5/7/11

Saturday Matinee Featurette: The Bishop of Battle


This half-hour short is one of four segments of a 1983 anthology film Nightmares, which was shot for a television series called Darkroom, then given a theatrical release when Creepshow made a lot of money. The other three stories are forgettable, but this one has a retro-technology appeal to it.

Emelio Estevez is a pre-Repo Man punk, striving to achieve the top level of "Bishop of Battle", a game at his neighborhood arcade. When he finally does, the Bishop (who seems to have stepped out of a Kraftwerk video), comes to collect. (yawn).

It's a lame and predictable story, but the real draw here is the vintage arcade locations in downtown LA and the Fox Hills Mall, the Tron-era computer graphics/optical printing effects and the music by Fear, Black Flag and Negative Trend, recording new versions of their songs specifically for this film.







Extra Bonus Arcade Movie Mashup!

Sure, Emelio can defeat the Bishop of Battle, but is he man enough to take on King Vidiot for a round of Satan's Hollow?

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