Channel 99 — Channel 99(VOD/DVD)
From last year Channel 99 is a horror/sci-fi anthology movie by distinctive, quirky, at times brain-scrambling low budget filmmaker Joe Sherlock. It’s his homage to watching movies on local TV in the ’80s, with a blend of tales featuring Haunted/ cursed DVD’s, big eating Werewolves, bizarro mayonnaise edged low-key alien invasions, seemingly friendly-though life-sucking neighbours, & unexpected live streaming- all warped in a campy fake cable channel warp around.
Oregon based Joe Sherlock has been creating films since the mid-1990s- with titles like Monster In The Garage (1997), Lust Of The Vampire Hookers (1999), Blood Creek Woodsman (2013), and Beyond Of The Wall Of Fear (2016). I first came aware of Joe’s work last year- with my first check out being 2015’s Odd Noggins, been very much charmed by its B grade movie-obsessive meets David Lynch and Russ Meyer vibe. As far as I can make out Channel 99 is Mr Sherlock’s eighth film, and it appeared last year- as either a DVD, or VOD- direct from Joe's site here.
In all the film features eleven separate stories/ bizarre trailers- with runtimes between a few minutes to around sixteen, which may sound like a lot for a just over one hour thirty feature, but it all largely flows well and evenly together. And you get everything you want/ expect from a Sherlock film- charmingly wacky takes on horror/ sci-fi tropes with larger (often tattooed) ladies, with rubbery effects, self-referential quips, lots of showering, recurring jokes, and a generally campy, creepy, at times decidedly fleshy tribute to B movie genre craft.
I’d say I pretty much enjoyed the whole thing, which is fairly rare for an anthology film- but I think it’s down to the way Sherlock mixes in throwbacks to other stories/ his own films, and the way he knows when/where to cut stories- not spinning them on beyond what’s needed. A few of my standout moments come in the form of Scratch- which sees a series of murders being carried out by a large dog-like creature in a suburban neighbourhood. A Day in The Park- which finds two female friends getting more than they bargain for when they go out for a walk near a secret lab. And my favourite is Pickman’s Model, which features Sherlock himself playing a decidedly odd artist who has something in his basement.
As with all Sherlock films, the cast is largely made up of his repertory of actors/ friends- so if you’ve already seen one or two of his films you recognise more than a few faces here. The acting for the most part is severable to good, though worth a special mention here is Stephanie Marie- who plays a few roles here, looks fairly different in each, and is very good in each part she takes.
In finishing I found Channel 99 another highly entertaining and wacky trip into horror & sci-fi from Mr Sherlock. I guess his films are somewhat of an acquired taste, but with each one, I’ve seen the more I enjoy his distinctive and loving take on genre filmmaking.