LOVE LETTER TO EDIE (1975)

Very sweet 14-minute documentary by Robert Maier (who worked on five different John Waters movies) about the wonderful Edith Massey.  For those of you not fortunately to know who Edith Massey is, she (in real life) worked at a place in Baltimore called "Pete's Hotel" bar.  It was there that John Waters first saw her.  He was instantly smitten by her unique look and personality.  She ended up, over the next 10+ years, appearing in five of his films, including his masterpiece PINK FLAMINGOS.

Even at only 14-minutes, LOVE LETTER TO EDIE packs in a lot of interesting stuff.  My favorite being Edie telling her life story (who knows if it's even accurate) while we watch her and other Dreamlanders (Pat Moran, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce) reenacting those events or just walking around.  I thought that was really cool and very nice of them to help with this short film.

If you don't care about Edith Massey or John Waters, then LLTE will probably be a bore, but if you are a fan then it's mandatory.  Also, strangely enough, there's two different versions of the film out there.  One looked to be the original (with audio commentary by Pat Moran) and an updated version that tweaked some of the credit stuff and had a slightly better picture.  I personally like the original better.

Recommended.

[Update 09/02/2021: Watched the updated blu-ray. The picture on the main film is much improved. There is also a 15-minute segment with director Robert Maier talking to the camera about how he got started with John Waters and then meeting Edie. He talks about his documentary some, then talks about how after it came out, he moved down the street from Edie and would see her around and hang out with her. Eventually he ended up taking turns with John Waters in driving her to her doctor’s appointments. Overall, it was very informative and sweet. I love the idea of John Waters driving Edie around on errands. That would make a great movie in itself! I also enjoyed hearing about Edie’s cat Lovey who didn’t like to be petted. I hope Lovey had a good life.]

DEVIL SNOW (1991)

In what looks to be Los Angeles (I'm basing this solely on what I've seen in movies), a young woman becomes addicted to crack cocaine.  She runs away from home and starts banging some sleazy dude for crack.  Soon she begins having unexplained side effects to smoking crack.  The most serious side effect being her face turns green and she murders anybody around her!  The story isn't explained that well, but some cops get involved in the case and the rest of the movie is them doing stuff and the young woman stabbing people.

For a feature-length movie that probably only cost a few thousand dollars to make, DEVIL SNOW isn't too bad.  The lighting is atrocious and the acting isn't going to win any awards, but the story is kind of funny.  I ended up watching it twice simply because it was so interesting.  I'd love to know the stories behind the film: how it originated, how the story idea was conceived, who in the hell paid for it, did it make any money, who are these actors, did they have permits to shoot, why was the lighting so horrible, was that real fire coming out of the pistol or animated, what the hell was up with that horrible green face make-up, how come nobody ever got naked, why wasn't the violence more insane, did the girl have memories of the murders, was there an actual script for all of the scenes...cause some of that shit just sounded like people rambling?  I could go on and on.

DEVIL SNOW is most definitely not for everybody, but I'm glad I came across it.

THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (1988)

Enjoyable (and trippy) lazy afternoon time-waster about an archaeologist in Derbyshire, England who finds a large serpent skull.  Soon after, all kinds of weird things start to happen, like the skull is stolen, a teenage boy is murdered, a cop is bitten by a snake and...a neighbor turns out to be a human-snake demon creature who worships the ancient snake god named Dionin.

As far as British-ancient-snake-cult-movies-starring-Hugh-Grant go, THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM isn't too bad.  Totally awesome 80's-looking surrealist images, blasphemy, pace that was too slow for it's own good, beautiful English scenery, numerous references to snakes, light nudity, mild violence, meh ending, complete dedication to the role by Amanda Donohoe (who pretty much carries the film), director cameo.  I just wish the film had spent less time on the characters needlessly talking and more on doing crazy shit like the dick bite scene.  Still, it's worth a watch for fans of mildly weird films about snakes.

I would love to see a THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM comedy remake where a detective is investigating a sudden rash of teenage boy corpses popping up with large snake bites on their ping-dings.  The writers behind "F is for Family" or "Brickleberry" should get to working on that for my amusement.

Double feature with RAWHEAD REX.