{"id":8878,"date":"2015-03-21T09:00:15","date_gmt":"2015-03-21T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=8878"},"modified":"2016-08-05T21:19:40","modified_gmt":"2016-08-06T03:19:40","slug":"smo-knows-the-left-coast-outre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.micro-film-magazine.com\/cublog\/?p=8878","title":{"rendered":"SMO knows the Left Coast outr\u00e9"},"content":{"rendered":"

We take it some of you caught this feature<\/span><\/a>, run by The Daily Illini<\/span><\/strong> on Tuesday, February 24<\/strong>, about the venerable Campustown<\/strong> institution That\u2019s Rentertainment<\/strong><\/span><\/a> and their continuing mission to keep the faith with physical media. While such pieces appear almost like clockwork in the local press \u2013 if you run a theater, drive-in, perennial film event, or persistent last-of-its-kind like a video store, you will<\/em> get covered frequently in Champaign-Urbana<\/strong> \u2013 we\u2019re always happy to see Geoff Merritt<\/strong> and his staff of \u201cRentertarians\u201d receive a friendly nod. Given the incessant reshaping and homogenizing of real estate adjacent to the University of Illinois<\/strong> this past decade, we need to pay lip service to the local business folk over the invasive national chains and congestive rental properties every chance we get.<\/p>\n

The themes of embracing \u201cold school\u201d goods and services in the DI<\/span> article remind us of our promise to develop C-U Blogfidential<\/strong> material regarding film culture that is ignored if not simply unheralded. We hit on the idea back in January when introducing you to the Austin, Texas<\/strong>, micro-label<\/span><\/a> Bleeding Skull! Video<\/strong>, founded last year by Joe Ziemba<\/strong> and Zack Carlson<\/strong> in cahoots with the\u00a0Alamo Drafthouse<\/strong>\u2019s Mondo<\/strong> Video<\/strong>. (A third collaborator, Annie Choi<\/strong>, joins them in writing the Bleeding Skull!<\/span><\/strong> Weblog<\/span><\/a>.) We still plan to chat them up in regards to their budding catalog of VHS wonders, which also includes the discovered-in-a-car-trunk (!) action opus RUN COYOTE RUN<\/strong> (1987) and the trash horror experience HEAVY METAL MASSACRE<\/strong> (1989), but this post will focus on another individual we had mentioned previously.<\/p>\n

Born and raised in Champaign, freelance videographer Samuel M. Oldham<\/strong> moved to California<\/strong> in the Seventies to pursue filmmaking, taking classes and accepting jobs to shore up his skills. Respectable tenures have included positions as an instructor at the Sherwood Oaks Film School<\/strong><\/span><\/a> in Hollywood<\/strong> and director\/writer on television specials produced by Global Science Productions<\/strong><\/span><\/a> of Beverly Hills<\/strong>, but the offerings at his personal YouTube<\/strong> channel paint a radically different picture. Oldham is an individualistic thinker and dreamer whose heart lies equally with classic cinema and what he calls \u201cpsychotronia;\u201d how else does one explain a playlist<\/span><\/a> littered with custom footage captured at horror conventions, martial arts demonstrations, wrestling matches, and female bodybuilding competitions?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If we order his Internet Movie Database<\/strong> credits<\/span><\/a> into a cohesive timeline, we can identify a solid period between the Eighties and Nineties when Oldham tried his hand at narrative genre pictures including several early shot-on-video (SOV) efforts. We already pointed out his involvement as an editor on the flagship BS!V release, S&M laced thriller CARDS OF DEATH<\/strong> (1986), but research has confirmed Oldham and his DEATH<\/strong> friends were also responsible for an underground title more familiar to backyard cinema fans, the fantasy anthology DARK ROMANCES<\/strong> (1991) starring \u201cscream queen\u201d Brinke Stevens<\/strong>. Other indie romps of note include Oldham\u2019s own martial arts adventure, THE MASTER DEMON<\/strong> (1991), and as a sound recordist on the \u201cagent of the Devil\u201d flick CATACLYSM<\/strong> (1980), one of three features edited into the oddball omnibus NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR<\/strong> (1985) recently reissued by Vinegar Syndrome<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now it should be clear why we\u2019ve adorned this post with vintage packaging from the Film Threat Video<\/strong> release of DARK ROMANCES<\/strong>, illustrated by the late Dave Stevens<\/strong> of The Rocketeer<\/strong><\/span> fame. Its rental stickers also hint as to how this prototypical SOV shocker has haunted us for so long, apart from foggy memories of house ads in the original Film Threat<\/strong><\/span> magazine, since we scanned the art from a copy that has been sitting in the VHS section of That\u2019s Rentertainment for ages. (You just knew<\/em> TR would play a role in this recollection, didn\u2019t you, dearest readers?) Oldham co-edited ROMANCES<\/strong> with the film\u2019s main producer, Mark Shepard<\/strong>, along with co-directing two segments as well as co-writing and acting in one of the two, \u201cShe\u2019s Bad, She\u2019s Blonde, She\u2019s Lunch.\u201d<\/p>\n