Our movie and media Calendar appears every Friday/Saturday on C-U Blogfidential and caters to the downstate region anchored by Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, USA.
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MILESTONES | Happy Birthday to You!
8/23: Shannon Beranek (copy editor, Bachelor Pad Magazine, Champaign, IL)
8/23: Luke Boyce (series co-creator and co-executive producer, REVIVAL, Blue Ice Pictures, Toronto, Canada/Syfy, New York, NY)
FIELD REPORT DU HQ | From Wherever It May Be Said
It’s an indie film week through and through at MFHQ Deux and we’re manifesting it on the quick and cheap. Might want to fasten those proverbial buckles … if our sub-Cormanesque budget allows!
The Normal Theater in Normal has a few things to offer in this arena. First is a downstate Illinois premiere that is set for next Tuesday, August 26, of a lo-fi feature called SPLIT PERSONALITIES ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS, created by the Chicago filmmaker Johnny Lange who hails from the B-N. Taking a premise of asking its protagonists to “tell us about your dreams” and going gonzo with it across four “terrifying twisted tales,” SPAD (a cheeky acronym possibly preferred by Lange as it is used in previous coverage, like this curious interview with Hollywood Chicago’s Patrick McDonald) apparently took five years to make, beginning as a shorter project mounted with the Windy City’s Group 312 Films. Other than lucking upon a VHS-as-retrofit-art-object release of this opus, taped over recordings on older cassettes and dropped in myriad locations that are revealed on Lange’s Instagram account, the primary way that one can submit one’s senses to SPAD is publicly like at the Normal, where the event will begin at 8 p.m. and be free entry for all. Several teasers exist on YouTube and we think this one might be closest to expressing what can be found in SPAD, starting with performers Christina Wollerman, Elyse Dawson, and Terry Holt giving it all they’ve got for art’s sake. It’s not normal fare at the Normal and we’re down with it.
Speaking of not normal Normal, tra la, the programmers at the Art Deco single-screen house located in the “Uptown” district adjacent to Illinois State University will turn right around and welcome another indie filmmaker, Addison Binek, to 209 North Street on Saturday, September 6, for a 7 p.m. screening of his lively trash-horror-comedy duo, PSYCHO APE! and PSYCHO APE!! PART II: THE WRATH OF KONG. Produced largely in Binek’s home town of Detroit with asides recorded in New York City and Los Angeles, the movies star Psycho Ape (himself?) who escapes the zoo and goes on a murderous rampage in PART I while being brought to justice in PART II; acting alongside the big link are Kansas Bowling as “Nancy Banana” and Bill Weeden as “Dr. Zoomis.” Not unlike with SPAD, PA! and PA!! II may test the fortitude of some in the audience but, if you’re willing to be adventurous and forgive the rough spots in favor of enjoying the offbeat nature of what’s up on the silver screen, then this colorful counter-programming will hopefully hit a heretofore unknown sweet spot. According to a slightly older interview with The Metropolitan online magazine, Binek reveals the first PA! cost $7,000 and was shot using VHS gear; today, glorious banana-yellow VHS editions of both can be bought from Lunchmeat VHS. Yum!
Much higher-budgeted compared to SPLIT PERSONALITIES and the PSYCHO APEs, yet still modest in comparison to the top-line Hollywood productions of its era, is the grande dame of audience participation cinema, THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, which turns 50 years old. That will put an extra spin on the Normal’s traditional presentation of the 1975 cult classic during their annual Halloween movie marathon, and they are looking for performers to join the Shadow Cast up on stage in October! Mark the casting call dates on your own calendars right now – Saturday, September 6, and Sunday, September 7, with both sessions lasting from 12 to 3 p.m. Visit this Normal event page for more information!
