Ahh, the double feature. There’s nothing quite like pairing up a couple horror movies for a sleazy horror marathon. The first double feature I can remember seeing was at the Warsaw Drive-In when I was probably 4-years old. For some unknown reason my parents thought it’d be a good idea to pack me and my older brother up in the back of the Oldsmobile, load up some beer and sodas in the cooler, and take us to the Drive-In to see The Food Of The Gods paired with The Town That Dreaded Sundown. I don’t remember much of The Town That Dreaded Sundown, but The Food of the Gods scarred my still ripe and developing pre-K brain. Something about giant animals and worms eating people scared me. Weird.
My guess is that I don’t remember much of The Town That Dreaded Sundown because we left before it started. I could be wrong. Either way, despite it giving me nightmares for a week, that really bad schlocky horror film(yes, it was awful in case you haven’t seen it) planted the horror seed in my brain. I became a horror lifer, and have a special place in my cold, black heart for the horror double feature.
I’m guessing that master imagined horror score wizard Repeated Viewing feels similarly. Alan Sinclair has been putting out spot-on imagined film scores for quite some time now. In my opinion, he’s one of the absolute best at it. His scores lock into the times and the vibes as if they were found in some horror vault, locked away for decades from hungry horror eyes and ears. And his absolute attention to details are spot-on; from the gloriously seedy synth sounds to the woozy production and even the wonderfully perverse storylines that the music is scoring. Frozen Existence, Street Force, The Beach House, Murdercoaster, The Family, and Nature’s Revenge are just a few of his sleazy, ghoulish masterpieces.
For his latest release with the wonderfully macabre UK label Spun Out Of Control, Sinclair is giving Repeated Viewing the double feature treatment. Strip Their Flesh + The Artefact is the exploitative musical double feature the world needs. Two imagined scores that put you in the worlds of these grindhouse cinematic worlds. All the sleaze, all the gore, and all the sweat-drenched vibes a person needs to get lost in what sounds and feels like some late night binge in the hazy glow of a CRT TV.
Strip Their Flesh:
(Enzo Morelli, Italy, 1980). An exhibition deep into the South American jungle turns into a nightmarish battle for survival. Experience a thrilling orgy of hallucinogens and bizarre creatures before witnessing the brutal, ritualistic murder of the unsuspecting explorers. Hunt them… Bind them… STRIP THEIR FLESH.
All the drama and the horror of those classic Italian horror flicks that were deemed too graphic to see until you’re at least 18 and could buy a pack of smokes at the local Gas n Go. If you’re familiar with cats like Fulci, Deodato, and Argento then this one is going to make you feel right at home…if that home is drenched in blood and viscera. Beautifully curated sounds of vintage synths, organs, and early electronic drums build an aural narrative that puts the listener in those jungles of South America, hoping you don’t become the main course for the terror that hides just beyond trail. “Strip Their Flesh” oozes Michael Mann meets Lucio Fulci vibes. 80s sleaze at it’s finest.
The Artefact:
(Burt Flagstaff, UK, 1985). The discovery of an ancient text and mysterious machinery in the cellars of Langsdown Museum sparks a series of unexplained deaths. An archaeologist and his young assistant race to solve the puzzle of the artefact and stop its bloody reign of terror. TRUE EVIL NEVER DIES.
Sci-Fi meets the supernatural with this heady, woozy slice of 80s synth sleaze. Touches of The Keep and Lamberto Bava’s Demons comes through in these sonic slices of tension. Anxiety and panic coalesce with moments of gauzy solitude. Repeated Viewing mixing hard-driving rhythms with moments of temporary calm to give us an aural hit straight to the solar plexus. “Destroy The Machine” rides on an almost industrial drum sound, while “Enlightenment” floats along on ethereal synth sounds.
Strip Their Flesh + The Artefact is the sonic fix for anyone aching for that sleazy double feature score fix. Maestro Repeated Viewing gives us a double feature nostalgia drip of the highest order. Put on the headphones, hit play, and get lost in this masterclass of horror score sounds.
Grab a copy on cassette or digital over at Spun Out Of Control.
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