Cannibal Orgy and the Films of J.T. IV

Cannibal Orgy and the Films of John Timmis IV is a little hard to write about. Both films in this collection fall firmly in the “so bad it's good” category of exploitation films. They’re complete with terrible acting, baffling script choices, and incredibly cheap gore. This collection is not movies so much as they are more archival pieces documenting one schlock director’s oeuvre after being saved from obscurity and complete destruction. John Timmis IV was a true punk rock polymath, releasing music under a few different nom de plumes like Insane Albino and JTIV, along with writing and directing multiple films, all included in this collection. 

JTIV was also the holder of the Guinness World Record for the longest film ever shown, a 58-hour epic called The Cure for Insomnia. A film where collaborator of JTIV and poet, LD Groban, performs his 4,080-page poem over a collage of images ranging from the grotesque to the pornographic. Sadly, The Cure for Insomnia may be lost and is not included in this release except for a one-minute segment of footage. In the film's commentary track, it’s mentioned there may be a videotape copy still in existence, so that’s something to look forward to if the good people at Bleeding Skull can recover it. There are two one-hour-long movies included in this collection. JTIV’s first movie Nightmare City and his sophomore venture Cannibal Orgy - released in 1984 and 1985 respectively. 

Nightmare City is a post-apocalyptic fever dream. We follow John Timmis, a normal down-on-his-luck guy who loves his girlfriend and is just trying to get his unemployment checks on time. During an overly long sex scene while listening to a record of “this cool band JTIV” (the director’s real-life band), the government starts dispatching goon squads onto the Chicago streets to cull the population so they can save on government spending. After a squad of gas-masked “terminators” breaks into John’s apartment, they promptly kill his girlfriend and nearly kill Johnny, who kills the goons with a gun he keeps in his sock drawer. Johnny then vows to take revenge on the government that killed his girlfriend. Johnny joins a revolutionary group to get revenge on the government and does so in a hilarious scheme involving LSD. Will this ragtag group succeed? The only way to find out for yourself is by entering the world of Nightmare City!

Nightmare City was made by a creative who got his friends together for a week so they could act in his low-budget post-apocalypse movie. The movie is hilariously acted; the gore is ridiculous, including cheesy spurts of fake blood. There's a scene where JTIV is throwing a party for his friends, and he filmed it. This is just a pure schlock experience; it’s fun to just throw on during a bad movie night.

After starting Cannibal Orgy I had to check if I accidentally restarted Nightmare City. After watching a few minutes, it was evident that I was watching a different picture. It became very clear that these two films share a lot of the same footage and some of the same scenes as well. Several sequences are created out of the best footage and simply rearranged and re-edited to create different stories. Both feature the big drug-fueled house party scene as well as the subplot of introducing LSD into the city’s water supply and subsequently killing the President.

Cannibal Orgy follows a trio of satanic cannibals running amuck in the streets of Chicago. We see them grab their victims off the sidewalk while the actors try to avoid puddles in the street, which adds to the schlock factor of the movie. We see the cannibal crew getting interviewed outside of an Insane Albino (another band by the real-life JTIV) concert by a news reporter doing satanic panic-style reporting. The three take turns hailing Satan in a variety of ways, even quoting the cult classic Andy Warhol-produced horror film Flesh for Frankenstein. 

Most of the film is just a montage of the cannibals saying how cool cannibalism is and how much they love Satan and hate yuppies, interspersed with the aforementioned scenes of cannibalism. They repeat that cycle until their inevitable chase and capture by the police. These movies are bad, but in a super charming way. They are made by a creative young guy who loves gore cinema and classic horror films. These are not good movies by any means, but they are very entertaining, nonetheless. 

Vital Disc Stats: Blu-ray
Cannibal Orgy and the Films of John Timmis IV make their home on Blu-ray disc thanks to Bleeding Skull and OCN Distribution. Pressed on a single Region A disc, the disc is housed in a standard clear case with reversible cover art reminiscent of DIY concert flyers.

