Intensity: 🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written and Directed by Jack Perez
Are you a fan of obscure and cheesy cult films? Odds are, you would appreciate the efforts of Sinister Cinema, the Medford, Oregon-based distribution company that lovingly restored and distributed thousands of almost-forgotten films. This documentary from Jack Perez goes in-depth on the company that wouldn’t let these films die.
You may not be familiar with Sinister Cinema. However, if you are a fan of classic low-budget sci-fi, horror, fantasy, and action films, then you will be familiar with several of the movies in the Sinister collection. This is not some marketing arm of the major studios; this is guerrilla film distribution. Larry Cohen would be proud.
This short (50-minute) production chronicles one of the most unheralded archivists in the industry. These aren’t the films that the Academy celebrates and sends to a salt mine in Colorado for preservation. These are the fun films that got left behind, but are waiting to be rediscovered for those who still love physical media and are in search of hidden cinema treasures. If you go to the Sinister Cinema website, they have some amazing deals that can get you a dozen titles for $98. Sinister Cinema does not sponsor the Scariest Things, but we are huge supporters of independent genre film, and what better legacy is there than these guys?
Featuring
- Greg Luce, the owner and founder of Sinister Cinema, is the narrator for the documentary. The documentary features film clips starring many genre movie stars from days gone by, including:
- Boris Karloff
- Bela Lugosi
- Barbara Steele
- Peter Cushing
- Christopher Lee
- Judith O’Dea
- Claude Rains
- Conrad Veidt
- Peter Lorre
- Basil Rathbone
- Fay Wray
- Vincent Price
- Joan Barclay
- And, so many forgotten would-be B-Movie Stars!
A Short Synopsis of The Sinister Cinema Story
As a child, Greg Luce was hugely influenced by the movies of William Castle and Roger Corman. He would eventually follow in their footsteps in a slightly different way. Rather than producing the films, he became an independent distributor of the low-budget matinee features and drive-in favorites that they created. In the 1980s, when Luce went looking for his favorite old B-movies, many of those movies were not being transferred to tape. These old films, however, were being broadcast on UHF stations across the nation, seeking to fill late-night time slots.
A cadre of like-minded enthusiasts would record these films, which were showing on late-night creature features and gonzo action, and share the bootleg copies among themselves. They would drive from town to town, checking the TV guide to find the most interesting movies in their city, even going to the effort of bringing a VHS recorder to hotel rooms. But, it was an expensive time suck.
Fortunately, many of these films have entered the public domain, and he learned that he could sell movies that were in the public domain. Old, defunct movie studios that didn’t retain the film rights. Monogram, Chesterfield, Producers Releasing Corporation, and even Castle Films. They called these studios Poverty Row, as they operated outside of the big studios. They made movies on the cheap. Luce was working with the great Bob Wilkins, the host of Creature Feature (and my childhood hero), in San Francisco, where he had access to all their films and their recording equipment at KATU 2.
From there, he took those skills on the road and created a cult movie distribution mini-empire. They committed to doing loving restorations and giving you the best possible version of these lost gems. Before there was Severin, Vinegar Syndrome, or Arrow, there was, and continues to be, Sinister Cinema.
Evaluation of The Sinister Cinema Story
A testament to this documentary is that it will inspire you to go explore their catalog. Luce is such a charismatic evangelist for the occasionally elegant, but more often goofy, underground movies. He is full of great stories about cult-film fandom and the interactions he had with actors who feared that their films had been lost forever. Undoubtedly, he is a complete film nerd, but an eloquent one. Luce was a radio DJ, after all. The man is an excellent storyteller.
I would not have guessed that Jack Perez would be the best person to create this documentary. His filmography includes some pretty iffy titles, like Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus starring Debbie (sorry… Deborah) Gibson. 2.5/10 on IMDb. Ouch! However, this also makes him perfect for this subject material. The selection of titles from the Sinister Catalog was perfectly punchy, making you appreciative of how good some of these movies are, and often how much fun bad movies can be.
There are dozens of movies represented in the documentary, but it does feel like it goes by too quickly. I could have watched a full two hours of this material. I would also like to know what Sinister’s future plans are. Will they continue to concentrate on archiving, restoring, and selling movies from the Golden and Silver ages? Or, will they look to acquire more recent independent films? I was also curious about their acquisitions and how they determine what movies to spend their time restoring and preserving. At what point will they have thoroughly scoured the Poverty Row offerings?
Concluding Thoughts:
I suppose it’s a good indicator if they leave me wanting more. If you enjoy genre documentaries, this is a quick and breezy offering that will have you heading to the Sinister store to browse for forgotten classics.
The Sinister Cinema Story contains some gore and mild sexuality, but any potentially objectionable content is cheesy and silly. Nothing triggering is depicted. This film showed at the Portland Horror Film Festival. The film is not currently streaming. Surprisingly, it is also not showing on their website. When it does arrive online, it’s a fun watch.
Review by Eric Li
Notable films that were shown in the documentary include:
- Attack of the Giant Leeches (1959)
- The Man Who Laughs (1928)
- The Devil Bat (1940)
- Love From a Stranger (1937)
- Carnival of Souls (1962)
- Castle of Blood (1964)
- The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (1962)
- The Giant of Marathon (1959)
- The Ape Man (1943)
- Dementia 13 (1963)
- The Screaming Skull (1958)
- The Hitch-hiker (1953)
- The Chase (1946)
- The Attack of the 50-Foot Woman (1958)
- The Killer Shrews (1959)
- Deluge (1933)
- The Last Man on Earth (1964)
- Hercules Against the Moon Men (1964)
- The Man Who Changed His Mind (1936)
- Assignment Terror (1970)
