Motion Picture Purgatory Volume 2: Preview
If you’ve been reading Dread Central for any amount of time now, you’re no doubt familiar with our weekly Motion Picture Purgatory strip, furnished to us by Montreal’s Rick Trembles.
These densely packed works of art function both as film reviews and literate well researched essays, while at the same time providing the reader with a graphical component that is better able to capture the visual medium of film. Well that, and he draws a whole lot of genitals.
For the uninitiated, Trembles has been toiling away, writing weekly comic strip movie reviews since the 80’s. He estimates he’s reviewed in excess of 500 movies over the years and has spent more than 31 full days of his life sitting in theatres. Given the research and effort that goes into each strip, it’s nice to know that thanks to FAB Press’ second volume of Motion Picture Purgatory, Trembles’ work will now be archived for posterity.
Volume 2 is, like Trembles’ tastes themselves, a very mixed bag. He reviews everything from mainstream horror (Alien vs. Predator, Hostel, The Ruins) to cult classics (Deadly Spawn, Spider Baby, Zombie), unclassifiable Asian cinema (Visitor Q, Meatball Machine, Strange Circus), sadistic sex films (Flavia the Heretic, The Punishment of Anne, Sexorcisms), anything and everything stop-motion (Equinox, King Kong, 7th Voyage of Sinbad), and even includes reviews of his own work (Goopy Spasms, God’s Cocksuckers – the latter being the only unprintable title in the history of Montreal’s Fantasia film festival!).
There’s guaranteed to be something of interest to almost any genre aficionado, and you’re sure to walk away a much more educated film fan after reading MPP Volume 2. Whether it’s a dank factoid about a kid friendly classic (apparently the munchkins in Wizard of Oz were “an unholy assemblage of pimps, hookers, and gamblers”), a fortuitous title change (Last House on the Left was originally titled Krug and Company), or delving past where the history books usually leave off (Ed Wood’s final years making soft and hardcore porno films), Trembles loves to pepper his reviews with the kinds of details that are sure to come in handy at your next film geek cocktail party.
I’ve been saying it for years now, but why every genre DVD release doesn’t contain a review by Trembles, I’ll never understand. It’s unbelievable that no one has ripped off his idea of doing comic strip movie reviews yet, but I suspect it has something to do with how difficult it is. Trembles has a rare talent and should be a household name amongst genre fans. If the world has any decency, Trembles will be discovered and be able to fix up the claptrap apartment he keeps referencing in his strips. Until then, pick up Trembles book (available in both soft cover and limited edition, signed hardback) at FAB Press (you can also sign up for an alert when it’s available from EvilShop and order Volume 1 below) so you can say you were into him before he got big.
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