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Shade Rupe reminds me a lot of Chas. Balun and I don’t make that comparison lightly. Balun was the notorious film critic and author who worked for Fangoria and Gorezone. He had a no-bullshit, rock and roll kind of style to his writing. While every other critic was star-fucking a film, Balun called out highs and lows regardless of who was involved. Rupe has those same sensibilities when it comes to his interview techniques which are in full display in his new book DARK STARS RISING: CONVERSATIONS FROM THE OUTER REALMS.

Through a collection of 27 interviews that spans over 25 years, Rupe talks with grindhouse icons like Tura Satana, Divine, William Lustig, and Alejandro Jodorowsky as well as many others that like to stay in the dark corners of cinema including the aforementioned Chas. Balun waxes poetic about the rush horror films used to have; How Karloff’s hand moving in FRANKENSTEIN is more of a thrill than Jason’s machete. He also tells a story about the stupidity of Charlie Sheen and how he got Balun wrapped up with the FBI over what Sheen erroneously suspected to be a snuff film.

Rupe is never boxed in, he is never restrained in his questions, he just walks along the sticky floors of the dark theatres with his subjects as they tell their tales of the lost and found, highs and lows of exploitation cinema. DARK STARS RISING is a six-gun shooter of a book. This is just as much a love letter to films as it is a collection of interviews. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Shade knows the score. In addition to the interviews there is a collection of reviews that Rupe wrote for magazines like Scream. Are you going to be able to turn on the next popular gasbag of a film after hitting this classic? Probably not, but odds are if you’re reading this you’re sick fucker just like me. Come on… you know you want in.

DARK STARS RISING: CONVERSATIONS FROM THE OUTER REALMS features interviews with:

1. Richard Kern
2. Alejandro Jodorowksy
3. Buddy Giovinazzo
4. Udo Kier
5. Jim VanBebber
6. Dennis Paoli
7. Tura Satana
8. Teller
9. Brother Theodore
10. Peter Sotos
11. Johannes Schonherr
12. Chas. Balun
13. Divine
14. Floria Sigismondi
15. Hermann Nitsch
16. Genesis P-Orridge
17. William Lustig
18. Dennis Cooper
19. Gaspar Noe
20. Johanna Went
21. Zamora, The Torture King
22. Andre Lassen
23. Arnold Drake
24. Richard Stanley
25. Dame Darcy
26. Stephen O’Malley
27. Crispin Glover

VERDICT: Buy it!

SEE YOU ON FORTY DEUCE,

G

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Jon Abrams

Editor-In-Chief at Daily Grindhouse

Jon Abrams is a New York-based writer, cartoonist, and committed cinemaniac whose complete work and credits can be found at his site, Demon’s Resume. You can contact him on Twitter as @JonZilla___.