According to the literature included in this release, the films were shot on Super 8 film and edited on decaying VHS tapes and are presented in standard definition on a Blu-ray disk. I assure you that the fact that this was recovered from decaying VHS tapes shows in the final product. The entire movie is degraded almost to the point of being unwatchable. These transfers are from the only VHS copies in existence; the Super 8 film masters were lost or destroyed. After learning the films' histories, it’s truly a miracle that this collection exists at all. On top of that, in the audio commentary, they mention that when JTIV wanted to make a copy of the films, he would project the film on a screen and film that on a video camera just to show you the type of restoration processes we’re dealing with. 

I think it would detract from the low-fi aesthetic of these movies if they were in any form of actual high definition, let alone standard definition. While the video is terrible, there’s a charm to the low quality. I still think this collection succeeds in its terrible video quality because you are forced to watch the movie and try to make out what you’re seeing. The decaying videotapes make the gore look more disgusting and effective because you can’t tell that the guts are hot dogs and skirt steaks if you can’t see them clearly on the screen. The ranking of this video quality is low, but should be taken with a grain of salt. This collection is for those who are looking for esoteric underground gems, and I don’t think they’ll mind the lack of high-definition visuals.

The ranking for the audio is one out of five stars for the same reason as the video portion of this review. The audio sounds terrible because they were recovered from the same decaying VHS tapes as the visuals. The dialogue and music are muffled and hard to hear most of the time. Audio of the concert sequence in Cannibal Orgy was recorded on-site and is nearly unlistenable. The soundtrack also includes a solid amount of illegally used punk and glam rock tracks from Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, and Brian Eno. You can barely hear those songs on the soundtrack due to the distortion, and it’s a real surprise when you see them listed in the closing credits. The distortion obfuscates the recognizability of those tracks throughout the films. The distortion adds a grotesque ambiance to the films and brings the viewer back to a time when high-definition audio equipment wasn’t readily available to the public.

The supplements in this release are ok, but not spectacular. There is a commentary track with JTIV historian Robert Cole Manis, which provides solid context about the release, along with facts about JTIV’s life and work. Manis is the one who caught the JTIV bug by finding his music on an old punk compilation after finding more records and doing some research, he found out about JTIV’s filmography and tracked down people who knew him, who ended up having the films released by Bleeding Skull. There are X-rated versions of both features, which include some quick montages of hardcore images that the rated versions omit. There are also 10 short films, one of which is a one-minute segment from The Cure for Insomnia, the 58-hour film mentioned at the top of this piece. The collection also includes 9 segments described as short films, which is a bit of a misnomer. These shorts are all videos of John Timmis IV playing music to a static camera for about 2 minutes per short. I would categorize these shorts more as music videos than short films, and music videos might be a little generous as well. Timmis just set up a camera to record himself playing guitar. They are interesting if you want to know JTIV’s music and the artists he liked to cover, but overall, the supplements are ok at best and add some color to Timmis’ life. Preserved from the only VHS masters in existence, as the Super 8 film elements are lost

Cannibal Orgy:

• Audio Commentary R-rated Version featuring J.T. IV historian Robert Cole Manis, moderated by Bleeding Skull’s Joseph A. Ziemba

Nightmare City:

• The Cure for Insomnia - Short
• Destructo Rock - Short
• In the Can - Short
• Every Dream Home a Heartache - Short
• Sunday Morning - Short
• Song for Suzanne - Short
• Destructo Rock (Live) - Short
• Killer Shredding - Short
• I Love You - Short
• Reel to Reel Footage - Short

Cannibal Orgy and the Films of John Timmis IV is a collection of films for niche collectors. It’s perfect for those interested in Chicago underground art and music scenes, lost media fanatics, gore hounds, and those obsessed with 80s VHS nostalgia. Cannibal Orgy and Nightmare City are worth watching for the schlock factor. But honestly, these movies are for very niche audiences and are not for most. That follows for these films’ A/V quality and the range of extra features. This almost lost collection of films released by Bleeding Skull and OCN Distribution is a cool throwback to a usually overlooked underground film scene. There's always the chance that this leads to more people finding JTIV’s film, which may someday lead to a release of the 58-hour opus The Cure for Insomnia if the commentary track is correct. If that day comes, I will be one of the first to snag a copy. I wouldn’t recommend Cannibal Orgy and the film of John Timmis IV for the average collector, but I would recommend it to anyone interested in underground cinema and the weird and wild. For Fans Only