Rocketship Weird Retro Captain's Blog - Weird Retro

Cult Cinema Sunday: Santa Sangre (1989)

30/8/2015

After the failure to get his Dune project to the screen, and the minor blip that was Tusk in 1980, Alexandro Jodorowsky brought us Santa Sangre in 1989. Back to the form that viewers witnessed in the surreal classics El Topo (1970) and Holy Mountain (1973), the film has become a cult classic of surreal avant-garde horror cinema.

Santa Sangre (Holy Blood) was an Italian-Mexican production, co-written (other writers being Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni) and directed by Jodorowsky. A film that is crammed full of allegorical imagery, it's a wild ride through the mind of a young man trapped in a mental hospital. As we travel through flash-backs and flash-forwards, into a world of bizarre circus, and a fanatical religious cult known as Santa Sangre.

Along with his earlier works, the film is considered to be one of Jodorowsky's greatest works. A trippy hallucinatory nightmare through the mind of one of the greatest cult film directors of all time. A true piece of psychological horror, that mixes uncomfortable images, with dark humour, violence and sexuality.

The tag-line to Santa Sangre was "Forget Everything You Have Seen". And in many ways that line still holds true. As the film stands-up to this day, as a surreal masterpiece, unrivalled by films that have attempted to follow in its footsteps. It's such a shame that Jodorowsky never got to make his version of Dune. Which could well be one of the greatest movies never made. Despite the fact that much of the ideas and images from it have found there way into many sci-fi and horror films since.

Banned Crazy Mormon cartoon

23/8/2015

Most of us have had the misfortune to have the missionaries from the Mormon church turn up on our doorstep. Selling their particular brand of pseudo-Christian cultism. Figures of ridicule wherever they go, see in this banned animation how truly fruit-loop, racist and dangerous they really are. Apparently this animation was made by an ex-Mormon, for the 1982 documentary exposing the truth behind the church, called The God Makers.

The Cross & The Switchblade (1972)

9/8/2015

The Cross and the Switchblade was originally a book written in 1962 by pastor David Wilkerson with John and Elizabeth Sherrill. It quickly became a best seller, with over 16 million copies being sold around teh world, with it being translated into 16 languages. The book told the true story of Wilkerson's first five years living and working as an evangelical pastor in New York City. He focused his work on reaching disillusioned young people on the streets, attempting to encourage them to turn away from the drugs and gang violence. In 1970, the book was adapted into a movie, that starred the goody-goody singer Pat Boone as Wilkerson and Erik Estrada (in his screen debut) as Nicky Cruz, the teen gang member whose life was transformed by Wilkerson's ministry. Then in 1972, the Christian comic book publishers Spire Christian Comics under the leadership of Al Hartley, adapted the story as one of their many Christian comic book propaganda pieces produced during the 70s.

Crazy Christian Album Covers: The BEst Of The REst!

2/8/2015

The crazy Christian album covers have been a popular Sunday feature over the past few months. Starting with the Touched By The Hand Of God series (part 1 and part 2), and God's Dummy: Christian Ventriloquists. All followed by The Further Adventures Of Crazy Christian Album Covers.

There are plenty more out there to be found on the Weird Weird Web, but today's Sunday blog brings you the 12 best of the rest, that I've come across while digging around. Saving some of the best until last, from a Christian ex-wrestler, to the blind Chinese choir for Christ.

Cult Cinema Sunday: The Blood OF Jesus (1941)

26/7/2015

Pioneering African-American movie, directed by actor and film-maker Spencer Williams in 1941. Williams was best known for playing Andy, in the Amos 'n' Andy TV show. The Blood of Jesus was produced by Williams' own production company, Amnegro, on a $5,000 budget using non-professional actors for his cast. It was his directorial début, and was a major commercial success, being screened in cinemas and in black churches. It's considered as being one of the most successful "race films" of the period. Time magazine has listed it as one of the top 25 Most Important Films on Race.

The film tells the story of a woman accidentally shot by her husband. As she lays dying, an angel visits her to take her spirit on a journey to the after-life. She is brought to the Crossroads between Heaven and Hell, and initially she is tempted by the slick Judas, an agent of Satan. Eventually the angel arrives to save Martha from Satan, and she witnessed the crucified Christ on the cross. The blood of Christ falls on her face, and she is transported back home, where her godless husband has found Jesus.

