JUNE’S EROTIC THRILLS IN THE NIGHT: TWO MOON JUNCTION (1988).
Posted on June 26, 2024 Leave a Comment
*The following submission is a previous TNUC article that has been restored and revamped*
Not many people know this, but back during the summer of ’87 Uncle TNUC toured the countryside working for one of the sleaziest carnivals on the market. He spent three months building amusement rides (shirtless) and trying to impress small town local babes (fully oiled up). Being on the road all summer as a rough-hewn, muscle-bound carnival worker might not sound all that glamorous but the job did have its perks. Every so often a bored, rich and lonely debutante would wander through the carnival and Uncle T was more than happy to lend a helping hand in the “desires department”. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta’ do it.
The once in a lifetime job ended abruptly when a lawsuit brought the carnival down, claiming that our cotton candy machines were lined with cocaine residue and some fat kid got squeezed to death on the tilt-a-whirl.
Anyone who’s seen TWO MOON JUNCTION can imagine that when the film came out in 1988, naturally Uncle T thought someone bad based the plot on his life. This angered him for a short while until he heard who was starring in the movie. The female and male roles were played by Sherilyn Fenn (The Wraith, Twin Peaks) and one of our favorite crude dudes roaming the free earth, Richard Tyson (‘Crisp’ from Kindergarten Cop and ‘Buddy Revel’ from Three O’Clock High)!!!
The film centers around a beautiful “southern belle” named April who’s about to marry one of those preppy, privileged, boring nerds that wears nothing but white clothing and wants to “do right” by his mommy and daddy. However stirring within April is a raging sexual desire that erupts when she strolls into the carnival one afternoon and locks eyes with one seductive-ass carny. Welcome to our Erotic Thrills In The Night for the month of June, Two Moon Junction!
ENTER PERRY. Perry is a traveling nomad that has it all. The looks, the attitude, the hair, the jeans, the no underpants, the motorcycle, the dog, the big rig…you name it. April is apprehensive when she meets Perry because of his wild lifestyle but it doesn’t take long for her to fall victim to his insatiable carny-lust. The two embark on a journey of steamy desire for the ages.
Instead of continuing with a play by play synopsis of the film, let’s shine a spotlight on some of our favorite things about Two Moon Junction in true TNUC fashion…
#1 THE PASSION!
Two Moon Junction is rich with sex scenes. Not just sex scenes, but montages of gripping passion and animal attraction that feature both female and male nudity. It was no surprise to find out that Zalman King directed the movie, who is most famous for directing the long-running television series Red Shoe Diaries. If you’re of similar age as I am, Red Shoe Diaries was a pivotal boner program of our youth, to put it bluntly.
Two Moon Junction features some visually bizarre scenes and dialogue that doesn’t really gel with what’s actually happening on screen. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for a movie of this nature and actually makes sense when you find out it’s the same director as Red Shoe Diaries.
#2 CARNY SYLES!
This movie is sometimes like peering straight into Uncle T’s closet and Perry is a chip off the old block. The open trench-coat with no shirt underneath look is classic late-evening carny sleaze. Dusty trench-coats are magnets for ladies who like to roam the carnival looking for hot action.
Perry dresses in an effortless manner similar to Bodhi from Point Break or Casey Jones from TMNT: The Movie. It’s a savage nomad approach that meets at the crossroads of filthy and cultured. Take for example the above scene where he’s playing pool at a local billiard bar, distracted by the two girls on the dance floor. In this example he’s looking almost scholarly in his circular eyeglasses and white shirt buttoned to the neck.
#3 AWESOME FREAKS!
This is a bizarre movie and it’s cast of characters are a pure reflection of that. Throughout the film we’re introduced to a colorful array of freaks, geeks and weirdos. The above scene involves a high-stakes poker game with the carnival’s freakshow group. The story gets a little bleak here but apparently the little guy is a greedy bastard who Perry is not happy with. Yes, that actor is Hervé Villechaize, the famous dwarf who played ‘Tattoo’ on the television series Fantasy Island!
