IFC Center pays tribute to Larry Fessenden and Glass Eye Pix in celebratory series
OPTIC NERVE: A TRIBUTE TO GLASS EYE PIX
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at West Third St.
October 28 – November 3
ifccenter.com
“In my films quite often, paranoia usually leads to the truth so it is kind of a psychological state of mind to think that what you fear may come true, and those are the types of stories that I like to tell,” New York City native Larry Fessenden said about his career, which includes nine shorts and thirteen features as writer and/or director and producer going back to 1978. On the occasion of the November 4 release of his latest film, Trauma or, Monsters All, and the fortieth anniversary of his company, Glass Eye Pix, IFC Center is celebrating with a seven-film tribute running October 28 through November 3.
It kicks off with his breakthrough, the 1995 cult classic Habit, about which he says in a program note, “My main contribution to the horror genre was to tell a very personal story about addiction and obsession in New York City with an affectionate nod to vampire tropes and mood. . . . Steeped in ambiguity, it seems to resonate with anyone who has ever suffered a breakup or felt overwhelmed by existential loneliness, which is to say, most everyone and most every cinephile.” The 8:45 screening on October 28 will be followed by a Q&A with Fessenden and writer and curator Justin LaLiberty.
The series continues with 2010’s Stake Land (“An epic, heartfelt postapocalyptic film made over the course of four months to capture different seasons.”), 2011’s The Innkeepers (“I’ve been told it’s Scorsese’s favorite Ti West Film.”), 2008’s I Sell the Dead (“Glenn McQuaid’s movie started out as a low budget period romp but expanded as Glass Eye Pix producer Peter Phok ambitiously attached actors like Dom Monaghan.”), 2006’s The Last Winter (“This was conceived as a sequel of sorts to my family drama Wendigo, expanding the themes of cultural cannibalism to themes of Manifest Destiny and climate collapse.”), 2019’s Depraved (“A low budget retelling of Mary Shelley’s masterpiece steeped in the national PTSD of the Iraq war and pharmaceutical overreach.”), and 2023’s Blackout (“An apt time for the budget to shrink further, I tell the story of a town divided by racism and a corrupt patriarch to update the werewolf movie.”).
Below is a closer look at two of his haunting films.
Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden) and Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan) get involved in some dastardly doings in I Sell the Dead
I SELL THE DEAD (Glenn McQuaid, 2009)
IFC Center
Saturday, October 31, 1:00 & 9:30
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Glenn McQuaid’s I Sell the Dead is an old-fashioned fun horror movie, paying homage to the Hammer films of yore. After his grave-robbing partner, Willie Grimes (Larry Fessenden), is guillotined, Arthur Blake (Dominic Monaghan) awaits his turn. With five hours to go before his execution, Blake is visited by Father Francis Duffy (Ron Perlman), who wants to know all the details of Grimes and Blake’s business, especially as it relates to harvesting the undead. So with a bottle of whiskey by his side, Blake recounts the pair’s eerie adventures through foggy eighteenth-century England and their battles with the House of Murphy, a rival outfit that also gathers corpses for a living.
Writer-director-editor McQuaid imbues the film with a graphic-novel feel, with many scenes ending in colorful freeze-frame panels; although I Sell the Dead is an original story (based on his own short), the director did adapt the script into a comic book before shooting in order to capture the mood and visual style he was after. And cinematographer Rick Lopez, production designer David Bell, and art director Beck Underwood nail that atmosphere, along with Jeff Grace’s ambitious score. The cast also includes Phantasm Tall Man Angus Scrimm as a creepy violin-playing doctor in desperate need of body parts, Brenda Cooney as Blake’s boisterous girlfriend, and Joel Garland as a burly tavern owner after his own piece of the action. The film was shot in Staten Island, Long Island, and Manhattan; if the Fortune of War bar looks familiar, that’s because it’s actually the Scratcher in the East Village.
The Last Winter is an all-too-real global warming horror story” width=”640″ height=”360″ class=”size-full wp-image-48145″ /> The Last Winter is an all-too-real global warming horror storyTHE LAST WINTER (Larry Fessenden, 2006)
IFC Center
Sunday, November 1, 1:00 & 7:30
ifccenter.com
In Alaska, a company called North is preparing to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, with the permission of the U.S. government. North has sent along environmentalist James Hoffman (James LeGros) and his assistant, Elliot Taylor (Jamie Harrold), to ensure that the team, led by the imposing Ed Pollack (Ron Perlman), follows all proper guidelines and agreements. But when strange things start happening — including weird visions, odd disappearances, and brutal deaths — Pollack is determined to move forward, no matter the cost. Written and directed by Larry Fessenden, who also makes a cameo in the film, The Last Winter is a scary look at an all-too-possible future, a global-warming horror story in the tradition of John Carpenter’s The Thing, where the small cast of characters never knows just what is waiting for them around every corner — and out on the treacherous, blindingly white landscape that surrounds and engulfs them.
The film also stars Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) as Abby Sellers, a strong-minded woman who has left Pollack for Hoffman; indie stalwart Kevin Corrigan (Walking and Talking) as vehicle expert Motor; Zach Gilford (Friday Night Lights) as young and innocent Maxwell McKinder; Grammy-winning composer and musician Joanne Shenandoah (Skywoman) as Dawn Russell, who prepares the meals and cleans up after everyone; and Pato Hoffmann (Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman) as Lee Means, a Native American who has a deep understanding of the land and the spirits.
[Mark Rifkin is a Brooklyn-born, Manhattan-based writer; you can follow him on Substack here.]