Escapist Camp, Retro Glitz and More, Now Available to Stream

It’s getting crazier all around us. Not wearing masks in public is still not a substitute for a personality, folks who have been looking for spaces to vent their rage have been given precisely that by reckless reopening practices, and no one in charge seems all that concerned about what COVID-19 is doing to the incarcerated population and people experiencing homelessness right now. But instead of giving in to rage, despair and/or entropy, let’s enjoy some films that are very escapist in nature. As always, check out past issues of the Scene for more recommendations of what to stream: March 26, April 2, April 9, April 16, April 23, April 30, May 7, May 14, May 7, May 21. 

Rockula on Vudu

No film bridges the shift from the ’80s into the ’90s quite like Rockula, a little-seen, dearly beloved rock musical about the vampire Ralph (Dean Cameron, one of the enduring bright spots in ’80s classics like Bad Dreams and Summer School). Ralph is cursed through the centuries to relive the loss of his first love via a conspiracy involving reincarnation, pirates, a giant ham bone and a nefarious Thomas Dolby. Now, in late-’80s Southern California, Ralph again must confront the cruelties of fate as his love appears in the form of pop singer Mona (Tawny Fere). Does he break the recurrent chain of fate and retreat to the home he shares with his vampire mom Phoebe (the legendary Toni Basil, who choreographed and has some killer dance numbers of her own), or does he put a band together (with Bo Diddley and Susan Tyrrell) to fight fate and win one for love? Rockula may not win you over the first time, but by the fifth time you see it, it will be one of your favorite films of all time. The songs (including “Rapula” and “He’s the DJ, I’m the Vampire”) are plausible but off-kilter enough that you never get tired of them, and the big love theme “By My Side” is a stone classic that could prove an absolute barnburner of a karaoke duet — as soon as we have medically safe public gatherings back (and if someone would do a karaoke arrangement for it). If you love weird things (or if you’re weird about things that are lovable), Rockula is going to change your world.

The Vast of Night on Amazon Prime

A singular vision that low-key dazzles while refusing to give the viewer conventional ways into itself, the brand-new The Vast of Night is a sci-fi allegory that apes the form of low-budget TV and dives deep into the language of the American past. Set in the 1950s, it also gives us a story of UFOs and youthful crushes and small-town drama and structural racism that feels viscerally different from what the intervening six or so decades have constructed in our collective minds. Nighttime switchboard operator Fay (Sierra McCormick, just as great here as a focused-but-timid force for information as she is crushing heads and being a minister of death in VFW) and radio broadcaster Everett (Jake Horowitz, who has a gift for temporally specific dialogue that should immediately put him on the Coen Brothers’ radar) inadvertently discover an anomalous sonic frequency broadcasting throughout their sleepy New Mexico town and uncover a mystery. Twilight Zone, The X-Files, Xtro ... all of that, but in a way that contains itself within the parameters of the national imagination up until that point. There’s nothing else remotely like this out there, but if there is, it’s waiting for a determined viewer to find it in the fusillade of data streaming throughout the world right now. Also, in addition to Unfriended 3, the only COVID-19 pandemic movie that I’m super interested in seeing is a sequel to Pulse (aka Kairo) in which the internet ghosts return because all that wireless signal usage is just too delicious.

Ghoulies III: Ghoulies Go to College on Tubi/Vudu

“It’s got pranks, pancakes and partying!” says my friend Cody. “The Ghoulies go to college!” Which is good to know, since it’s right there in the title. I asked Cody for a film to recommend that would be a good tribute to the late, great special-effects artist/director John Carl Buechler — whose effects résumé includes From Beyond, 1988’s To Die For, A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Tammy and the T-Rex, and Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Ghoulies III, the first R-rated entry in the Ghoulies franchise, features ancient rituals, wyrd toilets, magick hidden within profane pages, library dominos and beeramids (which are exactly what you think they are). It’s got puppets and puke in equal measure, no frat party is left standing, and one of the lead Ghoulie voices is Richard Kind!

Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery on DirecTV

There’s a lot of talk currently about the new animated film Scoob!, which was released direct to VOD on May 15. For younger viewers, or for parents looking for a way to get their kids into the adventures of Mystery Incorporated, it’s a valid option. But I found it a little disheartening (Shaggy Rogers is either Matthew Lillard or the late Casey Kasem, no shade to Will Forte), and it’s more focused on Hanna-Barbera cinematic-universe-building (convicted hate criminal and occasional decent actor “Marky” Mark Wahlberg as Blue Falcon takes up way too much of the narrative) than providing good Scooby-Doo adventures. Which is how I find myself recommending the 2015 team-up of the Mystery Incorporated gang and KISS, which isn’t just a fun, spooky, rock-themed adventure — it’s the highest-quality thing that KISS has attached its name to since 1987’s “Crazy, Crazy Nights” single. Your mileage may very, but this is a nimble satire that actually addresses the way that KISS branding has attained a life of its own, it’s got a great cast (the late Garry and Penny Marshall both provide voices, as do Kevin Smith and Pauley Perrette), and the whole thing is a weirdly psychedelic romp into the rich histories of both the Scooby-Doo gang and KISS. The iconography of The Elder comes into play, y’all.

Valley Girl on VOD

An exponentially more enjoyable Alicia Silverstone movie than January’s The Lodge, this kind-hearted jukebox musical is less a remake of the rightfully beloved Martha Coolidge/Deborah Foreman 1983 classic than a misty, water-colored recollection of that film’s story told by a contemporary mom to her daughter. Valley Girl deals with some drama of the heart. The clothes are stunning, and the makeup subdued. (As critic Dave White points out, movies about the ’80s never want to commit to the truly freakish tonal range of makeup of that actual time: Retrospect leans toward The Wedding Singer, when the more accurate choice is Liquid Sky.) The songs here become the diegetic hopes and dreams of Vals and Punks and, well, all of us. Director Rachel Lee Goldenberg (she did that Kristen Wiig/Will Ferrell Lifetime movie A Deadly Adoption) knows how to stage a dance number — my personal faves include “We Got the Beat” as a mall-size opener and “The Safety Dance” as a roller-disco birthday party conflict engine. Star Jessica Rothe is just as magnetic and vibrant here as she is in the Happy Death Day movies. This is the perfect mental margarita to decompress with, because sometimes the world is just too much.