Let’s not dismiss a few great boneheads from the movie as well. The guy on the right who looks like a fat Paul Stanley I know i’ve seen somewhere! If anyone recognizes him, please speak up.
#4 GRIM REAPER T-SHIRT!
When this showed up on screen I spilled my ice cold ZIMA and sent a bowl of Keebler Magic Middles launching across the living room. Grim Reaper are one of my favorite heavy metal bands and songs like like ‘Rock Me Till I Die’, ‘Night of the Vampire’, ‘Rock You to Hell’ and ‘Lust for Freedom’ are mainstays of the TNUC playlist. Then it got me thinking…why am I making a mental connection between Grim Reaper and carnivals?…
Because Grim Reaper are probably the #1 band to show up on those carnival mirror prizes! What the hell are carnival mirror prizes? Those square pieces of mirrored glass containing images of album covers, cartoon characters or beer companies. Grim Reaper weren’t a very successful band and never had a hit, but for whatever reason they CONSTANTLY show up on carnival mirror prizes. Go ahead, do an eBay search right now!
#5 CARNIVAL MOVIE TYPECASTING!
Allow me to explain. One of April’s friends in the film is the girl in the middle, played by actress Kerry Remsen. When she appeared in the movie, I immediately recognized her as ‘Nicole’ from the horror creature feature, Ghoulies 2.
Both Two Moon Junction and Ghoulies 2 were released in 1988. Both movies take place at carnivals. This actress just happened to star in two bizarro films in the same year taking place at carnivals? Or was she typecast into roles revolving around amusement parks and weirdos? Ponder on that one.
♥ ♥ ♥
Thanks for reading TNUC’s thoughts on this tantalizing tale of carny seduction. We strongly urge you to seek out the film and give it a proper 2:00 am viewing. It’s best to watch these types of movies in the middle of the night.
‘Erotic Thrills In The Night’ is a monthly chronicle into the forgotten world of the erotic thriller movie genre. These sultry titles and steamy VHS covers were at their absolute peak during the early 1990’s but as years progress, they fall deeper into the abyss. Inspired by the recent documentary We Kill For Love, this monthly feature will attempt to resurrect these films and keep you on the brink of seduction. We can’t predict what indecent behavior will be committed or how much illicit, unprotected, promiscuous activity will ensue, but prepare for a wild ride with lots of saxophone.
URGING SUMMER.
Posted on June 4, 2024 2 Comments
Living in the oversaturated media world of today, it can get exhausting trying to navigate through the onslaught of “content” (horrible word) to try and find the real quality, especially when it comes to music. What is meant to be convenience at your fingertips can actually feel pretty daunting — unless you have an avenue to venture down.
Music journalist, DJ and producer Andi Harriman is an expert in post-punk, industrial, goth, Italo disco and soundtrack bliss from our favorite decade. Much like Uncle T, she sifts through the clutter to find the diamonds, gems, pearls and sweet nectar. When Andi isn’t spinning Italo rhythms of the night at New York based dance nights like Synthicide or Italomatic, she is crafting exquisitely executed mixes like the one featured below.
Andi and friend Violet Sky open the floodgates and urge summer to arrive with two hours of 1980s soundtrack glory and high energy dancefloor pulsations.
Audio version above…video version below. ENJOY THIS.
MAY’S EROTIC THRILLS IN THE NIGHT: POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT (1994)
Posted on May 30, 2024 1 Comment
If you solely base this movie by the poster and title, it checks every box in the genre and you can pretty much predict what you’re about to watch. The title is a throw-anything-at-the-wall word scramble that resembles every other film of the genre. “Possessed”, “heat”, “passion”, “elicit”, “indecent”, “fatal”, “seduction” and “mortal” are just some of the keywords in the erotica explosion universe. Plus, of utmost paramount is that buxom name at the top: SHANNON TWEED. The empress of erotica has been featured in our Erotic Thrills In The Night chronicles before and I guarantee she will keep showing up over and over because to date she’s starred in 7,000 erotic thrillers. As for today, our focus is 1994’s POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT for the month of May!
