I was looking forward to this day. Icon Bert I Gordon released his classic The Amazing Colossal Man on 28 August 1957. But I’ve featured Mr BIG a lot on this site and I doubt people need more information about him. Luckily, three crazy Canadian kids released Turbo Kid on 28 August 2015.
Turbo Kid is a charming science fiction film (with horror elements) that digs deep into our shared nostalgia. It features such icons of my youth as View Masters and pens with undressing women. But I find this odd. These were things from my childhood! The guys who made this film are half my age!
But I should be clear. “The guys” were François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell. The world knows them as the Roadkill Superstars or RKSS for short.
Turbo Kid started as a short film, T is for Turbo. It’s just 5 minutes long but it does capture of the essential of the feature film it will become. Watch it now!
They have since made three other films, Summer of 84 (2018), We Are Zombies (2023), and Wake Up (2023). But there’s a wrinkle.
François Simard was arrested late last year on charges including sexual assault on minors. To be clear: “the alleged victims were between the ages of 9 and 11.” As a result, the other two members of RKSS kicked him out of the group and removed his name from prints of Wake Up.
I’m long over caring that many psychotronic filmmakers are terrible people. Being a decent person doesn’t normally help to get films made. But that clearly doesn’t include sexual assault and pedophilia. And here we are again — just ten days after Roman Polanski. Frankly, had I known about this before I started, I would have stuck with Mr BIG.
But Turbo Kid is a fun movie, and I highly recommend watching it!
Other 28 August Anniversaries
Filmmakers
- EE Clive (1879-1940): Actor often cast as bumbling characters like the Burgomaster in Bride of Frankenstein.
- Charles Boyer (1899-1978): Actor best known for Gaslight.
- Simon Oakland (1915-1983): Best known as the bellicose editor Tony Vincenzo in The Night Stalker universe, he was in a lot of other things including the most boring part of Psycho.
- Jack Kirby (1917-1994): Comic book artist who pretty much invented the drawing style of superhero comics from the 1960s onward. He also created many of the most famous characters that are now everywhere in feature films. Stan Lee gets entirely too much credit for that stuff.
- Donald O’Connor (1925-2003): Actor best known for the “Francis the Talking Mule” films.
- Ben Gazzara (1930-2012): Actor known for a broad range of films including The Killing of a Chinese Bookie and Road House.
- David Soul (1943-2024): Actor best known for the TV show Starsky & Hutch but we remember him for Salem’s Lot.
- Luis Guzmán (1956-): Character actor especially known for his work with Steven Soderbergh in films like The Limey.
- Daniel Stern (1957-): Actor known for many weird and wonderful films including DOA and Very Bad Things.
- David Fincher (1962-): Director known for the underrated Alien 3 and properly rated Seven.
- Sarah Roemer (1984-): Actor known for Disturbia and Asylum.
Films
- The Amazing Colossal Man (1957): After surviving a nuclear blast, a man grows really big.
- The Haunted Palace (1963): The only non-Poe story in the Corman Poe Cycle.
- The Gruesome Twosome (1967): A mother and son murder young women to get hair for their wig shop.
- Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969): Astronauts research an Earth-like planet on the other side of the Sun.
- Dead of Night (1974): Vietnam War casualty shows up back home.
- Hell Night (1981): Fraternity and sorority pledges must spend the night in a haunted house.
- Matewan (1987): A town fights back when the big company sends assassins to end a strike.
- Pet Sematary Two (1992): Pretty good sequel to the original with the same idea.
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (1992): The final days of Laura Palmer.
- Frankenstein Reborn (2005): The doctor kills his patients in order to reanimate them.
- The New Mutants (2020): Marvel film about mutants held captive.
Turbo Kid (2015) poster via Wikipedia under Fair Use.
