Frightful Film Festivals

Go from the beauty of Bava to the brutality of Bill within the span of a week!

This week, American Cinematheque is wrapping up its month-long tribute to Italian master of horror, Mario Bava. The festivities will conclude on Sunday the 23rd of March with a triple feature (Hatchet For the Honeymoon, The Girl Who Knew Too Much, and Cal Tiki The Immortal Monster) and special guests! And it's only $10 for the whole shebang!

I was there last night to take in Bava's Danger: Diabolik, and felt lucky indeed, because without prior pomp, star John Philip Law stopped by for an impromptu Q&A. The cinematic hero talked about the singular experience of working with Mario Bava and Roger Vadim (on Barbarella) simultaneously, as well as the international cast and getting some "wonderful papercuts" in the famous money-sex scene in Danger: Diabolik with his exotic costar, Marisa Mell. The second feature was Planet of the Vampires. Look for my review here soon... it really is a seminal movie, paving the way for many better-known sci-fi/horror movies.

Tonight, director Eli Roth will be introducing Bava's Bay of Blood.

From Italy to Little Italy, New York's Maniac Cop director Bill Lustig will be hosting and doing a Q&A on Tuesday, March 25 at the Los Angeles grindhouse, The New Beverly Cinema. He'll be showing his infamous 1980 horror film Maniac (not related to the Maniac Cop films, but definitely a titling tie-in), and Hit List, an adrenaline-fueled actioner starring Jan-Michael Vincent.

In an exclusive interview with horror.com, Lustig revealed that Vincent was not the most pleasant actor he's ever worked with. Furthermore, the outspoken filmmaker said of Hit List, "It's got interesting, colorful actors that people love to see. Rip Torn is so much fun. Charlie Napier is fun. Lance Harrison is fun, and Leo Rossi plays the mob guy. He is kind of fun to watch and originally, believe it or not, Joe Pesci wanted to play it.

"I couldn't get the company to come up with the additional money that we needed for Joe Pesci, because they said all of this is a Jan Michael Vincent movie. Not a Joe Pesci movie, but I said Joe is so great. He would be wonderful — and this was after Raging Bull — it would have been the same [type of character] as he played in Lethal Weapon II [but they said no]."

New Beverly prices as usual: It will be just $7 to see both movies, and attend the Q&A.