The Picnic - 5 decades of the Million Year Picnic (2021,2023) directed by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

 

This was a decade+ long project. Getting interviews and information was much harder than I thought. It was edited and re-edited quietly a few times: sometimes making it longer, sometimes shorter. Getting it shown anywhere was also difficult. I foolishly thought the place was such comic store legend I could get conventions and small festivals to show it. A couple a small festivals did end up showing but the place I really wanted it to play was the Brattle Theatre which is almost across the street from the store. That happened in July 2024 and those who went were good to tell me they liked it. Never got paid, sadly but at least it got it's day in that historic cinema. 

I would really love more people to see the film, the Picnic is and has been a fantastic, special place run by special people and is one of the last independent stores in Harvard Square. The original owner, Jerry Weist, was a ground breaker when he started the store and continued to lead the way when he left the store and started selling the original comic book art at Sotheby's elevating it as the original form of American art it was and is. I was the manager there in the mid-80s and still count my colleagues from those days as friends. 

Just another part of Boston(ish) history I don't want to be forgotten and I hope this makes people want to visit Harvard Square and see how wonderful this odd duck of place is and get captured by it's friendliness and charm. 

Devil Girl from Mars (1954)directed by David MacDonald

 

Nyah, a dominatrix looking alien from Mars is heading to Earth to capture some men to bring back to her home planet after " a devastating war of the sexes". Her ship is damaged and crashes to a location near the Scottish Moores where she tries to enlist  men at the local bar/inn. This, believe it or not is NOT a porn movie scenario... though maybe it should be. 

Patricia Laffan who plays the alien Nyah is the saving grace of this otherwise by the books low budget 50's sci-fi. The other actors are fine but their roles and dialogue betray the theatre origins of the project. I would be interested to see as a play if they camped it up a little more. Laffan is superior and condescending to the humans and is only concerned with her mission to get men to mars for breeding purposes. She is over the top but also give a lot with her knowing looks and calm demeanour. Her character is interesting in that she doesn't seem interested personally in mating with earth men. Earthling are like ants to her and  she does not fall into the trop of falling in love with one and changing her mission for him. She is on point the entire time. 

What is the point exactly, though? She crashed before getting London and her ship is repairing itself so she will be there in a few hours. She doesn't need to leave it or interact with the small group of people in the inn at all. If she had just waiting a couple hours and flown to London I don't her having any problems, looking as she does, getting any number of men to fly to Mars and be willing sex slave for a planet of dominant women. 

There are too many other characters I felt, most there only to fulfill plot points. The escaped killer is only there to be an acceptable sacrifice at the end, the worker is just there to be killed to show how cold Nyah is and the little boy is typically annoying and is there to be taken by the Martian to show so the reporter can be shown as a hero when he tried to exchange himself for the boy. The model looking for love in the Scottish Moores in winter is just a trope and she falls in love with the reporter in 15 minutes. Some of the character beats work but overall you don't really feel for any of them. 

The look of the movie and the invader do carry the film enough that it's fun enough to watch. I don't think I would rewatch it. I will watch a super cut of her throwing open the french doors in dramatic fashion the 150 or so times she does it in the film! 

Hundreds of Beavers (2022) Directed by Mike Cheslik

 

Hundreds of Beavers is a low budget independent slapstick comedy that heavily draws on cartoon action and settings with liberal nods to Buster Keaton among others. Only costing 150 000 $, it's brought in over a million. Pretty good for a film made by two friends with only the experience of making another black and white film called "Lake Michigan Monster" with similar techniques at this one for the much lesser sum of 7 000$! 

The entire movie is mostly special effects done with After Effects and it's very affective. The production reads as a cartoon and the characters are over the top. All the animals are either animated or actors in mascot costumes. To promote the film the director and main actors went on the road with a live show added to the cinema experience. 

The plot is appropriately more like a Warner Brothers short than a live action film. This  mostly works but 108 minutes is a little long to sustain such craziness. I can't say it doesn't succeed, because it does for the most part mainly from the energy the cast and crew bring to it. Ryland Tews as the Applejacks salesman whose business is destroyed by the actions of nearby beavers. This leads into an escalating conflict between him and the beavers and the stakes are made higher when he falls in love with a merchant's daughter but can't marry her unless he brings the merchant hundreds of beaver pelts. I don't think I'll try and lay out many beats of the plot as that will spoil it for new viewers and the comedy relies on how surpassing and outlandish it all is. 

I can 100% see where this will get old really fast for some people so it's not for everyone. I thought it was charming and fun to watch. Tews is a handsome, muscular guy that runs around shirtless in the winter snow a good part of the film so there's that element if the nonstop cartoon aspect gets old for you. I didn't laugh out loud but I did appreciate effort made and found it amusing all the way through. The act of getting this made on so little money with over 1 500 effects shots alone makes it worth a look! 

