#ilene zelechowski

[mariocki]

Scary Tales (1993)

"Here I am at this red light, I'm on my way over here, and this asshole decides to carjack this lady in front of me - not knowing that I'm a cop."

"No shit."

"Yeah. Now, me being Dick fuckin' Tracy, I gotta apprehend this fucking idiot."

"Ah, one of Baltimore's finest."

"I tell you what, I deal with more assholes than a fucking proctologist."

#scary tales #horror imagery #gore tw #gore #american cinema #1993 #horror film #independent film #doug ulrich #al darago #brad storck #ilene zelechowski #mark shapiro #cindy darago #kevin rogers #robert zelechowski #ann ulrich #karey riley #christine schatz #mark rybczynski #real deep dive into DIY gonzo horror filmmaking. shot on video with a largely amateur cast (mostly doubling‚ sometimes within the #same chapter of this portmanteau). this is real indie hours stuff and honestly all the more charming for it; director Ulrich may be #hamstrung by bad equipment‚ a zero budget and an occasionally variable cast‚ but this is so obviously a labour of love‚ and some genuine #talent does shine through. particularly the practical fx‚ which are sometimes startlingly brilliant. the script is sometimes sharp and #sometimes lousy‚ and the plotting is fairly predictable horror staples‚ but intentionally or not this film seems to be equally as concerned #with a kind of 90s lower middle class ennui for WASPs as it is with serial killers and devil curses: it's all dreary suburbs and dive bars #unemployment and cuckolding. a genuinely fascinating piece of regional homemade schlock horror‚ tho the lo fi aesthetic and #awkward performances might be a turn off for a more discerning viewer (which i absolutely am not)