Psychopath of Least Resistance

Despite the rosy glow of hindsight, there've always been sickos and psychos. Caligula. Vlad the Impaler. Jack the Ripper. Winnie Ruth Judd. But -- as you can see from the abbreviated checklist -- they used to come along at relatively hospitable intervals. The 1960s and ´70s saw a sicko/psycho boom, especially in the film realm, where every perv grabbed a camera and started goring and shredding people onscreen. Illest of the ill was Herschell Gordon Lewis, king of the cinematic barf bag. His anti-masterpieces Blood Feast and 2,000 Maniacs were mere preludes to the 1970 The Wizard of Gore, in which a lunatic nightclub performer hacks his customers to pieces. Director Paul Naschy's werewolf flick The Craving precedes at 9.
Fri., Oct. 26, 11 p.m., 2007