January 9th 2013. Pick Of The Day.

January. O how I hate thee. Not just for serving as anti-climax to several blowout holidays, not merely for temperatures ghastly and demeanors morbid, not simply because football has yet to die again, but mostly because the classic film loving amongst us have fewer options lo these bleak days, as programmers in every venue concoct their evil schemes to be played out over the remaining three quarters of the calendar. For now, we get what we get.

Which is not to say we have bad options. Indeed this day offers some great choices for the Cinegeek populace inhabiting our fair metropolis. Three choices to be exact. Hey, I told ya it's January.

The Film Forum's week long run of Powell and Pressburger's BLACK NARCISSUS screens on its penultimate day, unless afforded a repireve. Seen it last night and can attest to the quality of the DCP restoration, one overseen by a pretty quaified pair of experts; editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, the director's widow, and Jack Cardiff, the film's DP. The colors are warm and the images crisp, and the melodrama still thrills like few films can. Plus, hot nuns. Don't look at me like that.

MOMA screens B-movie auteur Phil Karlson's THE BROTHERS RICO for three days as part of the museum's An Auteurist History of FIlm series. Richard Conte's gangster-gone-straight's still criminally active brothers put his balls in a bunch. Pretty much. Karlson and Conte, you can go wrong I ask?

Neither of the above in this tight field receive my Pick today. I reserve that for a very special Ziploc freezer bag of bugfuckery from my youth, thawing tonight in just one further attempt to figure out what exactly the fuck we got here. Like most things in our collective freezers. Read on...

Don Coscarelli. That name is as sacrosanct to lifelong readers of Fangoria magazine as cheese is to mice. Sully his name at any Horror-Con at your own peril. And rightfully so. In that last glorious Golden Age of horror, the 70's, in a field dominated by names like Romero, Hooper, Carpenter and Cronenberg, Coscarelli carved a niche for himself in the genre's transitional phase between ancient boogeymen given bloody remanifestation and the simpler splatter cinema of the 80's. Fascinated by cinema from a early age he threw himself into a study of film, mastering most aspects of production and ultimately winning some critical favor with his debut film JIM THE WORLD'S GREATEST, which was also his first collaboration with an actor named Lawrence Rory Guy. He wasn't named that for long though.

Seeking maximum impact to forward his career Coscarelli chose the horror genre, and crafted a doozy involving a haunted mausoleum ruled by dwarf mutants from another dimension led by a mysterious Tall Man planning the conquest of Earth until two meddling teenagers screw with his plans. Scooby Doo on shrooms, in other words.

The result was mesmerizing and not a little scare inducing. The aforementioned Lawrence Guy renamed himself Angus Scrimm in anticipation of horror icon status and the flood of roles to come. He achieved horror icon status. As did Coscarelli. His uniquely original horror entry found success with critics and audience alike and spawned three equally baffling sequels, all entertaining. He would also go on to genre examination escapist with THE BEASTMASTER and art-house with BUBBA HO-TEP. His cinematic GPA remains around a solid 2.8, but most would argue that he never again acheived the rewardingly dizzying heights first met by his feverishly unique entry into the horror ring. Include my vote.

PHANTASM screens tonight 9:30pm at the 92YTribeca. Good luck gettin' a ticket. That's how D-Cosc rolls.

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-Joe Walsh