Charles Pinion’s 1980s alt. culture indie movie remains a pioneering work of underground filmmaking.
For a period that ran roughly from the early 1980s through to the mid-1990s, there were a couple of strands of zero-budget film genres that were taking advantage of (relatively) cheap home video equipment and the alternative, pre-internet distribution network offered by the underground horror and cult movie press in America. On the one hand, there were the low-budget gore movies that arguably began with the likes of Donald Farmer’s Cannibal Hookers and would include variable efforts like Snuff All Bitches, 555, Truth Or Dare and more with a focus on boobs, blood and bad taste, while on the other hand, we had the rather more interesting and artistic films that spawned from the Cinema of Transgression of Nick Zedd, Richard Kern and their ilk. It was a fascinating time for outsider filmmaking, with much of this work going almost entirely unheralded at the time – the magazines that advertised films like Haven of Horror rarely reviewed them, leaving the readers to find out for themselves just what these films were. Here in the UK, few of these films made it to the tape trading circles and if they did, it was usually in unwatchably blurry multi-generation down NTSC-PAL transfers that made viewing something of an ordeal. We’ll be looking at some of the more outrageous and disreputable films (and filmmakers) in later articles but for those looking to explore the more interesting aspects of indie horror video filmmaking from the era, the work of Charles Pinion seems to be a good starting place.
Appearing in 1988, Charles Pinion’s debut movie Twisted Issues sits on the fence between outsider horror and the cinema of transgression, leaning more to the latter in terms of style and attitude, but appropriating the splatter movie ethos of the former. It also mixes in the punk rock skate culture of the time, making it a more intriguing time capsule than many of its contemporaries. Pinion would go on to make better, more innovative films (Red Spirit Lake, We Await, American Mummy) before heading – like several of his underground contemporaries like David Aaron Clark and Eric Brummer – to the San Fernando porn industry at the end of the 1990s, where edgy directors with attitude found an unlikely home with producers such as Rob Black.
At the time of its original release, Pinion’s savvy and streetwise promotion ensured that Twisted Issues received extensive coverage in the horror fanzines and underground press – more so than any other SOV film of the time would generally get. Now, the film is out on DVD as an ‘official bootleg’, and I’m glad to say stands up very well – rather better, in fact, than many mainstream movies of the period.
The film is a series of loosely connected incidents taking place in the Gainesville, Florida skate punk scene, held together by the story of a skater who is run over and then brought back to life by a mad scientist to take revenge on his killers. Typical Frankensteinian fodder, you might think. But in between the traditional horror narrative, we encounter a series of oddball, humorous, surreal incidents and characters – including Pinion himself as half of a self-destructive but seemingly immortal couple, pill-pushing demons – and lots of band performances. The horror elements are suitably gory and Pinion smartly uses the limitations of 1980s video to ensure that there is always something odd and visually arresting around the corner, making this a wonderfully entertaining, self-consciously trashy affair that has a definite punk ethos. But the passage of time has made the film something else too – a rare visual record of a local music scene, untainted by Hollywood commercial requirements. As such, it’s a pretty essential historical document, even if the bands themselves – Doldrums, Mutley Chix, Officer Friendly, Hellwitch and more – might not exactly be household names or have lasted much longer than it took to shoot the film. Bands like these, without recording contracts and often not even self-releasing their music, usually come and go unnoticed, forgotten even by the people who played in them. To have a record of what was happening in Gainesville in 1988 is an unexpected bonus with this film.
Seen now, it’s interesting how Twisted Issues holds up, and why. While at the time it was a widely derided format, viewed from a distance of over thirty years the analogue, pre-HD, pre-digital and even pre-Hi-8 video format works surprisingly well for this sort of film. Today, with HD cameras, Final Cut and assorted filters, even the cheapest film can take on a fairly professional sheen (one that ironically often exposes other weaknesses) but this grungy, slightly blurry, roughly edited movie has an authenticity to it that you won’t see any more – like watching old super 8 film, it immediately feels like a period piece even without the haircuts, the fashions and the music to date it.
And while the film suffers from iffy sound, variable performances and dodgy effects, none of this takes away from the visual imagination, Pinion’s sure-handed direction and the weird, oddball atmosphere that often makes the film seem like a down ‘n’ dirty cousin of Repo Man. With innovative use of TV cut-up footage – the false reality of television playing a major role in this story – and the relentless and uniformly good soundtrack, Twisted Issues is a rare example of a film that is very much of its time, and yet just as effective now.
DAVID FLINT
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