Welcome to Fly Creek, Georgia. You’re more likely to come across a mass of screaming (!), electrified, and hungry earthworms than you are any flies. At least that’s the case with Squirm (1976), Jeff Lieberman’s feature film debut that will have you lamenting the depressive state of small town life, all while cheering for the worms to wipe out the less than desirables from the sleepy burg.
Released at the end of July stateside, Squirm received some decent reviews and did well enough at the box office, but the lost acclaim for Lieberman’s work starts here. His films were always noticed by critics, but rarely connected with mainstream audiences. To be fair, Squirm has a low key charm that doesn’t announce itself, but rather works (notice I didn’t say ‘worms’) its way through the narrative, giving it an insidious, grubby vibe. If you put enough of anything together,...
Released at the end of July stateside, Squirm received some decent reviews and did well enough at the box office, but the lost acclaim for Lieberman’s work starts here. His films were always noticed by critics, but rarely connected with mainstream audiences. To be fair, Squirm has a low key charm that doesn’t announce itself, but rather works (notice I didn’t say ‘worms’) its way through the narrative, giving it an insidious, grubby vibe. If you put enough of anything together,...
- 7/17/2021
- by Scott Drebit
- DailyDead
Stars: Don Scardino, Patricia Pearcy, R.A. Dow, Jean Sullivan, Peter MacLean, Fran Higgins | Written and Directed by Jeff Lieberman
The 70s was, shall we say, an “interesting” time in cinema. Whilst mainstream Hollywood was churning out some of its most revered movies – The Godafather, The Exorcist, Mean Streets, and pretty much the entire oeuvre of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola – low-budget cinema and in particular genre movies were exploring very different cultural avenues.
Whilst we had the likes of Night of the Living Dead, which explored soci-cultural issues, using the genre as a metaphor for much bigger “stories”, we also had the birth of the slasher movie boom in John Carpenter’s Halloween. Yet slipped somewhere in between was a strange sub-genre: the nature-run-amok film. Jaws, Piranha, Killer Bees, The Swarm, Grizzly, Day of the Animals, Kingdom of the Spiders, Phase Four, Bug; the animals ran rampant and so did zoological horror…...
The 70s was, shall we say, an “interesting” time in cinema. Whilst mainstream Hollywood was churning out some of its most revered movies – The Godafather, The Exorcist, Mean Streets, and pretty much the entire oeuvre of Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola – low-budget cinema and in particular genre movies were exploring very different cultural avenues.
Whilst we had the likes of Night of the Living Dead, which explored soci-cultural issues, using the genre as a metaphor for much bigger “stories”, we also had the birth of the slasher movie boom in John Carpenter’s Halloween. Yet slipped somewhere in between was a strange sub-genre: the nature-run-amok film. Jaws, Piranha, Killer Bees, The Swarm, Grizzly, Day of the Animals, Kingdom of the Spiders, Phase Four, Bug; the animals ran rampant and so did zoological horror…...
- 10/19/2013
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
By David Savage
One of the most idiosyncratic and inventive voices of genre filmmaking to emerge in the 1970s was Jeff Lieberman (born 1947), whose three best known films, Squirm (1976) Blue Sunshine (1978) and Just Before Dawn (1981) have become classics of horror and sci-fi. Cited as an influence on such directors as Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino (the latter lists Squirm as an essential viewing if he’s to take you seriously), Lieberman’s filmmaking captures the low-budget resourcefulness of Roger Corman and combines it with a singular point of view -- one that seems both quirky and at times, deliriously demented.
Here at Cinema Retro, these are exactly the types of directors we enjoy tipping our hat to. So I’m excited to announce that I’ve organized a tribute to Lieberman built around these three films with the generous participation and hosting of Anthology Film Archives in New York City,...
One of the most idiosyncratic and inventive voices of genre filmmaking to emerge in the 1970s was Jeff Lieberman (born 1947), whose three best known films, Squirm (1976) Blue Sunshine (1978) and Just Before Dawn (1981) have become classics of horror and sci-fi. Cited as an influence on such directors as Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino (the latter lists Squirm as an essential viewing if he’s to take you seriously), Lieberman’s filmmaking captures the low-budget resourcefulness of Roger Corman and combines it with a singular point of view -- one that seems both quirky and at times, deliriously demented.
Here at Cinema Retro, these are exactly the types of directors we enjoy tipping our hat to. So I’m excited to announce that I’ve organized a tribute to Lieberman built around these three films with the generous participation and hosting of Anthology Film Archives in New York City,...
- 7/31/2012
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Since this is my first time writing for The Humpday Threesome, I think I should introduce myself and my, shall we say, style. If you’ve read any of my reviews for The Retro Machine, you likely already know me well. I love horror movies. I love them more than my luggage (10 bonus points if you get that reference). I love every little subgenre you can think of. I love revenge flicks. I love the supernatural seventies. I love lesbian vampires. I love slashers. And I love Nature Hates You! movies.
Since I’ve been on such a roll at finding primo Nature Hates You! flicks, I’ve decided my first entry in the Humpday Threesome would be comprised of these little gems. Now, I am not just picking films from this subgenre, but I am also picking only films about creatures we traditionally find icky or ugly. That’s right.
Since I’ve been on such a roll at finding primo Nature Hates You! flicks, I’ve decided my first entry in the Humpday Threesome would be comprised of these little gems. Now, I am not just picking films from this subgenre, but I am also picking only films about creatures we traditionally find icky or ugly. That’s right.
- 6/9/2010
- by Melissa Yearian
- FusedFilm
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