This past weekend I was lucky enough to walk amongst the other depraved members of schlock-film fandom at the bi-annual convention, Cinema Wasteland. Notorious for showcasing both forgotten films of a lost generation as well as new films in the independent circuit, Cinema Wasteland successfully provides audiences with a little bit of everything to tickle their fancy. Running with a handful of members of
The Blood Sprayer crew, I was exposed to some "unique" films, so to speak. The first on the list was the award winning hit,
President Wolfman. Composed entirely from stock and public domain footage,
President Wolfman tells the story of president John Wolfman; a politician looking for re-election while overcoming his recent werewolf bite. If morphing into a ravenous beast with every full moon wasn't enough of a problem, having to battle his opponents from selling the US to China, his murderous Vice President from killing his son Bobby Wolfman, a sex-crazed beauty pageant chaperone hell-bent on boning him at the most inopportune moments, or the mad scientist determined to study him is sure to keep him busy. Predominately showing clips from
The Werewolf in Washington,
President Wolfman is put together with clips from old beauty pageants, 'miracle of life' birthing videos, 1970s public service announcements, after-school specials, and some really unsettling foreign Coca-Cola commercials.
Directed and written by Mike Davis,
President Wolfman is the most fun I've had at a film screening in a very long time. A production of
Stag Films, I was completely blown away at how enjoyable this "green movie" truly was. The thing is, making movies are an incredibly expensive endeavor, but Davis proves that you don't need a huge budget (or even a camera) to create an enjoyable theater experience for audiences. The entire crowd was in uproarious laughter for good amounts of the film and I saw more than a handful of grown men curl up in fear as a no-nonsense clip of a woman giving birth was thrown into the mix. The sheer nature of seeing dubbed stock footage is hilarious on its own merit, but Davis' dialogue is remarkably funny. He writes without fear of offending anyone and pulls no punches in terms of his humorous subject matter. Any and every thing is made fun of at some point or another.
President Wolfman, to put it simply, is one of the most brilliant ideas I've ever seen executed onto a screen. This isn't the folks at Stag Films' first time at the rodeo with "green films," but compared to
Pervert and
Sex Galaxy, they truly nailed what a "green film" is meant to be. The sheer creativity going into the dialogue dubbed over these clips and the miraculous editing technique used to splice continuity between one hundred and twelve clips that have nothing to do with one another is genuinely jaw-dropping. I cannot even imagine how imaginative the creators must have been to make this film possible. The folks at Stag Films have truly created something special and unlike anything I personally have seen before. If you have the opportunity, see this film if for nothing more than to witness one of the most uniquely crafted films of recent memory.
