WE PUT THE CULT IN CULTURE!

Dark Romances is a 1990 SOV anthology filmed at EZTV and conceived by director/producer Patricia Miller and (the late) Mark Shepard. It was originally shot as an episodic TV series for Playboy, but was turned down due to it being deemed too violent & gory for their network. So, Mark and Patricia decided to distribute the 3-hour, 28-minute edited stories directly to video. Film Threat originally released these as a two-volume set. The set features scream queen Brinke Stevens in most of the stories and has a very EC/Tales from the Crypt vibe, with distinctive lighting and set design that truly sets this anthology apart from other shot-on-video films. Six different auteurs who all worked at or frequented EZTV (Patricia Miller, Mark Shepard, Samuel Oldham, John Strysik, Bryan Moore and Rodd Matsui) created a genuine piece of analog cinema you have to see.

 

VOL. 1 “The Black Veil” is a Grand Guignol-inspired gothic story set in 1988 where a psychiatrist’s widow visits a college friend performing in a theatre that enacts mutilations. “Listen to Midnight” is a film noir style story about a photographer and a woman with a dragonfly tattoo who mates with and then lures men to their death.

 

VOL. 2“ She’s Bad, She’s Blonde, She’s Lunch” starts off with a bang, literally. A couple robs a store, leaving a trail of bloodshed, and then takes a trip to lovers’ lane where they meet a man and his monster. In “Cardinal Sin,” a young man is tempted by his dreams of Hustler star Elle Rio while dealing with his overbearing religious mom. “Pet Shop of Death”: A submissive husband who wants to leave his wife for his neighbor (Brinke Stevens) goes to a specialty pet shop to find something to help free him from his matrimony. “Last Love”: a psychiatrist who, depressed over the loss of her husband, ends up having an affair with his ghost! Lastly, in “What Goes Around,” a composer uninspired to create music after losing his wife and child finds new inspiration with a woman who is not what she seems.