News

These are the Eyes that Satirize! Everybody's seen their imagery but few know the story of these anonymous performance artists and their avant-garde music. Their highly creative songs and videos satirize the commercialization of art and music, and they've chosen a real 'you'll never get rich' way to stay clear of the commercial undertow. Theory of Obscurity: A Film About The Residents Blu-ray Film Movement 2015 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date April 19, 2016 / 34.95 Starring Jerry Casale, Les Claypool, Chris Combs, Jon Fishman, Matt Groening, Jerry Harrison, Penn Jillette, Jim Knipfel, Gary Panter, The Residents, Steve Seid. Cinematography Barton Bishoff, Don Hardy, Josh Keppel Produced by Barton Bishoff, Don Hardy, Josh Keppel Written and Directed by Don Hardy

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

We've all seen the image: four tuxedoed men in eyeball masks with top hats and canes. These masked men are the avant-garde band and multimedia performance artists known as The Residents.

“Seoul Searching,” an '80s-set teen comedy written and directed by Benson Lee, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival back in January and was a homecoming of sorts for Lee. His previous film, “Miss Monday,” also premiered at the fest in 1998, winning a Special Jury Award for star Andrea Hart’s performance. After Sundance, the coming-of-age film also hit the Seattle International Film Festival (where it won the Futurewave Youth Jury Award), CAAMFest (where it won an Audience Award for Best Narrative film), and as it arrives as the Los Angeles Film Festival it provided me a second chance to take a look at the movie. When I first caught the film back at Sundance, I was moved by its performances and equally impressed by its stellar '80s soundtrack, which features cuts from The Clash ("Should I Stay or Should I Go"), Spandau Ballet ("True"), Erasure...

Now that we’re officially two weeks away from Christmas, there’s not much time left to get your holiday shopping done. Hopefully, today’s Gift Guide from Daily Dead will help you with your list, as we’ve got a ton of great ideas from Boom Studios, Synapse Films, Think Geek and more.

Also, be sure to check out today’s Holiday Horrors trivia question below for your shot at winning some awesome merchandise from our fine sponsors at HorrorDecor.net, Scream Factory and Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Vendor Spotlight: Boom Studios

Boom! Studios was founded in June of 2005 by Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby. They were named “Best New Publisher of the Year” by Wizard Magazine just four months after their début. The company initially specialized in horror and sci-fi genres and have since branched out to include superhero comics such as Mark Waid’s Irredeemable and the upcoming Soldier Zero,...

For the second week of November, genre fans have plenty of titles to choose from, as the horror and sci-fi related home releases aren’t slowing down at all this week. Not only does the highly anticipated Batman HD box set finally come home on Tuesday, but several cult classics, including Dolls and both Demons films, are also getting their due on Blu-ray too.

For those of you Trubies out there, the final season of True Blood is coming out, as well as a nifty box set of the entire HBO series and even Gamera is getting his own box set to boot. And for those of you out there who fancy yourselves fans of cult cannibal flicks, Intervision is releasing two obscure titles this week that might be of interest- Mondo Cannibal and In the Land of the Cannibals.

Batman: The Complete TV Series Limited Edition Set (Warner Home Video,...

Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier has had a second stellar weekend at the box office.

That makes it two worldwide weekends in a row at over $100 million and nearly half a billion to date as it continues to draw audiences internationally and in North America. With the success of directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s sequel , Marvel/Disney have officially announced Captain America 3 will open on May 6, 2016.

About two years have passed since the alien invasion of New York was repulsed by Nick Fury’s special team – The Avengers. The world is now well aware that extra-terrestrials, godlike beings and monsters may be lurking in the cosmos and that Super Heroes walk among us. The demand for protection of the world’s citizenry has reached a zenith. In response to the world’s justifiable fears, S.H.I.E.L.D. has expanded its presence to enhance the security of Earth.

