Aberration (1997)
Article 6094 by David Sindelar
Directed by Tim Boxell
Featuring Pamela Gidley, Simon Bossell, Valeriy Nikolaev
Country: New Zealand
What it is: Leapin’ Lizards

A woman trying to escape her past moves into an isolated cabin in the woods unaware that the area has an infestation of killer mutant lizards.

This is a basic variation on the mutant killer species sub-genre similar to EMPIRE OF THE ANTS or KINGDOM OF THE SPIDERS. It’s bloodier and heavier on the gross-out factor of the earlier movies, but at least it has a sense of humor. It isn’t particularly convincing, but the leads are appealing enough that you might forgive it some of its flaws. There are only five characters in the movie, one of which is the requisite local color warning the heroine to escape while she still can. All in all, an adequate time killer.

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A quoi revent les jeunes films (1924)
aka What Do Young Films Dream About?
Article 6093 by Dave Sindelar
Director: Man Ray and Henri Chomette
Featuring KIki of Montparnasse, Jacques Rigaut
Country: France
What it is: Axant-garde cinema

We look at our world through the distorting lens of a camera.

My first attempt to locate this film got me nowhere. On my second attempt, I noticed some history of the film had been added. The movie was commissioned by a French count for his ballet. After a falling-out with the count, the two film-makers took their own footage and released them as their own productions, giving us Man Ray’s EMAK-BAKIA, and Henri Chomette’s JEUX DE REFLETS ET DE LA VITESSE and CINQ MINUTES DE CINEMA PUR, all of which are extant and easy to find. And since they’re all avant-garde abstract pieces, they could all probably be edited together without any sacrifice of coherence. The first movie builds upon a man tearing off his collar, the second observes light in subway and train tunnels, and the third dabbles in imagery that could only be produced on camera, making it ‘pure cinema’. For those fascinated by cinema as its own budding art form that owes nothing to anything, these are fascinating. For those looking for a story, you’re in the wrong place.

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