After a way too long hiatus (during which series curator and local artist Brian Taylor was presumably scouring the globe in search of new and even stranger goodies to unleash upon a barely suspecting populace), the Bay area's best film series is back in action. From a new home base at Seminole Heights' Covivant Gallery, the series that introduced local movie-goers to the inimitable pleasures of Jess Franco's Vampyros Lesbos and countless other indescribably odd pleasures, focused its energies a little differently this time out. Rather than strike out in a dozen different directions at once, this season's Sleep of Reason chose to concentrate on just one or two exotic sub-genres, focusing our attention on that magically sinister 1970s sub-genre known as the giallo, with just a few side trips into Asia. SoR's screenings of the Japanese exploitation masterpieces Jigoku, Blind Beast and the original Ring will be forever seared into our brains, while the giallo thrillers — Blood and Black Lace, Delirium, etc. — opened up a whole new world to many local movie hounds. We can't wait to see what they've got planned for next time. Runner Up: Dali and Beyond's Cinema of Agitation.
Covivant Gallery, 4906 N. Florida Ave., Tampa, 813-928-4661 or sleepofreasoncinema@yahoo.com.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2003.