Back in 2006, I was watching a whole lot of the Turner Classic Movies channel, catching up on movies I had missed because they were released decades before I was born – in many cases, they were released when my grandparents were just children. It was during that year of my deep dive into TCM that the channel announced they were launching a new show: TCM Underground, which going to be hosted by Rob Zombie and was envisioned as being “home to some of the truly visionary cult films that have been made over the past century, from stylish horror movies to offbeat black comedies”. This was clearly going to be right up my alley. I still remember tuning into the first TCM Underground in October of 2006 to see Zombie presenting an Ed Wood double feature of Plan 9 from Outer Space and Bride of the Monster. I continued watching the show for several weeks, either on the night of the broadcast or on VHS recordings, to see Zombie host the likes of Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, Night of the Living Dead, The Crazies, Electra Glide in Blue, Freaks, Mark of the Vampire, The Sadist, Wild Guitar, etc. The movies were initially programmed by TCM’s marketing director Eric Weber, then in 2007 Millie De Chirico took over.
Now De Chirico has teamed up with Quatoyiah Murry, host of the web series TCM Slumberground, to put together a book called TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema. The book won’t be published until October 4th, but I had the chance to take an early look at it – and since TCM Underground programming has always been appealing to me and I have the memories of tuning in for those early editions of the show, I grabbed the PDF copy I was offered.
Following a foreword by Patton Oswalt and an introduction by the authors, TCM Underground dives into the film recommendations, separating the fifty films that Di Chirico and Murry wrote about into five categories... and as with the other TCM book I read recently, Rock on Film by Fred Goodman, the best way to help someone decide whether or not they want to read this book may be by simply listing the films that are covered. So here we have a section called It’s Crime Time, where the films covered are Across 110th Street, Friday Foster, I Saw What You Did, I’m Gonna Git You Sucka, The Harder They Come, The Honeymoon Killers, The Silent Partner, and Shack Out on 101. A great way to get things started. Then there’s Domestic Disturbances, where the films covered are Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker; Eating Raoul, Polyester, Possession, Remember My Name, Secret Ceremony, Sometimes Aunt Martha Does Dreadful Things, The Baby, and Fleshpot on 42nd Street.
By now you should have a pretty good idea as to whether or not TCM Underground is for you... and that’s when we reach the section entirely dedicated to my beloved horror genre, Fright Club. The movies covered: Blacula, Ganja & Hess, Haxan, Jigoku, Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, The Brood, and The House by the Cemetery. That’s followed by the films about Rebellion & Youth Movements: Five on the Black Hand Side, Born in Flames, Two-Lane Blacktop, Emma Mae (a.k.a. Black Sister’s Revenge); Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains; Little Darlings, Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore, Roller Boogie, The Decline of Western Civilization, The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years, and The Decline of Western Civilization Part III. Plus Wild Seed. And then there’s the final section of the book, Visual Delights and Other Strange Mind Melters. Wrapping things up we have Belladonna of Sadness, House (a.k.a. Hausu), Mac and Me, Satanis: The Devil’s Mass, The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, The World’s Greatest Sinner, The Wormwood Star, Xanadu, The Pyramid, Thank God It’s Friday, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Head, The Trip, and Funeral Parade of Roses.
If you share my taste for the weird and horrific, you can see why I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to read this book. Many of the movies I had already seen, but there are several on that list that I haven’t. De Chirico and Murry did a great job of getting across what the movies are about and why they should be seen, and also provide some interesting behind-the-scenes information along the way. Honestly, of the ones on the list that I haven’t seen, I still don’t feel compelled to seek some of them out, but I was still able to understand why the authors felt they deserve a chance. There are a couple entries that I wasn’t thrilled about reading - Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains and The Decline of Western Civilization - simply because I had just read about those two in Rock on Film and I was afraid it would feel redundant to read about them again so soon. But Goodman and De Chirico and Murry have different enough styles that it didn’t feel repetitious... and even if you have zero interest in one of the movies they cover, each recommendation only takes up a few pages anyway. You can breeze right through the write-up and move on to the next.
I enjoyed TCM Underground because I love seeing movies like this being celebrated. And since the TCM Underground show has been going on for sixteen years now, I could see this kicking off a series of TCM Underground books that continues talking about wild and weird cult films. I would be happy to see that happen, and would gladly continue reading them. But for now, De Chirico and Murry’s book that covers just fifty of the many TCM Underground movies is absolutely worth checking out.
Copies are available for pre-order on Amazon.
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