50 Years (2025 restored version) Directed by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

 Originally released in 2002 under the title "46 Years", "50 Years" is a recollection of memories and events as they relate to Ralph Hodgdon and Paul McMahon and their life-long love for each other. 

I revisited them 5 years after this was screened in Provincetown, Massachusetts and put for sale on Amazon as times had changed and the couple were able to get married on their 49th anniversary. It seemed right to do an additional interview after their 50th anniversary of the day they met and one year after they were able to get legally married. 

The restoration started in January 2025 when I discovered I had many, but not all the originals scans of the photos used in the film. My software also avowed me to take out the background music and improve the sound and more easily rework some edits. I still had the music done by David M. Puryear and was able to add it back in after the changes were made. 

Shot on Standard Definition video, before HD was a thing does limit how much improvement I could do on my own. I did clean up the titles between sections and updated the credits. I also had to take a break when Ralph got very ill and died in April 2025. Paul had passed in April 2011 and it was just too difficult work on. 

The 2020 version of the movie is for sale/rent on Amazon Streaming Prime Video.

Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) directed by André Øvredal

 

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a film that "fills in" what happened on the ill fated boat that took Dracula and his boxes of earth from his homeland to England. The basics of the story are taken from the captain's logs found the Bram Stoker's original novel and then it adds characters to flesh out the details. In the book we simply know the ship arrives with everyone dead, filled with boxes of earth and rats. The logs tell of something that killed the crew members while at sea. The horror in that part of the book comes from not knowing what happened in any detail. As readers we know it's Dracula feeding on the crew until he reaches his destination and it reinforces him as a source of evil. 

In my opinion that is all there needs to be, this idea of backfilling fictional stories (looking a you Star Wars) so there are no gaps from one event to another is something that really bugs me. Those gaps are often what makes the story work. The viewer fills in nebulous details with ideas of their own and, in the case of a horror movie, that is where the fear and dread comes from. Our own fears can make the film seem much more personally scary. 

The new characters are not bad ones, the lead as the black doctor is well acted and interesting and the woman found in one of the crates - put there as a way to keep Dracula fed on his trip so no one will know he is there - is also a good movie idea. Just not one where we already know what is going to happen. There is also the issue of a few pages in a book or a few minutes in a film allow you to not notice some things that a 2 hour film gives you plenty of time to mull over. In this case while watching we kept asking if they know the "thing" is attacking at night and hiding on the ship, those mysterious boxes would be a good place to do a day search and when they realize that they are where the creature is hiding during the day why not throw them all overboard and save yourselves? Why does it take 90% of the film before they start making sure no one is ever alone at night? 

Dracula is also an issue in how he is portrayed. They are going for a Nosferatu type of vampire, fair enough, but that does not work for the rest of the story after this film ends as we all know already. He is naked and sometimes has wings, sometimes he doesn't. They seem to appear as needed in the plot. 

The ending is truly a mess. I won't totally spoil it but there is a survivor who decided to dedicate their life to destroying Dracula, leading to the typical opening for a sequel. Thing is I would guess most readers have read the book especially anyone who would watch this and by the time you are 5 you have some idea who Dracula is and what the story is about so we KNOW this ending cannot have happened! 

I think if this was not about Dracula but some other creature it would have worked much better. 

It! The terror From Beyond Space (1958) directed by Edward L. Cahn

 

A second mission to mars arrives at the red planet to discover the fate of the previous crew sent there. Only one is left alive, the rest were killed by some creature... according to the survivor who is not believed and taken back with the to stand trial for multiple murders. It  seems he wasn't lying afterall when the creature is discovered to have made it's way on to their ship and is now travelling back to earth with them and killing the crew along the way. 

This film is certainly a low budget product of its time but does have good points. One of those isn't the monster, however. it's pretty ridiculous looking. The acting isn't great and neither is the writing... what's left? The effects of the ship are fairly well done and some of the shots are well thought out. It made me realize how much can be told by one shot and not need further explanation. An example if this is when the nurse disconnects a bottle of blood from a patient injured by the monster, she puts it on a table and there is a shot of the table with about 10 more empty bottles and it tells you right away there is a now a shortage and the treatment isn't working. The basic setup is also interesting and will remind filmgoers of "Alien" as the the ship is divided into layers separated by hatches and the deadly Martian comes from them floor by floor, hiding in ducts and picking off the crew one by one. 

Not the best or the worst of this sort of 50s sci-fi so something to watch if you happen to catch it and can deal with the acting. 

The Twleve (restored 2006 documentary) 2025 directed by Vincent-louis Apruzzese

Originally released in 2006 on Amazon and then updated several times later, this documentary is about Boston’s most diverse dance club, open from the 70s to the 90s. Three floors, a piano bar and pool tables in the basement, a new wave punk dance floor and then a classic disco dance floor… plus in good weather a roof deck with a grill! The entire LBGT+ community was welcome and mixed together as well straight people and a few other minorities that were not welcomed in other, straighter bars at the time. 