Williams filmed and produced The Blood Of Jesus in Texas, for Sack Amusement Enterprises. It's success meant he was able to make two other religious themed films, Brother Martin: Servant of Jesus (1942) and Go Down Death (1944). For years, the film was considered a lost film until prints were discovered in the mid-1980s in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas. In 1991, The Blood of Jesus became the first race film to be added to the United States National Film Registry.

God's Heroes In America (1956)

19/7/2015

A comic book produced by the Catechetical Guild Education Society in 1956. It depicts the trials and tribulations of the Catholic Church in America during the 18th and 19th centuries, through a large 64 pages. Between the late 1940s and into the mid-70s, the Catechetical Guild produced an extensive number of comic book titles. The groups comics made their way into the hands of young people via their church network. They produced almost exclusively religious and political propaganda tomes. Among their publications are the cult comic classics, such as Firebrands Of Christ (1947) and Is This Tomorrow: America Under Communism (1947).

The Craziest Christian TV Show Ever: The Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson.

5/7/2015

Take a creepy opera singing Christian ventriloquist, add a surreal cast of characters, truly trippy graphics, and put it all on a Public Access cable TV channel, and you are somewhere towards the complete package of madness that is puppeteer David Liebe Hart's world.

Hart himself claims to have been one of the first Afican-Americans to have been abducted by aliens. The nature of their mission was revealed to him by one alien that looked like Bettie Page, named Jezebel. Who also took the form of a giant insect.

Aside from referencing his abduction experiences, Hart uses his puppets to push a strong anti-drugs and alcohol message on the TV show. Assisted by a cast of characters that look like they are either acid casualties, or currently tripping off their faces. The heavy use of blue-screen and Chroma Key, ultra low-budget production values, along with the creepy cast of puppets, and Hart's strange singing voice, make for one of the strangest TV experiences anyone will ever see.

Aside from the puppets, there's a strange cast of human characters that join Hart in the show. These include Count Smokula, the accordion playing vampire that smokes cigarettes on screen, and a variety of seemingly whacked out musicians, in costumes and masks. Including the guitarist in the alien mask, which is more than enough to give any kid nightmares. Making Junior Christian Science Bible Lesson, a show that has gained a cult status, and has to be seen to be believed.

Clowns For Christ!

28/6/2015

The Reverend Floyd T. Shaffer, is a clown for Christ, as part of the Clown Ministry. One of the best known "religious clowns" in the United States, Floyd started clowning in 1969, at the height of the counter-culture movement. He was a Lutheran minister when he first took to clowning, and has actively encouraged others to do the same, with books like his Clown Ministry. He founded Faith and Fantasy, nondenominational clown ministry, which taught students how to choose their clown names and characters, put on make-up and perform. There are students like John Garrett and his wife, who become "Frank and Sense," a sad clown, and his wife becomes "Ariana Springtime" a happy clown.

Apparently the Clown Ministry and Fath and Fantasy, lasted well into the 90s. It must have produced dozens of creepy clowns for Christ over the years. Where they are? Who knows! But there is my favourite clowns for Christ, I came across, not because of Rubbish clown names, or their quite frankly scary make-up (even for clowns). No for their gimmick, or Skipper, the only gospel monkey known. There are levels of wrong, in all of that, to weird to comprehend.

The Further Adventures Of Crazy Christian Album Covers.

14/6/2015

Over the weeks, Sunday has been dedicated to some of the more gob-smacking god-squad strangeness. From sniggering at album covers with Touched By The Hand Of God part 1 and part 2, to God's Dummy: Christian Ventriloquists. Today I present the remaining random remnants from Weird Retro's archives. Crazy Christian album covers that defy description or categorisation.

Crazy Christians Are At It Again. Books, Pamphlets, and Biblical Buffoonery!

7/6/2015

More Sunday sermon madness, with Christian literature from yesteryear. Featuring classic tracts from of America's most renowned pulpit pounding preachers, like C. S. Lovett and V. W. Grant. We have the satanic hell that is "modern dance", and how the devil is forcing you to eat food that makes you fat. As well as Jogging For Jesus and we are asked the question Does God Ever Talk Through Cats?