Finally, right after we made rare reference to the Lincoln Square Theatre of Decatur in last week’s Calendar, they hit everyone with a surprise announcement that Heroic Age Studios’ long-in-the-making fantasy-horror flick, TRICK AND TREATS, will finally see the light of day and a cinema projector during a local premiere to he held on Saturday, September 20. We’re not sure how many seats are now in the auditorium of the venue after all the hard restoration work done over the past several years, but it might be smart to plan ahead and purchase those tickets in advance right here; the evening is certainly priced at a premium and is scheduled to incorporate a red carpet walk and mingle starting at 5 p.m., an introduction and premiere of the feature at 7 p.m., and a question-and-answer opportunity at approximately 8:45 p.m. Conceived by the Heroic Age team of Eric Hector (director/writer/co-producer) and Tim Lynn (editor/cinematographer) as the first feature to be made through a fan-funding initiative, Frightful 5000 Films, it was mostly produced on location in Decatur and Macon County as well as on sets at their Heroic Age Art Center complex in neighboring Mt. Zion before the pandemic struck. The premise fleshes out the eighteenth century “Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater” ditty and finds a demonic jack-o-lantern, voiced by Malcolm McDowell, wreaking havoc in the present at a biker bar called the Lucky Lady Tavern. You can look up the cast and crew at IMDb, a fair amount of behind-the-scenes material on Facebook, and a revised trailer also on Facebook.
With that, we have the most MICRO-FILM-y thing that we’ve committed to words in a while. Maybe it’s one part dormant reflex, for PSYCHO APE! and SPLIT PERSONALITIES ALTERNATE DIMENSIONS remind us of the kind of out-of-left-field pet projects that we’d receive in our long-gone post office box with little to no warning, mostly in what was the dominant screener format of VHS, as something to be covered or reviewed. Maybe it’s one part flashback, for it’s been 25 years since we visited Heroic Age and discussed with Hector what was going to be the studio’s first stab at an indie feature, JOHNNY VIOLENCE. Maybe it’s beginning to feel a little like Halloween and it hits the spot. Maybe it’s just … MFing wishful thinking. Erg.
IMAGERY DU C-U | Picturing Our Scenes on the Small Screen
Looks as if today’s Images department will be a two-month follow-up to our previous home video cover gallery, which itself is a two-month follow-up to a cover gallery before that, and it all goes to show you the movies of Champaign, Urbana, and the cities beyond never sit still if the makers behind them have the drive and connections! Without further ado, here is our preview of a few new home videos that can be added to your collections right now. Conversation starters du C-U, they are!
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Last time, our first item was NIGHT OF THE DEAD SORORITY BABES from Acrostar Productions and BayView Entertainment, so we’ll follow suit and kick off our parade with the new one from them, a combo release of ATTACK OF THE CORN ZOMBIES and RETURN OF THE CORN ZOMBIES, which will be available to purchase in the BD-R format as of next Tuesday, August 26! We don’t have it in hand yet so we’re uncertain if the set comes with anything other than the corn flicks themselves, homegrown right here in east central Illinois by the Chicago micro-studio; ATTACK is an outbreak yarn and RETURN a tale of roving survivors in the aftermath. Both ZOMBIES have also been popping up on streaming services like Vudu, Hoopla, Plex, and Fawesome. While there is no word yet about a third entry, the team is busy planning an original fright fest, THE LEGEND OF TINKER HELL starring Acrostar MVP Beth Metcalf and to be the directing debut of actress Lynn Lowry, and gearing up for more PERFECT SOUL filming next month. Oh, did we mention the brand-new CD of Edward Grant’s score for SORORITY from Klaatu Records?
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Also, beginning to ship from OCN Distribution as we speak is Shudder’s late-in-coming Blu-ray release of REVEALER, the neon-soaked end times horror-fantasy filmed throughout Champaign-Urbana on the downlow and during the pandemic by director Luke Boyce (REVIVAL) and the Shatterglass Films/Line Film Co./Paper Street Pictures tandem. Available exclusively on the Vinegar Syndrome website for the moment in both a standard edition, dressed with the familiar Shudder artwork from the 2022 streaming and DVD releases, and a sleeved edition, sporting funky and squirmy artwork by Trevor Henderson, the REVEALER disc finally gives us an HD copy of the battle of wills between a bible-thumper (Shaina Schrooten) and pole dancer (Caito Aase) who must team up to survive a satanic event in Reagan-era Chicago. Extras are legion on this edition, with most of them carried over from the DVD, and they include commentaries, interviews, a documentary, a visual essay, and more.
