Movies
It Came From Kuchar
“It Came From Kuchar is an important document of one man’s never ending quest to create art—whether or not you like it or not, it’s immaterial to George Kuchar. He lives and breaths cinema, it defines him, it motivates him and it has immortalized him and all his celluloid madness.”
Unless you’re a serious cinematic student of John Waters and underground trash cinema or an actual student at the Art Institute of San Francisco, the odds are you’ve never heard of George Kuchar. With 215 credited directorial films on the IMDB in a career spanning 5-decades, the only 2 notable productions that George Kuchar ever attached his name to were 1965’s Sins of the Feshapoids (which was directed by George’s twin brother Mike) and the 1975 post-modern-horror-porno-comedy Thundercrack! (Directed by Curt McDowell).
Sure, you may not know George Kuchar’s name, but the company he and his brother Mike kept as they screened 8mm opuses in the Manhattan underground included such superstars as Andy Warhol and Kenneth Anger (Hollywood Babylon). In 1971 George moved to San Francisco to teach film at the Art Institute (where he still resides). There his contemporaries included the likes of comic book artists Bill Griffith (Zippy the Pinhead) and the legendary Robert Crumb (Fritz the Cat). With a ready made cast of students at his disposal, Kuchar’s incredible output has never ceased. In fact, between 2003 and 2004, George Kuchar directed an astounding 14 short films.
The hallmarks of a Kuchar film include wildly inexplicable dialogue and situations, near surrealistic settings in worlds inhabited by women with crazy Joan Crawford eyebrows and bi-sexual men with thick, very thick, mustaches. It would really take no effort at all to draw a direct line between the characters that populate George Kuchar’s universe in the 1960’s to the Multiple Maniacs of John Waters’ 1970’s. The influence and homage are absolute fact.
Documentary filmmaker Jennifer M. Kroot gathers together an impressive array of talent and fans recount the influence of George and Mike Kuchar—including John Waters, Screenwriter Buck Henry (The Graduate), Director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter), Christopher Coppola and Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club). That such a broad and diverse band of filmmakers would call George Kuchar, friend and mentor, speaks to the genius that hides inside the addled brain of a very complex man.
Perhaps the most fascinating part of It Came From Kuchar is the breadth of interview footage with George and Mike about life experiences as varied as Mike’s trips to Tibet and George’s springtime sabbaticals to the Midwest in pursuit of his passion for Tornados. Somewhere under the barrage of dialogue that spews—almost unfiltered—from George’s brain and mouth right into the camera lens, we can catch a glimpse of an accomplished artist who can only see the world through his unique eyes.
Watching a George Kuchar interview is akin to listening to 3 different radio stations simultaneously while vacuuming and talking on the telephone. It’s a lot of information to process. It’s endlessly fascinating and mildly annoying. But, what is revealed in these interviews and indeed in the interviews with those whose careers are so much more distinguished than his—in 50-years, George Kuchar has never compromised his artistic vision. That singular vision that has plowed right through the original Underground Film movement, the Trash Cinema seventies and the No Wave/Transgressive period and landed smack dab in the new media, digital video revolution of today. It’s an unrivaled feat and the highway is littered with bizarre filmmakers that either got respectable or got lost. John Waters went on to make more or less mainstream Hollywood (or at least Baltimore) productions, Kenneth Anger stepped away from the camera for nearly 25-years. Warhol gave up filmmaking’s 15-minutes of fame abandoned the Factory and settled into the decadence of the Studio 54 set. If and when Richard Kern and Nick Zedd direct today, they rarely deliver the shocks they once shoved down throats in the early 80’s and 90’s with films like Geek Maggot Bingo and Sewing Circle. But George Kuchar is still here at 67 churning out films that are uncompromising in their surrealistic sexuality and unbridled imagination.
It Came From Kuchar is an important document of one man’s never ending quest to create art—whether or not you like it or not, it’s immaterial to George Kuchar. He lives and breaths cinema, it defines him, it motivates him and it has immortalized him and all his celluloid madness.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
You must be logged in to post a comment.