This version is recut, new graphics, where possible, with better sound and upscaled to HD. It was filmed on zero budget with an old video camera and a mono microphone from the Radio Shack so I’ve tried to improve it where possible but tech is only so magical, even these days.

The goal is to give people who were not able to go to this wonderful place and a sense of what it was like and to remind the world of Boston’s gay history and a world that is now gone and lost.

Casablanca (1942) directed by Michael Curtiz

How real people fight fascism. 

Known popularly as a great doomed romance film, Casablanca deals in subjects much more important and I would say the romance element is secondary to how the fascism of the 30s and 40s destroyed and affected the lives of everyday people and how they were able to fight back in small and big ways. 

It might be hard to find someone who doesn't know the story of this film even 80+ years later so I won't talk too much about it and focus more on some things the film says about the time it was created and sadly, the time we find ourselves in now. 

Ilsa is not some femme fatale leading Rick along in Paris. Her husband was murdered, she thinks, in a Nazi camp and when she finds out otherwise she leaves Rick to leave Paris without her to save his life and to get back to hers as the Nazis take over the city.  Rick's bar in Casablanca is a den of corruption and despite his cynical outward nature he is constantly doing things for the betterment of the refugees who are there waiting, hoping to get to the United States and safety. In today's world, America has become a country to escape from having not learned the lessons, or maybe learned the wrong lessons, from WWII and the folly of runaway nationalism and authoritarianism. Almost everyone in the movie is a victim of the political situation and Rick quietly tears up Nazi cheques and helps in small ways to get people to safety as he wallows in self pity over the loss of Ilsa. He does not bow to the authorities or to the rich tycoons that come into the bar and despite his claims of neutrality, his distaste for them is obvious. 

In the scene where the bar goers drown out the nazis singing Die Wacht am Rhein with La Marseillaise, all the different nationalities singing together until the Germans return to their seats in defeat. This is a lesson that diverse groups coming together can make the bullies back down, even if just for a little while. It does and always has brought tears to my eyes. It did so even before I knew many of the extras and indeed some of main cast were actual refugees of the war. Their tears as they sing are real. 

At the end Rick and Ilsa both realize that their lives and love are dwarfed by the events of the world at large but both are heading to do something about it exchanging personal sacrifice for the greater good. The war was full on at this point and who would win was not known but the message that everyone has to do what little they can to fight evil is a good one. 

This film was successful but no one making it thought it would be the iconic, influential film it became. It's message to do what you can for the cause is reflected in how the movie itself did much more than than anyone at the time could have imagined. Lets all try and do the same. 

VR exhibition: Mondes Disparus (old port Montréal)

6 of us went to the VR exhibition at the Old port of Montreal, a voyage though time depicting the start and evolution of life in Earth. The last few shows like this were all pretty amazing so we had high expectations and who doesn't want to walk (or swim or fly) with dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures? 

The show was set up the same as past shows. You enter, get a visor and follow a Virtual 3D animated guide through the show.  You see others in the room with you as avatars and if you are in a group you can see the names of your group so you don't get separated and know you are not talking to a stranger. 

The illusion you are in a place, despite it not being photorealistic, is still amazing to experience. I thought the information was presented in a childish way but still entertaining. The microscopic start to life and progression to insects, seas life and then on to the stars of the show, the dinosaurs were all fun to see. This is really the best way we have to really get a good feeling of how large some of these creatures are in relation to humans as they walk past you or you walk under them. You even get small look at the future. Even though it looks like you in water, descending down a hill, surrounded by trees and vegetation or snaking through a system of cave passages you are in fact just on a flat floor walking in a weird pattern in a room with odd markers all over the walls that track what you see in your VR Glasses.  

It isn't that expensive to do and the experience is certainly memorable and fun. I had some issues with the visor... at least 2 of us has slightly blurring images which gave me a headache by the and and lessened the effect of the VR. I didn't like the transitions, at points the whole world just goes black and you are back in the default scene for 10 seconds while the next segment loads.. I guess. This wasn't the case in earlier shows which were all fluid. 

The English version of the show is called something else and I fully admit I was too lazy to look it up! 

Kiss if the Vampire (1963) directed by Don Sharp

This was originally ment to go into the Hammer Dracula series but ended up it's own film instead. It is notable for swerving away from the typical vampire formula by having a coven of them led by a charismatic leader. There are with elements in the story as well.

A young couple gets caught up in a vampire cult when the leader of the cult takes a shine to the wife and arranges to befriend them as a ruse to kidnap her. at a masked ball he has one of group wear the same mask as her husband and lure her into a locked room. The guy is a good 5 inches taller than the husband but she fell for it anyway. There is a Van Helsing like character of sorts. A drunken man whose daughter has also fallen victim to the undead cult gets the husband t help him get both their family members free by calling 100s of vampire bats to attack the coven and kill them. This makes as much sense watching it as it did you reading it. 

The film looks good and while it's plot goes all over the place it's novel enough to keep your attention and only drags now and then. probably not something you would want to go back to over and over, though.