Nostalgia Kinky

I recently had the great opportunity to spend a couple of nights with two new excellent Blu-ray releases from Blood Sick Productions. Coven of the Black Cube and Busted Babies are two of the best newly SOV productions I’ve seen in some time. I was taken back to my youth in the nineties with these two wonderfully off-the-wall, fiercely independent works. I recently reviewed both, along with a bonus short found on the Busted Babies release, over at my Letterboxd. I wanted to share here as well. Coven of the Black Cube and Busted Babies can both be ordered directly from Blood Sick or from MVD (Coven of the Back Cube, Busted Babies) .
Well done and DIY forever!

A marvelously kick-ass modern S.O.V. movie from Brewce Longo’s Blood Sick Productions, Coven of the Black Cube (2024) is a blast from beginning to end. Directed by Longo from a script he wrote along with Zoe Angeli & Josh Schafer, both of whom also star in the film, Coven of the Black Cube is amongst my favorite recent watches. Filmed by Longo with close assistance from D.P. Michael DiFrancesco, this film from Blood Sick absolutely nails the nineties aesthetic it aims for. Longo has created a fantastic tribute to his many D.I.Y. heroes; thankfully, he avoids any nostalgic pandering. He’s created the type of film he loves, and he’s done it expertly.

Shot mostly in Philadelphia in just 4 days for under 5 grand, coinciding with another Blood Sick Production, Busted Babies,Coven of the Black Cube is inspiring stuff for fans of esoteric cinema. A lot is going on in this bloody and erotic, Metal/Punk soundtrack-powered production, but the main story concerns a Coven of witches helping local pissed-off wives get rid of their deadbeat husbands. That’s personally relatable, and Longo’s small crew handles the film’s large ensemble incredibly well. Coven of the Black Cube runs damn near 100 minutes, which is epic for an SOV production, but it is never confusing, never drags, and the whole thing just has this real-analogue pull about it. It’s impressive. 

I love everyone in this film. Made by a talented and dedicated group of film-loving friends from Philadelphia, many from the music scene, Coven of the Black Cube is packed with the most authentically cool people. A few underground legends are also on hand. Mumble core pioneer Joe Swanberg, S.O.V. goddess Tina Krause, and micro-budget God David “The Rock” Nelson all make memorable appearances. The film is owned by the locals, though. I’m envious of an artistic community that can come together for something as ambitious and cool as this. 

Longo and his team have pulled off a great trick here, utilizing four genres and utilizing them all well. Gory enough to satisfy horror fans, sexy enough for softcore lovers, funny enough for comedy addicts, and finally musical enough for that genre, Coven of the Black Cube pulls out all the stops. This is particularly true in the film’s horror content, which includes a moment that made me look away shuddering, and I’m pretty damn unshakeable.
Dude is going to need
a medic
and
years
of 
therapy.

Hopefully, I don’t need to add that a Punk Rock shot-on-VHS sex/horror film isn’t to be everyone’s cup of afternoon tea. However, for any lover of independent artists looking to stay independent, you’ll find much to admire here. Coven of the Black Cube is what I am talking about. Like every little town has a local theater company, the same should be true, especially in the wake of the Paramount/Warner Bros. merger, for the local indie film companies. I don’t care what someone can do with 2 billion dollars, but I’m so interested in what they can do with 2 thousand. 

Coven of the Black Cube arrives on Blu-ray via a fine release direct from Blood Sick Productions. I love that this crew just does everything. That’s the kind of old school we need more of. Disc features about 40 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage and outtakes. It is so interesting to see the film’s SOV footage compared to the digital BHS. I wish I could go back in time to the eighties and tell myself how special that format actually looks, and to use that giant, lumbering camcorder more. 

Blood Sick’s Blu-ray also contains a terrific commentary track from the film’s core makers Longo, Angeli, Schafer and DiFrancesco. What a wonderfully engaging commentary this is, filled with funny stories and much laughter from four friends. While Longo sounds far too kind and unassuming to use a word like ambitious to describe his work, it really is, as the commentary and behind-the-scenes footage show. To do all this in less than a week with so little money, so many locations, and people is impressively ambitious as hell!
I dug this so much. I can’t wait to check out the rest of Longo’s filmography and company, which has been growing steadily in the past five years.

Whoa, keep an eye on Kasper Meltedhair. Double feature-wise, if Blood Sick Productions’ fantastic Coven of the Black Cube is an ideal Midnight Movie, then Meltedhair’s Busted Babies is a perfectly deranged 2 am picture. Absurdist, chaotic, and surreal, Busted Babies is a delightfully insane work from an imagination working overtime. A SOV production shot in less than a week, Busted Babies defies description. Meltedhair has created a strange, spidery web of a film, packed with one unforgettably weird moment after another, and I couldn’t get enough. 

Busted Babies marks Meltedhead’s uncompromising directorial debut, and she really shows herself as a major modern figure in American underground cinema. Already known for her work as an actress, Meltedhead also stars in Busted Babies, giving a deliciously twisted performance that matches her wacky direction and music. Yeah, she did the score too. Co-edited this thing as well as handling the set design, art direction, and make-up. Amazing stuff.

So what is Busted Babies about? The hell if I know, and I didn’t care. This Philadelphia-shot film blasts through any traditional narrative in the most ‘get out of my way’ manner imaginable. It’s awesome.
Ask me what this film is about, and I’d struggle.
Ask me how it made me feel, and I could talk for hours. 

Bursting with creativity and made with frenetic ADHD-like energy, Busted Babies is really special and, like Coven of the Black Cube, inspiring. I love artists who make something this independent and free, especially during the collective Winter in America we’re living through. 

Busted Babies shares much with Coven of the Black Cube; cast, crew, etc, but these are profoundly different films. There was a real control in Longo’s multi-narrative film, but here Meltedhead allows her film to run completely manic, delightfully uninterested in anything less than cinematic anarchy. 

Running like a night terror for under 90 minutes, Busted Babies is a hard film to shake. Funny and terrifying, this has a Lynchian quality about it, but Meltedhead has her very own specific punk rock energy, and she lets it ride. Busted Babies impressed me just as much as Coven of the Black Cube, but differently.

Black Sick’s Blu-ray for Busted Babies sadly doesn’t contain a commentary from the indescribable Meltedhead, but two reels of fascinating behind-the-scenes footage are on hand. There is also a nearly hour-long video featuring SOV pioneer Donald Farmer. Meltedhead made a film about Farmer last year. I’m eager to watch it. I’m eager to watch anything Kasper Meltedhead makes. Between Busted Babies and her astounding short also found on Blood Sick’s Blu-ray, she is an extremely unique and valuable talent.
Hell yeah.

Bonus Short: Rorph Cranker (Found on Busted Babies)

One of the most effective and near-perfect new shorts I’ve seen in a minute. Four surreal minutes of slow and stop motion backed by a grinding industrial soundtrack, this is sublime stuff from the remarkably creative Kasper Meltedhair. Rorph Cranker can be found on Blood Sick’s Blu-ray of Meltedhair’s Busted Babies, and I just thought this was supremely swell.

-Jeremy Richey, March 2026-