J.X. Williams

“Before ‘Virgin’, I never put much stock in the idea of a ‘cursed’ production. Take a film like ‘Incubus’. Just cause the director’s nephew died, the production company went belly up, and Roman Polanski and Sharon Tate attended the premiere....Those could all just be coincidences. Shit happens. But with ‘Virgin’, you could just smell the vapor of evil clouding the set. It didn’t help that our chief investor was a ranking member of the Church of Satan. In the end, we tallied three OD’s, a maimed-for-life set designer, bankruptcy, and a car bombing (sort of). Even the film itself disappeared. Not just the prints. The film lab burnt down and we lost the negative. All I’ve got left is the nine minute opening to the main feature and the sound-sync is fucked.” —JXW

A collection of short experimental horror films, some well-known, some not.

"Peep Show" is a strange amalgam of dank noir drama and cheesy journalism, recounting Sam “Momo” Giancana's reign with the Outfit. Styled as a confessional by one of Momo's gunsels, the tabloid tell-all traces the Cosa Nostra's connections first to the fall of Cuba and Kennedy's mob-supported presidency, then to a spreading blight of drug trafficking that swept through Vegas on the way to the White House.

“’Psych-Burn’ was what musicians call a ‘contract-breaker’. ABC had given us some coin to make a few short films for a TV Pilot. “Love-In Tonite” was to be a psychedelic rock variety show with live performances, skits, and whatnot to cash in on the emerging hippie demographic. Even pre-Disney, the network was riddled with a bunch of out-of-touch, pencil-pushing buffoons, so I quickly realized the show would be a disaster. Imagine if “Midnight Special” was produced by Aaron Spelling. Then cast Charles Nelson Reilly as emcee. That would have been a far more lively show than “Love-In Tonite”. So I decided to deliver the suits a farewell kick-in-the-butt called ‘Psych-Burn’. The best part was that they presented my film sight unseen at a board meeting about the new Fall Season. I heard some heads rolled over that one.” —JXW

"In the mid-Seventies, I was working as a projectionist for this crummy movie theatre in downtown LA. The owner owed me six weeks back wages and when I ask him for the money, the scumbag has the gall to inform me that I'm getting laid off Christmas week. If he'd known my reputation for mischief, he might have thought twice about it. On my last day of work, I had to project a Christmas matinee for kids. Before the main feature, I added an unannounced opener to the program called "Satan Claus". I fled the theatre right after my film ended but I heard the owner had to refund the entire box office. Even then, several outraged parents filed a lawsuit against the theatre. Merry Christmas, you cheap bastard!" - J.X. Williams

This fragment is of unknown origin but may have come from BLACK MESSIAH, a U.S./Italian co-production that J.X. Williams directed in 1975. In this sequence, religious and lepidopterological imagery is blended to disquieting effect.