Cinema is my religion – My preferred prophets have always been critics that allow pretentiousness to fall by the wayside in exchange for the simple worship of fun, an approach I found to be largely scarce prior to my introduction to the works of Mike “McBeardo” McPadden. I hadn’t realized just how personable writers could be in the exploration of film until I picked up a copy of his book, Heavy Metal Movies: Guitar Barbarians, Mutant Bimbos & Cult Zombies Amok in the 666 Most Ear-and-Eye-Ripping Big-Scream Films Ever! I mean, that title alone boasts an inevitably good time!
Truth be told, Heavy Metal Movies left such a lasting impression that it drastically changed the way I approach my own writing. It made me realize that you needn’t sacrifice authenticity in order to be considered a true-blue cinephile. Not only that, but the content was just… so fucking cool. Here was a dude that took a deep dive juxtaposing the parallels of the two most important things in my life – Heavy metal and cinema. I felt that whoever was responsible for this integral book of cinematic references had to be a kindred spirit of mine – It was simply too good to be true.
My inclination of McPadden existing in the same realm as Arthur Fonzarelli was confirmed when we happened to get in touch online over a discussion about Crispin Glover. I had opened a conversation about the oddball genre actor, and suddenly I was hit with a clip from some obscure television show I hadn’t even heard of. It WOULD be McPadden, and upon realizing this I totally had a ‘holy shit’ moment. Not to sound too fan-girly, but I literally have had Heavy Metal Movies within arm’s reach since purchasing six years ago. I was stoked to pick the brain of someone so knowledgeable about everything rad that it frankly gave me some sort of weird inferiority complex about my own nerdiness.
It wasn’t until we started chatting that I became aware that he had recently released another book, Teen Movie Hell: A Crucible of Coming-of-Age Comedies From Animal House to Zapped! Staying true to his brand, Teen Movie Hell is just as thorough as his previous work, however rather than heavy metal massacres, the focus here is entirely situated on teen sex comedies.
In some ways, I was more excited to dip my toes into Teen Movie Hell because it explored a very specific niche of film I had largely been unfamiliar with. Sure, I’ve seen Revenge of the Nerds an embarrassing amount of times – Hell, I’ve even been compared to Ogre more than once in my life. As much as I loved the aforementioned movie, I just never really thought to tap into that vein in search of more like it. Unlike McPadden, I hadn’t grown up with these films – But I loved reading about how he had, and what an impact that experience had on his development.
Which leads me to my next point – Perhaps the thing I love most about this book is that aside from being a wonderful point of reference, it contains a handful of essays from various writers about their (at times very personal) experiences with these kinda films. Hell, we even get to hear from likely the most iconic cinema nerd of all time – Eddie Deezen, famously known as Eugene from both Grease films. All of these were truly unexpected treasures, and enhanced my already pleasant experience with the content.
I gotta hand it to McPadden – He finally convinced me to watch Porky’s. I’ve had a copy for years but just kept putting it off, which must be some sort of cardinal sin given my Canadian nationality. I’m overusing the hell out of the word fun, but that is exactly what it was – Never thought I’d witness a nerd get wrapped in a giant rubber, and don’t even get me started on the shower scene… Man, oh man.
I could get into more of the films McPadden has introduced me to in Teen Movie Hell – I mean, we got over 300 gorgeous pages covering films roughly spanning over the last five decades, but that would be defeating the purpose. I love the hell outta this book for the same reasons I loved his previous one – Anytime I feel indecisive about what I wanna watch, I just flip through the pages ’til something jumps out at me. It is like having a buddy there to give you movie recommendations 24/7, which I’m entirely convinced is the whole purpose of film journalism. I, too, am entirely convinced that few folks wax poetic on genre film as well as McPadden.
Like John Waters famously said, “To understand bad taste one must have very good taste.” and I feel like that is the unofficial mantra for folks like myself. That being said, Teen Movie Hell has increased my knowledge on what most film snobs will tell you is nothing but trash cinema – I couldn’t be more thankful for that, and I commend Mike “McBeardo” McPadden for laying the groundwork, allowing us all to become stronger purveyors of it.