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As we touched on recently, Peter McDowell’s documentary on the shortened and unusual lifetime of his older brother Jimmy as well as its ripple effect on his family, JIMMY IN SAIGON, has been issued on DVD by Dark Star Pictures as of Tuesday, July 22, and features the “distribution cut” of the film that is to be shown tonight, Friday, August 22, and on Sunday, August 24, at the Chicago Filmmakers headquarters in Chicago. The video includes a handful of insightful bonus materials, such as a director’s commentary by McDowell, deleted and extended scenes from the film, a featurette on the animated passages in the film, and a bonus short subject. JIMMY is partly set in Champaign-Urbana due to the filmmaker’s local ties.
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And finally, we were going to report that a wide-release edition of Chicago filmmaker John Borowski’s comprehensive series, THE JOHN WAYNE GACY MURDERS: LIFE AND DEATH IN CHICAGO, would be issued on Blu-ray and DVD by MVD Visual on Tuesday, September 16, but we just checked and the product page that we first looked at a while ago is gone. (We’ll offer an update after we learn more.) Running eight episodes and about four hours total, GACY MURDERS turns over every rock it can to dissect the crimes, police investigation, and aftermath of the accused murderer and sex offender who masqueraded as a children’s entertainer. Thoughtful histories about individuals like Gacy are valuable and the career of Borowski is a singular experience in unearthing their stories, including his prior works on Albert Fish, H. H. Holmes, and Carl Panzram. You might still be able to purchase his own limited-run BD-Rs of GACY MURDERS or you can seek out the streaming versions at Amazon Prime and YouTube. The Dark History & Horror Con set for November 8-9 at the Orpheum Champaign will be steeped in this milieu.
LOCAL FILMS & EVENTS | Support Your Media Storytellers
@ Chicago Filmmakers Firehouse Cinema, Chicago, IL
JIMMY IN SAIGON* screening w/filmmaker Peter McDowell (8/22, 7 p.m.; 8/24, 6 p.m.)
NOW PLAYING | Champaign-Urbana Area
@ AMC Champaign 13, Champaign, IL
HONEY DON’T, NE ZHA II (animation; English dub), RELAY, THE SHADOW’S EDGE* (in Mandarin with English dub), THE BAD GUYS 2* (animation), THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS, FREAKIER FRIDAY, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON*, JURASSIC WORLD: REBIRTH*, THE NAKED GUN*, NOBODY 2, SHIN GODZILLA* (in Japanese with English sub), SUPERMAN, WEAPONS (8/22 on), THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN 20th anniversary (8/22, 3 p.m.; 8/25-8/26, 4 p.m.), TRAINWRECK 10th anniversary (8/22-8/23, 6:15 p.m.), Studio Ghibli Fest: PONYO (animé) (8/23, 4 p.m., 8/24, 4 & 7 p.m., 8/27, 7 p.m., English dub; 8/25-8/26, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), CAUGHT STEALING, JAWS 50th anniversary (re-release), THE ROSES, THE TOXIC AVENGER (8/28 on) *single screenings daily
@ Phoenix Savoy 16 + IMAX, Savoy, IL
HONEY DON’T, NE ZHA II (animation; English dub), PARADHA (in Telugu with English sub), PRIMITIVE WAR, RELAY, THE BAD GUYS 2 (animation), COOLIE* (in Tamil with English sub), DEAD TO RIGHTS* (in Mandarin with English and Chinese sub), F1 THE MOVIE, THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS, FREAKIER FRIDAY, THE NAKED GUN, NOBODY 2, SKETCH*, SUPERMAN, WAR 2* (in Hindi with English sub), WEAPONS (8/22 on), AMERICANA* (8/22-8/24), KPOP DEMON HUNTERS “sing-a-long” edition (animation) (8/23-8/24), Studio Ghibli Fest: PONYO (animé) (8/23, 2 p.m., 8/24, 4 & 7 p.m., 8/27, 7 p.m., English dub; 8/25-8/26, 7 p.m., in Japanese with English sub), THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING (8/23, 2 & 7 p.m.; 8/24, 3 & 7 p.m.), EAST OF WALL* (8/25-8/27), JAWS 50th anniversary (re-release) *single screenings daily
@ Main Quad, Illini Union, UIUC, Urbana, IL
Illini Union Board presents “Welcome Back Film on the Quad” feat. HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON (8/24, 9 p.m., free)
Events featuring locally produced movies are marked with an asterisk (*). Additional “Now Playing” and “Coming Soon” listings appear after the jump!
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Calendar: Oct. 31-Nov. 6, 2025
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