Pluralism is the defining feature of music at the end of the 20th century – from the minimalist film music of Michael Nyman to the lush sounds of Toru Takemitsu to the spectralist works that explored sound itself, writes Gillian Moore

"We live in a time not of mainstream but of many streams," John Cage mused as he surveyed the musical scene shortly before his death in 1992, "or even, if you insist upon a river of time, then we have come to the delta, maybe even beyond a delta to an ocean which is going back to the skies … "

The 12th and final episode of The Rest Is Noise festival is called New World Order. It may still be too early to have the historical distance to tell what really mattered in classical music at the end of the 20th century. What is clear, however, is that in the closing decades...

Tom Jones has, thankfully, never faded away since his sexy, swinging success of the ‘60s, and every decade or so, he has a resurgence. In 1989, hipsters embraced Jones through his kicky remake of Prince’s “Kiss” with The Art of Noise. Then in 1999, he scored a dance hit with “Sexbomb.” This latest wave, though somewhat lower profile, started in 2008 with “24 Hours,” his first album of all new material in the U.S. in 15 years. He covered such wildly divergent material as Bruce Springsteen’s “The Hitter,” and “Sugar Daddy” (written by Bono and The Edge), as well as performed...

When American director and documentary filmmaker Godfrey Reggio created the experimental film "Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance" in 1982, he said it was open for interpretation. 30 years later and visual artist Wyatt Hodgson did just that, compressing the original 82 minutes into a mere five by speeding the movie up by 1552 percent.

The original film is a collage of video footage shot between 1975 and 1982, set to a score composed by Philip Glass, with no dialogue or verbal narration. Koyaanisqatsi, meaning "unbalanced life," comes from the language of the Hopi, an indigenous Native American tribe. This theme of incongruity can be seen through the both the original and remake of the film in the contrasting clips; from sweeping shots of canyons to congested highways to the launch of space shuttles.

This battle between nature and technology is evident, though Reggio refused to make an official statement on the message of the film.

"The film's role is to provoke,...

By Zachary Swickey

Today marks the 53rd birthday of the greatest person in the history of the universe: Prince.

As a performer, producer, musician and songwriter, he's simply the best in the business (and he's apparently quite the baller, too). And though he's been making music for five decades now, he's still on top of his game: he just wrapped the massively-successful "Welcome 2 America" tour, and last year's 20Ten proved that he's still more than capable of penning a hot jam or ten.

And while Prince has gone on record as hating cover versions of his songs, there are plenty of artists who have done versions of his hits ... and, surprise, surprise, they all rule, too. So, in celebration of his big day, here are ten of best covers we could dig up.

"Nothing Compares 2 U," as performed by Sinead O’Connor

While not exactly a Prince cover (he wrote the song for the Family,...

'It's a storming collection of high-concept pop brilliance,' says one critic of Mother Monster's brand-new album.

By James Dinh

Lady Gaga

Photo: Dave J. Hogan/ Getty Images

Little Monsters, the wait is over! After almost a year since Lady Gaga first dished out details about the project, her Born This Way album has finally arrived.

With endorsement deals from Starbucks, Google and Zynga's "FarmVille," Gaga and her team have crafted an over-the-top marketing plan to make sure everyone under the sun knows that the LP has hit stores. As one of the year's most anticipated releases, Born This Way is expected to debut with high sales ranging from 450,000 to 750,000 copies, according to Billboard estimates.

Much like her costumes, performances and everything else that is Lady Gaga, critics have noted (and mostly praised) the immensity of Born This Way, while name-dropping Madonna every other review. For a deeper look at...

If you live in the NYC area and are fiending to see some amazing Italian zombie films, you are in luck! From July 15th-29th, the Museum of Arts & Design is kick-starting its regular programming with an almost all Italian zombie film line-up that prominently features the films of Lucio Fulci and Lamberto Bava!

Saturday, July 24th's screening will be of Lamberto Bava's 1987 sequel to Demons, Demons 2, featuring an appearance from star Coralina Cataldi-Tassoni, who will also be on hand for a Q&A.

A Bit of Background on Demons 2

Written by Dario Argento and director Lamberto Bava, Demons 2 shifted tone from its predecessor in style, but not in gore. Moving away from punk and heavy metal music, Demons 2 showcased a new score comprised of British New Wave and post-punk bands including The Smiths, The Cult, Dead Can Dance and Art of Noise. Demons 2...