CYBER ZINE FOR AUDIO EXPERIMENTALISTS

VIDEO AND MOVIE REVIEWS

scroll down or click to the review you desire...
Videos reviewed in this issue are:
JENERIK/ARFORD - Pyro Maniacal
John Carpenter's "Vampires"

JENERIK/ARFORD: PYRO MANIACAL / VHS VIDEO
Blurred pictures of flames resolve to show the burning thing (a construction of two-by-fours and some big industrial springs) on which Scot Jenerik, shirtless, bangs. It roars and clanks inhumanly with the noise of its own burning. The video comprises three segments of Jenerik torturing sound from his creations (one is like a lyre with a flamethrower in its head) at a performance at Burning Man 1996; one of the things I like about it is that both Jenerik and the videographer, the great Scott Arford, have made their work here, appropriately, about fire. PYRO MANIACAL burns pretty bright. --[CA5]
(23 five)

JOHN CARPENTER'S "VAMPIRES" features some fine New Mexico scenery; the gorgeous legs of Sheryl Lee; a screenplay whose idiocy on levels from simple dialog ("..And he'll be unstoppable--unless we stop him!") to characterization (the faux-Western ending is particularly atrocious) approches Edward D. Wood, Jr., territory; performances even more redolent of pure moalasses-cured Kentucky ham than you might expect to see in a vampire movie, most of them, suprisingly, not from people playing vampires; James Woods doing pretty much his whole James Woods act; some swell gore (I can promise you will see a guy get ripped in half--if I remember correctly, a couple of guys); and one of John Carpenter's classic one-riff scores. In short, it's a perfectly acceptable time-killer if you're stoned enough and take some friends to help you laugh at it. - [CA5]

Back to