''Geek Maggot Bingo'' (also known as ''Geek Maggot Bingo or The Freak from Suckweasel Mountain'') is a 1983

comedy horror Comedy horror (also called horror comedy) is a literary, television and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as having three types: "black comedy, parody and spoof." Comedy horror can a ...

film directed by

Nick Zedd Nick Zedd ( James Franklyn Harding III; January 25, 1956 – February 27, 2022) was an American filmmaker, author, and painter based in Mexico City. He coined the term Cinema of Transgression in 1985 to describe a loose-knit group of like-minde ...

, who also scripted and shot the film. The film was released in 1983 and a special screening was held at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York City on January 21, 2018 as part of their film series "New York Film and Video: No Wave–Transgressive", where it played alongside Zedd's ''Police State.'' At a screening of ''Geek Maggot Bingo'' with the

Collective for Living Cinema The Collective for Living Cinema was revival house for avant-garde cinema located on 52 White Street in Lower Manhattan in the United States. It regularly presented work by filmmakers such as Ken Jacobs, Nick Zedd, Johan van der Keuken, Yvonne ...

, Zedd "shot" a couple of people planted in the audience at the film's end, bursting blood bags for extra effect.

Synopsis

The film follows the insane Dr. Frankenberry (Robert Andrews), who repeatedly attempts to reanimate the dead with the assistance of his

hunchbacked Kyphosis () is an abnormally excessive convex curvature of the spine as it occurs in the thoracic and sacral regions. Abnormal inward concave ''lordotic'' curving of the cervical and lumbar regions of the spine is called lordosis. It can r ...

assistant Geeko (Robert Zeus). Other characters include the professor's daughter Buffy (Brenda Bergman), who performs most of the film semi-nude, and falls victim to the vampire, and Flavian (Gumby Spangler), son of the professor at Frankenberry's university, Dean Quagmire (Jim Giacama) who had rejected Frankenberry's original experiments. There is also a punk rocker cowboy ,The Rawhide Kid (

Richard Hell Richard Lester Meyers (born October 2, 1949), better known by his stage name Richard Hell, is an American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist and writer. Hell was in several important early punk rock bands, including Neon Boys, Television (band), ...

), and a vampiress called Scumbalina (Donna Death). Frankenberrry successfully creates hideous two-headed creature called The Formaldehyde Man (Tyler Smith), who goes on a rampage, killing several characters.

Cast

* Zacherle as The Host * Robert Andrews as Doctor Frankenberry *

as The Rawhide Kid * Brenda Bergman as Buffy * Donna Death as Scumbalina * Bruno Zeus as Geeko * Gumby Spangler as Flavian * Tyler Smith as The Monster * Jim Giacama as Dean Quagmire * Robert Martin as The Bob * Robert Elkin as The Boop * Quasimodo Residue as The Boner

Reception

Cookie Mueller Dorothy Karen "Cookie" Mueller (March 2, 1949 – November 10, 1989) was an American actress, writer, and Dreamlander who starred in many of filmmaker John Waters' early films, including '' Multiple Maniacs'', ''Pink Flamingos'', '' Female Trou ...

of the ''

East Village Eye The ''East Village Eye'' was a cultural magazine, published by editor-in-chief Leonard Abrams, in circulation from May 1979 until January 1987. Based in the East Village section of New York City, the publication covered a range of locally focu ...

'' reviewed ''Geek Maggot Bingo'', stating "I have never in my lifetime of experience with low-budget films seen one this low … It lies somewhere below the subculture, even beneath the New York subway system". ''

TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...

'' panned the film, calling it "A nothing little zit of a 16mm movie that attempts to make fun of horror pictures but instead mocks technical Renaissance man Nick Zedd". The film also received a review from ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', which criticized the sound and lighting. In a review for a 1988 screening of the film in Toronto alongside Zedd's other films, ''

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands division. The newspaper was establis ...

'''s Christopher Hume wrote that the film "fails to do anything except remind us of Zedd's limits" and that " ough it seems black humor was the intention, the result is dumb and boring".

Kim Newman Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. He is interested in film history and horror fiction – both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's ''Dracula'' at the age of eleven & ...

reflected on ''Geek Maggot Bingo'' in ''Nightmare Movie: A Critical Guide to Contemporary Horror Films'', comparing it to

Jack Hill Jack Hill (born January 28, 1933) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the exploitation genre. He was an early associate of Francis Ford Coppola and Roger Corman, and worked on many films distributed by American International Pictur ...

's ''

Spider Baby ''Spider Baby: or, the Maddest Story Ever Told'' is a 1967 American comedy horror film, written and directed by Jack Hill. It stars Lon Chaney Jr. as Bruno, the chauffeur and caretaker of three orphaned siblings who suffer from "Merrye Syndrome ...

'' and stating that Zedd "tries to match Hill's tone" but that he "tries too hard and comes up with a movie that makes

Al Adamson Albert Victor Adamson Jr. (July 25, 1929 – June 21, 1995) was an American Filmmaking, filmmaker and actor known as a prolific director of B movie horror and exploitation films throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The son of silent film veterans Vict ...

look like

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...

References

External links

*{{IMDb title, 0085580 1983 films 1980s English-language films 1983 comedy horror films American comedy horror films American independent films 1983 independent films 1980s American films English-language comedy horror films American vampire films English-language independent films