the gimmick was a technical contrivance, like Rollercoaster's Sensurround, all sound and very little story, or The Mask's shallow Depth-Dimension 3-D; at other times, it was a ploy grafted onto the plot, like Mr. Sardonicus's Punishment Poll or Dementia 13's D-13 Test. At their most gaudy and engaging, gimmicks leapt from the screen into an unsuspecting audience. William Castle's Coward's Corner...

You've never seen anything like it! First time ever!

Exploit-O-Scope, our summer-long series, gives the nod to this cheap chapter of cinema history, joyfully restaging the gimmicks. We'll go so far as to create our very own for the hapless Nightmare in Wax, this one courtesy of the BAM/PFA Student Committee, a band of budding ballyhoosters.

Don't miss this one!

Curated/Notes by Steve Seid

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Special thanks to Gary Meyer, Kevin Heffernan, Eric Schaefer, Mark Thomas McGee, Will Viharo, and Jacques Boyreau. And a very special thanks to Meyer Sound for their astounding contribution to the screening of Rollercoaster.