With all that said, you shouldn’t judge a horny thriller by its cover because Possessed By The Night is the sensitive story of a one-eyed mutant embryo in a jar that controls people by awakening their sexual instincts. Fear not though — there are still plenty of softcore scenes featuring an ever-so tantalizing Tweed, just with the inclusion of a living blob this time around. Here’s a quick synopsis:
Howard Hansen (Ted Prior) is a famous novelist who is struggling with his latest book. For inspiration, he brings home a bizarre artifact which strangely draws his inner most thoughts and desires to the surface. But while his writing improves, his behavior takes a menacing turn, exposing a dark side never known, not even to his wife (Sandahl Bergman)…until that night’s lovemaking turns into a terrifying struggle for sexual dominance (enter Shannon Tweed).
The loving husband and wife pictured above have no idea what’s about to be in store after Howard brings home this gelatinous monstrosity from an antique store which soon turns him into a sexual demon. Pretty soon, his book agent sends over a secretary named Carol (Tweed) to help Howard get organized. She immediately moves into the couple’s home and you can probably guess what happens next.
The presence of the creature seems to make people extremely horny and a bit unhinged. During these moments the blob is sort of watching from its jar while people get it on.
This is the sort of flick you would have caught at a friend’s sleepover party at 2am while everyone is sleeping but you’re wide awake after bingeing on Domino’s pizza and Funyuns. While channel surfing through the cable box in your buddy’s parents living room, it’s nothing but the weather channel, infomercials, Ricki Lake and reruns of Gilligan’s Island. All of a sudden a movie appears by the name of Possessed By The Night. You start watching and for the next 80 minutes, you are half-asleep yet completely consumed by this absurdity and it’s the best thing at that exact moment. After that night, in the pre-internet age, you spent the next 25 years wondering what whackjob movie you watched that evening.
‘Erotic Thrills In The Night’ is a monthly chronicle into the forgotten world of the erotic thriller movie genre. These sultry titles and steamy VHS covers were at their absolute peak during the early 1990’s but as years progress, they fall deeper into the abyss. Inspired by the recent documentary We Kill For Love, this monthly feature will attempt to resurrect these films and keep you on the brink of seduction. We can’t predict what indecent behavior will be committed or how much illicit, unprotected, promiscuous activity will ensue, but prepare for a wild ride with lots of saxophone.
IN THE BLUE HOUR.
Posted on May 14, 2024 Leave a Comment
Pronto…
Psyche-rockers Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats have remained one of the most interesting and mysterious projects to come out of the rock/metal scene in quite some time. Their music is consumed like a creeping spider making its way through their contemporaries of today, leaving many of them tangled behind in a forgotten, meaningless web. Meaning that, Uncle Acid do not give a fuck about playing to what people expect out of them, nor do they fold to any trends or algorithms that control the music scenes. We all know the copycats are just as rampant in the underground as much as the mainstream.
Just when you think the band has carved a perfect path in the ’70s biker metal, Sabbath-worshipping realm, these creeps return with vengeance after six years, dropping a new masterpiece titled “Nell’ Ora Blu”, which sounds like nothing anyone has heard before. I’ve sung their praises with every album but I don’t think it’s too early to confirm this latest one is their crowning achievement.
The record pays direct homage to Italian giallo slashers and and the Poliziotteschi crime/action films of the 60s and 70s. Now if that was just it, and they continued on their path of psychedelic-doom metal with a loose story to piece the album together, most fans including myself would probably be fine with that. However, they’ve done so much more. For the first time the band develops a full fledged, conceptual story from start to finish, complete with painstaking details like time period instrumentation, heavy dosages of atmosphere, synthesizers galore and dialogue from classic Italian actors such as Franco Nero and Edwige Fenech. The story is set in 1970s Italy and these tracks flow seamlessly with creepy grace from one track to the next.
Each of Uncle Acid’s previous albums are brilliant concepts in their own right, whether it was hunting witches in 1600s in Blood Lust (2011), joining a hippie-death-cult in Mind Control (2013), stalking London’s murderous streets in The Night Creeper (2015) or a post-apocalyptic dystopia in Wasteland (2018) — but I firmly believe Nell’ Ora Blu is the album they’ve wanted to make all along.
