Twisted Issues (1988 Video) User Reviews

Super rare cheeze

[slouchingpoet · 5/10 · 29 December 2008]

I ordered this video out of the back of the third issue of Slaughterhouse Magazine. Back in 1989, I think. Came with a soundtrack cassette and booklet that I apparently lost. Overpriced at 15 bucks. I found it today while pilfering through old porn and comic books in my attic. I just had to get online and see if Charles Pinion had made anything else like it or even if he was still making movies at all. I'm kind of disappointed to find out that he's still doing underground stuff, but definitely intend to checking out all he's got.

Anyway, I have no idea if this movie is available anywhere, but it's worth checking out. Horror/Comedy back before everyone with a videocamera started taking themselves too seriously.

As far as plot goes -- don't watch it for the plot. It's better described as being late 80s skater punk variety.

What a wild movie!

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 29 September 2021]

Man, talk about a movie I was not prepared for!

Originally intended to be a documentary of the Gainesville, FL punk/skate/thrash scenes, this somehow became a horror movie just as much as the opportunity to document bands like Psychic Violents, Young Pioneers, Mutley Chix, Doldrums, Just Demigods, Cindy Brady's Lisp, Officer Friendly, the Smegmas, Hellwitch and the Bill Perry Orchestra.

Yet it can also be the story of the Death Skater, influenced by - according to director Charles Pinion in Underground Film Journal - The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, Polyester, Psych-Out, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T and Return of the Living Dead.

The moment where a girl sees a killer in her own house on her television before being killed by him and him enacting what he did on the TV afterward messes with time and scene and place and image better than most movies with way more of a budget. It also has tons of filler and moments of nothingness, but you know, we didn't have jump to chapter buttons back in the days of VCRs.

Also: there's an extended sequence inside a 1988 7-11 and for someone that hates advertising - and juxtaposition crazy has worked in it his entire life - I absolutely love everything about 7-11. The first thing I do in any new city - our new hometown has two of them - is find the 7-11 and grab a drink. In every fancy city my ad career has ever taken me, I've dined at more of these places and "thanked heaven" for them because they're always there, even if my hometown didn't get one until a year before I graduated high school. So the opportunity to drink in a time capsule of the store with the older branding and just live that world, man, that's why I love movies.

If you die on a skateboard and a doctor brings you back to life, I hope that you have the festering brains that it takes to screw your board to your foot, wrap your face in bandages and then hunt down everyone who has ever wronged you.

You can get a handmade bootleg of this from the man who made it, Charles Pinion, on his official site. Sometimes they are sold out, but hey - again, it's good to be made to wait.

Tedious shot-on-video splatter flick...

[gorepump · 3/10 · 9 November 2014]

I typically don't have a problem with a little experimental diversion to what would otherwise be a rather run-of-the-mill slasher/gore flick, as long as it can hold my interest. Can't say that "Twisted Issues" really did it for me, unfortunately...

The "plot" here is a complete mess, but from what I could make out - a karate student/skateboarder gets into an altercation with a gang of drunken a-holes on his way home from a party. They kick his board out into the street, he chases it, resulting in him getting hit by a car and killed. His body is eventually found by two Frankenstein-ish mad doctors who bring him back to life, only to be killed by him before he takes to the streets wearing a fencing mask and wielding a sword, seeking revenge. Apparently, some of the characters are aliens or something - two of which keep trying to kill each other with household appliances and there's another one who is obsessed with raspberry soda...

A lot of this movie is padded out with quickly edited sequences of stock footage of political figures, Nazis and other random sh*t as well as sh*tty punk band performances. That, on top of the terrible, shot-on-video production value and absolutely terrible sound mixing (it's almost impossible to hear any of the dialog over the constant thrash-hardcore soundtrack), the movie really feels much longer than it is. Overall, "Twisted Issues" is a pretty lacking 'splatter punk' entry.

More of my horror/exploitation reviews @ swinesewage.blogspot.com

Etremely Underground and Extremely Funny

[craigman · 10/10 · 6 October 2005]

Probably no one will come across this, since this "movie" was made back in 1987 and I'm the first one to comment on it! I'm surprised it's even listed here. This is as low budget and underground as you can get, with the lighting consisting of a person with a flashlight (I'm not joking). I don't think this was ever shown in any theaters, either. The story is simple: A straight-edge white suburban punk-rock skater is run down and murdered by a bunch of low life degenerates. He is then brought back to life by a mad scientist, attaches his busted up skateboard to his foot with a big drill, and goes on a revenge killing spree. Part of what makes this super low budget film enjoyable is the incredible soundtrack, consisting mainly of local Florida punk rock bands. This film was made in Gainesville, Florida, and since I went to UF there in the late '80's, I recognize a lot of the local fixtures (people and places) that I now miss sorely, the days of Hardcore and skater punks now a distant memory. Some of the things that really made this film enjoyable: 1. Freaky and funny characters populate just about every scene 2. Hilarious dialog with more quotable lines than "Repo Man" 3. Funny "little touches" you may miss if you are not paying attention 4. Rampant drug use shown in a funny way 5. Some comical "death" and "gore" scenes 6. Great, original music. Some scenes actually show local bands playing. Overall, this movie ranks high with me for being so much from so little. I would prefer to watch it again over most of the overblown, unoriginal, over budgeted movies manufactured by Hollywood. I would say this movie isn't for everyone, but that is a stupid, trite comment. No movie is for everyone, but if you are sick of the endless dreck being churned out by Hollywood, and you can actually FIND this on video, it's definitely worth checking out.