Historic Mellow Manor Productions Inc., better known as Spike & Mike’s, has intrigued adult audiences with their recent showings of the Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation.
The Sick and Twisted Festival of Animation was held at the Landmark Ken Theatre in Kensington from Dec. 3 to 9. It is currently showing at the La Paloma Theatre in Encinitas from Dec. 10 to Dec. 16.
The first Sick and Twisted festival in over three years is back. The festival’s program promises viewers the “grossest, sickest and most explicit” animated shorts the world has to offer.
“Spike and Mike are back!” says the program. “It took us three years to collect the sickest and twisted-est films the world has to offer, but we did it!”
I couldn’t agree anymore that this festival was definitely one of the sickest things I’ve ever watched, but its unique qualities and hilarious story lines kept my eyes glued to the screen. The festival features about 20 humorous, independent cartoon shorts that aren’t your typical run-of-the-mill funnies but definitely have their cleverness to them.
Each film holds to the theme of “Sick and Twisted” while still offering a diverse variety for the audience’s viewing. I found it amazing that one little festival contained such a diversity of themes.
“Humor is the number one thing when selecting a film,” said Craig “Spike” Decker, the festival’s co-founder. “I’d say probably diversity of the themes helps with the selection, too.”
The festival began in 1990 to display animated pieces that were too “revolting or adult in nature for the prestigious and tasteful Classic show,” according to Decker.
Over the years, the festival gained fame as the birthplace of hits like MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead” and Comedy Central’s “South Park.”
“We showed the Classic festival to a group of young students at UC Berkeley. We asked if they wanted to see something different, and they loved (the Sick and Twisted version),” Decker said.
This year’s festival featured films so graphic, I’m pretty sure I can’t go too into detail on them.
“Touchdawn of the Dead” was a hilarious French film showing a wealthy man who almost loses a football bet. When a zombie plague takes over, the man drives down to the stadium and ensures that he wins the bet by making a zombie football player score the winning touchdown.
“Chainsaw Maid” seemed to be a tribute to the “Evil Dead” series, which also includes the brutal handling of zombies with a chainsaw. This Japanese claymation film showed scenes of a maid trying to survive while zombies are taking over her home.
“2 in the AM/PM” told a story of two teenagers working in an AM/PM gas station on Halloween night. One of the teens sneaks LSD into the other’s candy, and they encounter a variety of obstacles during the remaining two hours of their shift.
“The Toke before Christmas” was a stoner parody of the poem “The Night before Christmas.” Just imagine the traditional rhyme loaded with marijuana references.
Both drug-themed shorts were simply hilarious, and I couldn’t stop laughing.
“Bubble Wrap,” another humorous entry, showed the popping of plastic bubble wrap from the horrified point of view of the bubbles themselves, who engage in out-of-control conversations in adorable high-pitched voices before meeting their tragic deaths.
“Chirpy” is this festival’s most controversial film to date. I won’t describe it here, but I could not keep my chin off the floor while watching it, so it had to have been good.
For additional information and show times check out www.spikeandmike.com.