The result is the sort of thing that makes the hairs on my arm stand up. The level of creativity and precise authenticity is downright stunning. You can hear how much work Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats poured into this project. It’s a greatness that we aren’t lucky enough to hear very often.
These songs and instrumentals are beyond a “soundtrack to a non-existent movie” which we’ve seen many artists do in the past and sometimes feels like novelty. Nell’ Ora Blu is a meticulously executed audio story of terror — or an imaginary movie. The band has done a remarkable job drifting the listener away to a grainy old film by use of synths, guitars, horns, organs, harmonious “oohs” and “ahhs” and dramatic Italian conversation that tells the story of a group of vigilantes who plan on murdering a corrupt city official named Giovanni Scarano. Uncle Acid himself recently stated “It’s a tribute to 70s Italian cinema. It’s a story about people who decide to take the law into their own hands. Things get pretty dark straight away and of course, it doesn’t end well for anyone.”
While I don’t speak Italian, there is an official synopsis in English that you can follow along with which was written by Uncle Acid himself. It’s a fun way to hear the album and I highly recommend doing this.
The surprises around every dark corner of this album are masterful. Audio candy like footsteps, rotary phones ringing and the sharpening of knives add brilliantly to the atmosphere. The influence of 1970s Italian horror soundtrack legends Goblin and Fabio Frizzi is clearly present but it’s when the album takes a detour into Spaghetti western territory, or suddenly a jazzy-noir passage rolls in, which completely transports you inside the cinephile mind of Uncle Acid. I can practically see myself roaming the 5:00 a.m. blue hour-soaked streets of the city.
Even though Uncle T has been a fan of Uncle A since the 2011 debut album and have seen the band a number of times live, there’s a million reasons why I feel Nell’ Ora Blu is the band reaching an all-time peak in terms of writing and creativeness.
As much as I cherish the band, I’ve always had this thought where I feel they are at their best when at their weirdest. The best was yet to come…and it’s here at last. This is also an album you need to sit back and consume in one big listening experience. For the short attention span, Spotify skip-skip-skip generation of music fans, this will be too much to take. Think of this album as a Quentin Tarantino movie in terms of the length and the obsessive attention to the love of the genre. It’s a journey. Uncle Acid has clearly done his homework and the man is a true cinephile. He is probably just as much a musician as he is a filmmaker, perhaps just a craft he has yet to hone in on yet.
Nell’ Ora Blu is out on May 10, 2024 on Rise Above. Order here!
APRIL’S EROTIC THRILLS IN THE NIGHT: THIEF OF HEARTS (1984).
Posted on April 17, 2024 Leave a Comment
They say “April showers bring TNUC powers” and in today’s case that couldn’t be more true, as we present our Erotic Thrills In The Night for the month of April: the slice of erotica known as THIEF OF HEARTS.
In Thief of Hearts, vicarious indulgence through the fulfillment of one’s fantasies is given a new twist.
If you met Ray and Mickey Davis, you’d swear they had a perfect marriage. But if you read Mickey’s diary, you’d know that unrest is lurking just beneath the surface. Enter Scott Muller, a smalltime burglar who robs the Davis home – making off with assorted valuables and Mickey’s diary.
Muller becomes obsessed with Mickey. He plots to seduce her and play out her most secret fantasies. Mickey is an easy target for Muller’s advances and soon the Davis’s perfect marriage and perfect world is turned upside down.
Hot on the hells of playing Tony Montana’s right hand man as the beloved character Manny in 1983’s Scarface, Steven Bauer gets his big leading role as Scott, a curious crook who one day ends up with the diary of a woman from one of the houses he robs. The diary is filled with fantasies and desires from an unsatisfied housewife who Scott becomes obsessed with and begins popping up wherever she is, saying just the right thing to lure her in.
