By MICHAEL GINGOLD
With the coronavirus pandemic upsetting film distribution around the world, the creators of XANGADIX LIVES!, a documentary about the Dutch cult shocker THE JOHNSONS, have decided to put it on-line for free for the next month. Read on for the info, trailer and poster.
The gore-strewn story of a mother and daughter terrorized by seven identical, bizarre brothers who have horrible plans for the girl, THE JOHNSONS (or DE JOHNSONS) was the biggest horror production in Holland at the time of its first release in 1992—but it actually started as a U.S. screenplay by Rocco Simonelli and STREET TRASH’s Roy Frumkes called THE JOHNSON-BLUES. The full story of how it went from an English-language project starring Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson to an ambitious—and much-troubled—Eurohorror film helmed by Rudolf van den Berg is covered in XANGADIX LIVES!, directed by Bram Roza and Yfke Van Berckelaer, who also produced with Jan Doense and Herman Slagter. The interviewees include van den Berg, Frumkes, Simonelli, JOHNSONS stars Monique van de Ven, Esmée de la Bretonière and Kenneth Herdegein, producers Haig Balian, Chris Brouwer and Arnold Heslenfeld and many others. Catch it for no charge through the month of April here.
