I have always been fond of movies that feature movies within the movie. You know, movies that for some reason contain scenes of other movies? I’m not talking about clips of real movies (like Scream 2 on TV in the background of Halloween H2O). I’m talking about made up, fictional, fake movies being featured within the world of the main movie. For example, in Matinee (Joe Dante, 1993), John Goodman’s character is a movie producer named Lawrence Woolsey (who is a kind of fictional version of William Castle) and we get to see clips from his ultra bad sci-fi epic Mant!
MANT! Poster from Matinee (Joe Dante, 1993) Please don’t sue me, Universal Pictures, Mr Dante, or whoever drew this…
Popcorn (Mark Herrier, Alan Ormsby, 1991) is set in a movie theatre, where a killer is stalking unsuspecting victims. The best parts, however, are the clips from the B-movie film festival up on the screen, which is comprised of a trilogy of made up stinkers, including one called The Stench which features a William Castle style gimmick called Aroma-Rama (just like John Waters employed in Polyester).
One exception to my preference for made up, fictional, fake movies is Ed Wood (Tim Burton, 1994), which makes use of reenactments of actual scenes from actual movies made by Ed Wood. But no one could make up anything more amazingly entertaining than what Ed Wood actually did, so…
It’s starting to seem like I’m stuck in the ’90s, which is strange because I’m actually much more stuck in the ’70s. I’m also particularly fond of the ’30s. And there is a brilliant little gem called Hollywood Party (1934) which features fake scenes from a Schnarzan movie (a Tarzan spoof).
As mentioned in my previous blog post, The Doreen Brownstone Film Spectacular is a movie that will feature movies within the movie. None of them will be homages to William Castle (not that I don’t like WillIam Castle, but…). I expect to cover more genres than the average movie that features movies within the movie. Doreen Brownstone has had a long career, and has appeared in all kinds of different films. I’m not prepared to say what any of them are yet (I feel that might spoil some of the fun – plus I am still working on the final draft of the screenplay, so anything – and everything – is still fair game), but to give some small hints about what might be possible, there is a series of doctored posters called Movies That Doreen Brownstone Could Have Appeared In which has started to appear on Twitter @DBrownstoneFilm and on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/doreenbrownstonefilmspectacular and on Instagram http://instagram.com/DBrownstoneFilm – but remember, these are not actual posters that will be used in The Doreen Brownstone Film Spectacular. These are just for fun. Please don’t sue us, people who own the rights to the original, untampered with, posters…
One final note, a brand new perk has been added to the Indiegogo page regarding posters and VHS boxes for the fictional movies within the movie. We will be asking artists to create posters and/or VHS boxes for several fictional movies within the movie. These posters and VHS boxes will be featured prominently within the main film (kind of like the above MANT! poster was in Matinee, for instance). You, through the magic of Indiegogo, can arrange to have your name featured on one of these VHS boxes and/or posters alongside Doreen’s as if you starred in the movie with her. And who hasn’t always dreamed of seeing their name on a VHS box? And once the movie is completed and released, you will get to keep the poster and/or VHS box with your name on it forever! Display it proudly in your home or office. No one will ever suspect that you didn’t star in that grade Z epic once upon a time. Your coolness factor will be raised for generations. Read more about it here:
I could probably go on about movies that feature movies within the movie for thousands of words, but who would want to read that? Who’s reading this anyway? Pretend I didn’t ask that. Until next time, keep watching the screens…