Sounds like a promising story, doesn’t it? Well…this movie stinks with a capital S. I’ve been watching a lot of questionable erotic thrillers as of late — but this one is especially bad because it has all the makings of a solid, big-feel thriller…but fails to deliver. I kept wondering who are we supposed to be rooting for? Scott is a brood with zero charm, the wife is a boring dud, her husband is a clueless dweeb and the character “Buddy” is played by David Caruso, one of the worst gingers in all of Hollywood. Once again, Caruso shows up in a film role trying to do the hardcore “cool guy” act and once again, he’s the worst. There are no likeable characters in this film.
Now for some good news. It’s time to discuss the one redeeming quality with Thief of Hearts: the soundtrack. This soundtrack has absolutely NO BUSINESS BEING THIS GOOD. Take a glimpse at the track-listing of artists and that will tell you everything you need to know. All the heavy hitters show up on this one. Giorgio Moroder, Harold Faltermeyer, E.G. Daily, Melissa Manchester, Joe Esposito and more.
The film was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson, who had a huge hit the previous year with Flashdance at the box office and also on the charts with its smash theme song by Irene Cara. They once again turned to Giorgio Moroder, hoping to recreate that success after Mr. Moroder also composed the score to Flashdance. Moroder ended up composing the main theme but the score would be written by his longtime collaborator Harold Faltermeyer, one of the biggest synth slayers in pulsating, electronic movie scores (Top Gun, The Running Man, Beverly Hills Cop, Tango & Cash).
I can’t think of another instance when a soundtrack is leaps and bounds superior to the actual movie. All this music does is bring me back to my dark alley nights driving around through streets of LA in my ’84 Buick Grand National after my third divorce. Let’s just say I picked up my fair share of leather mistresses as we drove around all night, listening to the new Thief of Hearts soundtrack on cassette.
Don’t just sit there like a lump. Get off your ass and grab Thief of Hearts on compact disc, vinyl or digital if you like convenience. Soundtracks will never be this good again.
‘Erotic Thrills In The Night’ is a monthly chronicle into the forgotten world of the erotic thriller movie genre. These sultry titles and steamy VHS covers were at their absolute peak during the early 1990’s but as years progress, they fall deeper into the abyss. Inspired by the recent documentary We Kill For Love, this monthly feature will attempt to resurrect these films and keep you on the brink of seduction. We can’t predict what indecent behavior will be committed or how much illicit, unprotected, promiscuous activity will ensue, but prepare for a wild ride with lots of saxophone.
THE BEER BELL.
Posted on April 9, 2024 2 Comments
What your witnessing here today is no dream. It’s absolutely real and it’s definitely happening. A beer glass…a dumbbell…a BEER BELL.
Here we have, sent down from the heavens, a weightlifting/alcohol-consuming device that is simply the key to all greatness. A beer glass firmly sealed to the top of a 1 1/4 lbs dumbbell, crucial for your rigorous, exercise-while boozing workout sessions.
In the event that your brain has a little room left to handle one more explosion, the final whiplash is that it’s a ROAD HOUSE beer bell. I seriously had to pinch myself in the nads’ a couple times when I first discovered this.
Wherever the The Double Deuce is located in heaven, this has to be what Wade Garrett is drinking his twenty-seventh Coors banquet out of at this very moment (garnished with drops of Jimmy’s blood). Not only Wade, but every forty-year old adolescent, felon, power drinker and trustee of modern chemistry. All are fully equipped with Road House beer bells.
With every drunken raise of the beer bell, you get a free small arm workout. Couldn’t ask for anything more. Well, maybe Dr. Elisabeth Clay shaking her 1989 long-butt in that tablecloth skirt would be one additional bonus, but other than that, the beer bell…excuse me, the ROAD HOUSE BEER BELL – is the holy grail of everything and beyond.
But wait. What would this prized possession be without an instructional book on how to “exercise while you drink”? The booklet features helpful tips and techniques such as the two-handed arm curl, the toast, the lover’s chug, the killer chest fly and even a progress chart to keep track of your workouts.
Wacky promotional items like these are what keep me going in this crazy world. Who knows what we’ll discover next!
uncletnuc.com 