Local Oddities (Indie Movies)

[Alex]

Attack of the herbals.

! No longer available

[claws]

Macho Man (1985)

German movie filmed in the East Franconian town of Nuremberg (Nürnberg). Macho Man was the first and only Action movie to be filmed in Nuremberg, so it was kind of a big deal for locals. It stars German featherweight boxing champion René Weller who was, believe it or not, kind of a sex symbol back in the 1980s



in Macho Man Mr. Weller plays a boxing champion teaming with a karate champion (Peter Althof, German kickboxer and celebrity bodyguard)



to fight crime in Nuremberg. They also must protect Mr. Weller's love interest Sandra (Bea Fiedler, German Playboy Playmate of the Month June 1977) from evil drug dealers.



Filmed in the winter of 1983/1984, Macho Man had its premiere in Nuremberg in late 1984 before going nationwide in January 1985.

Sorry...

Not a box office success (only 10.000 people saw it during its theatrical run), Macho Man found an audience when it was released to home video, and got more exposure in the late 1990s when German VJ's made fun of it on a regular basis in a popular music video TV show.
The movie is extremly cheesy, acting and dialogue are awful as expected and the use of local Nuremberg slang (all actors re-dubbed) and familiar seedy locations made this a cult movie classic. So much that the people of Nuremberg were blessed with special screenings for nearly 20 years (kind of like The Rocky Horror Picture Show) always attended by the original cast.



Macho Man was never released in the US. Lacking international flair and appeal it was however released in most of Europe. They made a sequel in 2017 with the original cast but without Bea Fiedler.

[claws]

Forgot to add, in 1991 René Weller won a lawsuit against the producers of Macho Man, demanding that all his sex scenes to be deleted from the movie. I guess he had second thoughts about his onscreen sexiness.

[FatFreddysCat]

Troma has been making movies in my neck o' the woods (NY Metro area/northern New Jersey) for decades. Back in the day I watched'em shoot part of Class of Nuke'Em High in the parking lot of a Catholic high school in my home town (Paramus, New Jersey).

[Archivist]

Death In Brunswick (1990) is an Australian movie starring Sam Neill, who we all know went on to do bigger things in Hollywood, like Event Horizon and The Omen III. Sam plays Carl, a woebegone guy who lives with his eccentric mother and works in a sleazy Greek nightclub. In a series of very unfortunate events, he accidentally kills someone, and he enlists the aid of his friend, a grave digger, to help him. Meanwhile, he falls in love with a somewhat younger Greek girl.

The movie was shot locally (I live about half an hour from Brunswick) and humorously shows a lot of Australian and Australian migrant stereotypes, like the Greek girl's family home's decor, the house where Carl lives, and their general dialogue. It's incredibly funny, although I'm unsure just how much the nuances goes across cultures not familiar with Australia.

Sorry...

[claws]

Holy thread resurrection 

I was just thinking about my time at another horror message board in the 2000s. I was forum friends with Indie film director Matthew Reel from Arizona who used to post there as well. He was doing a couple of short features back to back. He would offer them in private on VHS or DVD for reasonable prices though I never bought any of his movies.
His "big" break came in 2010 when he hooked up with another forum member, Elske McCain, also from Arizona. She had done tiny bit parts (uncredited) in The Getaway (1994) starring Kim Basinger, and a background acting part in Silent Fury (1994), a trashy action film starring Robert Z'Dar and Charles Napier.
Elske eventually connected with Lloyd Kaufman who she met at horror conventions. He gave her a bit part in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead (2006) and she was a Tromette of the Month the same year I think.
Matthew and Elske ended up doing the feature film Jessicka Rabid (2010) which was distributed by Troma



Never seen but ratings aren't that good at IMDb.

Seems like Matthew Reel hasn't done anything since Jessicka Rabid. Elske McCain did a few no budget trash horror movies prior but also went on a break after Jessicka Rabid. According to IMDb she did a new feature in 2020. Good for her.

[kornula]

BLADE HARD (2014) made right here in Anchorage, Alaska!

"Blade Hard is an independent film that documents the trials and tribulations of Xander Kane's recruitment into to the renowned Blade Agency, a quasi-secretive sect of the Department of Defense and protectors of an ancient time travel device. As a new enemy emerges, will the Xander and the other Blade agents be able to save the time device from those who wish to use it for literary evil, or will the agents run out of time?"

Lots of people talk about making a movie.. these guys went out and did it. 

Granted, they missed the mark on trying to make a good movie...but they made it all the same.

https://www.facebook.com/bladehardak/videos/542210522577391

[zelmo73]

Maybe Kornula knows more about this than I do, but the only movie shot locally in Anchorage, Alaska that I know of off the top of my head is The Frozen Ground (2013) with Nicolas Cage and John Cusack. Nicolas Cage alone makes it a bad movie, but everything else about the film was pretty damned good, and they managed to successfully make "Los Anchorage" (our crime rate here, per capita, makes it one of the worst in the country) look like a really $hitty place to live. 

[Allhallowsday]

... they managed to successfully make "Los Anchorage" (our crime rate here, per capita, makes it one of the worst in the country) look like a really $hitty place to live. 

Is it? 

[zelmo73]

... they managed to successfully make "Los Anchorage" (our crime rate here, per capita, makes it one of the worst in the country) look like a really $hitty place to live. 

Is it? 

It can be at times.