New The Demon (1979) DVD coming in October!

[Trevor]

typical of many South African potboilers.

Such as? 

[Mike Justice]

Oh, like Percival Rubens' other movies "Survival Zone" and "Sweet Murder."  And the Zoli Marki movie "Baby Brown," which is HILARIOUS by the way. 

It says this DVD will be widescreen.  Do you think The Demon was SHOT anamorphically?  I always just figured the full-frame version was the entire frame, and they matted it for theatrical at one time.  My guess is the DVD will be matted.

[hedgie]

Oh, like Percival Rubens' other movies "Survival Zone" and "Sweet Murder."  And the Zoli Marki movie "Baby Brown," which is HILARIOUS by the way. 

It says this DVD will be widescreen.  Do you think The Demon was SHOT anamorphically?  I always just figured the full-frame version was the entire frame, and they matted it for theatrical at one time.  My guess is the DVD will be matted.

I was going to ask if anybody here has seen "Survival Zone".  If it is anything what it looks like, a South African Mad Max rip, then it is worth buying.  A rare vid dealer I know has it for a low price.  So, do the other Demon fans out there  enjoy it? I mean to say that if it is anywhere near as entertaining as the demon i probably ought to buy it.

[Trevor]

Oh, like Percival Rubens' other movies "Survival Zone" and "Sweet Murder."  And the Zoli Marki movie "Baby Brown," which is HILARIOUS by the way.  

Baby Brown is one of those films that people in the local film industry refer to as "one of those subsidy fraud films" ~ there was a period in the late 80's and early 90s where anyone who knew how to pick up a camera shot anything that moved in order to cash in on the lucrative, loophole ridden subsidy system. It's interesting to see that Baby Brown is available on DVD now. It's also a bit  
 

It says this DVD will be widescreen.  Do you think The Demon was SHOT anamorphically?  I always just figured the full-frame version was the entire frame, and they matted it for theatrical at one time.  My guess is the DVD will be matted.

I think it was shot anamorphically.

[Trevor]

I was going to ask if anybody here has seen "Survival Zone".  If it is anything what it looks like, a South African Mad Max rip, then it is worth buying. 

I've seen it: it is kind of a Mad Max rip: the kind of film where you see flowers and green grass where there shouldn't be any after a nuclear holocaust.

[Mike Justice]

Baby Brown is AMAZINGLY bad.  I posted clips from it on youtube because I can't believe it's not a comedy classic of bad filmmaking.  For years I would bust it out at parties and floor people with it.  In fact, I think I ruined Zoli Marki's Christmas by sending her a copy (she'd never seen it). 

Survival Zone is definitely worth a watch, I suppose.  I do particularly love how the main villain wears a studded leather jacket that says "Big Man" on the back.  When I was a kid, the local UHF channel bought a boatload of cheap films and showed them over and over.  Survival Zone and The Demon were on TV CONSTANTLY.  I ran into Jennifer Holmes, the topless nursery school teacher, at her husband's art opening in California a couple of years ago.  Her husband was also in The Demon.  She said they got married five days before they flew to SA to shoot the movie and that Cameron Mitchell had gotten them the gig while they were working together on an episode of The Incredible Hulk.  She also said she thought that nobody would ever see it, and seemed kind of irritated that it won't go away. 

[claws]

Jennifer Holmes and Cameron Mitchell must have been really good friends. According to IMDb they did two movies and eight TV series together.
The other movie was Raw Force (1982) and is another cheesy gem.

[Trevor]

She also said she thought that nobody would ever see it, and seemed kind of irritated that it won't go away. 

As I said, Percival was very fond of The Demon and apparently the 35mm print we have in the NFA is uncut. Percival's other film that he liked was Mr Kingstreet's War with John Saxon and Tippi Hedren.

[Mike Justice]

Mr. Kingstreet's War was another one they showed on TV a lot.  Tippi Hedren is a noted wildlife preservationist and she credits that movie with opening her eyes to the plight of lions.  I don't remember much about it except there are tons of animals, and lots of scenes of John Saxon firing a rifle at jeeps.

Did The Demon ever get a theatrical release in South Africa?  I think I read somewhere that it was produced mainly for sale to America.  I have a couple of friends who are REALLY fond of it because they used to hang out in Hillbrow and go to Bella Napoli, etc. and some scenes in the film are a nostalgic time capsule for them.

[Trevor]

Mr. Kingstreet's War was another one they showed on TV a lot.  Tippi Hedren is a noted wildlife preservationist and she credits that movie with opening her eyes to the plight of lions.  I don't remember much about it except there are tons of animals, and lots of scenes of John Saxon firing a rifle at jeeps.

Apparently Noel Marshall (who was Ms Hedren's husband at the time) wanted Kingstreet to be a kind of answer to the Vietnam War so he ordered the producer Thys Heyns to have Percival re-shoot the ending so that the main characters are shot dead in a hail of bullets. Percival regretted not shooting it two ways and the film failed allegedly because of the downbeat ending which worked for The Wild Bunch but not for this.

Did The Demon ever get a theatrical release in South Africa?  I think I read somewhere that it was produced mainly for sale to America.  I have a couple of friends who are REALLY fond of it because they used to hang out in Hillbrow and go to Bella Napoli, etc. and some scenes in the film are a nostalgic time capsule for them.

It did get a limited release as far as I know. Regarding Hillbrow, I was there two days ago and that is not a place to just hang out in today, believe me.

[Mike Justice]

This is a little off-topic, but speaking of bad movies and Hillbrow, have you ever seen NO ONE CRIES FOREVER with Howard Carpendale and Zoli Marki?  It's BRILLIANT.

[Trevor]

This is a little off-topic, but speaking of bad movies and Hillbrow, have you ever seen NO ONE CRIES FOREVER with Howard Carpendale and Zoli Marki?  It's BRILLIANT.

My good friend and mentor Jans Rautenbach directed that ~ he told me that he has never seen it (although I have) and, like his earlier film The Winners 2, he disowns it. 

[Mike Justice]

Have you ever heard of another subsidy fraud movie called Deathwalkers?  It's by the same guy who made Baby Brown.  I'm dying to see it, but it's as obscure as they come.

[Trevor]

Have you ever heard of another subsidy fraud movie called Deathwalkers?  It's by the same guy who made Baby Brown.  I'm dying to see it, but it's as obscure as they come.

During the subsidy years (which ran from 1987 to 1991) the Film Archives had an agreement with the labs here that if the filmmakers failed to pay for their transfers, rushes, etc, the filmmakers would forfeit rights to them and the Film Archives would get the film negatives. Deathwalkers wasn't one of these, unfortunately but I am aware of it.