[Rating: Minor Rock Fist Up]
Blu-ray out now on Arrow Video
Spending a week in Wisconsin is a delightful experience that I would gladly and gleefully recommend to anyone. Grab some beer from New Glarus or Capital Brewing, throw some cheese curds in the cooler, and head out to Devil’s Lake for some hiking or canoeing. It’s a surefire way to spend a few days as we head into summer.
However, I feel that recommending Weird Wisconsin, the new collection of director Bill Rebane‘s films from Arrow Video, definitely requires a bit of a disclaimer. Whereas any person with whom I’d like to spend time can find something in Wisconsin with which they can fall in love – brandy old fashioneds at a supper club after an afternoon at Amnicon Falls? YESPLZ. – the strange cinematic world of this Wisconsinite writer-director is not for everyone.
Do you like your exploitation films to have fast-moving action and plots? These are not for you. Do you like your actors to be well-versed in cinematic diction? These are not for you. Do you like your special effects to consist of big to-do moments? These are not for you. However, should you be in to what might best be described as laconic films, stocked with the finest community players, bolstered with the occasional Hollywood b-lister, and put together with special effects made with enthusiasm, if not high levels of skill, then you’re set.
By no means am I taking digs at the films of Bill Rebane. The six films in Weird Wisconsin, along with the documentary Who is Bill Rebane?, cover an intriguing swathe of genres: “a mutant astronaut bothering blissful sunbathers (Monster A Go-Go), a contagion apocalypse as seen from the vantage point of a remote mountain cabin (Invasion from Inner Earth), deadly alien spores from the rocks of Mars (The Alpha Incident), rural gothic and outright horror (The Demons of Ludlow), an eccentric ‘body count’ movie (The Game) and a comedy smash-’em up that pits three hillbilly stooges against a talking Monster Truck with artificial intelligence (Twister’s Revenge).”
While Rebane’s most famous picture, The Giant Spider Invasion, isn’t included here, the Alan Hale-starring creature feature has likely been seen many a time on Mystery Science Theater 3000 by anyone even remotely interested in this set, whereas all of these pictures are making their Blu-ray debuts. As is noted in the feature-length Who is Bill Rebane?, many of these films have only been available under other titles in bargain bin sets, and looked like they were sourced from well-loved and battered VHS tapes.
With the exception of maaaaaybe The Game and the back half of Twister’s Revenge, however, many of these films are definitely more exciting in summary and/or poster art than in reality, but they’re all really wonderful viewing experiences. They’re comforting in ways that movies you’ve seen time and time again are, perhaps because so many of these movies are Midwestern low-budget versions of films you have seen time and again.
The Demons of Ludlow is definitely The Fog, but in Wisconsin, in the winter. The Game is House on Haunted Hill, but at a Wisconsin resort, in the off-season. Invasion from Inner Earth and The Alpha Incident feel like public access versions of psychotronic monster movies like Phase IV, but in Wisconsin, and the latter featuring George “Buck” Flower. They’re all the more charming for wearing their influences, and honestly, Twister’s Revenge is the best Knight Rider knockoff to ever be created, and it also features a bazooka and a tank. I might not have ever been stuck to the edge of my seat while working my way through Weird Wisconsin, but I was certainly never bored.
Much like Culver’s menu features familiar burgers and fries, but makes them well and presents them to you with the friendliest of smiles and some tasty root beer, so does Bill Rebane craft his movies. Like that fast-food franchise, it’s the sort of thing you find yourself repeatedly returning to, brought in by the simple comforts of something done well. Not for nothing do several of the movies feature what seem like the band who likely played the local bar Rebane would go for drinks. Simple country and a western bar bands, who get to pop up in a party scene and do a number, then use that in their promo materials for the next five years: “As seen in The Demons of Ludlow!” It’s like you’re really getting to hang out in this tiny community, miles from anything resembling a city.
The bonus features, by the by, are stellar. In addition to Who is Bill Rebane?, which covers the director’s history in detail, and it’s augmented by historian and critic Stephen Thrower’s 60-page hardcover book, which goes into deeper dives on each of the films in the director’s oeuvre. Twist Craze and Dance Craze, two early short films by Rebane, are vividly-colored and fun as hell, while Kidnap Extortion (1973), a newly-restored industrial short from the director, is taut and intriguing in many ways. So much so, in fact, that a collection of Rebane’s industrial films sound like they’d actually be a lot of fun, especially the titles teased in “Rebane’s Key Largo,” a brand new visual essay by historian and critic Richard Harland Smith.
Throw in a six-part series, “Straight Shooter,” which sees the director himself going into details about the making of each film in the set, along with trailers, outtakes, and more, and you’ll find yourself with a week’s worth of fascinating material in which, hopefully, you’ll find as much lazy afternoon joy as I did. Snag yourself a peanut butter cup concrete, curl up the couch, and dig into this new batch of fun.
Nick is a self-described “rock star journalist,” which is strange, considering he’s married with two kids and three cats. This is just further proof that you can’t trust anyone online. In addition to his work for Scene-Stealers, Nick can be found bitching about music elsewhere on the Internet at his blog, Rock Star Journalist, and as Music Editor for The Pitch.
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