Low Budget History

The first Grindhouse Festival screening I went to was on March 24. It was an adult comedy triple bill, and two of the films were animated: "Tunnel Vision," "Coonskin" and "Shame of the Jungle." Having seen two of these movies already, I knew they would provoke some outrageous reactions from the audience, but at this screening I got a much different reaction than I expected.

The real grind house theaters were usually run down dumps with sticky floors, shabby seats that were falling apart at the seams and sleazy audiences that included plenty of perverts, drunks and crack heads. But this is a much different kind of crowd and theater. The fans who come to these shows are often the cynical, terminally hip L.A. people who go to these movies for the comedy value, film geeks who often look like Napoleon Dynamite, and even, surprisingly, some women (even more surprisingly, good looking women, too).

The New Beverly is a nice little theater that's just the right size for these kinds of films (and admission for every double and triple bill is just a mere $7). The only thing that gives off a grind house vibe was the clinking of bottles on the floor, which I heard at every screening. As you walk into the theater, it's bathed in red light, and music appropriate to what's being shown comes out of the speakers. If it's a horror double bill, you'll hear something like Goblin, the Italian band who did the soundtracks for Dario Argento's "Susperia" and the original "Dawn of the Dead" in 1978. I also remembered hearing soundtracks for coming attractions. As I settled into my seat, I heard through the speakers: "The un-publishable novel is now a motion picture! The Hillbilly Hooker!"

Released in 1976, "Tunnel Vision" is a comedy spoof of network TV, which of course was released right before the cable and VCR revolutions. It was also released the same year as the classic "Network," the classic drama about a fictional television network that has some thematic similarities to "Tunnel Vision." While much of "Tunnel Vision" didn't age well, there are some skits in the film that have an eerie prophetic ring to them today.

"Tunnel Vision" takes place in the future, 1985. The country has suffered 11 years of depression, David Eisenhower is the President, Henry Kissinger is running the NBA and Tunnel Vision is the hottest network on free television because it's completely uncensored. The film takes us through a typical broadcast day for the network, full of sitcoms, dramas and commercials.

The 1976 film "Tunnel Vision," starring Chevy Chase, Al Franken and the late John Candy.

Sure, there was salty language and nudity on "NYPD Blue," but that took a long time to pass. Even by today's standards we wouldn't see a sitcom like Tunnel Vision's Ramon and Sonja, which centers around a foul-mouthed, incestuous family of gypsies (Throughout the skit, a laugh track goes off at very inappropriate times, much like the I Love Mallory segment in "Natural Born Killers").

As for the prophetic scenes in "Tunnel Vision," how about the game show "Remember When," as the announcer tells us,:"The show that raises the question how much will a person reveal about themselves and their personal life to win some lovely cash prizes?" The gist of the game is the contestants have to recall the most painful parts of their past to win $10,000. For one question, a female contestant is reminded that she beat one of her kids and it had to go to the hospital. "Why did you beat her, and what did you beat her with?" Could a reality show like this be around the corner?

And what about the commercial for Axxon, the evil oil conglomerate that's obviously a goof on Exxon? Don't forget, this was years before the wreck of the Valdez:

"After our research scientists discovered that fish caused coronary thrombosis, we decided to spill over two thousand five hundred barrels of oil into the ocean each day. Since 1974, we have destroyed over twenty-two and a half billion of these ocean living pests in the name of community service. Fish? They're better off dead, which is why we're doing something about it at Axxon, the sign of the double cross."

"Tunnel Vision" features many future stars of comedy including the late John Candy, Chevy Chase, Al Franken, who was then teamed with Tom Davis, Howard Hesseman and Laraine Newman. The jokes that were still funny in "Tunnel Vision" got laughs, but at the end there wasn't the usual applause the audience gives these films, and I got the impression today's crowd didn't quite know what to make of it.