Invasion Of The Spool Snatchers: Freaks, Geeks & Peeks

Mercury Cinema
Sat 17 March
season closed


Jaimie Leonarder and his wife Aspasia are obsessed with film, possessing so many clips that they have to live in a warehouse. They've put together seven unusual shows at the Mercury Cinema, creating a friendly, informal atmosphere in which they share some of the weirder moments they've collected. Jay comments waspishly over a microphone, occasionally pausing the clips to add his two cents.

'Freaks, Geeks & Peeks' is a mash-up of deranged late night chat show ranting ("There's no love in a gay bar! No love!" mourns a disappointed televangelist); Mr T's cringe-making video to boost children's self-confidence; a rare and uncomfortable Disney clip showing Donald Duck as a Nazi; an idiotic Ted Nugent shooting keyboards; a cautionary 1960s video attempting to convey the horrors of an acid trip ("I carried on a conversation with this hot dog"); and uncomfortable views of the instructional film 'Sex For The Over-Forties', interspersed with the trashy, the earnest and the frankly unclassifiable - James Brown, interviewed after ingesting vast quantities of PCP; or Kiss, in full make-up, admitting their innermost desires ("I wanna wear a cape so bad!").

Some are hilarious, some are truly embarrassing (William Shatner reciting poetry with earnest sincerity, mind-numbingly slowly) while others, such as the B-movie where a murderous bedsheet attempts to throttle a sleeper, should probably never have been made. Leonarder is an eager MC, keen to show more and more - "If you wanna go further, we can go further!" After almost two and a half hours I'd had enough, but I'd recommend this to open-minded lovers of the kitsch and the random.

Rosie Clarke