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Screamplay

Screamplay

1984, dir. Rufus Butler Seder

United StatesEnglish91m1.33:116mm

"...takes HOLLYWOOD by the throat and STRANGLES it!"

Edgar Allan (Rufus B. Seder) is an aspiring screenwriter who has just come to Hollywood to make it in the movies... only to wind up working as the janitor at a fleabag apartment complex run by the greasy ex-boxer Martin (George Kuchar) instead. When Edgar begins channeling his frustrations with his kooky neighbors into fodder for his latest screenplay, the vivid murder scenes he writes begin to happen for real. As the bodies begin to pile up and the line between reality and fiction become increasingly blurred, Edgar, who is convinced that the only way to be a real writer is to suffer, is slowly driven mad.

Inventively produced using a host of early cinematic techniques and featuring a memorable performance by underground film legend George Kuchar, Rufus Butler Seder's Screamplay is a singularly charming tribute to Old Hollywood and a marvel of low-budget but high-concept filmmaking.

New 4K restoration by Muscle Distribution in association with Matchbox Cine.