The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds

The lads from the Black Maria Film Collective organised a night at the Luna cinema in Leederville for their victims to see a double bill of The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds and Night Tide (entry to follow). I'd not heard of either of these films, nor had I heard of the guy slated to talk at the end, a fella called Jimmy McDonough (he turned out to be quite a bit more entertaining than the films, but onto them soon). There was a brief recorded intro by not so infant enfant terrible, Nicolas Winding Refn, the guy responsible for curating the films through his organisation, byNWR. And then the first 'film' began.

When I say 'film', I use that word very loosely, in that Bert Williams (writer, director, producer, lead actor and occasional camera operator) used some form of cellulose to make this thing. The story, as far as I could make out, sees a tough cop (Williams) hiding in a swamp from some gang he has infiltrated. He stumbles upon an old hotel on an island (the nest of the title) and proceeds to ham his way to the end credits. It's not just him laying on the ham and it's not just ham either, it's all the pig products, fuck, it covers the meat spectrum. 

Ben joined me (I must apologise to him at this point) and he suggested that the music was the only thing that didn't stand out as utter, irredeemable trash (my words). Sure, it was funny in that it was hideous but these folk, Williams especially, presumably made this as a labour of love, with genuine intent to create something. That makes me feel a bit guilty chuckling at its paucity of quality.

In saying all this, I think it's important to see films like The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds. It was discovered recently in an old theatre and it seems to have been a bit of a 'mysterious lost film', not quite in the echelon of London After Midnight or The Mountain Eagle, but certainly talked about. And byNWR and the Black Maria Film Collective deserve their dues for unleashing things like this on the public.

DON'T see also: 

I'm reluctant to mention steamers here but going with the theme, please avoid Tommy Wiseau's The Room (2003) and Randal Kleiser's Grease (1978). Two films WORSE than the above.