Okay! Now a little bit about the 4 titles on this release. There are 3 shorts and a feature, and it’s best to watch them in order as they appear on the menu. Gather up your weirdo cinephile freak friends and have a night of curated strange programming as Oscar Becher intended.
1. Day of Stalking Horror (1980) 8 minutes – Super 8mm camera reversal.
This nostalgically colored, suburban, not-so-serious riff on 70’s and 80’s thrillers has some nice tension in the opening minutes, and builds to a befuddling climax that will make you appreciate messing around with a camera with your friends.
2. Friday 13 (1973) 11 minutes – 16mm reversal print.
This unsettling, silent horror film is probably the most effective piece on this disc. Part slasher, part exploitation, the results are a brisk, creepy, budget version of The Last House on the Left, and this is a nifty piece of programming.
3. Carolina (1972) 29 minutes – 35mm color reversal intermediate.
A beautifully shot, location based travelogue/documentary about South Carolina. It is by far, the best looking film on this release. It’s lyrical in its narration, and features vibrant shots of golden fields and big skies. It wore out its welcome for me by the end, but it is a cozy experience altogether.
4. Boots and The Preacher (1972) 80 minutes – 35mm release print.
Discovered in a Goldberg canister purchased off eBay, this is sourced from the only surviving 35mm print of this previously lost film. Directed by J.G. Patterson Jr. and starring country singer Jim Arp, this curious, overstuffed, hicksploitation film is a fascinating discovery. What starts off as a murder mystery set in a radio station, then meanders into well…something else? Nothing at all? The real spotlight here is on Arp’s earworm country songs, such as “Stolen Moments,” which has been stuck in my head for over a week. The plot meanders here, too many characters are introduced, neither Boots nor the the Preacher are all that essential, but Jim Arp was talking about this movie through the end of his life, in his 80s. He never got to see the film again. So while it’s tough to recommend on the basis of even a down-the-middle exploitation film, it is something worth experiencing once, especially in sequence preceded by the 3 shorts on Reviver 1.